There is another branch of this subject; viz. the employment of our Saviour while in the intermediate state. Irenæus thought, as did other Fathers, that our Lord went and preached the Gospel to those who were dead, there being forgiveness to whosoever would believe in him, so preaching to them; and that those who in old times had hoped in him, and foretold his coming, did then believe in him and obtain remission(503).
Here again we have a definite meaning given to passages of Holy Writ, respecting which we may discuss and have discussed endlessly, resting in the mere light of Scripture. And that being the case, it appears more rational to accept the interpretation furnished by early writers, who are in all probability in this and other cases giving us views which had come down from the Apostles themselves.
It was the opinion of the Gnostics that the Tempter was either the same as the God of the Old Testament, acting in opposition to the Supreme Being, or a creature and agent of this God. In contradiction to this notion, Irenæus lays down, and confirms from various portions of Scripture, that he was one of the angels, attendants upon the Supreme Being, who rebelled against him, who consummated his rebellion by seducing man from his allegiance, and who is always setting himself up as a rebel against his Maker(504).
Having proved this from the past history of the world, he continues the proof by adducing the prophecies concerning Antichrist, the Millennium, and the consummation of all things(505). In this way he is led to develope his own views upon those subjects: and as his opinions on the Millennium are different from those which have prevailed subsequently, with almost universal consent in the Western Church, that portion of his Treatise is rarely found complete in our present MSS., the copyists not thinking it proper or worth their while to copy what was generally disapproved by the Church(506).
Irenæus, then, regards Antichrist as a direct agent of Satan, in and by means of whom he will fulfil the great object of his rebellion, of procuring himself to be owned by mankind as their king, and worshipped as their God; by whom he will abolish all idols, and set himself up as the one idol, uniting in himself all the delusion of all the false gods who have ever existed. In him, therefore, will be literally fulfilled the prophecy of St. Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4(507); for he will literally enthrone himself in the temple of God at Jerusalem, and by oppressive methods will endeavour to exhibit himself as God, and Christ(508). Irenæus applies to this event the prophecy of Daniel concerning _the abomination of desolation_, quoted by our Lord, Matt. xxiv. 15, 16(509).