Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/452

 ing to its deserts. Then are defined the symptoms of the coming of that day:

“(1) On the one hand extraordinary successes of good upon earth,—the dissemination of Christ’s Gospel in the whole world: (2) on the other hand, extraordinary successes of evil and the appearance of the antichrist upon earth.”

This is who the antichrist is going to be:

“(a) It will be a definite person, by all means a man, but only a lawless man under the special operation of Satan; (b) he will in his character be distinguished by extraordinary pride and will give himself out as a God; (c) for the purpose of attaining his end he will preach a false doctrine, which is contrary to the saving faith of Christ, an enticing teaching, with which he will draw after him many weak and unworthy people; (d) in confirmation of his teaching and for the greater seduction of men, he will perform false signs and miracles; (e) finally he will perish from the actions of Jesus Christ the Saviour, when he comes to judge the living and the dead. We shall further remark: (a) he will come from the tribe of Dan; (b) he will be a powerful lord, who will usurp the power by force, and will extend his dominion over all the nations; (c) he will cause a terrible persecution of the Christians, will demand divine worship of himself, will draw many after him, and those who will not follow him he will put to death; (d) for the counteraction to the antichrist, God will send from heaven two witnesses, who, as is said in Revelation, shall prophesy the truth and work miracles, and when they shall have finished their testimony, they shall be killed by a dragon, and after three days and a half they shall rise from the dead and ascend to heaven; (e) the dominion of the antichrist will last only three years and a half.” (pp. 616-618.)

All that is proved by Holy Scripture.

“It will not be superfluous to remark that the predic-