Come now
@blkdlaur did you not notice how
@MacNfries said that Trump is NOT the antichrist? That is a tiny move in the right direction...
maybe he is...maybe not.....but he sure fits a lot of the criteria to be one....and about as close as we have seen....more to follow
In an election wracked with invocations of Lucifer and the approaching end times, the confusion of Donald Trump with the Antichrist is fitting. Depending on whom you ask, Satan has made himself known on both sides of the aisle. Some right-wingers — including
Infowars’
Alex Jones, Ryan Zinke, a GOP
Congressional candidate from Montana, and a gaggle of conservative Christian commentators — saw Hillary Clinton as their demonic archetype. Still others saw Trump and his
Satan-inspired chief strategist, Steve Bannon. A
Time magazine cover that inadvertently gave Trump devil horns didn’t help matters.
But while the question of whether Donald Trump is an — or even
the — Antichrist may be impossible to answer, the fact that the apocalyptic figure has even made an appearance this election cycle is notable for what it says about the country as a whole. That is, these comparisons simultaneously allow their proponents to schlep whatever guilt they may feel for Trump’s rise, while also permitting them to set boundaries between themselves and the president-elect’s supporters, and the president-elect himself.
Despite the religious fervor that end-time prophecy usually induces, the term “Antichrist”’s few appearances in the Bible shows it originally had a meaning that differs wildly than how it is used today. Initially, “Antichrist,” which appears exclusively in the otherwise minor epistles John I and II, was used by early Christians to denote those who refused to confess Christ’s presence on Earth or his divinity. As persecution continued to follow the early church, it began to hone its apocalyptic vision even more. By the end of the second century, Irenaeus, an early Christian writer and bishop, theorized that the Antichrist would be a single figure.
Other books — including Revelation in the New Testament and the books Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible — provide ample fodder for end-times speculation. From the “beasts” in Daniel and Revelation, to the epic battle in Ezekiel 38-39, the use of symbolism and metaphor has made practicing prophecy a struggle. These pieces of apocalyptic literature — which, quite literally, deal with the “unveiling” of events to come — leave hints at what the Antichrist may do, namely face off with Christ as the ultimate expression of evil, thereby bringing about the end of days. Yet what he will
look like is less fleshed out. Though not named as such, the Antichrist is often read into the two beasts, one from the earth and the other from the sea, that appear in the last book of the Bible, Revelation. (One of these beasts is said to bear the number 666 — a number that also corresponds to a “mark” given to those ruled over by the beast. In both prophetic literature and popular culture, the number has, as a result, frequently been cited as indicating the presence of the Antichrist.) Lacking textual anchors, those troubled by the coming end times have been free to succumb to their imaginations.
But a lack of Biblical support never stopped anyone.
Trump does fit several of the criteria attached to popular perceptions of the Antichrist. Many earnest sources of apocalyptic speculation, including the best-selling
Left Behind series by the late Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, imagine the Antichrist as a truly modern figure. Although the wildly popular 17-book series, which was published between 1995 and 2007 and has sold over 65 million copies, is fictional, the vision embraced by LaHaye and Jenkins portrays the coming apocalypse as an event where non-believers are ****** to reckon with the damage wrought by the Antichrist.
Here, the Antichrist is a worldly, charismatic man, often of Eastern European and Jewish heritage, who embraces modern technology and institutions for his own sinister ends. This interpretation, which is common among a large subset of American Evangelicals, believes the Antichrist’s reign — a period known as the “tribulation” — will follow the rapture of true followers of Christ.
It’s easy to extrapolate this to Trump. He’s vainglorious, charismatic (at least in the eyes of some Americans), and obsessed with wealth. Kushner Companies, a real estate company jointly owned by Jared Kushner, Trump’s *******-in-law, is headquartered at 666 5th Ave. Trump, while not Eastern European himself, has a proclivity for Eastern European women and promises better relations with Russia, a country that figures prominently in 20th and 21st century apocalyptic tales. And while Trump says that his favorite book is the Bible, he did once note that he’s “not sure” as to whether he’s asked God for forgiveness of his sins.
America is ready for the end times.
theoutline.com
