I was brought up in a fundamentalist Bible church with teaching heavily influenced by Dispensationalism. This peculiar system of Biblical interpretation understood God’s ways of working in the world as being divided into different time periods or “dispensations” The exciting part was that we were living in the “end times”. Jesus was going to come back in the clouds and all the saved people would be “raptured” –literally taken up into heaven–while all the unsaved people would be left behind to endure the coming tribulation in which the anti-Christ would rule the world as Satan’s agent.

The figure of the anti-Christ has been a potent symbol since the Book of Revelation was written. Scholars believe the anti-Christ there with his famous  666 mark of the beast is the Emperor Nero as the numerical signification of his name adds up to the mysterious number. The theory is that the book was written during the Neronian persecutions and the Christians used “666” as code for Nero.

However, there have been  many other interpretations down the ages–so for instance, in the USA when social security numbers were first introduced some Christians rejected them as the mark of the beast. Then credit cards were suspected, then bar codes, now surveillance and chip technology are the ways the anti Christ will control the world.

What is common to all the interpretations is that the anti-Christ is the Lord of this World. He is a global leader–one who wishes to gather humanity together in a system of earthly power. Who this is and what he will do in the world remains a mystery. In every age the masters of tyranny, the empire builders, the men of money and war have been named as the anti-Christ. Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin–all the great dictators were anti-Christs, and the New Testament itself says there are many anti-Christs, but St John identifies them as heretics–those who deny Jesus Christ as the Son of God. “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.”

So, just as it is impossible to predict the second coming of Christ, so it is impossible to predict who the antiChrist is and when he will appear.

However, we are expected to read the signs of the times, and one of the things I am noticing is the exhaustion of all the usual solutions to the worlds’ problems. Communism doesn’ t work. Capitalism is bloated and top heavy. Technology is racing out of control. Transhumanism is an empty promise. Environmentalism and most other left of center ideologies are running out of steam. Humanity is looking for an answer, and I sense that we are not looking for another political theory or ideology. Instead we are on the cusp of a new spirituality. We are looking not just for practical or political answers, but for something to believe in.

I am a Catholic priest and believe the answers are all there in the fullness of the faith in the Catholic religion. However, I am not optimistic about our ability to communicate these truths to the modern world. I hope and pray for a renewal and revival that can only come about through the radical lives of saints, but our Catholic Church, at the present time, seems incapable of leading that sort of renewal and revival. We are too caught up with pandering to political correctness, mired in corruption and immorality and bogged down with incompetence, ignorance and internal skirmishes.

Meanwhile humanity is looking not for a technological, ideological or economic answer. We are looking for something greater to believe in. The time is ripe as never before for a global master to step on to the stage. What will such an individual look like? First of all, he will be supremely attractive both physically and mentally and spiritually. He will communicate well, be sympathetic and compassionate. On the one hand he will be wealthy and well connected, but he will manage his wealth and power with suave simplicity. In other words he won’t swan about showing off his wealth and power. He will wield it in an aristocratic way–with consummate good taste and with the appearance that his own life is one of simplicity and service. He will be spiritually savvy–perhaps assuming the Christian religion–but it will be a Christian religion that is tolerant, ecumenical and inter-faith friendly. Indeed, while espousing a form of Christianity he will endorse the goodness of all religions as “ways to God”. Most of all he will see all religions as different ways for humanity to reach its full potential.

While I see a European aristocrat –perhaps even a member of an established royal family–fulfilling this role, it could be an American with a similar “blue blood” heritage. He will be adept at handling the political and economic and academic establishment and be a masterful media communicator. While not a religious leader, he will sit at the table and speak of “spirituality” with all the religious leaders.

Will the anti-Christ be a fearsome dictator? I don’t think so–at least not at first. He will come across as eminently sensible, intelligent, wise and compassionate. He will offer solutions so simply and kind and beautiful and practical that to oppose him will seem to be the epitome of madness. Indeed, those in opposition will be painted as hopelessly old fashioned, bigoted, intolerant and hate-filled. The media and educational establishment will make sure the opposition is portrayed as inhumane, judgmental, religious maniacs.

Do I believe such a character is waiting in the wings? I cannot see the future, but I can read the signs of the times. I think the bragging, street smart, thuggish capitalism of Trump will quickly run out of steam and the world will be ready for a new leader. All it will take is for a global crisis to light the fuse.

In the meantime, as Christian believers we have our orders from St Peter himself: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Pt. 5:8)