Nicolae Carpathia

Nicolae Jetty Carpathia
Nicolae Jetty Carpathia
Constituency	Global Community
Personal details
Born	February 16; Cluj County, Romania
Died	February 16; Har Megiddo, Israel
Nationality	Romanian
Profession	Politician

Nicolae Jetty Carpathia is a fictional character and the primary antagonist in the Left Behind book series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Within the series, Carpathia is the Antichrist, and leader of the Global Community, a world government which he ultimately marshals against the followers of Jesus Christ.

Fictional Biography

Early Life and Rise to Power

According to the plot, Carpathia was born in Cluj County, Romania, the product of genetic engineering and artificial insemination. His mother, Marilena, was unwittingly convinced by a group of Luciferians, whose group she joins, to become the mother of a child who, they assured her, would change the face of the world. Marilena stayed with her husband, Sorin, until the baby was born, insisting that her son keep the strong Carpathia name. (In the prequel novels, it is explained that the name "Nicolae", when translated, means "victory of the people", although this is far from Carpathia's actual goals.)

Through his parents, Carpathia possessed a unique bloodline dating back to Ancient Rome, so he could actually claim to be a Roman descendant. This references both the early Christian belief that the Antichrist would come in the form of a Roman emperor, as well as the current Pre-Millennialist Christian view that the Antichrist will emerge from a "New Roman Empire".

As a young child, Carpathia showed remarkable intelligence and athletic ability, and also proved to be extraordinarily manipulative, able to bend others to his will with relative ease. His handlers arranged for his mother to be eliminated, and Nicolae himself eventually demanded the dispatch of his "father", 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. After he became a millionaire, he is then taken by a demon to a desert, probably the Judaean Desert, where he is forced to live without food and water for 40 days. In contrast to Jesus's temptation, Nicolae falls for all three temptations, thus fully confirming that he will soon be the Antichrist. After that, he is then returned to Romania. Next, he quickly grew bored with business and finance and, guided by the "kingmaker" Leon Fortunato, to set his sights on politics.

At the age of 24, Carpathia stepped into the political scene as a member of the lower house of the Parliament of Romania. Falling victim to Fortunato's blackmail, the President of Romania resigned, allowing Carpathia to assume power, with the unanimous support of the country's parliament.[1]

Shortly thereafter, in the chaos following the Rapture, Carpathia was appointed United Nations Secretary-General. From this office, he converted the U.N. into the Global Community, appointing himself as that government's Supreme Potentate.

Death and resurrection

After three and a half years in power, Carpathia was assassinated by Chaim Rosenzweig, an Israeli botanist and statesman. He was killed by a lethal head wound from a sword which Rosenzweig had concealed. His 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. He had 4,000,000 people at his funeral.

Final 3½ years

To complete his quest for world domination, Carpathia created the One World Unity Army, 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, following 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.

In accordance with the series' interpretation of biblical prophecy, Carpathia was overthrown with the return of Jesus, who cast him, along with his False Prophet Fortunato, into the Lake of Fire to suffer for all eternity. Before his eternal sentence is carried out, Satan was cast out of Carpathia, who then kneels before Christ and declares him as Lord. He also admits, at the feet of Jesus, that everything he ever did was for personal gain and that his entire life was a waste.

One thousand years later

One thousand years later, a brief glimpse of Carpathia and Leon Fortunato is seen as the Lake of Fire opens to swallow up Satan. Carpathia is still writhing in agony as he is tortured in fire and sulfur, repeating over and over that Jesus is Lord. The scene closes, and Carpathia's suffering—along with that of his master and his underling—is resumed for all eternity.

Carpathianism

Carpathianism is a fictional religion established by Leon to worship Nicolae Carpathia, leaving it as the only legal religion on Earth. Failure to comply resulted in death. The religion lasted for three and a half years before meeting its downfall at the Second Coming of Christ.

Carpathianism draws heavily from the narratives and traditions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. After his death and resurrection, Carpathia proclaimed himself God in the desecrated Temple of the Holy of Holies, an act that is considered blasphemous in all three Abrahamic religions. He ordered golden statues of himself to be placed prominently and worshiped three times a day. This touches on both the golden calf story found in both the Old Testament and the Quran. In reference to the Book of Revelation, Carpathia introduces the mandatory mark known as the Mark of the Beast.

In other media

In the Left Behind films, Carpathia is portrayed by Gordon Currie and Randy LaHaye. In the Left Behind PC games, he is portrayed by Trevor Parsons.

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References

This event of the book series would not follow the actual constitution of Romania; the Romanian president is always directly elected, and when vacant, the presidency is assumed ad hoc by the President of the Senate until new elections are held.

Arweck, Elisabeth; Collins, Peter Jeffrey (2006). Reading religion in text and context: reflections of faith and practice in religious materials. Theology and religion in interdisciplinary perspective. Ashgate Publishing. pp. 38, 43–45. ISBN 0754654826.
Buss, Doris; Herman, Didi (2003). Globalizing family values: the Christian right in international politics. U of Minnesota Press. p. 29. ISBN 0816642087.
Dittmer, Jason; Spears, Zeke. "Apocalypse, now? The geopolitics of Left Behind". GeoJournal. 74 (3): 183–189. doi:10.1007/s10708-008-9219-8.
Gribben, Crawford (2004). "Rapture Fictions and the Changing Evangelical Condition". Literature and Theology. 18 (1): 77–94. doi:10.1093/litthe/18.1.77.
Morgan, David T. (2006). The new Brothers Grimm and their Left behind fairy tales. Mercer University Press. ISBN 0881460362.
Utter, Glenn H.; Storey, John Woodrow (2001). The religious right: a reference handbook. Contemporary world issues. ABC-CLIO. p. 276. ISBN 1576072126.

External links

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[1] This event of the book series would not follow the actual constitution of Romania; the Romanian president is always directly elected, and when vacant, the presidency is assumed ad hoc by the President of the Senate until new elections are held.