"Social media could have a big part" in the Second Coming of Christ, evangelist Franklin Graham said in an interview that aired Sunday.
"I believe there's no question, I believe we're in the latter days of this age," Graham told ABC's Christiane Amanpour. "When I say latter days, could it be the last 100 years or the last 1,000 years or the last 6 months, I don't know, but the Bible, the things that the Bible predicts, earthquakes and famines, nation rising against nation, we see this happening with more frequency."
"So what will the Second Coming look like?" Amanpour wondered.
"Well, the bible says that every eye is going to see it. And, you know, I thought how is that going to happen? There's so many phones today. And just look at what's happening in Libya or Egypt and everybody has got their phone up, and everybody is taking recordings and posting it on YouTube and whatever and sending it to you or -- and they get shown around the world. I don't know but he said they'll be coming on the clouds and the world is going to moan. They're going to groan," Graham explained.
"I don't mean to be disrespectful but could there be a second coming by social media? Is that what you mean?" the ABC host asked.
"No, I'm just saying the whole world will see him when he comes, and he's coming back for his people. How is the whole world going to see him all at one time? I don't know unless all of a sudden everybody is taking pictures and it's on the media worldwide. Social media could have a big part in that," Graham replied.
The Southern Baptist evangelist faulted the antichrist in secular government for religion's diminished participation in the social safety net.
"I look at the world in which we live today and the secularism is antichrist. It's every bit antichrist. We can't talk about Jesus in our schools. God has been kicked out of our government," he opined.
"A hundred years ago the safety net, the social safety net in the country was provided by the church. If you didn't have a job, you'd go to your local church and ask the pastor if he knew somebody that could hire him. If you were hungry, you went to the local church and told them, I can't feed my family, and the church would help you. That's not being done. The government took that and took -- and took it away from the church and they had more money to give and more programs to give and pretty soon the church has just backed off and as a result, now you have generation after generation of pastors and churches that have not done that.
Graham also said that he understood why "birthers" might doubt that President Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen.
"Well, the president, I know has some issues to deal with here. He can solve this whole birth certificate issue pretty quickly. I don't -- I was born in a hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, and I know that my records are there. You can probably even go and find out what room my mother was in when I was born. I don't know why he can't produce that. So I'm not -- I don't know but it's an issue that looks like he could answer pretty quickly."
