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What is the anti-Christ? By definition, the anti-Christ would be the opposite of the Christ. So, before we can understand the anti-Christ, it would be helpful to understand what we can about the Christ. The Christ, according to the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi scriptures, is composed of the Aeons of the Fullness, both in their aggregated entirety known as the Pleroma, along with their personal, individual forms as the infinity of variations of the Son, also known as the Fullnesses. And, the Christ is powered by the full force of the Holy Spirit.
In a previous article posted to my New Gnostic Gospel blog on November 2 of 2020, I describe the Christ this way:
In order to restore memory, reason, and redemption to the Second Order Powers, the Aeons of the Fullness, every one of them individually and all of them collectively, gave glory in unison to their Father while praying for a helper to bring peace to the Deficiency and forgiveness to Logos. Out of their focused prayer, a unique fruit emerged, one that contained all of the capabilities and powers of the Fullness along with all of the love and eternal qualities of the Father.
In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ is a perfect and full fractal of the Father and the Son, all rolled up into One perfect form. If you do not know what a fractal is, visit my Simple Explanation blog where you can learn all about fractals. I suspect my blog has been ghosted by google, because when I look for it on the web, many of my article titles pop up without taking you to my site; worse yet, they direct you to bogus sites that want you to allow cookies in order to read my articles. So, to get to my blog, search for “A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything” by Cyd Ropp. Hopefully that will get you there.
Now, back to today’s discussion.
Here is how the Tripartite Tractate describes the Christ:
“They gathered together, asking the Father with beneficent intent that there be aid from above, from the Father, for his glory since the defective one could not become perfect in any other way, unless it was the will of the Pleroma of the Father, which he had drawn to himself, revealed, and given to the defective one.” [the defective one is the Demiurge that arose from the Fallen Aeon known as Logos; beneficent means helpful]
“Then from the harmony, in a joyous willingness which had come into being, they brought forth the fruit, which was a begetting from the harmony, a unity, a possession of the Fullnesses, revealing the countenance of the Father, of whom the Aeons thought as they gave glory and prayed for help for their brother with a wish in which the Father counted himself with them. Thus it was willingly and gladly that they brought forth the fruit.
“And he made manifest the agreement of the revelation of his union with them—which was his beloved Son. But the Son in whom the Fullnesses are pleased put himself on them as a garment, through which he gave perfection to the defective one, and gave confirmation to those who are perfect, the one who is properly called ‘Savior’ and ‘the Redeemer’ and ‘the Well-Pleasing One’ and ‘the Beloved,’ ‘the One to whom prayers have been offered’ and ‘the Christ’ and ‘the Light of those appointed,’ in accordance with the ones from whom he was brought forth, since he has become the names of the positions which were given to him. Yet, what other name may be applied to him except ‘the Son,’ as we previously said, since he is the knowledge of the Father, whom he wanted them to know? [this paragraph describes that the fruit of the Aeons called the Christ possess all of the traits—that is, the names of the positions—of all of the Aeons of the Pleroma that essentially add up to the original Son of the Father that came directly from the Father]
“Not only did the Aeons generate the countenance of the Father to whom they gave praise, but also they generated their own; for the Aeons who give glory generated their countenance and their face. They were produced as an army for him, as for a king, since the beings of the thought have a powerful fellowship and an intermingled harmony. They came forth in a multifaceted form in order that the one to whom help was to be given might see those to whom he had prayed for help. He also sees the One who gave it to him.” [Tripartite Tractate, sections 85—87] [countenance means face or appearance. so, this paragraph tells us that the Christ possesses the attributes or “face” of the Father as well as the faces of each individual Aeon. The reason the Christ appears as everyone is so that everyone may recognize it when it comes as an answer to their prayers]
So, what is the anti-Christ? It is not alive; we know that because it arises from the Fall and therefore it is not infused with the light and life of the Pleroma, the Father, and the Son. Nor is it Aeonic, as it is not considered a fruit of the Pleroma, so it cannot express aeonic traits such as the various facets of love known as virtues, nor operate through the cooperative nature we call the Simple Golden Rule. The anti-Christ arises after the Fall and so it does not recognize the hierarchical structure built upon the harmony of the Fullness. In place of that harmony, the anti-Christ operates through the application of power and its only goal is power.
The anti-Christ does not know the hierarchy of the Fullness, nor does it come from their assigned roles and places. Lacking the Pleroma’s cooperative design, the anti-Christ exists in a state of perpetual disturbance, driven by self-centered ambition. The anti-Christ and the imitations of the Fullness that exist as a result of the Fall are only interested in “exalting themselves in lust for dominion, each one of them according to the magnitude of the name of which he was a shadow, fantasizing that he would become greater than his fellows” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 79]. These phantoms represent values contrary to the originals in the Fullness:
Those of the Imitation give rise to “fighters, warriors, troublemakers, rebels” and other such disobedient types, driven by the will to dominate [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 80]. Left to their own feeble devices, those of the Imitation strive against each other in a state of darkness, woe, and misery.
The anti-Christ is, therefore, some sort of ungodly expression of the material universe. Again, by definition, its goal would be to block the mission of the Christ, placing itself as the rightful alternative to the redemption and salvation of the Christ. We know the mission of the Christ is to restore the fallen Logos-who-is-now-the-Demiurge by reminding the fallen Aeon and those under its control of the gnosis of the originating Father and the Pleroma. So, the anti-Christ, as the inverse of Christ’s mission, would encourage us to forget about the Father above and the Holy Spirit that infuses life. We would also be encouraged to forget that we are Second Order Powers sent from the Pleroma above to do battle against the Fall and our aeonic duty to stand against vice in favor of virtue. The anti-Christ would also encourage us to operate according to our Ego’s desire to place ourselves at the center of the universe rather than the will of the Father.
And, whereas the Christ contains and mirrors every aspect of the Father and the Son, the anti-Christ mirrors every aspect of the Demiurge created from the Fall away from the Pleroma. Therefore the anti-Christ is an imitation and inversion of the original Fullness of the Aeons, broken out of the hierarchy of cooperation and infused with isolated striving rather than the glory of unity and a joyful willingness to help others. The anti-Christ serves the needs of the Demiurge rather than the will of the Father. In the name peace it brings war; instead of prosperity, it brings dependency; instead of free will, conformity.
Historically, many have nominated the Catholic Pope to be the anti-Christ, as he appears to displace the Christ as God’s messenger and redeemer. Others point to powerful modern do-gooders such as Obama and tech billionaires like Zuckerberg and Bezos.
I like the way Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen put it in 1951:
“The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers… he will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves… He will tempt Christians with the same three temptations with which he tempted Christ… He will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counterchurch… It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ.”
- Sheen, Fulton J. (1951). Communism and the Conscience of the West. Country Life Press. p. 17. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
- ^ Pronechen, Joseph (February 10, 2019). “Fulton Sheen’s Clear Warning About the Anti-Christ”. National Catholic Register. Irondale, Alabama: EWTN. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
The three temptations of Christ referred to by Sheen are 1) seeking our own satisfaction rather than God; 2) manipulating God’s will in order to achieve personal gain, power, and glory; and 3) to believe we deserve to be gods.
While I agree that powerful humans reflect the spirit of the anti-Christ, I don’t think the anti-Christ will be found in a singular human being, but rather as a dark spirit arising from the Fall. I am inclined to nominate the Demiurge itself as the father of the anti-Christ; it seems likely to me that the anti-Christ is a fractal vibration that reinforces the anti-Christ mission across all times, places, and people. As the Demiurge is the maker of heaven and earth, it is certainly within its power to flood our cosmos with ever-increasing delusions designed to lull us into the three temptations of Christ in the most pleasant possible way.
Our current age is rife with narcissism. Narcissism is the self-centered, ego-driven belief that puts our desires ahead of others’ desires and needs. The narcissist does not reach out to others with aid and information for the betterment of all. The narcissist only pursues their own agenda. That this is a narcissistic age should take no convincing to anyone with eyes to see. Selfies, exercise machines that mirror ourselves to ourselves as we work out, the oft-repeated phrase “you deserve this” used to sell us everything from juicy hamburgers to universal government programs, all speak to our Ego’s need for comfort and power at all cost. Indeed, it would seem that our narcissistic egos, when given their full, unbridled rein, blossom into the spirit of the anti-Christ. So there is no singular anti-Christ, but as many anti-Christs as there are fully bloomed egos.
Bottom line? The anti-Christ is to be found within the oft repeated mantra that we can take care of each other and build a better tomorrow without God. That more and more powerful governmental and corporate entities will satisfy our needs and give us that Paradise on Earth that will dispel hunger, climate change, and poverty for the betterment of all. That we can live forever through technological manipulation. That we deserve everything we desire. Kinkier sex. Fancier food. More stuff dropped on our doorsteps by Amazon. That these will make us happy. That this will bring fulfillment. This is the spirit of the anti-Christ.
