For the past 1,600 years, every Pope has been considered the "Antichrist." Every king in Christianized countries has been considered the "Antichrist." Every USA President has been considered "The Antichrist," as well as NATO, the World Health Organization, The United Nations, and a host of other world-wide organizations. There are two basic reasons for this:
1. The belief in "The Antichrist" is a political weapon wielded by the priesthood elite against "leaders" who do not bend their wills in line with the wishes of the priests. It is used in the Christianized world to attack and vilify the so-called "rulers" of the citizenry. The more unpopular the "ruler," the more the priests tell their ignorant followers that the "ruler" is "The Antichrist." Of course religious "rulers" who use this weapon need not believe in "The Antichrist" for this plot to work. (Cases in point is Rev. Marion "Pat" Robertson (of "700 Cult" fame) and Rev. James Dobson, among others.) Power is gained by the elite priests by making their followers believe in a threat, that only the elite priests can defend their followers against.
2. The Jesusphiles who believe that Revelation is a "prophesy" (which it isn't) dearly want the "Antichrist" to show up! They have been waiting for sixteen centuries, and they are getting damned tired of waiting. Every generation, for hundreds of generations, have believed that they were living in "the last days," with "The Antichrist" just outside their doors. The fact that this "Antichrist" has not put in an appearance, and seems to be in no hurry to do so, frosts the Jesusphile's balls no end: it makes them look like the ignorant, gullible savages they are.
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angles who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses the bondservant of god and the song of the Lamb. . .[Rev. 15:1-3] |
The fact is, the author of Revelation was making a written attack on the Roman Empire, not some "prophesy." (Ignored in this page is the fact that the author of Revelation meant "6+6+6" i.e. "18" and not six hundred sixty-six.)