Carl Olson in NRO

Another candidate for the position of “The Antichrist” has met his end.

It wasn’t too long ago that Saddam Hussein was considered by some Bible-prophecy students to possibly be the final “man of sin” and global dictator. As late as March of this year, fundamentalist pastor and “end-times” buff Irvin Baxter insisted that Saddam Hussein was Abaddon, or Apollyon, the “Destroyer” spoken of in Revelation 9:11. “Iraq fits like hand in glove,” he claimed, predicting that Saddam’s country would soon become the vortex of supernatural evil. Various prophecy-oriented websites explained in elaborate detail how the Butcher of Baghdad might rise from the ruin of the first Persian Gulf War and lead a jihad against Israel, plunging the world into the final cosmic conflict between good and evil, culminating in the battle of Armageddon.