antichrist
, I was more than interested in predictions, beliefs and movements that involved the End of the World. It's a perennial favourite for religions of all kinds, as it thrives on fear and encourages obedience. Any wannabee messiah - someone really committed to building his own band of devoted followers, keeping them close, gaining wealth, fame and all the other advantages of people believing you know something important, that they don't know - can do no better than to get involved in prophecy. It doesn't have to be about Armageddon, the absolute end. It might just be a pole shift, melting icecaps, or the disappearance of some well populated spot under the sea.

The really important factor is to promise that your followers will be the ones who will survive the chosen event. Maybe they'll be picked up by a UFO from some hill during a flood, or lifted out by Christ during the Rapture. Maybe they'll be underground with you in some bunker, with a bunch of wild-eyed survivalists and a heap of canned food, while the ethnic minorities loot and riot. You can take your pick.

The 'apocalyptic' tradition goes way back, long before Christianity. Promises of a better life have held enslaved peoples together for thousands of years, and it's more or less traditional for a hate figure to have to appear before the victory of, well, whichever power or deity you happen to believe in. In the Christian bible, with which most readers are probably familiar, that figure is the Antichrist, who features in the Book of Revelation.

Being the Antichrist is a messy job, but someone will have to do it - without an Antichrist, none of the rest of the events of the traditional Book of Revelation end of the world can begin to happen. While there is argument about the precise sequence - when the Rapture, the Mark of the Beast, the Battle of Armageddon, the Judgement and the reign of Christ on Earth will happen - if there is no Antichrist, then Christ has nothing to return for.

Actually, in the early days at any rate, the man who turns out to be the Antichrist will, I understand, probably appear to be a thoroughly nice chap. (I've never come across any suggestion that the Antichrist might be a woman, but the Almighty has always been one for surprises: the Great Flood, for instance, or wasps.) He's likely to be involved in bringing nations together, in uniting religions, forging new alliances, breaking down barriers. He is often depicted as an empire-builder, a genuine leader of people, a man who wins trust and offers a better life. But in recent years, increasingly, he has been seen as someone who will encourage mankind to believe that they, themselves are Gods, that they don't need religions and they don't need faith. If the New Age movement had a real leader (David Icke doesn't count), then I'm sure he'd be dubbed the Antichrist by a wide range of Christian groups and movements.

Over the years, a variety of fiercely impressive international figures have temporarily held the title. For the early Christians, the Emperor Nero was the favourite. More recently, Napoleon and Hitler both seemed to fit the description. Mikhail Gorbachev provided scope for speculation. All that peacemaking, the reductions of arms, perestroika, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and worst of all visiting the Pope in Rome, and calling him Holy Father. Rome is pretty much the centre of all evil for the believers in the process of the Book of Revelation.

You won't be surprised to know that US President Bill Clinton has been accused in similar terms, and in his case it's all tied with freemasonry, and setting-up the New World Order. To quote the remarkable evangelist Texe Marrs: "He wants to turn America's public schools into occult, black magic laboratories." Hilary Clinton doesn't escape criticism, either. If there's one thing more horrifying to the right-wing religious movement in the USA than a liberal man in power, it's a liberal woman.

The only person I've personally heard describe himself as the Antichrist was a certain individual from Northamptonshire who also thought he was an alien. I'm not taking that one seriously. But if the year 2000 itself is going to be the big one - and I can find you plenty of seers and prophets who say that it will - then the Antichrist ought to be up and running by now: he has something like seven years to cause sufficient havoc for the End Times sequence to be set in motion. Any suggestions as to identity will be gratefully received!