People worshiping (Photo: PxHere)
Talk of the Antichrist has surged in President Donald Trump's first year in office, and the discussion has broken out beyond the traditional right-wing circles.
Christian Paz, writing for Vox, reported Tuesday that talk of the Antichrist has become a larger conversation among more mainstream political circles than the typical evangelical prophecies.
The end-times conversation connects a renewed apocalyptic panic to those desperately searching for ways to grapple with a more complicated "crisis-driven" world by ascribing the "Antichrist" thinking to any figure who could match charismatic leaders in technology, war or politics.
The idea that Trump could fit that description has been proposed by far-right influencers like former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and anti-Semitic commentator Nick Fuentes. Even Tucker Carlson asked the question. It came as Trump posted an AI photo of himself depicted as Jesus Christ. He later claimed that he thought it was a "doctor."
“But he’s radiating the spirit of Antichrist, no question," conservative Rod Dreher told the Wall Street Journal.
In March, CNN reported that billionaire Peter Thiel has been hosting secret lectures about the Antichrist in an undisclosed location in Rome.
"But the appearance of Thiel on the Vatican’s doorstep has raised eyebrows, given the tensions between Thiel’s thinking and that of Pope Leo XIV," the report said. "Two Catholic institutions have distanced themselves from the lecture series, which continues through Wednesday."
On Monday, the pope published his first encyclical, warning that artificial intelligence is causing problems for humanity, particularly when it comes to its use in war.
Meanwhile, "Thiel has previously written and lectured on the subject, arguing that the Antichrist is not necessarily a person but could come as a global government system. It would take control, he has argued, by exploiting people’s fears around artificial intelligence, climate change or nuclear war."
Paz, writing for Vox, explained that the colorful imagery and ambiguity in the Bible talking about the Antichrist can attract people trying to solve a kind of prepper puzzle.
“They read the Bible like it’s a secret code book, and that if they can unlock the code, then they can understand what’s going to happen in the end times,” historian Matthew A. Sutton told Vox. Sutton focuses on American apocalypticism at Washington State University. “It’s a very modern way to read the Bible compared to what you would’ve seen through much of church history.”
When he says "modern," he means the last 100 years. But as the world grapples with climate change, another war in the Middle East, the possibility of a pending economic catastrophe and leaders like Trump, talk of the Antichrist and the end times are being used to explain what people see as troubled times.
“Dressing political theory in apocalyptic robes carries risks," Sutton told Vox, though it's hardly a new idea. But it can become dangerous. "When powerful actors reframe ordinary policy debates, such as about guardrails for AI, as a battle against the antichrist, they raise anxieties, delegitimize compromise, and insinuate that democratic deliberation is spiritually suspect.”
But the panic about Trump has turned the world upside down over the course of his second term. So, while the right is spinning conspiracy theories about his being the Antichrist, he also fits the mold, the report said.
"He is surely a charismatic leader; he’s launched civilizational wars in the Middle East; he’s survived assassination attempts, mimicking the fatal, but healed, wound of the beast of Revelations; and he’s blasphemed and used the trappings of religion to advance his personal brand," said Paz for Vox.
Religious Studies Professor Robert Fuller called talk of the end times a "crisis mentality" and perpetuates hate.
"It makes compromise unthinkable since no one compromises with the devil. It justifies hatred and violence, recasting these traits as virtues," he said.