"Who is the Antichrist?" That's got to be one of the top two or three questions asked of Christians ever. And no, it's not Trump, for a few reasons.
You always wonder, though, when a new guy shows up on the world stage, right? Off the top of my head, I can remember the following people being seriously considered as the Antichrist in my lifetime:
Reagan
Every Pope
Obama
Soros
Bill Gates
Trump
Prince Charles
There have been MANY more, but these candidates all fail several diagnostic tests:
1. They aren't popular enough. The Antichrist will have almost universal, worldwide appeal. He will charm cross-culturally like no other has before him. All of these men have far too many vocal critics.
2. He will rise from virtual obscurity to worldwide prominence overnight (side note - Obama's overnight rapid rise to stardom fueled a lot of the speculation around him), and his rise will coincide with a 7 year peace treaty with Israel that he personally champions.
3. He will sign the aforementioned 7 year peace treaty with Israel. While there are, have been, and will be many treaties with Israel, this one will be different, because it will coincide with the rebuilding and resumption of sacrifices in the Jewish Temple. 3.5 years into the treaty, however, the Antichrist will commit truly diabolical treachery against Israel, enter the Temple, and declare himself to be God, requiring the whole world to worship him.
4. His power will be exercised by his governance of a revived Roman Empire (think something like the EU or a UN, but with tremendous authority).
5. He will have 10 subordinate rulers who quickly gain power near the same time that he does. They will hold onto their power briefly, yet willingly put themselves under his control. The Bible describes them as "Kings," which means they are likely rulers of nations or large regions of the world. Interestingly, the UN already has the world divided into 10 regions to track its Sustainable Development Goals. I don't mean that the UN and its programs are in some way tied to the Antichrist; rather, it is interesting to see that the only current proxy for world government, the UN, views the world through the lens of a 10 region system. In the aftermath of incredible international chaos and the failure of weak countries, a system like this would make a lot of sense to a lot of the world.
6. He will be accompanied by his hype man, the False Prophet, who will perform Satanic miracles to convince the world to follow the Antichrist.
7. He will demand worship. The world will face a binary choice - worship Jesus or worship the Antichrist. Everyone will make one of those two choices.
