Antichrist

==Non-Christian views==
{{Eschatology}}

===Judaism===
There are warnings against [[false prophet]]s in the [[Old Testament]] of the bible.

An anti-Messiah figure known as [[Armilus]], said to be the offspring of Satan and a statue, appears in some schools of [[Jewish eschatology]], such as the 7th century CE [[Sefer Zerubbabel]] and 11th century CE [[Midrash Vayosha]]. He is stated to be the God and Messiah of the Christians, making him identical to Jesus.<ref name="Armilus-JE">{{Cite web |title=ARMILUS – JewishEncyclopedia.com |url=https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1789-armilus |access-date=2023-11-05 |website=jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref> He is described as "a monstrosity, bald-headed, with one large and one small eye, deaf in the right ear and maimed in the right arm, while the left arm is two and one-half ells long." Being considered similar to, or even identical with [[Gog and Magog|Gog]],<ref name="Armilus-JE" /> his believed destruction by a "[[Messiah ben Joseph]]" (Messiah, of the tribe of Joseph) symbolizes the ultimate victory of the Jewish Messiah in the [[Messianic Age]].<ref name="Armilus-JE" />

===Islam===
{{Main|Islamic eschatology}}
{{See also|List of Mahdi claimants}}
[[File:Dajjal.jpg|thumb|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.]]

[[Al-Masih ad-Dajjal]] ({{lang-ar|المسيح الدجّال|Al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl|Deceitful Messiah}}), or in short Ad-Dajjal (الدجّال), is an evil figure in [[Islamic eschatology]], who will appear after the coming of the [[Mahdi]].<ref name="Farhang 2017">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2017 |title=Dajjāl |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Islamica |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |location=[[Leiden]], Netherlands and [[Boston]], Massachusetts |editor1-last=Madelung |editor1-first=Wilferd |doi=10.1163/1875-9831_isla_COM_035982 |issn=1875-9823 |author-last=Farhang |author-first=Mehrvash |translator-last=Negahban |translator-first=Farzin |editor2-last=Daftary |editor2-first=Farhad}}</ref> The Dajjal is never mentioned in the [[Quran]] but he is mentioned and described in the [[Hadith|''ḥadīth'' literature]].<ref name="Farhang 2017"/> The Dajjal is described as one eyed (blind in the right eye) and the blind eye looks like a bulging out grape.<ref>{{CiteHadith|bukhari|3439|b=yl}}</ref> Like in Christianity, the Dajjal is said to emerge out in the east, although the specific location varies among the various sources.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |last=Cook |first=David |title=Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic |publisher=Gerlach Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-3959941211 |location=[[Berlin]], Germany and [[London]], England |pages=93–104 |oclc=238821310 |author-link=David Cook (historian) |origyear=2002}}</ref> He will imitate the miracles performed by [[Jesus in Islam|ʿĪsā]] (Jesus), such as healing the sick and raising the dead, the latter done with the aid of demons (''[[Shaitan|Shayāṭīn]]''). He will deceive many people, such as weavers, magicians, half-castes, children of prostitutes, and non believers but the majority of his followers will be [[Jews]].<ref name="ReferenceA" /> According to the [[Islamic eschatology|Islamic eschatological narrative]], the events related to the final battle before the [[Day of Judgment]] will proceed in the following order:
{{Blockquote|11 ''Hadith'' also report on the "[[Islamic eschatology#Greater signs|Greater Signs]]" of the end, which include the appearance of the [[Al-Masih ad-Dajjal|Antichrist (Dajjal)]] and the reappearance of the prophet [[Jesus in Islam|Jesus]] to join in battle with him at [[Dabiq, Syria|Dabbiq]] in [[Syria (region)|Syria]], as well as the arrival of the Mahdi, the "guided one." As another ''hadith'' attributed to [[Ali|Alī ibn Abī Talib]] puts it, "Most of the Dajjal's followers are [[Jews]] and [[Fornication in Islam|children of fornication]]; God will kill him in Syria, at a pass called the Pass of Afiq, after three hours are gone from the day, at the hand of Jesus".<ref name="Gallagher 2020">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Gallagher |author-first=Eugene |author-link=Eugene V. Gallagher |date= 2020 |title=Millennialism |url=https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-125 |url-access=subscription |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion |location=[[Oxford]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.125 |isbn=9780199340378 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref>}}

Imam Mahdi ({{lang-ar|ٱلْمَهْدِيّ|al-Mahdī}}, meaning "the rightly guided one") is the redeemer according to Islam.<ref name="EI2">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1986 |title=al-Mahdī |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam#2nd edition, EI2|Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |location=[[Leiden]], Netherlands |author-link=Wilferd Madelung |editor1-last=Bosworth |editor1-first=C. E. |volume=5 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0618 |isbn=978-90-04-16121-4 |author-last=Madelung |author-first=Wilferd |editor1-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor2-last=van Donzel |editor2-first=E. J. |editor2-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor3-last=Heinrichs |editor3-first=W. P. |editor3-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |editor4-last=Lewis |editor4-first=B. |editor5-last=Pellat |editor5-first=Ch. |editor5-link=Charles Pellat}}</ref> Just like the Dajjal,<ref name="Farhang 2017"/> the Mahdi is never mentioned in the Quran but his description can be found in the ''ḥadīth'' literature;<ref name="EI2"/> according to the Islamic eschatological narrative, he will appear on Earth before the [[Day of Judgment]].<ref name="Farhang 2017"/><ref name="Gallagher 2020"/><ref name="Muslim World 2004 p.421">Martin 2004: 421</ref><ref name="Glasse">Glasse 2001: 280</ref> At the time of the [[Second Coming of Christ#Islam|Second Coming of Christ]],<ref>{{Quran-usc|3|55|q=}}</ref> the prophet ʿĪsā shall return to defeat and kill al-Masih ad-Dajjal.<ref name="Farhang 2017"/><ref name="Gallagher 2020"/><ref>{{Hadith-usc|muslim|usc=yes|41|7023}}</ref> Muslims believe that both ʿĪsā and the Mahdi will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice, and tyranny, ensuring peace and tranquility.<ref name="Momen">Momen 1985: 166–168</ref> Eventually, the Dajjal will be killed by theʿĪsā at the gate of [[Lod|Lud]], who upon seeing Dajjal will cause him to slowly dissolve (like salt in water).<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

====Ahmadiyya====
{{Ahmadiyya|Distinct views}}

Prophecies concerning the emergence of the Antichrist (''Al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl'') are interpreted in [[Ahmadiyya]] teachings as designating a specific group of nations centred upon a false theology (or Christology) instead of an individual, with the reference to the Antichrist as an individual indicating its unity as a class or system rather than its personal individuality. As such, Ahmadis identify the Antichrist collectively with the missionary expansion and colonial dominance of [[European Christianity]] throughout the world that was propelled by the [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Glassé|first1=Cyril|last2=Smith|first2=Huston|title=The New Encyclopedia of Islam|year=2003|publisher=Altamira Press|isbn=0-7591-0190-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=focLrox-frUC|page=33}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Valentine|first=Simon|title=Islam and the Ahmadiyya jamaʻat: history, belief, practice|year=2008|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-70094-8|page=148}}</ref><ref name="aaiil.org">Muhammad Ali. (1992) [http://aaiil.org/text/books/mali/gog/antichristgogmagog.pdf ''The Antichrist and Gog and Magog''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701133728/http://aaiil.org/text/books/mali/gog/antichristgogmagog.pdf |date=2018-07-01 }}, Ohio: Ahmadiyya Anjuman-i Ishāʿat-i Islām</ref> [[Mirza Ghulam Ahmad]] wrote extensively on this topic, identifying the Antichrist principally with [[Christianity and colonialism|colonial missionaries]] who, according to him, were to be countered through argumentation rather than by physical warfare and whose power and influence was to gradually disintegrate, ultimately allowing for the recognition and worship of God along Islamic ideals to prevail throughout the world in a period similar to the period of time it took for nascent Christianity to rise through the Roman Empire.<ref>{{cite book|last=Valentine|first=Simon|title=Islam and the Ahmadiyya jamaʻat: history, belief, practice|year=2008|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-70094-8|pages=148–149}}</ref> The teaching that Jesus was a mortal man who survived crucifixion and [[Jesus in Ahmadiyya Islam|died a natural death]], as propounded by Ghulam Ahmad, has been seen by some scholars in this regard as a move to neutralise Christian soteriologies of Jesus and to project the superior rationality of Islam.<ref>Francis Robinson.[https://books.google.com/books?id=XLvL4zh8KK4C 'The British Empire and the Muslim World' in Judith Brown, Wm Roger Louis (ed) ''The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume IV: The Twentieth Century''.] Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 411. "At their most extreme religious strategies for dealing with the Christian presence might involve attacking Christian revelation at its heart, as did the Punjabi Muslim, Ghulam Ahmad (d. 1908), who founded the Ahmadiyya missionary sect. He claimed that he was the messiah of the Jewish and Muslim tradition; the figure known as Jesus of Nazareth had not died on the cross but survived to die in Kashmir."</ref><ref>Yohanan Friedmann. [https://books.google.com/books?id=rv8EAAAACAAJ&q=Prophecy+Continuous ''Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and its Medieval Background''] Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 114. "He [Ghulam Ahmad] realized the centrality of the crucifixion and of the doctrine of vicarious atonement in the Christian dogma, and understood that his attack on these two was an attack on the innermost core of Christianity "</ref><ref>[[Kambiz GhaneaBassiri]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=xKsLCx2VmcwC ''A History of Islam in America: From the New World to the New World Order''] Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 208. "Ghulam Ahmad denied the historicity of Jesus' crucifixion and claimed that Jesus had fled to India where he died a natural death in Kashmir. In this way, he sought to neutralize Christian soteriologies of Christ and to demonstrate the superior rationality of Islam."</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Valentine|first=Simon|title=Islam and the Ahmadiyya jamaʻat: history, belief, practice|year=2008|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-70094-8|page=21}} "Proclaiming himself as reformer of Islam, and wanting to undermine the validity of Christianity, Ahmad went for the theological jugular, the foundational teachings of the Christian faith. 'The death of Jesus Christ' explained one of Ahmad's biographers 'was to be the death-knell of the Christian onslaught against Islam'. As Ahmad argued, the idea of Jesus dying in old age, rather than death on a cross, as taught by the gospel writers, 'invalidates the divinity of Jesus and the doctrine of Atonement'."</ref>

===Baha'i===
The Antichrist is considered to subvert the religion of God from the inner reality of man as [['Abdu'l-Baha]] narrates: "Christ was a divine Center of unity and love. Whenever discord prevails instead of unity, wherever hatred and antagonism take the place of love and spiritual fellowship, Antichrist reigns instead of Christ."<ref>{{cite web|last1='Abdu'l-Baha|first1=Abbas Effendi|title=Some Answered Questions|url=http://www.bahai.org/r/901747607|website=bahai.org|access-date=April 20, 2017}}</ref>

===Scientology===
{{Main|OT VIII}}
In a document originally released only to high-ranking followers, Scientology founder [[L. Ron Hubbard]] referred to himself as the Antichrist, who would defend humanity against an [[alien invasion]] (for which he believed the [[Second Coming of Jesus]] was a metaphor). Many Scientologists who read the document for the first time found its contents highly upsetting. It was subsequently revised after Hubbard's death, with the new version lacking any references to Hubbard as the Antichrist.