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THE REIGN OF ANTICHRIST
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By
R. GERALD CULLETON
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"Lord wilt Thou at this time restore the Kingdom of Israel?..." "It is not for you to know tILe times or dates which the Father has fixed . .." Acts 1:6-7
"Let no one deceive you . .. The day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of sin is revealed . .. who . .. gives himself out as if he were God." 2 Thes. 3-4
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TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC.
Rockford, Illinois 61105
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
Originally issued in 1951, the The Reign of Antichrist forms a companion volume to The Prophets and Our Times (1941) and is very much like the latter in scope and content. Two important differences in the books, however, should be noted: The Reign of Antichrist comprises Biblical prophecies as well as saintly prophecies; whereas, The Prophets and Our Times covers saintly prophecies almost entirely. Secondly, The Reign of Antichrist deals with a slightly different period of time, that, obviously of the individual Antichrist; The Prophets and Our Times deals with the period just before the reign of Antichrist, a period dominated by the Great Monarch. A careful reading of these two books will indicate that the time of the Great Monarch more or less prefigures that of Antichrist, although the two personages have generally reversed roles; that is, the times of both men are calamitous for the Catholic Church and for society. The Great Monarch's ascension to power ends the turmoil and initiates an unprecedented peace; on the other hand, Antichrist's coming to power ends the great peace and prosperity of the Great Monarch and heralds the most dreadful situation for both Church and society, which situation ends in the second coming of Our Lord.
The present work is by no means perfect, and all readers should recognize this before they start. Our purpose in reprinting it is twofold: It is a wonderful source book, one from which students of the subject can make an excellent beginning and from which, perhaps some really good student of eschatology, using other existing sources also, can give us a truly authoritative work on the subject. Secondly, there is practically nothing in print in this area that is even remotely reliable. History of Antichrist, by Rev. P. Huchede (1884) is a notable exception, being not only authoritative, but brief and highly readable. Our suggestion is that this book be read before The Reign of Antichrist, if possible, or at least shortly thereafter; it is an excellent outline of Catholic teaching relative to Antichrist. A first reading of Father Huchede's book should be followed by one where the reader looks up all the Biblical passages cited there. In this manner, the subject becomes extremely clear. Father Huchede bases his thesis upon Scripture, Tradition, and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Father Culleton, however, actually quotes the passages from scripture and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, plus gives numerous sources of written tradition; added to these, moreover, he quotes many saints and holy people who possessed the gift of prophecy themselves. Having all these prophetic passages under one cover singularizes The Reign of Antichrist as a unique and valuable book in its field.
A word of warning needs to be interjected here. Saintly prophecies are not "of faith" (de fide pronouncements) and most of the Biblical prophecies regarding Antichrist have not been given official interpretation; consequently, we must observe precaution in interpreting them and in basing our actions upon them, especially until the Church has made judgment in their regard. Nonetheless, these prophecies, both Biblical and saintly, were given and intended for our enlightenment and should not be casually put aside. "Despise not prophecies," says St. Paul, "but prove all things." (1 Thes. 5:20-21). Also he tells us, "Follow after charity, be zealous for spiritual gifts; but rather that you may prophesy ... He that prophesieth, speaketh to men unto edification, and exhortation, and comfort ... He that prophesieth, edifieth the church ... For greater is he that prophesieth, than he that speaketh with tongues." (1 Cor. 14:1,3,4,5). We would indeed be most foolish if we debunked the prophecies Father Culleton has gathered together here, for they form an impressive collection, probably the most thorough treatment on the subject in print. Perhaps it is even providential that the book is being reissued at this time, along with The Prophets and Our Times as well. Together, these two books tell quite a story about the future. And the great divergence of the sources of the prophecies cited is itself the most compelling argument for their validity.
Needless to say, the doctrine on Antichrist is very much a part of our Catholic theology and Tradition, and as such, must be considered carefully by all men, the learned and the unlearned alike, for the Antichrist, when he comes, will affect the lives of all men. Based upon the firmness of their faith and the correctness of their knowledge, men will either apostatize or remain faithful to Christ and His Church. Thus, it will be seen that a knowledge of the prophecies regarding Antichrist is of an immensely practical nature.
We have omitted from the book the secret messages of the La Salette apparition (1846-approved by the Church in 1851), and the reader will find under Number 337 on page 163 a note to this effect. Pages 164 through 170 are missing entirely and only part of pages 163 and 171 appear. In the proper place we have explained why this was done. Other than that, a correction has been made concerning the "Secret of Fatima" on page 186. The wording of the original edition was not precisely what it should have been, and the author issued with each book a preface sheet containing also some corrections; this particular correction we have thought to include new in the body of the book, as well as two others of merely typographical nature. The balance of the author's loose-leaf enclosure has been added as the "Author's Preface."
Some readers no doubt will question Father Culleton's including Number 315, the prophecy of Michael Nostradamus (page 144) because Nostradamus was an astrologer, or at least a student of that subject. Presumably, this was due to Nostradamus' great overall accuracy as a prophet. Although Jewish by birth, he was a Catholic and apparently a very devout one. Moreover, he believed his prophetic foresight was so accurate that he scrambled his quatrains (the enigmatic, four-line verses in which he cast most of his prophecies), in order that people would not be too frightened of the future. Cultivation of the occult sciences is of course forbidden, but to what extent he relied upon astrology to make his predictions, if at all, I do not know. Nonetheless, his reputation for accuracy is great; however, in the particular predictions Father Culleton quotes here, he seems to have made several errors. But the same is true for the predictions of Father Theophilus Reisinger, O.F.M., Cap. (No. 369; page 222), the renowned exorcist of Earling, Iowa fame, popularized by the booklet Begone Satan.
This leads immediately into the question of errors in saintly prophecies. Does this obvious element of error vitiate the entire book. I do not believe it does, and for the following reasons: First, prophecies are about the future, and events, spiritually speaking, are greatly dependent upon the moral quality of human lives; when mankind improves his behavior, he can forestall or remove imminent catastrophe from happening. The prophet might be predicting in the sense of "if conditions do not change, then..." Second, a prophet may simply be misquoted. Third, he may be misinterpreted. And finally, the person in question may not in fact have the prophetic gift, as I believe is the case with Father Reisinger, whose forte or charisma was exorcism; the prediction given by him was through a second party, a mystic who received a locution.
Over all, however, the reader will see that most of Father Culleton's book contains passages that tend to support one another and which in general elucidate what Sacred Scripture has to say on Antichrist, and it is for this reason that we have reissued his book. May it bring enlightenment to its readers on this sorely abused subject, and may it inspire people today to turn to a serious spirituality in their lives, as the only valid bulwark to the onslaught of "the man of sin," a spirituality including prayer, penance, good works, spiritual reading, and frequenting the Sacraments, the formula laid down by the saints for spiritual perfection. This, after all, should be the end result of all our reading-growth in holiness so that we may earn salvation through the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what it may be our fate to live through.
Thomas A. Nelson July 1, 1974 Feast of the Precious Blood
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EDITOR'S PREFACE
Father Gerald Culleton lost his life in an automobile accident, February "19, 1950. He was on his way to say Sunday Mass in his mission church when his car struck a truck in the thick fog. This was at the place called Traver on U. S. Highway 99. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Fresno, California.
The manuscript for this book was pretty well completed when he died. The index and biblography only were missing. These and two quotations have been added by the editor; also a couple of prophecies since repudiated by Church authority have been emitted, as has a large section from the introduction. This was necessary to keep the size and price down.
It is most important that readers understand that inclusion of any private prophecy in this book does not in any way indicate that it is approved by the Church or even by the author of this work. This is merely an historical presentation cf oracles that at the moment are read by good Christians.
The author, as a rule, avoids expressing his own views. Now that he has gone to his reward we may well ask just what were those views. Did he expect Antichrist in the 1950's? So far as we can learn he held no definite personal views as to the time of Antichrist's appearance. He did believe, however, that private prophets expected a very great anti-Christian movement (or an antichrist more fierce than any yet encountered) in this present decade. This person or movement would set out to conquer the world and would be at first very successful. The attempt would be defeated just when it would seem about to overcome the last remnant of opposition. As is natural he felt that if these prophets arc true, Communism is this anti-Christian force.
As to the object whicl1 would defeat this force he was not at all sure. Would it be a person and thing still more evil, namely the Antichrist par excellence, or a Christian organization under a personage often called in prophecy the Great Monarch, or a more apparent miracle (such as three days darkness), or something that would typify the Second Coming of Christ? He found the prophets too diversified to find an answer to this question. The diversity need not mean contradiction, for each prophet may speak of different times or different phases of the same time.
Some private prophets give very precise dates. This is one of the simplest ways of eliminating a prophecy from the realm of truth. If the date arrives and the words are not fulfilled then evidently God has not spoken, or if he has, he meant one of many antichrists and the prophet thought he meant the Antichrist.
The author did not hope to be able to make a collection of prophecies all of which would be true. All he could do was bring together all which at the moment seemed likely to be trustworthy. Just as Satan has a hand in false religions, chiefly because they tend to make religion itself ridiculous, so also does he take a hand in false prophecy, again in an effort to make all prophecy ridiculous. Nevertheless, just as the true religion shall survive and prove itself, so also shall those prophecies that are true survive and prove themselves. If one or other prophecy recorded in this book be repudiated, let it be understood that others still stand.
Father Culleton wrote his first book THE PROPHETS AND OUR TIMES at the suggestion of Monsignor (later Bishop) Philip G. Scher, who was the pastor when he was an assistant at Monterey. The book itself was written somewhat later when father was pastor at Taft, California (19341944). It was widely read having gone through three editions totaling 12,500 copies. Most purchasers who wrote the author complained that so many had borrowed their copies that the book was literally read to pieces.
Father was born at Fresno, California, September 10, 1902 of Irish immigrant parentage: Patrick J. Culleton, of Coolgraney, Co. Kilkenny and Mary J. McCrory of Agliagallon, Co. Antrim. He was one of four children. After the grammar and high grades at the local parish school, he went to Santa Clara College. Having decided to be a diocesan priest, he transferred to St. Patrick's Seminary, Menlo Park, California and three years later went to the American College in Rome, where he was ordained March 24, 1928. He has a brother a priest and a sister and aunt in the convent.
After assistancies at Hanford, Monterey, Salinas, and San Luis Obispo, he became pastor of Taft and then of Wasco. He contracted undulant fever in the latter place and was sent to the cooler climate of Soledad, where he was Chaplain at the Medium Security Prison. It was while he was in Wasco and Soledad that he collected and arranged the material for this book. The typing was done by one of the Soledad prisoners.
His health was restored somewhat at Soledad. He was then given a district in the San Joaquin Valley to develop into a parish. This was July 29, 1949. By February 20, 1950, he had built a rectory and otherwise developed the place to the point where on that day Bishop Aloysius J. Willinger established the parish of the Sacred Heart, Exeter, with Father Culleton as its first pastor.
Father had not been well for some weeks before his death, which he expected without knowing why, and which he asked ethers to help him prepare for. He had special devotion to the Holy Ghost, Saints Michael, Gabriel of our Sorrowful Mother, Gemma Galgani, and Maria Georetti, and great faith in relics and sacramentals. He always gave ready submission to the desires of his superiors.
The manuscript for this book passed by will to Father's bishop, who gave it to us with permission to print and distribute it.
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PREFACE
It has not been my intention to inject myself or my personal opinions into this book. On the whole it is not to be considered so much a theological as an historical presentation~ The purpose has been to put into the hands of as many readers as possible the thoughts of many different persons, all of them pious and some of them learned. In all cases where I could detect any intention to deceive, the material has been excluded. In other cases, and this is really my only intrusion, when a statement seemed to me in need of clarification or of modification from a doctrinal point of view, I have added a footnote or remarks in parenthesis.
Were it not for a book such as this, it would be humanly impossible for the ordinary person, lay or clerical, to get an over-all picture, in original sources, of the thought of true believers on the Antichrist through the long centuries that the Antichrist idea has formed an indispensible segment of divine teaching. This because Antichrist literature is widely scattered and for the most part in books long out of print and besides closed to the ordinary person in that they are not in the English language.
I do not pretend to have satisfied the requirements of scholars in the presentation of these texts; but I do not write the book for scholars. They can look up the material for themselves. Were the texts to be issued in the critical manner of the scholar, the lifetime of one man and the wealth of many could not have produced this book and when it was produced, no one but a scholar could or would have read it.
I am not satisfied myself with some of the sources; but I doubt that any serious errors, that have not been pointed out, have crept into the books that I have used Some of the translations, too, are imperfect; but not so imperfect that they distort the original.
A really good book on Antichrist by several scholars working together and in libraries, which my busy life in a parish made impossible, is surely in order. I will be the first to hail the man or men who will issue a better book on this fascinating subject.
The Author
November 16,1949
Author's Preface
This first edition of THE REIGN OF ANTICHRIST has been printed at the request of and exclusively for several persons who own and appreciate a copy of THE PROPHETS AND OUR TIMES. It is a second volume along the same idea.
Apart from being the first attempt in any language to give a complete picture of the Antichrist of prophecy, this work also lays claim to being the first genuine book printed with paper plates instead of with type, or the zinc plates heretofore in use.
We have issued the book as a printed manuscript but as noted at the end of the Editor's Preface, it is issued with the bishop's permission. To assure our readers, however, we submitted the book in its present form to the book censor for the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno, Reverend Amancio Rodriguez, S. T. D. His reply is as follows:
"I have examined the book, THE REIGN OF ANTICHRIST, and found nothing in it against Faith or Morals. However, it should be noted at the beginning that the scriptural texts never have received an authentic interpretation by the church and that in the case of private revelations they are only matter of private opinion."
If this edition meets with favor we shall issue another for the general public. Meanwhile, we will appreciate your criticism and any information you may have on additional prophecies, old and new.
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INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
Since the author or rather the compiler of this book has no merit as a theologian, he has felt that he will perform a better service if he lets others do most of the talking. For this reason, even this introduction will come almost entirely from the mouths of men whose knowledge and ability are beyond doubt.
The fundamentals of the Christian idea of Antichrist are in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians and in the Apocalypse, so we will hear what Father Prat has to say about the former and Father LeFrois about the latter. Most theologians devote very little space to Antichrist so we have chosen to translate from the work of Father Herve whose comments are typical. I have interjected a few remarks in parenthesis. Neglect them if you wish.
The only point I am forced to make deals with an opinion now quite widespread, that the times of Antichrist are upon us. The only reason I speak is because I have found no one without preconceived ideas whom I can quote.
First: Several have told me that Antichrist is already born. One puts him in Pennsylvania, another in Illinois, a third in Iraq; a fourth has informed me that he already has temples in the four corners of the earth, one corner being Chicago and another Los Angeles. Christ has said, "If they say, lo, here is Christ or there, go ye not out to look." If I err not, this means we should not bother with these rumors. When Antichrist comes, the whole world will know him, the elect for what he is, the rest for what he is not.
Second: It is said that the times in which we live fit very well into those which will immediately precede the coming of Antichrist. This is not for me to judge. They are indeed evil times. They are more intensely and widespreadly evil than any that have existed since Constantine. They will, no doubt, get worse. The Church will suffer much more than She now suffers. But whether what we now see or may live to see is any more than one cf the numerous eras which are to precede Antichrist, I do not know. There are those quoted in this book ,who say we are near the times of Antichrist. Who am I to say they are wrong? But on the other hand, who are they, that we are to believe them. We do not doubt their good faith. The value of their word we know not.
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Antichrist According to Saint Paul's Epistles
In 2 Thess. 2 :3-12 Saint "Paul merely recalls here, with a few allusions, some features of his oral preaching. He takes it for granted that the Thessalonians are familiar with these ideas, for the instructions given to the neophytes always included a chapter on the last things associated with the parousia. (1) The Apostle contents himself with refreshing their memory of them. He formerly taught orally, and now he repeats in writing -but in terms the conciseness of \vhich makes them enigmatical fer us -that the last day is to be preceded by two great crises -the apostasy and the appearance of Antichrist. He speaks of both as of things well known which do not need explanation.
"The apostasy indicates certainly a religious defection, a revolt against God or his representatives. It appears to be closely connected with the acts and wonders wrought by the great adversary. The latter, formally distinguished from Satan, who lends him his aid and uses him as an agent, is described with the traits and characteristics of the persons of whom he is the antitype. He will lift himself up above all that is God or is called God, like Antiochus Epiphanes; he will give himself out for God and will wish to be treated as God, like the Prince of Tyre in Ezechiel and the King of Babylon in Isaias; he will sit in the very Temple of God, like the abomination of desolation predicted by Daniel.
"These reminders are not so much new prophecies as allusions to old texts; it is not necessary to expect the literal verification of them, they are symbols realizable according to a law of proportion unknown to us. When we read that the Lord Jesus 'will destroy the wicked one with the spirit
(breath) of his mouth,' these words recall to us the way in which the Son of David, according to Isaias, is to destroy impiety; but what can we conclude from them as to the real way in which those things will take place? What is said, aside from figures cf speech, is that Antichrist will work false miracles, signs and wonders, will seduce a great many souls, and also cause a schism in the Church, but that he will finally be conquered, and that his fall will be the signal for the parousia.
"In one point only does Paul go beyond his predecessors. He speaks of an obstacle which hinders the immediate coming of Antichrist, and gives us the following description of it: It is a person or something personified (masculine), and at the same time a physical or moral force (neuter). The obstacle is already active and it checks the mystery of iniquity; it prevents the advance of the wicked one. As soon as this obstacle disappears the field will be open to Antichrist whose appearance seems likely to precede but shortly the appearance of the Son of God. What is this obstacle? The Thessalonians had learned what it is from the mouth of the Apostle, but we are ignorant of it now, and everything leads us to suppose that we shall always be ignorant of it. The proverbial obscurity of this passage has given rise to innumerable solutions.
"With brotherly unanimity, Albigenses, Waldenses, Hussites, the disciples of Wyclif, of Luther and Calvin, and ancient and modern Anglicans, down to the nineteenth century, have seen in Antichrist the Pope and in the obstacle which opposes the triumph of the former, first the Roman Emperor and later the German Emperor. In 1518, when the first ideas of revolt were fermenting in him, Luther had a slight suspicion that the Pope might indeed be Antichrist; in 1519, he was almost sure of it, and at the end of that year, when the rupture with Rome was complete, he had become entirely certain of it. Ten years later, he was indignant that the Augsburg confession had made no mention of such a fundamental article of faith. The mistake was remedied at Smalkalde, where it was declared that 'the Pope is the true Antichrist who has elevated himself against Christ and above Him.'
"The only divergence among the Protestants is that some have admitted two Antichrists -one for the East, namely Mohammed and Islam; the other for the West, the Pope and the Papacy. One balder commentator has even discovered that if the Pope is always Antichrist, of course the mystery of iniquity is Jesuitism, while the temple of God is the pure Lutheran doctrine, and the obstacle which resists the advent, not of Antichrist, as the text of St. Paul requires, but of Jesus, is still the Pope. It is not long since the Lutherans, Calvanists and Anglicans gave up this exegesis, which was for them more sacred than the most solemn definition of faith is for us. So difficult to uproot are the prejudices of sect and caste, strengthened by habit and education!
"As for the rationalists, they all declare that the prophecy of St. Paul has not been fulfilled and never will be. It is only a dream of the Apostle. But when they try to say precisely what the object of this dream is, they are so divided that it is impossible to find two of them with the same opinion.
"Nor can we say that Catholic commentators are any more agreed. However, in spite of infinite divergences of detail, they almost all regard the parousia as the personal return of Jesus Christ coming to judge the living and the dead; they see in Antichrist an individual, although St. Augustine thinks rather of a tendency; in the apostasy they see a defection and a revolt, either religious or political, or both at the same time; in the mystery of iniquity, either Nero and the persecutors, or heretics and schismatics; in the temple of God, either the Temple of Jerusalem rebuilt or the Christian Church; finally, in the obstacle, they see either the Roman Empire or its heir, the Christian State. But what State today constructs a dyke against the invasion of evil? In despair of finding any other solution, some are forced to hold that it is the faith still living in many hearts or the command to preach the Gospel throughout the world.
"Not only is the 'obstacle' not yet found, but we doubt whether it has ever been looked for in the right direction. Paul keeps to the ideas of Jewish and Christian eschatology. Like Daniel and St. John, he describes a conflict between good and evil, which has its echo on the earth, but the scene and principal seat of which are elsewhere. It is, in fact, Satan who begins it and maintains it, helping his tool with all his might. The antagonist must be a power of the same order. In the prophecy of Daniel it is the commander of the heavenly hosts, the chief of the people of God, Michael, who takes up the cause of the holy nation, especially at the time of the great tribulation and on the eve of the resurrection of the dead. In St. John it is still Michael at the head of his angels who fights against the Dragon, the old Serpent, Lucifer, the Devil, Satan, and who finally wins the victory for Christ.
"The struggle between Michael and Satan goes on through the centuries. There is no need of interrogating the Apocrypha -the Book of Enoch, the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, or the Apocalypse of Moses -to know what a leading role the Archangel Michael is to play at the last day. It is he, according to St. Paul -the thing is scarcely doubtful -who will give the signal for the resurrection and the judgment. Will it not be also he -the protector first of the Synagogue and then cf the Church -. who with his legions will bar the passage of the powers of hell until the fullness of time? All the features of Paul's description are applicable to him; a personal being, he commands an army and represents a force; he is immortal, and his fight against Satan, begun in the apostolic epoch, runs on through history to its final climax. If his momentary disappearance signified a defeat or a destruction this character would not be applicable to him, but the Apostle's words do not mean this, and need not be thus understood. Until the baffled exegetes have found a better solution it is here that we shall seek for the mysterious 'obstacle' that retards the appearance of Antichrist." (Fernand Prat, S.J., The Theology of St. Paul, 1927. Vol. I, pp. 79-83).
(1) Second coming of Christ.
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Antichrist According to the Apocalypse
"Despite the fact that the spiritual or ideal interpretation of the Apocalypse, elaborated chiefly by Father Allo, O.P., has gained many adherents in the past forty years, there is an ever increasing number of authors who, along the lines of the earliest Church Fathers, prefer to give an eschatological interpretation to the greater part of that prophetical book of the New Testament. It would be interesting to see what such an interpretation would offer in detail. A summary picture would probably result as follows.
"The Apocalypse is chiefly the grand finale of the Kingdom of God on earth, the completion of all prophecies in, a final synthesis.
"Part I (1 :9-3 :22) depicts the First Age of the Church with its needs and impending trials. Part II (4:1-20 :15) sets forth the Final Age of the Church. Such a combination of events widely separated in time is common to the prophetic vision. However, a connecting bridge between the two eras is probably given in a second fulfillment of Part I, namely, the typical sense of the Seven Letters.
"Part II opens with the Almighty Judge seated in judgment together with His heavenly court (Apoc. 4 :1-5 :14). His final decrees for mankind are in the sealed scroll. But He has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22), so it is the Lamb, once slain by man, who executes these decrees on man, through the mediation of the angelic world. Part II has two sections.
"Section One (6 :1-11 :19) portrays the great distress among the nations on account of the calamities which the Lamb allows to overtake the world in punishment for unbelief. These calamities are in origin terrestrial (ch. 6), celestial (ch. 8), and infernal (ch. 9). Even a foretaste of hell is given to mankind before the great day of reckoning. Also in St. Luke's eschatological chapter, there is a clear distinction made between ordinary wars and insurrections on the one hand, and universal war, calamity, famine and death on the other. The latter is the sign of the coming judgment (Luke 21:9 and 10-11).
"The period of great distress coincides with the 'Major Apostasy' of 2 Thess. 2:3 and with the end of the 'Time of the Gentiles.' After describing the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus said: 'And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the nations to be fulfilled' (Luke 21 :24). The great distress brought physical death to many on earth, but like in the days of the flood (see 1Peter 3 :20), many found repentance before death and washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and an innumerable crowd remained faithful to Him unto death (Apoc. 7 :9-14).
"At this juncture there is place for the conversion of the Jews (as a whole) (see Rom. 11:13-25). 'A partial blindness only has befallen Israel until the full number of the Gentiles should enter, and thus all Israel should be saved' (Rom. 11: 25). So the Church of the Last Age (represented by the 144,000 of chapter 7, sealed from both spiritual and physical harm) shall come through unscathed, and shall once more be (predominantly) Israelitic. It shall continue so to the end, marked (sealed) by God, like Israel of old in Egypt, as His own people. But the nations fall back into unbelief (Luke 18 :8).
"Israel's conversion is brought about by the preaching and miracles of Elias during the great distress. 'Behold I will send you Elias the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the children to the fathers; lest I come and strike the earth with anathema' (Mal. 4 :5-6). 'Elias is indeed to come and will restore all things' (Mt. 17 :11). True Israel is now spiritual; the material-minded and worldly Jews are rejected, as symbolized in the measuring cf the Temple (Apoc. 11 :1-2).
"Henoch is the second witness sent back to preach penance in preparation for the coming of the reign of Antichrist. It seems that his mission is to the nations, so that they have an opportunity of salvation to the end (see Sir. 44 :16). Jude 14-15 also hints at Henoch's mission in the latter days. The ministry of the two witnesses lasts 'three and a half years' (Apoc. 11 :3), which coincides with the first half of Daniel's last 'year-week' (Dan. 9 :26-27), whereas the second half of that 'year-week' coincides with the reign of Antichrist (who also reigns for three and a half years or 42 months in Apoc. 13 :5) and makes desolate all religion, only to sit in the temple of God and give himself out to be God (2 Thess. 2 :4). This is either a typical fulfillment of Daniel's last year-week, or there was a suspension in Daniel's vision after the seven plus sixty-two weeks until the time of the nations be fulfilled, and then the vision is resumed with the last year-week concerning Daniel's own people: Israel.
"Section Two of Part II (12 :1-20 :15) portrays the godless reign of a personal Antichrist, and the subsequent utter destruction of his kingdom, metropolis, and devotees. The stage is prepared by showing the Church of the Consummation fitted out with the characteristics of the Virgin Mother, invulnerable in this attire against the attacks of the fierce dragon. Yet the dragon prepares to engulf her in a last supreme onslaught (ch.12).
"Beast number one is collective Antichrist persecuting the People of God from its very beginnings on earth down through the centuries (ch. 13). This it does through its seven heads but chiefly through him who caps all seven, namely, personal Antichrist, who sums up in himself all the perversity of the seven. Thus he is the eighth (Apoc. 17: 11). Seven heads which endeavored to engulf God's people on earth from the beginning of its existence are: Egypt (Pharao), Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia (under Artaxerxes Ochos), Greco-Macedonia (in the Seleucides), Totalitarian pagan Rome (the sixth head) and a world empire of latter times. Symb8lism (like in Daniel) fluctuates between a collective and a personal being, namely, an empire and a chief representative of that empire, e.g., the sixth head is represented as both empire and chief head of that empire (see 17 :9). Daniel's fourth beast with the ten horns (Dan. 7 :17-25) coincides with this beast of the Apocalypse in its sixth head (Apoc. 17 :10). Ten horns are those state-kingdoms which follow upon the break-up of the Roman Empire and (eventually) persecute the Church.
"Beast number two is a false Elias heralding the advent of the false Christ (Antichrist in person). By diabolical signs he succeeds in bringing over the infidel world to Antichrist. St. Paul states that this deception is also a punishment for unbelief in Christ's Gospel of truth and love (2 Thess. 2: 9-12). Antichrist's name is given a numerical value: 666. Fulfillment alone can give certitude to this riddle. The Hebrew letters of Nero (n) Kaisar amount to 666. If this is the meaning of St. John, then Antichrist will come in the spirit of Nero (the sixth head), so that the horrible beast lives again (Apoc. 13 :3).
The Marian Church of the Consummation has nothing to fear from the Antichrist, for he cannot extinguish her. God gives her supernatural aid (Apoc. 12 :6). She is now virginal in the purity of her conduct and her devotedness to the Lamb. Her imitation of the Lamb is unexcelled (14 :4). Mindful of the advice of St. Paul (1 Cor. 7 :26-31), all live the virginal ideal. The time is at hand.
"Destruction of Antichrist's metropolis and works is accomplished by angelic powers in the pouring out of the bowls of God's wrath (ch. 16). Personal Antichrist and False Elias are overcome and cast into hell by the personal coming of Christ in glory (19:11-21).
"Millenium: Since the Holy Office decreed (July 21, 1944) that it cannot be safely taught that Christ at His Second Coming will reign visibly with only some of His saints (risen from the dead) for a period of time before the final and universal judgment, a spiritual millenium is to be seen in Apoc. 20 :4-6. St. John gives a recapitulation of the activity of Satan, and the spiritual reign of the saints with Christ in heaven and in His Church on earth. When Christianity triumphed over the Beast (in its sixth head, the pagan Roman empire) Satan was chained. With the re-appearance of the Beast in the anti-Christian world empire (the seventh head), he will be unchained, and muster all his forces against the Church until the peak of the persecution under Antichrist (the eighth). Meanwhile, the church enjoyed the millenium with Christ enthroned among the nations.
"Part III (Apoc. 21-22) deals exclusively with the new heaven and the transformed earth, the new Jerusalem, Paradise, and eternal happiness. It harkens back to the first three chapters of Genesis. Mankind is restored forever to God's love and friendship, but through the Lamb and the Virgin (22 :1-3). And the river of God's Love shall quench the thirst of the sons of God forever. And they shall be like unto God (22 :4-5)."
(Bernard J. LeFrois: "Eschatological Interpretation of the Apocalypse" in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. XIII, pp. 17-20. This text has been added by the editor).
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Antichrist and the End of the World
"Christ Himself has given the signs which precede the end of the world, adding, 'When you see all these, know that it is near, (yes) at the door'.
(Matt. 24 :14) "The chief signs follow:
I. The preaching of the Gospel in the entire world - 'This Gospel will be preached in testimony to all nations, and then will come the end' (Matt. 24 :33). From this it is certain that the end of the world will not occur before the Gospel has been preached in all nations; but it does not follow the end will be immediately after that. (Neither do we know what preaching c.f the Gospel implies; but it likely means that every community in the world must be given sufficient information on the true and only Church of Christ that the people will be guilty of grave sin if they do not accept the truth) .
II. The great defection from the Faith and the appearance of Antichrist - 'Unless the defection comes first and the man of sin be revealed ... the day of the Lord is not imminent'. (III Thess. 2 :1-4).
This defection or apostasy is one from God and His Christ, one of nations which will combat and try to abolish the Church. The Church, of course, will be preserved to the very end; although those who are not among the 'elect' and 'whose names are not written in the book of life' will follow Antichrist (Matt. 24 :12; Luke 18:8; Tim. 4:1; Apoc. 13 :8).
It is when this apostasy is at its highest that 'there will appear the evil one, whom (however) the Lord Jesus will (a) slay with the breath of His mouth and (b) destroy by the light of His coming' (II Thess. 2 :8). (Whether these two judgments of Christ are one and the same or two different punishments is not clear nor if two is there anything here to indicate that they are contemporary. If one refers to death of the body and the other to a formal condemnation to Hell on the last day, there is nothing indicating the time that is to elapse between the two).
Antichrist has precursors for already from the beginning the fight against Christ was begun; but it will be greatest at the end of the times when the man of sin appears (This phrase end of time or latter times could mean the whole Christian era or any part of it at least so it was used by St. John who told his followers: Because Christ is now opposed, we know we are in the latter times. I John 2 :18).
This adversary of God will pass himself off as God and, 'according to the operation of Satan', he will be strong 'in every power and signs and lying wonders and in every seduction of evil' (II Thess. 2 :9-11). Antichrist is not a personification of persecution against the Church; but a special definite person. He is so referred to by St. John and segregated from indefinite antichrists. The Apostle always refers to him in the singular, for example, man of sin, son of perdition, the adversary, the evil one, etc. On the other hand a group could not propose itself for worship in a temple. Moreover, the Fathers and theologians traditionally have referred to him as a single definite person.
III. The return of Elias and Enoch - Two witnesses precede the coming of Christ as Judge and fight against Antichrist (Apoc. 11 :3ss). One of them is Elias as is clear from Malachias (4:5-6), St. Matthew (17:10ss), and St. Luke (1 :17). The other will be Enoch according to many Fathers, based on Ecclesiasticus (44:16) 'Henoch was transferred into Paradise that he may give repentance to the nations.' Others, however, think the second witness will be Moses or Jeremias.
IV. The conversion of the Jews - This conversion will be made chiefly by the preaching of Elias. St. Paul says, 'Blindness in part has happened in Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in. And so all Israel should be saved as it is written, He shall come out of Sion and deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob'. This is the origin of the Christian persuasion of the conversion of Israel at the end of the world.
V. Many prodigies in the heavens and on earth (Luke 21 :25-26)." Father Hervé adds, "These signs are, of course, rather indefinite and the time of Christ's Second Coming cannot be known for certain from them."
(J. M. Hervé: Manuale Theologiae Dogmaticae, Vol. IV, Sec. 623.)
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CHAPTER I
PROPHETIC TEXTS FROM THE BIBLE
We have used the Old Testament Scriptures as they exist in English in the Douay Version. This is the translation in common use among Catholics and the only complete Bible in the English language. It is translated from the Latin Vulgate in comparison with the Hebrew and Greek texts as they were recognized in A.D. 1582.
This version has several advantages. First, it is a translation of the whole canonical Old Testament. The non-Catholic versions leave out several books and parts of books. The Protestant divines chose to admit as sacred only those books which the Jewish rabbis, who refused to accept Christ, decided to retain in the Jewish Bible. This selection was made by the rabbis not earlier than two hundred years after the birth of Christ therefore long after Judaism had ceased to be guided by the Holy Ghost, as the true religion must be guided, and by a group of men without authority even under the Mosaic Law. Priests, Prophets, and Kings and not teachers (rabbis) represented Jehovah (Yahwey in Hebrew) in the Old Dispensation.
Modern Jewish authors (1) readily admit that the rabbis of the early Christian times repudiated or reinterpreted all Jewish literature which could be produced in support of the claims of Jesus Christ, himself a Jew, the last of the true Jews, and the one who from the beginning of time was destined to turn Judaism into a religion for all men of good will and not for just one particular race irrespective of the will, good or otherwise, of the members of that race.
Second, the Douay version has the approval of the successor of St. Peter and all the bishops of the Church Universal, whereas the chief and basic Protestant Bible contents itself with the approval of King James of England and the parliament of that nation. As is evident even to the most superficial students of Sacred Scripture there is nothing in the Bible, or elsewhere, except the laws made by Englishmen, that gives an English or any other King or any civil government any right whatever over the Word of God. "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church." "Whatsoever thou shalt bind shall be bound." These words refer to Apostles and their successors exactly as they were spoken to Peter alone or Peter with all. Kings, princes and dead limbs cut off into national or autonomous churches have no authority over God's word and much less so has each man just because he happens to be born.
Third, the Vulgate, from which the Douay derives, not only resulted from manuscripts hundreds of years older than those used by King James' men but derived from a canon (i.e. list of Sacred Books), which the whole Church for 1600 years before Luther held to be Sacred. In fact the Septuagint Greek Bible, the Bible used by Greek speaking Jews and gotten together long before Christ and when no one "had an ax to grind," is the true index to the books which the pre-Christian Jews and all the first Christians held sac~ed. The Septuagint has the same books as the Vulgate and in fact it was used as a guide by the translators of the Vulgate 1200 years before the first Protestant was born and just about the time that the Jewish rabbis were deciding that they wanted no part of some of the texts their ancestors had venerated.
For these then and many other reasons we use the Douay version considering the King James and its filial versions fit reading for a study of the English language but not for an impartial survey of the Word of God.
While it would have made this book much shorter to have given only the Scriptural references letting each one go to his own Bible, we reproduce the texts here to save time for our readers, and so that standing alone and in the usual paragraph form they may be more easily integrated with each other and with private prophesies.
(1) E.g. Waxlnan: A History of Jewish Literature, Vol. I.
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201a. Genesis On Henoch
"And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Henoch ... And Henoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Mathusala. And Henoch walked with God: and lived after he begot Mathusala, three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Henoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And he walked with God, and was seen no more: because God took him." (5: 18-24).
b. This text is used by those who say Antichrist will be from the Tribe of Dan.
"Dan shall judge his people like another tribe in Israel. Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that biteth the horse's heels that his rider may fall backward" (49: 16-17). Cf. also Gen. 3:1 ff; Deut. 13:1 ff; Job 4:8 ff. All of Genenis 49 is on the last days but not all on Anti-Christ.
202. Deuteronomy On False Prophets
"If there rise in the midst of thee a prophet or one that saith he hath dreamed a dream, and he foretell a sign and a wonder, and that come to pass which he spoke, and he say to thee: Let us go and follow strange gods, which thou knowest not, and let us serve them: Thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet or dreamer: for the Lord your God trieth you, that it may appear whether you love him with all your heart, and with all your soul, or not" (13 :1-3).
203. III Kings
Chapters 17 to 19 and Chapter 21: 17-29 recount at length the story of Elias the Prophet and his dealings with Achab King of Israel. While a reading of this part of the Bible is essential for a life of the prophet there is little or nothing to be found there concerning the role he is to play in the last days. Subsequent students, however, may have rememuered the following words when they dealt with the end of time.
a. And the word of the Lord said to Elias, "go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord overthrowing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces: the Lord is not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake: the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire: the Lord is not in the fire, and after the fire a whistling of a gentle air. And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold a voice unto him, saying: What dost thou here, Elias? And he answered: With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant: they have destroyed thy altars, they have slain thy prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said to him: Go, and return on thy way through the desert to Damascus: and when thou art come thither, thou shalt anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And thou shalt anoint Jehu the son of Namsi to be king over Israel: and Eliseus the son of Saphat, of Abelmuela, thou shalt anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall escape the sword of Hazael, shall be slain by Jehu: and whosoever shall escape the sword of Jehu shall be slain by Eliseus. And I will leave me seven thousand men in Israel, whose knees have not been bowed before Baal, and every mouth that hath not worshipped him ..." (19:9-18).
[size=medium] b. "Because he hath humbled himself for my sake I will not bring evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house" (21: 29).
204. IV Kings
Chapter 1 continues the life of Elias under the son and successor of Achab and does not enlighten us on the prophet's eschatological role, but the following is, of course, important.
"And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elias into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elias and Eliseus were going from Galgal. And Elias said to Eliseus: Stay thou here, because the Lord hath sent me as far as Bethel. And Eliseus said to him: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
"And when they were come down to Bethel, the sons cf the prophets, that were at Bethel, came forth to Eliseus, and said to him: Dost thou know that this day the Lord will take away thy master from thee? And he answered: I also know it: hold your peace. And Elias said to Eliseus:. Stay here because the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
"And when they were come to Jericho, The sons of the prophets that were at Jericho, came to Eliseus, and said to him: Dost thou know that this day the Lord will take away thy master from thee? And he said: I also know it: hold your peace. And Elias said to him: Stay here, because the Lord hath sent me as far as the Jordan. And he said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee; and they two went on together. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets followed them, and stood in sight at a distance: but they two stood by the Jordan.
[size=medium] "And Elias took his mantle and folded it together, and struck the waters, and they \vere divided hither and thither, and they both passed over on dry ground. And when they were gone over, Elias said to Eliseus: Ask what thou wilt have me to do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Eliseus said: I beseech thee that in me may be thy double spirit. And he answered: Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee, thou shalt have what thou hast asked: but if thou see me not, thou shalt not have it.
"And as they went on, walking and talking together behold a fiery chariot, and fiery horses part them both asunder: and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Eliseus saw him, and cried: My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own garments, and rent them in two pieces.
"And he took up the mantle of Elias, that fell from him: and going back, he stood upon the bank of the Jordan, And he struck the waters with the mantle of Elias, that had fallen from him, and they were not divided. And he said: Where is now the God of Elias? And he struck the waters and they were divided, hither and thither, and Eliseus passed over. And the sons of the prophets at Jericho, who were over against him, seeing it said: The spirit of Elias hath rested upon Eliseus: And coming to meet him, they worshipped him, falling to the ground" (2: 1-15).
205. II Paralipomenon
In this book is recorded the story of Elias and Joram King of Juda (21: 12-19). It is not to our purpose. Prophesy 3 in our first book (The Prophets and Our Times) describes the unsettled conditions that will prevail when Israel is refounded. It too is from this Sacred Book.
206. Psalms
In our former work prophesies 4a to c either refer to the latter times or inspired Christian prophets.
207. Wisdom
Prophesy 5 in the former book describes our modern world quite well and was meant for any age which turns it back on the Creator.
208. Ecclesiasticus or Ben Sirach
This book written about 275 years before Christ is the first known to us which speaks of future roles assigned to the prophets Henoch and Elias. The author, however, is not and does not claim to be, a prophet. He merely sets down the commonly held Jewish teaching of his time.
a. "Henoch pleased God, and was translated into paradise, that he may give repentance to the nations" (44: 16).
b. "No man was born upon earth like Henoch: for he also was taken up from the earth" (49 :16) .
c. "And Elias the prophet stood up, as a fire, and his sword burnt like a torch. He brought a famine upon then1, and they that provoked him in their envy, were reduced to a small number, for they could not endure the commandments of the Lord. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven, and brought down fire from heaven thrice. Thus was Elias magnified in his wondrous works. And who can glory like to thee? Who raisest up a dead man from below, from the lot of death, by the word of the Lord God. Who broughtest down kings to destruction, and brokest easily their power in pieces, and the glorious from their bed. Who heardest judgment in Sina, and in Horeb the judgments of vengeance. Who anointedst kings to penance, and madest prophets successors after thee. Who "vast taken up in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot of fiery horses. Who art registered in the judgments of times to appease the wrath of the Lord, to reconcile the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob. Blessed are they that saw thee, and were honoured with thy friendship. For we live only in our life, but after death our name shall not be such. Elias was indeed covered with the whirlwind, and his spirit was filled in Eliseus." (48: 1-13a).
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209. Isaias
In our former book prophesy 8 contains extracts descriptive of the confusion of the latter days and also a section on the eventual universal peace and unity of faith. There follows here words that have yet to be completely fulfilled. In fact Ecclesiasticus (48: 26, 27) says that Isaias foresaw the things that would come to pass at last.
a. "The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as it were of many people, the noise of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together: The Lord of hosts hath given charge to the troops of war. To them that come from a country afar off, from the end of heaven: the Lord and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy the whole land. 'Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near: it shall come as a destruction from the Lord. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every heart of man shall melt, And shall be broken. Gripings and pains shall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman in labour. Everyone shall be amazed at his neighbour, their countenances shall be as faces burnt. Behold, the day of the Lord shall come, a cruel day, and full of indignation, and of wrath, and fury, to lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven, and their brightness shall not display their light: the sun shall be darkened in his rising, and the moon not shine with her light. And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and will bring down the arrogancy of the mighty" (13:4-11).
b. "Hell below man in an uproar to meet thee at thy coming, it stirred up the giants for thee. All the princes of the earth are risen up from their thrones, all the princes of nations. All shall answer, and say to thee: Thou also art wounded as well as we, thou are become like unto us.
"Thy pride is brought down to hell, thy carcass is fallen down: under thee shall the moth be strewed, and worms shall be thy covering. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didst wound the nations? And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the coven!1nt, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High. But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth of the pit.
"They that shall see thee, shall turn toward thee, and behold thee. Is this the man that troubled the earth, that shook kingdoms, that made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the prison to his prisoners? All the kinds of the nations have all of them slept in glory, everyone in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave, as an unprofitable branch defiled, and wrapped up among them that were slain by the sword, and art gone down to the bottom of the pit, as a rotten carcass" (14: 9-19). cf. 11:4; 66 :15 ff.
210. Jeremias
Prophesy 9 in our earlier work deals at length with false prophets and speaks of terrible chastisements that will follow widespread evils. All the things foretold have not yet been accomplished.
211. Ezechiel
Prophesy 11 like 9 mentioned above deals with false prophets and chastisements. There follows the extensive extracts whence has flowed subsequent literature on Gog and Magog.
"Son of man, set thy face against God, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal: and prophesy of him, and say to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal ...
"After many days thou shalt be visited: at the end of years thou shalt come to the land that is returned from the sword, and is gathered out of many nations, to the mountains of Israel which have been continually waste: but it hath been brought forth out of the nations, and they shall all of them dwell securely in it. And thou shalt go up and come like a storm, and like a cloud to cover the land, thou ,and all thy bands and many people with thee.
"Thus saith the Lord God: In that day projects shall enter into thy heart, and thou shalt conceive a mishievous design. And thou shalt say: I will go up to the land which is without a wall, I will come to them that are at rest, and dwell securely: all these dwell without a wall, they have no bars nor gates: To take spoils and lay hold on the prey, to lay thy hand upon them that had been wasted, and afterwards restored, and upon the people that is gathered out of the nations, which hath begun to possess and to dwell in the midst of the earth.
"Saba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tharsis, and all the lions thereof shall say to thee: Art thou to take spoils? behold, thou hast gathered thy multitude to take a prey, to take silver, and gold, and to carry away goods and substance, and to take rich spoils.
"Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: Thus saith the Lord God: Thou shalt not know, in that day, when my people of Israel shall dwell securely? And thou shalt come out of thy place from the northern parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army. And thou shalt come upon my people of Israel like a cloud, to cover the earth. Thou shalt be in the latter days, and I will bring thee upon my land: that the nations may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
"Thus saith the Lord God: Thou then art he, of whom I have spoken in the days of old, by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in the days of those times that I would bring thee upon them. And it shall come to pass in that day, in the day of the coming of Gog upon the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my indignation shall come up in my wrath. And I have spoken in my zeal, and in the fire of my anger, that in that day there shall be a great commotion upon the land of Israel: So that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the ground, and all men that are upon the face of the earth, shall be moved by my presence: and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the hedges shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call in the sword against him in all my mountains, saith the Lord God; every man's sword shall be pointed against his brother. And I will judge him with pestilence, and with blood, and with violent rain, and vast hailstones: I will rain fire and brimstone upon him, and upon his army, and upon the many nations that are with him. And I will be magnified, and I will be sanctified: and I will be known in the eyes of many nations: and they sh,all know that I am the Lord.
"And thou, son cf man, prophesy against Gog, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, 0 Gog, the chief prince of Mosch and Thubal. And I will turn thee round, and I will lead thee out, and will m~ake thee go up from the northern parts: and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel. And I will break thy bow in thy left hand, and I will cause thy arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and thy nations that are with thee: I have given thee to the wild beasts, to the birds, and to every fowl, and to the beasts of the earth to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the face of the field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.
"And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell confidently in the islands: and they shall know that I am the Lord. And I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people of Israel, and my holy name shall be profaned no more: and the Gentiles shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel ...
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give Gog a noted place for a sepulchre in Israel: the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea, which shall cause astonishment in them that pass by: and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude, and it shall be called the valley of the multitude of Gog ...
"And all the people of the land shall bury him, and it shall be unto them a noted day, wherein I was glorified, saith the Lord God ...
"And I will set my glory among the nations: and all nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. And the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward" (38: 1 to 39: 22). cf. 7: 11 and 28.
212. Daniel
Neither the Prophet Daniel nor any other pre-Christian author has used the word Antichrist. In fact that word is used in but one context of the New Testament. It does not appear at all in the Apocalypse. Despite this it is universally agreed that in the Book of Daniel we find the earliest uncontested reference to the personage now known as Antichrist. It is further agreed that the Apocalypse develops ideas that were first given to the world by the Prophet Daniel.
a. "Behold ... a great statue and the look thereof was terrible. The head ... was gold ... the breast ... silver ... the belly and thighs brass the legs iron and the feet part iron and part clay. A stone cut out of a mountain ,vithout hands struck the statue and the feet and broke them. Then the iron, clay, brass, silver and gold was broken and became like chaff and were carried away by the wind but the stone became a mountain which filled the whole earth.
"This is ... the interpretation Thou (Nabuchodonosor King of Babylon) art the head after thee shall rise up another kingdom (Medes and Persians), and a third kingdom shall rule all the world (Alexander the Great), and the fourth kingdom shall be as iron ... (and) shall break and destroy all these (Roman Empire).
"And whereas thou sawest the feet and the toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, but yet it shall take its origin from the iron, according as thou sawest the iron mixed with the miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, the kingdom sh,all be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall be mingled indeed together with the seed of man, but they shall not stick fast one to another, as iron cannot be mixed with clay.
"But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom (the Church of Christ) that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people; and it shall break in pieces, and shall consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand forever. According as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and broke in pieces the clay, and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold, the great God hath shown the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof is faithful." (2 :31-45).
b. "Four great beasts ... came up out of the sea. The first was like a lioness and had wings (Chaldean Empire) ... another beast like a bear (Persian Empire) ... another like a Leopard (Grecian Empire) ... a fourth beast terrible and wonderful ... It had great iron teeth (Roman Empire) ... It had ten (1) horns. I considered the horns, and behold another little horn (2) sprung out of the midst of them: and three of the first horns were plucked up at the presence thereof . . . and behold eyes like the eyes. of a man were in this horn, and a mouth speaking great things ...
"I beheld because of the voice of the great words which that horn spoke, and I saw that the beast was slain, and the body thereof was destroyed, and given to the fire to be burnt; and that the power of the other beasts was taken away, and that times of life were appointed them for a time, and a time.
( 1) Ten kingdoms, as in Apoc. 17: 12, among which the elmpire of the fourth beast shall be parcelled. Or ten kings of the number of the successors of Alexander, as figures of such as shall be about the time of Antichrist. (Bishop Challoner note).
(2) This is commonly understood of Antichrist. It may also be applied to that great persecutor Antiochus Epiphanes, figure of Antichrist. (Bishop Challoner note).
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