Antichrist (theology)

"The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing"

- 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 "He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time."

- Daniel 7:25

The Antichrist (erroneously spelled as Anti-Christ) is an end-times false messiah who, as the name suggests, is the complete opposite and ultimate enemy of Jesus Christ.

He is part of the Unholy Trinity, which consists of himself, Satan, and the False Prophet. His most prominent role in the Bible is shown in the Book of Revelation. The identity of the Antichrist (so far) is mysterious.

He is considered to be the second most evil character in the Bible after Satan. However, considering that he was able to unleash havoc and horrendous persecution upon humanity much more freely than Satan, he may be on par in terms of evilness.

Rule of the Antichrist
It is unknown whether the Antichrist will make himself known to everyone before or after the Rapture, an event where millions of Christians worldwide are suddenly raised into the air to reunite with God. Biblical Scripture, however, indicates that the Antichrist shall rise to power as a global dictator, initiating the Tribulation, an event that is worse than the worst event in history and will last for seven years.

Once in power, the Antichrist successfully convinces humanity that he will bring world peace, especially during a time marked by warfare and suffering; despite this, God will send many divine judgements to punish the unbelieving world. The Antichrist establishes a powerful one-world empire, commonly referred to as the Mystery Babylon; it is believed that this empire is a revival of the Roman Empire. He also signs a seven-year covenant with Israel, promising to defend the nation at all costs. Then, a harlot church, known as the Whore of Babylon, is established and led by the False Prophet, who is the right hand of the Antichrist. Nevertheless, 144,000 Jews will preach the Gospel to the world and many will repent. The Whore of Babylon is a one-world interfaith religious system that will hypocritically persecute and behead those who have repented.

Meanwhile, the long-prophesied Third Temple will be constructed on Temple Mount in Israel, where Jews will make offerings to God. Halfway through the Tribulation, the Antichrist reveals his true colors by betraying Israel, effectively breaking the seven-year covenant, and invading it. He will also declare the temple offerings to be illegal. Despite this, many Jews will repent as a result of this devastating betrayal. The Antichrist is suddenly assassinated but somehow, presumably through Satan's power, he is resurrected, mocking how Jesus died and rose from the dead. Unsatisfied with his current empire, the Antichrist destroys the Whore of Babylon and demands everyone to worship him as a god. Besides the Christian God, he even shows disdain for the other gods that the Bible condemns as "false gods", showing how completely insane the Antichrist is. Meanwhile, two witnesses will prophesy on the streets of Jerusalem, calling for humanity to repent, but after 1,260 days, the Antichrist will kill them and leave their bloodied bodies on the street. Their murder will be broadcasted worldwide and the Antichrist will encourage humanity to rejoice over their deaths. However, they are revived 3.5 days later and taken to Heaven, much to everyone's shock. One hour later, a great earthquake will strike and kill 7,000 people. In Heaven, the archangel Michael and his angels wage war against Satan and his demons, with Satan losing. Satan and his demons are permanently shut away from Heaven (they could previously accuse God's people in Heaven's courtroom). Satan realizes that his time is short and decides to possess the Antichrist to achieve his ultimate plan: To be worshiped as God. Possessed, the Antichrist sets up image of himself in the Third Temple and proudly blasphemes God in front of everyone in an event known as the Abomination of Desolation. The False Prophet will also perform many demonic miracles, such as bringing fire down from Heaven, to "prove" that the Antichrist is the Messiah. After that, the Antichrist will force everyone to worship him and take the Mark of the Beast (666) on their hands/foreheads, under the condition that they won't be able to buy and sell goods if they didn't. He will punish those who refuse to participate by persecuting them, jailing them, and executing them in a worldwide genocide. Jews will also be targeted in this genocide, which will be worse than the Holocaust, prompting them to call for Jesus to return.

During the final years of the Tribulation, the Antichrist, along with the False Prophet and several nations, come together in the Battle of Armageddon, which traditionally coincides with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Darkness and more intense natural disasters will be inflicted upon the world as a result; those who took the Mark of the Beast will also be severely crippled by these judgements. Jesus Christ and His armies, consisting of angels, past saints and those who were raptured earlier, will appear in the heavens, prompting the Antichrist and his armies to attack in an intense moment of apocalyptic warfare. Jesus shouts fire from His mouth in time, which destroys the majority of the Antichrist's armies. The Antichrist, along with the False Prophet and their followers, meet their deserving ends as God throws them into the Lake of Fire, where they burn for eternity. Satan is presumably exorcised from the Antichrist as an angel separately imprisons him in a bottomless pit for 1,000 years. With the Antichrist and the False Prophet gone and Satan imprisoned, Jesus establishes a universal kingdom on Earth, where many people come to worship Him in peace and prosperity for 1,000 years.

In Popular Culture
The enigma and sheer evil of the Antichrist has made him a very popular figure in popular culture. Though the Bible is silent on his background, its common for films, novels, video games, etc. to attempt to explain his background prior to becoming the Antichrist. Most of these speculations frequently involve a creepy child who is evil incarnate and conceived through demonic circumstances (frequently involving Satan or a demonic being raping or having sex with a usually innocent woman).
 * Damien Thorn: The antagonist of The Omen and its sequels. This is the most famous depiction of the Antichrist and the idea of the Antichrist as a real figure continues to both terrify and fascinate many people around the world, though some people have begun to question whether or not the Antichrist is a threat that awaits humanity, a threat that has already passed, or even a metaphor rather than a literal being.
 * Anthony Horowitz said in interviews that Chaos, the King of the Old Ones in Power of Five is the Antichrist, and that Chaos is based on the Antichrist from the Book of Revelation, as is nearly the whole series of Power of Five.
 * Sauron is quite simply a literal Antichrist. Morgoth is Satan. Sauron performs many of the acts of the Antichrist, in that he opposes and murders many Elves, Eru Ilúvatar/God's chosen people, which provokes Eru to send the Istari wizards to Earth to defeat him. Sauron is very deceptive, like the Antichrist, and he is also a political figure because he was in Morgoth's government in his rule.
 * Emperor Sheev Palpatine/Darth Sidious is the Antichrist of the Star Wars franchise. Born from the Dark Side, he gained political control over the Galactic Republic, which he later converted into the tyrannical Galactic Empire, and staged one of its deadliest conflicts to keep himself in power.
 * Lord Voldemort serves as the Antichrist throughout the Harry Potter series. He takes over the Ministry of Magic, becoming a key political figure in the wizarding world, and he corrupts many politicians to follow his rule.
 * Earl Gundy is the Antichrist in the 2014 comedy film Rapture Palooza. He quickly begins proclaiming himself to be the Beast and will only answer to this name. He seeks vengeance on God and is prepared for Jesus's arrival by the laser cannon he dubs the "You Know Who Buster". This version of the Antichrist is unusual in that the Antichrist and Satan are the same being, just more advanced versions of the same.
 * Satan attempts to conceive the Antichrist with Christine York in the 1999 horror/action film End of Days. He possesses a banker to use as his vessel to conceive his child and converts followers. A prophecy says that Satan can only be unleashed from Hell every millennium. In the end, he is defeated when he possesses Jericho Cane, who resists the possession and instead impales himself on a sword, and is sent back to Hell.
 * Isaac Ray Peram Westcott in Date A Live is the real enemy of mankind and the true enemy of God. His desire is to use the power of Spirits ("the Divine Creations of God") in their Inverse Form of the Qliphoth Tree to plunge the whole world into endless chaos, despair, panic, destruction, and fear.
 * Makuta Teridax in BIONICLE was a cybernetic version of Lucifer himself. He is also considered an enemy of God as he seeks to rain the entire universe in darkness and chaos.
 * Wilhelm from Xenosaga. His goal is to brainwash and deceive all humanity with false Christianity and religion in general. He even has many alias that describe him, like Cardinal Heinlein, head of Hyams, and Ormus Patriarch.
 * Nicolae Carpathia is the Antichrist in the Left Behind series. After three days of being mortally wounded, he is risen by Satan, who immediately indwells him. His false prophet, Leon Forunato, eventually makes people who are loyal to them take the infamous Mark of the Beast.
 * Michael Langdon is the presumed Antichrist of American Horror Story. He initially appears in the first season titled "Murder House," where Billie Dean Howard believed that a child born via rape by the Rubber Man would be the Antichrist. This is true and one of his first crimes indicating that he is the Antichrist is his brutal murder of his nanny. Constance Langdon also remarks how Michael would assure her "greatness" from adversity and tragedy, mirroring how the Antichrist deceptively establishes his satanic empire under the guise of world peace.
 * Yuuki Terumi of the Blazblue is also considered as an Antichrist as he was an enemy of God as in the story; he betrayed Amatarasu and desired to plunge the world in fear and despair.

Trivia

 * The Whore of Babylon, which the Antichrist initially establishes, is traditionally represented as a sinister prostitute, whose full title is "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth," riding on top of a seven-headed beast whilst drinking the blood of martyred saints in a golden cup. The name suggests the spiritual adultery committed by the nations in league with the Antichrist or possibly the overall perversion as well as moral and sexual degeneracy in the Antichrist's empire.
 * Many historical figures have been accused of being the Antichrist, such as Nero, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and, more recently, Barack Obama and Kim Jong Un.
 * Some conspiracy theories predict that the Antichrist will be an Illuminati member and the leader of the New World Order, which will be the one-world empire of the Antichrist.
 * The Mark of the Beast is often thought to be an RFID chip or a "special" barcode that is tattooed on an individual's body, allowing them to buy and sell goods with convenience.
 * Despite his utter evil, it is believed that God planned for the Antichrist's rule to occur to validate Scripture to unbelievers and thus bring them to repentance. It is also possible that the Antichrist's rule is part of God's judgement upon unrepentant sinners by allowing their own transgressions and rabid support of the Antichrist to "consume" them in the process.
 * If the Antichrist were to rule the world today, he would wage a war that will claim about 1.5 billion lives, which is about 1/4 of the current population. However, this is only part of the Fourth Seal judgement, one of the only parts of the Bible that directly mention his body count, but considering his numerous wars, genocides, and even murders that he committed for his personal gain (as shown through the murder of the two witnesses) later on, it is very likely that his body count would be much higher.