Hi Doug
I agree there will be a final version of the Holy Roman Empire. But the people will not elect the AC. Scripture is clear the Ten leaders will willingly give their power over to him when he rises from the pit. He is not elected by the people.
Well that's a little futher down the road from when the Antichrist person first comes to power... that the beast gets involved.
The Antichrist first comes to power as the last king of the 7 kings of the Roman Empire of the Julio-Claudian bloodline.... as the leader of the final form of the EU. For that position, he could be elected.
Here is the sequence with and without the beast being involved.
1. The Antichrist becomes leader of Europe, when they have a ten king governement. He is the little horn. The beast though is in the bottomless pit, not yet allowed out, when the little horn comes to power.
2. The Antichrist little horn leader of Europe stands up, prepares to stop the Gog/Magog invasion, staging his EU army in Greece.
3. Gog/Magog takes place and God supernaturally destroys them. The little horn Antichrist arrives in Israel just short of the destruction. The Jews though perceive his actions to come to battle in defending Israel, as him being their long awaited messiah. He has such an ego, that he fancies himself in that role.
4. The Antichrist little horn, now the Prince who shall come in Daniel 9, as the Jews perceived messiah, oversees the commemorative reading required by Moses to all generations in Deuteronomy 31:10-11, every 7 years - confirming the Mt Sinai covenant that God gave them the land.
5. The Antichrist false king messiah near the middle of the 7 year cycle, sells out to Satan, betraying his land and his people. Entered into by Satan goes into the temple and declares that he is God, revealing himself as the man of sin. Still not the beast though. The beast is still in the bottomless pit.
God has him killed for his action. Ezekiel 28:1-10.
6. The Antichrist, revealed man of sin, dead, d e a d, finds himself in hell, in Isaiah 14. But God has such a disdain for him, that He doesn't let him stay there, and kicks him out of the grave, bringing him back to life, the head that had been mortally wounded but come back to life.
It is then that in Revelation 13, with 42 months left, that the beast in the bottomless pit becomes involved. He is allowed to come out of his holding cell. That beast person has been a long time enemy to God, going all the way back to the Babylon, tower of Babel. all the false religions that have stemmed from it, Nimrod.
The unclean spirit of Nimrod (the best candidate imo to be the beast) will possess the come back to life Antichrist. It is then 42 months of Nimrod's spirit driving the Antichrist, to lead the world in rebellion against God just like back in the days of the tower of Babel - one world. Of course Satan will be empowering him too.
During the last 42 months, the ten kings which as the little horn he first came from years before, all buy into his claim of being God. They pledge their kingdom to him. Which the Vatican and it's declaration that Jesus is God - will be in direct conflict with the Antichrist-beast and his ten king power block. So the ten kings of Europe will burn the Vatican to the ground.
Doug