EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
QUOTATIONS CONCERNING THE END TIMES
Robert Van Kampen on pp. 22-24 in his book 'The Sign' records the
following information concerning the Early Church Fathers: "Great church
fathers such as Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Justin Martyr, the Pastor of Hermas,
Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Melito of Sardis, Methodius, Tertullian, Cyprian,
Commodianus, Victorinus, and Lactantius stated clearly in their writings that
the church would undergo the persecution of Antichrist before the coming of Christ."
The following direct quotations from some of these men give
evidence to that truth:
JUSTIN MARTYR: The man of apostasy [Antichrist]...shall venture
to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians. (Trypho cx)
THE PASTOR OF HERMAS: 40-140 A.D. 'Happy ye who endure the great
tribulation that is coming. (Vision Second) Those, therefore, who continue
steadfast, and are put through the fire, will be purified by means of
it....Wherefore cease not speaking these things into the ears of the saints.
This then is the type of the great tribulation that is yet to come.' (Vision
Fourth)
BARNABAS: The final stumbling block approaches, concerning which
it is written, as Enoch says, 'For this end the Lord has cut short the times
and the days, that His Beloved may hasten; and He will come to the inheritance'
And the prophet also speaks thus: 'Ten kingdoms shall reign upon the earth, and
a little king shall rise up after them, who shall subdue under one three of the
kings...Take heed, lest resting at our ease, as those who are the called, we
should fall asleep in our sins, and the wicked prince, acquiring power over us,
should thrust us away from the kingdom of the Lord. (Epistle of Barnabas, ch.
iv)
IRENAEUS: 140-200 A.D. 'And they [the ten kings]...shall give
their kingdom to the beast, and put the Church to flight. (Against Heresies
5.26.1) But [John] indicates the number
of the name [Antichrist, 666] now, that when this man comes we may avoid him,
being aware who he is.' (Against Heresies 5.30.4)
HIPPOLYTUS: 160-240 A.D. Now concerning the tribulation of the
persecution which is to fall upon the Church from the adversary [he has been
speaking of the Antichrist and the Antichrist's persecution of the saints and
continues n the same vein]....That refers to the one thousand two hundred and
threescore days [the last half of Daniel's seventieth week] during which the
tyrant is to reign and persecute the Church. (Treatise on Christ and
Antichrist, pp. 60,61)
TERTULLIAN: 150-220 A.D.
'That the beast Antichrist with his false prophet may wage war on the
Church of God....Since, then, the Scriptures both indicate the stages of the
last times, and concentrate the harvest of the Christian hope in the very end of
the world.' (On the Resurrection of the Flesh, xxv; cf. Scorpiace, xii)
THE TEACHINGS OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES: 70-140 A.D. 'Watch for your
life's sake,. Let not your lamps be quenched, not your loins unloosed; but be
ye ready, for you know not the our in which the Lord cometh.' Stating only the
first half of this quote, Gundry, in his book The Church and the Tribulation referred to earlier, goes on to
observe: 'Here Walvoord, Stantton, and
Pentecost break off the quotation in an endeavor to make the passage establish
a belief in imminence [the 'any moment' coming of Christ which, by definition,
does not necessitate Antichrist's persecution of God's elect] by the early
Church' (p.175). But read the rest of the paragraph!
'But often shall ye come together, seeking the things which are
befitting your souls: for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if
ye be not made perfect in the last time. For in the last days false prophets
and corrupters shall be multiplied...and then shall appear the world-deceiver
as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered
into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to
pass since the beginning.... And then shall appear the signs of the truth;
first, the sign of an outspreading in heaven; then the sign of the sound of the
trumpet; and the third, the resurrection of the dead; yet not of all, but as it
is said: The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him. Then shall the world
see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven. (The Teachings of the Twelve
Apostles, chapter XVI, emphasis added)
THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES: 'Be watchful for your
life. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye like unto
men who wait for their Lord, when He will come, at even, or in the morning, or
at cock-crowing, or at midnight. For at what hour they think not, the Lord will
come; and if they open to him, blessed are those servants, because they were
watching.' 'Again,' writes Gundry, 'Walvoord breaks
off the quotation in an endeavor to make the passage teach imminence' (p.177).
And yet, when taken in context with the whole, we see that the quotation
teaches nothing of the sort:
'And then shall appear the deceiver of
the world, the enemy of the truth, the prince of lies, whom the Lord Jesus
'shall destroy with the spirit of His mouth, who takes away the wicked with His
lips; and many shall be offended at Him. But they that endure to the end, the
same shall be saved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in
heaven;' and afterwards shall be the
voice of a trumpet by the archangel; and in that interval shall be the revival
of those that were asleep. And then, shall the Lord come, and all His
saints with Him.' (Constitutions, VII, ii xxxi, xxxii, emphasis added)
VICTORINUS: He speaks of
Elias (Elijah) the prophet, who is the precursor of the times of Antichrist,
for the restoration and establishment of churches from the great and
intolerable persecution [which statement is then followed by a lengthy
discussion of the persecution of the Church by the Antichrist]. (Commentary on
the Apocalypse, VII. 351ff)"
These quotations by the church fathers are soundly based upon the
Apostle's doctrine in such passages as
I Thessalonians 4:13-5:10; II
Thessalonians 2:1-12; and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew
24:3-31 indicating to all born-again Christians who would follow that these
men, the leaders of the church for the years immediately following the
Apostolic period, spoke as one in their belief that the Church would
indeed experience the presence and persecution of the Antichrist,
but would not experience the Day of the Lord/wrath of God! (I Thessalonians 1:10, 5:9)
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