Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Since, then, in this present world some hasten toward the light and, by faith, join themselves to God, while others draw back from it and cut themselves off from God, God's Word arrives bringing to every one a dwelling suited to him: for those dwelling in the light, that they might delight in it and its blessings; but for those dwelling in darkness, that they might share in its miseries. For this reason, he says, those on the right hand will be summoned into the Father's kingdom, while those on the left will be dispatched into everlasting fire, since they have stripped themselves of every blessing.
And for this reason the Apostle states: "Because they refused affection for the truth, [God will dispatch upon them a deluding influence], so that they would put faith in a falsehood, so that every one might stand condemned who withheld belief from the truth and instead approved wickedness" — for at his arrival, gathering apostasy up within himself, accomplishing by his own will and choice whatever he undertakes, and taking his seat within God's temple so that those he has led astray revere him as though he were Christ, he will rightly be hurled into the lake of fire; while God, through his foreknowledge, having foreseen everything, and dispatching at the proper moment the one destined to be exactly this, so that "they would put faith in a falsehood, so that every one might stand condemned who withheld belief from the truth and instead approved wickedness." John pointed to this figure's arrival in the Apocalypse in these terms: "And the beast I beheld resembled a leopard, its feet like a bear's paws, its jaws like a lion's maw; and the dragon handed over to it his own power, his throne, and vast authority; and one of its heads appeared struck unto death, yet its fatal injury was healed, and the whole earth marveled and followed after the beast; and they bowed down to the dragon, since he had granted authority to the beast; and they bowed down to the beast, saying, Who compares to the beast, and who is able to fight against it? And it was given a mouth that uttered arrogant words and slander, and it was granted authority for forty-two months. It opened its jaws to slander God, reviling his name, his dwelling-place, and those residing in heaven. And it was granted dominion over every clan and populace and tongue and nation. And everyone dwelling on the earth bowed down to it, everyone whose name is absent from the book of life belonging to the Lamb slaughtered since the world's founding. Whoever has an ear should listen. Whoever leads others into captivity goes into captivity himself; whoever kills by the sword must himself be killed by the sword. Here lies the endurance and the fidelity of the saints." After this he also describes its weapon-bearer, whom he names the false prophet: "It spoke," he says, "like a dragon, and it exercised the whole authority the first beast possessed, doing so right before that beast, compelling the earth and its inhabitants to bow down to the first beast, the one whose fatal injury had healed. And it will perform astonishing signs, even bringing fire down out of the sky onto the earth while people watch, and thereby misleads earth's inhabitants." Let no one imagine it performs these signs by divine power, but rather through sorcery. Nor is it strange that, with demons and rebellious spirits assisting it, it produces signs through them by which it misleads earth's inhabitants. "It will order," he says, "that a statue be fashioned, and will grant breath to the statue so that the statue can even speak, and will bring about the death of any who refuse to bow down to it. And it will cause a brand to be imprinted," he says, "upon the forehead and the right hand, so that no one may buy or sell unless bearing the brand of the beast's name, or the numeral of its name; and the numeral is six hundred sixty-six" — that is, six hundred, sixty, and six — signaling the summing-up of the entire apostasy accomplished across the six thousand years.
Corresponding to the number of days in which this world took shape, it reaches its completion after that same count of thousand years. For this reason the Scripture of Genesis states: 'The heavens and the earth were brought to completion, along with their whole array. God concluded on the sixth day the whole of the work he had made, and on the seventh day he rested from all the work he had done.' This is at once an account of what already happened and a foretelling of what is still to come. Since 'with the Lord a day carries the weight of a thousand years,' the works that came into being across six days reach their fulfillment together; their completion, then, plainly falls in the six thousandth year. On this account, across the whole span of time, man — shaped at the outset by God, namely through the Son and the Spirit — arrives at conformity with God's image and resemblance: with the chaff, standing for the falling-away, discarded, and the wheat, standing for those who yield fruit to God through faith, brought into the storehouse. Hardship, therefore, must fall upon those destined for salvation, so that once they have, so to speak, been pressed, purified, and blended together by patient endurance under the Word of God, and proven by fire, they might be made ready for the King's feast. As a certain one among us declared, upon being condemned to face the beasts for testifying to God: 'I am wheat belonging to Christ, and I am milled by the jaws of beasts, so that I might turn out to be bread fit for God, unmixed with anything else.'