Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
The deceit, pride, and tyrannical rule of the Antichrist, as described by Daniel and Paul.
And it is demonstrated not merely by what has already been said, but equally by the events yet to unfold under the Antichrist, that this figure, a deserter and a plunderer, craves to be honored as God, and although a mere bondservant, longs to be hailed as sovereign. Arrogating to himself the devil's entire strength, he will arrive not as a legitimate king, nor as one properly submitted to God, but godless, unjust, and lawless, a renegade, wicked, and murderous, drawing into his own person the devil's whole revolt; and sweeping idols aside, so as to convince mankind that he himself is God, replacing the countless deceptions of idolatry — so that those who once bowed to the devil through many vile rites might, through this single image, serve him alone. It is of him that the Apostle speaks in his second letter to the Thessalonians, writing that the appointed day will not arrive until the great rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is unveiled, the child doomed to ruin, who defies and lifts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, even taking his seat in God's own sanctuary, presenting himself as though divine. The Apostle thus openly reveals his rebellion, and shows that he raises himself above everything called God or worshiped — meaning above every idol, since these are called gods by human beings though they are not gods at all — and that he will, tyrant that he is, attempt to pass himself off as God.
He also, further, confirmed what we have already established in several places, namely that the sanctuary at Jerusalem was raised up by the appointment of the one true God. The Apostle himself, speaking on his own authority, flatly names that sanctuary the temple of God. And we showed as well, in our third book, that not one of the apostles, speaking in his own voice, calls anyone God except him who alone truly is God, the Father belonging to our Lord — it was by his decree that the Jerusalem sanctuary was constructed, for the reasons already given; and it is there that the adversary will take his seat, striving to pass himself off as the Christ, exactly as the Lord himself warns: when you catch sight of the devastating abomination foretold through the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place — let the one reading take note — then those in Judea must flee for the hills, and whoever is on the rooftop must not descend to fetch anything from inside the house. For at that time distress will come such as the world, from its founding until now, has never known, and never will again. And Daniel, gazing forward to the close of the final kingdom — to the last ten monarchs among whom that kingdom is parceled out, the ones upon whom the doomed son will come — reports ten horns sprouting from the beast, with yet another, a small horn, rising among them, uprooting three of the earlier horns before it. "And I looked," he writes, "and this horn had eyes resembling a man's, and a mouth uttering boastful words, its appearance more imposing than its fellow horns... As I watched, that horn waged battle against the holy ones and overpowered the holy people of the Most High, until the appointed moment arrived and they took possession of the kingdom." Later, as the visions continued to unfold, he was told: the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on earth, surpassing every kingdom before it, devouring the whole earth, trampling it, and crushing it to fragments. Its ten horns represent ten kings still to come; and following them another will arise, more wicked than any who came before, who will bring down three kings, hurl insults at the Most High, wear down the holy people of the Most High, and scheme to alter seasons and law; and dominion will be granted to him for a time, times, and half a time — that is, three and a half years, during which span he will hold sway over the earth. Concerning this same figure, the Apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, likewise describing how he will appear, writes: and then the lawless one will stand revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath from his mouth, annihilating him by the splendor of his own arrival — this lawless one whose coming follows Satan's own workings, accompanied by every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, and by every deceit of wickedness aimed at those headed for destruction, because they refused to welcome the love of truth that would have saved them. And for this very reason God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they come to believe a falsehood, that every one of them might be condemned who refused to believe the truth and instead took pleasure in wrongdoing.
The Lord himself likewise said this to those who did not believe him: "I have arrived bearing my Father's name, yet you did not welcome me; but should another arrive bearing merely his own name, that one you would welcome" — calling that other one Antichrist, because he is a stranger to the Lord. He is also that "unjust judge" spoken of by the Lord, who "did not fear God, nor respect man," to whom the widow fled who had forgotten God — that is, the earthly Jerusalem — to be avenged of her adversary. This he will indeed do in the time of his own kingdom: he will transfer the kingdom to that city, and will sit in the temple of God, seducing those who worship him into thinking that he himself is the Christ. Wherefore Daniel says again: "And the sanctuary shall be made desolate, and the sin was given for a sacrifice, and righteousness was cast down to the ground, and he did his pleasure and prospered." And the angel Gabriel, explaining this same vision, said: "And at the last of their kingdom there shall arise a king of fierce countenance, and understanding riddles; and his power shall be mighty, and he shall be marvellous, and shall corrupt, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people; and his yoke shall be made to prosper; there is deceit in his hand, and in his heart he shall magnify himself, and by deceit he shall destroy many, and he shall stand up for the destruction of many, and shall crush them as eggs in the hand." Then he also indicates the time of his tyranny, during which the saints who offer God a pure sacrifice shall be put to flight: "And at the halfway mark of that week," he states, "sacrifice and offering will come to an end, and upon the temple the desolating abomination shall be placed, and the desolation shall persist all the way to the fixed close of that appointed time"; and the half of the week is three years and six months. From all of this is manifest not only what belongs to the apostasy, and to him who recapitulates in himself the whole diabolical error, but also that a single selfsame God stands behind both the prophetic proclamation and the manifestation accomplished through Christ. For if the Lord confirmed the things prophesied by Daniel concerning the end, saying, "When you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet" — and to Daniel it was the angel Gabriel who supplied the meaning of those visions, this same angel being the archangel of the Demiurge, and this same one announced to Mary the manifest coming and incarnation of Christ — then it becomes utterly plain that a single God stands revealed: sender of the prophets, forerunner-sender of his own Son, and caller of us into the knowledge of himself.