For this Reformed Christian, Trump is an antichrist. Let me tell you why.

In his speech to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina declared to broad approval, “The devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but the American lion got back up on his feet.” Scott then roared into the microphone. His remarks formed the backdrop to Donald Trump’s appearance at the convention with his bandaged right ear, the result of the attack on his life in Pennsylvania not long before.

Watching those events on television caused this Reformed Christian to turn to the work known as the Revelation to John, the last book of the Christian Bible. The first ten verses of chapter 13 contain a vision of a grotesque seven-headed beast whose mouth was like that of a lion. To this beast Satan, here called “the dragon,” gave “his power and his throne and great authority.” One of the heads of this beast “seemed to have a mortal wound,” inflicted by a sword. The wound was not actually fatal, but “was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with amazement” as a result. In fact, people went and “worshiped” both the beast and the dragon. To worship the beast is to worship the Satanic power behind the beast. Are there lessons to be drawn here about Donald Trump and his MAGA movement? I think so.

The beastly figure of Revelation 13 is commonly known in Christian tradition as an antichrist, which is someone who puts himself in Christ’s place, thereby actually becoming Christ’s opponent. For John, the seer who composed Revelation, the beast and its heads symbolized the Roman Empire and its emperors. Revelation was probably written when Domitian was the emperor; he reigned from 81–96 AD. Domitian posed a danger to the faith of Christians because he had pretentions to deity and demanded the appropriate public recognition of his divine status, with dire consequences for those who refused, particularly in Asia Minor where the seven churches addressed by the book (1:11) were located. Many faithful Christians did refuse, and they suffered persecution as a result (6:9).

Figures analogous to Domitian have made their appearance in world history, even if the book of Revelation did not have them specifically in view and even if the correspondence between them and the beast is not exact in many details. The first letter of John refers to “many antichrists” (2:18). What all these figures have in common is that they pose a diabolical temptation for Christians who want to remain faithful to Jesus, the Lord who alone suffered and died for them. In my view, Donald Trump is arguably a contemporary version of such an antichrist (it would do him too much honor to call him the Antichrist). Let me explain.

Some of the points of correspondence between the beast in Revelation 13 and Donald Trump are probably purely coincidental or merely suggestive, such as the nearly fatal head wound that healed. Others are more substantial and worthy of further reflection. According to Revelation 13, for example, “the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words.” It uttered “blasphemies against God.” Haughty and blasphemous words have arguably come from Trump’s mouth and those of his supporters, with claims that he stands in a special relationship with God who protects him from all harm. Trump and his supporters have likened him to the suffering and persecuted Jesus. Trump openly panders to Christian voters with lies (“I love Christians, I am a Christian,” he said at a recent event for conservative Christians in Florida). The former president has promoted and basked in a personality cult, expecting total fealty in word and deed from his followers, inevitably at the expense of the kind of loyalty his Christian supporters owe to Christ alone. This should trouble any Christian with the mind of Christ.

In Revelation 13, the people worshiping the beast explain their loyalty by asking rhetorically, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” The answer on both counts of course is: “no one.” Today, Republican officials, such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and former Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina, rationalize their fealty to Trump in a similar way. They effectively ask themselves, “Who is like Trump, and who can oppose him and survive politically?” The answer for any politically ambitious Republican is: No one. They regard resistance to him as futile, and dangerous to their political careers. By voicing support for him, they reinforce his divine pretensions, giving them legitimacy, authority, and power. Those officials who do have the courage to refuse to give him the total loyalty he demands can expect exclusion, contempt, and vicious attacks on social media from him and his fanatically loyal base. Ask Republicans such as former Vice President Mike Pence or former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, and numerous other conservative Republicans, many of them also conservative Christians, who have dared to stand up to him and call him out for his demonstrable lies, his serial adultery, his crass materialism, his cruel and abusive language, his bullying tactics, his self-absorption, and his criminal behavior. He has exhibited contempt not only for the laws of the land and the Constitution but also for the teachings of Jesus. That should trouble every Christian with the mind of the real Christ.

Interestingly, Revelation 13 also contains a vision of a second beast, which provides another revealing analogy for Trump and supporters (verses 11–18). This second beast appears on the scene as the defender in word and deed of the first beast. While it had “two horns like a lamb,” it yet “spoke like a dragon,” which is to say, while it looked innocent and harmless, it spoke deceitfully and dangerously. In later passages of Revelation, this second beast is referred to as “the false prophet” (16:13; 19:20; 20:10), someone who leads people astray into the worship of false gods. According to Revelation 13, the second beast “exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.” Modern Republican officials fulfilling an analogous role in our time include people such as Senator Scott of South Carolina, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson of Louisiana, and Senator JD Vance of Ohio, as well as Republican governors such as Ron DeSantis of Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota. They shamelessly parrot Trump’s lies in his presence and grovel for his approval.

More troubling for the church is that the list of apologists and grovelers includes ministers of the Word, including those who serve Reformed congregations. In their view Trump is evidently without sin, as Jesus was. Indictments and convictions for criminal activity do not count or matter even if they are formally warranted. Such pastors and like-minded Christians think that they can further the cause of the gospel by making what smacks of a pact with the Devil, something Jesus himself refused to do (Matthew 4:8–10). In doing so, they not only fall into a deceitful trap, betraying their true Lord; they also make Trump the antichrist that he is and wants to be. That should trouble every Christian with the mind of the one and only Christ.

Some of these pastors think that Trump is God’s Anointed as the Persian emperor Cyrus was according to Isaiah 44:28 (“He is my shepherd, and he shall carry out my purpose”) and 45:1 (“Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him”). In this view Trump serves a larger divine purpose, even if his behavior is morally despicable, shamelessly deceitful, and patently unlawful. Christian pastors who declare Trump to be God’s chosen vessel are actually playing God, doing what only God has a right to do. Yes, God can use evil to accomplish the good but that is God’s prerogative, not ours. As Christians we have no other calling than to be faithful to the gospel of Christ in word and deed.

The second beast of Revelation “deceives those who dwell on the earth,” alarmingly causing those who would not worship the first beast “to be slain.” Trump and his supporters have not gone this far with those who refuse to show the desired homage to the former president, at least not yet. Such a course of action would certainly be as diabolical as the recent attempt to assassinate Trump in Pennsylvania. Murder and attempted murder must be unequivocally rejected and lamented by Christians as contrary to the gospel. The fear that Trump Republicans, or their henchmen, could implement a murderous campaign against their opponents if Trump is re-elected may be misplaced and even paranoid, but one may be permitted to wonder where those who excuse the violent storming of the Capitol on behalf of Trump on January 6, 2021, will stop once they gain access to the levers of power. After all, Trump himself called for the execution of retired General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during Trump’s term as president, because he refused to bow down to Trump and do his will. It is a sign to be taken seriously that in the final month of his term, Trump signed the death warrants for the execution of multiple federal prisoners, something no previous president had done. In his current campaign, he repeatedly expresses his admiration for such murderous figures as Al Capone, Hannibal Lecter, and Vladimir Putin. He has proposed the termination of the constitution with all its fundamental legal protections for all citizens, including, let it be said, Reformed Christians. He has made numerous allusions in interviews and speeches to the use of violence to achieve his ends or to exact retribution. But whatever he himself could or would do as president, Trump may not be able to control the dark forces he has blessed and unleashed. Supporters present at the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania turned to the journalists who were covering the event and said, “You’re next!”  This should trouble every genuine Christian with the mind of Christ.

Finally, it may be noted that the second beast of Revelation 13 causes all people to have the mark of the first beast “on the right hand or on the forehead.” That mark consists of “the name of the beast and the number of its name.” That Trump has his own mark may be coincidental but is still instructive. As everyone knows, it is a red baseball cap with his name or his MAGA slogan clearly visible and prominently displayed on the forehead of the cap’s wearer. Since the assassination attempt, the mark of Trump seems also to be a white bandage, worn not on the right hand but the right ear. Its number is arguably also 666, which is to say an imperfect and diabolical trinity (Satan, Trump, and his false prophets), parodying and replacing the perfect Trinity of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit active in the churches of the saints.

Trump is an antichrist because he seeks to put himself in the place of Christ and because his words and actions are a grotesque and demonic travesty of the real Christ. But there is a further reason that he is an antichrist: There are people, including Reformed Christians, who embrace him as their supposed Messiah, even if they do not all seem to be fully aware that they are doing so. Without their support – their discipleship – Trump would only be an elderly former president who spends his time playing golf in Florida.

As far as this Reformed Christian is concerned, then, Trump and his MAGA movement constitute what Revelation 13 refers to as “a call for the endurance of the saints” (v. 10). These saints, believers loyal to Christ alone, cannot give their support in any shape or form to a manifest antichrist such as Donald J. Trump and his acolytes. It is time for the saints everywhere to stand up and be counted for Christ and to reject his counterfeit.