Antichrist characters have been the continuing subject of speculation and attraction, often explored in fiction and media, and the character has developed its own fictional mythology apart from biblical scripture. For example, the
Book of Revelation does not say the Antichrist will be the son of Satan (it does not even mention him), but the idea was made popular in at least two movies, The Omen, and its sequels, with the evil child, Damien, who grows up with the destiny to rule and destroy the world, and Rosemary's Baby with her son, Adrian.
In fact, the five uses of the term "antichrist" or "antichrists" in the
Johannine epistles do not clearly present a single latter-day individual Antichrist. The articles "the deceiver" or "the antichrist" are usually seen as marking out a certain category of persons, rather than an individual.[1]
Little children, it is the last hour: and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour.
Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!
Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
— 1 John 2:22 NRSV (1989)
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.
— 1 John 4:2–3 NRSV (1989)
Consequently, attention for an individual Antichrist figure focuses on the second chapter of
2 Thessalonians.[2][3] However, the term "antichrist" is never used in this passage:
As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God.
— 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4 NRSV (1989)
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
— 2 Thessalonians 2:7–10 NRSV (1989)
Although the word "antichrist" (Greek antikhristos) is used only in the Epistles of John, the similar word "pseudochrist" (Greek pseudokhristos, meaning "false messiah") is used by Jesus in the
Gospels:[4]
For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
Jesse, a human/demon hybrid in the Supernatural episode
I Believe the Children Are Our Future, is confirmed as the Antichrist by the angel
Castiel. Unlike most personifications of the Antichrist, Jesse is neutrally aligned, able to be deterred from his "destined" path when
Sam Winchester tells him the whole truth about his origins and capabilities.
Brother Bartholomew from Salem Kirban's 1970 novel, 666.[8]
Damian from the Flash game series Quickdraw.
Damien Thorn from The Omen series. This movie was influential in that, in many of the "Anti-Christian" movies that followed, it was naturally assumed that the Antichrist would be
Satan's "begotten" son.
Angel Caine, played by Simon Ward, in the film Holocaust 2000 (aka The Chosen).
The animal Antichrist in the South Park episode "
Woodland Critter Christmas", though at the end of this episode it is revealed that he was only part of a story made up by
Cartman
The 'Damien' Antichrist from the South Park episode "
Damien"
Adolf Hitler, in
Robert Van Kampen's novel The Fourth Reich. Hitler's spirit is released from Hell and enters an embryo created from his cloned DNA. He is then born in Russia and grows up to become that country's dictator, eventually revealing his true identity to the world before the
UN General Assembly. Van Kampen also stated that Hitler "best meets all requirements to be the Antichrist" in his former book, The Sign.[9]
Quinn Dexter from
Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy. He is an avowed Satanist who tries to bring God's Brother (Satan) into the world to destroy all life in the universe.
The demon Agares, from The Day After Judgement by
James Blish
The United States President in
Pat Robertson's book The End of the Age[11] Took power by following the suicide of one president and arranging the murder of his immediate predecessor as well as the murder of the president's killer.
Iscarius Alchemy, a resurrected
Judas Iscariot in Matthew Dickens' Shekinah Chronicles series, published by Destiny Image.[12]
Azul Dante in the Prodigal Project book series written by Ken Abrham and Daniel Hart.[13]
Mason Wolfe in the novel The Last Fisherman by Randy England
In the Apocalypse Chronicles trilogy, Lucien St. Clair is raised from the dead and goes on to rule the world as the Antichrist under the name of Lucius Devoran, a name deliberately chosen for its Latin numerical value of 666.
Emmanuel Lewis is described as the Antichrist in the 1996
Bloodhound Gang song "
Fire Water Burn", and it is presumed he will keep the singer company in Hell, along with several dead celebrities.
Laura Goodman in the
Undead series by MaryJanice Davidson
In
Gore Vidal's 1954 dystopian novel Messiah a new death-worshipping religion sweeps the world, completely displacing and destroying Christianity. After their victory, the new religion's adherents declare their Prophet to have been the Antichrist, meaning that as praise.
The seventeenth-century painter
Christoph Haizmann is depicted as Antichrist in the 2003 horror mocumentary Searching for Haizmann by Scott Gordon & Ron Meyer[17]
Anung Un Rama, also known as
Hellboy, is a popular comic book and motion picture protagonist who is also the son of the Devil. Despite being destined as an Antichrist figure, being given an oversized right hand of stone which is to act as the key to unleash great evil upon the world, Hellboy has foresworn this burden and instead fights to protect the world from evil and darkness.
Guy Fieri in Homestuck. In the alternate-reality Earth seen in the comic's sixth act, Fieri becomes known as the "third and final antichrist" after he joins the
Supreme Court of the United States and assists the
Insane Clown Posse, the Dual Presidents of the United States, in exterminating humanity for the alien Condesce.
Sabrina Spellman in the Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is the daughter of Lucifer and is prophesied to bring about the apocalypse by performing satanic perversions of the miracles Jesus performed
Lucas from Little Evil who is the son of Samantha and step-son of Gary Bloom who is born on 6 June, a Satanist group plans to sacrifice him on his 6th birthday to open the
gates of hell so the devil can possess him to commence the end of the world.
Judas Iscariot (The Man from Kerioth) in The Angelic Human series by JD McCroskey.
Bishop Uriah Leonard/Pope Sixtus VI in The Seven Last Years (1978) by Carol Balizet [18]
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (resurrected by Satan) in Titan, Son of Saturn (1905) by Joseph Birbeck Burroughs [19]
Jacque Catroux in Beast (1985) by Dan Betzer - [20]
Chrissy from Little Demon
References
^Yarbrough, Robert (2008). 1-3 John. Ada, Michigan:
Baker Academic. p. 344.
ISBN9780801026874. The articles in front of "deceiver" (ὁ πλάνος, ho planos) and "antichrist" (ὁ ἀντίχριστος, ho antikhristos) should be seen as marking out a certain category of persons (Wallace 1996: 227–30). This is a common Johannine usage (1 John 2:23)
^Weima, Jeffrey Alan David;
Porter, Stanley E. (1998). Annotated Bibliography of 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Leiden, Netherlands:
Brill Publishers. p. 263. (2) Does the New Testament support the notion of an individual Antichrist in whom all the anti-Christian strife of all ages will be concentrated? 2 Thess 2 answers the second question in the affirmative: an individual Antichrist will bring evil to its ...
^Mauser, Ulrich (1992). The Gospel of Peace: A Scriptural Message for Today's World. p. 70. From Josephus's writings we collect, first of all, without much critical comment, some statements showing the close affinity of the … nowhere in his extensive accounts of the Jewish–Roman war uses the word "pseudo-Christ" (pseudochristos).