By Water & Blood

On the Antichrist

Concerning antichrist.

Yet that is necessary to add to what has been said: that before the Master’s appearing there will come, putting on a human nature, the scourge of human beings, the god-opposing demon, the robber of the divine name. And just as long ago, having stolen the name “God,” he set it upon himself and upon the co-workers of his wickedness, and persuaded human beings through hand-cut idols to offer him divine worship, so, appropriating the name of the Master Christ, he will deceive all, so to speak, and will trick even many of those who wear the august name, saying that he himself is Christ, whom the divine prophets, delivering oracles, foretold would appear. And he will also bait those easily caught, using certain deceptive wonder-workings; and this many of the prophets foreshadowed enigmatically in the Old. But more broadly and more clearly the divine Daniel prophesied the things concerning him. And if some of these also need to be made clear, we have already unfolded these, having interpreted the whole prophecy word by word. And interpreting also the things written to the Thessalonians by the divine Paul together with the other letters, we used longer discourses than customary while searching through the passage concerning the Antichrist.

For when some had supposed that the time of the Master’s presence had drawn near, the divine Apostle necessarily trained them that the inhabited world must first be illuminated by the rays of the knowledge of God, and those reared in the faith become clear, and those who contradict be separated from those who have believed, and then in this way the craftsman of the lie first appear, for the conviction of those who did not receive the proclamation of the truth. For this the Lord also said to the Jews: “I came in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me. Another comes in his own name, and him you will receive.” And the divine Apostle also said this same thing: “Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved; and for this reason God will send them a working of error, so that they believe the lie, in order that all who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness may be judged for conviction.”

Therefore upon those who have disbelieved the proclamation of the truth there will come the father and teacher of wickedness. For since the Jews, supposedly championing God, nailed the Master to the cross as god-opposed, the presence of the Antichrist will become the greatest conviction of their impiety. For the Master Christ, being true God and Son of the true God, named himself Son of Man and man, setting the names from the nature that is seen, and only rarely named himself Son of God. But the thoroughly wicked demon will name himself a greatest god. For this the holy angel also taught the prophet Daniel: “For upon the gods of his fathers,” he said, “he will not understand, and a god of Mazourim he will glorify in his place”—that is, he will address himself as a strong and powerful god. Yet those who crucified the Master because he named himself Son of God will believe this one when he appears, and thereby showing that they are most hateful to the truth, but workers of the lie. For this reason the all-wise One grants that the criminal appear. For it is quite clear that he would not have been seen if God did not will. Yet we do not call the willing a working. For God is without cause of evils, even according to the outside wise. For he himself did not show Cain a murderer because, when Cain wished to kill his brother, he did not prevent him. Nor did he himself prepare the sons of Jacob to sell Joseph because he did not stop their undertaking. For one can find both those making bad use of the free choice of their judgment, and the all-wise Master showing through their wickedness the truth of the dreams. In this way, then, he also permits this one to appear, laying bare that one’s wickedness and convicting the Jews’ baseness. And he brings upon this one most swiftly utter destruction, but upon the Jews healing. For he will send Elijah the Tishbite, both convicting that one’s deceit and announcing beforehand his saving presence.

Yet the adversary of the truth will for the most part imitate the Master’s presence, and having chosen a human vessel worthy of his own working, will thus abuse human beings, using false wonder-workings. And this the divine Apostle taught expressly through what he wrote to the Thessalonians. And he speaks thus: “But we ask you, brothers, concerning the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that you not be quickly shaken from the mind, nor be alarmed, neither through a spirit, nor through words, nor through a letter as through us, as that the day of the Lord is present.” And through these things he has made clear that some deceived them, saying that the Apostle had said that the presence of the Lord had drawn near. Whence he forbade not only the deceit through words and through writings, but also through the supposed prophetic foretelling. For this he said: “Neither through a spirit.” Then he continues: “Let no one deceive you in any way, because unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction, the one who opposes and exalts himself over every so-called god or object of worship, so that he even sits in the temple of God as God, showing himself that he is God.” He calls the presence of the Antichrist itself an apostasy. For many, being deceived by the wonders that will be, will apostatize from the truth and embrace the lie. And he called him a man of sin and a son of destruction, both exhibiting the nature that is seen and uncovering the manifold working of sin. And he also made clear his tyranny and arrogance and boastfulness, calling him opposing and exalting himself, and showing that he will not only name himself superior to the falsely named gods, but will also sit as God in the divine temple. And he calls the churches a divine temple.

Then reminding them of what he had often taught: “Do you not remember,” he says, “that while still with you I was saying these things to you? And now you know what is restraining, so that he may be revealed in his own time.” “He would already have been seen,” he says, “if the divine grace had not prevented him, and allotting his presence to the fitting time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.” And through these things he hints at the heresies that had then sprung up. “Only the one who now restrains, until he comes to be out of the midst.” “The divine decree,” he says, “holds him back from appearing. For according to the divine foretelling the Gospel must be proclaimed to all the nations, and then in this way that one be seen. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth and will bring to nothing by the appearing of his presence.” He has clearly shown that as soon as the Master appears, he will make the scourge vanish and will hand him over to the eternal places of punishment—“whose presence is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in every deceit of unrighteousness among those who are perishing.” For he will not hunt all toward destruction, but those who possess a mind easily swayed and easily deceived.

And he taught that Satan also will receive the working of the devil. For just as the only-begotten Son of God distributed to the holy prophets and the sacred apostles, and indeed also to the other saints, the gifts of the all-holy Spirit, but when he became human did not give some partial grace to the nature that was assumed, but, according to the Apostle, was well pleased that all the fullness of the Godhead dwell in him—so the devil has not planted in the other human beings, as many as he persuaded to become workers of wickedness, all the forms of evil; but having been wholly joined to this one, he will display through him the manifold devices of his wickedness.

Then he also states the cause of the permission: “Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. And for this reason God will send them a working of error, so that they believe the lie; in order that all who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness may be judged.” These things also concerning the antichrist we have been taught from the divine Scripture. And we have written the things concerning him in summary, since in interpreting both the prophet Daniel and the Apostle we used longer discourses concerning his presence; and it is easy for the one who wishes to meet with those explanations, and if we have left anything out in these, to find it in those.

These doctrines the Church has received from the God-bearing men—prophets, I mean, and apostles, and those who succeeded them—not fashioning impious myths, nor following human reasonings, but believing divine words. And since the all-defiled ones have also corrupted the ethical teaching, and have invented paths opposite to one another—for some named marriage fornication, while others embraced every unlawful and forbidden licentiousness—come, let us also exhibit the mind of the Church in ethical matters.