Antichrist

## About

In Christianity, the Antichrist is a prophesied individual who arrives during the End Times, substituting himself for Jesus as a false savior. While this man is never referred to as the "Antichrist" specifically in scripture, this is the name applied to him based on the concept of antichrists throughout the Gospels. Some theologians argue that the Antichrist will be a system or nation rather than an individual, but the most popular interpretation is that he will be an individual empowered with a global system of political, religious, and financial power.

## Antichrists (non-specific)

While the Antichrist is a specific figure, there are many antichrists that roam the Earth and have roamed the Earth throughout its history. Someone with the spirit of an antichrist is one who opposes the divinity of Jesus and rejects him as the Messiah. These individuals are not to be confused with *the* Antichrist (capital A), who is the prophesied Beast of Revelation. The name Antichrist comes from the fact that he is the true embodiment of the spirit of an antichrist, and directly opposes Christ by promoting himself as the Messiah.

## References in Scripture (and other names)

* The Little Horn (Daniel 7:8)
* The Prince That Shall Come (Daniel 9:26)
* The King Who Does What He Pleases (Daniel 11:36)
* The Idol Shepherd (Zechariah 11:16-17)
* Man Of Sin (2nd Thessalonians 2:3)
* Son Of Perdition (2nd Thessalonians 2:3)
* Lawless One or Wicked (2nd Thessalonians 2:8)
* The Horseman Of Conquest (Revelation 6:2)
* The Beast That Rises From The Bottomless Pit (Revelation 11:7)
* Beast Of The Sea or Beast With Seven Heads (Revelation 13:1; 17:3)

## Role in the End Times

The role of the Antichrist is to unite the world under one global political, religious, and financial system. The system that encompasses these three aspects is often referred to as the Beast System, referencing the Beast from Revelation. The Gospels describe how, during the End Times, life on Earth will be come increasingly more difficult and turbulent. Natural disasters will increase in scale and frequency, crime will be on the rise, morality will be at an all time low, and war will be on the horizon (these events are collectively referred to as the "birth pangs").

In light of this uncertainty, a political figure will rise to the occasion and unite the world under one banner. Some theologians speculate the tipping point will be either the Gog and Magog war or the Rapture, but it may be something completely unrelated such as the growing discourse around climate change based disasters. While most theologians believe that the Antichrist will arise as a political figure, some suggest that he might be a religious figure that transitions into a political role. The most popular belief, however, is that the Antichrist is a political figure who transitions into a religious one.

The Antichrist will be given free-reign over the Earth during a 7 year period known as the Tribulation. Contrary to popular belief, the Tribulation does not start with the Rapture, but with the signing of a covenant with many of the world's nations. The Antichrist will be the one to push and get this treaty signed/confirmed, and thus will be hailed as a global peacemaker. The Antichrist will establish a global financial system and religious system, which will embrace the idea of there being multiple paths to spiritual enlightenment.

About halfway into the Tribulation, the Antichrist will be dealt a fatal wound. It is unknown if this will be literal or metaphorical, but many theologians believe it will be a physical deadly wound. After his assassination and death, the Antichrist will be indwelt by Satan, giving the illusion of his resurrection. At this point he will declare himself a god and commit the Abomination of Desolation, forcing the world to worship him. He will implement the Mark of the Beast, something on/in the right hand or forehead that controls whether or not someone can participate in commerce and society as a whole. Those who refuse the mark will be killed, and those who accept it will be joining the Antichrist in the Lake of Fire.

Towards the end of the Tribulation, the Antichrist will convince the world to fight with him against the Christian God, resulting in the Battle of Armageddon. During this battle the Antichrist will be defeated and cast into the Lake of Fire along with the False Prophet, and Satan will be chained in the Bottomless Pit for 1,000 years.

## Relationship to the False Prophet

The False Prophet will be a spiritual figure who convinces the world to worship the Antichrist, performing miracles in his name and promoting his divinity. Many compare the False Prophet's role to that of John the Baptist in relationship to Jesus; as John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus the False Prophet will pave the way for the spiritual worship of the Antichrist.

## Prophecies of the Antichrist's Actions

* He will destroy many by peace. (Daniel 8:25)
* He will confirm a covenant with many for "one week" (a period of seven years) and in the middle of the "week" will make sacrifice and offering to cease. (Daniel 9:27)
* He will set up the "abomination of desolation" in the Temple. (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15)
* He will speak blasphemies against God. (Daniel 11:36; Revelation 13:5-6)
* He will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or is worshiped, giving no regard to the "God of his fathers" or any god. (Daniel 11:37; 2nd Thessalonians 2:4)
* He will attempt to destroy Israel. (Daniel 11:40-41)
* He will sit himself in the temple of God and proclaim that he is God. (2nd Thessalonians 2:4)
* His arrival on the world scene will be accompanied by miracles, signs, and wonders. (2 Thessalonians 2:9)
* He will deny that Jesus Christ is the Messiah or that He came in the flesh. (1st John 2:22; 4:3)
* He will go forth "conquering and to conquer". (Revelation 6:2)
* He will take peace from the earth and make men kill each other. (Revelation 6:4)
* He will raise the price of food and other valuable commodities. (Revelation 6:5-6)
* He will overpower and kill the Two Witnesses at the end of their period of testimony. (Revelation 11:7)
* He will be empowered by Satan. (Revelation 13:2)
* He will suffer a fatal head wound and yet live. (Revelation 13:3)
* He will rule with full authority. (Revelation 13:7)
* He will make war with the saints and overcome them. (Revelation 13:7)
* He will be worshiped by many people. (Revelation 13:8)
* He will control the world's economy through the Mark of the Beast. (Revelation 13:16-17)
* His name will be revealed to be 666, the Number of the Beast. (Revelation 13:18)
* He, Satan, and the False Prophet will vomit up three froglike spirits that will gather people together in the place called Armageddon. (Revelation 16:13-14, 16)
* He will support the "great harlot" until the "ten kings" destroy her. (Revelation 17:1-17)
* He causes the earth's armies to fight against Jesus Christ. (Revelation 19:19)
* He and the False Prophet will be captured and cast alive into the Lake of Fire. (Revelation 19:20)
* He and the False Prophet will still be in the Lake of Fire when Satan is cast down there at the end of the Millennium. (Revelation 20:10)

## Nero as the Antichrist

Some egg heads have promoted the idea that, rather than being a prophecy, Revelation is simply a retelling of the persecution of Christians under the rule of Emperor Nero.

The primary pieces of evidence used by proponents of this idea are as follows:

* Nero's name translates in gematria to both 666 and 616, both numbers of the beast found in various copies of Revelation.
* Nero brutally persecuted Christians in Rome, going as far as to use their burning corpses as street lights, as he blamed them for the Fire of Rome.
* The Antichrist is prophesied to receive a deadly wound to the head, and Nero killed himself via a knife to the neck.
* There were many myths that Nero would somehow return to life after his suicide, fitting with the narrative of the Antichrist.

To these egg heads, Revelation is simply a coded text that would have made sense to the Christians alive in Asia Minor during this time period, and that its context was lost over the years as it was read by Christians that did not live through persecution under Nero.

## Nero as (not) the Antichrist

While many egg head scholars claim that the Christian audience at the time of Revelation's writing would have easily understood the text to be symbolic, this is provably not the case. We have the writings of church leaders during this time period, and they clearly interpreted Revelation to refer to a future prophetic event. The connection between Nero and the Antichrist was not an idea that appeared until the Late Antiquity period, and it did not actually become popular until the late 19th Century. If this message were so clearly coded for this audience, they should have made the connection in their writings, and yet they did not. In fact, Nero wasn't even a potential Antichrist candidate to the theologians alive during the publication of Revelation.

Nero's reputation as a barbaric Christian persecutor is very much post-mortem in his case, and it's something that has developed over the two thousand years since then. Revelation was written by John in Asia Minor, and Nero did not have a reputation there as being a particularly unique persecutor of Christians. Those Christians were currently under the persecution of Emperor Domitian, and it is likely that Nero's treatment of Christians in Rome hadn't even fully dissipated into the territories of Asia Minor at this time. We know that, in this region, a statue was even erected of Nero by the populous, and no Christians wrote about Nero being uniquely terrible. Nero's persecution of Christians was reactionary in response to the Fire of Rome, and it was localized to Rome itself. Christians in Asia Minor weren't worried about Nero coming for them, and so the idea of him being a big bad Christian villain is overexaggerated. His reputation as a Christian persecutor developed over the years afterwards and is a product of our modern hindsight on the situation.

Additionally, many of the threads of evidence used to connect Nero to the Antichrist regard the use of symbolism to the concept of evil in Revelation. The imagery used in Revelation to describe the Beast match those found throughout the entire Bible in reference to Satan, and they can be applied to just about any historical figure. Reading Revelation does not uniquely evoke images of Nero unless you are starting out with the belief that he is encoded into Revelation, and Revelation certainly did not evoke Nero to the Christians of Asia Minor. The descriptions of the Antichrist fit prior eschatological descriptions of the “adversary,” which is Satan. Textually, it makes no sense that Nero would be the ultimate opponent of Christ, but it makes perfect sense that Satan would be.

The strongest piece of evidence is the connection of Nero's name to both 666 and 616, however a closer analysis shows that this is a very weak argument. Firstly, there is no guarantee that 666 is meant to be solved via gematria, which is the process of calculating a numerical value from a name. For Nero to equal 666, you have to transliterate his name from Latin into Greek and again into Hebrew, and for it to equal 616 you have to use an alternative spelling. The church fathers during the time period of Revelation didn't even consider Nero in their gematria guesses, and they ultimately rejected the idea of gematria all together. They feared that calculating the wrong name would could cause Christians to ignore potential Antichrist candidates if their name did not equal 666, and thus they chose to interpret 666 symbolically. As John says, one with wisdom will know that the number is "that of a man," indicating that despite his miracles and claims of divinity, in the end the Antichrist is not divine. 6 is often used in Revelation as a reference to Satan, with 6 being one less than the perfect number of 7.

Additionally, gematria is a language-dependent process, and Nero's name only equals 666 if you transliterate it twice from its original language into Hebrew. Elsewhere in Revelation, John specifies if a name has significance in either Hebrew or Greek by saying "in Hebrew" or "in Greek" in reference to the symbolism. Revelation itself was written in Greek, so the distinction is important in order for the reader to be able to solve the riddle of the Number of the Beast. Despite making this distinction twice elsewhere in Revelation, he does not specify the Number of the Beast as being dependent on a particular language, which points to a more symbolic meaning as opposed to one meant to be solved via gematria. If it was meant to be solved via gematria, we would expect John to specify "in Hebrew" as he does elsewhere, or else the readers would not know which language to solve for. If they were to use Greek gematria or Latin gematria, Nero's name would not equal 666 or 616.

While his name equaling 666 might be a coincidence, it seems odd that his name's alternative spelling would also equal 616. Many egg heads claim that this is proof the number refers to Nero, as some manuscripts use 616 because that is how his name was spelled in their region. Thankfully, we have the records of the early church fathers to demonstrate how this thinking is erroneous.

While there is debate as to whether or not 666 or 616 is the true number of the Beast, most evidence points to 666 being the true number and 616 being a mistranslation. The *Codex Alexandrinus* is believed to be the most accurate manuscript of Revelation preserved, and it contains 666 with no mention of 616. Those who favor 616 point to papyrus manuscripts found in Egypt, specifically a fragment called P115.

P115 contains 616, preceded by the Greek ή, which means “or.” This means that this fragment contains the reading "or 616," but the rest is missing. It is believed that this passage likely says "666 or 616." Because P115 is one of the earliest manuscripts found, egg heads point to this in saying that 616 was one of the original numbers, strengthening their Nero argument. The issue is that other papyrus fragments from the same time period exclude 616, such as P45.

The debate between 666 and 616 predates even these manuscripts however, as Irenaeus (2nd Century church father/bishop) writes about the debate in favor of 666. Irenaeus was a student of Polycarp, who himself was a student of John. Irenaeus claims that John himself testified that the number was 666, and that 616 was an erroneous reading. Early church records show that, after writing Revelation and exiting exile, John actually visited the churches of Asia Minor, and spoke to them directly about Revelation. John claimed the number was 666 alone, and Irenaeus blames a transcription error for the introduction of 616. Many scribes in Africa, not wanting to commit blasphemy, included "666 or 616" in their copies of Revelation to cover all their bases. Most European/Middle Eastern scribes, being closer to the original sources and the Codex Alexandrinus, excluded 616 because it was an obvious error.

**“These men, therefore, ought to learn [what really is the state of the case], and go back to the true number of the name, that they be not reckoned among false prophets. But, knowing the sure number declared by Scripture, that is, six hundred sixty and six” -** Book V, Irenaeus