COULD DONALD TRUMP BE THE ANTICHRIST?

On Wednesday, November 9, 2016, a majority of Americans were stunned and shocked to learn that Donald Trump had won the presidency.  Although he managed to receive the required 270 electoral votes, Trump lost the popular vote by almost 2 million votes.  Trump formally announced that he was running for president in a speech delivered from Trump Tower in New York City in June 2015. Almost immediately, corporations and individuals that had partnerships with him – including Macy’s, NBC and Univision – begin to sever ties with Trump because of disparaging comments he made about Mexicans in the speech announcing his candidacy.

Trump ran what many consider as the most negative and vitriolic presidential campaign in modern history.  In spite of what the polls showed about Hillary Clinton with a double-digit lead with college educated women, the polls turned out to be wrong.  In fact, a majority of white women, educated or not, voted for Trump, but black women stood firm for Clinton. Based on how Trump denigrated women during his campaign, it was surprising to see them turned to supporting him.

Trump claimed to cherish women, but his words and actions never validated that claim.  During the GOP debate on August 6, 2016, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly called him out on his sexist behavior by asking him whether his descriptions of various women (“pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals”) suggested that he didn’t have the temperament to be president. All this escalated with Trump’s subsequent comment on CNN about Kelly: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes–blood coming out of her wherever.” As if the suggestion that her menstrual state was behind Kelly’s tough questioning wasn’t enough, Trump also retweeted a comment calling her a “bimbo” (later deleted) and called her a “lightweight.” In spite of Trump’s rhetoric, he won the presidency.

All of the National polls during the campaign showed Hillary Clinton leading; some polls had her leading by double-digits.  So what happened?  Why didn’t the final results confirm the polls?  The Clinton camp and others said that FBI Director James Comey’s second letter to Congress concerning additional emails found on Anthony Wiener’s laptop shifted the momentum from the Clinton camp to Trump where his supporters became re- energized with the news that Clinton could be criminally charged.  Even with the latest Comey letter, a rationale for Clinton’s loss is still almost impossible to explain unless there was some other kind of influence.  Could it be that Trump experienced a “demonic intervention” possibly exposing him as an Antichrist?

According to the Bible, the Antichrist will be a political leader, described in the Book of Revelation as “the Beast.” He will poison the minds of his followers with half-truths, false love, and, above all else, sheer charisma. Most importantly, he will gain much of his power and influence by being endorsed by the False Prophet, a mighty religious leader with nefarious goals.

There are two evil men involved in the end of the world and it is important to make the distinction between both individuals. The Antichrist will not be a religious leader, but an international political leader seeking to establish a new world government with the overwhelming support of a major religious leader, described in the Bible as the False Prophet. Under the guise of uniting all the people of the Earth under one global, nation and religion, the two figureheads will attempt to strip humanity of its identity, freedoms, and suspicion, ushering in an age of blind acceptance.

I don’t wish to imply that Trump is “the” antichrist because in the Christian tradition, there does not appear to be agreement that there is necessarily one antichrist who is the anti-type of the antichrists found in Scripture. However, looking at Scripture, Donald Trump seem to fit the description of an antichrist including the fact that Christians are supporting him.

What does the Bible say about Antichrists?  “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.  Therefore we know that it is the last hour.  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.  But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”  (1 John 2:18-19 ESV)

Does Trump reject Christ? It really doesn’t matter what Trump says about being a Christian as far as just saying, “Yes, I’m a Christian.”  If you read 1 John and 2 John then you’ll see that John is telling the church that the very people he is calling “antichrist” are claiming to be Christian but they are rejecting Christ.  Therefore, just saying, “I’m a Christian” doesn’t prevent one from being antichrist.

Trump has said that he does not ask God for forgiveness.  Instead he just tries to make things better.  This sounds great from a worldly perspective because it appears that he is saying that he goes out and tries to correct his errors.  The problem is that this approach seem to undermine the deity of Jesus as Christ.  That Jesus is Christ means that he is the anointed one of God, he is the messiah.  In the Old Testament that term simply meant anyone who was anointed by God for any of a number of purposes.  However, in the New Testament, we see that the term has a much more developed theological meaning.  For Trump to say, “I do not ask God for forgiveness” seem to mean that he is rejecting the need of Christ as the savior and the way to God.  He is essentially saying that he, in doing his own good works, can merit a relationship with God.  Scripture teaches quite the opposite, where even Paul says, in Philippians 3 that even his good works, his zeal and his obedience to the law, were all in vain.  It was all rubbish before God because his righteousness could only come from God.

Consider what Trump called for in his rallies.  He said he is going to make them rich.  He said he is going to punish those who have wronged them.  Trump said he is going to build a wall to keep illegals out, and he is going to negotiate better trade deals to bring back jobs, and he is going to make America great again.  In all of this, Trump basically stirs up nationalistic fervor.  And yes, this matters when you consider what a President should do.

In my view, Trump won’t do anything to fight against the system that continuously wages war against humanity. He won’t fight the spiritual decline of America including racism, bigotry and hate because he thinks it’s a good thing. Trump has benefited from the loose morality that lets him divorce and change wives when they are no longer convenient.  He has benefited from a system that lets him buy political power and use his money to gain influence. Trump wants the system to stay in place, but he wants to be the one to pull the strings.

Trump may be an antichrist because he wants others to worship the same system that he worships.  He wants his supporters to think that they can worship both God and mammon.  He doesn’t care to lead them directly away from Christ because he doesn’t seem to care about Christ.  He isn’t antichrist because he is intentionally waging war against the saints, but because he doesn’t regard God as important at all.

Ultimately, Trump is not dangerous because he is immoral, but because he is amoral.  Trump has already bought into the system entirely.  He is as vacuous a candidate as there can be, giving no thought to the moral questions and the theological issues that underpin those questions.  He doesn’t care about who he hurts or what philosophy he takes, as long as it gains him power.  He may be an antichrist not because he is explicitly evil, shouting and screaming against God, but because he disregards God and morality all together.  It’s easy to fight against someone who says, “Reject Christ or die” but it is far more difficult when the person never brings up God at all and only makes promises of prosperity and happiness.  Given everything that we know about Trump and what he has led us to believe that he favors, it appears that Donald Trump could in fact be an antichrist and all Christians know their fate in the Book of Revelation, but that’s just my take.