List of people accused of being the Antichrist

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Pope John XXII (left) depicted as the antichrist in Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus (1340)
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Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1 John 2:18

In most Christian circles, the Antichrist is described as the future leader of a supranational state, and is seen as a messianic figure, opposing all things about God, all while declaring himself as God (2 Thessalonians 2:3-10). Throughout the millennia that Christianity existed, many political and social figures of their time have been accused of being such. This list chronicles those who have either failed to make the cut, or are pending to be, depending on the level of shoehorning one relies on. Many non-specific people are called "Antichrists" in the New Testament (1 John 2:18, 2 John 1:7), so this will list specifically refer to those who are, or were, said to fulfill the events of Daniel or Revelation, signaling the End Times.

Dead[edit]

  • Jesus (c. 4 BCE – 30 or 33 CE): According to Paul Sides (a former computer programmer who runs an obscure webshite using the pen name Rav Sha'ul that contains plenty of other incomprehensible green ink "religious" babble), Jesus Christ himself is the Antichrist.[1] This stance seems to have replaced a previous numerology-oriented "theory" from Sides that speculated the Antichrist to be Charles III when he was still Prince of Wales.[2]
  • Nero (37–68): The OG. Scholars claim that in Gematria, 666 was to refer to Nero during his reign and persecution of Christians at that time.[3] PreteristsWikipedia also believe Nero already fulfilled the events of Revelation.
  • Pope Gregory VIIWikipedia (c. 1015–1085) and all subsequent popes, according to John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism.[4]
  • Frederick II,Wikipedia Holy Roman Emperor (1194–1250)
  • During the Middle Ages, the idea that the Pope was the Antichrist was widespread.[5][6][7]
  • Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821): His rampant conquests made many preachers in Europe fear the idea that he would take over the world. For those who believe that Nostradamus predicted the rise of three Antichrists, Napoleon is often considered the definitive candidate for the first slot.[8]
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945): Probably the first American president to be widely called the Antichrist, a trend that has extended to almost every American president since.[9][note 1] Roosevelt's rapid expansion of government and consolidation of power, combined with his utopian visions and his influence in developing international bodies like the United Nations, seemed to "check the boxes" of many 1930s American fundamentalists, who believed that the Antichrist prophecy would be fulfilled by the consolidation of independent nations into one superstate, led by a seemingly benevolent leader that promised world peace.[10] Historian Matthew Avery Sutton has argued that these anti-New Deal evangelicals foreshadowed the modern evangelical-Republican alignment, along with its anti-liberalism / anti-globalism paradigm.[11]
  • Benito Mussolini (1883–1945): Being Italy's dictator and his takeover of Rome made preachers concerned he would revive the Roman Empire.
  • Adolf Hitler (1889–1945): Kinda like Napoleon, but also planned to wipe out all Jews. Nostradamus fans often consider Hitler to be the second candidate of the predicted three.[8]
  • Aleister Crowley (1875–1947): "The Great Beast 666"[12]
  • John F. Kennedy (1917–1963): Being the first Catholic President in America surely gets you quite a scare.[13] Extra points for getting shot in the head, though no resurrection as of now.
  • Ronald Reagan (1911–2004): A mentally troubled man named Gregory Gordon had an obsession with Reagan being the Antichrist, to the point of getting arrested and convicted for threatening the life of a former President in 1990.[14] There was also the once widely-circulated factoid that each of his three names, Ronald Wilson Reagan, consisted of 6 letters: 666.[15]
  • Pope John Paul II (1920–2005), according to Ian Paisley[16]
  • Jose Luis de Jesús (1946–2013): Claimed to be both Jesus and the Antichrist at the same time.[17]
  • Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022): It all had to do with the birthmark.[18][19]
  • Henry Kissinger (1923–2023): A favorite Antichrist candidate for American fundamentalists in the 1970s and 1980s.[20][21]

Alive[edit]

  • George Soros (1930–): At least, Rudy Giuliani seems to think Soros is the Antichrist for some reason.[22]
  • Pope Francis (1936–): Protestants have long had a tradition of accusing the Catholic papacy (as well as individual popes) of being the Antichrist, a tradition that dates all the way back to one of the movement's major founders, Martin Luther.[23] So it's no surprise that in the modern age, crazy "birther" Republican politicians ranting on Facebook will do so likewise.[24]
  • Joe Biden (1942–): The current President of the United States. He's a Catholic, but that didn't stop a Kansas man from travelling to D.C to attempt to kill "Antichrist Biden".[25]
  • Donald Trump (1946–): The rallying point, if not outright leader, of a dizzying array of cult-like political movements, such as QAnon and MAGA. He also has a large chunk of the Religious Right in his corner, despite (or maybe because of) being a charlatan with a narcissisticWikipedia streak and habit of running con games rivaling L. Ron Freaking Hubbard. Oh, yeah, and he's also a hard-boiled authoritarian whose Hitler-esque approach to politics has won him the adoration of America's Neo-Nazis. Notably the tabloid New York Daily News,Wikipedia reporting on a spat between Trump and Francis over Trump's border wall, called Trump "ANTICHRIST!" on the front cover of their February 19 2016 edition.[26][27] Author and internet personality Benjamin L. Corey also jocularly noted that as of 2020, Trump would have fulfilled a large number of biblical predictions about the Antichrist.[28]
  • Hillary Clinton (1947–): Accused of being the Antichrist by the GOP representative of Montana, Ryan Zinke,Wikipedia as part of his 2014 campaign.[29]
  • Vladimir Putin (1952–): After Putin began his widely condemned invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, several bishops in the Orthodox Church of UkraineWikipedia called Putin a "modern-day anti-Christ", or at the least operating in "the spirit of the anti-Christ".[30]
  • Jerry SeinfeldWikipedia (1954–): Some forums have actually said this.[31][32]
  • Oprah Winfrey (1954–): Declared as one of the principal "pastors" of a "Harlot Babylon" by Rick Perry's NAR dominionist pal Mike BickleWikipedia in an undated video revealed in 2011. Bickle said that this "Harlot Babylon" was a precursor to the coming of the Antichrist.[33] Some obscure webshites have gone even further and declared that she was the Antichrist, largely due to her massive popularity and accusations of supposed "New Age" influences.[34][35]
  • Bill Gates (1955–): Foreshadowing the shitshow of the modern QAnon web, a 1994 chain letter email used numerology and an easter eggWikipedia in Microsoft ExcelWikipedia called the "Hall of Tortured Souls"[36] to proclaim Gates as the Antichrist.[37] Gates' later transformation into a health philanthropist added a new wrinkle to these claims during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to fundamentalism's wholehearted embrace of the anti-vaccination movement, and the widespread belief within the movement that COVID-19 vaccines Gates was promoting would contain mass-trackable microchips.[38] This led to a few preachers to once again accuse Gates of being the Antichrist.[39]
  • John Lydon (1956–): self-accused, "I am an antichrist / I am an anarchist."[40]
  • Barack Obama (1961–): The most obvious example in recent memory.[citation NOT needed] Ultimately, this was inevitable given that he was the first black President of the United States. Not helping is that he was accused of being a Muslim, as well as being born in Kenya. Accusing Obama of being the Antichrist was a common hysterical rant in the FW:FW:FW: chain emails of the aughts.[41] Notably, witnesses said that the motivation of the suspect of the 2011 White House shooting,Wikipedia Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, who thought that Obama was the Antichrist.[42][note 2]
  • Yuval Noah HarariWikipedia (1977–): Accused of being the Antichrist by ReAwaken America tour co-founder Clay Clark as part of an over-arching conspiracy theory involving the Great Reset. The reasons Clark thinks Harari is the Antichrist seems to be because Harari is gay, vegan, has the same first name as a descendant of CainWikipedia mentioned once in the Bible, and made a grand total of two speeches at the World Economic Forum in 2018 and 2020 (which, translated into Clark's conspiracy-speak, meant that for some reason Harari was the "lead advisor" of WEF head Klaus SchwabWikipedia).[43][44][45] Helpfully to the conspiracists, ironically, a lot of Harari's actual works are dystopian futurism what-ifs (particularly when he discusses technology, especially AI);[46] such provides a lot of material for Clark and other conspiracists to misuse in order to justify their "End Times" spin.
  • Emmanuel Macron (1977–): Current French President. Another favorite Antichrist candidate of Internet conspiracy theorists.[47] Macron did himself no favors in a long interview on April 17 2020 with the Financial TimesWikipedia by referring to "bête de l'événement" (the beast of the event) as an allusion to the challenges of the times, such as terrorism and the COVID-19 pandemic. This, of course, allowed conspiracy theorists to quote mine the phrase into implying that Macron was the "beast" himself.[48]
  • Jared KushnerWikipedia (1981–): Trump’s son in law, and senior adviser when he was in the White House. President of Kushner CompaniesWikipedia, who for a long time owned a building in New York City with an address of (gasp!) 666 Fifth Avenue.[49] Also got a line of credit from (gasp!) George Soros to help fund a company called CadreWikipedia.[50] These facts, and an allusion to Kushner somehow looking like the fictional Nicolae Carpathia from the Left Behind series, are all certain End Times webshites need to proclaim that "we are not saying that Jared Kushner is the Antichrist, but..." [51]
  • Prince Harry (1984–): So much Gematria…[52]
  • MrBeastWikipedia (1999–): In January 2023, Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast, a YouTube personality known for elaborate stunts and large giveaways, paid for 1000 phacoemulsificationWikipedia cataract removal operations, and then posted a video about this giveaway to YouTube (under the somewhat clickbait-ish title "1,000 Blind People See for the First Time"). While MrBeast Antichrist accusations had occasionally emerged previously in noxious corners of the Internet like 4chan, in a sad reflection of the post-Musk devolution of Twitter, this video triggered some shitpost tweets on that platform that accused MrBeast of being the Antichrist for "subverting christs teachings"[sic] through "excessive acts of faux generosity".[53] As with many shitpost memes, the level of sincerity and sarcasm varied depending on the poster.[54][55]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Yes, that does exclude James Buchanan. Go figure. In fairness, it also excludes Abraham Lincoln.
  2. True to lunatic form, Ortega-Hernandez had previously declared himself "the modern-day Jesus Christ" and made unhinged rants against the government in a video pitch for Oprah Winfrey to put him on her show.

References[edit]

  1. "Jesus Christ is the Anti-Christ", sabbathcovenant.com, archived on 2015 November 17
  2. "The Anti-Christ: Prince Charles of Wales", sabbathcovenant.com, archived on 2004 November 3
  3. "Nero Versus the Christians" by Shushma Malik, History Today, 2020 September 9
  4. Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament: Notes on the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Chapter XVII, Verse 11 by John Wesley (1755) via Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
  5. "'Anatomia Antichristi': Form and Content of the Papal Antichrist" by Lawrence P. Buck (2011) The Sixteenth Century Journal 42(2):349-368.
  6. "Angel Pope and Papal Antichrist" by Bernard McGinn (1978) Church History 47(2):155-173. doi:10.2307/3164731.
  7. The Roman Monster: An Icon of the Papal Antichrist In Reformation Polemics by Lawrence P. Buck (2014) Truman State University Press. ISBN 161248106X.
  8. 8.0 8.1 "The 7 Most Popular Contenders for the Title ‘Antichrist’" by Joe Carter, The Gospel Coalition, 2012 November 16
  9. "How Many Presidents Have Been Accused of Being the Antichrist?" by Forrest Wickman, Slate, 2011 November 17
  10. "Why the Antichrist Matters in Politics" by Matthew Avery Sutton, New York Times, 2011 September 25
  11. Matthew Avery Sutton, Was FDR the Antichrist? The Birth of Fundamentalist Antiliberalism in a Global Age, Journal of American History, Volume 98, Issue 4, March 2012, Pages 1052–1074, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jar565
  12. The Great Beast 666: who was Aleister Crowley? The National Trust.
  13. "The Nation: The 'Hypermodern' Foe; How the Evangelicals and Catholics Joined Forces" by Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, 2004 May 30
  14. "CONVICTION UPHELD IN REAGAN INCIDENT" by the Associated Press, 1992 September 6, digitized in the New York Times archive
  15. A Superstitious View Of Reagan's Victory by Dorothy Gilliam (November 15, 1980) The Washington Post.
  16. Outburst Disrupts Pope’s Speech at European Parliament by Sydney Rubin (October 11, 1988) AP.
  17. "Followers await self-styled ‘Antichrist’", Associated Press (hosted on NBC News), 2007 April 20
  18. Gorbachev! Has the Real Antichrist Come?
  19. "The Devil in Gorbachev" by Art Levine, Washington Post, 1988 June 5
  20. "The Devil in Gorbachev" by Art Levine, Washington Post, 1988 June 5
  21. "The 7 Most Popular Contenders for the Title 'Antichrist'" by Joe Carter, The Gospel Coalition, 2012 November 16
  22. "Rudy Giuliani shares tweet calling George Soros ‘anti-Christ’" by Gabe Friedman, Times of Israel, 2018 October 8
  23. "Five things to know about the Antichrist" by Philip C. Almond, Conversation, 2020 October 19
  24. "New Hampshire state rep: ‘The Pope is the anti-Christ. Do your research.’" by Eric Levenson, Boston.com, 2016 February 23
  25. Kansas man traveled to D.C. to kill ‘Antichrist’ Biden: report
  26. "Pope Francis says Trump ‘not Christian’ because of Mexican border wall plan, candidate calls pontiff's remarks 'disgraceful'" by Larry McShane and Ginger Adams Otis, New York Daily Newsm 2016 February 19
  27. "Donald Trump Is ‘Anti Christ’ on Latest NY Daily News Cover (Photo)" by Brian Flood, The Wrap, 2016 February 19
  28. Benjamin L. Corey: Could American Evangelicals Really Spot the Antichrist? Updated 6 October 2020
  29. "Meet the GOP Congressional Candidate Who Called Hillary Clinton the “Antichrist”" by Molly Redden, Mother Jones, 2014 February 4
  30. "Ukraine archbishop slams Russian invasion, calls Putin the anti-Christ" by Jerusalem Post Staff, 2022 March 2
  31. Jerry Seinfeld is EVIL, he's the ANTICHRIST ! ! ! by Karl-Hugo Weesberg Narkive
  32. Jerry Seinfeld is the antichrist. by Nadbash, Torn
  33. "Rick Perry Partners With Pastor Who Thinks Oprah Is The Precursor To The Antichrist" by Brian Tashman, Right Wing Watch, 2011 July 8
  34. "Could Oprah be the Antichrist?", Unam Sanctam Catholicism blog, 2008 March 4, archived 2011 January 8
  35. "Oprah Winfrey Boldly Leading Humanity To The New Age Antichrist" by Byxstory, Scribd.com, archived 2024 January 14
  36. "Excel Easter Egg - Excel 95 Hall of Tortured Souls", Easter Egg Archive
  37. "Bill Gates/Microsoft Chain-letter E-mails", KnowYourMeme.com
  38. "Why won’t Americans get vaccinated?" by Kathy Frankovic, YouGovAmerica, 2021 July 15
  39. "Why Bill Gates is the focus of the latest coronavirus conspiracy theories" by Ruth Reader, FastCompany, 2020 April 21
  40. Sex Pistols: John Lydon Said ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ Isn’t About ‘Spitefully Wanting to Wreck Everything for No Reason’ by Hannah Wigandt (May 27, 2022) Showbiz CheatSheet.
  41. "According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ ... will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent ... is it OBAMA??" by Amy Hollyfield, Politifact, oynter Institute, 2008 April 2
  42. "In video, White House shooting suspect calls himself ‘modern-day Jesus’" by Mariano Castillo and Greg Botelho, CNN, 2011 November 18
  43. "ReAwaken America Tour Fuses Trumpism and Christian Nationalism" by Noah Phillips, Moment, 12 May 2023
  44. "Fact Check-World Economic Forum did not declare ‘God is dead’ or that humans would become gods" by Reuters Fact Check, 2022 December 23
  45. "Who Is the Man Leading the COVID-19 / Great Reset Agenda?", ReAwaken America tour website (TimetoFreeAmerica.com), archived on 2023 April 11
  46. "Tech C.E.O.s Are in Love With Their Principal Doomsayer" by Nellie Bowles, New York Times, 2018 November 9
  47. "Can YouTube Quiet Its Conspiracy Theorists?" by Jack Nicas, New York Times, 2020 March 2
  48. "Macron et «l’arrivée de la Bête» (de l’Apocalypse) : comment remonter le fil de cette petite phrase" by William Audureau, Le Monde, 2020 May 22
  49. "666 FIFTH AVENUE", project overviews, Kushner.com, archived on 2016 November 25
  50. "Is Jared Kushner a Paid Protester? Because It Turns Out He’s Gotten a Bunch of Money From George Soros." by Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate, 2017 May 2
  51. "Why Does Jared Kushner Look Like He Is Getting Ready To Play The Role of the Biblical Antichrist?" by Geoffrey Grider, Nowtheendbegins.com, 2017 April 28, archived on 2022 September 16
  52. How to Calculate the Number of the Beast [and the Odds - UPDATE: See Pinned Comment] by chisza7, March 18, 2015, YouTube
  53. "he is literally the antichrist. he's performing our society's equivalent of miracles through these excessive acts of faux generosity and is garnering everyone's undivided love and admiration in doing so. he will start subverting christs teachings next and preaching selfish action", @mkuItra2trappy, Twitter, 2023 January 29, archived on 2023 January 29
  54. "KnowYourMeme: MrBeast Antichrist Comparisons"
  55. "MrBeast Is Being Called "Antichrist" on Twitter for Helping Blind People Regain Vision" by Kelly Corbett, Distractify, 2023 January 30