Where Bush and Ahmadinejad see eye to eye

George W. Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are soon to come to blows. Yet for all the tension, there is one very frighteneing thing on which they see eye to eye: eschatology.

Eschatology is the doctrine of "end time"--the end of days...the apocalypse.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes in the immiment reappearance of the 12th Imam, Shi'ism's version of the Messiah. He's been reported as saying in official meetings that the end of history is only two or three years away and believes it's the purpose of the Islamic revolution to prepare the way for the messianic redemption.

Bush was taught by Billy Graham, who told him to live in anticipation of the "Second Coming." Dr. Tony Evans, founder of the Promise Keepers, taught Bush that seizure of earthly power by the "people of God" is the only way the world can be rescued from the end. This is the eschatology in which Bush believes. He's come to see himself as an agent of God who's been called to "restore the earth to God's control."

Says Bush, "We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great nation." (Sounds just as crazy as anything Ahmadinejad ever said.)

They both think it's their duty to conquer the world with their religion. They both think this must be done before the arrival of their messiah. And they both think they're the ones to do it. No wonder they're butting heads: they see the final battle forming, they see the opportunity arising. The armageddon is coming closer and they're eager for the rapture.

I think their both stupid, and probably, if things pan out for them, antichrists both of them. It's not that the end of days might actually come...it's that these men might self-fulfill their prophecies. That's what we should all be afraid of.