Some Candidates for Antichrist

OK, I have to confess that I am fascinated with the talks given by Scott Johnson at Sermon Audio and try to keep up with them. I'm also slightly embarrassed by this fascination because his stuff is definitely out there on the fringe (New Age, Antichrist, the Illuminati, witchcraft, satanism, UFOs and the like), and he doesn't always give convincing support for his claims --- he's pretty good with the evidence MOST of the time, however.

Maybe the topic he covers that I have the biggest problem with is the Masonic influence behind the founding of America and especially the Masonic allegiance of many American leaders. Some of the "evidence" for this is really questionable. Also the conspiracies he finds in the pharmaceutical business. So I listen to all those with a huge grain of salt, and get what I can out of them. Staying away from drugs as much as possible is a good idea whether there is conscious intention to kill us or get us possessed by demons or not, and it's interesting to know about the Masonic order even if some of the people involved in it aren't in on the conspiracy as he assumes they are, but don't have much sense of what it's really about themselves. I also have a problem with Johnson's mistakes that show his utter lack of familiarity with many of the personalities and movements he's discussing, mistakes like mispronouncing the name beyond recognition. His English grammar also leaves a lot to be desired.

BUT with those caveats, I do recommend his talks. He does do his homework and most of the time it's pretty solid, and if you believe as I do that we are in the very last of the last days, this is the kind of material it could be very useful to know, as he presents the possibility of some pretty spectacular signs and wonders to accompany the rule of the Antichrist that would certainly deceive many, including Christians, if we aren't forewarned. If only half of what he says bears out in reality, it's worth knowing about. If you don't think it's possible to be deceived in these last days you really don't have much of a sense what the devil is able to pull off when he has God's go-ahead.

I can't remember if I discovered him by searching for "Antichrist" at Sermon Audio (There's an ex-Catholic priest there, who has some great talks on the Antichrist system of the Catholic Church, Richard Bennett, well worth listening to), or by searching Google for comments on Oprah Winfrey's promotion of the New Age Course in Miracles which she started this year. Johnson has talks on both subjects and covers them well.

The reason I'm bringing up Scott Johnson's talks now is that yesterday a political blog I sometimes watch had a You Tube video of Louis Farrakhan calling Barack Obama the "messiah." Then this morning my brother called me to tell me he's decided Obama has to be the Antichrist. He hadn't seen the Farrakhan video, he just figured that with Obama's inexplicable charisma and popularity with so many otherwise intelligent people, despite his known history with Islam, the terrorist Ayers, his Kenyan cousin Odinga (the political leader who was behind the riots there a few months ago), the anti-American pastor Jeremiah Wright and so much more, he fits what we would expect of the Antichrist. Especially his ability to make his evil associations appear to be fabrications by his political opposition. A child shouldn't be deceived by what he gets away with but millions of adults are nevertheless deceived.

I could see his point but can't agree with him because there are too many other candidates for Antichrist to consider. I said I'd send him some other material to ponder, which I'm going to include here too.

Many of us know the Antichrist has to be just around the corner. The one thing that needs to happen before Jesus returns, according to Biblical prophecy, is that the Antichrist be revealed. Whether Christians will be raptured before this event is a theological point I don't yet have a solid position on.

I've got to say that Farrakhan does a good job of playing the role of the Antichrist's prophet when he calls Obama the messiah. Farrakhan has a bit of an identity crisis, however, having identified himself as Jesus and Elijah, both, at different times.

Then there's the fact that Oprah Winfrey has endorsed Obama, Oprah who is a little antichrist prophet herself, pushing her false version of Christianity and various forms of quasi-Eastern religions and New Age witchcraft such as A Course in Miracles.

So Obama has some good credentials for the job.

But so does the Pope, or many of the Popes. Many have noted that the papacy is an antichrist system, including many leaders of the Protestant Reformation. But then there was A.W. Pink, of the Reformed tradition himself, whose writings I usually love, denying that the Antichrist could be a Pope because the papacy is an institution and not an individual. I think he really missed the boat there. An individual Pope could well fit the Biblical requirement when the time comes.

The Pope's qualifications for Antichrist start first of all with his styling himself the Vicar (or Substitute) of Christ, which is as good as an official title for the Antichrist -- kind of like wearing a name tag saying "I am the Antichrist," except of course people are blinded to such obvious truths. And it has a nice little bit of numerological evidence to support it as well: The Latin title for Vicar of Christ is Vicarivs Filii Dei (Literally, Substitute for the Son of God) and when you count up the numerical values of the Roman Numerals embedded in the title they add up to a very neat 666. Try it. (That "u" is written "v" remember). All the numerological proofs for various other contenders don't come close to the elegance of this one.

Then I also found a medieval prophecy that concerns the whole line of the Popes to be quite fascinating, as it prophesies that the very last one is going to be the next one, the one after the current Pope Benedict XVI, who, if the prophecy is correct, will be known as Peter the Roman and will reign in a time of great persecution right before the return of "the formidable Judge." Of course in Catholic lore this Pope is to be a great hero.

So the last Pope is also a very likely candidate for Antichrist, better credentialed in many ways than Obama. However, one better credential Obama may have is that he well fits the Biblical prophecy that the Antichrist will be a "little horn" that arises through intrigue very rapidly to a position of influence.

At the very least, of course, all these contenders would be strong players in the Antichrist regime in one role or another.

But now consider yet another candidate. This is Scott Johnson's candidate. He's quite a contender, having already shown some "signs and wonders" for credentials, along with endorsement by the United Nations yet. Johnson has a multi-part series of talks on this guy:

Lord Maitreya, the Antichrist? (part 1 of 7 parts) (The description of this guy has something in common with Obama politically -- the feed-the-hungry socialist part anyway -- but when you get deeper into his characteristics you'll see how he's very different when it comes to supernatural powers).

Here's an earlier talk on the same subject: Mars, Lord Maitreya, the Ascended Masters & Strong Delusion This talk has a PDF file with it that covers a lot of the same material and includes pictures. You can save this PDF file to your computer.

And since Obama and Oprah have come up in this context, here are a couple of talks by Johnson related to them as well:

Oprah Winfrey boldly leading Humanity to the New Age Antichrist
(Scott Johnson doesn't believe Obama is the Antichrist but there's no doubt he is AN antichrist and Oprah is actively promoting him as well as a slew of New Age demonic doctrines this year, but Obama isn't the subject of this talk).

The Spell and Deception of Barack Obama (Johnson doesn't believe he's The Antichrist and I personally think he overestimates Obama's charisma, but then many do seem to swoon over him so he has some bona fide qualifications for the great deceiver.)