02-08-2021, 11:18 PM
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).
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).