Article content

MOSCOW — The head of the Russian Orthodox Church says the data-gathering capacity of devices such as smartphones risks bringing humanity closer to the arrival of the Antichrist.

Control from one point is a foreshadowing of the coming of Antichrist Patriarch Kirill

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Smartphones risk bringing on arrival of the Antichrist, warns head of Russian Orthodox Church Back to video

In an interview shown Monday on state TV, Patriarch Kirill said the church does not oppose technological progress but is concerned that “someone can know exactly where you are, know exactly what you are interested in, know exactly what you are afraid of” and that such information could be used for centralized control of the world.

“Control from one point is a foreshadowing of the coming of Antichrist, if we talk about the Christian view. Antichrist is the person who will be at the head of the world wide web that controls the entire human race,” he said.