DALLAS - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has had to fend off all sorts of spurious Internet rumours suggesting he is a closet Muslim and even linking him to the Ku Klux Klan.

Our columnist Bernd Debusmann has written about this elsewhere. But a new line of character attack has emerged: Obama, while not the Antichrist, has provided a dress reherasal for the End of Times as foretold in the Bible with his recent overseas tour.

At least that is what Hal Lindsey, a leading figure in U.S. apocalyptic Christian circles, claims.

On Friday, Lindsey wrote in a commentary on the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily that Obama’s recent overseas tour blazed a trail that the Antichrist was sure to follow.

In apocalyptic U.S. Christian circles, the Antichrist is often portrayed as the leader of a world government who will probably emerge from the United Nations or some other multilateral institution loathed by some on the U.S. right.

The Antichrist’s rise and dark reign is believed to be foretold in the Bible, notably the Book of Revelation that is also known as the Apocalypse of St. John.

“… the Bible says that such a leader (the Antichrist) will soon make his appearance on the scene. It won’t be Barack Obama, but Obama’s world tour provided a foretaste of the reception he can expect to receive,” wrote Lindsey, author of the 1970 Biblical prophecy blockbuster “The Late Great Planet Earth.”

“He will probably also stand in some European capital, addressing the people of the world and telling them that he is the one that they have been waiting for. And he can expect as wildly enthusiastic a greeting as Obama got in Berlin.”

Other prominent figures in U.S. apocalyptic circles include Texas mega-preacher John Hagee, whose endorsement of Republican presidential candidate John McCain was rejected after it emerged Hagee had once claimed God had allowed the Holocaust to happen because it led to the creation of Israel.

Hagee sees current events in the Middle East and elsewhere as unfolding biblical prophecy and his organization Christians United for Israel is an influential lobbying group.

Conservative U.S. Christians who strongly believe in a brewing End of Times battle are regarded as a sub-culture of the broader evangelical movement but the success of the best-selling “Left Behind Series” by Tim LaHaye — which chonicles the  looming final conflict — suggest such views have some resonance in the American heartland.

Conservative evangelicals are a key Republican Party base and while they are lukewarm on McCain, Obama obviously has some seeing red.

The Huffington Post, a liberal blog and news site, did a blog on Sunday detailing liberal Christian concerns about a McCain ad campaign “The One” which they see as a code to some conservative Christians to view Obama as a kind of Antichrist figure.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Barack Obama in Berlin on July 24)