Evangelicals 'Mostly Sure' Trump Not the Antichrist, Poll Finds
A slight majority of evangelicals are "mostly sure" that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is not the Antichrist, according to a poll released April 1.
In a survey conducted by the evangelical research organization The Barnum/Bailey Group, 53 percent of evangelicals are "mostly sure" that Trump is not the Antichrist.
From there, 23 percent of evangelicals surveyed were "somewhat sure," 16 percent were "not really sure," and the remainder were either "totally unsure," "totally sure" or told the pollster to get off their lawn.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Barnum/Bailey Group President David Bourne Everday, who helped oversee the poll, noted that respondents who labeled themselves Trump supporters were more likely to answer "mostly sure."
"About two-thirds of evangelicals in our study who identified themselves as Trump supporters stated that they were 'mostly sure' that he was not the Antichrist," said Everday.
"We found that 2 percent of Trump supporters in our poll were 'totally sure,' making them the only respondents in the entire poll to answer with that response."
Data for the survey was gathered via email and telephone calls from February 30-31, with a sample space of some 3,000 evangelicals, approximately 2,600 of whom were registered voters.
The "evangelical" category was further broken down into the subcategories of "Non-Denominational," "Southern Baptist," "Presbyterian," "Methodist," "Emergent," "Divergent," "Insurgent," "Allegiant" and "Hand-Raisers."
Of those categories, respondents who identified themselves as "Southern Baptist" were the surest that Trump was not in fact the Antichrist, with 78 percent saying they were "mostly sure."
SBC Spokesman Shout Newpork believes that the reason for this assurance was most likely due to Trump missing some of the key attributes of the infamous figure.
"Well first and foremost," began Newpork, "if Donald Trump were the Antichrist, he would know his Bible WAAAAYYYY better than that. I mean, 'Two Corinthians'? Are you serious, bro?"
Over the past several months, Trump has become a lightning rod for controversy as well as the front-runner for the Republican nomination.
His charismatic speaking (as in "compelling," not "in tongues") and seemingly unnatural popularity has led some to ponder that Trump's rise was foretold in the Book of Revelation.
"What a bunch of rubbish!" stated Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas and a rumored vice presidential pick for Trump.
"First of all, everyone knows that Hillary Rodham Clinton is the Antichrist. And second of all, all this bashing of Donald is just liberal hypocrisy. Pure and simple."
Jeffress later clarified that Clinton was not actually the Antichrist, but rather if elected would simply lead to the eventual rise of the Antichrist, who is very definitely Elizabeth Warren.
Others were not as confident. Hiding in his bunker at an undisclosed location, Max Lucado explained that the signs were too plausible to ignore.
"I am not saying with certainty that a President Trump would establish a one-world-government and lead large armies against the Elect," Lucado noted, as he ordered more buckets of food from Jim Bakker.
"I am just saying that it never hurts to be careful. Especially if you are someone who has ever uttered an unkind or critical word about Trump, as I have."
A small group of respondents were okay with Trump being the Antichrist.
In the comments, one respondent asserted: "Sure, he could be the Antichrist, but he'll shake up Washington, which is just what this country needs."
Another respondent wrote: "C'mon. All Trump is saying is that he'll give us the kingdoms of this world if we simply bow to him. Does that sound like Satan to you?"
The poll also found:
-Nearly eight in ten evangelicals chose "mostly agree" or "somewhat agree" with the statement "You MUST be born again."
-Five in ten Southern Baptists admitted that if on a fishing trip they would drink all their friend's beer if another Southern Baptist was not present.
-95 percent of Methodist respondents wondered how they got to be classified as "evangelical" in the first place.
-32 percent of evangelicals said they would "most likely" vote for the Antichrist in November if his or her opponent is Hillary Clinton.
