01-31-2021, 10:38 PM
3. From this we perceive a third character of Antichrist, namely, that he will not be simply the antagonist, but the substitute or supplanter of the true Messias.; And this is rendered still more probable by the fact, that the Messias looked for by the Jews has always been a temporal deliverer, the restorer of their temporal power; or, in other words, a political and military prince. It is obvious also, that whosoever may hereafter deceive them in the pretended character of their Messias, must thereby deny the Incarnation, whatsoever claim to a supernatural character he may put forward for himself. In his own person he will be a complete denial of the whole Christian faith and Church; for if he be the true Messias, the Christ of the Christians must be false.
Now, perhaps, we do not sufficiently realise how commonplace and historical a person such a deceiver may be. We are so possessed with the idea and vision of the true Messias in the glory of His God head and Manhood, of His Divine actions and Passion, of His Resurrection, Ascension, and royalties over the world and the Church, that we cannot conceive how any false Christ could be received as the true. It is for this reason that our Lord has said of these latter times: “There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect;* that is, they shall not be deceived ; but those who have lost faith in the Incarnation, such as humanitarians, rationalists, and pantheists, may well be deceived by any person of great political power and success who should re store the Jews to their own land, and people Jerusalem once more with the sons of the patriarchs. And there is nothing in the political aspect of the world which renders such a combination impossible; indeed, the state of Syria, and the tide of European diplomacy, which is continually moving eastward, render such an event within a reasonable probability.
4. But the prophecies assign to the person of Antichrist a more preternatural character.1 He is described as a worker of false miracles. His coming is said to be “according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish.”2
And here I cannot but perceive a wonderful change which has passed upon the world. Half a century ago the men who rejected Christianity derided a belief in witchcraft as superstition, and in miracles as foolishness. But now the world has out stripped even the faith of Christians by its credulity. Europe and America are deluged by Spiritualism. I know not how many hundreds and thousands of mediums between us and the unseen world are in existence. The very men who would not permit the witch of Endor, or Elymas the sorcerer, to pass without ridicule, believe in table-turning and table rapping, in clairvoyance, and the communications of spirits evoked from the world unseen; in spirit writing, and locomotion through the air, and in the apparition of hands, and even of persons. Revelation of the state of the dead, of secrets among the living, prolonged and repeated colloquies with the departed, are not only believed, but practised habitually, and almost day by day. Now it is not my object, at least not now, to appreciate these phenomena. It is enough for us to say, that to us who
believe in an unseen world and in the presence and warfare of spirits, good and evil, such things present no difficulty. We are not disposed to deny their reality because of the falsehood or delusion which is mixed up with them. They are precisely what the Church has always condemned and forbidden under the name of witchcraft: in which there is a real preternatural agency surrounded by much im posture. I dwell on this point because it is certain that we are encompassed by a supernatural order, of which part is divine, and part is diabolical. It is not wonderful that they who reject the divine super natural order should become immoderately credulous of the diabolical. Now in this we have already a preparation for the deception of which St. Paul writes. The age is ripe for a delusion. It will not believe the miracles of the saints, but it will copiously drink down the phenomena of spiritualism. A successful medium might well pass himself off by his preternatural endowments as the promised Messias, and “signs and lying wonders” in abundance may be wrought by the agencies which are already abroad in the world.
5. The last characteristic of which I will speak is more difficult, perhaps, to conceive. St. Paul says of “the man of sin,” “the son of perdition, who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God.”3 These words are interpreted by the Fathers to mean that he will claim divine honours, and that in the Temple of Jerusalem. St. Irenaeus says that “Antichrist being an apostate and a robber, will claim to be adored as God,” and “that he will endeavour to show himself off as God.”4 Lactantius, that “he will call himself God.”5 The writer under the name of St. Ambrose says, “He will affirm himself to be God.” St. Jerome, “He will call himself God, and claim to be worshiped by all.”6 St. John Chrysostom, “He will profess himself to be the God of all, and call himself and show himself off as God.”7 So also Theodoret, Theophylact, Ecumenius, St. Anselm, and many others."8
Suarez, in explaining this passage, says, “It is likely that Antichrist will in no way believe himself what he will teach and compel others to believe. For though in the beginning he may persuade the Jews that he is the Messias and is sent from God, and may pretend to believe that the law of Moses is true and to be observed, yet he will do all this in dissimulation, to deceive them and to obtain supreme power. For afterwards he will reject the law of Moses, and will deny the true God who gave it. For which reason many believe that he will craftily destroy idolatry in order to deceive the Jews.” “How great his perfidy will be, and what he will really believe concerning God, we cannot conjecture. But it is likely that he will be an atheist, and will deny both reward and punishment in another life, and will venerate only the preternatural being, from whom he has learned the art of deceit and acquired his riches by which wealth he will obtain supreme power.”9
Now, it is easy to understand how he will oppose God, being the antagonist of Christ; and how he will exalt or lift himself above all that is called God and worshiped; because, in supplanting the true Messias, he places himself in the stead of the Incarnate God. Nor is it difficult to understand how those who have lost the true and divine idea of the Messias may accept a false; and, being dazzled by the greatness of political and military successes,10 and inflated with the pantheistic and Socinian notions of the dignity of man, may pay to the person of Antichrist the honour which Christians pay to the true Messias. I have touched on this because St. Paul places it prominently in the description of Antichrist, and because the tendency of the credulous unbelief, which increases in the world as faith decreases, is visibly preparing men for delusion.
It is one of the most wonderful interpretations of the Fathers, that in the end of the world paganism shall be restored.11 This at least we should have thought impossible: if for no other reason, at least from the development of modern infidelity; and yet infidelity was never more dominant than when in the first French Revolution revelation was voted to be false, and the worship of Reason and Ceres set up in its place. In truth, when the intellectual be come pantheists, the simple will become polytheists. They need a more material conception than the refined unbelievers, and they impersonate and embody, first in thought and then in form, the object of their worship. And what is this but paganism simple and pure ? But into this I cannot enter. In the second livraison of Gaume's work on the French Revolution, especially in the 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters, will be found an ample and detailed account of the paganism of fifty years ago; and in the Catechism of Positive Religion, under the head of “Public and Private Worship,” will be seen an elaborate profession of religious worship addressed to humanity—the collective body of deified men, which is the natural basis of the religion of ancient Greece and Rome.
* St. Matt. xxiv. 24.
1 Bellarm. ibid. c. xv.; Lessius, ibid. x. 34; De Praecursoribus Antichristi, x. 37.
2 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10.
3 2 Thess. ii. 4.
4 St. Iren. lib. v. 29.
5 Lactantius, de divinis Institutionibus, lib. vii. c. 17.
6 St. Hieron. in Zach. c. xi.
7 St. Joan. Chrys. in St. Joan. Hom, xl.
8 Malvenda, lib, vii. c. 4.
9 Suarez, in iii. p. St. Thomae, Disp. liv. s. 4.
10 St. Aug. in Psalm ix. tom. iv. 54.
11 Cornelius à Lapide in Apocal. c. xvii.
Now, perhaps, we do not sufficiently realise how commonplace and historical a person such a deceiver may be. We are so possessed with the idea and vision of the true Messias in the glory of His God head and Manhood, of His Divine actions and Passion, of His Resurrection, Ascension, and royalties over the world and the Church, that we cannot conceive how any false Christ could be received as the true. It is for this reason that our Lord has said of these latter times: “There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect;* that is, they shall not be deceived ; but those who have lost faith in the Incarnation, such as humanitarians, rationalists, and pantheists, may well be deceived by any person of great political power and success who should re store the Jews to their own land, and people Jerusalem once more with the sons of the patriarchs. And there is nothing in the political aspect of the world which renders such a combination impossible; indeed, the state of Syria, and the tide of European diplomacy, which is continually moving eastward, render such an event within a reasonable probability.
4. But the prophecies assign to the person of Antichrist a more preternatural character.1 He is described as a worker of false miracles. His coming is said to be “according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish.”2
And here I cannot but perceive a wonderful change which has passed upon the world. Half a century ago the men who rejected Christianity derided a belief in witchcraft as superstition, and in miracles as foolishness. But now the world has out stripped even the faith of Christians by its credulity. Europe and America are deluged by Spiritualism. I know not how many hundreds and thousands of mediums between us and the unseen world are in existence. The very men who would not permit the witch of Endor, or Elymas the sorcerer, to pass without ridicule, believe in table-turning and table rapping, in clairvoyance, and the communications of spirits evoked from the world unseen; in spirit writing, and locomotion through the air, and in the apparition of hands, and even of persons. Revelation of the state of the dead, of secrets among the living, prolonged and repeated colloquies with the departed, are not only believed, but practised habitually, and almost day by day. Now it is not my object, at least not now, to appreciate these phenomena. It is enough for us to say, that to us who
believe in an unseen world and in the presence and warfare of spirits, good and evil, such things present no difficulty. We are not disposed to deny their reality because of the falsehood or delusion which is mixed up with them. They are precisely what the Church has always condemned and forbidden under the name of witchcraft: in which there is a real preternatural agency surrounded by much im posture. I dwell on this point because it is certain that we are encompassed by a supernatural order, of which part is divine, and part is diabolical. It is not wonderful that they who reject the divine super natural order should become immoderately credulous of the diabolical. Now in this we have already a preparation for the deception of which St. Paul writes. The age is ripe for a delusion. It will not believe the miracles of the saints, but it will copiously drink down the phenomena of spiritualism. A successful medium might well pass himself off by his preternatural endowments as the promised Messias, and “signs and lying wonders” in abundance may be wrought by the agencies which are already abroad in the world.
5. The last characteristic of which I will speak is more difficult, perhaps, to conceive. St. Paul says of “the man of sin,” “the son of perdition, who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God.”3 These words are interpreted by the Fathers to mean that he will claim divine honours, and that in the Temple of Jerusalem. St. Irenaeus says that “Antichrist being an apostate and a robber, will claim to be adored as God,” and “that he will endeavour to show himself off as God.”4 Lactantius, that “he will call himself God.”5 The writer under the name of St. Ambrose says, “He will affirm himself to be God.” St. Jerome, “He will call himself God, and claim to be worshiped by all.”6 St. John Chrysostom, “He will profess himself to be the God of all, and call himself and show himself off as God.”7 So also Theodoret, Theophylact, Ecumenius, St. Anselm, and many others."8
Suarez, in explaining this passage, says, “It is likely that Antichrist will in no way believe himself what he will teach and compel others to believe. For though in the beginning he may persuade the Jews that he is the Messias and is sent from God, and may pretend to believe that the law of Moses is true and to be observed, yet he will do all this in dissimulation, to deceive them and to obtain supreme power. For afterwards he will reject the law of Moses, and will deny the true God who gave it. For which reason many believe that he will craftily destroy idolatry in order to deceive the Jews.” “How great his perfidy will be, and what he will really believe concerning God, we cannot conjecture. But it is likely that he will be an atheist, and will deny both reward and punishment in another life, and will venerate only the preternatural being, from whom he has learned the art of deceit and acquired his riches by which wealth he will obtain supreme power.”9
Now, it is easy to understand how he will oppose God, being the antagonist of Christ; and how he will exalt or lift himself above all that is called God and worshiped; because, in supplanting the true Messias, he places himself in the stead of the Incarnate God. Nor is it difficult to understand how those who have lost the true and divine idea of the Messias may accept a false; and, being dazzled by the greatness of political and military successes,10 and inflated with the pantheistic and Socinian notions of the dignity of man, may pay to the person of Antichrist the honour which Christians pay to the true Messias. I have touched on this because St. Paul places it prominently in the description of Antichrist, and because the tendency of the credulous unbelief, which increases in the world as faith decreases, is visibly preparing men for delusion.
It is one of the most wonderful interpretations of the Fathers, that in the end of the world paganism shall be restored.11 This at least we should have thought impossible: if for no other reason, at least from the development of modern infidelity; and yet infidelity was never more dominant than when in the first French Revolution revelation was voted to be false, and the worship of Reason and Ceres set up in its place. In truth, when the intellectual be come pantheists, the simple will become polytheists. They need a more material conception than the refined unbelievers, and they impersonate and embody, first in thought and then in form, the object of their worship. And what is this but paganism simple and pure ? But into this I cannot enter. In the second livraison of Gaume's work on the French Revolution, especially in the 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters, will be found an ample and detailed account of the paganism of fifty years ago; and in the Catechism of Positive Religion, under the head of “Public and Private Worship,” will be seen an elaborate profession of religious worship addressed to humanity—the collective body of deified men, which is the natural basis of the religion of ancient Greece and Rome.
* St. Matt. xxiv. 24.
1 Bellarm. ibid. c. xv.; Lessius, ibid. x. 34; De Praecursoribus Antichristi, x. 37.
2 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10.
3 2 Thess. ii. 4.
4 St. Iren. lib. v. 29.
5 Lactantius, de divinis Institutionibus, lib. vii. c. 17.
6 St. Hieron. in Zach. c. xi.
7 St. Joan. Chrys. in St. Joan. Hom, xl.
8 Malvenda, lib, vii. c. 4.
9 Suarez, in iii. p. St. Thomae, Disp. liv. s. 4.
10 St. Aug. in Psalm ix. tom. iv. 54.
11 Cornelius à Lapide in Apocal. c. xvii.