Category: Archive

The End Times?

With the popularity of the ‘Left Behind’ series, much end time speculation is taking place. S79 gives us something to chew on that is buzzing around (ultra?)conservative Catholic circles. Here’s what he said:

“Saint Malachi of Ireland was born in Armagh, Ireland in 1094 and died in 1148. He became very well known on account of the prophecies he allegedly made regarding 112 future popes, while on a trip to visit to Pope Innocent II in Rome in 1139-40.

The prophecies concern the papacy. A total of 112 popes are listed, each in a very brief description, from 1143 (Celestine II) to the “end of the world“ (Peter the Roman). These short prophetical announcements indicate some noticeable trait of all future popes: their country, their name, their coat of arms or insignia, their birth-place, their talent or learning, the title of their cardinalate, the dignities which they held etc.

Pope John Paul II is said to be De labore Solis (“from the labor of the sun”). He was born during the solar eclipse of May 18th, 1920.

Pope Benedict XVI is named Gloria olivae (“The Glory of the Olive”). This Pope will reign during the beginning of the tribulation Jesus spoke of.

The last of these prophecies concerns the end of the world and is as follows: “In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End.”

This final Pope, it is argued now by theologians, is likely be Satan, taking the form of a man named Peter who will gain a worldwide allegiance and adoration. He will be the final antichrist which prophecy students have long foretold.

Do you think God would allow this to happen to his church?

Your thoughts?”

I know that some dispy fundies have predicted that the office of pope would bring the anti-christ. I tend to interpret the end-times passages of Scripture with more of a ‘preterist’ grid, meaning many of them were fulfilled with the early persecutions and the 1st and 2nd Century Roman Empire. Having said that, I also think that prophecy has a way of ‘double fulfilling.’ For example, many of Isaiah’s prophecies have ‘double fulfillment,’ i.e they were fulfilled in Isaiah’s day and by the person of Christ. So, a number of scenarios could take place. However, when Christ says the ‘gates of hell will not prevail’ against the church, I believe him. I can’t see the antichrist in the see or seat of Peter. I tend to see antichrist more as a ‘system.’ Western secularism and Islam might make better candidates.

Epistle to Diognetus, can the Ecclesia of today pull it off?

Robert M. Grant describes the epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, v. 2, p. 201): A late 2nd century apology addressed to a certain Diognetus who is otherwise unknown. It describes the Christians of the 2nd century.

Here are some direct quotes:

CHAPTER V — THE MANNERS OF THE CHRISTIANS.

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

CHAPTER VI — THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANS TO THE WORLD.

To sum up all in one word–what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by the visible body, and Christians are known indeed to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the Christians, though in nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and [loves also] the members; Christians likewise love those that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet preserves that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they are the preservers of the world. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell as sojourners in corruptible [bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens. The soul, when but ill-provided with food and drink, becomes better; in like manner, the Christians, though subjected day by day to punishment, increase the more in number. God has assigned them this illustrious position, which it were unlawful for them to forsake.