A.U. 1190. OPINIONS OP LEARNED MEN ON ANTICHRIST. torment, and, in the sight of all, destroy by a cruel death. Then shall there be tribulation, such as has not been upon the earth from the time when nations began to be, until that time ; then shall those who are in the field flee to the mountains, and he who shall be above shall not come down into his house, to take anything away therefrom. Then shall every faithful Christian who shall be found, either deny God, or die by the sword, or by the fire of the furnace, or by serpents, or by beasts, or by some other kind of torment, if he shall persist in the faith. This terrible and fearful tribulation shall continue throughout the whole world three years and a half. Then shall the days be shortened on account of the elect ; for if the Lord should not shorten the days, all flesh would not be saved. The time also when Antichrist shall come, as well as when the day of judgment shall begin to appear, the Apostle Paul points out in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, where he says, " "We beseech you by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" 8 9 and he reveals in the passage where he says, " Except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition."1 We know also that after the kingdom of the Greeks, as also after the kingdom of the Persians, each of which, at its own season, gained great glory, and flourished amid great power, at length, after other kingdoms as well, the kingdom of the Bomans began, and that it was more mighty than all the former kingdoms, and held all the kingdoms of the earth in subjection to it, and all nations and peoples were tributary to the Eomans. Hence it is that the Apostle Paul says that Antichrist will not come into the world, " Except there be first a falling away ;" that is, unless all the kingdoms of the world should first revolt from the Eoman empire to whom they were before subject. This time, however, has not come as yet ; for although we see the Eoman empire in a great measure destroyed, still, so long as the kings of the Pranks hold dominion, who are bound to uphold the empire of Borne, the dignity of Eome will not entirely perish, for by its kings will it be upheld. Some, indeed, of our learned men assert that one of the kings of the Pranks will hold the Eoman empire afresh, and in all its integrity, who will exist at a very late period of time ; and he himself will be the greatest and the last of all the kings, and 9 9 2 These, ii. 1. 1 2 Thess. ii. 3.