In recent years I came to a revelation: Christians are actually worshipping the Antichrist. Not all Christians, of course. Consider, for example, the Christian youth who come out to me after a presentation to a church group to explain their disappointment with their leaders and how they despise everything their churches preach, obsessing over abortion and gay rights and the whole conservative political regime, while they just want to do “Jesusy things,” like end poverty and alleviate suffering. They are worshipping Christ. Everyone else, everyone driving the likes of them out of churches worldwide for being, basically, unwanted heretics, is worshipping the Antichrist. And I think that does track most Christians the world over; but especially conservative Americans. Every cardinal and preacher driving a luxury car, jaunting about in private jets, or living in a million dollar home? Antichrist. Obviously. But I mean something far more pervasive and substantial than that. Bear with me here. Your eyes will soon be opened.

We don’t need to believe in Jesus or God for my conclusion to follow. We can adopt a simple truth both believer and unbeliever agree is the case: whether supernaturally real or just a memeplex, people can “embody” Christ as an ideal, doing what the character of the first five novels of the New Testament preaches and does; and in this sense one can be said to be truly worshiping Christ: rather than just bumbling through rituals and rendering lipservice, instead literally being Christlike. This is what it is to embody the Spirit of Christ: to become as he is, and do as he taught. To live the life of Christ. That is what it means to really worship Christ. And no such person need exist for that to be the case.

Now here is the kick in the head. The word “Anti-Christ” means, literally, the opposite of Christ. In other words, if you embody the Spirit that is the opposite of what Christ taught, you are embodying the Spirit of the Antichrist. You are therefore, really, in truth, worshiping not Christ, but the Antichrist. Literally or figuratively, the Antichrist has claimed your soul, and commands your obedience. You teach what that dark monster teaches; you do as that dark monster does; you live as that dark monster would live in your same circumstances. Thus, you can either embody the spirit of Christ, or the spirit of the Antichrist. How do you tell the difference? By whether, and how much, you teach and do and live what is exactly the opposite of what the character of Jesus Christ teaches and does in the Gospels—and the book of Acts (where, people sometimes forget, Jesus also appears and speaks, and animates the actions and choices of his flock; just less frequently).

There is a lot that’s actually pretty awful about Jesus the Christ (see The Real War on Christmas: The Fact That Christmas Is Better Than Christ). I am in no way endorsing the “wholly” Christlike life. Jesus Christ is actually a bad example to follow; and his teachings aren’t all that wise nor at all sustainable for a society. But even with that being said, there is a lot that the New Testament character of Jesus is quite unequivocal about that are at least closer to the Light Side of the Force, which most Christians now do, believe, and teach the exact opposite of, thus unmistakably embracing the Dark Side of the Force.

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Evidence: Most Christians want to pray in public, even fighting for the privilege of doing so before an unwilling public at sports games and in schools and Congress and government meetings; but even more so in general, in front of family and peers, even on national television.

But the Spirit of Christ said: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues,” in other words, even churches, “and on the street corners to be seen by others.” Christ warns: “Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” But, Jesus commands, “when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” What is the opposite of this? All public prayer—even voluntary, even at home or in church—is the way of the Antichrist. If you pray in public, even in front of family at home or peers in church, and certainly if you support public prayer being imposed on people at events, in schools, in courts of law, in councils and legislatures, you are of the Antichrist. Because you are thereby embodying the opposite of Christ.

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Evidence: Most Christians approve, indeed often even insisit upon, all manner of violence in self-defense, imagined or real. They support gun ownership for that reason. Vicious guard dogs. Baseball bats by the bedstand. Prison rape—and all manner of other forms of suffering for the incarcerated. The death penalty. War. Police beatings and killings. They even fly blue flags advertising their support of police violence. They back extraordinary amounts of public money being spent to maintain a whole machinery of global violence, while opposing diverting any dime to national health. Many wouldn’t hesitate to shoot an intruder dead. Nor feel bad about it. Most, refraining only for being squeamish, would still pat on the back anyone who did. Their demands for violent cruelty against immigrants and refugees can even be heard across the nation.

But the Spirit of Christ said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth’. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”

Jesus thus commanded you not to resist an attacker, or even a thief or enslaver. You aren’t even to defend yourself in court against lawsuits. He is so absolute, we must conclude he means you not even to resist a rapist, a wartime invader, or a home intruder. You must abstain from all violence—even in self-defense. You aren’t even to allow the legal system to step in and provide protective violence for you—as his quote of Torah law directly entails, as also his command that you not defend yourself even against lawsuits. Any Christian, therefore, who is not an absolute pacifist is embodying the Antichrist in some measurable respect. But all warmongers and violence-gloaters, promoters of guns and police violence, are wholly in the service of the Antichrist. Because they are embodying exactly the opposite of Christ.

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Evidence: Most Christians despise immigrants and the homeless, striving to spurn them and turn them away and take away any refuge or welfare given them. They want the homeless arrested or driven out of sight; some even would like them killed. They howl at any aid or home given to the refugee. They regard and treat immigrants as little more than thieves or vermin, an invading threat to be loathed and literally walled off from home or aid.

But the Spirit of Christ said: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.” And the damned, Christ tells us, will then ask him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” And He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” Every homeless person, every refugee, every immigrant looking for a better life is Christ himself. Your Christ told you this.

Even John the Baptist said, indeed to announce the way of Christ, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” And this is reflected in Christ’s Parable of the Good Samaritan, who was the moral equivalent of a refugee: set upon and robbed of their livelihoods and left to survive in a foreign land. Christ commands you to help him, not turn him away. The homeless are in essentially the same pickle, and deserve essentially the same return; as Christ commands, you are to take them in, clothe and feed and house them. So if you take the opposite position on these things, if you do not do all within your means to give the homeless homes, the starving food, to give refuge to the refugee and the immigrant (the “stranger”) alike, if you oppose social policies that do these things, you are serving the Antichrist. Because you are serving the spirit opposite to that of Christ.

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Evidence: Most conservative Christians in America oppose public health care (the last nation in the developed world to not finally create and enjoy universal health care). They want to spend billions on a war machine, none on any machine of public good. They want armies and navies to spread abroad; but don’t want to cure their own sick at home; even less to help the mentally ill.

But the Spirit of Christ said: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Freely give. Just as you shall then freely receive. Heal the sick. Christ commands you. Raise the dead. Christ commands you. Cleanse the diseased. Christ commands you. Drive out demons. Christ commands you. If you take the opposite position, of opposing rather than acting to provide all these things freely to all, of opposing rather than supporting universal physical and mental health care, you have taken the position opposite that of Christ. You are serving the Antichrist.

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Evidence: Most Christians promote hatred of their enemies, often even minorities, and love only for their own. Their lipservice to Christian love does not hide their actual true beliefs and behaviors. Their hatred has led many to commit hate crimes, join insurrections, threaten peers with violence; they fly blue flags in support of beating and killing minorities; and many more than do these things, endorse or defend them, or look the other way, secretly in their heart sympathising with them. Acting on hate. Thinking with hate. This has become a Christian norm.

But the Spirit of Christ said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you [only] love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Any Christian who expresses or feels hatred or disdain for anyone—whether neighbor, minority, or political foe—and does not chastise themselves for this and change their attitude more toward Christ’s, the more they instead indulge in their hatred and despite, the more they are embodying the opposite of Christ, and are thus serving the Antichrist.

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Evidence: Most Christians defend their right to property and wealth, to be richer than others, to have more money and goods and property than others, and to this end even oppose taxation or any other redistribution of wealth (least of all foreign aid).

But the Spirit of Christ said: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven … For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” For, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Jesus thus commands everyone to not care about accumulating possessions but to count on their community, their society, to ensure they have all they need; in other words, he commands us to embody socialism. This is in fact one of the clearest and most repeated themes defining the Spirit of Christ.

As Matthew relates, when a rich man asked how he could secure himself a place in heaven, Jesus answered:

“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Likewise in the Parable of Lazarus, a rich man is condemned to the eternal flames of hell, explicitly without any chance of forgiveness or reprieve, simply because he did not share his wealth with the poor and needy. And again, Jesus approves the socialism of Zacchaeus, who vows to give half his wealth to the poor and repay anyone he cheated four times more than he took; and Jesus says he has thereby followed the Lord’s teachings well and thus will be saved. In many ways like these, Jesus repeatedly condemns the rich, and indeed anyone opposed to substantial sharing and redistribution of wealth. He instead commands sharing, redistribution, selling your goods and properties so you can give the poor whatever they need.

Jesus also fully supported paying taxes (which even then funded social welfare programs like infrastructure spending, municipal water supply, and food aid: see Christians Did Not Invent Charity and Philanthropy). Indeed he never opposed taxation in any form. His ideal inspired community, in fact, adopted the Marxist credo: from each according to their means, to each according to their needs (just read from Acts 2 and Acts 4). A Christlike government would do the same; and Jesus already endorsed using compulsory taxation to do it with. Jesus also commanded that you share your wealth without boasting of it or even mentioning it. So, no putting your name on buildings, or expecting any personal return on investment, whether glory or favor.

If you do not endorse the same—if instead you oppose all these things Jesus taught—socialism, taxation, substantial wealth redistribution—if you pursue the opposite (clinging to your money, not letting anyone tax it, accumulating capital, enjoying luxuries, voting for lower taxes, making merely token charitable contributions—remember, Zacchaeus gave half, and the rich son was expected to give all, whereas typically Christians give trivially, and that mostly only to the coffers of their own wealthy churches rather than anyone genuinely in need: see Myths of Charity: The Enduring Sham of Arthur Brooks), if you live obliviously doing not a thing for every Lazarus who could benefit from your sharing, every needy stranger (remember Jesus’s commands on that matter; we just went over them), then you are embodying the opposite of what Christ taught. You are thereby worshiping the Antichrist. You are realizing in your behavior and actions not the world desired by Christ, but the world desired by the Antichrist. You are thus the Antichrist’s servant. That you call them Christ is just another Satanic disguise. In truth you have chosen to build and serve the Antichrist’s world rather than Christ’s.

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Evidence: Most Christians not only judge others, they even use those judgments as excuses to take away the rights of others (either by law or social pressure), rather than regulating their own conduct alone. Instead of just following their own religion in abstaining from sex (gay or straight), or abortion, or only adhering to their own gender norms, they seek to empower society to suppress and repress human sexuality at every turn—gay and straight—and to enforce their own gender norms on everyone else, and to hinder others’ access to abortion. They block sex education. They aim to prevent people learning the history of racism. They hinder access to birth control. In countless ways they use their judgment of others to control others, peoples not even Christian, or Christians who do not share their judgments.

But the Spirit of Christ said: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” And: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you,” for “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Christ condemned stoning sinners, literally and figuratively. He commands to love, not condemn; to treat others as you would want to be treated—which when carried to its own completed sense can only mean, “were you them” (see Your Own Moral Reasoning: Some Things to Consider). If you act the opposite of this, if you think the opposite of this—if you judge rather than forgive, and even use your judging to oppress and control other people rather than regulating yourself alone, in any of these ways or others—then you are embodying the opposite of Christ. You are serving the Antichrist.

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Even Christians who accept divorce, or don’t mutilate or castrate themselves when merely experiencing lust, are leaning toward the camp of the Antichrist. But Jesus’s backwards and toxic ideas about marriage and sex (and even germs) are vile anyway, so here we’d rather have the Antichrist among us. Less so the rest. And at any rate, Christ’s commands to love your enemies and sinners alike, to forgive all things, to treat others as you would want to be treated were you in their shoes, indeed not to judge at all, or to judge as you would want to be judged—in every case, one way or another, to do no harm—when conjoined with modern scientific knowledge about human psychology and sociology, compels any Christlike person to abandon those backwards, factless teachings attributed to Jesus, as well as any others the following of which would in fact violate all of those higher commands. Like admitting we ought to resort to the use of force, legal and physical, but only when legitimately necessary and never with glee; or forgiving toxic people only when they have legitimately reformed and made good their wrongs. But that is philosophy. And here I am talking about a religion.

In all these ways, there are Christians and Christianities that trend more Christlike than who pursue a fanatical servitude to the Antichrist. But they are mostly liberal progressives (only a minute number by proportion are politically or even socially conservative), as I wrote about before in Giving Christian Liberals Their Due (see also my remarks in The Carrier-McDurmon Debate, my discussion of Randal Rauser on Treating Atheists Like People, and my series on Justin Brierley, particularly on The Folly of Christianity). And they are the minority, both a minority numerically and a minority in respect to their share of political and social power. If it wasn’t for non-Christian voters backing progressive candidates and policies, we would literally never have any. On average, in the developed world, non-Christians are more Christlike than most Christians. Christendom today prides itself on doing good for the world, yet a vast swath of it now condemns everything that does that, from vaccines to social welfare, opposing even condoms in the midst of an AIDS epidemic, or defending pedophiles rather than protecting children from their predation. Christianity is thereby becoming a global cult of the Antichrist. Satan has captured and planted his ideological flag in almost all the churches of the world. Christians mostly obey him now.

The struggle to recapture Christianity for Christ exists, but does not appear to me to have much chance of success—those advocating for the genuine spirit of Christ are now more likely to be driven away from the church and from Christianity altogether, leaving only servants of the Antichrist to populate it. See, for example:

One might say that Isaiah 32 predicted this capture of Christianity by the Antichrist:

No longer will the fool be called noble
    nor the scoundrel be highly respected.
For fools speak folly,
    their hearts are bent on evil:
They practice ungodliness
    and spread error concerning the Lord;
the hungry they leave empty
    and from the thirsty they withhold water.
Scoundrels use wicked methods,
    they make up evil schemes
to destroy the poor with lies,
    even when the plea of the needy is just.

So.

Dear Christian:

Your own Bible warns you to judge people by their fruits, not their words; to be wary of false Christs and those preaching “another” Jesus, to watch out for deceiving spirits (1 John 4:1 and 1 Timothy 4). What are the fruits of the Antichrist? What are the fruits of those who serve him? What is the deceiving Spirit? What is the “other” Jesus? All the things opposite Christ. You know this is true. You needn’t trust me in this. You can confirm it yourself. The things of the Antichrist are all ruthless conservative ideals, from opposition to socialism and taxation for the common good, to support for violence and savagery, whether at home, by the police, or abroad at war. They beat plowshares into swords. They rage with anger and hate. They insist on public prayer rather than private. They oppose both access to knowledge and public responsibility (refusing masks, vaccines, even polluters paying the cost of polluting). They oppose health care and homes for the homeless. They even defended human torture in the ironically-named “war on terror.” They even blaspheme the name of God, using it in vain against God’s own Law, by insisting it be stamped on their money. They give trivially to charity, and almost none of it really to the needy. They despise sharing. They instead hoard wealth and defend those who hoard yet more. The Antichtist has won. He has claimed the dominant command of Christendom.

So much for the true Christians, those who want to embody the actual Christ; to do “Jesusy things.” They face in nearly every church, instead, a mass of Christians serving the Antichrist, damning gay people, extending no Golden Rule to them or anyone, even gleefully seeking to trap women in unwanted pregnancies they cannot afford, rather than helping them avoid or afford them. So they care more about the non-existent suffering of hypotherical people, than the real suffering of actual people. Christ didn’t even speak any word against abortion or being gay, yet Christians will direct more hate-filled effort and concern to those matters than to love or forgiveness or social welfare or any of the things Christ did command. This is the end of the Christian church. The Devil has tricked its devout into following him under the mere name of “Christ” and forgetting about the true Christ and all he actually taught.

As I wrote in response to observing the same sad fate befall Hinduism today:

Christianity has indeed been retooled to serve this same opiate function on the successful in the U.S. ([as I note] in The End of Christianity, pp. 338-39), and this may be one of the factors sustaining high religiosity among the successful members of the middle and upper classes in America. It’s thus not all just about fear of death, or loss of meaning, or loss of control over society or one’s neighbors or children, or the need to justify one’s prejudices (all of which are obvious functions of American religion; we can all point to examples, no matter how much believers deny any of it).

[Christianity today is now] also about resolving the cognitive dissonance over wanting to be selfish and pampered and privileged without feeling that oh-so-terrible guilt (which results whenever anyone realizes they have become the very villains they otherwise once despised [and that Jesus himself repeatedly condemns]). It seems implausible that a religion originally invented to emphasize that guilt and its alleviation through abandoning one’s wealth and privilege and sharing it with the disadvantaged, has become a religion emphasizing exactly the opposite. And yet, as implausible as it is, this has undeniably happened. Christians now worship the Antichrist. And apparently their God “has sent upon them a powerful delusion” so that they don’t even realize it.

Christians now falsely believe they are the righteous; when they are now, in fact, the damned. And this is by their own Book’s description; by the words of their own supposed Christ—whose teachings they have abandoned, for exactly their opposite. Christ they have repudiated and spat upon; the Antichrist now they serve.

So here we are.

I have abundantly shown that most conservative Christians are actually behaving in accord with the ideals of the Antichrist. Christians are warned that even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light; the Antichrist, likewise. It’s simple math. To worship and follow Christ means to embody in your beliefs, teachings, and actions the spirit of Christ, living by those ideals. And the “Antichrist” means “the opposite of Christ.” Therefore, if you embody a spirit opposite that of Christ’s—if your beliefs, teachings and actions conform to that spirit instead, if you live by that spirit’s ideals, the ideals opposite those of Christ—then you are embodying the Antichrist. You are thus following the Antichrist. So whenever you think you are worshiping Jesus Christ as the one who endorses those values, values actually the opposite of Christ’s, you are actually worshipping the Antichrist. It is then the Antichrist that you have embraced with your soul and let govern your heart. You are thus in league with the Antichrist. You are agents of the Antichrist. You are the cogs creating his world. Because you are then realizing the Antichrist’s dreams and ideals—not Christ’s.

You might want to rethink that.

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