n recent years, several prophecy writers and teachers have proposed that the crown Prince of England, Prince Charles, will actually be the Antichrist. Monte Judah in his Yavoh newsletter, Businesswoman Joan Veon in her book Prince Charles: The Sustainable Prince, and a Colorado author named Tim Cohen have recently produced writings with this view. The latter, the author of a book entitled The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea, has the most in-depth work on the subject.

The strength of the premise is largely found in the genealogy, religious beliefs, and heraldry symbols associated with the Prince of Wales. The flaws in the theory are found in the actual political base of power for the Prince, and the lack of powerful scriptural evidence that may be conclusively tied to the famous monarch. Unfortunately for supporters of the theory, the area that should provide the strongest evidence for the view, the scriptures, is actually the weakest link in the entire scenario.

The genealogical evidence is largely built upon the historical teachings that are found in what is sometimes called the Merovingian scenario. This relates to a massive body of information covering the dynastic European royal families that suggests they are largely descended from various secretive groups such as the Priory of Zion, the Knights Templar, The Rosicrucians, and the Freemasons. A thorough examination of this historical data is beyond the scope of the present essay, but it may be boiled down to the ancient heretical teaching that Christ survived the crucifixion through trickery, wed Mary Magdalene, and sired a number of children whose descendents are now found in the bloodlines of much of European royalty.

This view is sometimes combined with the British-Israelite theory that has the "lost tribes" of Israel migrating into Europe with the British becoming the tribe of Ephraim. This Merovingian bloodline theory inevitably leads to Godfrei de Boullion, a 5th century king named Merovee, and the so-called 'guardians of the grail.' Utilizing this scenario, writer Tim Cohen has Prince Charles related to everybody from Jesus Christ himself, to Mohammed and King David!

The Merovingian theory is being taught by Christians and non-Christians alike - with an odd cluster of adherents in Oklahoma. For example, Oklahoma City based prophecy author JR Church has written extensively on the Merovingians in his book Guardians of the Grail whereas Joan Veon's book is published by Hearthstone Publishers, part of the Southwest Radio Church - also based in Oklahoma. Monte Judah's group, Lion and Lamb Ministries, which also espouses the Prince Charles scenario, is based in Norman Oklahoma.

While most scripturally sound Bible prophecy authors reject the veracity of connecting Jesus to this elaborate and dubious genealogy (including Veon, Judah, Cohen, Church, et al) they frequently posit the Merovingian family history as a connection that is believed by the world conspirators and thusly meritorious. In short, the conspirators themselves believe it, so it becomes a valid source of information. For example, much of JR Church's Christian work cites from the decidedly non-Christian book Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln. This writer completely disagrees with this approach, for it then brings the Christian adherents into the awkward position of attempting to validate portions of the spiritually bankrupt non-Christian view and discard the rest. Obviously, the Word of God tells us what happened at the cross, so from our point of view, whatever genealogical claim is secretly held in the dark legends propagated by the ancient secret societies is completely irrelevant.

Having said that, there is not much doubt that Prince Charles has the pedigree to command many minions of foolish insiders that are in slavery to the various secretive groups.

Of similar value in pinning the rap on Prince Charles is the body of evidence related to Heraldry. This is fascinating stuff, because it demonstrates an entire covert system of communications in the various symbols and motifs utilized by the royal families. Author Tim Cohen, in his book The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea, goes to great lengths to connect Charles and his heraldic symbols to the imagery found in the book of Revelation. While I found this evidence interesting (even though it was overdone), it doesn't prove his case. Indeed, the various beast symbols found in Daniel and Revelation were never intended to identify the Antichrist through his coat of arms, they were included to help us identify the nations and political powers that count us down to the final empire of the Antichrist. (For more on this, see my essay The Lion, The Bear, and The Leopard in the Apocalypse Chronicles.)

Furthermore, I found some of the identifications of the symbols to be highly speculative and inconclusive. Part of the problem here is the fact that Tim Cohen, in particular, misquotes the scriptures by using a loose interpretation of his own that he claims is based on the "original" Greek. For example, on page 125, he renders Revelation 12:3 thusly:

"And another sign appeared in heaven. And, behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns in a head, and seven diadems near his heads...." (emphasis mine)

In parenthesis and a related footnote he tells us this is the literal Greek for this verse. The reality is, in this case he wants to show the unicorn on Prince Charles' coat of arms is connected to this verse, so he's trying to establish that the horns are all on a single head. The venerable King James Version tells us the great red dragon has "seven heads and seven crowns..." and most definitely does not say the horns were all on a single head! Even the NIV (which I don't trust) leaves out the phrase "in a head."

Cohen provides us with a similar misquote two pages later. In this instance, he tells us to "Recall that the beast has 'seven diadems near his heads.'" (emphasis mine) This time, he's trying to show proximity to the seven crowns because, as he puts it,

 "In addition to the five heir-apparent crowns in Prince Charles' arms, there are two more crowns, one around the neck of the unicorn and the other around the ostrich feathers in the heir-apparent's badge, for a total of seven crowns...." (page 129) The real Word of God actually reads the dragon has "seven crowns upon his heads." (Revelation 12:3 KJV)

The same sort of unauthorized linguistic surgery is performed on the unfortunate Daniel, for Cohen stitches his own words onto the text there as well. He renders Daniel 7 as follows:

"...behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying...And it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns in its head." (page 189)

Once again, he's adding to the text for the verse actually reads "...behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible...and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." (Daniel 7:8 KJV) Armed with this extra 'spin' on the verse, Cohen is able to make the point he's been torturing the text to make: "In other words, taken in conjunction with the Apocalypse, Daniel clearly portrays the antichrist as a unicorn having human eyes." (page 190).

This is a dead giveaway in my book. The minute someone starts changing the scriptures to support their interpretive system, it's time to discard the theory and get back to the Word of God. Not so with The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea. In this case, we're not only to believe that Cohen has proven the true identity of the Antichrist, he's also done us a big favor by re-interpreting the prophetic scriptures as well. So much for the New TCV (Tim Cohen Version).

The political and economic power base of Prince Charles is largely hidden from public view. Through various groups such as the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum and other institutions of his own invention, Charles is indeed a major player in world events. He has, in fact, quietly placed himself in a position of great power within the globalist clique that is moving us towards world dominion. It is even a possibility that Charles will fill some significant role in prophecy (such as Daniel's king of the North), but the primary scriptures dealing with the Antichrist don't seem to match up to the particulars of the Prince's background.

For example, Charles is the 21st Prince of Wales, not the 7th (or the 8th) which would greatly help to identify him with crucial scriptures such as Revelation 17. While Joan Veon's book on Prince Charles barely addresses the scriptural problems, it's apparent that Cohen senses this, for he attempts a new version of the fallacious "revived Roman empire" theme - synthesizing it with the United Nations at the center.

Even as Cohen sees the UN must be the prophesied one world empire, he can't let go of the largely discredited 'Roman Empire' theory because that's where the primary indicators leading to Prince Charles are found. Statements such as "Today, the United Kingdom is positioned to become an integral part of the final, world-wide form of the Roman Empire" (pg 121) are simply hackneyed reversions to a theory that should have been abandoned years ago. (For more on the so-called 'Revived Roman Empire,' see the Christian Media cover story Euro 1999: The Revived Roman Empire?)

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