Could Oprah be the Antichrist?

Please take what I am about to say with a grain of salt, because I am probably 60% joking with my comments here on the possibility that Oprah Winfrey is the Antichrist mentioned in the Bible. But then again, that means that I am 40% serious. As you scroll down on the sidebar, you will see a link that says "Antichrist Revealed," in which I speculated that Oprah Winfrey was the Antichrist and Dr. Phil was the False Prophet mentioned by Revelation. I here want to update that assertion a little, because Dr. Phil seems to be losing some of his steam and I don't think he is the False Prophet; but Oprah has gained in momentum, power and influence, and I think the possibility that she could be the Antichrist has gone up tremendously in my mind.

The Scriptures say that the Antichrist will be one who teaches false doctrine and will blaspheme the truth (Rev. 13:5-7). It's words are described as "haughty," something that fits Oprah well. Consider this story from June, 2007 in which Oprah and her entourage arrived at the luxury store Hermes in Paris after the store was closed and demanded entry. When a security guard explained to her that the store was already closed (something that was verified by security cameras), Oprah pulled the whole, "Don't you know who I am??" routine, but was still denied entry.

The following week, she blasted the store publicly on her show, using it as a forum to vent her personal outrage. The store began to get angry calls and emails from Oprah devotees the world over. The store tried to do some emergency PR, and Oprah ended up dragging the president of the corporation on the air to discuss the "incident." Did they reconcile? Not at all! Hermes CEO Robert Chavez was forced to listen to more of Oprah's angry tirade at the incident and apologized several times, saying he was sorry for one "rigid" employee "who wasn't aware of Oprah's stature, and expressed his regret at the incident."

So wait a second, Oprah gets turned away for trying to get into a store that is closed, and the CEO of the company ends up apologizing to her? She is certainly tyrannical in the prerogatives she assumes for herself and in her quick resort to her program to speak about her personal, petty grievances.

Another incident: when Martin Luther King's widow Coretta Scott King passed away a year ago, thousands of people waited all day in the rain to pay their last respects. But when Oprah Winfrey showed up, they shooed all the people away and closed the memorial so Oprah could go in alone.

More serious is the false spirituality that Oprah fosters on her program. There are many people involved in New Age spirituality, and this in itself is bad. But with the amount of visibility Oprah has (her show has 20 million viewers in 132 countries). Oprah Winfrey will be letting out all the stops on her XM Satellite Radio program this coming year. Beginning January 1, 2008, “Oprah & Friends” will offer a year-long course on the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles. A lesson a day throughout the year will completely cover the 365 lessons from the Course in Miracles “Workbook.”For example, Lesson #29 asks you to go through your day affirming that “God is in everything I see.” Lesson #61 tells each person to repeat the affirmation “I am the light of the world.” Lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe “My salvation comes from me.”By the end of the year, “Oprah & Friends” listeners will have completed all of the lessons laid out in the Course in Miracles Workbook.

She also fits the biblical image of the Antichrist in another way. Look at this verse from the Book of Revelation 13:14,15: It [the Beast] deceives those who dwell on earth, bidding them make an image for the beast...and to cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Now, Oprah does in fact have an "image" made of her, in two ways. First, in the most literal sense, is the golden "Oprah Sarcophagus" seen at left, by American sculptor Daniel Edwards, who commented on the piece that it "pays homage to the closest thing America has to a living deity." The sarcophagus is modeled after royal Egyptian sarcophogi, which were meant to confer eternal life on the god-kings of ancient Egypt. So, in the truest sense of the word "image," Oprah fits this description of the Antichrist (although Revelation 13:15 also says that the False Prophet causes the image to come to life, which so far we have not seen with this particular statue yet).

But consider, more symbolically, Oprah's relentless self-aggrandizement through the medium of her magazine, "O," which besides being named after her features portraits of herself on every single cover. Just look at the covers of the past several issues of her magazine "O":

And it goes on an on like that, right back to to her first issue in May, 2000. Dozens of magazine covers all featuring Oprah. Who can deny that through this medium she is attempting to get people to "worship" her "image?"

And what about the Bible's warning that the Antichrist causes any who will not worship its image to be slain? Well, consider this: in 2007, a former employee of Oprah's corporation broke away from the Oprah Empire and sought to publish a book which purported to expose the cruelty and greed of the media mogul. Winfrey heard about the intended book and made a few calls to the publishing houses in New York and after that no company would touch the book. So, I guess at least as far as books are concerned, Oprah has the power to "slay" those which criticize her. Even large publishing firms like Random House were so afraid of Oprah's power that they refused to go near the book.

Another case: in 1996, Oprah made a remark about the quality of Texas beef which led viewers to believe that the beef was less than good. So powerful was her word that beef sales plummeted and stocks in Texas Beef became worthless over night, all at Oprah's fiat. Well, it turns out that the accusations Oprah made were incorrect, prompting the Texas Beef Council to sue her for slander. Oprah acted as if her show and info and words were nothing - that her show just put out info and she had no influence on how that info or her remarks were taken by the public. The judge sided with Oprah, but the question remains: does Oprah have a huge influence on what people think and do in America? The obvious answer is yes, she has a huge following and yes, she tries to influence people, which is why she is so dangerous when she tries to influence them into adopting New Ages teachings, like those in the Course in Miracles.

In case you doubt the influence of Oprah, or the devotion people have to her (many want her to run for president), consider these following real quotes from Oprah fans (from Gifts from the Heart, an Oprah tribute site):

"Dear Oprah, I believe in your spirit. You are truly a wonderful woman who has made me laugh, made me cry, made me open my eyes to many things...You have saved my life without ever knowing it. ... You are my hero, to be sure!" - Lisa Pittock

"She was a mother, a teacher and a friend," writes one fan, Sean. "Oprah not only educated me for that hour I shared with her through a glass window, but her warmth made me care for her. It made me want to make her proud."

Can you deny that Oprah's followers are almost religious in their zeal? But perhaps most sinister is this: the Antichrist is a character who mixes false religion with politics. Is Oprah involved in politics at all? I'll leave you with the following images to ponder.



Let's keep an eye on this woman, and on her accomplice here.