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Antichrist
From the Greek
'antichristos' (adversary of Christ), it is the name of the
demon who is supposed to precede the Second
Coming of Christ, as mentioned in
Revelation, 13 (also referred to as "the second Beast"). The
Antichrist is also mentioned in the Bible in the First and Second Epistles of
John, where the term is applied to anyone who in the "last time" (see
1 John 2:18) denies that Jesus is the
Christ, that is to say, the Anointed One.
The Antichrist is the universal enemy of mankind,
sent to scourge the world for its
wickedness. He is regarded as a tyrant, impious and excessively cruel, the arch enemy of
Christ, and the last ruler of the earth. In the early Christian
church the term was applied to the Roman
Empire, and during the Reformation the Papacy became identified by Protestants with the
Antichrist.
The Antichrist will have a great number
of forerunners, and will appear just before the end
of the world. According to medieval legends, he is to be born from a sexual union
between a virgin girl and a demon. This was also the belief of
St. Jerome.
The magician Merlin was fabled to have been born into the world in this
manner, and destined to become the Antichrist, but his destiny was allegedly
changed when a priest baptized him as an infant. Other Fathers of the Church, such
as
St. Ireneus,
St. Ambrose and
St. Augustine, thought that the Antichrist would be a mortal man conceived in the same way as all
others,
differing from them only in a malice and an impiety more worthy of a demon than of a
man. Past identifications of the Antichrist included the
Roman empire, the
emperor
Nero, the Papacy,
Napoleon, and
Hitler, amongst many.
Today some claim, like
the medieval folks, that the Antichrist
will be a man begotten by a demon; others a
demon in the flesh, visible and fantastical, or an incarnate demon. The most accepted
thinking is that he will be an common man born in the ordinary way, but more wicked than other
men, a kind of demon incarnate.
Many today equate the Antichrist with events
in the Middle East and Israel, and think that the so called Great Tribulation
will be World War III or the Final Middle East Conflict, fought by the
"righteous" nations — assisting Israel in their struggle opposing the Antichrist
— against a charismatic but evil non-Christian leader. Only time will tell for
sure. Nations, righteous or not, are bound to resist the "beast" and wage war
against what they perceive as a threat to their way of life.
See
Apocalypse,
Heptameron,
Demonology,
Demonomancy,
Grimoires,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1)
Dictionary of the
Occult, Caxton
Publishing; (2)
Spence, Lewis,
An Encyclopedia of
Occultism, Carol Publishing Group; (3) Alexander, J.C.,
The Kingdom of the Beast and the End of the World: The Truth About the End, ACW Press.
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