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PAROUSIA




 

 

THE ANTI-CHRIST AND THE GREEK FATHERS

What is the criterion of truth in every confrontation between the Catholic Church and her accusers?  Every debate is between the simple living tradition handed down from the apostles against NEW speculations.  Every heresy based its veracity on the virtuosity of human learning, while the truth is always based on Sacred Scripture and Tradition.  

The modern minds consider the pure Catholic teachings as "fitted for simpletons"; the true defenders base their beliefs on "how the Church used to do things."  This is the way the Church passed and will pass unscathed through myriads of attacks throughout the ages.  

We must, therefore, get our teachings on the Anti-Christ from Scriptures and Tradition.  Who is he?  

The Anti-Christ will be the corruptor of truth and morals.  So unbridled will he and his followers be in their madness against God;  so arrogant, impious and irreligious in spirit will they be against Christ and His Church.  The Anti-Christ is the archrebel among men; he will be the embodiment of all sin committed from Adam up to the end of the world.  

When the time for the Anti-Christ comes, he will be mightily aided by Satan.  It will be the final all-out assault against Christ and the Church, in a spirit of heinousness and hatred never before experienced.  

St. Ireneaus describes him as "the maximum of malice;"  he fears not God nor reveres men.  He will come in his own  name and establish his own world dominion with the cooperation of evil angels and evil men.  

The name of the Anti-Christ is a secret kept by God until the man of sin arrives.  St. Irenaeus warns us not to guess his name; to do so is to open oneself to deception.  The Holy Spirit will give his name at the right time.  The Holy Spirit announces ahead of time only the names of men and women who are destined to bring salvation to men and glory to God.  God does not announce ahead the names of evil men.  To find out his name is to open up an endless futile activity that will waste valuable time and energy and yet never solve the problem.  

St. Cyril states that the Anti-Christ will be raised by Satan; he will perform many amazing wonders and he is awaited by everyone who rejects Christ.  His coming will be preceded by deep moral decay, hatred for one another, a great falling away and great abandoning of the truth.  The Church will be filled with heretics in disguise who will be the forerunners of the Anti-Christ.  

St. Cyril continues:  the Anti-Christ comes from below, from the earth, a magician, expert in diabolical arts.  He will claim that he is the Christ, deceiving the Jews.  At first, he will put on a show of mildness, as though he were a learned and discreet person.  He will be sober and benevolent.  But the moment he is accepted by both Jews and Gentiles, he will drop the mask of benign graciousness.  He will begin his career of crime and heinous activity of lawlessness.  The most malicious of the unrighteous, he will have great hatred for the virtuous and holy.  A murderous spirit driven on by a lust for cruelty, he will be a tyrant run amuck in the blood of the saints for three and a half years.  

The Anti-Christ will rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, a feat he alone shall accomplish.  He will abhor all other idols and present himself as the only idol adored in the temple.  

 

 

 

 

(11-02-04)

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