There is so much ink and electrons spent on the question: who is the AntiChrist revealed by the Number of the Beast? Type “antichrist” or “666″ into a search engine and watch the sponsored links to any number of sites theorising the matter appear.
So who can the AntiChrist be?
He snorted cocaine … He dodged the draft….His friends knew him as an alcoholic womanizer with a bad temper….a complete failure at business until his wealthy friends rescued him. Yet within a few short years he was elected Governor of Texas, and quickly catapulted into the White House in spite of losing the popular vote. Then he was re-elected with last minute help from Osama Bin Laden, in spite of high disapproval ratings. He still couldn’t think his way out of a wet paper bag without the advice of his staff …..and yet he’s been able to declare an endless war and institute some of the most radical changes in American history ….
……. How has He done it?
There follows here a glorious exploration of numerology, using multiple numbering systems, to prove that George W. Bush’s name comes out to 666, the infamous number of the Beast. This particular example is pure whimsy (despite the emails he has received from people taken in, which he answers with a straight-faced tongue-in-cheek), but there are many more serious sites and cites regarding an attempt to prove that somehow the Bush administration fulfils Apocalyptic prophecy.
There are rumours that even the late Pope John Paul II feared that Bush might be the AntiChrist, or at least a harbinger.
Of course, a huge number of rigid Protestants have attempted to prove that the entire office of Roman Pontiff over the centuries is the embodiment of the Antichrist. In this they are expanding a theory initially put forward by the Albigensian Cathars, a heretic Christian movement beginning in the eleventh century which the Roman church ruthlessly suppressed via Crusade and Inquisition in the 13th century. (A massacre at Bezieres of heretics and townsfolk alike was infamously ordered by the papal legate “Slay all, God will know his own”, an utterance the Catholic Encyclopaedia hotly denounces as both “monstrous” and fictional) This Albigensian theory initially only accused the Pope of being an antiChrist, a term which originally referred to anyone perceived as a false prophet. The accusation has gradually been refined into the Pope being the AntiChrist. Luther certainly bitterly denounced the papacy as the AntiChrist, and popular Protestant art of the time often shows the AntiChrist wearing the papal tiara. The Roman Catholic church has countered with its own interpretations of the AntiChrist as one who will be separate from the papacy and enthroned at Jerusalem, an interpretation now widely accepted amongst the eschatological.
Interestingly, despite popular misconceptions, the word antichrist is never used in the Book of Revelation, the Book of Daniel or the Epistle of the Thessalonians, which are the three most popular books of the Bible used to refer to End Times prophecies. The word is used in only three books of the entire Bible, all in the letters of John:
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. (1John 2:22, ESV)
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. (1John 2:18, ESV)
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1John 4:3, ESV)
Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist (2John 1:7, ESV.)
The names used in Revelation are actually Beast, Dragon, Whore of Babylon and False Prophet. Thessalonians refers to a “man of sin” and “son of perdition”. Daniel refers to a four beasts, and then a great beast with multiple horns. Certainly they are all meant to be figures that deny Christ, and thus are all antiChrists, but the idea that there is one ultimate AntiChrist corresponding to the Beast of Revelation is one that’s developed over time and is never explicitly stated in the Bible – an excellent example of the biblical exegesis/eisegesis conundrum.
And so we come to the effort over centuries to identify the ultimate AntiChrist by the number of the Beast, which is, depending on the scholarly authority one follows, either 666 or 616 (if the latter it means we missed the Apocalypse this year, as it was either on the 6th January for us Imperial Calendar types, or last week on June 1st for the American calendar types).
There’s an impressive lineup of contenders :
Paul of Tarsus (alleged subverter of the true message of Jesus)
Nero (according to Preterists)
King Arthur of Camelot
Peter the Great of Russia
Various individual Popes and the Papacy itself (this was actually part of most Protestant confessions of faith until the early 1900s)
The son of Martin Luther (scion of an ex-priest and an ex-nun, of course he would be)
Napoleon
Rasputin
Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin
Ronald Reagan
Charles, Prince of Wales or his son Prince William
George W. Bush
The United Nations
The European Union
Dick Cheney/John Ashcroft
The thing all these putative AntiChrists have in common is their political influence. As rotten.com point out:
“It takes a lot of bureaucracy to run the Antichrist enterprise, so he needs to be in charge of something. This provides a convenient excuse to (literally) demonize powerful people whom one resents. Feel free to designate your least favorite public figure as the Antichrist. Go on, try it! It’s fun!”
So:
It’s David Hasselhoff that really is the Antichrist!
How can one explain the phenomenal global success of one of this country’s least talented individuals? There are only three ways.
1. Mr. Hasselhoff actually is talented, but this goes unnoticed in his own country.
2. Mr. Hasselhoff has sold his soul to Satan in return for global success.
3. David Hasselhoff is the AntiChrist.I vote for the latter — and perhaps, after seeing the facts involved, the rest of the world will agree.
No, it’s Harry Potter author JK Rowling!
(or the books pave the way to the AntiChrist at least)
But wait, there’s more: Bill Gates? Paris Hilton, particularly now that she’s singing? Even our cashless society itself?
The longstanding obsession with clarifying and anticipating the End Times prophecies sure does distract a lot of people from real things that are happening right here and now.
Can it be Jesus himself?!?
“Jesus himself is the Antichrist by letting A=9, B=18, C=27, D=36, and so forth: J E S U S = 90 45 171 189 171 = 666″
from Wikipedia
Hmm… I’m surprised Karl Marx didn’t make the list. Or Nietzsche for that matter.
But seriously, I’m the anti-Christ.
Nah, it is James Blunt. Think about it!
It’s all making sense now!
Oh, in the best numerological prophecy tradition, I made a mathematical error in my post. I’ll buy the first one to find it a short black.
Nostradamus says Apollyon, Hister and Mabus are the three anti-christs
The first two are believed to be Napoleon and Hitler, the third suggests Saddam to me.
That said, anyone aware of what the US Military Network IP address is? I’ll leave that as for homework if anyone’s interested. And assuming it hasn’t changed from a few years ago.
Cliff:
You can’t be the Anti-Christ …. too well-mannered.
tigtog:
GWB can’t be the Anti-Christ either …. born loser and too stupid, and evil by incompetence rather than by deliberation.
A harbinger? Well. if so, that’s a very serious matter indeed ….. start praying brothers and sisters!
btw – thought “666″ was the Western rendering of the letters which spelt out Neron Kaesar (Nero Emperor) in one of the eastern languages where letters can serve as numbers (like in Georgian). Anyone know?
Nero’s definitely on the list above, and using gematria (Hebrew letter/number code) comes out either to 666 or 616.
But lots of other names can be gematrised to the same.
Re your claimed mathematical error:
You refer to the ‘latter’ of three ways in which David Hasselhoff’s success can be explained. As there are three ways, the third would be the last, not the latter. It seems to me more a grammatical error than a mathematical one, but is it the error to which you refer? If not, do I get a short black anyway as a reward for frivolous pedantry?
Love your work
Sorry m’dear: that grammatical error belongs to the indented quoted text, and so it’s not mine.
I expect a higher standard of frivolous pedantry than that.
That Wikipedia article shows how numerology can “prove” a lot of people to be the Antichrist. Jesus’ number is 665 anyway. The letter “J” didn’t exist when Revelation was written – “Iesus” was the proper Latin spelling.
Some really convoluted numerology points the finger at Glenn Reynolds.
Nostradamus got a lot of stuff wrong, and his quatrains are so vague that anything can be read into them, so phooey on his predictions.
I remember the Prince Charles speculation. Some guy named Monte Judah was pushing that idea. Forgot a lot of the details. One thing I do recall is that there’s “Da Vinci Code” like clues in his family heraldry.
Considering that the Antichrist is supposed to usher in a world government, most of the “impressive lineup of contenders” is laughable.
I think I see the mathematical error. You wrote: ‘The word is used in only three books of the entire Bible…’ and go on to quote four passages from 1 John and 2 John, which is only two books. Really want that short black
Oh well done you. Yup, I miscounted the books.
And seeing as it’s you, I’ll make it an affogato.
Ronald Wilson Reagan is the only man in history to meet all of the requirements set forth in Revelation to be named as the beast. And now there is even a talking doll in his image, likeness and own voice. It is made by toypresidents.com.
I have been following the story of Reagan being the antichrist for more than 25 years and have written a book about it. The thing to watch for next is to have his image put on money. Then no man will be able to buy or sell without it. This will happen in 2016 when his presidential series dollar coin goes into circulation.
Thankfully you can turn your life over to Jesus. Get born again. Become as a little child and get saved.
As for the Second Coming he came already and is simply waiting to be lifted up. Find out all about Him on my web site.
YOU GUYS ARE STUPID!how can christ himself be counted as an antichrist if his last name is christ you dumbshits!!!!!!!! Jesus can’t be the opposite of himself…idiots. Well that means that he is against his own beliefs and himself, but he is not against those he died on the cross for his beliefs and for us to be forgiven for our sins. FREAKING RETARDED MORONS!!! SUCK YOUR OWN DICK!
At last, some reasoned discourse in the gentlest style of persuasion. You must have marvellous success saving souls in this fashion.
Quite wrong, Jeatktehan. Jesus’ last name, of course, was ‘Nazareth’, and his middle name was ‘of’.
I might as well confess. Since it will afford me the chance to gloat while that tiny minority, in the know, go crazy over their inability to do a damn thing about it.
That last comment makes no sense.
I think Birdie’s claiming to be the AntiChrist, silkworm. Luckily for us, he doesn’t actually rule any nation or lead any armies, unless he’s deploying some sort of plethora of profane pugilists who will batter threads into submission.
If Panelbeaterbird is calling the Church ‘that tiny minority’ she definitely makes no sense, specialy if she thinks the Church can’t do anything about the brief rise of the antichrist because it is weak or immobilised. The whole point of Armageddon is the return of Christ with the Church to deal the final blow to antichrist factions. It’s not that the Church is too dibilitated to do anything, rather that the Church won’t do anything initially because the Church will have been raptured in preparation for the return of Christ. When the Church is removed, there will no longer be anything in the earth to ‘hinder’ the wicked one, and he’ll have his day in the sun, but Christ will come with the armies of heavento blast him with the Word of His mouth.
Not everything in an AntiChrist post is about the Church or even about Christian dogma, FaceLift. I suspect the Bird was just attempting to make a joke – you know, funny ha ha? – which was more about his disagreements with us “tiny minority” of moaning lefties and fence-sitting centrists with whom he likes to stoush.
It was a vanishingly small sparkle of wit and whimsy which you have now thoroughly quelched. Not even knocking that strawman down so hard on top of it has got it to blaze away. So as there’s no fire, why are your cheeks so red?
Mock me again tig-tog and the only thing that could save your ass from a slow death is that I cannot both subject you to it and claim your soul as well. (Godammnit).
It is not to be thought that the battle is one of a known outcome. For were it such why would the two parties battle? The reality is that whilst HIS forces in some of the otherworldly realms are indeed superior HE has but little toehold in this world and would be easy meat if HE were detected.
Sonofabitch hung around for ten years on the same street where Reagan grew up posing as an old man. But we only found out twenty years after the fact.
PBB, you and FaceLift deserve each other. No more death threats though, even in jest – death threats are bad, mmkay? And will be moderated.
Sure. Good point. Fair Enough. (I’ll Wait)
Er, the only embarrassing thing here is your statement that not everything in an antiCHRIST post is about CHRIST, or the Church, which is also known as the Body of CHRIST!
Sorry, I didn’t realise this post was a joke!
Apart from me referring to Bird’s posted comment rather my my posted essay, FaceLift, you have utterly missed the point of the entire thread.
Like it or not, the AntiChrist trope has moved beyond the bounds of Christian dogma into a generalist term in the wider culture, one which is not always taken as seriously as you take your religion. Do you seriously deny that when people put up websites about Hasselhof as the AC?
Well I think FaceOff and Birdy are a match made in heaven too. Although Graeme, let’s face it, you are much funnier when you’re being serious.
Also tigtog, there’s a special place reserved in hell for people who misspell Hasselhoff.
Of course things move on and there is jest and nonjest in very walk of life about every subject. Some people still think ‘gay’ refers to people being happy and bright! I happen to agree for once with silkworm that the comments PanelbeaterBird made were hard to understand, and could have been taken a number of ways, none of which was clear, or (to me) humourous. I think ‘joking’ refers to something being funny, or at least witty!
I may indeed have missed the point of the thread, and neither did I get the joke, so call me dim, but I was just trying to dig out what PBGirl was talking about. It may be that you’ve missed the point of what the antichrist represents. But if you want to joke about it go ahead! Scoffing’s part of the antichrist deal anyway, so it does have some relevance.
Never mind. I’ll just butt out and you can have your post back!
At least we agree that Birdy’s comments were hard to understand! (Why do you think he’s a girl?)
Nabs – hasselelhoffer schmasselhoff hell schmell.
Sorry, I took the name to be a ‘bird’ proud to be identified as a panelbeater! My mistake. No gender insult intended eitherway! Just having a bad thread day! Think I’ll get back to the football.
I guess Nabakov’s remarks were typically intended as an insult rather than a comment. Must be lonely to be so high, lifted up and isolated above the ordinary folk.
It’s Comrade Graeme under his latest (demonic?) alias, FaceLift.
OK, Mark, thanks.
Let’s see:
pan = 99
‘el = 333
beat = 101
‘er = 53
bird = 80
total = 666
Yep. Thought so. Not surprised!
“I guess Nabakov’s remarks were typically intended as an insult rather than a comment. ”
They were what is commonly referred to as a quip. Try one yourself some day. It’s not a bad introduction to this little thing we call humour.
Of course when it comes to definitions of quality humour your mileage may vary.
Anyway FaceOff, why don’t you turn the other cheek? Then I’ll turn more of my cheek to work.
That’s conditional cheek turning, Nobblecuff, and doesn’t count. A quip’s OK, but you managed to insult three people in two sentences, without saying anything useful. I consider that tantamount to aloofness. Turning the other cheek is for when we’re challenged or threatened for our faith. I’m not sure it counts during a blog debate, otherwise nobody’d ever say anything.
Interesting FaceOff, that you’d regard being matched with Birdy as an insult. Have you thought about how much you are insulting him by claiming this is an insult?
“Although Graeme, let’s face it, you are much funnier when you’re being serious.”
Most people would agree that’s a simple statement of fact.
“I consider that tantamount to aloofness.”
No, aloofness is me ignoring you instead of goosing you like this.
*exits, whistling “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life”*
Your usual powers won’t work well with Facelift.
He is without guile, Snarkakov. He is sincere.
Well, Noblecroft, if you’re going to goose with people’s personalities by aiming wise cracks at them, you have to expect to be gandered ocassionally. The problem here is that you seem to have made things personal (now I’m apparently insulting Birdy, whom I don’t know, but whom you seem to take delight in insulting, hence my thought that you may have been attempting to insult both of us in one hit, so it was more about your attitude than anything to do with him, although it may have actually been an insult to him to have been paired with me! However if you have good thoughts towards us and merely think we’d get on well together because we’re such nice chaps, I most ardently apologise for my error of interpretation of your ‘quip’), which is a shame since you usually have something worth reading to say about stuff when you’re not having a go at someone.
And you don’t think your little joke about Graeme’s humour was at his expense?
*sighs*
Why can’t we all get along?
There’s no such thing as comedy without a victim, and I can’t think of a better bloke for it than the Bird.
That bad, eh? Then I really am insulted! Oh, well!
*turns cheek*
Yes, I think I recall that footnote in the Gospels – “no need to turn the other cheek during blog debates, saith the Lord”.
Something about disregarding the splinter in someone else’s eye as long as you have a blog in your own.
No no no. It’s in the Sermon on the Mount:
At least that’s how I remember it.
My fav footnote…
“When the Nabites and the Silkwormites and ‘ites of every ity type advance on your cities, do not hold back your hand.”
Scholarly addendum “It is not supposed today that these ‘ites were related in any way. They occupied a roughly approximate geographical position during the bushite era.”
New discovery!
“The later day daughter of Jael did show up at that time, as well. Sayin’.”
Those quotes are from the rescued archives of official Australian blogs. We have only partial records, but it is clear that a strange group known ambigously as “teh Kims” held certain positions of authority.
The best way HE could hide was to forget who HE was. And as the deep ancient rules went if I just grabbed people off the street and tortured them to death then those wrenched souls could NOT be mine.
And because the war is one of attrition I could not afford to go for this scatter-bomb approach.
So he wanders on.
Probably not even knowing who he is.
Doing things that undoe all my plans….
And drifting in an out of peoples lives like a rider on the rain.
No I believe it is just a number
very likely the World Population count.
http://www.geocities.com/philsmeall/
as per the exact words of the bible
“The number (name) of the beast: it is the number (name) of a man� Revelation 13:18 i.e. Jesus Christ.
“’Take care that no one deceives you (the twelve chosen); because many will come using my name and saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will deceive many’� Mathew 24:4
We know that the Antichrist has a false prophet:
“Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits. It is not those that say to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When that day comes many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?’ Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!� Mathew 7:15-23
“Remember, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be cunning as serpents and yet harmless as doves.� Matthew 10:16
“You will be hated by all men on account of my name; but the man who stands firm to the end will be saved.� Matthew 10:22
“If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, what will they not say of his household?� Matthew 10:25
“’If the world hates you, remember that it hated me before you.’� John15:18
Who does the world hate, Yahweh God or the serpent?
No, The serpent was the original Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation of the World. Yahweh God is the Dragon, The Risen Christ is the Antichrist and Paul of tarsus is the False Prophet.
“On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown that they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.
And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God� John 3:19-21