Recently, not only people associated with religion, but also ordinary people began to pay attention to the Antichrist. His personality has become popular through literature, cinema, print publications and other media. Some present him as something terrible, some, on the contrary, try to idealize the image of the biblical opponent of Christ. In any case, there is a lot of information about him, but few can say with complete certainty who he is. Let's see, after all, who is the Antichrist and what is his role in the life of mankind.
General information
Antichrist is usually called a being that is opposite to the Messiah. By his name it is customary to mean opponents of the doctrine and the Christian Church as a whole. The very first mentions of it can be found in the Epistle of the Apostle John, from where, in fact, they took it in order to eventually make it a canonical definition. Referring to the information provided by John, the Antichrist can be characterized as a liar who denies the identity of Jesus and the existence of God, and also denies the possibility of the appearance of the son of God on Earth in the flesh.
That is, Christ and Antichrist are two opposing forces representing Heaven and Hell. Analyzing the words of John, we can safely say that he had in mind a specific person, although he predicted the appearance of many Antichrists. Nevertheless, based on his words, one should expect one person, the most dangerous for the Church, who will have many followers. As for the time when the coming of the Antichrist will take place, the apostle indicates that he will appear in the "last time", in other words, approximately before the existing world will stand before the judgment of God. But according to the Orthodox theologian Belyaev, the Antichrist is a man who brings sin and death to people, who will appear and reign before the second coming of Christ. He states this in one of his eschatological works.
Based on this, it can be noted that all the antichrists who appeared earlier in the person of apostates, schismatics and heretics are just the forerunners of the true Antichrist. For the true adversary of Christ must have a power commensurate with the power of Jesus in order to enter into equal rivalry with him at the second coming. And even his very name testifies to this, which can be deciphered as "opposing Christ" and the Church as a whole.
Antichrist and the number of the beast as a religious term
Antichrist can be regarded not as a person, but as a term in religion, reflecting the attitude of the parishioners of the Christian church to a heretic and apostate, a person who went against the faith. Like Jesus the Antichristwill have its own name. The Church believes that the name of the true Antichrist lies in such a concept as the number of the beast, the apocalyptic 666.
Many spiritual leaders and other ministers of the Church attempted to decipher this number, but, unfortunately, they all had to admit the futility of this action. Apparently, the personal name of the opponent of Christ will be revealed only after his appearance.
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Antichrist is the head of all the enemies of Christ, as stated in the Encyclopædia Britannica, which emphasizes his leadership over the opponents of the Church. It is believed that he will be the ruler of the last kingdom on Earth.
It is taken into account that Jesus was symbolically a king, but not crowned. And his enemy will control the entire universe. And the coming of the Antichrist can only be if there is Christ, that is, the balance of the forces of Heaven and Hell is important here.
Opinion of the elders of Optina Pustyn
The elders believed that the Antichrist was a person who would be the complete opposite of Christ. His main difference from other opponents of the Church lies in his eschatological character, that is, he is more terrible than his predecessors, and after him there will no longer be opponents of the clergy. And given that the world has become so evil that it will soon die, the Antichrist will represent all the world's evil rolled into one. According to Belyaev, the Antichrist will personify all the evil of people at the peak of its development, and that is why it will disappear. After all, having reached the maximum development,the evil society will be reset to zero, the evil in it will simply exhaust itself.
Christian eschatology
Considering the spiritual doctrine of the end of the world, it is worth noting that the main purpose of the coming of the Antichrist is to seduce the Church. That is, this person will manipulate the faith of Christians, turning everything around for his own benefit, namely, to take the place of Christ in the soul of believers. He will mislead the believers, convincing them that he is the messenger of God. After that, he will pervert faith, forcing people to believe in themselves. He needs complete trust, worship and obedience, and anyone who obeys him will bear the seal of the Antichrist.
This is precisely the temptation that will be the last test of the Church, a test of strength. And due to the fact that the Church will resist him, the Antichrist will direct all his anger and rage towards her in order to become the most cruel and last persecutor of believers. It is believed that during these repressions, unprecedented cataclysms will begin, including drought and famine. Because of this, a large number of people will die, and those who are saved will not be happy about this, as the teaching says - they will envy the dead. The question of whether the Antichrist created these disasters or whether he is also their victim remains unknown, since there is no data in the teaching on this matter. It is worth noting that due to the fact that the rulers have a negative attitude towards chaos in their possessions, Daniil Andreev shifted the time of cataclysms forward, when the Antichrist had already ceased to reign.
Appearance of the Antichrist
BChristian literature has a description of the appearance of the future rival of Christ. The most basic and distinguishable feature is the ugliness of this person. In the view of medieval artists, he will appear in the guise of an apocalyptic beast that will emerge from the abyss. He has four legs, huge protruding fangs and many horns. That is, the Antichrist is an animal-like monster with flames from his ears and nostrils, as well as with a stench, according to Archpriest Avvakum. Daniel also describes this person in a not-so-pleasant way.
According to his apocrypha, the appearance of the Antichrist is approximately as follows: the height is ten cubits, hair is leg-length, he has three heads, big legs, luminous eyes, like a morning star. In addition, he has steel cheeks and iron teeth, his left hand is made of copper, and his right hand is made of iron, and the size of the hands is three cubits. Of course, over time, they stopped drawing him so monstrous, but made him more human. But still, one important property of him remained - he was always portrayed as repulsive.
Church teaching
If we consider information from church teaching, then the Antichrist is a false messiah, a false Savior, in other words, he is a usurper posing as the real Christ. According to the clergy, he will pretend to be the Savior, using information about the second coming, he will lead believers to the Kingdom of God, deceiving them and directing them in the opposite direction. The same things will be promised to people, but the very concepts of bliss and well-being will be artfully distorted. Eschatologysuggests that when the Kingdom of the Antichrist appears, there will be an abundance of material goods. The very essence of his deception is not that he will not be able to fulfill the promise, but that it will not last forever.
That is, all we alth and joy will grow into devastation and poverty. As soon as he comes to power, everyone will really believe that they are in the Kingdom of God. The only way to save yourself from falling with him is to recognize him as an enemy. Religion itself arose on the basis of faith in miracles, in Christ, and therefore the Antichrist will also work miracles in order to prove to everyone that he is the son of God. But it should be borne in mind that all miracles will be imaginary and false, because they are in the devil's nature. According to John the Theologian, the Beast will take away many peoples, tempt entire nations. Ephraim the Syrian also prophesies that many will believe in the chosenness of the Antichrist.
Antichrist and Russia
According to Seraphim of Sarov and Lavrenty of Chernigov, all countries except Russia will bow before the Antichrist. It is believed that only the Slavic peoples will be able to survive, and it is they who will give the most powerful rebuff to the Beast. It is he who will declare the Orthodox country an enemy of the world, since only in it there will still be true believers, while in other countries religion will fall into desolation. But in Western religions, the picture is completely different, for them it is the Slavic peoples who will become the first admirers of the Antichrist.
Church
It is also interesting that the Gospel of Matthew states: when the Beast comes to earth, there will be lawlessness and apostasy in the Church itself, andspiritual servants will submit to the slavery of material we alth. Given what is happening in the last times, and how many members of the Church are falling away from their faith, there is reason to believe that this is the real prelude to the coming of the Antichrist. But it is impossible to say this, since there were many foreshadowings of his appearance in history, but all the prophecies about the Antichrist did not come true completely.
