Feastday
28th June
Born
125
Died
202
Disciple
of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna. Priest in 177. Bishop of Lyons. Worked and wrote
against Gnosticism, basing his arguments on the works of Saint John, whose Gospel
is often cited by Gnostics. Considered the first great Western ecclesiastical
writer, he emphasized the unity of the Old and New Testaments, and of Christ's
simultaneous human and divine nature. Father of the Church. Martyr.1
1. Taken from Patron Saints
Index at http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainti06.htm
Prophecies selected from Against
Heresies Book 5, Chapters 24 -36:
“By
means of the events which shall occur in the time of Antichrist it is shown
that he, being an apostate and a robber, is anxious to be adored as God; and
that although a mere slave. he wishes to be proclaimed as a king. For he being endued with all the power of
the devil, shall come, not as a righteous king, not as a legitimate king
obedient to God but as an impious, unjust, and lawless one; as an iniquitous
and murderous apostate; as a robber, concentrating in himself a satanic
apostasy, and setting aside idols to persuade men that he himself is God.
raising himself up as the only idol. . . . Moreover [Paul] has also pointed out
this which I have shown in many ways: that the temple in Jerusalem was made by
the direction of the true God. For the apostle himself, speaking in his own
person, distinctly called it the temple of God [2 Thess. 2:4] . . . in which
the enemy shall sit, endeavoring to show himself as Christ.” 1
“Moreover,
another danger, by no means trifling, shall overtake those who falsely presume that
they know the name of the Antichrist. For if these men assume one [number] when
this [Antichrist] shall come having another, they will be easily led away by
him as supposing him not to be the expected one. . . . It is therefore more
certain, and less hazardous, to await the fulfilment of the prophecy than to be
making surmises and casting about for any names that may present themselves,
inasmuch as many names can be found possessing the number mentioned, and the
same question will, after all, remain unsolved” 2
2But
when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will
reign for three years and six months and will sit in the temple at Jerusalem;
and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the
Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire” 3
2For
when he (Antichrist) is come, and of his own accord concentrates in his own
person the apostasy, and accomplishes whatever he shall do according to his own
will and choice, sitting also in the temple of God, so that his dupes may adore
him as the Christ; wherefore also shall he deservedly “be cast into the lake of
fire: “ 4
“The
Antichrist will deceive the Jews to such an extent that they will accept him as
the messiah and worship him” 5
“Jeremias
does not merely point out his sudden coming but he even indicates the tribe
from which he shall come, where he says “We shall hear the voice of his swift
horses from Dan - he shall come and
devour the earth” (Jeremiah 8: 16) 6
“The
disciples of the apostles say (from oral tradition) that they (Elias and
Henoch) whose living bodies were taken
up from this world have been placed in an earthly paradise where they will
remain until the end of the world” 7
“At the time of his reign antichrist will command that Jerusalem be rebuilt in its splendour and will make it a great and populous city, second to none in the world and will order his palace to be built there” 8
1.
Against Heresies 5:25:1-2 (AD 180)
2.
ibid 5:30:2-3
3.
ibid 5:30:4
4.
ibid 5: 28: 2
5.
ibid 5: 25
6.
ibid v30; MIGNE, P.G., VII, 1206
7.
ibid 4: 30
8.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Revised and Enlarged Edition, 1936, Littleton and
Ives, Co, New York, Imprimatur, Cardinal Hayes, Archbishop of New York, 1936,
Vol. No. 1, p 599 as quoted by Desmond A. Birch Trial Tribulation and
Triumph: Before, During and After Antichrist, (Queenship Publishing. 1996)
p 497