Review by Derek Pillion, Camp Hill, PA, United States

The Antichrist: Has he launched his final campaign against the Savior? by a Jesuit priest, Miceli, is a mysterious book about the Antichrist and the power of evil personified. In the introduction, Miceli explains the need for a "demonology" without which true Christology is little understood. Starting with the Old and New Testament prophecies of the End Times, it is clear that the Antichrist will be a man whose basic goal is to place himself as ruler of the world and persecute the Church in any way possible. Christ, Greek for the Hebrew "Messiah" means, "anointed one", as Christ is the Anointed One of God. The Greek prefix "anti" means simultaneously "against" and "in place of." Therefore, the Antichrist will not be merely against Christ in the literal sense, he will be the personification of Satan's attempt to supplant God's will and introduce his own. Miceli then devotes space to the Greek and Latin Fathers, along with medieval theologians and what they wrote about the Antichrist. They believed that he will be of Jewish heritage with origins in Babylon (which is present day Iraq, by the way), and will rebuild the Jewish Temple (presently the site of the Islamic Dome of the Rock). All the peoples of the world will bow to his rule as Christ incarnate, as he deceives the world with many false miracles and spectacles, pretending to be a teacher of universal enlightenment, peace, brotherhood and love. His reign will become hell on earth, as God pours out his wrath on Earth for the sins of humankind. The final battle will be between the Antichrist's assembled worldly forces and Christ at His Second Coming.

Miceli devotes a lot of space to the writings of Newman, an Anglican churchman who converted to Catholicism in 19th century England wrote a great volume of material concerning the spiritual deception that Western Christians have faced. It may even be that the Antichrist's persecution of the Church will not in fact be of a physically violent nature. Possibly it could be a much more insidious psychological attack against Christ and his Church on all fronts. Christianity will be held up to ridicule as an outdated religion of ignoramuses, while all sorts of neo-Gnostic philosophies will be extolled instead (examples of which can be seen today are New Age, dialectic materialism, Darwinism, liberalism, feminism, post-modernism, existentialism, to name a few).

The radical political affairs of the 20th century are also sure signs of the coming of the Antichrist. Nazism and Communism have unleashed warfare and bloodbaths unseen at any previous point in human history. Hitler, Mussolini and the Communist revolutionaries (Stalin, Mao, Castro, Che Guevara, et al.) are modern forerunners to the Antichrist because both of them tried to create man made utopias based upon totalitarian state-control of society. The Western democracies, particularly the Churchill, FDR and Kennedy administrations also share in the (dis)honor of being forerunners to the Antichrist as well. Churchill and FDR refused to stand up to the Soviet Union after WWII and allowed Eastern Europe to fall to Communism. Kennedy betrayed the Catholic Diem Government in Vietnam and ordered its overthrow.

The "modern shadow of the Antichrist" in the Middle East today is the Zionist State of Israel. Israel, founded on Jewish nationalism and a lust for worldly power, with its nuclear arsenal, military prowess and air-tight relationship with the United States make it the center of gravity of the Antichrist's one-world state.

Miceli also discusses the heretical elements in the Catholic Church being pre-cursor to the Antichrist as well. He is rather suspicious of the liturgical "reforms" made since Vatican II and the pontificate of Pope John XXVIII. He sites the demands made by radicals within the laity to make the Roman Church up to date with avant-garde political and theological liberalism. Miceli writes that the liberals like to make fun of the Church because of its "allegedly intransigent, dogmatic, authoritarian, rigid, anti-Semitic, legalistic, Constantinian, triumphant, Roman posture and policies."

The last couple of sections of _The Antichrist_ discuss the "Apocalyptic atmosphere" of modern day society. Distorted sexual roles which are a feature of pagan fertility rites along with open Satanism and the meaningless mayhem of rock n' roll are all contributing to the spirit of Antichrist in pop-culture. Upon the ashes of this nihilistic, hedonistic rubble will arise what is labeled the "Moloch state," named after the Old Testament false god whose followers performed human-sacrifice. Moloch will be the synthesis of Western decadence, secular humanism, Communism, Nazism, Zionism and outright Satanism that will look like "1984" and "Brave New World." The state will control everybody and everything for its own power and all notions of humanity and the individual person as the "image of God" will be erased. Miceli, to his credit, devotes some space to extolling the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. Although Islam and Christianity share some irreconcilable theological differences, they are mainly in areas where Islam negates several Christian dogmas (most importantly the Divinity of Christ). Muslims, however, share a similar devotion to Jesus Christ and believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. The appendix is a selection of quotations, "Dark Pieces on the Antichrist."

A great book on the Antichrist and the nature of evil in the world. It recognizes that the Roman Empire was the force that St. Paul says is keeping Satan bound until the end times, but he does not speculate that this "seal" was the Czar of Russia, who was the successor to Constantine as protector of the Church.