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“Here is wisdom.
Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number
of a man: His number is 666.”
We don’t need to go further than the good ole USA to find people who fervently believe
in the antichrist.
This mostly Christian nation is home to what’s called the “Bible Belt” and there are
a few holes in that belt where you could say some folks are pretty fanatic about religion.
Take for instance a recent case along that belt where two people were shot and killed.
The man who did it believed he had killed the antichrist.
Just looking at goings-on in the US, we also found that some hardline believers are saying
that vaccines are the antichrist.
This is all recent stuff, too.
The antichrist is apparently alive and well and among people in small towns all over the
country.
You see, it’s a Christian belief – a belief for some Christians anyway – that the world
is due for an apocalypse.
People have been saying this for centuries, but it seems every generation wants to think
it will happen in their lifetime.
So, after what you’ve just heard, perhaps a person could be the antichrist, or a thing,
or a disaster, could be the antichrist.
But what about aliens?
Yep, they could be the antichrist, too, according to some people.
Not long ago a woman from Pennsylvania was sent to prison for murder.
She was linked to a group of people, call it a cult if you will, who believe that the
world is actually run by alien reptiles.
Maybe you think that’s outlandish, but you should know that it’s estimated that 12
million Americans believe we are ruled over by reptilian overlords.
It was said the woman and her group believe, “a race of sentient, devil-worshipping,
shape-shifting reptiles from outer space has infiltrated human civilization.
Through mind control and body-snatching, these ‘reptilians’ purportedly seek to install
totalitarian world government, thereby bringing about rule of the Antichrist.”
This might sound like madness to you, but the antichrist is one of Christianity’s
foundational beliefs.
If you’re going to swear on a bible in court and believe it, you might also have to invite
the possibility of there being an antichrist into your thoughts.
Ok, so we think we’ve shown you that there are some people in this world, many of them
in the US, that think the antichrist is already here.
Now we need to dig a bit deeper.
We’ve talked about Satan in length before, so you should know that in Christianity Satan
has assumed a lot of identities, meaning, that cloven-hoofed thing with the horns and
a lizard’s tail came about a long time after the lord of darkness was first discussed.
In the beginning, Satan was more like a tempter to get people to stray to the dark side and
question their belief in God Almighty.
Then there were people accused of being in league with Satan, all those witches who were
needlessly tortured and killed a few hundred years ago, and there are still people today
that believe in a number of different demons.
Demons, though, are not the antichrist, and messing with black magic doesn’t mean you’re
doing deals with the antichrist.
The antichrist in fact was the very son of Satan.
So, you have Jesus Christ, the son of God, and you have the antichrist.
Get it, he’s the opposite of Christ.
The thing is, though, he doesn’t exactly have a starring role in the bible.
It is still tricky, though, because there are various interpretations of this person
or thing.
He’s mentioned in 1 John 2:18-27.
It goes like this: “Who is the liar?
It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.
Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.”
Here he is again in 1 John 4:1-6.
“Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already
in the world.”
In 2 John 1:7, this is said: “For many deceivers have gone out into the
world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
Yep, it’s a bit repetitive.
You get the picture, though.
The antichrist is here on Earth or coming to Earth, sent to cause mayhem and to tell
people not to believe in God.
If you believe in the Second Coming, meaning Jesus will return to Earth, then you might
also believe that the antichrist will do anything possible to take Jesus’ place.
Jesus actually told his disciples that one day someone might appear on Earth who shows
off doing all kinds of “great signs and wonders”.
This guy, said Jesus, is a false prophet.
In that respect, you can believe the antichrist is something that seems good but in the end,
is here to destroy us.
You won’t be surprised then, that some people have accused computer technology of being
the antichrist.
In 2019, a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church said this:
“The Antichrist is the person who will be at the head of the worldwide web, controlling
all of humankind.”
You also won’t be surprised to hear that some people have called Bill Gates the antichrist,
and sure enough, Mark Zuckerberg has been a contender for the antichrist.
They follow in a long line of established figures throughout world history.
The Roman Emperor Nero was said to be the antichrist, as was Pope John XXII.
Hitler, Mussolini, and Napoleon have also had the tag, so you’d think Zucks and Gates
must be pretty upset about being rounded up with that lot.
But then one academic put it like this: “Almost no candidate is too implausible.
Social institutions, people with power whose intentions we're not sure of - they're all
being named.”
Before we look at any proof that the antichrist exists or indeed is even here right now on
Earth planning the great downfall of humanity, let’s go back to the bible.
Some parts warn of him coming, such as this from John 2:18:
“Little children, it is the last hour: and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh,
even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour.”
Then there are other parts that talk about someone coming to Earth and bringing with
them “destruction” and “lawlessness”.
The good news is, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:7–10, “The Lord Jesus will destroy with
the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming.”
That part adds that the lawless one will lie through his teeth, will deceive, will use
great power and display wonders, but Jesus will kick his butt.
All over the bible and in the writings of theologians, there are warnings that someone
is coming to do harm to humanity, but the word antichrist is not used.
Sometimes it seems the passages are relating not to one person, but a group of people.
The Roman theologian Hippolytus said the antichrist will come in the form of a tribe of Israel
called the Tribe of Dan.
Centuries later, Pope Gregory I wrote this: “I say with confidence that whoever calls
or desires to call himself 'universal priest' in self-exaltation of himself is a precursor
of the Antichrist.”
So, we have a false prophet, a lawless man, a deceiver who can conjure great wonders,
and we have an egomaniac.
We also have the Pope, and the entire papacy, which was called the antichrist by protestant
reformers.
Then you have the Christian Russian philosopher and mystic Vladimir Solovyov.
He thought the antichrist would be a lawyer.
At the start of the 20th century, he wrote a book called “A Short Tale of the Antichrist”
and in it, he said that the antichrist would be a “pacifist” and an “ecologist”
and so present himself as a kind of savior of mankind...
Oh oh, now the Bill Gates conspiracy theorists are sending out tweets.
It gets worse, this guy said that the nice man who comes to us will be the end of history.
But that’s actually nothing new because as we’ve said, the antichrist was never
supposed to come down to Earth with his fists swinging.
He was a deceiver, a man of wonder, or similar to the child in the movie The Omen, a little
cutie with a penchant for creatively doing people in.
We can’t talk about the antichrist without mentioning the Book of Revelation and the
Apocalypse.
The book doesn’t actually talk about the antichrist, but it does mention a beast that
will appear here on Earth.
It says this about the beast: “It causes all, both small and great, both
rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,
so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast
or the number of its name.”
The number, as you know is 666, although some scholars now say it’s actually 616.
So, is this beast the antichrist?...
Maybe.
Damien from The Omen apparently had a birthmark that denoted the number 666.
At the end of that movie the kid is standing next to the President of the United States,
so you can assume that he will have a hand in the war and famine and disease that plagues
the Earth in the years to come.
So, over time, it’s understandable that the antichrist has been any kind of powerful
institution or person.
Perhaps you’re the type of person who believes artificial intelligence will be the end of
us, a la Elon Musk’s worst fears.
Or, maybe you blame the banking industry and rapacious consumer capitalism for the upcoming
apocalypse, either way, they could both be the antichrist taking shape just as people
and things in the past were called the antichrist.
In modern times, political leaders have been targeted for being the antichrist.
Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton have all been
accused.
Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have also been contenders.
Some people actually take this seriously.
In 2011, a guy in the US was arrested for firing a rifle at the White House.
He told the cops he was Jesus Christ and Barack Obama was the antichrist.
It gets darker.
In 2003 in the US, something straight out of The Omen happened in real life.
A guy killed his infant son.
When asked why he did it, he replied, “Because he was the Antichrist.
He had 666 on his forehead.”
This terrible thing has actually happened to quite a few kids in the past, in the US
and elsewhere.
As a comedian once said about religion, there’s not much fun in fundamental.
You could hear these stories and ask if Christianity is not the last refuge for the mentally unwell,
but we should add here that most Christians do not even believe in the antichrist while
others won’t be too quick to accuse people of being the antichrist.
Such hardcore beliefs in the antichrist are fundamental beliefs, while others might tell
you the antichrist is a kind of symbol for all the evil things that happen in the world.
Still, if you are a literal believer in everything in the bible you will know that good trumps
over evil in the end, and Jesus Christ on the night will out-point the antichrist in
a fast-paced, hard-fought fight that is fairly evenly matched until Jesus gets a second wind
in the championship rounds.
Now you need to watch, “The Origin Of Evil: The Devil.”
Or, have a look at “50 Things You Didn't Know about Satan.”