"The last thing that you will ever see is my power over his."
-Nicolae Carpathia to Gerald Fitzhugh, claiming that he will defeat Jesus Christ.
Nicolae Jetty Carpathia (NICK-o-lye Car-PAY-thee-ah), also known as the Antichrist, is a fictional character and the secondary antagonist in the Left Behind book series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. He was originally introduced as the main antagonist when the first books were written, but as more books were written, he was revealed to be merely a bit player to the book series' true main villain.
Appearance
Being born as a result of the genetically engineered Project People's Victory, Carpathia possessed many incredibly desirable traits, and was extremely handsome and dashing; piercingly blue-eyed and blonde, like the original Romanians. He was extremely tall, with broad shoulders, as well as a thick muscular chest.
Personality
Carpathia is the prophesized Antichrist (also known as the Beast from the Sea, the Man of Sin, and the Son of Perdition), and the most purely malevolent, egregious, and evil person the world has ever known, compared to whom all of the great dictators and tyrants of the past pale. His unparalleled evil, together with his incredible intelligence, oratory skills, and deceitful charisma, made Carpathia a terrifying and formidable juggernaut of a foe to anybody who dared to oppose him, even before he became Supreme Potentate. Nonetheless, Antichrist Carpathia was an expert at hiding his true colors and long-term goals by offering the world the seemingly glorious peace in the Middle East (especially in Isreal), and global disarmament. According to Buck, he carried himself with a "sense of humility and purpose", and effortlessly dominated any room that he was in.
Carpathia slowly gains complete control of the entire world (with Satan as his master and guide), first as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, then as the far more powerful Supreme Potentate of the Global Community (an evil and diabolical global government), and, finally, as the self-proclaimed God of Carpathianism (which replaces the Enigma Babylon One World Faith). As the Antichrist, Carpathia is directly responsible for the terrifying 7-year-long Tribulation, and the ultimate Battle of Armageddon. After his incredible resurrection from the dead (after 3 days), Antichrist Carpathia is willingly possessed by the Devil, gruesomely desecrates the Jewish Holy Temple, declares himself to be God, and brutally enforces the diabolical new religion of Carpathianism by forcibly branding people with the Number of the Beast, and brutally executing Christians. In the end, Supreme Potentate Carpathia marshals the "Ten Kingdoms" against the followers of Jesus Christ, and besieges Jerusalem in the final Battle of Armageddon. Antichrist Carpathia was finally defeated by Jesus Himself for his actions, and his ultimate defeat marks the end of the ineffable Tribulation.
Novels
The Rising: Antichrist is Born
Born in the small village of Cluj, Romania, Carpathia's birth was the product of a genetic engineering and artificial insemination project, known as Project People's Victory. His mother, Marilena, is unwittingly convinced by Satanists to become the mother of a child who, they assure her, will change the face of the world. Satan himself agrees to help her make this possible if only she submits to him. Marilena stays with her husband, Sorin, until the baby is born, insisting that her "son" keep the strong and noble "Carpathia" name.
Through his parents, Carpathia possessed a very unique bloodline, dating back to Ancient Rome, so he could actually claim to be of Roman descendant. This is partly in keeping with the early Christian belief that the Antichrist would come in the form of a Roman emperor in addition to the current PreMillenialist Christian view that the Antichrist will emerge from a "New Roman Empire", the European Union. His father's last name, Carpathia, comes from the Carpathian Mountains, a mountain range in Romania.
As a young child, Carpathia showed remarkable intelligence (easily mastering many languages), beauty and athletic ability, and also proved to be extraordinarily manipulative, able to bend others to his will with relative ease. Nicolae has his first taste of fame in a TIME article at a young age, graduates high school early, and graduates university in under 2 years. His education was entirely financed by Jonathan Stonagal. Nicolae's Satanist handlers arranged for his mother to be eliminated, and Nicolae himself eventually demanded the dispatch of his "fathers," a key to his rise to power. With his advisers and counselors, Carpathia formed a successful import-export business, which quickly made him a millionaire. Once Nicolae became a very powerful businessman, he was taken by a demon to the desert, where he was forced to remain without food or water for 40 days. In a contrast to Jesus's temptations where He withstood Satan with Scripture, Nicolae fell to all three temptations. After this, Nicolae was returned to Romania by Satan.
The Regime: Evil Advances
After Nicolae Carpathia's return, his influence in business and politics grows, and anyone who stands in his way tends to dissapear permanently. Nicolae hires "kingmaker" and soon-to-be False Prophet Leon Fortunato as a deputy and consutant. Over the course of a few years, Carpathia rises to power within the Romanian goverment, becoming a member of the Romanian House of Deputies (the government's lower house). Carpathia frequently manipulated people and events for his own personal gain, and often resorted to murder and blackmail in order to acheive these goals. He became as a prominent government peacemaker, who lead a movevent of disarmament. Even the Israeli botanist and statesman Chaim Rosenzweig, knew of him, though he did not initially know his name. Carpathia often calls upon the influence of his "spiritual guide" (later revealed to be the Devil himself) for advice. Jonathan Stonagal begins to grow regretful with his involvement with Carpathia, fearing that the young Antichrist is already out of his control.
The Rapture: In the Twinkling of an Eye
At the age of 24, Carpathia stepped into the political scene as a member of the lower house of the Parliament of Romania. Carpathia found reasons to travel, establishing alliances with heads of state who would not have thought to grant an audience to someone from the Romanian lower house, except that he was so persuasive. And he had become known as the most popular man in Romania, admired, respected, lauded by even his opponents.
In the weeks before the Rapture, Carpathia assigns Fortunato to orchestrate President of Romania, Ghregore Vasile's leave of office. Fortunato resorts to several threats before calling in a bomb threat at Vasile's grandchildren's school and a fire at his son's farm which ultimately cause Vasile to step down. Carpathia wins the election with ease and becomes Romania's President. Thus, Nicolae eliminates any obstacles in his path to power. As the newly appointed President of Romania, Nicolae is invited to speak before the U.N.
Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days
In the aftermath of the Rapture, Carpathia quickly gains fame Internationally due to his upcoming speech at the United Nations. Carpathia arrives at the UN Headquarters to deliver his long and comprehensive speech, addressing the United Nations. He is introduced and warmly greeted by Secretary-General Mwangati Ngumo and Chaim Rozenzweig. During his address, Carpathia quickly charms and impresses everybody present with his incredible oratory skills, amazing genius-level intellect and memory, as well as his vast knowledge of the United Nations, its members, history, principal organs, and specialized agencies. Carpathia also demonstrates his uncommon polyglotism, being able to fluently speak over 9 languages, which include Romanian, Hungarian, Russian, English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Hebrew, and Chinese. A very impressed reporter Cameron Williams (who was previously known to be a skeptic) even refers to him as the "Carpathia Juggernaut." By the middle of his address, Carpathia brings the entire crowd to its feet in full voice and applause, press and representative alike. Everybody, including Steve Plank and Buck Williams continued to clap and cheer, never once apprearing embarassed at their loss of detached objectivity. After his address Carpathia quickly becomes a celebrity, and People magazine named him their newest Sexiest Man Alive.
Carpathia outlines his plan to get the UN back on track; re-arranging the Security Council, and organizing 10 regions to encompass the entire world with the Leaders of each nation reporting to each leader of the 10 regions. Many vie for Carpathia to become the new Secretary-General. Carpathia refuses unless a direct set of events are put in place, including moving the UN to New Babylon, a city in development in Iraq. All the demands are met, and Carpathia is elected as the new Secretary-General of the United Nations.
During a UN conference, Secretary-General Carpathia ruthlessly murders both Stonagal and Joshua Todd-Cothran with a single gunshot, revealing his true colors. However, he manages to brainwash everybody present by convincing them that what they had actually seen was the two individuals murdering each other. Buck, however, was the only one immune to this brainwash, since he had previously accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Tribulation Force, Nicolae, Soul Harvest, Apollyon
Carpathia quickly began effecting changes to the U.N., converting it into the cruel and purely malevolent Global Community and appointing himself as that evil government's Supreme Potentate. After he raised Fortunato from the dead, he styled himself "His Excellency, Global Community Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia", Eventually after World War III, Carpathia became a malevolent dictator, while still openly portraying himself as a benevolent pacifist.
Assassins: Assignment: Jerusalem, Target: Antichrist
After three and a half years in power Carpathia was assassinated by Chaim Rosenzweig, an Israeli botanist and statesman whom he once pretended to befriend, prophetically suffering a lethal head wound from a blade which Rosenzweig had created himself and concealed in the tubing of his wheelchair after feigning a stroke.
The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession
Carpathia's demise was short-lived, however, as after three days of lying dead, Carpathia's body was indwelt by Satan himself, thus making Carpathia appear to rise from the dead and further cement his power. Thus, Carpathia declares himself to be God, and demands worship. He also warns all of the Christians present that the Great Tribulation, the 3.5 worst years in human history await them all.
The Mark, Desecration, The Remnant
Carpathia eventually proclaimed himself God in the desecrated Temple of the Holy of Holies, and demanded that everyone on Earth worship him. With his reign secure, he ordered that golden statues of himself be constructed in every locale possible, and commanded that all worship these statues three times a day, with death as the penalty for failure to obey. Carpathia established "Carpathianism" as the only legal religion on Earth and, following the events in the Book of Revelation, decreed that all were required to bear a mark (the biblical Mark of the Beast) signifying their loyalty to him and the Global Community in order to buy or sell. At last, he gave out the decree that those who did not accept the mark, along with any who refused to proclaim him as God, would be beheaded by a guillotine, known as a "loyalty enforcement facilitator."
Armageddon: Cosmic Battle of the Ages
In a final surge for complete domination of Earth, Carpathia created the One World, composed of all G.C. military presence on the planet; their mission was to destroy the remnant stronghold of Petra and take over the city of Jerusalem as the world's new capital after the supernatural destruction of New Babylon. He also gathered the armies of the world at the valley of Armageddon for the battle with Jesus Christ and His army.
Glorious Appearing: The End of Days
In accordance with the series' interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus Christ Himself defeated Antichrist Carpathia right after the Second Coming. Jesus instantly destroyes the 3 Carpathia clones (unclean froglike spirits), and has the defeated Antichrist and False Prophet brought before Him. Before Carpathia's eternal sentence is carried out, the Devil is forcibly cast out by Jesus out of the Antichrist, who then kneels before Christ and forcibly declares Him as Lord. Carpathia is forced to admit, at the feet of Jesus, that everything he ever did was for personal gain and that thus, his entire life was a waste. Jesus declares that as the Antichrist, Carpathia is the most evil person of all time, and has brought about more destruction than any other person in history. Thus, both Antichrist Carpathia and False Prophet Fortunato are punished accordingly by Jesus Christ, who has them hurled into the bottomless and ineffably terrifying Lake of Fire for all eternity. Satan, however, is destined to return, as he is chained up for a thousand years.
Kingdom Come: The Final Victory
One thousand years later, Carpathia and Leon Fortunato are seen in a brief glimpse, as the terrible Lake of Fire opens to swallow up the Devil himself. Carpathia is still writhing in agony as he is tortured in fire and sulfur, repeating over and over, "Jesus is Lord!!!". The scene closes, and Carpathia's - along with his master's and his underling's - suffering is resumed for all eternity.
Powers and Abilities
Manipulation: The Antichrist Nicolae was able to manipulate anyone at ease. He was able to do this after he murdered Jonathan Stonagal and Joshua Todd Cothran by lying saying that Stonagal shot himself and Todd-Cothran in remorse for the assassinations. Nicolae was also able to manipulate technology to his will, as he passed through a lie detector test by answering falsehoods that the computer program recorded as the truth.
Fluent Languages: The Antichrist Nicolae was able to speak over nine languages, including his own.
Supernatural Abilities: Even before he was indwelt by Satan, Nicolae had the ability to resurrect whoever he wanted from the dead, though this was used only one time with Leon Fortunato. After he was indwelt, Nicolae had superhuman stamina and could withstand extremely high temperatures, as was witnessed by his taking a sunbath during the fourth Bowl Judgment. He was also able to emit a faint glowing aura that gave limited visibility to both him and whoever was close to his personal vicinity during the fifth Bowl Judgment. In the Dramatic Audio presentation of "Armageddon", Nicolae was able to rip the heart out of Raman Vajpayee's chest with his bare hands when Raman challenged the Antichrist to kill him by calling him "impotent".
Behind the Scenes
- Marilena stays with her husband, Sorin, until the baby is born, insisting that her "son" keep the strong "Carpathia" name.
- In the prequel, it is suggested that his name means "Victory of the People." This refers to his first name Nicolae, which comes from the Greek name of Nikolaos, which means victory over/of the people. (This was hinted at with the name of the artificial insemination project, Project People's Victory.) It can also a refer to a group of non-mainstream/not accepted "Christians" called Nicolaitans in Revelation 2:15.
- The President of Romania soon resigned in favor of Carpathia, with the unanimous support of that country's parliament (an event which would run contrary to the current Constitution of Romania; the Romanian President is directly elected, and in the event of the death, resignation, or removal of the President, the presidency is assumed ad hoc by the President of the Senate until new elections are held).
Character Basis
Nicolae Carpathia is most likely based on former Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu. This is evidenced by both Carpathia's and Ceausescu's use of cult of personality in their rules. Also, both hail from the country of Romania, and moved up the political ladder in that country with incredible speed and ease. Finally, a nickname for Nicolae Ceausescu is "The Genius of the Carpathians", and that is even the name of his biography. As well, his last name, Carpathia, comes from the Carpathian Mountains, a mountain range in Romania.
It is also interesting to note that Nicolae Carpathia and Leon Fortunato essentially share the same first names as Nikolai Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
Appearance-wise, in the original release of "Left Behind", Nicolae Carpathia was said to resemble a young Robert Redford, while in the later release, he was said to resemble a young Brad Pitt.
In other media
Gordon Currie playing the role of Carpathia.
- In the orginal Left Behind movies, Carpathia is portrayed by Gordon Currie.
- He did not appear in the 2014 reboot, but he will likely appear in its sequel.
- In Vanished: Left Behind – The Next Generation, he is protrayed by Randy LaHaye, Tim LaHaye's grandson.
- In the Dramatic Audio presentations, he was voiced by Roger Mueller.
Gallery
Comics
