Have been doing some thinking (always a bad thing!) about the Anti-Christ and I have a question about him I hope others here will be able to help answer. All this of course is assuming he either does or will exist, which I personally doubt. But who knows?
To begin: The Anti-Christ is a character from Christian scripture, and there is a similar person in Islamic scripture.
He is prophesied to emerge into the world at around the beginning of End Times. He is called the Anti-Christ as he opposes Christ – “anti” as in “against”. But in scripture he does more than just oppose Christ, he will try to to take Christ’s place and he will succeed in winning many followers and would seem to reproduce Christ’s ministry as we know it from the gospels – with all the wise teachings, followers, excited crowds, disgruntled religious authorities, concerned secular authorities, healing, sermons, miracles etc. etc.
Many will say he is Christ returned, or a different person who’s even better than Christ was. And he will not correct them. He may even claim to be The Messiah or the successor of Christ.
He will be a great humanitarian and show great compassion towards his fellow humans and would be aware of what’s good for the world. He will be massively charismatic and likeable. He will however reject obedience to God and will deny the existence and virtue of Christ. And he will ask people to follow him, and to abandon Christ. It will be in this sense that he is against Christ, rather than due to the content of his teachings or his moral alignment (e.g. good, evil, neutral). Basically, he will be Christ’s rival, an alternative Christ even.
In one of my more mentally ill moments (In the past I've had serious issues with reality although I am now thankfully medicated and relatively sane) I was worried I might be the Anti-Christ but I can’t be: I cannot perform miracles, am not rich or powerful, and am not all that wise, and I should think very few people would ever follow me! Plus I am not at all charismatic. I’m quite dull and awkward in person and feel more at home communicating in writing. And I don’t come from a wealthy or influential background and didn’t graduate from an elite institution, and I believe one of the features of the Anti-Christ is that he will be born into the elite strata of society. Also, I don’t reject God (I think we should try to get to know him and that he is good) although I am agnostic about Christ. But if I were to ever meet Jesus Christ in person or be sure that he exists I would obediently take him as my lord and saviour.
In the film The Omen the Anti-Christ was certainly portrayed as being evil…
Now, here’s my question: Assuming there is or will be such a thing, will the Anti-Christ be evil? And if so, why?
To begin: The Anti-Christ is a character from Christian scripture, and there is a similar person in Islamic scripture.
He is prophesied to emerge into the world at around the beginning of End Times. He is called the Anti-Christ as he opposes Christ – “anti” as in “against”. But in scripture he does more than just oppose Christ, he will try to to take Christ’s place and he will succeed in winning many followers and would seem to reproduce Christ’s ministry as we know it from the gospels – with all the wise teachings, followers, excited crowds, disgruntled religious authorities, concerned secular authorities, healing, sermons, miracles etc. etc.
Many will say he is Christ returned, or a different person who’s even better than Christ was. And he will not correct them. He may even claim to be The Messiah or the successor of Christ.
He will be a great humanitarian and show great compassion towards his fellow humans and would be aware of what’s good for the world. He will be massively charismatic and likeable. He will however reject obedience to God and will deny the existence and virtue of Christ. And he will ask people to follow him, and to abandon Christ. It will be in this sense that he is against Christ, rather than due to the content of his teachings or his moral alignment (e.g. good, evil, neutral). Basically, he will be Christ’s rival, an alternative Christ even.
In one of my more mentally ill moments (In the past I've had serious issues with reality although I am now thankfully medicated and relatively sane) I was worried I might be the Anti-Christ but I can’t be: I cannot perform miracles, am not rich or powerful, and am not all that wise, and I should think very few people would ever follow me! Plus I am not at all charismatic. I’m quite dull and awkward in person and feel more at home communicating in writing. And I don’t come from a wealthy or influential background and didn’t graduate from an elite institution, and I believe one of the features of the Anti-Christ is that he will be born into the elite strata of society. Also, I don’t reject God (I think we should try to get to know him and that he is good) although I am agnostic about Christ. But if I were to ever meet Jesus Christ in person or be sure that he exists I would obediently take him as my lord and saviour.
In the film The Omen the Anti-Christ was certainly portrayed as being evil…
Now, here’s my question: Assuming there is or will be such a thing, will the Anti-Christ be evil? And if so, why?