See also: List of Mahdi claimants An image from a Falname made in India around 1610-1630, depicts Jesus fighting the Dajjal (False Prophet). Behind, the Mahdi with a veiled face. Pope Gregory I wrote to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice in A.D. 597, concerning the titles of bishops, "I say with confidence that whoever calls or desires to call himself 'universal priest' in self-exaltation of himself is a precursor of the Antichrist." [41] McGinn, Bernard (2000). Anti-Christ: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination With Evil. New York: Columbia University Press. p.100. ISBN 978-0231119771. Bernard McGinn noted that complete denial of the Antichrist was rare until the Age of Enlightenment. Following frequent use of "Antichrist" laden rhetoric during religious controversies in the 17th century, the use of the concept declined during the 18th century due to the rule of enlightened absolutists, who as European rulers of the time wielded significant influence over official state churches. These efforts [ further explanation needed] to cleanse Christianity of "legendary" or "folk" accretions effectively removed the Antichrist from discussion in mainstream Western churches. [16] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints [ edit ]

There are many lessons in the novel where you talk about Freemasonry and the class that rules the world. In 1988 Ian Paisley, Evangelical minister and founder of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, made headlines in an infamous manner by accusing Pope John Paul II as the Antichrist during one of the pope's speeches before the European Parliament, which at the time Paisley was member. His accusation, and the reactions of both Pope John Paul II and other members of the European Parliament, was recorded on video. [90] [91] Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource referenceCohn, Norman (1970). The Pursuit of the Millennium (Rev. and expanded.ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195004564. Norman Cohn.

Protestant Reformers, including John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Thomas, John Knox, Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, and John Wesley, as well as most Protestants of the 16th–18th centuries, felt that the Early Church had been led into the Great Apostasy by the Papacy and identified the Pope with the Antichrist. [63] [64] Luther declared that not just a pope from time to time was Antichrist, but the Papacy was Antichrist because they were "the representatives of an institution opposed to Christ". [65] The Centuriators of Magdeburg, a group of Lutheran scholars in Magdeburg headed by Matthias Flacius, wrote the 12-volume Magdeburg Centuries to discredit the Catholic Church and lead other Christians to recognize the Pope as the Antichrist. So, rather than expecting a single Antichrist to rule the earth during a future Tribulation period, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other Protestant Reformers saw the Antichrist as a present feature in the world of their time, fulfilled in the Papacy. [63] [66]Schaff, Philip; etal. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume XIII/On Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians/On 2 Thessalonians. Original author: John Chrysostom. I became your own .. I own your eyes .. Every time you look at my words .. And you read my lines .. The second or first century book, Odes of Solomon, written by an Essene convert to Christianity, makes mention of the Antichrist in figurative terms, where the redeemer overcomes the monstrous dragon. [20] [21] [22] What is good?—Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man. What is evil?—Whatever springs from weakness. What is happiness?—The feeling that power increases—that resistance is overcome.