I think it is a mistake that many fellow Catholics often make when declaring that Nero was the definitive antichrist. John Cardinal Newman offers some really keen insight into this topic with his 4 sermons on the antichrist. (
conventhill.com/endtimes/newman.htm) He brings up an interesting point of view where he says that much like Christ who had prefigurements throughout history (Moses, King David, etc) so too the antichrist will have prefigurements. I am of the opinion that Nero was just one of those prefigurements or forerunners to the antichrist. Not only Nero but even before him, Antiochus Epiphanes fits the description of the little horn by the prophet Daniel perfectly, and you can see the almost blatantly obvious connections when reading Maccabees. Antiochus Epiphanes, Nero, Hitler, and so on are merely forerunners to the final antichrist. And when looking at this topic from this perspective it’s just astounding to notice that history repeats itself. Antiochus desecrated the temple with a statue of Jupiter Olympius in the second century B.C. as it says in 1 Maccabees 1:56-60:
[56] And they drove away the people of Israel into lurking holes, and into the secret places of fugitives. [57] On the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred and forty-fifth year, king Antiochus set up the abominable idol of desolation upon the altar of God, and they built altars throughout all the cities of Juda round about: [58] And they burnt incense, and sacrificed at the doors of the houses, and in the streets. [59] And they cut in pieces, and burnt with fire the books of the law of God: [60] And every one with whom the books of the testament of the Lord were found, and whosoever observed the law of the Lord, they put to death, according to the edict of the king.
And just a couple of centuries later, history repeats itself with the Roman Empire, Titus’ legions surrounded Jerusalem and stormed the temple with the battle standard that depicted the blasphemous image of the emperor as a deity. The Church father, Eusebius of Caesarea, wrote an extensive history of the early Church after Christ, and in it he describes the events that took place pertaining to the destruction of Jerusalem. The following quotes are from Book 3, chapter 5 of his Church History:
But the number of calamities which everywhere fell upon the nation at that time; the extreme misfortunes to which the inhabitants of Judea were especially subjected, the thousands of men, as well as women and children, that perished by the sword, by famine, and by other forms of death innumerable—all these things, as well as the many great sieges which were carried on against the cities of Judea, and the excessive sufferings endured by those that fled to Jerusalem itself, as to a city of perfect safety, and finally the general course of the whole war, as well as its particular occurrences in detail, and how at last the abomination of desolation, proclaimed by the prophets, stood in the very temple of God, so celebrated of old, the temple which was now awaiting its total and final destruction by fire — all these things any one that wishes may find accurately described in the history written by Josephus.
Eusebius seems to be suggesting (as others have concurred) that the abomination Jesus was talking about was the Battle standards of the emperor entering the temple that would subsequently be destroyed by the roman soldiers.
And earlier in the same chapter Eusebius writes:
But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ had come there from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.
So the Christians in Jerusalem were commanded by a revelation to flee Jerusalem to escape its coming destruction… now where does that sound familiar?
Luke 21:20-22
[20] And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army; then know that the desolation thereof is at hand.[21] Then let those who are in Judea, flee to the mountains; and those who are in the midst thereof, depart out: and those who are in the countries, not enter into it. [22] For these are the days of vengeance, that all things may be fulfilled, that are written.
The army obviously being the Romans, who surrounded Jerusalem and laid siege to the city, and the Christians having been forewarned, perhaps with this very scripture fled Jerusalem and headed for the mountain refuge of Pella in Perea (the ruins of Pella are there to this very day!)
Now, I am not a preterist as some may think from what I am presenting, but what I am speculating on is that perhaps these prophetic events spoken of in scripture repeat themselves? I do not think it is a coincidence that these events (Romans v. Jerusalem, Antiochus v. Jerusalem) are so eerily similar to one another and their correspondence to scripture. And I think this opens the door to recognizing that similar events will take place again at some point, and perhaps for the last time. And I have heard it said that is not our place to know how or when these things will come about, but only to know that they will so that we will keep the faith and stand firm when put to the test, and this in the end was the entire purpose of end times prophecy in scripture so that we may not become discouraged and doubtful in the times of persecution.
); rather, I think he may go for something else that we find increasingly growing nowadays: the worship of the self and ‘man-as-God’-type of thing, and with it, a rabid anti-theism, a disdain for the backward ‘superstitions’ that have existed until now, but more especially Christianity. As with any good leader, he might have a 