the anti-Christ. A self fulfilling prophecy?

[Hourglassmemory]

I've been reading a few articles and watching a few videos and interviews.
It seems to me that Europe is more secular than the United States.
Me living in Europe and being an European, do get the sense that America has religion more present.
And we have all heard about the Anti-Christ coming from Europe and that he will be extremely alluring and will show that he only wants the good for the people.

I was wondering, being Europe as it is, and quite possibly it might grow a bit more secular and less religious, do you reckon people will see it as the ascendance of the Anti-Christ? Will the paranoid lure into their paranoia more innocent people, saying that rationality is very tempting but ultimately, the truth about the entire reality of the cosmos lies with human faith...?

It's not hard to imagine someone in a high position acknowledging secular positions on several matters. People taking a rational approach to problems and not mentioning religion at all in subjects where the religious point of view gets quite a bit of attention nowadays. What if things start to change?

Imagine that Europe becomes the nation that does it first...will religious people, whose beliefs in the Anti-Christ prophecy are present, act on this?
What if this Anti-Christ mania spreads and large groups of people do start gathering and act quite stupidly?

Don't you think that the Armageddon will be self fulfilled if things get out of hand?
What if people in position of power get sucked into the mania too?

[Hokulele]

One of the problems I have with this hypothesis is that end-times prophecies, and calls for the coming of the anti-christ have been going on for centuries. And the world just doesn't end. I find it very similar to the whole "Back when I was your age . . ." and "Things were better back when . . ." type of comments. I know from some of your other posts that you are still fairly young, and I do not mean to be patronizing (or matronizing as the case may be), but I truly doubt that the sky is falling, or that some type of catacalysmic, religious confrontation is near. History is always the hardest subject until you have lived some of it. If you are interested in learning a bit about how each generation seems to go through something similar, read about the 1960's in the USA for a good example. By this I do not mean the whole hippy-culture phenomenon, but rather civil rights, the Vietnam War, and the political situation at the time. Or, since you are European, look at fin-de-siecle Europe.

Again, I don't want to belittle your concerns, just put them into some sort of historical context. :)

[Correa Neto]

Hokulele has a point. So many prophecies, so many threats, so many deadlines and so far, no end.

However, if you want a speculative scenario, consider this:
At country X, a deeply religious country marked by evangelic sects, tele-evangelizer Y gains fame, fortune and glory. His/hers "miracles" receive a lot of attention, the numbers of followers grow quickly. Other churches/cults start loosing their sheep. The evangelizer enters in to politics and is elected say, senator and now he/she is aiming higher.

His/hers concurrents (other evangelic religious sects), envy (or afraid) of the current developments, start spreading the word- "Evangelizer Y is the Anti-Christ! His car's license plate is 666 616!" Evangelizer Y answers "NO! Only through me you may reach Salvation! They are the false prophets!"

And the fight begins...

Now, I think the current secularism level in most if not all Western countries is high enough to avoid this sort of story; not to mention that all cults/churches/sects involved would loose a lot of money (IMHO the real motivation behind them) if such a clash ever happens.

[Hokulele]

However, if you want a speculative scenario, consider this:

At country X, a deeply religious country marked by evangelic sects, tele-evangelizer Y gains fame, fortune and glory. His/hers "miracles" receive a lot of attention, the numbers of followers grow quickly. Other churches/cults start loosing their sheep. The evangelizer enters in to politics and is elected say, senator and now he/she is aiming higher.

His/hers concurrents (other evangelic religious sects), envy (or afraid) of the current developments, start spreading the word- "Evangelizer Y is the Anti-Christ! His car's license plate is 666 616!" Evangelizer Y answers "NO! Only through me you may reach Salvation! They are the false prophets!"

And the fight begins...


Someone has been reading too much R.A. Heinlein. :)

[Carnegiea]

Why is the Bible so intentionally vague on the whole Antichrist/apocalypse issue? Wouldn't it be better if it was more like, "The Antichrist shall be named Jeff W. Thomson (again, that's Thomson with an 'h') who shall live in Los Angeles, California and produce several moderately successful action movies. He shall drive a gold Lexus, California license plate 666 S8N. He shall be a white male of average height and weight with brown hair and blue eyes. He shall have a tattoo of barbed wire around his right bicep, which shall be trendy at the time. This shall all make sense in the year 1996, when he shall get started on the apocalypse."

[JoeEllison]

It is important to note that the mindset behind this sort of religious belief absolutely requires an "enemy". When that enemy doesn't exist, the believer will create one. We can see how America's government(just as an example) used the USSR as that enemy long past the point that the thread actually existed, and held on for several years after the "enemy" was in a position and inclined to "surrender", the need for an "enemy" was so great. Note that the American political climate turned tabloid-ugly towards Bill Clinton pretty much at the same moment that the USSR no longer posed a thread: the need for the "enemy" had to be expressed one way or another.

Throughout, those people have resisted any peace involving Israel, for the same reason. If you listen to these people, especially when they are speaking to "their people", they are absolutely for war and murder in the Middle East, because in their mind any peace treaty prevents the rise of war predicted by their idiotic reading of the Bible.

Do not mistake it: they are EAGER for World War III, because they believe that it will drag Jesus out of heaven and force the so-called End Times.

[Marquis de Carabas]

Why is the Bible so intentionally vague on the whole Antichrist/apocalypse issue?
First Law of Prophecy: Accuracy is negatively correlated with clarity.

[Complexity]

Don't believe everything you read.