St. Lactantius
Feastday not known
Born 260AD
Died 325AD
Born a pagan - African by birth – A Christian apologist of the 4th Century called “the most eloquent man of his time”. He specialized in attacking pagan beliefs. Constantine chose him to tutor his son.
CHAPTER 14 -- OF THE FIRST AND
LAST TIMES OF THE WORLD.
God completed the world and this admirable work of nature in the space of six days, as is contained in the secrets of Holy Scripture, and consecrated the seventh day, on which He had rested from His works. But this is the Sabbath-day, which in the language of the Hebrews received its name from the number, whence the seventh is the legitimate and complete number. For there are seven days, by the revolutions of which in order the circles of years are made up; and there are seven stars which do not set, and seven luminaries which are called planets, whose differing and unequal movements are believed to cause the varieties of circumstances and times. Therefore, since all the works of God were completed in six days, the world must continue in its present state through six ages, that is, six thousand years. For the great day of God is limited by a circle of a thousand years, as the prophet shows, who says "In Thy sight, O Lord, a thousand years are as one day." And as God laboured during those six days in creating such great works, so His religion and truth must labour during these six thousand years, while wickedness prevails and bears rule. And again, since God, having finished His works, rested the seventh day and blessed it, at the end of the six thousandth year all wickedness must be abolished from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand years; and there must be tranquillity and rest from the labours which the world now has long endured.
CHAPTER 15 -- OF THE DEVASTATION
OF THE WORLD AND CHANGE OF THE EMPIRES.
[A]s the end of this world approaches, the condition of human affairs must undergo a change, and through the prevalence of wickedness become worse; so that now these times of ours, in which iniquity and impiety have increased even to the highest degree, may be judged happy and almost golden in comparison of that incurable evil. For righteousness will so decrease, and impiety, avarice, desire, and lust will so greatly increase, that if there shall then happen to be any good men, they will be a prey to the wicked, and will be harassed on all sides by the unrighteous; while the wicked alone will be in opulence, but the good will be afflicted in all calumnies and in want. All justice will be confounded, and the laws will be destroyed. No one will then have anything except that which has been gained or defended by the hand: boldness and violence will possess all things. There will be no faith among men, nor peace, nor kindness, nor shame, nor truth; and thus also there will be neither security, nor government, nor any rest from evils. For all the earth will be in a state of tumult; wars will everywhere rage; all nations will he in arms, and will oppose one another; neighbouring states will carry on conflicts with each other; The time of nation fighting against nation will occur after the birth of Anti-Christ (and then) the world shall be desppiled of beauty through the destruction of men;
CHAPTER 16 -- OF THE DEVASTATION
OF THE WORLD, AND ITS PROPHETIC OMENS.
But, lest any one should think this incredible, I will show how it will come to pass. First, the kingdom will be enlarged, and the chief power, dispersed among many and divided, will be diminished. Then civil discords will perpetually be sown; nor will there be any rest from deadly wars, until ten kings arise at the same time, who will divide the world, not to govern, but to consume it. These, having increased their armies to an immense extent, and having deserted the cultivation of the fields, which is the beginning of overthrow and disaster, will lay waste and break in pieces and consume all things. Then a most powerful enemy will suddenly arise against him from the extreme boundaries of the northern region, who, having destroyed three of that number who shall then be in possession of Asia, shall be admitted into alliance by the others, and shall be constituted prince of all. He shall harass the world with an intolerable rule; shall mingle things divine and human; shall contrive things impious to relate, and detestable; shall meditate new designs in his breast, that he may establish the government for himself: he will change the laws, and appoint his own; he will contaminate, plunder, spoil, and put to death. And at length, the name being changed and the seat of government being transferred, confusion and the disturbance of mankind will follow. Then, in truth, a detestable and abominable time shall come, in which life shall be pleasant to none of men. Cities shall be utterly overthrown, and shall perish; not only by fire and the sword, but also by continual earthquakes and floods, and by frequent diseases and repeated famines. For the atmosphere will be tainted, and become corrupt and pestilential -- at one time by unseasonable rains, at another by barren drought, now by colds, and now by excessive heats. Nor will the earth give its fruit to man: no field, or tree, or vine will produce anything; but after they have given the greatest hope in the blossom, they will fail in the fruit. Fountains also shall be dried up, together with the rivers; so that there shall not be a sufficient supply for drinking; and waters shall be changed into blood or bitterness. On account of these things, beasts shall fail on the land, and birds in the air, and fishes in the sea.
Wonderful prodigies also in heaven shall confound the minds of men with the greatest terrors, and the trains of comets, and the darkness of the sun, and the colour of the moon, and the gliding of the falling stars. Nor, however, will these things take place in the accustomed manner; but there will suddenly appear stars unknown and unseen by the eyes; the sun will be perpetually darkened, so that there will be scarcely any distinction between the night and the day; the moon will now fail, not for three hours only, but overspread with perpetual blood, will go through extraordinary movements, so that it will not be easy for man to ascertain the courses of the heavenly bodies or the system of the times;for there will either be summer in the winter, or winter in the summer. Then the year will be shortened, and the month diminished, and the day contracted into a short space; and stars shall fall in great numbers, so that all the heaven will appear dark without any lights. The loftiest mountains also will fall, and be levelled with the plains; the sea will be rendered un-navigable. And that nothing may be wanting to the evils of men and the earth, the trumpet shall be heard from heaven, which the Sibyl foretells in this manner: The trumpet from heaven shall utter its wailing voice. And then all shall tremble and quake at that mournful sound. But then, through the anger of God against the men who have not known righteousness, the sword and fire, famine and disease, shall reign; and, above all things, fear always overhanging. Then they shall call upon God, but He will not hear them; death shall be desired, but it will not come; not even shall night give rest to their fear, nor shall sleep approach to their eyes, but anxiety and watchfulness shall consume the souls of men; they shall deplore and lament, and gnash their teeth; they shall congratulate the dead, and bewail the living. Through these and many other evils there shall be desolation on the earth, and the world shall be disfigured and deserted, which is thus expressed in the verses of the Sibyl: The world shall be despoiled of beauty, through the destruction of men. For the human race will be so consumed, that scarcely the tenth part of men will be left; and from whence a thousand had gone forth, scarcely a hundred will go forth. Of the worshippers of God also, two parts will perish; and the third part, which shall have been proved, will remain.
CHAPTER 17 -- OF THE FALSE
PROPHET, AND THE HARDSHIPS OF THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS DESTRUCTION.
But I will more plainly set forth the manner in which this happens. When the close of the times draws nigh, a great prophet shall be sent from God to turn men to the knowledge of God, and he shall receive the power of doing wonderful things. Wherever men shall not hear him, he will shut up the heaven, and cause it to withhold its rains; he will turn their water into blood, and torment them with thirst and hunger; and if any one shall endeavour to injure him, fire, shall come forth out of his mouth, and shall bum that man. By these prodigies and powers he shall turn many to the worship of God; and when his works shall be accomplished, another king shah arise out of Syria, born from an evil spirit, the overthrower and destroyer of the human race, who shall destroy that which is left by the former evil, together with himself. He shall fight against the prophet of God, and shall overcome, and slay him, and shall suffer him to lie unburied; but after the third day he shall come to life again; and while all look on and wonder, he shall be caught up into heaven. But that king will not only be most disgraceful in himself, but he will also be a prophet of lies; and he will constitute and call himself God, and will order himself to be worshipped as the Son of God; and power will be given him to do signs and wonders, by the sight of which he may entice men to adore him. He will command fire to come down from heaven, and the sun to stand and leave his course, and an image to speak; and these things shall be done at his word -- by which miracles many even of the wise shall be enticed by him. Then he will attempt to destroy the temple of God, and persecute the righteous people; and there will be distress and tribulation? such as there never has been from the beginning of the world.
As many as shall believe him and unite themselves to him, shall be marked by him as sheep; but they who shall refuse his mark will either flee to the mountains, or, being seized, will be slain with studied tortures. He will also enwrap righteous men with the books of the prophets, and thus burn them; and power will be given him to desolate the whole earth for forty-two months. That will be the time in which righteousness shall be cast out, and innocence be hated; in which the wicked shall prey upon the good as enemies; neither law, nor order, nor military discipline shall be preserved; no one shall reverence hoary locks, nor recognise the duty of piety, nor pity sex or infancy; all things shall be confounded and mixed together against right, and against the laws of nature.
Thus the earth shall be laid waste, as though by one common robbery. When these things shall so happen, then the righteous and the followers of truth shall separate themselves from the wicked, and flee into solitudes. And when he hears of this, the impious king, inflamed with anger, will come with a great army, and bringing up all his forces, will surround all the mountain in which the righteous shall be situated, that he may seize them. But they, when they shall see themselves to be shut in on all sides and besieged, will call upon God with a loud voice, and implore the aid of heaven; and God shall hear them, and send from heaven a great king to rescue and free them, and destroy all the wicked with fire and sword.
CHAPTER 18 -- OF THE FORTUNES OF
THE WORLD AT THE LAST TIME, AND OF THE THINGS FORETOLD BY THE SOOTHSAYERS.
That these things will thus take place, all the prophets have announced from the inspiration of God, and also the soothsayers at the instigation of the demons. For Hystaspes, whom I have named above, having described the iniquity of this last time, says that the pious and faithful, being separated from the wicked, will stretch forth their hands to heaven with weeping and mourning, and will implore the protection of Jupiter: that Jupiter will look to the earth, and hear the voices of men, and will destroy the wicked. All which things are true except one, that he attributed to Jupiter those things which God will do. But that also was withdrawn from the account, not without fraud on the part of the demons, viz., that the Son of God would then be sent, who, having destroyed all the wicked, would set at liberty the pious. Which, however, Hermes did not conceal. For in that book which is entitled the Complete Treatise, after an enumeration of the evils concerning which we have spoken, he added these things: "But when these things thus come to pass, then He who is Lord, and Father, and God, and the Creator of the first and one God, looking upon what is done, and opposing to the disorder His own will, that is, goodness, and recalling the wandering and cleansing wickedness, partly inundating it with much water, and partly burning it with most rapid fire, and sometimes pressing it with wars and pestilences, He brought His world to its ancient state and restored it." The Sibyls also show that it would not be otherwise than that the Son of God should be sent by His supreme Father, to set free the righteous from the hands of the wicked, and to destroy the unrighteous, together with their cruel tyrants. One of whom thus wrote:
He shall come also, wishing to destroy the city of the blest; and a kingsent against him from the gods shall slay all the great kings andchief men: then judgment shall thus come from the Immortal to men. Also another Sibyl: And then God shall send a king from the sun, who shall cause all the earth to cease from disastrous war. And again another: He will take away the intolerable yoke of slavery which is placed on ourneck, and he will do away with impious laws and violent chains.
CHAPTER 19 -- OF THE ADVENT OF
CHRIST TO JUDGMENT, AND OF THE OVERCOMING OF THE FALSE PROPHET.
The world therefore being oppressed, since the resources of men shall be insufficient for the overthrow of a tyranny of immense strength, inasmuch as it will press upon the captive world with great armies of robbers; that calamity so great will stand in need of divine assistance. Therefore God, being aroused both by the doubtful danger and by the wretched lamentation of the righteous, will immediately send a deliverer. Then the middle of the heaven shall be laid open in the dead and darkness of the night, that the light of the descending God may be manifest in all the world as lightning: of which the Sibyl spoke in these words: When He shall come, there will be fire and darkness in the midst of the black night.
This is the night which is celebrated by us in watchfulness on account of the coming of our King and God: of which night there is a twofold meaning; because in it He then received life when He suffered, and hereafter He is about to receive the kingdom of the world. For He is the Deliverer, and Judge, and Avenger, and King, and God, whom we call Christ, who before He descends will give this sign: There shall suddenly fall from heaven a sword, that the righteous may know that the leader of the sacred warfare is about to descend; and He shall descend with a company of angels to the middle of the earth, and there shall go before Him an unquenchable fire, and the power of the angels shall deliver into the hands of the just that multitude which has surrounded the mountain, and they shall be slain from the third hour until the evening, and blood shall flow like a torrent; and all his forces being destroyed, the wicked one shall alone escape, and his power shall perish from him.
Now this is he who is called Antichrist; but he shall falsely call himself Christ, and shall fight against the truth, and being overcome shall flee; and shall often renew the war, and often be conquered, until in the fourth battle, all the wicked being slain, subdued, and captured, he shall at length pay the penalty of his crimes. But other princes also and tyrants who have harassed the world, together with him, shall be led in chains to the king; and he shall rebuke them, and reprove them, and upbraid them with their crimes, and condemn them, and consign them to deserved tortures. Thus, wickedness being extinguished and impiety suppressed, the world will be at rest, which having been subject to error and wickedness for so many ages, endured dreadful slavery. No longer shall gods made by the hands be worshipped; but the images being thrust out from their temples and couches, shall be given to the fire, and shall be burnt, together with their wonderful gifts: which also the Sibyl, in accordance with the prophets, announced as about to take place: But mortals shall break in pieces the images and all the wealth. The Erythraean Sibyl also made the same promise: And the works made by the hand of the gods shall be burnt up.
CHAPTER 20 -- OF THE JUDGMENT OF CHRIST, OF CHRISTIANS, AND OF THE SOUL
After
these things the lower regions shall be opened, and the dead shall rise again,
on whom the same King and God shall pass judgment, to whom the supreme Father
shall give the great power both of judging and of reigning. And respecting this
judgment and reign, it is thus found in the Erythraean Sibyl:
When
this shall receive its fated accomplishment, and the judgment of the immortal
God shall now come to mortals, the great judgment shall come upon men, and the
beginning.
Then
in another:
And
then the gaping earth shall show a Tartarean chaos; and all kings shall come to
the judgment-seat of God.
And
in another place in the same:
Rolling
along the heavens, I will open the caverns of the earth; and then I will raise
the dead, loosing fate and the sting of death; and afterwards I will call them
into judgment, judging the life of pious and impious men.
Not
all men, however, shall then be judged by God, but those only who have been
exercised in the religion of God. For they who have not known God, since
sentence cannot be passed upon them for their acquittal, are already judged and
condemned, since the Holy Scriptures testify that the wicked shall not arise to
judgment. Therefore they who have known God shall be judged, and their deeds,
that is, their evil works, shall be compared and weighed against their good
ones: so that if those which are good and just are more and weighty, they may
be given to a life of blessedness; but if the evil exceed, they may be
condemned to punishment. Here, perhaps, some one will say, If the soul is
immortal, how is it represented as capable of suffering, and sensible of
punishment? For if it shall be punished on account of its deserts, it is plain
that it will be sensible of pain, and even of death. If it is not liable to
death, not even to pain, it follows that it is not capable of suffering.
This
question or argument is thus met by the Stoics: that the souls of men continue
to exist, and are not annihilated by the intervention of death: that the souls,
moreover, of those who have been just, being pure, and incapable of suffering,
and happy, return to the heavenly abodes from which they had their origin, or
are borne to some happy plains, where they may enjoy wonderful pleasures; but
that the wicked, since they have defiled themselves with evil I passions, have
a kind of middle nature, between that of an immortal and a mortal, and have
something of weakness, from the contagion of the flesh; and being enslaved to
its desires and lusts, they contract an indelible stain and earthly blot; and
when this has become entirely inherent through length of time, souls are given
over to its nature, so that, though they cannot altogether be extinguished,
inasmuch as they are from God, nevertheless they become liable to torment
through the taint of the body, which being burnt in by means of sins, produces
a feeling of pain. Which sentiment is thus expressed by the poet:
Nay,
when at last the life has fled,
And
left the body cold and dead,
E'en
then there passes not away
The
painful heritage of clay:
Full
many a long contracted stain
Perforce
must linger deep in grain.
So
penal sufferings they endure
For
ancient crime, to make them pure.
These
things are near to the truth. For the soul, when separated from the body, is,
as the same poet says, such as
No
vision of the drowsy night,
No
airy current half so light,
because
it is a spirit, and by its very slighthess incapable of being perceived, but
only by us who are corporeal i but capable of being perceived by God, since it
belongs to Him to be able to do all things.
CHAPTER 21 -- OF THE TORMENTS AND PUNISHMENTS OF SOULS.
First
of all, therefore, we say that the power of God is so great, that He perceives even
incorporeal things, and manages them as He will. For even angels fear God,
because they can be chastised by Him in some unspeakable manner; and devils
dread Him, because they are tormented and punished by Him. What wonder is it,
therefore, if souls, though they are immortal, are nevertheless capable of
suffering at the hand of God? For since they have nothing solid and tangible in
themselves, they can suffer no violence from solid and corporeal beings; but
because they live in their spirits only, they are capable of being handled by
God alone, whose energy and substance is spiritual. But, however, the sacred
writings inform us in what manner the wicked are to undergo punishment. For
because they have committed sins in their bodies, they will again be clothed
with flesh, that they may make atonement in their bodies; and yet it will not
be that flesh with which God clothed man, like this our earthly body, but
indestructible, and abiding for ever, that it may be able to hold out against
tortures and everlasting fire, the nature of which is different from this fire
of ours, which we use for the necessary purposes of life, and which is
extinguished unless it be sustained by the fuel of some material. But that
divine fire always lives by itself, and flourishes without any nourishment; nor
has it any smoke mixed with it, but it is pure and liquid, and fluid, after the
manner of water. For it is not urged upwards by any force, as our fire, which
the taint of the earthly body, by which it is held, and smoke intermingled,
compels to leap forth, and to fly upwards to the nature of heaven, with a
tremulous movement.
The
same divine fire, therefore, with one and the same force and power, will both
burn the wicked and will form them again, and will replace as much as it shall
consume of their bodies, and will supply itself with eternal nourishment: which
the poets transferred to the vulture of Tityus. Thus, without any wasting of
bodies, which regain their substance, it will only burn and affect them with a
sense of pain. But when He shall have judged the righteous, He will also try
them with fire. Then they whose sins shall exceed either in weight or in
number, shall be scorched by the fire and burnt: but they whom full justice and
maturity of virtue has imbued will not perceive that fire; for they have
something of God in themselves which repels and rejects the violence of the
flame. So great is the force of innocence, that the flame shrinks from it
without doing harm; which has received from God this power, that it burns the
wicked, and is under the command of the righteous. Nor, however, let any one
imagine that souls are immediately judged. after death. For all are detained in
one and a common place of confinement, until the arrival of the time in which
the great Judge shall make an investigation of their deserts. Then they whose
piety shall have been approved of will receive the reward of immortality; but
they whose sins and crimes shall have been brought to light will not rise
again, but will be hidden in the same darkness with the wicked, being destined
to certain punishment.
CHAPTER 22 -- OF THE ERROR OF THE POETS, AND THE RETURN OF THE SOUL FROM THE LOWER REGIONS.
Some
imagine that these things are figments of the poets, not knowing whence the
poets received them, and they say that these things are impossible; and it is
no wonder that it so appears to them. For the matter is related by the poets in
a manner which is different from the truth; for although they are much more
ancient than the historians and orators, and other kinds of writers, yet
because they were ignorant of the secret of the divine mystery, and mention of
a future resurrection had reached them by an obscure rumour, yet they handed it
down, when carelessly and lightly heard, after the manner of a feigned story.
And yet they also testified that they did not follow a sure authority, but mere
opinion, as Maro, who says,
What
ear has beard let tongue make known.
Although,
therefore, they have partly corrupted the secrets of the truth, yet the matter
itself is found to be more true, because it partly agrees with the prophets:
which is sufficient for us as a proof of the matter. Yet some reason is
contained in their error. For when the prophets proclaimed with continual
announcements that the Son of God was about to judge the dead, and this
announcement did not escape their notice; inasmuch as they supposed that there
was no other ruler of heaven but Jupiter, they reported that the son of Jupiter
was king in the lower regions, but not Apollo, or Liber, or Mercurius, who are
supposed to be gods of heaven, but one who was both mortal and just, either
Minos, or AEacus, or Rhadamanthus. Therefore with poetic licence they corrupted
that which they had received; or, the opinion being scattered through different
mouths and various discourses, changed the truth. For inasmuch as they foretold
that, when a thousand years had been passed in the lower regions, they should
again be restored to life, as Maro said:
All
these, when centuries ten times told
The
wheel of destiny have rolled,
The
voice divine from far and wide
Calls
up to Lethe's river side,
That
earthward they may pass once more,
Remembering
not the things before,
And
with a blind propension yearn
To
fleshly bodies to return:
this
matter escaped their notice, that the dead will rise again, not after a
thousand years from their death, but that, when again restored to life, they
may reign with God a thousand years. For God will come, that, having cleansed
the world from all defilement, He may restore the souls of the righteous to
their renewed bodies, and raise them to everlasting blessedness.Therefore the
other things are true, except the water of oblivion, which they feigned on this
account, that no one might make this objection: why, therefore, did they not
remember that they were at one time alive, or who they were, or what things
they accomplished? But nevertheless it is not thought probable, and the whole
matter is rejected, as though licentiously and fabulously invented. But when we
affirm the doctrine of the resurrection, and teach that souls will return to
another life, not forgetful of themselves, but possessed of the same perception
and figure, we are met with this objection: So many ages have now passed; what
individual ever arose from the dead, that through. his example we may believe
it to be possible? But the resurrection cannot take place while unrighteousness
still prevails. For in this world men are slain by violence, by the sword, by
ambush, by poisons, and are visited with injuries, with want, with
imprisonment, with tortures, and with proscriptions. Add to this that
righteousness is hated, that all who wish to follow God are not only held in
hatred, but are harassed with all reproaches, and are tormented by manifold
kinds of punishments, and are driven to the impious worship of gods made with
hands, not by reason or truth, but by dreadful laceration of their bodies.
Ought
men therefore to rise again to these same things, or to return to a life in
which it is impossible for them to be safe? Since the righteous, then, are so
lightly esteemed, and so easily taken away, what can we suppose would have
happened if any one returning from the dead had recovered life by a recovery of
his former condition? He would assuredly be taken away from the eyes of men,
lest, if he were seen or heard, all men with one accord should leave the gods
and betake themselves to the worship and religion of the one God. Therefore it
is necessary that the resurrection should take place once only when evil shall have
been taken away, since it is befitting that those who have risen again should
neither die any more, nor be injured in any way, that they may be able to pass
a happy life whose death has been annulled. But the poets, knowing that this
life abounds with all evils, introduced the river of oblivion, lest the souls,
remembering their labours and evils, should refuse to return to the upper
regions; whence Virgil says:
O
Father! and can thought conceive
That
happy souls this realm would leave,
And
seek the upper sky,
With
sluggish clay to reunite?
This
dreadful longing for the light,
Whence
comes it, say, and why?
For
they did not know how or when it must take place; and therefore they supposed that
souls were born again, and that they returned afresh to the womb, and went back
to infancy. Whence also Plato, while discussing the nature of the soul, says
that it may be known from this that souls are immortal and divine, because in
boys minds are pliant, and easy of perception, and because they so quickly
comprehend the subjects which they learn, that they appear not then to be
learning for the first time, but to be recalling them to mind and recollecting
them: in which matter the wise man most foolishly believed the poets.
CHAPTER 23 -- OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE SOUL, AND THE PROOFS OF THIS FACT.
Therefore
they will not be born again, which is impossible, but they will rise again, and
be clothed by God with bodies, and will remember their former life, and all its
actions; and being placed in the possession of heavenly goods, and enjoying the
pleasure of innumerable resources, they will give thanks to God in His
immediate presence, because He has destroyed all evil, and because He has
raised them to His kingdom and to perpetual life. Respecting which resurrection
the philosophers also attempted to speak as corruptly as the poets. For
Pythagoras asserted that souls passed into new bodies; but foolishly, that they
passed from men into cattle, and from cattle into men; and that he himself was
restored from Euphorbus. Chrysippus says better, whom Cicero speaks of as
supporting the portico of the Stoics, who, in the books which he wrote
concerning providence, when he was speaking of the renewing of the world,
introduced these words: "But since this is so, it is evident that nothing
is impossible, and that we, after our death, when certain periods of time have
again come round, are restored to this state in which we now are." But let
us return from human to divine things. The Sibyl thus speaks:
For
the whole race of mortals is hard to be believed; but when the judgment of the
world and of mortals shall now come, which God Himself shall institute, judging
the impious and the holy at the same time, then at length He shall send the
wicked to darkness in fire. But as many as are holy shall live again on the
earth, God giving them at the same time a spirit, and honour, and life.
But
if not only prophets, but even bards, and poets, and philosophers, agree that
there will be a resurrection of the dead, let no one ask of us how this is
possible: for no reason can be assigned for divine works; but if from the
beginning God formed man in some unspeakable manner, we may believe that the
old man can be restored by Him who made the new man.
CHAPTER 24 -- OF THE RENEWED WORLD.
Now
I will subjoin the rest. Therefore the Son of the most high and mighty God
shall come to judge the quick and the dead, as the Sibyl testifies and
says: For then there shall be confusion
of mortals throughout the whole earth, when the Almighty Himself shall come on
His judgment-seat to judge the souls of the quick and dead, and all the world.
But
He, when He shall have destroyed unrighteousness, and executed His great
judgment, and shall have recalled to life the righteous, who have lived from
the beginning, will be engaged among men a thousand years, and will rule them
with most just command. Which the Sibyl proclaims in another place, as she
utters her inspired predictions: Hear me, ye mortals; an everlasting King
reigns.
Then
they who shall be alive in their bodies shall not die, but during those
thousand years shall produce an infinite multitude, and their offspring shall
be holy, and beloved by God; but they who shall be raised from the dead shall
preside over the living as judges. But the nations shall not be entirely
extinguished, but some shall be left as a victory for God, that they may be the
occasion of triumph to the righteous, and may be subjected to perpetual
slavery. About the same time also the prince of the devils, who is the
contriver of all evils, shall be bound with chains, and shall be imprisoned
during the thousand years of the heavenly rule in which righteousness shall
reign in the world, so that he may contrive no evil against the people of God.
After His coming the righteous shall be collected from all the earth, and the
judgment being completed, the sacred city shall be planted in the middle of the
earth, in which God Himself the builder may dwell together with the righteous,
bearing rule in it. And the Sibyl marks out this city when she says: And the
city which God made this He made more brilliant than the stars, and sun, and
moon.
Then that darkness will be taken away from the world with which the heaven will be overspread and darkened, and the moon will receive the brightness of the sun, nor will it be further diminished: but the sun will become seven times brighter than it now is; and the earth will open its fruitfulness, and bring forth most abundant fruits of its own accord; the rocky mountains shall drop with honey; streams of wine shall run down, and rivers flow with milk: in short, the world itself shall rejoice, and all nature exult, being rescued and set free from the dominion of evil and impiety, and guilt and error. Throughout this time beasts shall not be nourished by blood, nor birds by prey; but all things shall be peaceful and tranquil. Lions and calves shall stand together at the manger, the wolf shall not carry off the sheep, the hound shall not hunt for prey; hawks and eagles shall not injure; the infant shall play with serpents. In short, those things shall then come to pass which the poets spoke of as being done in the reign of Saturnus. Whose error arose from this source -- that the prophets bring forward and speak of many future events as already accomplished. For visions were brought before their eyes by the divine Spirit, and they saw these things, as it were, done and completed in their own sight. And when fame had gradually spread abroad their predictions, since those who were uninstructed in the mysteries of religion did not know why they were spoken, they thought that all those things were already fulfilled in the ancient ages, which evidently could not be accomplished and fulfilled under the reign of a man. But when, after the destruction of impious religions and the suppression of guilt, the earth shall be subject to God,
The sailor himself also shall renounce the
sea, nor shall the naval pine
Barter merchandise; all lands shall produce all
things.
The ground shall not endure the harrow, nor
the vineyard the pruning hook;
The sturdy ploughman also shall loose the
bulls from the yoke.
The plain shall by degrees grow yellow with
soft ears of corn,
The blushing grape shall hang on the uncultivated
brambles,
And hard oaks shall distil the dewy honey.
Nor shall the wool learn to counterfeit
various colours;
But the ram himself in the meadows shall
change his fleece,
Now for a sweetly blushing purple, now for
saffron dye;
Scarlet of its own accord shall cover the
lambs as they feed.
The goats of themselves shall bring back
home their udders distended with milk;
Nor shall the herds dread huge lions.
Which
things the poet foretold according to the verses of the Cumaean Sibyl. But the
Erythraean thus speaks: But wolves shall not contend with lambs on the
mountains, and lynxes shall eat grass with kids; boars shall feed with calves,
and with all flocks; and the carnivorous lion shall eat chaff at the manger,
and serpents shall sleep with infants deprived of their mothers.
And
in another place, speaking of the fruitfulness of all things: And then shall
God give great joy to men; for the earth, and the trees, and the numberless
flocks of the earth shall give to men the true fruit of the vine, and sweet
honey, and white milk, and corn, which is the best of all things to mortals.
And
another in the same manner: The sacred
land of the pious only will produce all these things, the stream of honey from
the rock and from the fountain, and the milk of ambrosia will flow for all the
just.
Therefore
men will live a most tranquil life, abounding with resources, and will reign
together with God; and the kings of the nations shall come from the ends of the
earth with gifts and offerings, to adore and honour the great King, whose name
shall be renowned and venerated by all the nations which shall be trader
heaven, and by the kings who shall rule on earth.
CHAPTER
25 -- OF THE LAST TIMES, AND OF THE CITY OF ROME,
These are the things which are spoken of by the prophets as about to happen hereafter: but I have not considered it necessary to bring forward their testimonies and words, since it would be an endless task; nor would the limits of my book receive so great a multitude of subjects, since so many with one breath speak similar things; and at the same time, lest weariness should be occasioned to the readers if I should heap together things collected and transferred froth all; moreover, that I might confirm those very things which I said, not by my own writings, but in an especial manner by the writings of others, and might show that not only among us, but even with those very persons who revile us, the truth is preserved, which they refuse to acknowledge. But he who wishes to know these things more accurately may draw from the fountain itself, and he will know more things worthy of admiration than we have comprised in these books. Perhaps some one may now ask when these things of which we have spoken are about to come to pass? I have already shown above, that when six thousand years shall be completed this change must take place, and that the last day of the extreme conclusion is now drawing near. It is permitted us to know respecting the signs, which are spoken by the prophets, for they foretold signs by which the consummation of the times is to be expected by us from day to day, and to be feared. When, however, this amount will be completed, those teach, who have written respecting the times, collecting them from the sacred writings and from various histories, how great is the number of years from the beginning of the world. And although they vary, and the amount of the number as reckoned by them differs considerably, yet all expectation does not exceed the limit of two hundred years. The subject itself declares that the fall and ruin of the world will shortly take place; except that while the city of Rome remains it appears that nothing of this kind is to be feared. But when that capital of the world shall have fallen, and shall have begun to be a street, which the Sibyls say shall come to pass, who can doubt that the end has now arrived to the affairs of men and the whole world? It is that city, that only, which still sustains all things; and the God of heaven is to be entreated by us and implored -- if, indeed, His arrangements and decrees can be delayed -- lest, sooner than we think for, that detestable tyrant should come who will trader-take so great a deed, and dig out that eye, by the destruction of which the world itself is about to fall. Now let us return, to set forth the other things which are then about to follow.
CHAPTER 26 -- OF THE LOOSING OF
THE DEVIL, AND OF THE SECOND AND GREATEST JUDGEMENT
We have said, a little before, that it will come to pass at the commencement of the sacred reign, that the prince of the devils will be bound by God. But he also, when the thousand years of the kingdom, that is, seven thousand of the world, shall begin to be ended, will be loosed afresh, and being sent forth from prison, will go forth and assemble all the nations, which shall then be trader the dominion of the righteous, that they may make war against the holy city; and there shall be collected together from all the world an innumerable company of the nations, and shall besiege and surround the city. Then the last anger of God shall come upon the nations, and shall utterly destroy them; and first He shall shake the earth most violently, and by its motion the mountains of Syria shall be rent, and the hills shall sink down precipitously, and the walls of all cities shall fall, and God shall cause the sun to stand, so that he set not for three days, and shall set it on fire; and excessive heat and great burning shall descend upon the hostile and impious people, and showers of brim stone, and hailstones, and drops of fire; and their spirits shall melt through the heat, and their bodies shall be bruised by the hail, and they shall smite one another with the sword. The mountains shall be filled with carcasses, and the plains shall be covered with bones; but the people of God during those three days shall be concealed under caves of the earth, until the anger of God against the nations and the last judgment shall be ended.
Then the righteous shall go forth from their hiding-places, and shall find all things covered with carcasses and bones. But the whole race of the wicked shall utterly perish; and there shall no longer be any nation in this world, but the nation of God alone. Then for seven continuous years the woods shall be untouched, nor shall timber be cut from the mountains, but the arms of the nations shall be burnt; and now there shall be no war, but peace and everlasting rest. But when the thousand years shall be completed, the world shall be renewed by God, and the heavens shall be folded together, and the earth shall be changed, and God shall transform men into the similitude of angels, and they shall be white as snow; and they shall always be employed in the sight of the Almighty, and shall make offerings to their Lord, and serve Him for ever. At the same time shall take place that second and public resurrection of all, in which the unrighteous shall be raised to everlasting punishments. These are they who have worshipped the works of their own hands, who have either been ignorant of, or have denied the Lord and Parent of the world. But their lord with his servants shall be seized and condemned to punishment, together with whom all the band of the wicked, in accordance with their deeds, shall be burnt for ever with perpetual fire in the sight of angels and the righteous.
2. Epitome of the Divine Institutes (Chapters
70-73)
“…Since
fixed and divinely appointed times have begun to be filled up, a destruction
and consummation of all things must of necessity take place, that the world may
be renewed by God. But that time is at hand, as far as may be collected from
the number of years, and from the signs which are foretold by the prophets. But
since the things which have been spoken concerning the end of the world and the
conclusion of the times are innumerable, those very things which are spoken are
to be laid down without adornment, since it would be a boundless task to bring
forward the testimonies. If any one wishes for them, or does not place full
confidence in us, let him approach to the very shrine of the heavenly letters,
and being more fully instructed through their trustworthiness, let him perceive
that the philosophers have erred, who thought either that this world was
eternal, or that there would be numberless thousands of years from the time
when it was prepared. For six thousand years have not yet been completed, and
when this number shall be made up, then at length all evil will be taken away,
that justice alone may reign. And how this will come to pass, I will explain in
few words.
Then
there will be a dreadful and detestable time, in which no one would choose to
live. In fine, such will be the condition of things, that lamentation will
follow the living, and congratulation the dead. Cities and towns will be
destroyed, at one time by fire and the sword, at another by repeated
earthquakes; now by inundation of waters, now by pestilence and famine. The
earth will produce nothing, being barren either through excessive cold or heat.
All water will be partly changed into blood, partly vitiated by bitterness, so
that none of it can be useful for food, or wholesome for drinking. To these
evils will also be added prodigies from heaven, that nothing may be wanting to
men for causing fear. Comets will frequently appear. The sun will be
overshadowed with perpetual paleness. The moon will be stained with blood, nor
will it repair the losses of its light taken away. All the stars will fall, nor
will the seasons preserve their regularity, winter and summer being confused.
Then both the year, and the month, and the day will be shortened. And
Trismegistus has declared that this is the old age and decline of the world.
And when this shall have come, it must be known that the time is at hand in
which God will return to change the world. But in the midst of these evils
there will arise an impious king, hostile not only to mankind, but also to God.
He will trample upon, torment, harass and put to death those who have been
spared by that former tyrant. Then there will be ever-flowing tears, perpetual
wailings and lamentations, and useless prayers to God; there will be no rest
from fear, no sleep for a respite. The day will always increase disaster, the
night alarm. Thus the world will be reduced almost to solitude, certainly to
fewness of men. Then also the impious man will persecute the just and those who
are dedicated to God, and will give orders that he himself shall be worshipped
as God. For he will say that he is Christ, though he will be His adversary.
That he may be believed, he will receive the power of doing wonders, so that
fire may descend from heaven, the sun retire from his course, and the image
which he shall have set up may speak. And by these prodigies he shall entice
many to worship him, and to receive his sign in their hand or forehead. And he
who shall not worship him and receive his sign will die with refined tortures.
Thus he will destroy nearly two parts, the third will flee into desolate
solitudes. But he, frantic and raging with implacable anger, will lead an army
and besiege the mountain to which the righteous shall have fled. And when they
shall see themselves besieged, they will implore the aid of God with a loud
voice, and God shall hear them, and shall send to them a deliverer.
CHAPTER 72 -- OF CHRIST DESCENDING FROM HEAVEN TO THE GENERAL JUDGMENT, AND OF THE MILLENARIAN REIGN.
Then
the heaven shall be opened in a tempest, and Christ shall descend with great
power, and there shall go before Him a fiery brightness and a countless host of
angels, and all that multitude of the wicked shall be destroyed, and torrents
of blood shall flow, and the leader himself shall escape, and having often
renewed his army, shall for the fourth time engage in battle, in which, being
taken, with all the other tyrants, he shall be delivered up to be burnt. But
the prince also of the demons himself, the author and contriver of evils, being
bound with fiery chains, shall be imprisoned, that the world may receive peace,
and the earth, harassed through so many years, may rest. Therefore peace being
made, and every evil suppressed, that righteous King and Conqueror will
institute a great judgment on the earth respecting the living and the dead, and
will deliver all the nations into subjection to the righteous who are alive,
and will raise the righteous dead to eternal life, and will Himself reign with
them on the earth, and will build the holy city, and this kingdom of the
righteous shall be for a thousand years. Throughout that time the stars shall
be more brilliant, and the brightness of the sun shall be increased, and the
moon shall not be subject to decrease. Then the rain of blessing shall descend
from God at morning and evening, and the earth shall bring forth all her fruit
without the labour of men. Honey shall drop from rocks, fountains of milk and
wine shall abound. The beasts shall lay aside their ferocity and become mild,
the wolf shall roam among the flocks without doing harm, the calf shall feed
with the lion, the dove shall be united with the hawk, the serpent shall have
no poison; no animal shall live by bloodshed. For God shall supply to all
abundant and harmless food. But when the thousand years shall be fulfilled, and
the prince of the demons loosed, the nations will rebel against the righteous,
and an innumerable multitude will come to storm the city of the saints. Then
the last judgment of God will come to pass against the nations. For He will
shake the earth froth its foundations, and the cities shall be overthrown, and
He Shall rain upon the wicked fire with brimstone and hail, and they shall be
on fire, and slay each other. But the righteous shall for a little space be
concealed under the earth, until the destruction of the nations is
accomplished, and after the third day they shall come forth, and see the plains
covered with carcases. Then there shall be an earthquake, and the mountains
shall be rent, and valleys shall sink down to a profound depth, and into this
the bodies of the dead shall be heaped together, and its name shall be called
Polyandrion. After these things God will renew the world, and transform the
righteous into the forms of angels, that, being presented with the garment of
immortality, they may serve God for ever; and this will be the kingdom of God,
which shall have no end. Then also the wicked shall rise again, not to life but
to punishment; for God shall raise these also, when the second resurrection
takes place, that, being condemned to eternal torments and delivered to eternal
fires, they may suffer the punishments which they deserve for their crimes.
CHAPTER 73 -- THE HOPE OF SAFETY IS IN THE RELIGION AND WORSHIP OF GOD.
Wherefore,
since all these things arc true and certain, in harmony with the predicted
announcement of the prophets, since Trismegistus and Hystaspes and the Sibyls
have foretold the same things, it cannot be doubted that all hope of life and
salvation is placed in the religion of God alone. Therefore, unless a man shall
have received Christ, whom God has sent, and is about to send for our
redemption, unless he shall have known the Supreme God through Christ, unless
he shall have kept His commandments and law, he will fall into those
punishments of which we have spoken. Therefore frail things must be despised,
that we may gain those which are substantial; earthly things must be scorned,
that we may be honoured with heavenly things; temporal things must be shunned,
that we may reach those which are eternal. Let every one train himself to
justice, mould himself to self-restraint, prepare himself for the contest,
equip himself for virtue, that if by any chance an adversary shall wage war, he
may be driven from that which is upright and good by no force, no terror, and
no tortures, may give, himself up to no senseless fictions, but in his
uprightness acknowledge the true and only God, may cast away pleasures, by the
attractions of which the lofty soul is depressed to the earth, may hold fast
innocency, may be of service to as many as possible, may gain for himself
incorruptible treasures by good works, that he may be able, with God for his
judge, to gain for the merits of his virtue either the crown of faith, or the
reward of immortality.
3.
Other uncollected prophecies
“Nero will again reappear on earth as a messenger and forerunner of the Evil One who is coming for the devastation of the earth and the overturning of the human race.” 1
1. Yves Dupont, Antichrist
World Trends Magazine September 1975