Abomination of Desolation - Heg. Fr. Athanasius Iskander

THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION (Pt. 1)

SPOKEN OF BY DANIEL THE PROPHET1

Shortly before His Crucifixion, the Lord Jesus was asked by His

disciples, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the

sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matt 24: 3) The Lord

then started to give them a discourse about the end of the world.

The discourse alluded to the destruction of Jerusalem, which took

place in the year A.D. 70, as a type for the destruction of the world, at

the time of the end. Exegetes agree that the prophecies of the Lord

Jesus in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, have been partially

fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, but will find their complete

fulfillment in the destruction of the world at the end of time.

One of the “signs” of the Lord’s second coming is given to us in

these verses, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of

desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,

(whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judea

flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come

down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the

field return back to take his clothes.” (Matt 24: 15-18)

There is no doubt that these words of Jesus found their partial

fulfillment when Titus placed an idol on the site of the burned Temple

after destroying Jerusalem2, however, it is equally doubtless that the

Lord was also alluding to the end of the world, for the following

reasons:

First, the whole discourse in Matthew 24 is in response to the

disciples’ inquiry regarding the signs of His coming and the end of the

world.

Second, the information concerning the Abomination Of

Desolation, and the following instructions to flee it in an urgent

manner, are immediately followed by this verse, “For then shall be

great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to

this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matt 24:21)

2 ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

From this, it is safe to assume that the Abomination Of Desolation will

be manifested standing in the “holy place” during the “Great

Tribulation” mentioned in the Book of Daniel 12:1, as well as the Book

of Revelation 7:14.

Then we are told, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days

shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the

stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be

shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:

and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the

Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

(Matt 24:29-30)

It is evident from this that the “Great Tribulation” will

immediately precede the second coming of the Lord Jesus. And, since

the “Great Tribulation” will coincide with the manifestation of the

Abomination Of Desolation, standing in the holy place, it follows that

the latter is an important sign that will immediately precede the

Parousia of the Lord (His second coming).

The importance of this “sign” of the second coming of Christ

becomes apparent if we carefully examine the words of Christ

concerning it, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of

desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,

(whoso readeth let him understand). This clearly indicates to the

reader that the Abomination Of Desolation is a “code name” for

something or someone, and that the reader has to attempt to “decode”

this expression, and understand what it stands for, so that he (or she)

can follow the Lord’s urgent demand to flee it.

Yet, in spite of this admonition to the reader that he (or she) must

strive to understand, only few of those who are reading this chapter

actually understand what the Lord means by the Abomination Of

Desolation standing in the holy place.

Now, hopefully, we have aroused enough interest, so let us answer

the question, “What is (or who is) the Abomination Of Desolation

spoken of by Daniel the prophet?” To find the answer, we have to go

to the writings of the Fathers of the Church, who wrote on the subject.

According to Irenaeus, Hippolytus of Rome, Cyril of Jerusalem,

Origen, and Cassian, the “Abomination Of Desolation spoken of by

Daniel the prophet” is none other than Antichrist, who must appear

ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION 3

before the second coming of Christ, seduce the world by his false

miracles, causing the final apostasy, and who will “sit in the temple of

God (the holy place), showing himself that he is God.” (II Thes 2:4)

Now, we will present a brief survey of the main scriptural passages

that refer or allude to the “Abomination Of Desolation spoken of by

Daniel the prophet,” also known as Antichrist.

The Book of Daniel has 12 chapters, the first six of which are

narrative while the last six are apocalyptic, sometimes referred to as the

“Apocalypse of Daniel.” An “apocalypse” is a scriptural passage that

deals with prediction of future events, but, unlike a prophecy which

concerns the future of one land or one nation (e.g., Israel or Edom), an

apocalypse has cosmic dimensions involving the whole universe, and

usually alludes to the end of the world. There are generally four

recognized passages in Daniel that concern the topic at hand. Chapters

7 and 8 speak of him under the code name The Little Horn. Here are

some excerpts of the passages concerning The Little Horn.

After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast,

dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron

teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with

the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before

it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there

came up among them another little horn, before whom there were

three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this

horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great

things. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which

the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body

destroyed, and given to the burning flame .... Then I would know

the truth of the fourth beast .... And of the ten horns that were in

his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three

fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very

great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld,

and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against

them; Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to

the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints

possessed the kingdom .... Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be

the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all

kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down,

and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are

ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he

4 ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And

he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out

the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and

they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the

dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away

his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the

kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the

whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most

High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions

shall serve and obey him. (Dan 7:7-27)

And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed

exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward

the pleasant land. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven;

and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and

stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince

of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the

place of his sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him

against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast

down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered ....

And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and

sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the

appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks

of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to

understand the vision. So he came near where I stood: and when he

came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me,

Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the

vision ... And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the

transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and

understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall

be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy

wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the

mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall

cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in

his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up

against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.”

(Dan 8:9-25)

Most of the ancient writers agree that the Little Horn who is also

described as a king of fierce countenance is Antichrist. Jerome wrote

ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION 5

1Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel.

2Augustin of Hippo: City of God.

3Hippolytus: Scholia on Daniel.

a book about the subject1, a book that was already known to Saint

Augustine:

Daniel prophesies of the last judgment in such a way as to indicate

that Antichrist shall first come, and to carry on his description to the

eternal reign of the saints. For when in prophetic vision he had seen

four beasts, signifying four kingdoms, and the fourth conquered by

a certain king, who is recognized as Antichrist, and after this the

eternal kingdom of the Son of man, that is to say, of Christ, he says,

‘My spirit was terrified, I Daniel in the midst of my body, and the

visions of my head troubled me,’ etc. . . They who desire to

understand the fitness of this interpretation may read Jerome's book

on Daniel, which is written with a sufficiency of care and erudition.

But he who reads this passage, even half asleep, cannot fail to see

that the kingdom of Antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short

time, assail the Church before the last judgment of God shall

introduce the eternal reign of the saints. For it is patent from the

context that the time, times, and half a time, means a year, and two

years, and half a year, that is to say, three years and a half.2

Hippolytus of Rome wrote three treatises about the same subject. Here

is a sample of his writings:

As Daniel says, “I considered the beast; and, lo, (there were) ten

horns behind, among which shall come up another little horn

springing from them;” by which none other is meant than Antichrist

that is to rise .... And when he has conquered all, he will prove

himself a terrible and savage tyrant, and will cause tribulation and

persecution to the saints, exalting himself against them.3

Origen also recognized these passages as referring to Antichrist:

The prophecy also regarding Antichrist is stated in the book of

Daniel, and is fitted to make an intelligent and candid reader admire

6 ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

1Origen: Against Celsus.

the words as truly divine and prophetic; for in them are mentioned

the things relating to the coming kingdom, beginning with the times

of Daniel, and continuing to the destruction of the world. And any

one who chooses may read it. Observe, however, whether the

prophecy regarding Antichrist be not as follows: “And at the latter

time of their kingdom, when their sins are coming to the full, there

shall arise a king, bold in countenance, and understanding riddles.

And his power shall be great, and he shall destroy wonderfully, and

prosper, and practise; and shall destroy mighty men, and the holy

people. And the yoke of his chain shall prosper: there is craft in his

hand, and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by craft shall

destroy many; and he shall stand up for the destruction of many, and

shall crush them as eggs in his hand.”1

The Book of Daniel has two more passages dealing with Antichrist, the

Great Tribulation and the end of the world: Daniel 11: 31-45 and the

whole of chapter 12.

Saint Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians contains a major

passage about the early Church’s tradition concerning Antichrist:

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus

Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon

shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by

letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man

deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there

come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of

perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is

called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the

temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not,

that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye

know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For

the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth

will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked

be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his

mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even

him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and

signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of

unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the

ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION 7

1Hippolytus: Scholia on Daniel.

love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God

shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That

they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had

pleasure in unrighteousness. (II Thes 2:1-12)

It is unanimously accepted that the Man of Sin mentioned by Saint Paul

in this passage is none other than Antichrist. Here are some of the

sayings of the early Church writers about this passage:

I see that I must omit many of the statements of the gospels and

epistles about this last judgment, that this volume may not become

unduly long; but I can on no account omit what the Apostle Paul

says, in writing to the Thessalonians, “We beseech you, brethren, by

the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” etc. No one can doubt that he

wrote this of Antichrist and of the day of judgment, which he here

calls the day of the Lord, nor that he declared that this day should

not come unless he first came who is called the apostate --apostate,

to wit, from the Lord God. And if this may justly be said of all the

ungodly, how much more of him? But it is uncertain in what temple

he shall sit, whether in that ruin of the temple which was built by

Solomon, or in the Church; for the apostle would not call the temple

of any idol or demon the temple of God.1

“Let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the

falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of

perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is

called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of

God, setting himself forth as God.” Here he discourses concerning

the Antichrist, and reveals great mysteries. What is the falling away?

He calls him “Apostasy”, as being about to destroy many, and make

them fall away. So that if it were possible, He says, the very elect

should be offended. (From Matt. xxiv. 24.) And he calls him “the

man of sin.” For he shall do numberless mischiefs, and shall cause

others to do them. But he calls him “the son of perdition,” because

he is also to be destroyed. But who is he? Is it then Satan? By no

means; but some man, that admits his fully working in him. For he

is a man. “And exalteth himself against all that is called God or is

worshipped.” For he will not introduce idolatry, but will be a kind of

8 ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

1Origen: Against Celsus.

2Origen: Against Celsus.

3Tertullian: Against Marcion.

opponent to God; he will abolish all the gods, and will order men to

worship him instead of God, and he will be seated in the temple of

God, not that in Jerusalem only, but also in every Church. “Setting

himself forth,” he says; he does not say, “saying it”, but

endeavouring to show it. For he will perform great works, and will

show wonderful signs.1

Paul, indeed, speaks of him who is called Antichrist, describing,

though with a certain reserve, both the manner, and time, and cause

of his coming to the human race. And notice whether his language

on this subject is not most becoming, and undeserving of being

treated with even the slightest degree of ridicule. It is thus that the

apostle expresses himself: “We beseech you, brethren, by the coming

of our Lord Jesus Christ, ....” To explain each particular here

referred to does not belong to our present purpose.2

Well, but who is the man of sin, the son of perdition, who must first

be revealed before the Lord comes; “who opposeth and exalteth

himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; who is to

sit in the temple of God, and boast himself as being God?”

According indeed to our view, he is Antichrist; as it is taught us in

both the ancient and the new prophecies.3

The Book of Revelation is, of course, one of the most important

sources of information on the subject of Antichrist and the end of the

world. Chapter 13 is devoted to describing him under the code name

the Beast.

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of

the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten

crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast

which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of

a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave

him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of

his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was

ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION 9

healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they

worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they

worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able

to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth

speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto

him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in

blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle,

and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make

war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him

over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon

the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the

book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If

any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity

shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed

with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And

I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two

horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all

the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and

them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly

wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh

fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And

deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those

miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying

to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to

the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he

had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of

the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not

worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all,

both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a

mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man

might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the

beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that

hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the

number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Those who object to the authenticity of the Book of Revelation or do

not take it as speaking of things to come in the future should read the

testimony of Irenaeus about it:

10 ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

1Irenaeus: Against heresies.

2Augustin of Hippo: Sermon LXXIX

3Augustin of Hippo: Sermon LXXIX

Such, then, being the state of the case, and this number being found

in all the most approved and ancient copies [of the Apocalypse], and

those men who saw John face to face bearing their testimony [to it];

while reason also leads us to conclude that the number of the name

of the beast, [if reckoned] according to the Greek mode of

calculation by the [value of] the letters contained in it, will amount

to six hundred and sixty and six.1

In a still clearer light has John, in the Apocalypse, indicated to the

Lord's disciples what shall happen in the last times, and concerning

the ten kings who shall then arise, among whom the empire which

now rules [the earth] shall be partitioned. He teaches us what the

ten horns shall be which were seen by Daniel, telling us that thus it

had been said to him: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten

kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but shall receive power

as if kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and give

their strength and power to the beast. These shall make war with the

Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because He is the Lord

of lords and the King of kings.” (Rev 17: 12-14) It is manifest,

therefore, that of these [potentates], he who is to come shall slay

three, and subject the remainder to his power, and that he shall be

himself the eighth among them. And they shall lay Babylon waste,

and burn her with fire, and shall give their kingdom to the beast, and

put the Church to flight. After that they shall be destroyed by the

coming of our Lord.2

The saying of the Lord in John 5:43 is considered by most of the

Fathers as pertaining to Antichrist:

It is said of Antichrist, and all understand of him what the Lord said,

“I am come in My Father's Name, and ye have not received Me; if

another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”3

“I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not; if another

shall come in his own name, him will ye receive.” Who is it that He

ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION 11

1John Chrysostom: Homily on John V.

2Irenaeus: Against heresies.

3Cyril Of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures.

here saith shall come “in his own name”? He alludeth here to

Antichrist.1

The Lord also spoke as follows to those who did not believe in Him:

“I have come in my Father's name, and ye have not received Me:

when another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive,”

calling Antichrist “the other,” because he is alienated from the

Lord.2

That the Lord meant Antichrist when He spoke of the Abomination of

Desolation, will become quite obvious when we read the following

excerpts from the writings of the early Fathers:

This Jesus Christ who is gone up shall come again, not from earth

but from heaven: and I say, “not from earth,” because there are

many Antichrists to come at this time from earth. For already, as

thou hast seen, many have begun to say, I am the Christ: and the

abomination of desolation is yet to come, assuming to himself the

false title of Christ.3

For at that time there shall be great trouble, such as has not been

from the foundation of the world, when some in one way, and others

in another, shall be sent through every city and country to destroy

the faithful; and the saints shall travel from the west to the east, and

shall be driven in persecution from the east to the south, while

others shall conceal themselves in the mountains and caves; and the

abomination shall war against them everywhere, and shall cut them

off by sea and by land by his decree, and shall endeavour by every

means to destroy them out of the world; and they shall not be able

any longer to sell their own property, nor to buy from strangers,

unless one keeps and carries with him the name of the beast, or

bears its mark upon his forehead. For then they shall all be driven

out from every place, and dragged from their own homes and haled

into prison, and punished with all manner of punishment, and cast

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1Hippolytus: Scholia on Daniel.

2Irenaeus: Against heresies

3Origen: Against Celsus.

4Abbot Serenus: in Cassian; Conferences.

out from the whole world.1

He who shall come claiming the kingdom for himself, and shall

terrify those men of whom we have been speaking [the saints],

having a name containing the aforesaid number [666], is truly the

abomination of desolation.2

What is stated by Paul in the words quoted from him, where he says,

“so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is

God,” is in Daniel referred to in the following fashion: “And on the

temple shall be the abomination of desolations,” .... So many, out

of a greater number of passages, have I thought it right to adduce,

that the hearer may understand in some slight degree the meaning

of holy Scripture, when it gives us information concerning the devil

and Antichrist.3

Elias came in the person of John [the Baptist], and is again to be the

precursor of the Lord's Advent: and in the matter of the

“Abomination of Desolation” which “stood in the holy place,” by

means of that idol of Jupiter which, as we read, was placed in the

temple in Jerusalem, and which is again to stand in the Church

through the coming of Antichrist, and all those things which follow

in the gospel, which we take as having been fulfilled before the

captivity of Jerusalem and still to be fulfilled at the end of this world.

In which matters neither view is opposed to the other, nor does the

first interpretation interfere with the second.4

1Published: November, 1997

THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING1

The revelations given to Daniel the prophet in chapters 7 - 12, tell us a

great deal about the Abomination of Desolation, however, information

about the things that have to happen before his advent are very sketchy.

In chapter 7, Daniel saw a vision of “four great beasts, coming out

of the sea, diverse one from another.” He also saw ten horns on the

fourth beast, and “another little horn” that came among them. (Dan

7:3-8)

Daniel was troubled by what he saw, so he went and asked one of

the angels about the meaning of the vision. The angel interpreted the

vision in the following manner, “These great beasts, which are four, are

four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.” (Dan 7:17) Concerning

the ten horns coming out of the fourth beast (the fourth kingdom), and

the “little horn” that came among them, the angel said, “The ten horns

out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall arise

after them; and shall be diverse from the first [kings].” (Dan 7:24)

If we read the rest of the Book of Daniel, and consult the Fathers

who wrote on the subject, we will learn the following.

Concerning the four kingdoms, all are agreed that these are the

Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek and the Roman Empires.

The ten horns represent ten kingdoms that will arise after the fall of the

Roman Empire, and after them will come the Abomination of

Desolation. One may be tempted to count the empires that came after

the fall of Rome like the Germanic, the Moslem, Mongolian, Ottoman,

the French, British . . . and the greatest kingdom of them all; the mighty

U.S.A.! And, perhaps convince oneself that the ten horns have already

come and that the little horn is around the corner! But, before we go

any further, let us have a word about the use of numbers in prophetic

and apocalyptic Scripture.

Numbers in these types of Scriptural passages are usually symbolic

and not literal, e.g., “The seven Spirits of God” (Rev 4:5), are not to be

interpreted literally, but could mean the “perfect” Spirit of God, since

the number seven symbolizes perfection. Similarly, the number three

and a half symbolizes imperfection, so, when we are told that the Great

14 SIGNS OF HIS COMING

1Augustin of Hippo: City of God, XX: Ch. 23.

Tribulation, or the duration of the reign of the Abomination of

Desolation shall be three and a half years, this means that it will be a

time that will not be completed but rather suddenly cut short by the

glorious coming of our Lord. The Lord Himself told us so, “And except

those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for

the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matt 24:22) Similarly,

the ten horns (or ten kingdoms) that should arise after the Romans,

and after which comes the Abomination of Desolation, may very well be

a symbolic number. Here is what Saint Augustine says about this:

As for the ten kings, whom, as it seems, Antichrist is to find in the

person of ten individuals when he comes, I own I am afraid we may

be deceived in this, and that he may come unexpectedly while there

are not ten kings living in the Roman world. For what if this number,

ten signifies the whole number of kings who are to precede his

coming, as totality is frequently symbolized by a thousand, or a

hundred, or seven, or other numbers, which it is not necessary to

recount?1

In chapters 8, 11, and 12, Daniel is given more revelations but is

instructed by one of the angels, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words,

and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and

fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Dan 12:4) When Daniel tries

to get more information, he is told, “Go thy way, Daniel: for the words

are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” (Dan 12:9)

From this, one can deduce that the prophecy was kept deliberately

obscure until the “time of the end,” when the seals of the book shall be

opened.

If we read Revelation, chapter 5, we find mention of “A book

written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.” (Rev 5:1)

Later on, we are told that only Christ can open the seals of the book.

(Rev 5:5-9) Hippolytus of Rome comments on this saying:

And that the things spoken of old by the law and the prophets were

all sealed, and that they were unknown to men, Isaiah declares when

he says: ‘And they will deliver the book that is sealed to one that is

SIGNS OF HIS COMING 15

1 Hippolytus: Scholia on Daniel.

learned, and will say to him, Read this; and he will say, I cannot read

it, for it is sealed.’ (Isa 19:11) It was meet and necessary that the

things spoken of old by the prophets should be sealed to the

unbelieving Pharisees, who thought that they understood the letter

of the law, and be opened to the believing. The things, therefore,

which of old were sealed, are now by the grace of God the Lord all

open to the saints . . . He took the book, therefore, and loosed it, in

order that the things spoken concerning Him of old in secret, might

now be proclaimed with boldness upon the housetops. For this

reason, then, the angel says to Daniel, "Seal the words, for the vision

is until the end of the time." But to Christ it was not said "seal," but

"loose" the things bound of old; in order that, by His grace, we might

know the will of the Father, and believe upon Him whom He has

sent for the salvation of men, Jesus our Lord.1

So, let us leave the Apocalypse of Daniel for the time being and turn to

the Book of Revelation, in order to loose the seals of the mysteries

spoken of by Daniel.

Chapters 6-12 of Revelation speak of things that should happen

before the Abomination of Desolation is manifested, while chapters 13

and on speak about his reign, his tyranny and his end.

The prophecies in Revelation are arranged in three heptads of

events that resemble a telescope with three sections, as each section is

extended, another unfolds. So, we have seven seals, the last one of

them leads to the seven trumpets and these in turn lead to the seven

bowls. Interspersed between these are heavenly scenes that depict the

victorious church in heaven, or the striving church on earth.

THE SEVEN SEALS:

When the first seal was opened, John saw “a white horse; and he

that sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him; and he went

forth conquering and to conquer.” (Rev 6:1-2) The same scene is

repeated in Revelation 19:11-16, where the identity of the rider is

revealed. “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written,

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Rev 19:16)

The first seal depicts the triumph of Christianity and its spread in

the world, as a prelude to the events that will follow.

16 SIGNS OF HIS COMING

The second seal reveals a red horse, “And power was given to him that

sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one

another; and there was given unto him a great sword.” (Rev 6:4) This

represents war.

The third and fourth seals represent famine and pestilence. We

are then told that these three plagues (war, famine and pestilence) will

kill one fourth of the world. (Rev 6:8) This agrees with what the Lord

told His disciples in Matthew 24, “And ye shall hear of wars and

rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must

come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation,

and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and

pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the

beginning of sorrows.” (Matt 24:6-8)

Wars, famine and pestilence are probably as old as civilization

itself, however, recently, they have been escalating at an alarming rate.

The first half of the twentieth century has given us a new concept

of war; the world war. Yet, as brutal as the two world wars were, they

seem like child’s play compared with what mankind is capable of

inflicting on itself should another world war arise.

The second half of the twentieth century gave us the concept of

ethnic war; where ethnic groups within a country fight each other. The

ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and the war between the

Hutus and the Tutsis, in which close to a quarter of a million died, are

examples of what the Lord meant by “nation arising against nation.”

The world has known famines since the time of the Patriarchs, but

the extent of famine has probably never matched what has been

happening in Somalia and the Sudan. Recently, North Korea, a country

with major war capability, has joined the ranks with thousands dying of

hunger, as the newscasts tell us.

Even in highly industrialized countries like Canada and the U.S.A.,

food banks are faced with major challenges to feed the hungry in the

lands of plenty!

As far as disease is concerned, in spite of all the advances in

medicine, yet all is not well in today’s world. New diseases like AIDS

and Ebola are causing major threats to man’s life, with no cure in sight.

Old diseases that medicine is supposed to have conquered are making

a frightening come back. TB is rampant among aboriginals as well as

in prison populations, and newer drug-resistant strains are emerging.

SIGNS OF HIS COMING 17

Many of the bacteria that cause diseases are becoming antibioticresistant.

Sleeping sickness is rampant in Somalia and Lyme disease is

making a come back in the USA.

The incidence of skin cancer has doubled in Caucasian females.

Malaria, a disease that was supposed to have been eradicated, is

becoming endemic in the tropics, with new drug-resistant strains

appearing. Prophylactic drugs given to travellers going to these areas

are becoming useless. Recently, Canadians coming from these areas

are increasingly being diagnosed with a malignant strain of Malaria that

attacks the brain, and several fatalities have occurred.

In a recent article in Time Magazine (September 8, 1997) titled

“Mosquitoes get deadly,” we are told that, “The virus causing the

deadly brain disease [Encephalitis] is at large and that nature’s most

loathed insect was carrying it.” Outbreaks were reported in Florida,

New York’s Long Island, Massachusetts, North Dakota and Georgia.

West Nile Virus, another deadly virus carried by mosquitoes is now

commonly found in both the USA and Canada.

THE FIFTH SEAL:

The fifth seal depicts the persecution of the faithful, again

predicted by the Lord in the next verse, “Then shall they deliver you up

to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for

my name's sake.” (Matt 24:9)

When the sixth seal is opened, the scene is that of the end of the

world:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was

a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair,

and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto

the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is

shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when

it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out

of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and

the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every

bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the

rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall

on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne,

and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is

come; and who shall be able to stand? (Rev 6:12-17)

18 SIGNS OF HIS COMING

1Victorinus: Commentary on the Apocalypse.

Again we notice the similarity to Matthew 24:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be

darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall

fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and

then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the

Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great

glory. (Matt 24:29-30)

Although the prophecy leaps from the “beginning of sorrows” to the

coming of the Son of Man, the second heptad of the seven trumpets will

fill the void left by the seven seals:

We must not regard the order of what is said, because frequently the

Holy Spirit, when He has traversed even to the end of the last times,

returns again to the same times, and fills up what He had before

failed to say. Nor must we look for order in the Apocalypse; but we

must follow the meaning of those things which are prophesied.1

THE SEALING OF THE ELECT:

Before the plagues of the seven trumpets, John saw an angel

putting the seal of the living God on the foreheads of the servants of

God. Then he tells us the number of those sealed; one hundred and

forty-four thousand. (Rev 7:1-3) This number symbolizes the total

number of the elect, who will be given protection against the remaining

plagues. Here, the Holy Spirit gives us assurance that even if we

happen to be around during the Great Tribulation, we will enjoy God’s

protection. The number is a composite one (12 X 12 X 1000). The

number twelve is symbolic of being chosen by God. The Tribes of

God’s chosen people, Israel, were twelve and so was the number of His

chosen disciples. When 12 is multiplied by 12, that means God’s elect

from among the converted Jews as well as from among the Gentiles. St.

Paul assures us that from among the Jews a remnant shall be saved,

(Rom 9:27) and later on in Revelation 11, there is allusion to a mass

conversion of the Jews to Christianity. The number one thousand

symbolizes a great number. So, 144,000 symbolizes the large number of

SIGNS OF HIS COMING 19

God’s elect from both Jews and Gentiles. The reference to the Tribes

of Israel is here to be understood as referring to the New Israel, which

is the totality of God’s elect, for whose sake the days will be shortened.

This point becomes clear when we read on:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could

number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood

before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes,

and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying,

Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the

Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about

the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their

faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and

wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be

unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders

answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in

white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou

knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great

tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in

the blood of the Lamb. (Rev 7:9-14)

Here the picture becomes clear; a great multitude, which no man could

number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues. And who

are they? They are the elect that have come out of the Great

Tribulation, victorious, the same that were sealed and protected by

God’s own seal. Their number, no man could count, for only God

knows the number of His elect, the number that is symbolically given to

us as 144,000.

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS:

When the seventh seal is opened, we are told that there was silence

in heaven about the space of half an hour. (Rev 8:1) I could not find

any satisfactory explanation for this. Perhaps what it means is that the

plagues already mentioned, wars, famine, pestilence and persecutions,

will be separated from the coming plagues by a time interval

(symbolized by half an hour.) This really makes sense, for the Lord

tells us that “all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

(Matt 24:6) The plagues announced by the seven trumpets being closer

to the end, may be better indications that the end is near.

20 SIGNS OF HIS COMING

1Encarta Encyclopedia.

2Time Magazine: Special Report, November 1997.

Before the first trumpet sounds, St. John sees an angel offering incense,

together with the prayers of the saints. Here is a reminder that the

prayers of the Church on earth are not forgotten before God.

“The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled

with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of

trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.” (Rev 8:7)

Many are of the view that this represents an environmental plague.

God is using man’s failure to protect the earth as a warning sign that the

end is near. We are all aware of the menace of acid rain and its

devastating effects on the trees and vegetation.

The problem of acid rain originated with the Industrial Revolution,

and it has been growing ever since. The severity of its effects has

long been recognized in local settings, as exemplified by the spells of

acid smog in heavily industrialized areas. The widespread

destructiveness of acid rain, however, has become evident only in

recent decades. One large area that has been studied extensively is

northern Europe, where acid rain has eroded structures, injured

crops and forests, and threatened or depleted life in freshwater

lakes. In 1984, for example, environmental reports showed that

almost half of the trees in Germany's Black Forest had been

damaged by acid rain. The northeastern United States and eastern

Canada have also been particularly affected by this form of

pollution; damage has also been detected in other areas of these

countries and other regions of the world.1

The latest report on the condition of the European forests, published

in 1996, shows that one quarter of Europe’s trees is either sick or dying,

and that acid rain is among the chief causes of the death of Europe’s

forests.2 A recent radio newscast tells us that the planet has already lost

one third of its trees because of environmental mismanagement.

THE SECOND TRUMPET:

“And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain

burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea

SIGNS OF HIS COMING 21

1Time Magazine: Special Report, November 1997

became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the

sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.”

(Rev 8:8-9)

I was watching the news one day in March 1989, the tanker

EXXON VALDEZ was shown spilling oil in the Gulf of Alaska. The

whole sea was covered with the red crude and thousands of dead fish

were floating on the surface. The moment I saw this, Revelation 8

immediately came into my mind! Here is what TIME magazine reports

about pollution of our seas:

The life-support functions of earth’s oceans are burdened with oil

ballast and other wastes dumped overboard from millions of

motorized vessels and pollution flowing from the land and air into

the sea, along with millions of tons of hard trash. Oil spills are

among the most obvious forms of pollution.1

No one can deny that oil spills and other forms of pollution are

depleting the seas from fish. Cod is disappearing from Canada’s east

coast and salmon from the west coast. The recent closures of the

fisheries in Atlantic Canada, and the ongoing quarrel with the U.S.A.

about salmon fishing are indications that the second trumpet may have

sounded already!

THE THIRD TRUMPET:

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from

heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the

rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is

called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood;

and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” (Rev

8:10) Again, here we can make a case for pollution of rivers and springs.

According to the United Nations, in 1995, 20% of the world population

had no access to clean drinking water.

Rivers and streams that run through human settlements are

increasingly contaminated with pesticides from agriculture,

industrial waste from manufacturing plants and, of course, untreated

22 SIGNS OF HIS COMING

1Time Magazine: Special report, November 1997

2Encarta Encyclopedia

3Time Magazine: Special Report, November 1997

sewage. That makes water both the giver of life and the bearer of

disease and death. The report declared that at any given time, half

the people in the developing world are suffering from a water

related sickness. Another recent U.N. report noted that every day

25,000 of the afflicted die.1

Poor countries are not the only ones concerned about the safety of

drinking water. In the U.S.A., no less than 25% of all underground

water sources are polluted, the ratio is 75% in Latin American

countries.2

A 1996 report by China’s National Environmental Protection

Agency concluded that 78% of the water in rivers flowing through

Chinese cities is no longer drinkable. The Yangtze river, for

example, is being polluted with 40 million tons of industrial and

sewage waste a day. A report by the U.N. Development Program

estimates that 79% of the planet’s most populous country (China)

are drinking contaminated water.3

THE FOURTH TRUMPET:

“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was

smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars;

so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a

third part of it, and the night likewise.” (Rev 8:12)

Two recent events may help us understand the meaning of this plague,

the volcano eruption on the island of Montserrat, and the smog that

blanketed South East Asia. Anyone who had watched these two events

on T.V. will not fail to see how in both cases the amount of sunshine

reaching the earth was significantly reduced.

“The sky in Southeast Asia has turned yellow, and people are

dying,” Dr. Claude Martin, director General of the World Wide

SIGNS OF HIS COMING 23

1Time Magazine, October 6, 1997

2Time Magazine: Special Report, November 1997

Fund for Nature, said in a statement released from the fund

headquarters in Switzerland. “There is no sunrise or sunset,” said

a resident of Kuala Lumpur. Time Magazine reported that people

in the region drove at noon with lights ablaze because of the haze.

A Jet crash that killed 234 people in Sumatra was also blamed on

the poor visibility.1

Even in industrialized nations in the West, smog created by emissions

from cars and industry often makes the day seem shorter than usual.

And, with governments reluctant to enforce what they agreed upon

concerning emission levels, it is likely that these problems will continue,

and even worsen.

The problem with emission levels is not confined to the smog that

covers many of the major cities of the world, but leads to a more serious

problem; Global Warming. The much talked about “greenhouse

effect” is now recognized as a possible threat to Man’s existence on this

planet.

There is ample evidence that global warming is accelerating:

The sultriest three years in the century have occurred in the last

decade, and the hottest year ever recorded was 1995. The change

is evident not just in thermometer readings. Spring is arriving a

week earlier in the Northern hemisphere than it did a decade ago,

and strange things are happening with wild life. A butterfly in the

American West has moved 200 km north of where it used to live.

Cold water brook trout have disappeared in some areas of North

America as streams warm up. Mountain ice caps in tropical zones

are melting fast, as are glaciers in northern climes. Then there are

the unusually frequent bouts of nasty weather: flooding in central

Europe, vicious cyclones in South Asia, freak spring snowstorms in

the American plains. Scientists have found that the amount of

moisture in the air has gone up 10% in the last 20 years. The extra

moisture could disrupt weather patterns, producing stronger, more

frequent storms in some areas and drought in other places.2

24 SIGNS OF HIS COMING

1Hippolytus: Discourse on the end of the world

The disastrous results of unchecked global warming are probably

alluded to in the plague of the fourth vial (Rev 16:8-9), but even the

changes that are already happening have been predicted by an early

Church writer in the second century:

There will be earthquakes in every city, and plagues in every

country; and monstrous thunderings and frightful lightnings will

burn up both houses and fields. Storms of winds will disturb both sea

and land excessively; and there will be unfruitfulness on the earth,

and a roaring in the sea, and an intolerable agitation on account of

souls and the destruction of men. There will be signs in the sun, and

signs in the moon, deflections in the stars, distresses of nations,

intemperateness in the atmosphere, discharges of hail upon the face

of the earth, winters of excessive severity, different frosts, inexorable

scorching winds, unexpected thunderings, unlooked-for

conflagrations.1

THE FIFTH TRUMPET:

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto

the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And

he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the

pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were

darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of

the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power,

as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded

them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any

green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the

seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they

should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months:

and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh

a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find

it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the

shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and

on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were

as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and

their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as

it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the

sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had

SIGNS OF HIS COMING 25

1Life Application Bible: Footnotes on Revelation

2The Jerome Biblical Commentary

3Jerusalem Study Bible: Footnotes on Revelation

tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and

their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over

them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the

Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name

Apollyon. (Rev 9:1-11)

The star that fell from heaven is probably a fallen angel who was given

permission to open the bottomless pit. In apocalyptic literature, the

bottomless pit is a place where evil spirits are temporarily detained and

punished. When Christ exorcized the man that had a legion of demons,

the evil spirits besought the Lord not to send them to the bottomless

pit, but rather give them permission to enter into the swine. (Luke 8:31)

Most commentators are agreed that the locusts symbolize demons

that are unleashed to torture the people who do not have the seal of

God (the elect).

Most likely, those locusts are demons; evil spirits ruled by Satan.

They are fallen angels who joined Satan in his rebellion. God limits

what they can do; they can do nothing without His permission.

Their main purpose on earth is to destroy, prevent or distort

people’s relationship with God. Because they are in a corrupt and

degenerate state, their appearance reflects the distortion of their

spirits. In the Old Testament, locusts were symbols of destruction

because they destroyed vegetation, here, however, they symbolize an

invasion of demons, called to torture people who do not believe in

God.1

The context shows that the plague is an eschatological calamity that

transcends the familiar plagues of locusts. John lists eight

characteristics that show that these locusts are fantastic diabolical

creatures; demons that will torture people that do not have the seal

of God.2

The locusts symbolize spiritual torments inflicted by demons.3

26 SIGNS OF HIS COMING

1Culleton R. : The Reign of Antichrist

A foretaste of hell is given to mankind before the great day of reckoning.1

Having spent 19 years as a physician before being ordained, I cannot get

rid of the part in my gray matter that still thinks like a physician! So,

when I meditate on the phrases, “spiritual torment,” “foretaste of hell,”

and “men shall seek death and shall not find it,” one word keeps

flashing in my mind, DEPRESSION!

Depression is the closest thing to being in hell. It is a state of utter

hopelessness, where the present is worse than the past, and the future

is even worse than the present. The torment and mental agony are so

overpowering that the only deliverance often seems to be death. And,

indeed, in spite of the major advances in medical treatment, some

depressed people commit suicide to escape the torment.

A patient once told me, “I know that if I kill myself I’ll go to hell,

but, I am already in hell!” It is for this that I personally believe that the

fifth trumpet will usher an epidemic of depression, the like of which the

world has not seen.

But, can this really happen? Some people think it is already

happening. A recent article in Air Canada’s in-flight magazine “En

Route” tells us that we live in a period in which depression seems

rampant. One in five Canadians experiences some form of mental

illness. Last year, pharmacists filled more than five million

prescriptions in Canada for Prozac or other antidepressants. This

represents a fivefold increase in the prescriptions written in 1996 over

those written in 1991, according to IMS Canada, a supplier of

information and analysis to the health care sector, and, there is nothing

to suggest a slowdown. Four percent of those prescriptions are

dispensed to those between the ages of 10 and 19. Prozac now even

comes in a liquid form, and between 10 and 15 percent attending a

children’s clinic at the Clarke Institute of Toronto receive it, including

one patient who is six. We are also told in the same article that even

veterinarians dish them out to snarling dogs!

About a year ago, Time Magazine reported that in one small town

in NY, the whole population is on Prozac. They claim it increases their

productivity and competitiveness!

SIGNS OF HIS COMING 27

1En Route, Air Canada’s in flight magazine: October 1997

2En Route, Air Canada’s in flight magazine: October 1997

Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 24 million people swallow

Prozac daily. The article asks, “What accounts for this apparent

depression epidemic as we enter the 21st century?” Some believe that

the explanation is in modern life itself; the fraying of the social fabric.

Respondents to a Daniel Yankelovitch poll conducted in the U.S. at

the end of 1996 isolated five factors accounting for our general

malaise: weakened family values, the erosion of respect, the

impersonality of day to day life, individualism at the expense of

personal responsibility, and a lack of community.1

“Society has a psyche and ours is unhappy at the moment,” says

Margaret Sommerville, of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics

and Law in Montreal. “I think depression is an infectious disease.

There is truth to the old saying ‘misery loves company’ and there’s

a huge sense of sadness out there now.2

The main reason, however for this epidemic is that people are

increasingly estranged from the Grace of God. “Medicine has become

our substitute religion,” says McGill’s Sommerville and then she adds,

“If you’re treating your spiritual yearnings with Prozac, you have a

problem, haven’t you?”

A recent CBC radio news item tells us the results of a survey done

by some researchers in Georgia. People who go to church are healthier

than those who do not, especially when it comes to mental health. This

is especially true in the case of depression. Depression is a state of

utter hopelessness, and hope is one of the three major Christian virtues:

Faith, Hope and Love.

There is no doubt that there are cases of genuine depression that

need drug treatment even among church goers, but depression we are

speaking about is a demonic manifestation permitted by God. We are

told that those demons that sting like scorpions, only sting those who

have not the seal of God, because to those who have accepted the seal

of God and have become His own, He has said, “Behold I give unto you

power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the

enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19)

1Published: December, 1998

THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING II1

THE APOSTASY:

Saint Paul tells us in his second letter to the Thessalonians, that

Christ cannot come “... except there come a falling away first, and that

man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” (II Thes 2:3) That man of

sin is none other than the Abomination of Desolation, also known as

Antichrist. The Lord Jesus confirms this when He tells us, “When the

Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 15:8)

Although the apostasy or falling away will be completed only after

the Abomination of Desolation sits in the temple of God (the Church),

showing himself to be God, (II Thes 2:4) and when “All that dwell on

the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Book

of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev 13:8),

yet the seeds of that apostasy have been sown everywhere. Beginning

with the last half of the last century, the seeds of disbelief have been

growing into pernicious weeds and thistles that are choking “the faith

which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 1:3)

The roots of apostasy have even been firmly planted among people

who claim to be Christian. The recent declarations of the Rev. Bill

Phipps, moderator of the United Church of Canada, the largest

Protestant denomination in the country, are proof of this. Mr. Phipps,

who was elected as moderator in August of this year, wasted no time.

He called a press conference in which he delineated his “Creed”:

! I don’t believe Jesus is God.

! I don’t believe in heaven or hell.

! I don’t accept the Bible as a valid historical record.

! I don’t accept the traditional Christian concept of Jesus as the Son

of God.

! I don’t believe that Jesus is the only way to God.

! I don’t believe that He rose from the dead.

In the beginning, there were some faint voices of protest, but every

thing is quiet now in Canada’s largest Protestant church.

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 29

1Don Cuppit, Dean, Emmanuel College, Cambridge U.K.

2Lonnie Kliever, professor, Southern Methodist University, Texas

3Gordon Kaufman, Professor of Theology, Harvard School of

Divinity

4Edward Farley, Vanderbilt Divinity School

Some people may be surprised at this, but I am not! To me, Mr. Phipps

is not a “fluke,” he is the product of the “system,” that system of

Theology that, for the last 30 years, had been taught in seminaries all

over the world.

Here are some quotations from the world’s leading “Theologians”

who teach in world-class seminaries, whose purpose is to graduate

“ministers” of the word of God:

As modern people, we have to abandon Theological realism ..., the idea

that God actually exists as the Creator of the Universe, and that Christ

was actually raised from the dead.1

Belief in God is ... fiction, a myth!2

We must now learn to view Christianity, like Buddhism or any other

religion, as a historical human construction. All of our beliefs originate

in the human imagination.3

A serious mistake was made when the Church began to fix its dogma in

creeds. The Protestant Reformation was a help, but fell far short of its

proper goal, when it failed to liberate the Church completely from

inherited dogma.4

The subject that has received the most attacks by these “Theologians”

is the Divinity of Christ, His virginal birth and His Resurrection. The

current opinion on all three aspects is in the negative. John Hicks of

Birmingham U.K. writes:

Theology must learn to center itself around God, rather than on Christ,

and learn to regard the other faiths as honest responses to the One God

of us all. Traditional Christianity tends to divide Christians from

30 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

1A. N. Wilson: Jesus (Best seller)

2Barbara Thiering: Jesus and the riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls

sincere believers of other religions by reason of the absolute claims it

makes for Jesus. Christian Theology must not continue to maintain that

Christ is the only Saviour of sinners, but recognize that He is one

saviour among many.

S. M. Ogden further tells us:

Christian Theology will need re-thinking so that Jesus will be perceived

as the challenge of God’s love for people. There will be no need of a

unique incarnation or bodily Resurrection.

A recent series of books about the “real Jesus” are now filling the

shelves of bookstores everywhere. Here are some quotations:

He was a good Jewish lad with a brilliant flair for shrewd moral

teaching, and he would have been horrified to think of a ‘church,’ let

alone people worshiping him as if he were ‘divine.’ He certainly did not

rise from the dead; that was all a mistake.1

He was part of the sect living at Qumran in Palestine; he was married

an had three children; then he divorced and remarried. He did not die

on the cross, but lived on and went with Paul on his missionary travels.

It was in Philippi that he met his second wife.2

The madness goes on, with John Shelby Spong, bishop of the Episcopal

diocese of Newark, New Jersey, who appeared on a CBC talk show with

Ann Petrie, in which he attacked the divinity of Christ, denied the

virginal birth, and the bodily Resurrection.

What do these Theologians, pastors, bishops and the like advocate

then? The new gospel that is being preached now is summarized in the

following points:

! This world and not another is the only legitimate concern of

Christians. Peace marches and not prayer are the preferred way of

expressing faith.

! Our knowledge and judgment should be based on our experience in

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 31

1The Gospel of Humanism (page 128)

2Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XV

this world and not on Divine revelation or Church authority.

! Jesus can be held up as the paradigm of the liberated individual, but

not the incarnate Son of God.

! Belief in God is not essential.1

This is the gospel that Mr. Phipps preaches! In an interview with the

“Ottawa Citizen,” he had this to say:

The divinity of Jesus and the reality of heaven are irrelevant, what really

matters is mending a broken world. Jesus was more interested in life on

earth than the afterlife, and had more to say about poverty than any

other subject.

The same newspaper tells us that he developed his views as a student

in the mid 1960s, who observed civil-right marches in New York and

Chicago, and that later on as a minister, he has been quick to

demonstrate against everything from nuclear arms to Canada’s

treatment of its aboriginals. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, writing 16

centuries ago, describes what is happening now in the Church:

Formerly the heretics were manifest; but now the Church is filled with

heretics in disguise. For men have fallen away from the truth, and have

itching ears. Is it a plausible discourse? all listen to it gladly. Is it a word

of correction? all turn away from it. Most have departed from right

words, and rather choose the evil, than desire the good. This therefore

is the falling away, and the enemy is soon to be looked for: and

meanwhile he has in part begun to send forth his own forerunners, that

he may then come prepared upon the prey. Look therefore to thyself,

O man, and make safe thy soul. The Church now charges thee before

the Living God; she declares to thee the things concerning Antichrist

before they arrive. Whether they will happen in thy time we know not,

or whether they will happen after thee we know not; but it is well that,

knowing these things, thou shouldest make thyself secure beforehand.2

The effect of this on the ordinary man, the average member of the

32 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

congregation, became apparent to me two months after Mr. Phipps

made his “Declaration of lack of faith!” During a visit to Eastern

Canada, I had a most sobering discussion with a bright young man from

Nova Scotia. He was a brilliant university student, studying to become

a professional. He told me that he was a member of the United church,

and, sooner or later, I brought up the subject of Mr. Phipps. He calmly

told me that he totally agreed with Rev. Phipps. “As a matter of fact,

the majority of our congregation supports him.” I asked him, where

does his minister stand on this, and he told me, “He leaves it up to

every individual to make up his/her mind on these matters. He tactfully

avoids discussing these controversial issues on the pulpit!” When I

asked him, “Do you believe in God?” He said “No!” I asked him again,

“What do you believe in?” His answer was, “I believe in helping others,

and hurting no one.” He thought that the Bible was a forgery, that it

was written at least half a century after the fact, and that no one with

brains should take it seriously.

Isn’t this what St. Paul wrote about to his disciple Timothy? “ For

the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after

their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching

ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be

turned unto fables.” (II Tim 4:3-4)

Allow me now to add some anecdotes to elaborate on this point,

mainly that the apostasy is indeed in the world in a way that most

Christians are not aware of. One of our youths came to ask my advice

about taking a course in “Theology.” He had two spare courses and he

thought that it was a good idea to take Theology. The first shock came

when he did not find the word “Theology” in the calendar. When he

inquired, he was told, “We now call it ‘Religious Studies.’” So, he

looked under “Religious studies 101." The second shock came when

he read under course description, “The way we create and name gods.”

It was most appropriate that they changed the name from “Theology,”

which means the study of God, to religious studies, because today’s

religion can be practiced without the need for God.

I asked the same young man to give me a guesstimate of how many

persons in his class believed in God. After a short pause, he told me,

“About 15% believe that there is ‘someone up there,’ but those who

believe in Christ, the virginal birth, the Resurrection, the after-life and

so, are no more than 2%!”

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 33

I thought that this is peculiar to the province where we live, so,

during a visit to Newfoundland, I posed the same question to one of the

youth in our Church there, who attends the University of Saint John’s.

I was shocked to find that he gave me exactly the same figures I have

received in Waterloo, Ontario. The Apostasy is not completely here,

but its roots are firmly grounded everywhere.

WHEN TRANSGRESSORS ARE COME TO THE FULL:

The prophet Daniel was told by the angel Gabriel many things

concerning the end of the world and the Abomination of Desolation.

The angel told him that the vision he saw was for the “Time of the end.”

(Dan 8:17) The angel then told him, “When the transgressors are come

to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark

sentences shall stand up.” (Dan 8:23) That the “king” referred to here

is the Abomination of Desolation, there is no dispute among the

ancient writers. The same writers tell us that what Daniel has been told

means that before Antichrist comes, there shall be an abundance of sin

and sinners. The fullness of sin will have been accomplished!

The same is foretold by the Lord, “Because iniquity shall abound,

the love of many shall wax cold.” (Matt 24:12) St. Paul gives us an idea

about the kind of sins that will prevail in the world at the last times:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men

shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,

blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without

natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce,

despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of

pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but

denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (II Tim 3:1-5)

Saint John Chrysostom echoes the words of Saint Paul, in his “Homily

on Matthew 24,”:

When Antichrist is come, the pursuit of unlawful pleasures shall be

more eager among the transgressors, and those that have learnt to

despair of their own salvation. Then shall be gluttony, then revellings,

and drunkenness. For like as when the ark was amaking, they believed

not, saith He; but while it was set in the midst of them, proclaiming

beforehand the evils that are to come, they, when they saw it, lived in

34 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

pleasure, just as though nothing dreadful were about to take place; so

also now, Antichrist indeed shall appear, after whom is the end, and the

punishments at the end, and vengeance intolerable; but they that are

held by the intoxication of wickedness shall not so much as perceive the

dreadful nature of the things that are on the point of being done.

Anyone who watches the daily news on TV or listens to the Radio, will

surely notice that sin has become the norm today. Sexual immorality

has become tolerated, even encouraged. With the recent revelations

about Mr. Clinton’s affair, we are told that his popularity has never

been higher. We are even told that what he has been doing is actually

good! A recent study by some “Psychologist” concludes that extramarital

relations are actually good for marriage! In another “study,” we

are told that “office sex” is also good! It releases tension and increases

productivity, explains the author. No wonder the sexual behaviour of

children all over the world has been constantly deteriorating.

According to the Commission on Adolescent Sexual Health

(U.S.A.,) more than half of the females and three quarters of the males

aged 15-19 have experienced sexual intercourse. A survey in Florida

found that 75% of the kids had sexual experience by the time they

reached 12th grade, and 20% have had six or more sexual partners.

Sexual harassment has become so common in schools that programs

to deal with it are initiated in many places. Sex has become so

prevalent among school children that some Christian Schools are now

asking students to sign “vows” not to have sex before they marry.

The reasons for this permissiveness are many. TV is probably the

most prominent among these. Sex is glorified by TV. It is portrayed as

a normal requirement of life like food and clothes. According to Time

Magazine, kids today as young as 7 are picking up the first details of

sex even in Saturday morning cartoons! (June 15, 1998) A 14 year old

told the reporter, “If you watch TV, they’ve got everything you want to

know. That’s how I learned how to kiss, when I was eight. And the girl

told me, ‘Oh, you sure know how to do it.’”

TV is now overshadowed by the Net! It is more discrete, and, unlike

TV, where you have to wait for a certain show to be aired, it is readily

available on demand! There are more than one thousand sites that

offer pornography on the Net. Kids receive unsolicited pornographic Emails

according to Time Magazine. (December 15, 1997)

The attitude of parents is also another factor in this sexual revolution

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 35

1Time Magazine, June 15, 1998

among children. In a recent survey by the Alan Guttmacher Institute,

only one third of the adults thought adolescent sexual activity is wrong,

while the great majority of adults thought it was O.K. and, under certain

conditions, normal, healthy behaviour.

A few weeks ago, an item on the news disgusted me utterly. A single

mother celebrated her daughter’s 15th birthday by inviting twenty of her

friends (all girls of the same age,) and “treating” them to a male

stripper! The stripper not only exposed himself to the girls, but even

fondled them, to the delight of the mother. Both mother and stripper

were charged when the matter became public.

No wonder that the attitude of children towards sex reflects the

distorted opinions of their parents.

One ugly side effect is a presumption among many adolescents is that

sex is an entitlement, an attitude that fosters a break-down of respect

for self and others. A Rhode Island Rape Centre study of 1700 sixthninth

graders found 65% of the boys and 57% of the girls believing it

acceptable for a male to force a female to have sex if they have been

dating for six months.1

An insight into how teens view sex now is given by Time Magazine, in

a conversation with a 13 year old from Denver. She told Time

Magazine, that she is glad that sex isn’t so taboo now! When she tried

discouraging a classmate from having sex for the first time, the friend

turned to her and said, “My God Shana. It’s just sex!”

The attitude of Governments is even more pathetic. The emphasis

is on “safe sex” rather than on abstinence. In the U.K., it was proposed

that the age of consent for sex should be reduced to 13, in order to

reduce the number of teen pregnancies. It was reasoned that if this was

done, 13 years old children could legally obtain birth control pills, and

the pregnancies among 13-15 years would be drastically reduced!

Homosexuality has now become accepted as a “life style.” Gay pride

parades are all over the place, and Mayors and other officials are

clamoring to attend them. A public TV station in the Kitchener-

Waterloo area broadcast a two hour program featuring a Lutheran

minister, who teaches in a seminary, proclaims that homosexuality is a

36 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

1The Houston Chronicle, November 22, 1997

gift from God that should be cherished! He claims that he got this view

after watching a video showing homosexual sex! According to him, the

video has become essential viewing for 4th year seminarians, so that they

graduate with a healthy attitude towards gays.

Same sex “marriages” are now performed in many “churches.” And

legislation to recognize these “marriages” as legal and binding are

gaining acceptance almost everywhere. The most mystifying

phenomenon, however, is the militancy and zeal with which “ministers”

of the “church” are defending these “marriages,”

In Nashville, Tenn., some local churches decided that until the United

Methodist Church allows gay marriages, no marriage ceremonies of any

kind will be allowed! Similar acts of protest are reported elsewhere.

The Rev. Jan Nunly, rector of St. Peter and St. Andrew’s Episcopal

Church in Providence, R.I., will preside over church weddings for

straight couples. But she won’t sign marriage licenses for them. She

complies with her bishop’s wishes by conducting gay weddings off

church property. The Rev. Robert Warren of Trinity Episcopal Church

in San Francisco performs gay weddings, though his bishop opposes

them. “I don’t obey a bad law,” he says.1

Gay rights have become the topic of the hour, and under the pretext of

protecting the rights of gays, the rights of everyone else is trampled

upon. A case in point is the Church in Vancouver, that published an ad

in their Newsletter offering counseling to Gays who want to amend

their ways. The Church was taken to the Human Rights Commission,

on the grounds that the ad constituted “Hate Literature!”

In the province of Newfoundland, in a Catholic School, 9th Grade

children are taught by a nun-turned-lesbian. She told the girls in her

class that she had found out that her calling from God was not actually

to virginity but to lesbianism.

In another Catholic School in Ontario, where a member of my

congregation used to teach, an in-class discussion about homosexuality

took place. The teacher simply told the children that according to the

Bible, homosexuality is a sin. The whole class went up in arms, and one

of the children screamed at her saying, “How dare you call yourself a

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 37

Christian and say this!”

No wonder that the view of the younger generation towards sexuality

has become very skewed. According to Time Magazine, in certain parts

of suburbia, gay is becoming more than O.K., it’s cool! (Dec 8, 1997)

A recent study shows that 18% of the teens in the San Francisco Bay

area are gay. In the same area, gay kids have two Webzines, dozens of

on-line chat rooms and some 500 community support groups, usually

run by social workers not affiliated with local schools.

The myth that sexual orientation is something one is born with has

now become “scientific fact!” In September 1997, the National

Conference of Catholic Bishops (U.S.A.) urged parents of gay children

to recognize that, “generally, homosexual orientation is experienced as

a given, not as something freely chosen.”

Acts of violence are shown every day on TV, and yet no one cares.

People have become de-sensitized towards the daily news. As a matter

of fact, people’s appetite towards watching violence has become

insatiable. As if movies that depict gore and blood are not enough, the

trend now is towards real-life shots that show real people drowning or

being burnt to death. A currently advertized video called “Revenge of

the Bulls,” shows actual footage of bull fights, where the bulls win!

The most disgusting piece of news I recently read, was what the

Globe and Mail reported about a Catholic church in the USA. The

church celebrated “Halloween” by exhibiting in one of its halls a horror

chamber, complete with scenes of real people being tortured! In an

adjacent room, a husband-wife team (members of the congregation)

were simulating “date-rape,” while in a third room, a teenager was

enacting a scene of teen suicide!

Satanism and human sacrifice are commonly reported, and yet they

fail to produce any outrage in the viewers or readers. A friend of mine,

a psychiatrist, is treating a woman who used to be a surrogate mother,

getting pregnant through prostitution, delivering her babies, only to be

sacrificed to the Devil. She lost 3 babies this way. Now she has

nightmares for which she seeks treatment. This happened recently in

a small Ontario town. It is probably happening now in your own town.

Satanic sex abuse of children was the theme of a conference held in

the Durham region, and reported on in the Toronto Star. “If you think

that this is something that happens in the medieval era, think again. It

exists very much today,” said Robert Tucker, an expert on cults. “The

38 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

phenomenon right now is exploding. It’s not just a bunch of malarkey,”

he added. Detective James Bradley, a consultant on satanic cults for

U.S. police forces told the same conference, “You’re hearing it from

hundreds of hundreds of kids, you’re hearing it from juvenile workers’

social workers, teachers and psychiatrists.” Bradley said that sexual

abuse of children is one of the “purest forms” of satanic sacrifices.

Unfortunately society is reluctant to deal with many of these

allegations.

Today, ordinary people are afraid that others may think that they

are “religious!” In a completely secularized society, everyone’s rights

are protected except the right of the religious. Yale University professor

Stephen Carter calls this “the culture of disbelief, the oppressive

assumption that no one of any learning or sophistication could possibly

be a religious believer.” Carter notes, for example, that one is allowed

to have any view on abortion so long as it derives from ethical or

practical or sociological or medical considerations. But should

someone stand up and oppose abortion for reasons of faith, he is

accused of trying to impose his religious beliefs on others!

Churches today are more like entertainment outlets than houses of

prayer. I am sure that you heard about drive-in communion and

confession on the Net. But this next piece of information is the

ultimate! In an article in the New York Time Magazine dated June 22,

1997 and titled, “Raving My Religion,” we are given a picture of the

latest trend in church services.

The article describes the “Techno Cosmic Mass,” created by

Matthew Fox, a former Dominican Priest from California. Fox started

holding his own rave-inspired masses, drawing young and old alike. In

a mass called “Gaia Our Mother,” this is what happened. The crowd

enters, ethereal music is playing as slides of mountains, clouds and

women flash on the four walls above makeshift altars to fire, water,

earth and air. While worshipers sit in concentric circles around a

central altar, a young rapper leaps on stage to sing about the “Big

Bang!” Then Fox exhorts the group to “cry out to the mother with real

feeling and grief.” As voices rise in a collective wail of “Ma!” the walls

flash with graphics of screaming women.

Pressing palm to palm, the audience sways as Fox administers the

Eucharist: chunks of whole wheat bread, served with wine or grape

juice. Finally, the speakers blast house music and worshipers dance

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 39

1Treatise on the end of the world and on Antichrist

together. Fox explains his method by saying, “the old forms of worship

are boring,” arguing that his mass can help prevent social ills like

teenage pregnancy! On the way out, one middle aged woman turns to

her friend. “I haven’t been to church in years. That was such a moving

experience.”

Writing in the second century, Hippolytus wrote the following about

evil that will abound before the coming of Antichrist:

The temples of God will be like houses, and there will be overturnings

of the churches everywhere. The Scriptures will be despised, and

everywhere they will sing the songs of the adversary. Fornications, and

adulteries, and perjuries will fill the land; sorceries, and incantations,

and divinations will follow after these with all force and zeal. And, on

the whole, from among those who profess to be Christians will rise up

then false prophets, false apostles, impostors, mischief-makers,

evil-doers, liars against each other, adulterers, fornicators, robbers,

grasping, perjured, mendacious, hating each other. The shepherds will

be like wolves; the priests will embrace falsehood; the monks will lust

after the things of the world; the rich will assume hardness of heart; the

rulers will not help the poor; the powerful will cast off all pity; the

judges will remove justice from the just, and, blinded with bribes, they

will call in unrighteousness.1

DISTRESS OF NATIONS WITH PERPLEXITY:

Luke 21 is the equivalent of Matthew 24. It speaks about signs of

the end. One of these signs is the “distress of nations with perplexity.”

(Luke 21:25) Never did I understand the meaning of these words until

recently! Watching the daily news over the last several months, I

became acquainted with these newly coined phrases, “Asian contagion,”

“Russian melt-down,” “South American collapse,” “financial market

roller coaster,” and “World-wide recession.” I watched in amazement

as the world’s greatest brains tried to make sense of what was

happening in the global financial circles. The word most often used by

the “experts” was: confusion. The markets are confused! the investors

are confused, even the experts became confused. Governments tried

to intervene, only to find that the results are opposite to what the

interventions were designed to achieve. Conflicting advice came from

40 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

1The Toronto Star, September 18, 1998

different self proclaimed “gurus.” Rumors turned into major losses. If

Alan Greenspan sneezed or Yeltsin had a hiccup, the financial markets

reacted hysterically. We became familiar with newspaper captions

reading like this:

Unhappy investors bail out

Miffed by Greenspan’s comments

global markets sell off dramatically

loonie gets caught in the crossfire1

Even though now, the situation has stabilized, many believe that this is

the calm before the tempest, and that a global recession is unavoidable.

A recent article in the Globe and Mail titled, “Fear and loathing of a

global recession,” had the following to say:

A deadly financial virus continues to wreak havoc in markets around the

world, fears are growing that the global economy will soon be plunged

into a devastating worldwide recession. Billionaire speculator George

Soros, who has made and lost billions betting on stock, currency and

commodities, likened the financial markets to a wrecking ball ‘knocking

over one economy after another.’ The global capitalist system, he

warned, ‘is coming apart at the seams, and the United States, at the

centre of the system, cannot remain unscathed.’ The United Nations

issued a stark warning of global recession if the three main economic

engines; the United States, Europe and Japan don’t take quick action

to drag Asia out of its deflationary funnel.

Could this state of affairs be the one predicted in Luke 21: 26, where we

are told, “Men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those

things which are coming on the earth?”

One may wonder, what could this financial crisis have to do with the

coming of the Abomination of Desolation? In a well-researched

article we published in “Parousia” Vol III, No 8 (December, 1992),

entitled, “The Reign of Antichrist,” we wrote the following:

THE SECOND PERIOD of the life of Antichrist will be opened with

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 41

his conspicuous entry into the role of universal teacher or "prophet". It

is very possible that he will begin his activity under the conditions of a

world war, or a great international financial crisis, when man will not

see any way out of his calamitous blind alley, because all the means for

the resolution of it will be in the hands of Antichrist. He will offer a

plan for the successful resolution of the world crisis, based on social and

political wisdom - the establishing of a uniform political and social

structure over the whole world. Mankind, being spiritually blind, will

not recognize this project as a cunning snare luring it into the most

merciless, continual slavery. To the contrary, man will hail Antichrist's

manifestations of great erudition, wisdom and genius.

What we are witnessing now is such a situation where a “Universal

teacher” would be welcomed by everyone. Actually influential

newspapers are advocating this “new leader” with a new plan for

rescuing the world through a new, unified global financial order!

Under the heading, “A global central bank could help,” the Globe and

Mail of September 28, 1998, wrote:

Even as emerging markets sink into depression and stocks plunge from

Montreal to Melbourne, a global economy is slowly emerging. But

governments seem paralyzed, unable to deal with both the crisis and the

opportunity. The world needs an institution that has a hand on the

economic rudder when the seas become stormy. It needs a global

central bank. The sad fact is that we cannot rely on existing institutions

or on national leaders for global economic stability. An independent

central bank with responsibility for maintaining global financial stability

is the only way out. No one else can do what is needed.

The paper ended its article by quoting what the eminent economic

historian Charles Kindleberger said in examining the causes of the

Depression: “For the world economy to be stabilized, there has to be

a stabilizer, one stabilizer.” Will the Abomination of Desolation turn

out to be that one stabilizer?

In the article “The Reign of Antichrist” referred to above and which

was published in Parousia six years ago, it was mentioned that

Antichrist will be introduced as a “universal teacher.” A few days ago,

while on the plane back from St. John’s, NF, I read this ad in the Globe

and Mail (December 12, 1998):

42 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

AS THE BUDDHA of Compassion, Messiah,

Imam Mahdi and Christ, Maitreya the World

Teacher is now here. All humanity will see

him soon. How will we recognize him? What

is he saying? Free info: 1-888-278-TARA.

THE SEA AND THE WAVES ROARING:

The same verse in Luke 21:25, which tells us about the “distress of

nations with perplexity,” gives us another important sign, the sea and

the waves roaring. I have to admit that I read this part of the verse

many a time without understanding its meaning. I came to realize what

it means only in the last six month or so. During these months, it

seemed that the one thing that competed with the financial market

crisis on the daily news were the floods! Floods were everywhere, in

Asia, in Europe, in Australia, in America. The floods we have been

witnessing lately are such that the like of them was not seen since

Noah’s time. Ten meter waves were reported in some of the storms

that caused these floods. The recent tropical storm Mitch caused

destruction that defies the imagination. As I sat watching these storms

I kept wondering, could this be what the Gospel meant by “the sea and

the waves roaring?”

THE FLIGHT OF THE CHURCH: (Revelation 12)

Revelation 12 is a very intriguing chapter in a very intriguing book!

It speaks about a “woman clothed by the Sun” (the Church) and a “red

dragon.” (Satan) That the woman is the Church is evident from the

sayings of Victorinus in his “Commentary on the Apocalypse”:

The woman clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet,

and wearing a crown of twelve stars upon her head, and travailing in her

pains, is the ancient Church of fathers, and prophets, and saints, and

apostles.

Hippolytus of Rome is also of the same opinion:

By “the woman then clothed with the sun,” he meant most manifestly

the Church, endued with the Father's Word, whose brightness is above

the sun. And by the “moon under her feet” he referred to her being

adorned, like the moon, with heavenly glory. And the words, “upon her

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 43

1Discourse on Christ and Antichrist

2Discourse on Christ and Antichrist

head a crown of twelve stars,” refer to the twelve apostles by whom the

Church was founded. And those, “she, being with child, cries, travailing

in birth, and pained to be delivered,” mean that the Church will not

cease to bear from her heart the Word that is persecuted by the

unbelieving in the world. “And she brought forth,” he says, “a

man-child, who is to rule all the nations;” by which is meant that the

Church, always bringing forth Christ, the perfect man-child of God, who

is declared to be God and man, becomes the instructor of all the

nations. And the words, “her child was caught up unto God and to His

throne,” signify that he who is always born of her is a heavenly king, and

not an earthly; even as David also declared of old when he said, “The

Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine

enemies Thy footstool.”1

The “red dragon” is defined for us in verse 9 as “that old serpent, called

the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.” In verse 4, we

are told that the dragon’s tail “drew the third part of the stars of

heaven, and did cast them to the earth.” This is understood as referring

to the fact that, “of the angels that were subject to him, since he was

still a prince when he descended from his estate, he seduced the third

part.”2

In verse 7, we are told about a battle that takes place in heaven,

where Michael and his angels fight against Satan (the dragon) and his

angels. Michael wins, and as a result, Satan and his angels are driven

out of heaven and into the earth. Satan can no more stand before God

to accuse His children, as he did with Job (Job 1:9-11) and Joshua the

high priest, (Zech 3:1-3) and as he still does to all of us. Satan means

the “accuser.” He is the prosecutor of God’s children. That is why the

inhabitants of heaven rejoice, “for the accuser of our brethren is cast

down, which accused them before our God day and night.” But, in the

same time, they pity the inhabitants of the earth, “for the devil is come

down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath

but a short time.”

The coming down of Satan into earth after being banished from

heaven marks the beginning of the reign of Antichrist, which is also

44 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

1Victorinus: Commentary on the Apocalypse

2Augustin of Hippo: City of God, chapter 19

called the Great Tribulation.

“ There was a battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the

dragon; and the dragon warred, and his angels, and they prevailed not;

nor was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon

was cast forth, that old serpent: he was cast forth into the earth.” This

is the beginning of Antichrist.1

During the Great Tribulation, “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison

and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of

the earth.” (Rev 20:7-8)

Christ will not come to judge quick and dead unless Antichrist, His

adversary, first come to seduce those who are dead in soul; although

their seduction is a result of God's secret judgment already passed. For,

as it is said "his presence shall be after the working of Satan, with all

power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all seduction of

unrighteousness in them that perish." For then shall Satan be loosed,

and by means of that Antichrist shall work with all power in a lying

though a wonderful manner.2

Satan’s power is currently restricted, he cannot hurt people as he

wishes, as is evident from reading chapters 1-2 of the Book of Job.

When Antichrist comes, Satan will have the power to act directly

through Antichrist to inflict on humanity the perils of the Great

Tribulation, the like of which has not been since the creation of the

world. (Matt 24:21) This, however should not disturb us, since the

Church, according to God’s plan, shall be carried away into a place

prepared for her by God, where neither the dragon, nor his agent

Antichrist, can hurt her. Revelation 9:13-19 tells us more about what

will happen when Satan and his angels are unleashed on the inhabitants

of the earth:

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns

of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 45

had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great

river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared

for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third

part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two

hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And

thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having

breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the

horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire

and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men

killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued

out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails:

for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them

they do hurt.

The sixth trumpet corresponds to the unleashing of Satan and his four

“Generals,” which command the whole army of the fallen angels, which

Saint John tells us number two hundred million! The description of the

creatures is as grotesque as the other creatures which were unleashed

by the fifth trumpet, because both are demonic creatures. But, as we

were told in Revelation 7: 2-3, those sealed by the seal of the living God

cannot be hurt by the “four angels,” or by any of the plagues that will

come after that.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the

living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom

it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth,

neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our

God in their foreheads.

The “woman clothed by the sun” is the sum total of those sealed by the

seal of the living God, who will be allowed to escape to a safe haven,

away from harm’s way. For when the dragon tries to persecute the

woman, we are told, “And to the woman were given two wings of a

great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where

she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of

the serpent.” (Rev 12:14) The time, times and half a time, are the three

and half years, the same as the “thousand two hundred and threescore

days,” the symbolic time of the Great Tribulation.

46 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

1Hippolytus: Discourse on Christ and Antichrist

2Cyril Of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures

“And the dragon,” he says, saw and persecuted the woman which

brought forth the man-child. “And to the woman were given two wings

of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, where she is

nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the

serpent.” That refers to the one thousand two hundred and threescore

days (the half of the week) during which the tyrant is to reign and

persecute the Church, which flees from city to city.1

This flight of the Church during the reign of Antichrist, is attested to by

many of the Fathers of the Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ, instructs us

to do the same, “When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of

Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,

(whoso readeth, let him understand:)Then let them which be in Judaea

flee into the mountains.” (Matt 24:15-16) St. Cyril of Jerusalem

comments on this passage by saying:

For this cause the Lord knowing the greatness of the adversary grants

indulgence to the godly, saying, Then let them which be in Judea flee to

the mountains. But if any man is conscious that he is very stout-hearted,

to encounter Satan, let him stand (for I do not despair of the Church's

nerves), and let him say, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ

and the rest? But, let those of us who are fearful provide for our own

safety; and those who are of a good courage, stand fast: for then shall

be Great Tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the

world until now, no, nor ever shall be. But thanks be to God who hath

confined the greatness of that tribulation to a few days; for He says, But

for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened and Antichrist shall

reign for three years and a half only. We speak not from apocryphal

books, but from Daniel; for he says, And they shall be given into his

hand until a time and times and half a time. A time is the one year in

which his coming shall for a while have increase; and the times are the

remaining two years of iniquity, making up the sum of the three years;

and the half a time is the six months. And again in another place Daniel

says the same thing, And he swear by Him that liveth for ever that it

shall be for a time, and times, and half a time.2

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 47

1Victorinus: Commentary on the Apocalypse

Hippolytus of Rome sees this flight of the elect as foretold in the Old

Testament, “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut

thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until

the indignation be overpast.” (Isa 26:20)

The three and half years is, as we said earlier, a symbol and should

not be taken literally. It means a time that shall be shortened,

according to the promise of the Lord, “But for the elect’s sake those

days shall be shortened.” (Matt 24:22)

Revelation 12:14-15, tell us that when Satan saw that the woman

fled, he, “cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that

he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth

helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up

the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” Water, in the

apocalyptic language refers to people. This means that when Satan

tries to attack the Church, using the multitudes at his command, she

will be miraculously rescued by God. “He signifies by the water which

the serpent cast out of his mouth, the people who at his command

would persecute her.”1

The problem we have with Revelation 12, is that it speaks of two

flights of the Church, the one is mentioned in verse 6, and the other is

mentioned in verse 14. Both flights are to a “place prepared by God,”

and both are of the same duration, three and a half year; the

apocalyptic symbol of the duration of the Great Tribulation. The

difference between the two is that one happens before the battle in

heaven and the casting of Satan and his angels into the earth, and the

other happens after this. That means that the first flight is before the

manifestation of Antichrist, and the other one after it. I could not find

any satisfactory interpretation for this in the writing of the Fathers, but,

allow me to offer my own interpretation.

I think the two incidents described represent two phases of the flight

of the Church. The first one is a leisurely emigration of the Church,

where the Church flees to the “wilderness.” The second, however, is an

urgent flight, where the Church is given the two wings of a great eagle

that she might fly into the wilderness. In the first phase, the Church

flees, while in the second phase she flies. It is this second phase that the

48 SIGNS OF HIS COMING II

Lord refers to when he says, “Let him which is on the housetop not

come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is

in the field return back to take his clothes.” (Matt 24:17-18) This will be

the case when the Abomination of Desolation shall be seen in the holy

place, i.e., when Antichrist is worshiped in the Church as god.

A few years ago, the Toronto Star published a news item under the

heading, “Christianity is dying in the land of its birth.” Quoting the

“Economist” magazine, the Star said,

Christians are leaving Palestine and Lebanon in such numbers that local

churches fear for their future. Arab Christians have long suffered an

identity crisis in the strife-torn Middle East and have sought passage to

the West, but those numbers have risen dramatically. In the Israelioccupied

territories, the 45,000-strong Palestinian Christians are losing

more 2,000 people a year. There were 30,00 Christians in Jerusalem in

1944; today there are 11,000. In Lebanon, it is estimated that 125,000

of the Lebanese Christians have emigrated in the past six month alone.

What the Star did not report is that the Christians of the Sudan have

now joined the trend, so did the Christians of Syria and Iraq. The

11,000 Christians in Jerusalem reported when the article appeared, few

years ago, have now dwindled to less than 3,000. Among the Christians

of Egypt, it is estimated that two million have emigrated, 25-30% of the

total number of Christians in Egypt.

Could this be phase I of the flight of the “woman clothed by the

sun?” The orderly emigration that precedes the appearance of

Antichrist, to prepare the “place in the wilderness” for phase II of the

flight, which will be completed once the Great Tribulation is visited

upon this earth? Have we been sent here to the West in order to be

protected from the tyranny of the one that will come, persecuting the

elect, who will remain faithful to Christ and defy him? Are we going to

be among those who will overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and

by the word of their testimony? (Rev 12:11)

The last verses of Revelation 12 tell us that when the dragon saw

that the woman had succeeded in fleeing his tyranny, he became wroth

and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the

commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. It is

obvious that not all the Christians will flee from the Abomination of

Desolation. Those who will be called to martyrdom will stay and earn

SIGNS OF HIS COMING II 49

1The Jerome Biblical Commentary

2Life Application Bible: Footnotes on Revelation 11

their crowns. Some will also remain of their own will, having been

seduced by the imposter.

In Revelation 11:1-2, Saint John is given a measuring reed and was

told by an angel “Rise up and measure the temple of God and the altar

and them that worship therein. But the court which is without leave it

out and measure it not.” In the Apocalyptic literature, measuring an

object means assured protection of that object by God.1

The temple is most likely a symbol of the Church (all true believers.)

John measured the temple to show that God is building walls of

protection around His people, to spare them from spiritual harm, and

that there is a place reserved for all believers who remain faithful to

God. Those worshiping inside the temple will be protected but those

outside will face great suffering. This is a way to say that true believers

will be protected through the persecution, but those who refuse to

believe will not.2

1Published: December, 1999

THE UNHOLY TRINITY1

Chapter 12 of the book of Revelation introduces us to the great red

dragon (Rev 12:3). We are later told that the great dragon is none

other than "that old serpent the Devil and Satan which deceiveth the

whole world" (Rev 12:9). We are also told that at the time of the

end the Dragon will be cast out from heaven. That means he will be

no longer allowed to appear before God to accuse God's children.

(Job 1:6, Job 2:1, Rev 12:10, Zech 3:1)

When Satan loses his position as accuser (the word Satan literally

means accuser) having been cast into the earth, he starts the final

phase of his career as persecutor of the children of God. Revelation

12: 13-16 tells us that the children of God will escape this by fleeing

into the wilderness where God will protect and nourish them for the

duration of the Great Tribulation, i.e., the time period that starts

with the casting out of Satan from heaven into earth and ends with

the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus to take His children to

Heaven as He promised.

When Satan is cast into the earth, the Great Tribulation starts

and thus commences the Reign of the Antichrist (also known as the

Abomination of Desolation). The coming of Satan to earth is also

the time when he is “loosed” for a little season (Rev 20:3).

Revelation 13 resumes the story started in Revelation 12. As soon

as Satan was cast into earth, St. John saw a "beast rise out of the

Sea." That beast is none other than the Abomination of Desolation,

also known as Antichrist, the Man of Sin, the little horn ...

The beast comes out of the sea, for the sea in apocalyptic

literature symbolizes sin and chaos. It is for this reason that the new

heaven and the new earth which St. John saw (Rev 21:1) had no sea.

THE SEVEN HEADS:

The beast that St. John saw had seven heads and ten horns.

Revelation 17:10 tells us that the seven heads symbolize seven kings;

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 51

five are fallen, one is, the other is yet to come. These seven kings

are prototypes of the Abomination of Desolation, little Antichrists

installed by the devil as "rehearsals" for the time of the end when the

real Antichrist will be revealed.

The first head represents Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who persecuted

the Israelites, the children of God at the time of Moses. God saved

His children from the tyranny of Pharaoh by taking them into the

wilderness of Sinai, where God nourished and protected them for

forty years. Many see in this a figure for the end of times, when the

Church, being threatened by Antichrist, will be saved by God when

she will fly into the wilderness, where God will nourish and protect

her for the duration of the reign of Antichrist (the Great

Tribulation). (Rev 12)

When Pharaoh went after the People of Israel, God defended

them by drowning Pharaoh and all his host in the Red Sea.

Similarly, Revelation 12 tells us that when the Dragon will follow the

Church with all the people that are at his command, God will defend

the Church by making the earth open its mouth to swallow the flood

that the Dragon cast out of his mouth (Rev 12:16)

The second head is the Assyrian, King Sennacherib (Isa 36, II

Chr 32). Sennacherib took on all the strongholds of Judah and set

siege to Jerusalem, vowing to destroy it. Hezekiah, the king of

Judah at that time sent messages to Isaiah the prophet asking him

to intercede on behalf of Jerusalem. The Lord indeed heard the

prayers of Isaiah and all the people and saved Jerusalem by sending

an angel who “went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a

hundred and fourscore and five thousand.” (Isa 37:36)

The parallelism cannot escape anyone, for in the time of the end,

Satan acting through Antichrist will surround the Church trying to

destroy her, using all the people under his command, but God will

miraculously defend His Church (Rev 12:15-16).

The third head is the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (II Chr

36:6-9, Dan 3). Nebuchadnezzar set up an image and ordered the

people to worship it. He decreed that anyone who does not worship

the image, will be thrown into the fiery furnace. When the Three

Children refused to worship the image they were thrown into the

52 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

2Irenaeus: Against heresies, book V

fiery furnace, but the Lord sent His angel to save them. In the last

days, an image of Antichrist will be set up and “as many as would

not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” (Rev 13:15)

Christians who will refuse to follow Antichrist or worship his

image will be thrown into the fiery furnace (the Great Tribulation)

but as in the times of old, they will be saved from the Tribulation by

the Lord even as He saved the Three Children from the fiery

furnace. The size of the image that Nebuchednezzar had set up

bears semblance to the number of the beast (Rev 13:18):

For that image which was set up by Nebuchadnezzar had indeed a

height of sixty cubits, while the breadth was six cubits; on account of

which Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, when they did not worship it,

were cast into a furnace of fire, pointing out prophetically, by what

happened to them, the wrath against the righteous which shall arise

towards the [time of the] end. For that image, taken as a whole, was

a prefiguring of this man's coming, decreeing that he should

undoubtedly himself alone be worshipped by all men. Thus, then,

the six hundred years of Noah, in whose time the deluge occurred

because of the apostasy, and the number of the cubits of the image

for which these just men were sent into the fiery furnace, do indicate

the number of the name of that man in whom is concentrated the

whole apostasy of six thousand years, and unrighteousness, and

wickedness, and false prophecy, and deception; for which things'

sake a cataclysm of fire shall also come [upon the earth].2

Note the symbolism that the destruction of the world in the time of

Noah bears to the destruction of the world under the reign of

Antichrist; only those inside the Ark (the Church) will be saved

from the destruction in the “cataclysm of fire which shall come upon

the earth.” (II Thes 1:7-8, II Pet 3:6-10)

The fourth head represents the Persians which followed the

Babylonians.

The fifth head is the Greek tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes who

destroyed the Temple built by Ezra.

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 53

The book of Maccabees tells us that Antiochus put an "abominable

idol of desolation" upon the altar of God and ordered people to

burn incense and offer sacrifices to it. Antiochus' persecution of the

children of God and his claims to be God make him a very close type

of Antichrist.

These are the five kings that were, that is, those who had already

gone by the time Revelation was written.

The "one that is," or the sixth head represents the Roman Empire

which reigned at the time of Revelation's writing, and which

banished St. John (to the Island of Patmos.) The Emperor Nero had

persecuted God's children and so became another type of Antichrist.

The seventh head, or the one that is to come, represents a future

politico-religious movement that was not yet present at the time St.

John wrote Revelation; but was to come five centuries later.

The beast, coming out of the sea, Antichrist, Abomination of

Desolation, will be a summation of all the characteristics of the

seven heads: a compilation of the tyranny and craftiness of all seven

prototypes, a perfected version after many trials. For with each of

the seven heads Satan gained increasingly more experience that he

will use in equipping the final Antichrist with. In other words, he

will include all the evil traits of the seven little or minor Antichrists

that preceded him.

And there is therefore in this beast, when he comes, a recapitulation

made of all sorts of iniquity and of every deceit, in order that all

apostate power, flowing into and being shut up in him, may be sent

into the furnace of fire. Fittingly, therefore, shall his name possess

the number six hundred and sixty-six, since he sums up in his own

person all the commixture of wickedness which took place previous

to the deluge, due to the apostasy of the angels. For Noah was six

hundred years old when the deluge came upon the earth, sweeping

away the rebellious world, for the sake of that most infamous

generation which lived in the times of Noah. And [Antichrist] also

sums up every error of devised idols since the flood, together with

54 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

1Irenaeus: Against heresies, Book V

2Hippolytus of Rome: Treatise on Christ and Antichrist

the slaying of the prophets and the cutting off of the just.1

THE WOUNDED HEAD:

“And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his

deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the

beast.” (Rev 13:3) This head, which we are later told was “wounded

by a sword, and did live.” (Rev 13:14) is thought by some to be the

same politico-religious movement that arose to power five centuries

after Revelations was written. To be wounded by a sword, in

apocalyptic language, signifies a military defeat. Some see this

fulfilled in the lack of military success of nations that follow this

politico-religious system, over the last 50 years. But, in spite of the

mortal wounds these nations experienced, many of these countries

have recovered their military might (the deadly wound is healed.)

At least one of these countries is known to have nuclear capabilities

while three others are suspected of having the same.

THE TEN HORNS OF THE BEAST:

Revelation 17 tells us that the ten horns are “ten kings that will

receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one

mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast and

make war with the Lamb.” These will be ten nations that will enter

into a military alliance with Antichrist. Hippolytus, writing 18

centuries ago, describes these ten nations as ten “Democracies.”2

This is a very intriguing prophecy, since democracies did not exist

at the time of Hippolytus.

The number 10 does not have to be taken literally, but

figuratively, to mean a certain number of nations. The fact that they

are described by the Book of Revelation as “having one mind”

coupled with Hippolytus’ prophetic description of these nations as

“democracies” makes one wonder whether these nations that will be

allied to the future Antichrist are not those nations that form the

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 55

European Union. It is a fact that these nations have “one mind”

represented by the European Parliament which sets the policies and

speaks for all of these nations. It is also a fact that they are

“democracies.”

RELATION TO THE DRAGON:

Revelation 12:2 tells us that the Dragon (Satan) gave the beast

(Antichrist) his power, his throne, and his great authority. This

means that he will be a man endowed with all the power and

authority of Satan (now that Satan has been loosed for the period of

the Great Tribulation). This agrees with what the Book of Daniel

tells us, “And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power.”

(Dan 8:24) What is meant here is that his power is not his own,

because it actually comes from Satan (the Dragon.)

A WONDERFUL BEAST:

“And all the world wondered after the beast.” (Rev 12:3) What

is meant here is that the whole world will admire the beast. He will

be an instant “idol” with the majority of people. The reasons for this

admiration by people of the world has been the subject of much

speculation by the ancients. These reasons can be summarized as

follows:

FALSE PIETY:

Most of the Fathers believe that Antichrist will present to the

world a false facade of piety and righteousness that will make him

look blameless to the eyes of the naive and unspiritual. Faced with

corrupt politicians and money-crazed tele-evangelists, the world will

see in the beast (Antichrist) a fresh leader, whose reputation is so

impeccable, that any one trying to warn people against his deceiving

exterior will be looked upon as a raving fanatic or even a lunatic!

But in his first steps he will be gentle, loveable, quiet, pious, pacific,

hating injustice, detesting gifts, not allowing idolatry; loving, says he,

the Scriptures, reverencing priests, honouring his elders, repudiating

fornication, detesting adultery, giving no heed to slanders, not

56 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

1Hippolytus: Discourse on the end of the world and on Antichrist

2John Damascene: Expounding the Orthodox faith

3St. Ephraim the Syrian (Word 16)

admitting oaths, kind to strangers, kind to the poor, compassionate...

helping widows, defending orphans, loving all, reconciling in love

men who contend, and saying to such, "Let not the sun go down

upon your wrath;" and he will not acquire gold, nor love silver, nor

seek riches.1

And in the beginning of his rule, or rather tyranny, he assumes the

role of sanctity.2

Evil spirits dispersed over the universe will excite in men a universal,

most exalted opinion of Antichrist; a general rapture and irresistible

attraction to him ... he will come in such a manner as to deceive all.

He will appear humble, meek, a hater (as he will say himself) of

unrighteousness, shunning idols, showing a preference to piety,

good, a lover of the poor, beautiful to the extreme, steadfast, affable

to all ... He will take cunning measures to please everyone in order

that the people will quickly come to love him; he will not accept gifts

nor speak in anger, nor show a gloomy appearance, but with a

decent exterior he will set about deceiving the world, until he is

enthroned.3

ORATORICAL SKILLS:

“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things.”

(Rev 13:5) This agrees almost word for word with Daniel’s

description of the “little horn,” “And, behold, in this horn were eyes

like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” (Dan 7:8)

In Daniel 7:11, we also read, “I beheld then because of the voice of

the great words which the horn spake.” Again, in Daniel 7:20 he

refers to the “Horn” as, “the other which came up, and before whom

three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake

very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 57

1Hippolytus: Discourse on the end of the world and on Antichrist.

What this means is that the beast (Antichrist, Abomination of

Desolation, little horn, Man of sin etc ...) will be a great orator, a

charismatic speaker able to move the multitudes with his words, just

as Hitler and Nasser did before him, but only on a grander scale. A

very eloquent rhetorician that will appeal to everyone: young and

old, male, female, Muslim, Christian, Jew, and Hindu alike. He will

be so persuasive that people will believe his claims that he is actually

God!

HIS REIGN:

This false facade of righteousness, together with his “great

words” that is his great ability to dupe people by his speeches, will

lead to the great majority of people demanding that he is to be

proclaimed king or universal ruler.

And all this he will do corruptly and deceitfully, and with the

purpose of deluding all to make him king. For when the

peoples and tribes see so great virtues and so great powers in

him, they will all with one mind meet together to make him

king. And above all others shall the nation of the Hebrews be

dear to the tyrant himself, while they say one to another, Is

there found indeed in our generation such a man, so good

and just? That shall be the way with the race of the Jews

pre-eminently, as I said before, who, thinking, as they do, that

they shall behold the king himself in such power, will

approach him to say, We all confide in thee, and

acknowledge thee to be just upon the whole earth; we all

hope to be saved by thee; and by thy mouth we have received

just and incorruptible judgment. And at first, indeed, that

deceitful and lawless one, with crafty deceitfulness, will refuse

such glory; but the men persisting, and holding by him, will

declare him king.1

Some writers believe that Antichrist will begin his activity under the

conditions of a world war, or a great international financial crisis:

58 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

1The Reign of Antichrist II: in Parousia, December 1992

When man will not see any way out of his calamitous blind alley,

because all the means for the resolution of it will be in the hands of

Antichrist. He will offer a plan for the successful resolution of the

world crisis, based on social and political wisdom - the establishing

of a uniform political and social structure over the whole world.

Mankind, being spiritually blind, will not recognize this project as a

cunning snare luring it into the most merciless, continual slavery. To

the contrary, man will hail Antichrist's manifestations of great

erudition, wisdom and genius. Worldwide publicity of Antichrist as

a genius-thinker, a new leader and a saviour of all peoples will flash

throughout all nations in the shortest period of time.1

The result of this deceit will be that, from mankind, there "will arise

a demand for an invitation to Antichrist. A voice of appeal will issue

forth in human society, expressing the urgent need for a ‘genius of

geniuses', who would elevate material development and progress to

a higher plane and bring about prosperity on earth."1

If indeed, he comes at a time of a world-wide recession, and

miraculously turns things around, filling every pocket with money,

then people will want to make him king. When the Lord Jesus fed

the multitudes with the two loaves and two fishes, the multitudes

wanted to seize Him by force and make Him a king! (John 6:15-16)

The Book of Daniel gives us some insight into other ways this

imposter will use to convince people to make him ruler in a short

time. “And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they

shall not give the honour of the kingdom, but he shall come in

peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.” (Dan 11:21) “And

such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by

flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong,

and do exploits.” (Dan 11:32) “Now when they shall fall, they shall

be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with

flatteries.” (Dan 11:34) The preceding passages from Daniel 11 tell

us that Antichrist will use flatteries to deceive or corrupt people.

Flattery is a very potent weapon, for it plays on people’s desire to be

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 59

1Augustin of Hippo: Commentary on the Psalms

praised and “appreciated,” and it seems that Antichrist will perfect

this potent weapon, becoming a master of flatteries in order to

deceive all and “obtain the kingdom by flatteries.”

Another weapon he will use is money and worldly possessions

which he will shower on his followers. “But he shall have power over

the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things

of Egypt.” (Dan 11:43) He will use the vast riches at his disposal to

reward his followers. He will also entice people by giving them gifts

of land and good positions in his government. “And he shall cause

them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.” (Dan

11:39)

He lieth in ambush with the rich" (ver. 8). What rich, but those

whom he will load with this world's gifts? And he is therefore said to

lie in ambush with them, because he will display their false

happiness to deceive men; who, when with a perverted will they

desire to be such as they, and seek not the good things eternal, will

fall into his snares.1

DURATION OF HIS REIGN:

“And power was given unto him to continue forty and two

months.” (Rev 13:5) Forty two months is three and a half years, the

same as “A thousand two hundred and threescore days,” of

Revelation 12:6, and “A time, and times, and half a time,” of

Revelation 12:14.

The Book of Daniel also predicts that the reign of Antichrist will

be for, “A time, times and a half,” (Dan 12:7) the Apocalyptic three

and a half years which is interpreted as a time that will be cut short,

according to the promise of the Lord that, “For the elect's sake those

days shall be shortened.” (Matt 24:22)

HIS WORSHIP:

“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose

names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the

60 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

1St. John Chrysostom: Homily on II Thessalonians

2Hippolytus: Treatise on Christ and Antichrist

foundation of the world.” (Rev 13:8)

That Antichrist will be worshiped as God is most certain from the

scripture as understood by the Fathers of the Church:

But who is he? Is it then Satan? By no means; but some man, that

admits his fully working in him. For he is a man. ‘And exalteth

himself against all that is called God or is worshiped.’ For he will not

introduce idolatry, but will be a kind of opponent to God; he will

abolish all the gods, and will order men to worship him instead of

God, and he will be seated in the temple of God, not that in

Jerusalem only, but also in every Church.1

These things, then, shall be in the future, beloved; and when the

three horns are cut off, he will begin to show himself as God, as

Ezekiel has said aforetime: “Because thy heart has been lifted up,

and thou hast said, I am God.” (Ezek 28:2) And to the like effect

Isaiah says: “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into

heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven: I will be

like the Most High. Yet now thou shall be brought down to hell, to

the foundations of the earth.” (Isa 14:13) In like manner also

Ezekiel: “Wilt thou yet say to those who slay thee, I am God? But

thou (shall be) a man, and no God.” (Ezek 28:9)2

But, to worship the beast is really worshipping Satan, for this reason

we are told in chapter 12:13, “all the world marvelled after the beast

and they worshipped the dragon that gave power unto the beast.”

This means that people worshipping Antichrist as God will be

worshipping Satan.

For he (Antichrist) being endued with all the power of the devil,

shall come, not as a righteous king, nor as a legitimate king, [i.e.,

one] in subjection to God, but an impious, unjust, and lawless one;

as an apostate, iniquitous and murderous; as a robber, concentrating

in himself [all] satanic apostasy, and setting aside idols to persuade

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 61

1Irenaeus: Against heresies, book V

2Augustine of Hippo: Commentary on the Psalms

[men] that he himself is God, raising up himself as the only idol,

having in himself the multifarious errors of the other idols. This he

does, in order that they who do [now] worship the devil by means of

many abominations, may serve himself by this one idol, of whom the

apostle thus speaks in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians:

‘Unless there shall come a failing away first, and the man of sin shall

be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself

above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth

in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God.’ The

apostle therefore clearly points out his apostasy, and that he is lifted

up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped--that is, above

every idol--for these are indeed so called by men, but are not [really]

gods; and that he will endeavour in a tyrannical manner to set

himself forth as God.1

One may wonder, how can he fool almost the whole world into

believing that he is God. There are many reasons for this. Foremost

among those is his deceiving exterior.

Antichrist will seem to man blessed to that degree, that he will even

be thought God.2

HIS MIRACLES:

Another reason for his worship by people of the world is the

many miracles he will make in order to deceive all into believing that

he is God.

Christ will not come to judge quick and dead unless Antichrist, His

adversary, first come to seduce those who are dead in soul; although their

seduction is a result of God's secret judgment already passed. For, as it

is said, ‘whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and

signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness

in them that perish.’ (II Thes 2:9-10) For then shall Satan be loosed,

and by means of that Antichrist shall work with all power in a lying

62 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

1Augustine of Hippo: City of God

2St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures, Lecture XV

though a wonderful manner. It is commonly questioned whether these

works are called "signs and lying wonders" because he is to deceive men's

senses by false appearances, or because the things he does, though they

be true prodigies, shall be a lie to those who shall believe that such things

could be done only by God, being ignorant of the devil's power, and

especially of such unexampled power as he shall then for the first time

put forth. For when he fell from heaven as fire, and at a stroke swept

away from the holy Job his numerous household and his vast flocks, and

then as a whirlwind rushed upon and smote the house and killed his

children, these were not deceitful appearances, and yet they were the

works of Satan to whom God had given this power.1

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem has another point of view:

And who is this, and from what sort of working? Interpret to us, O Paul.

Whose coming, he says, is after the working of Satan, with all power and

signs and lying wonders; implying, that Satan has used him as an

instrument, working in his own person through him; for knowing that his

judgment shall now no longer have respite, he wages war no more by his

ministers, as is his wont, but henceforth by himself more openly. And

with all signs and lying wonders; for the father of falsehood will make a

show of the works of falsehood, that the multitudes may think that they

see a dead man raised, who is not raised, and lame men walking, and

blind men seeing, when the cure has not been wrought.2

He will work signs and terrible wonders, false wonders and not true, in

order to deceive his impious equals. For if it were possible, he would

seduce even the elect from the love of Christ .... Under the eye of the

spectators he will remove mountains from their places, he will walk on

the sea with dry feet, he will bring down fire from heaven, he will turn the

day into darkness and the night into day, he will turn the sun about

wheresoever he pleases; and, in short, in presence of those who behold

him, he will show all the elements of earth and sea to be subject to him

in the power of his specious manifestation .... what machinations and

deceits and delusions will he not bring into play, with the purpose of

seducing all men, and leading them off from the way of truth, and from

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1Hippolytus: Discourse on the end of the world and on Antichrist

2John Damascene: Expounding the Orthodox faith

3Saint Ephraim the Syrian: Word on Antichrist

the gate of the kingdom? ... Behold the deceit of the enemy, know the

machinations of the beguiler, how he seeks to darken the mind of men

utterly. For he will show forth his demons brilliant like angels, and he will

bring in hosts of the incorporeal without number. And in the presence

of all he exhibits himself as taken up into heaven with trumpets and

sounds, and the mighty shouting of those who hail him with indescribable

hymns; the heir of darkness himself shining like light, and at one time

soaring to the heavens, and at another descending to the earth with great

glory, and again charging the demons, like angels, to execute his behests

with much fear and trembling.1

But he will come with signs and lying wonders, fictitious and not real, and

he will deceive and lead away from the living God those whose mind rests

on an unsound and unstable foundation, so that even the elect shall, if it

be possible, be made to stumble.2

Great will be the contest, O brethren, in those times, especially for the

faithful, when signs and wonders will be wrought with great authority by

the serpent himself; when he will show himself in awful apparitions as

being similar to God - he will fly about in the air and all the demons, like

angels will exult before the tormentor. For he will cry aloud with might,

transforming his countenance and dismaying all men without measure.3

Antichrist's signs, worked by the power of Satan, will produce an

irresistible influence on spectators. Men will not grasp the fact that his

miracles do not have any good, intelligent aim, that they are freakish,

evil and aimless, able to produce amazement, to bring the mind into

perplexity and self-forgetfulness, to delude and deceive and to captivate

one by the enchantment of splendorous, empty performances.

HIS POWER:

Having seen these "miracles", men, because of their spiritual

64 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

1Augustine of Hippo: Commentary on the Psalms

2Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures

blindness and the triumph of their carnal understandings, will

immediately acknowledge these demonstrations of Satanic power to be

the greatest manifestation of the power of God and they will ecstatically

receive Antichrist as a God. Antichrist will terrify with his threatening

and amazing miracles. With them he will satisfy imprudent curiosity and

coarse ignorance, he will satisfy men led by the guidance of their fallen

nature, estranged from guidance by the light of God, will be allured into

submission by the deceiver. People will adore him both because of

amazement as well as fear of him. “... and they worshipped the beast,

saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

(Rev 13:4) Saint Augustine comments on this by saying:

By a lion in a den, he means one in whom both violence and deceit will

work. For the first persecution of the Church was violent, when by

proscriptions, by torments, by murders, the Christians were compelled

to sacrifice: another persecution is crafty, which is now conducted by

heretics of any kind and false brethren: there remains a third, which is to

come by Antichrist, than which there is nothing more perilous; for it will

be at once violent and crafty. Violence he will exert in empire, craft in

miracles.1

And former persecuting kings only put to death; they did not pretend to

raise the dead, nor did they make false shows of signs and wonders. But

in his time there shall be the evil inducement both of fear and of deceit,

so that if it be possible the very elect shall be deceived.2

RELATION TO THE JEWS:

It is generally agreed by the Fathers that the first to accept him as

king and God will be the Jews. The Ancients base this on what the Lord

Jesus said in John 5:43 concerning the coming of Antichrist.

It is said of Antichrist, and all understand of him what the Lord said, “I

am come in My Father's Name, and ye have not received Me; if another

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 65

1Augustine of Hippo: Sermon LXXIX

2Saint John Chrysostom: Commentary on the Gospel of John

3Irenaeus: Against Heresies, Book V

4John Damascene: Expounding the Orthodox Faith

5Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures

shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”1

“I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall

come in his own name, him will ye receive.” But who is it that He here

saith shall come "in his own name"? He alludeth here to Antichrist.”2

The Lord also spoke as follows to those who did not believe in Him: “I

have come in my Father's name, and ye have not received Me: when

another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive,” calling

Antichrist "the other," because he is alienated from the Lord.3

For the Lord said to them: I am come in My Father's name and ye

receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will

receive. And the apostle says, Because they received not the love of the

truth that they might be saved, for this cause God shall send them a

strong delusion that they should believe a lie: that they all might be

damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The Jews accordingly did not receive the Lord Jesus Christ who was the

Son of God and God, but receive the impostor who calls himself God.4

Since the true Christ is to come a second time, the adversary, taking

occasion by the expectation of the simple, and especially of them of the

circumcision, brings in a certain man who is a magician, and most expert

in sorceries and enchantments of beguiling craftiness; who shall seize for

himself the power ..., and shall falsely style himself Christ; by this name

of Christ deceiving the Jews, who are looking for the Anointed, and

seducing those of the Gentiles by his magical illusions.5

What is said above gives us an insight into how the imposter will deceive

Christians too. For we are told that since Christ will come a second

66 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

time, Satan will use the expectation of the simple to delude them into

believing that this is Christ in His second coming. To that end, the Devil

has been preparing for close to 17 centuries, by spreading among

Christians the heresy of:

THE MILLENNIAL RULE OF CHRIST:

This heresy which started in the third century is based on the wrong

interpretation of Revelation 20:1-7:

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the

bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the

dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him

a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up,

and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till

the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed

a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and

judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were

beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which

had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his

mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned

with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again

until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the

second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of

Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the

thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.

Followers of this heresy, which the Church repudiated in the Second

Ecumenical Council, believe that prior to Christ’s coming to judge the

world, He will actually come to earth to reign for a literal thousand years

with the elect. If we examine the passage carefully, we find out that

those who reigned with Christ were the souls of the elect who had died,

for we are told that the rest of the dead did not share in this reign with

Christ. This thousand year reign of the souls of the elect with Christ is

called the first resurrection, and those who participate in this first

resurrection, will not suffer the second death (eternal damnation in the

lake of fire.) The Church believes that we are already in the thousand

year reign of Christ. Satan has been bound by Christ when he died on

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 67

the Cross and he will be loosed for a little season at the time of the end

when Antichrist will appear and the Great Tribulation is visited upon

the earth. The souls of the righteous, beginning with the soul of the thief

that was crucified with our Lord are now reigning with Christ in

Paradise. This is their first resurrection (resurrection of the soul.) The

second resurrection is when those souls are united with their new

heavenly bodies on the day of the Second Coming of our Lord

(resurrection of the flesh.) Obviously, those souls who attained to

Paradise will not taste the second death which is the lake of fire, a place

reserved for the souls that are now in Hades. Those souls who are now

tormented in Hades, will also be resurrected but into damnation, for

they will be thrown, body and soul, into the Lake of fire (the second

death.) That is why we are told that the rest of the dead did not

participate in this thousand year reign with Christ.

The meaning of the binding of Satan is that Satan has lost his hold on

the souls when Christ came to save us. When the Jews accused the Lord

of casting out devils by the power of the prince of demons, he answered,

“How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods,

except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.”

(Matt 12:29) Jesus did bind the strong man (Satan) and released the

souls that were enslaved to him from that bitter bondage, even the souls

of the righteous, who died before Christ, that were held in Hades were

released from that prison when Christ descended into Hades, after His

death on the Cross.

Someone may wonder how come Satan is bound with all the evil

around us? The answer is that Satan’s power has been curtailed, so that

we now have the power to resist him. But, our free will is not bound, so,

if we decide to use our free will to follow Satan, we are left to do so.

The prevalence of evil today means one of two things, either that a lot

of people are choosing to follow Satan than to follow Christ, or that we

are nearing the time of the end when the love of many shall wax cold and

iniquity will abound.

It is also important to know that numbers in Revelation are symbolic

and are not to be taken literally, so, a thousand years means a long time.

And, even though Satan has been bound for nearly two thousand years,

we are still living in the thousand year reign of Christ.

68 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

1Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures

The danger of this heresy lies in the confusion it will produce in the mind

at the coming of Antichrist, who will actually claim that he is Christ

coming for his thousand year reign on earth.

The Bible and the Fathers tell us that Christ has two advents, one for

salvation when he died on the Cross, rose from the dead, ascended to

heaven after promising us to come again for judgment. There is no

intermediate coming of Christ.

The Second Coming of Christ will be on the clouds (Matt 24:30,

26:64, Mark 13:26, 14:62, I Thes 4:17, Rev 1:7) He will not come down

to earth but will “send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and

they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of

heaven to the other.” (Matt 24:31) And, if we are alive at the second

coming of Christ we will be “caught up together with them in the clouds,

to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (I

Thes 4:17) In short, He shall not come down to earth, we shall go up to

meet Him in the clouds.

The early Fathers of the Church spared no effort to remind us that

the Second Coming of Christ will not be from the earth but rather from

heaven.

This Jesus Christ who is gone up shall come again, not from earth but

from heaven: and I say, "not from earth," because there are many

Antichrists to come at this time from earth. For already, as thou hast

seen, many have begun to say, I am the Christ: and the Abomination of

desolation is yet to come, assuming to himself the false title of Christ.

But look thou for the true Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, coming

henceforth no more from earth, but from heaven, appearing to all more

bright than any lightning and brilliancy of light, with angel guards

attended, that He may judge both quick and dead, and reign in a

heavenly, eternal kingdom, which shall have no end.1

The true Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, comes no more from the

earth. If any come making false shows in the wilderness, go not forth; if

they say, Lo, here is the Christ, Lo, there, believe it not. Look no longer

downwards and to the earth; for the Lord descends from heaven; not

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1Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures

2Saint John Damascene: Expounding the Orthodox Faith

alone as before, but with many, escorted by tens of thousands of Angels;

nor secretly as the dew on the fleece; but shining forth openly as the

lightning. For He hath said Himself, As the lightning cometh out of the

east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son

of Man be; and again, And they shall see the Son of Man coming upon

the clouds with power and great glory, and He shall send forth His

Angels with a great trumpet; and the rest.1

And the Lord shall come out of heaven, just as the holy apostles beheld

Him going into heaven perfect God and perfect man, with glory and

power, and will destroy the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction,

with the breath of His mouth. Let no one, therefore, look for the Lord to

come from earth, but out of Heaven, as He himself has made sure.2

Saint Paul once said, “I became all things to all men, that I might by all

means save some.” (I Cor 9:22) In the same manner, Antichrist when he

comes, will become all things to all men, that he might by all means

destroy some! To the Jews he will be their long awaited Messiah. To

Christians who defy the Church’s teaching and believe the heresy of the

Millennial rule of Christ, he will be “Christ” coming to reign on earth.

To Muslims, he will be “Al Mahdy Al Montazar,” a last time Messianic

figure that will make the whole world one religion. To the Buddhists, he

will be a re-incarnation of Buddha. To humanists, he will be the perfect

ruler spreading peace, justice and prosperity in the earth. To the

curious, he will offer the greatest show on earth. And to the rest, a kind,

righteous, miracle worker, that showers worldly goods and honours on

his followers. No wonder the scriptures says concerning him, “He is a

proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell,

and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all

nations, and heapeth unto him all people.” (Hab 2:5) “And power was

given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell

upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the

book of life.” (Rev 13:7-8)

70 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

HIS BLASPHEMY:

Once he gathers unto himself all the nations and heaps unto himself

all peoples, and he is worshipped by all those whose names are not

written in the Book of Life, he will be puffed up in his heart and will

start to show his true colours. He will start blaspheming God. “And he

opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name,

and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.” (Rev 13:6) The same

is predicted to us in the Book of Daniel, “And he shall speak great words

against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High,

and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand

until a time and times and the dividing of time.” (Dan 7:25) “And the

king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and

magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things

against the God of gods.” (Dan 11:36)

It is then that his followers will realize that they have been fooled by

the imposter. The Jews will realize that he is not their awaited Messiah,

for, even that he will be born in the Jewish faith, he will blaspheme

Yahweh, the God of the fathers, and, instead he will claim divine

honours to himself, “ Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, ....

nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.” (Dan 11:37)

“Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that

is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing

himself that he is God.” (II Thes 2:4)

Christians who were deceived into thinking that he is Christ in his

supposed Millennial rule, will also discover the bitter truth, that they

were deceived by the imposter, and that in acknowledging him as Christ,

they have forfeited their share in eternity, and have been damned to the

end, for the Fathers tell us that those who accept him and receive his

mark (see later) have no chance to repent.

And he will put his mark on their right hand and on their forehead, that

no one may put the sign of the honourable cross upon his forehead with

his right hand; but his hand is bound. And from that time he shall not

have power to seal any one of his members, but he shall be attached to

the deceiver, and shall serve him; and in him there is no repentance. But

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1Hippolytus: Discourse on the end of the world and on Antichrist

such an one is lost at once to God and to men.1

THE FLIGHT OF THE CHURCH:

But not all will be deceived by him, for those whose names are written

in te Book of Life, God’s own elect, for whose sake the days of the Great

Tribulation will be shortened, will see through his deceiving exterior,

and will refuse to submit to him. Having received the seal of the Living

God on their forehead (Rev 7:2-3), they will refuse to be polluted by the

mark of the Beast. They will heed the command of the Lord, “When

ye therefore shall see the Abomination of desolation, spoken of by

Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him

understand:) Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains:

Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out

of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his

clothes.” (Matt 24:15-18) A thorough understanding of this

commandment is vital for our salvation should we be around during

those perilous times. “When you see the Abomination of desolation

spoken of by Daniel the prophet” interpretation: when you see

Antichrist, a.k.a. man of sin, little horn, the beast ... etc, “stand in the

holy place” interpretation: sitting in the temple of God, showing himself

to be God (II Thes 2:4) i.e, being worshipped in the churches as God,

“then let them ... let him ...” We have here two sets of directives. The

first one, “let them which be in Judea flee to the mountain” is directed

to the Church of the elect, to flee. The flight of the Church into the

wilderness has been dealt with in our previous issue. The Book of

Revelation assigns a whole chapter for this emigration of the faithful

away from the Middle East (Rev 12) When the Lord says let them that

be in Judea ..., there are two reasons for this. The first is that like many

of the prophecies, this one pertains both to the destruction of Jerusalem

around A.D. 70, as well as to the desolation of the world that will happen

in the days of the Abomination of Desolation. In interpreting this

command concerning the end of times, Judea will mean the Middle East,

the birthplace of the Church. The second, is that Judea will actually be

72 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

the place where the Abomination of Desolation will set up his kingdom

as king and Messiah of the Jews, universal ruler and god of all nations,

with Jerusalem as his capital as we can understand from Revelation 11:8.

Please refer to our previous chapter for more details.

The second directive that starts with “let him” is a directive to each

and every individual who wishes to be saved from the damnation

reserved for those who worship the beast. It is a command to flee from

the deceiver, to avoid any contact with him. For, though his sphere of

influence will be in the Middle East, he will be all over the place trying

to convert all to his worship.

He will be travelling all over the world bringing his show of false

miracles and using his powers of speech (his great words) and his

charismatic personality to win over, if it were possible, even the elect.

We can deduce this from reading Habakkuk’s prophecy about him (see

above,) where we are told that he never stays home but goes around

trying to gather unto himself all nations and heap unto himself all

people. (Hab 2:5)

Here is the wisdom of the elect and their understanding. For the

Lord’s command is both urgent and absolute that we have no direct

contact with the imposter should he come near us. Should he hold a

revival meeting in Toronto then let the elect go to Montreal, and if he

has his meeting in Los Angeles, then let the faithful go to San Francisco!

Let no one be driven by curiosity to “take a look,” for the Lord

actually warns us against this, “In that day, he which shall be upon the

housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it

away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

Remember Lot's wife.” (Luke 17:32)

Lot’s wife’s problem was idle curiosity. She just wanted to take a

look, and she perished. The Lord is warning us because He knows that

if we go we will be deceived, for this is no ordinary man, this is a man

endowed with all the power and authority of Satan. For this reason the

Lord also tells us, “Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in

the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it

not.” (Matt 24:26) Saint John Chrysostom comments on this by saying:

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 73

1Saint John Chrysostom: Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew

2Hippolytus: Discourse on the end of the world and on Antichrist

3Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures

And see how He secures them; ‘Go not forth into the deserts, enter not

into the secret chambers.’ He did not say, ‘Go, and do not believe;’ but,

‘Go not forth, neither depart thither.’ For great then will be the

deceiving, because that even deceiving miracles are wrought.”1

I often explain the perils of coming near the Abomination of Desolation

by using a parable! If you have a compass, it will always direct you in

your way. For it will always point to the North Pole (elementary physics!)

The compass is your free will, always directing you to heaven. (The

North pole is on the top of the globe towards heaven! ) Now, if you bring

your compass close to a strong magnet, it will no longer point to the

North Pole, but will always point to the magnet. The magnet is the

deceiver, and if you come near him he will captivate your free will and

you will not be able to go back to your previous condition. That is why

the Lord, in a most urgent way, admonishes us to “flee” and to

“remember Lot’s wife.” The Fathers emphasize this personal flight in

their writings:

But many who are hearers of the divine Scriptures, and have them in

their hand, and keep them in mind with understanding, will escape his

imposture. For they will see clearly through his insidious appearance and

his deceitful imposture, and will flee from his hands, and betake

themselves to the mountains, and hide themselves in the caves of the

earth; and they will seek after the Friend of man with tears and a contrite

heart; and He will deliver them out of his toils, and with His right hand

He will save those from his snares who in a worthy and righteous manner

make their supplication to Him.2

For this cause the Lord knowing the greatness of the adversary grants

indulgence to the godly, saying, Then let them which be in Judaea flee to

the mountains.3

74 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

1Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures

Thou hast received the tokens of the Deceiver who is to come; thou hast

received the proofs of the true Christ, who shall openly come down from

heaven. Flee therefore the one, the False one; and look for the other,

the True.1

PERSECUTION OF THE SAINTS:

Revelation 12:7 tells us, “And it was given unto him to make war with

the saints and to overcome them.” Daniel’s prophecies tell us the same

thing: “And the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed

against them.” (Dan 7:21) And again, “And he shall wear out the saints

of the most high.” (Dan 7:25)

If, as we said before, the church will be given a safe haven from the

face of the serpent (and his puppet, the beast) then how come we are

told that he will make war against the saints and overcome them? Well,

the answer is given to us at the end of Revelation 12. After the woman,

(the church) makes her flight into her safe haven, the dragon follows suit

for we are told, “And to the woman were given two wings of a great

eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is

nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the

serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the

woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the

earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and

swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” (Rev

12: 14-16)

Waters in apocalyptic language means people, so, the above means

that Satan working through Antichrist will mobilize people at his

command against the church but God will intervene miraculously to save

the elect. Immediately after that we are told, “And the dragon was

wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her

seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of

Jesus Christ.” (Rev 12:17) The remnant of the woman’s seed means the

rest of the elect who, being chosen by God to receive the crown of

martyrdom will be left behind. These will be persecuted and killed by

Antichrist. He will think that he had prevailed over them, but in reality,

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 75

1Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their

testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Rev 12:11)

When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, Saint John saw under the altar

“the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the

testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying,

How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our

blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given

unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest

yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren,

that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Rev 6:9-11) This

means that this persecution and martyrdom of the saints is pre-ordained

by God, so that the number of the martyrs should be fulfilled.

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem tells us, if you feel that you are called to

martyrdom, then, by all means, don’t run, stand up, be counted among

those who will be crowned with the crown of martyrdom:

But if any man is conscious that he is very stout-hearted, to encounter

Satan, let him stand (for I do not despair of the Church's nerves), and let

him say, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ and the rest. But,

let those of us who are fearful provide for our own safety; and those who

are of a good courage, stand fast.1

THE FALSE PROPHET:

We have now made the acquaintance of the Red Dragon (Satan,) the

Beast coming out of the sea (Antichrist,) now we are going to be

introduced to a third character, “And I beheld another beast coming up

out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a

dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,

and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first

beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” (Rev 13:11-12)

Revelation 19:20 identifies this second beast as the false prophet. The

false prophet is described as having two horns like a lamb but he spake

as a dragon. This means he will have the appearance of a lamb but is

really a devil. This description agrees with the Lord Jesus definition of

76 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

1Orthodox Study Bible: Footnotes on Revelation 13

false prophets, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's

clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matt 7:15)

Like his master, this second beast will have a fake aura of holiness

around him but in reality he is a dragon (a devil!) We are told that he

exercises all the power of the first beast. That means that the dragon,

(Satan), will give this second beast, the false prophet, the same power as

he gave to the first beast, Antichrist. The false prophet will convince the

inhabitants of the earth to worship Antichrist. Because of this role he

has been called a forerunner of Antichrist in the same manner that John

the Baptist was a forerunner for Christ. John the Baptist testified to

Jesus saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the

world.” (John 1:29) In like manner, the false prophet will do the same,

telling people this is your God worship him.

FIRE COMING FROM HEAVEN:

We are told that the false prophet will do great wonders, so that he

“maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.”

(Rev 13:13) This is what the commentators say about this:

In a parody of Pentecost, this monstrous cult leader is able to make fire

come down by means of deception and sorcery.1

This means that the false prophet will be able to imitate the day of

Pentecost, making fire to descend on his followers even as the believers

received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST:

The false prophet will order everyone on earth to make an image of

the Beast (Rev 12:14). “And he had power to give life unto the image of

the Beast, that the image of the Beast should speak. (Rev 12:15). Many

people believe that this image that comes to life and speaks is none other

than the almighty Television! Saint John in the Revelation saw an image

of Antichrist in every house and the image was “alive” and speaking. Of

course, St. John did not know that something called T.V. would be

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 77

1Hippolytus: Discourse on the end of the world and on Antichrist.

invented nineteen centuries later.

This means that Antichrist will use Television to its maximum

potential. He will be on every channel and people will be worshipping

him even at home when they see him on T.V. delivering his sermons or

giving his “blessing” to his “flock”. As a great speaker with irresistible

charisma and many miracles Antichrist will put heavy emphasis on the

use of T.V. Satellites will bring him alive to every house in the world and

in every language.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST:

The false prophet will order that people would have the mark of the

beast on their forehead or the right hand. That mark would be his name

or the number of his name: 666. Those who refuse this will be at a

financial disadvantage, unable to buy nor sell.

Christ gave to those who believed on Him the honourable and life-giving

cross, and he in like manner will give his own sign. ... and he will put his

mark on their right hand and on their forehead, that no one may put the

sign of the honourable cross upon his forehead with his right hand; but

his hand is bound. And from that time he shall not have power to seal

any one of his members, but he shall be attached to the deceiver, and

shall serve him; and in him there is no repentance. But such an one is lost

at once to God and to men.1

The technology of biometric identification, i.e., identifying a person by

scanning his forehead or his hand, is already available. In the same

manner in which a cashier scans a product at the cash register and its

name, size, price ... etc. appear on the screen, this technology can

identify a man’s name, social security number, even his medical history

by scanning his forehead or his hand. No doubt, Antichrist will use this

technology to identify his own followers, and to discriminate against

those who are “unbelievers.”

For those who are sceptics about this, or think that it is far fetched,

let me offer excerpts from an article that appeared in the Globe and

78 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

Mail, Canada’s largest newspaper on October 22, 1999. The article

appeared on the first page with the title:

ONTARIO’S ID PLAN SPURS PRIVACY FEARS

Every resident of Ontario would be required to carry new high tech ID

... (this) would be needed for all dealings with the provincial government,

including health insurance, social assistance payments, students or

seniors eligibility, or enrolment in an educational institutions. Driver’s

licences, birth certificates, and hunting and fishing permits could also be

incorporated.” “Eventually, a single card could enable an Ontario

resident to gain access to Federal as well as provincial services, said

Management Board Chairman Chris Hodgson, who is responsible for

bringing in the new card.” “Mr. Hodgson said advanced technology cards

are being used in European countries such as Germany and France.” “A

high-tech firm working with the government to implement the new card

says, biometrics, the use of a digital imprint of a finger, retina, or facial

or hand features to identify a person would be central to the project.”

“Yesterday, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ann

Cavoukian, voiced her concern about the new card.” “ Ross Hutchison,

chairman of Mytec Technologies, which specializes in biometric

identification systems, said the Ontario government is already far

advanced in preparing its information systems to receive the card.

THE UNHOLY TRINITY:

The dragon (Satan), the Beast (Antichrist), and the second beast (the

false prophet) have been collectively called the unholy trinity. For Satan

would like to be worshipped in the same way that God is worshipped.

If God is worshipped as one God in a Trinity, so also would Satan have

his own unholy trinity, where Satan would emulate God the Father,

Antichrist would emulate Christ and the false prophet emulates the

Holy Spirit. Revelation 20:10 tells us the end of the unholy trinity,

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and

brimstone, where the Beast and the false prophet are, and shall be

tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

1Published: December, 1999