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"WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) -- The Rev. Jerry Falwell said the Antichrist is probably alive today and is a male Jew. He also believes the second coming of Christ probably will be within 10 years. In a speech Thursday about the concern people have over the new millennium, Falwell told about 1,500 people at a conference on evangelism at Kingsport, Tenn., that the Antichrist is male and is a Jew."
Falwell is known as a strong supporter of Israel and a strong opponent of Palestinian rights. Therefore, Jewish leaders were especially dismayed by his remarks.
On his own web site, Falwell now says that his remarks were misinterpreted.
"When I delivered my sermon on the second coming of Jesus Christ last week to a pastors' conference in Kingsport, Tennessee, I conveyed biblically-based truths that I have believed and preached nationally for more than 40 years. In addition to asserting that I personally believe that Christ could return soon, I stated that the Antichrist may possibly be alive on the earth today. Many evangelicals, including Billy Graham and millions of others, believe in the imminent, premillennial, pretribulational second coming of Jesus Christ for all of His Church. Since Jesus came to the earth the first time 2,000 years ago as a Jewish male, many evangelicals believe the Antichrist will, by necessity, be a Jewish male. This belief is 2,000 years old and has no anti-Semitic roots. This is simply historic and prophetic orthodox Christian doctrine that many theologians, Christian and non-Christian, have understood for two millennia."
However, Falwell's claim appears to have no Biblical support. For example, 2 John 1:7 says: "Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist."
Historically, the belief over the centuries has been that the Antichrist is a person pretending to be a Christian, indeed someone resembling Falwell himself. Falwell's idea that the Antichrist is a Jew seems to have been invented by Falwell.
Falwell concludes his website with the statement that his remark that the antichrist is a Jew is neither anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic and that some of his best friends are Jewish.
Falwell has traveled more than 30 times to Israel and has personally met every Prime Minister of Israel. He is considered to be a strong supporter of Israel. However, Rabbi Leon Klenicki, director of interfaith affairs for the ADL, said his remarks reflect his "lack of understanding of Judaism and the Jewish people in God's design."
"He supports Israel for his own Christological ends," Rabbi Klenicki said. "My concern is that when the year 2000 comes and he realizes that the Jewish people will not convert to Christianity, that he'll be critical of the State of Israel."
Falwell's statement "borders on anti-Semitism at best and is anti-Semitic at worst," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Phil Baum, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, along with Jack Rosen, president of the group, issued a statement saying that Falwell's view "will have an inevitably incendiary and degrading effect on Christian attitudes toward Jews."