According to Weber, charismatic authority flourishes in times of “psychic, physical, ethical, religious, political distress” ([
5], p. 18). The period preceding the end of the world, as typically imagined by medieval and modern Christian apocalyptic thinkers, will unmistakably meet such conditions of crisis and upheaval. Antichrist’s individual (anti)charisma depends upon, harnesses, and enhances this disruption. As developed over time, the projected life of Antichrist functions like photo-negative of Christ’s story in the Gospels, including his charismatic preaching, miracles, and overall ministry. As the ultimate false prophet in a time of political, economic, and natural disorder, Antichrist encapsulates the very same qualities and characteristics of prophetic-messianic charisma as envisioned by Weber in a state of reverse polarity—oriented toward damnation rather than redemption.
2.1. Antichrist’s Medieval Life
Vague as it is, the biblical scenario for an individual Antichrist promises the coming of the Son of Perdition, who will profane the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem, perform miracles, and deceive many into recognizing him as the messiah. Early Christian theologians did not offer much in the way of personal details about the life of Antichrist, but they did expand upon his apocalyptic role. According to Irenaeus (c. 140–202) in book five of his
Against Heresies and Hippolytus (c. 170–235) in his tract
On Christ and Antichrist, Antichrist will be a Jew born from the tribe of Dan, who will defeat the ten petty kings of the world and unite unbelievers everywhere under his reign before persecuting the elect who refuse to acknowledge his rule ([
16], pp. 121–28; [
17]). In these early Christian scenarios, Antichrist will reign for three-and-a-half years—a figure based on the forty-two months referenced in Revelation (Rev. 11:3)—before the Second Coming of Christ, who will cast him down before the defeat of Satan and Final Judgment. According to some early Christian and medieval thinkers, God will allow a period of “rest” for those who lapsed during the trials of Antichrist to do penance, a space of time that offers a corollary of sorts to the notion of the millennium as an age of peace and justice on earth before coming of God’s kingdom [
18]. In such works, however, details about the life of Antichrist are scant. For the most part, exegetes tried to demonstrate the scriptural basis for the very notion of Antichrist and the overall Christian apocalyptic scenario, rather than dwelling upon the narrative elements of what Antichrist’s life would look like [
19].
This lack of descriptive embellishment changed in the Middle Ages. In the tenth century, the popular work
On the Birth and Time of Antichrist by the French abbot Adso of Montier-ed-Der (d. 992) offered a highly influential “biography” of Antichrist, drawing together various earlier traditions into concisely packaged exposé on the end-times ([
20], pp. 20–30; partial translation in [
21], pp. 82–87). Adso’s work formed something like a standard view of Antichrist over the following centuries, modified and incorporated into various textual settings including prophecies and biblical exegesis. Adso structured his vision of the Son of Perdition around the basic notion that Antichrist “will be contrary to Christ in all things, and do contrary things to Christ” ([
20], p. 22; [
21], p. 84). Antichrist will be a Jew from the tribe of Dan, born from the sexual union of a man and women, not from a virgin birth as some claimed. He will, however, be conceived in sin, with the spirit of the Devil filling the woman’s womb just like the Holy Spirit filled Mary. Born in Babylon, raised in Bethsaida and Corozaim, Antichrist will be raised “in every iniquity” by “magicians, sorcerers, soothsayers, and wizards,” who will train him in black arts. Eventually, he will come to Jerusalem, persecuting those Christians that he cannot convert to his cause, and install himself in the rebuilt Temple of Solomon ([
20], pp. 24).
Displaying miracles, a key characteristic of Weber’s prophetic form of charisma, will represent a crucial component in Antichrist’s rise to power. According to Adso, Antichrist will produce “great and unheard of miracles,” calling fire from heaven, making trees to flower suddenly and wither, disturbing and calming the seas, changing the winds, and raising the dead. He will even pretend to die and after three days come back to life like Jesus. He will thereby try to “lead the elect into error.” “For when they see so many and such great signs, those who are perfect and the elect of God, they will doubt whether or not he is Christ, who will come at the end of the world, according to Scripture” ([
20], pp. 24–25). For three-and-a-half years, Antichrist will reign over the elect with terror, gifts, and miracles, seeking to frighten them, bribe them, or seduce them into submission. At the beginning of his open persecution of the election, he will kill the two prophets, Enoch and Elijah, who will be sent back by the Lord to comfort the faithful. The Jews, Adso also notes, will flock to him and recognize him as the messiah. Finally, Antichrist will prepare for his own ascension on Mount Olives; before this can happen, however, Jesus Christ will return to triumph over him. Either Christ or the archangel Michael will slay Antichrist, ending his reign ([
20], pp. 27–29).
As pointed out by Richard K. Emmerson, Adso’s
vita of Antichrist effectively forms a work of “anti-hagiography,” that is, an inverted saint’s life, wherein good becomes evil, miracles become sorcery, and the Holy Spirit becomes the Spirit of Lies [
22]. Just as saint’s lives drew upon Christ as their model and inspiration, the
vita of Antichrist closely parallels the life of Christ as revealed in the Gospels. Yet, as Emmerson points out,
“Antichrist imitates only the outward forms of Christ’s life. His is essentially the opposite of Christ, a parodic imitation of the Savior in order to more effectively deceive the world. Although apparently like Christ, Antichrist is actually ‘contrary’ to Christ, ‘id est Christo contrarius.’ Nevertheless, Antichrist’s false imitatio Christi in order the better to deceive the faithful in the last days underlies many of his actions, from birth to death. In other words, the events in the life of Antichrist parallel those of Christ.
Emmerson’s point is well taken. Antichrist is not the true messiah. The “outward” parody of Christ’s life by Antichrist, however, is not just skin-deep. As imagined in this corollary status to Christ, Antichrist embodies an (anti)charismatic authority equally as persuasive as Christ’s, filled with (evil) spiritual inspiration and miraculous—albeit deceptive—powers.
2.2. Antichrist’s Modern Life
Passing over later medieval and early modern depictions of Antichrist, one can chart out some basic biographical characteristics of Antichrist in the popular American imagination, above all associated with forms of “pre-millennial dispensationalism,” that is, predominantly evangelical Protestant beliefs involving the Rapture (when the elect will be taken up into the skies), a seven-year Great Tribulation (including the reign of Antichrist), and the coming of Christ and battle of Armageddon followed by a thousand-year kingdom of peace and justice on earth before Final Judgment. Although the details vary, the life of Antichrist will be characterized by his rapid rise to power, his creation of false world peace, and his unleashing of horrible persecution against those who reject his authority.
In his best-selling book
The Late Great Planet Earth, first published in 1970, Hal Lindsay (1929– ) offers what has become a more or less typical contemporary American description of Antichrist ([
23], pp. 98–113). He skips over the early life of Antichrist (the details of which are captured for many modern observers in the 1976 movie,
The Omen), presenting the Son of Perdition or “the Great Dictator” as a political figure of astonishing acumen. He will be European, emerging from the “restored” Roman Empire with “an air about him that is self-assured and proud” ([
23], p. 106). Miracles, again, will play a key component in the narrative of his meteoric rise to (anti)charismatic authority, seducing the faithful along the way. As Lindsay warns his readers:
“Satan himself is going to give him fantastic power. This is one reason that Christians should not get too excited when they see a miracle. It may not be a miracle of God. Satan is a miracle-worker and he has been able to work miracles from the beginning…Satan is going to send this man, his masterpiece, with all sorts of signs and wonders and miracles”.
Recovery from what seems to be a fatal wound (a reference to Rev. 13:3) will be one miraculous sign of Antichrist’s identity and a parody of Christ’s resurrection. For Lindsay, the Antichrist will hold sway as a demagogue, through the force of his personal, charismatic qualities: “He will have a magnetic personality, be personally attractive, and a powerful speaker. He will be able to mesmerize his audience with his oratory” ([
23], p. 108).
Lindsay in fact cautions against associating any given political figure with Antichrist ([
23], p. 113). Nevertheless, in sermons, popular media, and on the Internet the temptation to do so seems far too great to resist, above all during the recent years of the Obama administration. This overall vision of Antichrist clearly informs the 2008 email-chain suggesting that Barack Obama might be Antichrist: a man in his 40s (presumably hale and handsome, in the prime of his life), who will trick people with “persuasive language” and possess “massive” Christ-like appeal. In recent years, Lindsay’s prediction that Antichrist will be European has clearly given way to the far more immediate anxiety that Antichrist will be an American political leader, although, in Obama’s case, one could argue that he is a foreigner rather than a “real” American. Although not always explicit in the discussions of Obama as Antichrist, the claim of the so-called “birthers” that Obama’s Hawaiian birth-certificate is a fake and that he was actually born in Kenya complements this scenario nicely [
24]. The belief that Obama is a Muslim, and that Antichrist will be a Muslim, makes Obama’s ambiguous status as an (false) insider and (deceptive) outsider apocalyptically unmistakable. As an end-times figure, Obama is anti-American, anti-Christian, and (anti)charismatic all rolled into one.
2.3. The Political Landscape of the Apocalypse
The Antichrist tradition places a particular emphasis on the political circumstances that will accompany the reign of Antichrist. Specifically, drawing upon the Book of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the alloyed statue (Dan. 2), the apocalyptic scenario for the reign of Antichrist involves a progressive theology of history based on “world empires.” The statute possesses a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron mixed with clay, representing a succession of deteriorating imperial powers. Christians also mapped the four world empires onto Daniel’s vision of the four beasts (Dan. 7), including the fourth beast with ten horns, and a little horn (
i.e., Antichrist) emerging from the others. These beasts, in turn, formed a source of textual inspiration for similar beasts featured in the Book of Revelation, including the huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns (Rev. 12:3) and the beast from the sea (Rev. 13:1–3) with seven heads and ten horns. In the third century, Hippolytus described the situation in this way, declaring that “in distinguishing the kingdoms that are to rise after these things,” Daniel’s visions “showed also the coming of Antichrist in the last times, and the consummation of the whole world” ([
17], p. 13). Hippolytus and other early Christians fixed this progression of empires on the Babylonians, the Persians, the Hellenistic Greeks, and finally the Romans. The feet mixed of iron and clay, along with the ten horns, represent the end-times fragmentation of Roman power into various kingdoms that will set the stage for Antichrist’s rise to power ([
17], pp. 13–18).
The emphasis on Roman power as the final world empire also connects with Second Thessalonians’ description of a “restraining force” that will lapse just before the coming of Antichrist. By this logic, as long as the Roman Empire stands, the end will not—cannot—arrive. For the earliest Christians, periodically persecuted by Roman authorities from the first to the early fourth century, the status of Rome as the restraining force complemented the idea of the Roman as the “New Babylon,” the “Whore” seated on the beast in Revelation 17. With the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity starting the fourth century, Christian apocalyptic attitudes toward the empire naturally became more ambivalent, but the idea of Rome as the restraining force endured. For thinkers like Saint Jerome and Augustine, both of them rather cool toward fervid apocalyptic speculation, the apparent collapse of Roman imperial power in Western Europe during the fourth and fifth centuries required them to generally downplay the idea that Rome’s current political problems represented a clear and present sign of the end. For medieval thinkers, starting with Adso, the renewal of the imperial title under Charlemagne (r. 774–814) and the Carolingian dynasty, followed later by the Ottonians, Salians, and Hohenstaufens provided a neat solution to this problem. The Roman Empire had not fallen, but had rather been “transferred” to new bearers, leaving the restraining force in place [
25].
Apparently, the Roman Empire has still not fallen. In modern apocalyptic scenarios, the tribulations of the end have widened to encompass all sorts of social ills and environmental disasters that medieval theologians could have scarcely imagined, including AIDS and global warming, not to mention traditional biblical trials such as earthquakes, famine, and war. The idea that the Roman Empire must endure until the closing chapters of history, however, has proven remarkably durable. In
The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsay recycles the basic exegesis of Daniel (including the statue in Book 2 and four beasts in Book 7) to posit the progression of world empires leading up until his own day, when NATO, the European Common Market (formed from 10 nations, matching the “ten horns” or kingdoms featured in Daniel), the World Bank, and other institutions provided evidence of a reborn or reconstituted “Roman Empire” in Europe ([
23], pp. 88–97). As Lindsay describes the situation, the “time is ripe and getting riper for the Great Dictator, the one who is predicted in the scriptures very clearly and called the ‘Antichrist’” ([
23], p. 103). In more recent evangelical apocalyptic literature, such as the South Carolina-based periodical
Midnight Call, the European Union and creation of the euro serve to further confirm the emergence of the correction political circumstances for the rise of Antichrist’s (anti)charismatic authority [
26].
In recent narratives of Obama’s rapid rise to power, there are plenty of apocalyptic traumas to set the stage for his apparently messianic but deceptive leadership, including war, natural disasters, and the financial meltdown that started in late 2007. Fears that the United Nations might be plotting to invade the United States and deprive the country of its sovereignty, although not unique to the period of Obama’s presidency, seem to overlap with apocalyptic anxieties that new forms of world government are setting the stage for Antichrist’s reign. In any event, the promise of apocalyptic trauma continues to play a critical role in predictions about Antichrist’s Svengali-like abilities to deceive the masses and lead them into error by dint of his magnetic personality and (anti)charismatic qualities. Trauma sets the stage for the misleading parody of Christ’s prophetic role as a charismatic figure of redemption.
2.4. Antichrist and Judaism
From its earliest stages, Christian apocalyptic thinkers have assigned a prominent place to “the Jews” in their projected narratives for the end times, based in part upon the implication in Paul’s letter to the Romans (Rom. 9:27; 11:25–26) that a “remnant” of the Jews will convert after the remaining Gentiles have embraced Christianity. Eschatological Jewish conversion to Christianity quickly became a staple of such Christian apocalyptic scenarios. As seen above, however, Jews hold a particularly uncomfortable place in the medieval end-times imagination. As noted by Adso among others, Antichrist will be a Jew; Jews will flock to him and serve him. This fraught position persists in modern dispensationalist scenarios, which argue that a Jewish presence is required in the Holy Land as a precondition for the apocalypse. In this reading of events, the foundation of the modern state of Israel formed an event of biblical proportions, as did the expansion of Israeli territorial control during the Six-Day War, including the capture of Jerusalem. An attack on Israel will help to usher in the final tribulations; Antichrist will establish himself in Jerusalem, profaning the rebuilt Temple; and the final battle between Christ and Antichrist will happen at nearby Armageddon. Around this time, the remnant of Jews—perhaps implying that many if not most of them will be destroyed as servants of Antichrist—will convert to Christianity [
27]. One scene in the 2012 video “The Antichrist is Barack Obama” that features Obama (on his visit to Israel during his 2008 campaign) at the “Wailing Wall” seems particularly suggestive of the enduring notion that Antichrist will establish his rule in Jerusalem, rebuilding the Temple of Solomon ([
4], min. 7:28).
As pointed out by Paul Boyer, evangelical apocalyptic thought about Jews should not just be seen as a “mask for anti-Semitism” ([
27], p. 322). In Protestant dispensationalist schemes, one finds something close to a new philo-Judaism among Christians toward the Jews as God’s original Chosen People, creating (among other consequences) a strong source of political support for Israel in American evangelical circles. Boyer asserts that such “positive pronouncements” about Jews “mark a major discontinuity between medieval and Reformation-era prophetic interpretations and those of the modern era” ([
27], p. 323). To some extent Boyer is correct, although such apocalyptic philo-Judaism in fact predates modernity. As pointed about by Robert Lerner [
28], Anna Sapir Abulafia [
29], E. Randolph Daniel [
30] and others [
31], certain medieval Christians starting with highly influential twelfth-century apocalyptic thinker Joachim of Fiore (1132–1202) placed a remarkable emphasis on the irenic conversion of the Jews at the end of time, suggesting that they would resume their place as God’s Chosen People, perhaps even retaining some element of the distinct identity as Jews in the millennial kingdom ([
32], pp. 100–24). Joachim became one of the first—if not the first—Christian thinkers to break with the long-standing tradition that Antichrist would be a Jew and declared that the Son of Perdition would in fact be born a Christian ([
33], pp. 566–70). In this regard, Christian apocalyptic scenarios have long been characterized by ambivalence toward Judaism that remains until the present.
2.5. Antichrist and Islam
Christian apocalyptic attitudes toward Islam show far less uncertainty or conflicted- feelings. As described above, Obama’s supposed status as a “crypto-Muslim” indicates possible links between his apocalyptic role and the Islamic religious tradition. Such connections between Islam and Christian eschatological scenarios are hardly new. The Middle Ages saw critical developments in the apocalyptic significance attributed to Muslims, including links between Antichrist and Muhammad, commonly presented in medieval Latin sources presented as a “false prophet” who produced Islam by perverting Christian truth through his heretical teachings.
Early medieval Christian thinkers did not tie Islam into the apocalyptic imagination as readily or quickly as one might imagine [
15]. The so-called
Pseudo-Methodius, a product of Syrian Christian circles dating from the later seventh but attributed to the fourth century “prophesied” the Islamic conquests of the Middle East and northern Africa, predicting that the devastation wrought by these “sons of Ishmael” prefigured the end-times ([
34]; partial translation in [
21], pp. 70–76). In various forms and Latin translations, this text became extremely popular in medieval Europe. Adso, however, who was probably familiar with some version of the Pseudo-Methodian tradition, made no references to Islam in his tract on Antichrist. In fact, Christians’ apocalyptic associations of Islam with end-times tribulations did not really emerge until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a development no doubt spurred by the crusades. Particular interest in Muhammad as a sort of debased prophet and Christian heretic surged during this period, as seen for example in Guibert of Nogent’s chronicle of the First Crusade, which includes a detailed account of Muhammad’s origins as a sensual deceiver. One finds similar presentations of Muhammad embedded in Matthew Paris’s thirteenth century world chronicle, which presents Muhammad as a libidinous charlatan [
35].
For the most part, however, the apocalyptic role assigned to Islam remained one of external enemy, an apocalyptic agent that would openly attack Christendom rather than try to convert or seduce it. In the works of Abbot Joachim of Fiore, Muhammad figures as one of many Antichrists in a long-tradition of persecution. This view of Antichrist can be seen at a glance in the so-called
Book of Figures, attributed to the abbot or one his immediate devotees, featuring among other images a representation of the seven-headed dragon from the Book of Revelation ([
36], table 10). The seven heads are commonly presented as Herod, Nero, Constans, Muhammad, Mesomethus (another Muslim ruler, probably in Spain), and Saladin, the Muslim leader who recaptured Jerusalem from crusader-Christian hands in 1187 (an event that happened in Joachim’s own lifetime). The prominence attributed to Muslim figures in this scenario is remarkable. Nevertheless, for the most part, Joachim and his many admirers did not attribute subversive role to Islam as the source of
the final Antichrist, who would—as noted above—be a Christian.
Generally speaking, in contemporary American apocalyptic thought Islam continues to offer an external threat to Christianity/Western Civilization. Its significance in this regard has increased in recent decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which—in
The Late Great Planet Earth, for example—typically played the central role in triggering the end-times political conflagration ([
23], pp. 59–71). The events of 9/11 and increased visibility of al-Queda (which offers its own apocalyptic scenarios involving the defeat of the United States as a force of evil in the world) have further contributed to the notion that Muslim powers such as Iran might play a key role in the end of things by attacking Israel ([
27], pp. 326–35). Joachim of Fiore, it is worth noting, did allow for a subversive connection between Muslims outside of Christendom and heretics within it, an unholy alliance for the destruction of the faithful. In this regard, Obama’s suggested status as a secret Muslim and Antichrist is not without precedent. Nevertheless, in terms of an (anti)charismatic role for Antichrist, Islam largely remains a direct threat rather than a source of prophetic inspiration that might lead the faithful astray.