Daniel 7:23

These things were once taught people through riddles, but we ourselves have learned these very things by experience. We see the fulfillment of the prophecy; we behold daily that tributes are exacted, poverty oppresses many people, and other such things happen.

These doctrines are not the fruit of ingenuity but are derived from the sacred Scriptures read in the church, particularly as gathered out of the prophecy of Daniel, in today's lection, and according to the interpretation given by the archangel Gabriel, who spoke as follows, "the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom on earth, which shall surpass all kingdoms." Ecclesiastical commentators have traditionally taken this kingdom to be the Roman Empire.… Further on Gabriel continues his interpreting and says, "And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another king shall rise up after them, and he shall surpass in wickedness all who were before him" (not merely the ten kings, you note, but all kings that ever were) "and he shall subdue three kings" (clearly out of the ten that preceded him; and he had reduced three of the ten to powerlessness; it is equally clear that he will reign as the eighth king) "and he will speak great words against the Most High." Antichrist is a blasphemer and flouter of all law. He will not succeed to the empire but will usurp it by means of sorcery.

And so if one wishes to meticulously discuss concerning him, these things are more clearly exhibited in another book, so that we may not be about to compose an account concerning him a second time. But now let us speak of what lies ahead concerning the beast which now is instituted. For Daniel speaks in this way, "And the angel told me that the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon the earth which prevails over all the kingdoms and devours all the earth and tramples it and breaks it into pieces. And his ten horns shall arise as ten kings and after them another shall arise who shall surpass all others who were before in wickedness and shall speak words against the Most High and shall deceive the saints of the Most High and shall suppose to change times and law and it shall be given in his hand for a time and times and half a time. And judgment sat and they shall remove the dominion to abolish it and to destroy completely, and the kingdom and the authority and the greatness of the kings, which are under all of heaven, was given to the saints of the Most High, and his kingdom is an eternal kingdom and all chiefs shall slave to him and obey him. This is the end of the account." [Daniel 7:23-28] And so when the prophet, wishing to persuade us according to all things and to examine the truth of what was seen by him, he inquired from one of the angels who stood near, that he himself also may be more precisely taught concerning the fourth beast, for he says, "I sought more precisely concerning it because he was fearful and terrible." [Daniel 7:19] And so the angel teaching him, but rather persuading us also through him to believe in what was rightly seen by him, he described to him all which was about to happen in the end, both the division of the fourth beast into the ten horns which arose from it, and the manifestation of the Antichrist in them and his war against the saints and his time, which is about to commence.