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 (G.C.), a world government which he ultimately marshals against the followers of Jesus Christ.

Fictional biography[edit]

Early life and rise to power[edit]

According to the plot, Carpathia was born in Cluj County, Romania, the product of genetic engineering and artificial insemination. His mother, Marilena, is unwittingly convinced by a group of Luciferians, whose group she joins, to become the mother of a child who, they assure her, would change the face of the world. Marilena stays with her husband, Sorin, until the baby is 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 possesses a unique bloodline dating back to Ancient Rome, so he can 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^{[citation needed]} that the Antichrist will emerge from a "New Roman Empire"^{[citation needed]}.

As a young child, Carpathia shows remarkable intelligence and athletic ability, and also proves to be extraordinarily manipulative, able to bend others to his will with relative ease. His handlers arrange for his mother to be eliminated, and Nicolae himself eventually demands the dispatch of his "father", a key to his rise to power. With his advisers and counselors, Carpathia forms a successful import-export business which quickly makes him a millionaire. After he becomes 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. He quickly grows bored with business and finance and, guided by the "kingmaker" Leon Fortunato, sets his sights on politics.

At the age of 24, Carpathia steps 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 resigns, allowing Carpathia to assume power with the unanimous support of the country's parliament.^[1]

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

After Carpathia establishes the Global Community, the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, and Egypt launch an uprising against him. Carpathia allows his enemies to start the war so that the Community can "retaliate" by destroying them.

Carpathia orders cities around the world, including neutral ones, to be obliterated to serve as an example to his enemies. London, Chicago, and other cities are nuked, resulting in millions of casualties, and blamed on the rebels.

Having won the war, and with no government left to oppose him, Carpathia gains full dominion of the earth.

Death and resurrection[edit]

After three and a half years in power, Carpathia is assassinated by Chaim Rosenzweig, an Israeli botanist and statesman. He is killed by a lethal head wound from a sword which Rosenzweig had concealed. His demise is short-lived, however, as after three days of lying dead, Carpathia's body is indwelt by Satan himself, thus making Carpathia appear to rise from the dead and further cement his power. 4,000,000 people attend his funeral.

Final 3½ years[edit]

To complete his quest for world domination, Carpathia creates the One World Unity Army, composed of all G.C. military presence on the planet. Their mission is 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 gathers 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 is 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 is cast out of Carpathia, rendering Carpathia to his rotting corpse-like remains, the state his body would have been in had Satan not resurrected him prior. He then kneels before Christ and declares him the Christ after Jesus judged him for all his crimes and sins against humanity and God. He also admits, at the feet of Jesus, that his entire life was a waste and that he rebelled against a God he never knew loved him. Unlike Fortunato, who attempted to struggle with Michael the Archangel out of his sentence, Carpathia accepted his fate out of his own guilt and shame, and simply covered his eyes as he passively allowed the archangel to throw him in.

One thousand years later[edit]

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 brimstone, 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[edit]

Carpathianism is a fictional religion established by Leon to worship Nicolae Carpathia, leaving it as the only legal religion on Earth. Failure to comply results in death. The religion lasts 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 proclaims himself God in the desecrated Temple of the Holy of Holies, an act that is considered blasphemous in all three Abrahamic religions. He orders 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[edit]

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.

References[edit]

↑ 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. Search this book on
Buss, Doris; Herman, Didi (2003). Globalizing family values: the Christian right in international politics. U of Minnesota Press. p. 29. ISBN 0816642087. Search this book on
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. Search this book on
Utter, Glenn H.; Storey, John Woodrow (2001). The religious right: a reference handbook. Contemporary world issues. ABC-CLIO. p. 276. ISBN 1576072126. Search this book on

External links[edit]

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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.

[1]