[In Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra,] the eighty billion nayuta of never-faltering bodhisattvas told their decision to Sakyamuni. The first three types of persecutors listed … are examples of “arrogance of people who are sure of their own virtue.” The first group consists of ordinary people, the second of clergy, and the third of hermits, ascetics who have renounced the world, and leaders among the clergy. These three groups are the three types of people who will persecute expounders of the Dharma during the Age of Degeneration. From olden times, they have been called the “three kinds of powerful enemies.” “Arrogance of people who are sure of their own virtue” is seen in people who are proud of their own positions and hostile toward the Teaching of Equality revealed in the Lotus Sutra. Through the words of these eighty billion nayuta of bodhisattvas, Sakyamuni foretold that such evil people, consisting of both clergy and laity, will appear in the world after his extinction, be hostile to the Lotus Sutra, and vigorously oppose anyone who attempts to propagate it.