Life of Antichrist

The anti-Christian persecution of the greatest cruelty will last no longer than three-and-a-half years. But before this begins, the Antichrist will arise and bring the whole world under his power, and will pose as the Jewish Messiah, as well as destroy and annihilate all memorials of the Lord Christ and his beloved saints in the manner mentioned above. After this, the daily sacrifice of the Most Holy Mass will publicly cease throughout the whole world, the Antichrist will allow himself to be worshipped as the true God in the Temple in Jerusalem, and then the abomination of desolation, namely the true and actual persecution, will begin. That is what the highly enlightened prophet Daniel testifies to, who writes in his prophecy about this: “From the day that the daily sacrifice is abolished, one thousand two hundred and ninety days will pass.”  From these words it appears that, as stated above, this persecution will begin after the abolition of the daily sacrifice, and will last and endure for three-and-a-half years (that is, one thousand two hundred and ninety days make up this period).

There have been some who dispute this number and wanted to extend the period of the anti-Christian persecution for more than three-and-a-half years; but they erred grossly and have not been at all accurate with their opinion. Some said that the anti-Christian persecution must be longer than three-and-a-half years, because the experience would entail a longer period of time; but they did not consider that the anti-Christian persecution had not yet begun, and thus it was impossible that its time would be extended by the experience.  Others have understood the above-mentioned 1,290 days to be an indefinite period of time.  This is not true either, but not a few learned men in the world said that the days determined by the prophet Daniel for the anti-Christian persecution should not be understood as simple days, but as a whole years, and thus, according to their imagination, the actual anti-Christian persecution must last 1,290 years.  And although this teaching contradicts the Divine Scripture and all the Fathers, some have nevertheless been found who claim that it is based on Divine Scripture; both the Old and New Testaments.

But the highly enlightened prophet Daniel teaches us much better, when he says quite clearly that the real anti-Christian persecution will be neither longer nor shorter than one thousand two hundred and ninety days.  He also confirms this in another place, when he speaks of the persecution of Antichrist in this way: “And he shall speak words against the High One, and shall crush the saints of the most High: and he shall think himself able to change times and laws, and they shall be delivered into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time.”  That is, say the following Fathers, Anselm, Bede, Theodoret, Rupert, Haymo, Primasius and others, the persecution of the Antichrist, in which the saints of God will be delivered into the hands of this tyrant by God the Lord, will last three-and-a-half years, or one thousand two hundred and ninety days.

So also teaches the Holy Martyr Hippolytus, who preached a little before his victorious martyrdom: “Three years and-a-half the Antichrist will be most cruel and will reign on earth, and after that his kingdom and his glory will be taken away.” The ancient teacher and martyr Irenaeus agrees with St. Hippolytus and all the other Holy Fathers when he writes: “The Antichrist will reign for three years and six months, and then the Lord will come from heaven.”  The Holy Church teacher Jerome explains to us what a time, two times and half a time mean, which is mentioned both by the prophet Daniel and in the secret Revelation of John, when he says: “A time means a year, two times according to the Hebrew interpretation mean two years, but half a time means six months, during which time the saints will be handed over to the power of the Antichrist.” St. Augustine, St. Cyril and many other Catholic writers also teach in the same way who wrote many years ago about the anti-Christian persecution and who determined the three-and-a-half years for us.

God forbid! If the real anti-Christian persecution should last longer than three-and-a-half years, no one would be saved, and the whole world would deviate from the knowledge of the true God in a very short time. No, no, the kind God will not allow this. He will indeed allow the infernal Lucifer to rage, fume and tyrannize against the worthy Christian world, but this will only last three-and-a-half years, which the poor Christians will think is far too long, and not for nothing. When St. John foresaw the cruelty of this persecution, he cried out in a loud voice: “Woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil is coming to you and has great wrath. Because he knows that he has only a short time.”

Therefore, the Holy Fathers Gregory and Augustine say that if the real anti-Christian persecution should last longer than three-and-a-half years, many pious people would be lost forever, who otherwise would never have been damned. Christ does not say the eternal truth about these times without an important reason: “There will then be a great tribulation, the like of which has not been since the beginning of the world up to this time, and never will be.” And why should God the Lord grant the wretched devil a longer time to seduce souls, when he himself took three-and-a-half years alone to instruct people in the way of eternal salvation and to set before them an example of true virtues. I cannot find out the truth of this, but I am compelled to say that if I only knew that Christ, the true Son of God, spent three-and-a-half years in his preaching office and did not want to spend a longer time instructing people in all that is good, then I could reasonably conclude that he would grant his worst enemy, Lucifer, three-and-a-half years to deceive and seduce souls bought with his precious blood, and then put a bit or a bridle on him. Therefore, it is and remains true that the persecution of the anti-Christians will last three-and-a-half years in total, and no more or less, because this is not only in accordance with reason, but is established and confirmed by many teachings of Divine Scripture, the authority of which is above all, as well as by the unanimous teaching of the Holy Fathers.

The Period of Time from the Overthrow of Antichrist to the Last Day

But since I have given an account at the beginning of this chapter of how long it will be after the anti-Christian persecution until the Last Day, I will also give you some information here about the conclusion of this history. Some have indeed attempted to show from the Divine Scripture how long the world will last after the death of Antichrist, but have not succeeded. [Chapter 12 of the book of Daniel suggests 1335 – 1290 = 45 days] Some believe that there could only be a few days left.  Others speak of a number of uncertain years. Many specify seven years. But so that I am not mistaken, I will agree with Christ and his divine word, which is said in it: “But of that day and that hour, no man knows.” It is in vain to try to ponder the most careful secrets of heaven, which God has reserved for his eternal omniscience alone. Then how can the time of the Last Judgement be revealed to men, which God has hidden even from his angels? Suffice it to say that we know from the teaching of our Savior that after the death of Antichrist there will be a very short time left until the Last Day. Thus speaks our most Holy Savior of all: “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty.”

But now, my dear reader, who has allowed yourself to be entrusted with reading this little treatise on the future of the world with patience, you will gladly forgive me if I have not satisfied you, as the importance of this material otherwise demands. For this, I have done my part insofar as the goodness of God has imparted it to me. And you will also be content to read and accept from me with sincere emotion and good opinion this bad work and writing. On the other hand, I assure you that this little book, however bad it may be, if it is read carefully and deeply ingrained in the memory, today or tomorrow, when the anti-Christian persecution really begins, it will instruct and hopefully save many thousands of pious Christians from the danger of eternal damnation.

I have indeed often wished, when I consider the coming sad future times before me, that someone else would take upon himself this effort and give the common man some news of it. But because I saw that no one else had a desire to bring such highly important history to light in our mother tongue, I undertook it with the help of God and, as you see, brought it to the end with my limited strength. So let this good affection of mine please you, and let this small work be of interest to you, so that you can often admonish your children of the dangerous times described here which are soon to come, and faithfully instruct them how they should avoid the deception of Satan and all his followers. If you will faithfully tell and read this to your children over and over again, you can, together with them, with the grace of God, escape the danger in which even the elect will suffer hardship, and finally attain eternal joy and blessedness. Amen.