Hey! I'm Up Here.....Someone Please Talk Me Down

I grew up attending an unafilliated Protestant church.  Before the Left Behind books came out, I was steeped in apocalyptic speculation.  The Book of Revelations still remains one of my favorites of the Bible (this should give you tremendous insight into my charactor).  I have noticed that the LDS church doesn't seem to focus a lot of attention on future biblical prophesy.  They rightly focus on preparation for whatever happens.  I am not complaining about my new found church.  I am trying to prepare you for what I am about to write.  You see, I have this annoying habit of putting together future scenarios in my head, stringing together facts and events and trying to fit them into biblical prophesy.  This, by the way, is one of the things I do that drives my wife nuts.  I am not saying that I am a prophet or have any greater insight than anyone reading this and, odds are, I am totally wrong, but it's nice having a blog where I can put down on paper (so to speak) what I speculate. 
One Final Warning:  you are about to enter into my version of the twilight zone,  read it at your own risk.

Since reading about the Antichrist in the Bible, I have an innate distrust of anybody in a leadership role who has charisma.  Of course, this makes it dificult for me to trust anyone in leadership since charisma is one of the prerequisites to being an effective leader.  Speculations on who the Antichrist is has been the game of Christians since Christ last left the earth.  I remember when a friend's mother thought it was Ronald Reagan when he was president.  Her reasoning was that his three names all contained six letters (his middle name was Wilson).  I considered it for about three minutes and than dismissed it because it was, after all, Ronald Reagan - the last good president we have had (I place him as one of the three greatest).  Letters in a name is one interpretation of the six-six six riddle; but another interpretation that I have heard is that it cannot equal seven ( the number of perfection)  no matter how many times six is repeated.  How this would apply is that the Antichrist would be a person portraying himself  and his agenda as perfect or close to perfect but never able to be perfect.  At this point, I think you, my very savvy readers, are catching on to what I'm saying.  Perhaps you have had simular thoughts. 

Okay enough beating around the bush.  I think President Obama might (emphasis on might) be the Antichrist.  Now that I have finally put that out to the public at large, I truly feel as if I'm up a tree in the center of crazy town.

Here's my reasoning:

A)  The charisma thing.  It amazes me how people are taken by his charm and how eagerly they look past all his flaws.  He has very little political experience.  The people he surrounds himself with are leftest to the extreme and yet a country that is supposedly centrist elected him to the highest office.

B)  Although he has such little experience, he comes off as arrogant.  In and of itself, arrogance would not be indicative of the Antichrist but it lends credence to my idea of the assumption of perfection.

C)  There has been some dispute about his having been born in this country.  Okay, I know there are many people born outside of America and they can't all be evil.  I wonder about the possibility ( and this is a stretch but, hey, it's my brain - you have no idea how scary it is to live in my brain) that Obama could have been born near the original location of Babylon.

D)  The UPC bar codes that are on many of the products we buy start with,  have in the middle of them, and end with the numbers six, six, six.  The mark of the beast is ready and could easily be used to ID the population at any time.  The reasoning for using this form of ID is in place.  It involves the control of money.  If we were to get rid of paper money and simply use debit cards, money would be harder for terrorists or other unsavory charactors to obtain.  Of course, cards can be stolen.  But if chips were to be planted in either the forearm or forehead, as referenced in The Book of Revelations, it would be nearly impossible to steal.

E)  Okay, this is a real stretch but bear with me.  The Mayan calender is scheduled to make its big change in 2012.  It's possible that the Mayan's are decendants of the Lamanite's.  Is it possible that the Mayan calender could be inspired by our God?  Truthfully, I don't know, so I leave it for your scrutiny.

Now that we have plumbed the depths of my addled psyche (now you can relate to my wife) let's step back and gain some perspective.  Every generation since Christianity was founded has thought that they were in the last days. It's quite possible that the seventh seal has been opened recently (earthquake's could be our clue), but even so, it could be up to a thousand years before Christ returns.

I have questions about Mormon beliefs regarding the last days.  Most Protestants believe in a rapture (the catching up of Christians) before the Tribulation.  It is speculated that the rapture creates the disruption that brings about the changes necessary for what is foretold in The Book of Revelations.  I know that we are to meet in Jackson County, MO where we will be protected from the tribulation period.  Is it possible that the calling up of the Saints and the rapture could both occur?