Lactantius, Divine Institutes 7.19

When human resources fail to break the tyranny of the immense powers that oppress the earth — because the captured world will lie under great robber armies — that vast calamity will require divine help. Moved by a twofold danger and the lamentable outcry of the just, God will immediately send a liberator. Then the heavens will open in the middle of a stormy, dark night, so that the light of the descending God appears like lightning across the whole world, just as the Sibyl declared in these verses: "When he comes, there will be fire in the middle of the black night." This is the night we keep with a vigil to celebrate the arrival of our King and God; its meaning is twofold, because on it He both received life when He suffered and afterward will receive the kingdom of the earth. He is the liberator, judge, avenger, king, and God whom we call Christ, and before He descends He will give this sign: a sword will suddenly fall from heaven, so that the just may know the leader of the holy militia is descending. He will descend with accompanying angels into the midst of the earth; an inextinguishable flame will precede Him, and the power of angels will hand over to the hands of the just the multitude that has besieged the mountain. They will be cut down from the third hour until evening, and their blood will flow like a torrent. When all the troops are destroyed, the impious one alone will escape and perish by His power. This is the one called Antichrist; yet he will lie that he himself is Christ, fight against the truth, be defeated, escape, repeatedly renew the war, and repeatedly be conquered, until in the fourth battle, after all the impious have been defeated, he is finally conquered, captured, and pays the penalty for his crimes. The other princes and tyrants who corrupted the world will also be led bound with him to the King, who will rebuke them, accuse them, reproach them for their deeds, condemn them, and hand them over to torments of the mind. Thus, with evil extinguished and impiety suppressed, the world will rest, after enduring a wicked servitude for so many ages under error and nefarious crime. Handmade gods will no longer be worshiped; their images will be thrown out from temples and pedestals and given to the fire, where they will burn along with their marvelous gifts. The Sibyl, in agreement with the prophets, predicted this: "Mortals will throw away their idols and all their wealth." The Erythraean Sibyl promised the same: "The handmade works of the gods will be burned."