Not trying to get religious or anything but just asking for facts or similarities.

20 points

The Antichrist story in the Bible was written abstractly enough that it can apply to many people. It’s a warning about a specific personality profile that is universal in history - a sweet-talking, extremely popular, but ultimately harmful leader.

Of course it’s all wrapped up in early Christian language and many metaphors, making it hard to parse for modern audiences. Depends of course on how literally you take the Bible - I’m on the side of those stories being hypothetical lessons rather than exact prophecy.

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19 points

Nothing in the Bible should be taken seriously. This is like asking if Elon Musk is literally Darth Vader as shown in the Star Wars franchise.

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-2 points

Well yeah the stuff about helping the least among us should definitely be ignored. That shit is truly dangerous.

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2 points

OP wasn’t asking about that. He was asking about whether Trump is the antichrist.

It’s not like we need the bible to tell us to help the needy. And the existence of Christian abortion clinic bombers and parents who allow their children to die rather than seek medical assistance make it clear that taking the bible too seriously can be quite dangerous.

I’m fine with applying good words from any work of fiction to your own behavior. (Jediism, anyone?) But for fuck’s sake, don’t use the bible (or any other work of fiction) to justify bad shit like bigotry or worse.

Basically don’t take the bible seriously. At least not any more seriously than you might take any other work of fiction.

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11 points

Facts, Bible, you get to pick only one.

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10 points

Asking for “facts” while referring to a work of fiction.

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4 points
*

Okay, so most apocalyptic scripture is allegory. Remember that “free speech” is a rather new concept, and the vast majority of human history, you said the wrong thing about people in power and you wind up dead- or worse.

So speaking in symbolism and in “prophetic” guise was an easy way to hide the criticism. It didn’t always work, mind, but usually sub cultures could speak in a way that everyone inside it knew exactly who you were talking about while the people in power overlooked it.

The antichrist in the book of revelation was Nero. The book of Daniel was some Persian douche. Isaiah… well that would definitely depend on which “Isaiah” we’re talking about. (It was written by several different authors in distinct time periods.)

Regardless of if you believe the scriptures are the absolute word of god or not, it’s important to remember that it was written by humans, fixed in a time and place. They had deeply flawed understandings of the world around them and ascribed many things that have boring explanations to angry gods or the movements of stars or some such.

More to the point, they each held a cultural context and were writing for a contemporary audience who shared that context and absolutely understood what was being said, and we simply don’t have most of that context.

So, the short answer is “no, it’s not about trump” (or any other modern person.)

That said, these figures… they all share certain traits and characteristics. Authoritarian douchebergers, The lot of them. trump certainly fits that mold.

Side note… Revelation was probably written by a guy named John of Patmos. He was exiled on an island that was famous for its psychedelic shrooms. Things to keep in mind.

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1 point

Well said.

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