Have you heard? Among the sun-kissed urban landscape of Silicon Valley, there’s a tech CEO who, suddenly, has become exceedingly concerned about the Antichrist and the end of the world. If that surprises you, you’re not alone.
Palantir CEO Peter Thiel is a self-confessed Christian. He’s opposed to “wokeism” as he considers it a secular religion opposed to Christian values and has been described as a proponent of “techno-eschatology”. He heavily bankrolled the political career of now-US Vice President JD Vance and is one of the Republican Party’s most prominent donors. He’s also obsessed with the Apocalypse and the Antichrist—both terms more familiar to churchgoers than Silicon Valley tech bros.
“The slogan of the Antichrist is ‘peace and safety’ . . . the Antichrist will present as a great humanitarian, a great philanthropist . . . The Antichrist copies Christ, the Antichrist pretends to be greater than Christ.”
peter thiel
What’s relevant for this discussion, however, is Thiel’s eschatology. If you’ve never encountered the term, the word “eschatology” comes from the Greek éskhatos (“last”). In other words, eschatology is the study of the end of the world. Thiel believes the Antichrist and their agenda relates to government regulation. “The slogan of the Antichrist is ‘peace and safety’ . . . the Antichrist will present as a great humanitarian, a great philanthropist . . . The Antichrist copies Christ, the Antichrist pretends to be greater than Christ.” If you’re confused, join the club. As a Christian who has spent his entire life immersed in apocalyptic language, I have heard about the Antichrist my entire life, but I had never conceived of the Antichrist in this way before. However, there are some common threads to help us make sense of it all. In order to understand, we need to know who or what the early Christians thought the Antichrist, the “man of lawlessness” and the “beast of Revelation” were.
the original antichrist
If you’ve never heard the term “Antichrist” before, the term comes from the New Testament. The word occurs five times in the New Testament in four verses (1 John 2:18; 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7). 1 John 2:18 claims that “even now many antichrists have come”. In the first century AD, an “antichrist” was someone opposed to Jesus and the Church. 1 John 2:18 is also the only place in the Bible where the “Antichrist” is identified as a specific individual. Elsewhere, the term refers to someone who denies Christ (2:22), a Spirit opposed to God (4:3) or someone who both denies Christ and is a deceiver (2 John 7).
the man of lawlessness
In 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12, Paul names a figure he refers to as “the man of lawlessness”. This person, Paul predicts, will do three things: (1) exalt himself over God, (2) set himself up to be worshipped in God’s temple and (3), demand to be worshipped. However, Jesus will destroy this usurper “with the breath of His mouth and the splendour of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
the beast of revelation
Finally, in Revelation 13, a beast is described rising out of the ocean with 10 horns and seven heads. The dragon of Revelation (understood by early Christians as Satan) gives power to the beast. “The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast” (Revelation 13:3). Revelation 13 draws heavily on the book of Daniel, which described a “little horn” growing from a beast who “had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully” (Daniel 7:8).
pulling all the threads together
You’d be forgiven for thinking that these figures are disparate in function and identity, but after the death of the first apostles, Christians began to see them as being connected. Irenaeus of Lyon, writing in the late second century AD, was one of the first Christian writers to bring these figures together and identify them as all referring to the Antichrist. It’s thought that the emperor Nero was one of the original individuals identified as the Antichrist, given his intense persecution of early Christians and the conspiracy theory after his death that he was still alive and would one day return.
The point is, that whereas in the first century, “Antichrist” was thought of as a theological category that many people could fit into, as Christian theology developed, that idea was abandoned in favour of thinking of the Antichrist as a single person opposed to Jesus and His Church, wielding a fusion of religious/political power and intent on supplanting worship of the true God—leading to the Apocalypse, or end of the world.
Throughout history, many people were accused of being the Antichrist. The term has, at times, been understood to be a single figure and at others, a political system, religious institution or even an entire ethnic group. Frederick II, then Holy Roman Emperor, was accused of being the Antichrist by the pope. In turn, many popes were labelled “Antichrist”, particularly by Protestant reformers. The prophet Muhammad likewise wore the label at various times, as have the Jews, heretical sects or rival Christian groups and their leaders. Figures like Napoleon, Hitler, Saddam Hussein and more recently, Elon Musk, have all been accused of being the Antichrist for varying political and religious reasons. Depending on your internet browsing habits, you may have also come across people naming Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates and Donald Trump the Antichrist for a range of reasons.
techno-eschatology
Now that we better understand the term “Antichrist” and “eschatology”, you may still wonder how Peter Thiel fits into all of this. Specifically, how on earth Thiel developed his philosophy of “techno-eschatology”.
Thiel sees AI development as critical to human flourishing, which means, as a capitalist, he sees the regulation of AI as a threat. He frequently portrays regulation’s ultimate end-goal as tyranny posing as safety, which is why he is critical of climate change and social justice issues. The way that he sees it, existential risks like natural disasters, nuclear war, bioweapons or even AI-guided killer robots will propel humanity toward Armageddon and in desperation, they will look to a one-world government to ensure peace and security. It will be this polity that will produce the Antichrist, who will establish a totalitarian state under which all humanity will be enslaved. Thiel believes that the only way to avoid this dark future is to fully realise the potential of AI with, ideally, Thiel in charge.
weaponised spirituality
One thing that shouldn’t surprise any of us is how the term “Antichrist” is a malleable enough shoe to fit many feet. It can be used against a pope, a political figure or a technocrat, as well as organisations, institutions or entire governments. “Antichrist” is both vague and specific, able to be deployed in a cultural moment to serve a specific agenda, then later reinterpreted for a completely different purpose. It has been used by Catholics against Protestants and by Protestants against Catholics, by conservatives against progressives and by progressives against conservatives. In other words, without the grounding of a Scripture-first approach, it’s easy to cynically abuse terms like “Antichrist” for our own benefit—and to the denigration of our enemies—real or perceived.
what’s real and what’s false?
I don’t think Peter Thiel is right when he says that government oversight of AI will lead to the Antichrist. As we’ve learned, the “biblically accurate” Antichrist will combine religious and political power. They will seek to undermine the authority of God, set up a false system of worship and will attempt to bring the entire world under their authority (see Revelation 13 for more detail). This person has yet to emerge and until the specific conditions listed in Revelation 13 have been met, we should not assume any one person or entity is truly the Antichrist.
One question we haven’t addressed yet is, “Why?” Why did God reveal glimpses of the end to these early Christians? Was it so they could spend their time worrying, trying to interpret the “signs of the times”?
God reveals prophecy to His people for two reasons: (1) to comfort those suffering persecution in the first century as well as those suffering in the future—and (2) to reassure them that ultimately, Jesus will win and all earthly tyrants, mighty as they may be, will one day be defeated forever. “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep His commands and remain faithful to Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
Whether you’re looking for a firm foundation in times of global trouble or personal problems today, Jesus is reaching out to you. Get to know Him and He’ll be with you in the good times, as well as the bad.
