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Hippolytus
But not to expend our argument entirely in going over the words of all the prophets,[1891] after citing one other, let us revert to the matter in hand. What is it, then, that Micah says in his prophecy? “Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry to him, Peace; and if it was not put into their mouth,[1892] they prepared[1893] war against him. Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision;[1894] and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall not go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. And the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners confounded.”[1895] These things we have recounted beforehand, in order that ye may know the pain that is to be in the last times, and the perturbation, and the manner of life on the part of all men toward each other,[1896] and their envy, and hate, and strife, and the negligence of the shepherds toward the sheep, and the unruly disposition of the people toward the priests.[1897]
Wherefore all shall walk after their own will. And the children will lay hands on their parents. The wife will give up her own husband to death, and the husband will bring his own wife to judgment like a criminal. Masters will lord it over their servants savagely,[1898] and servants will assume an unruly demeanour toward their masters. None will reverence the grey hairs of the elderly, and none will have pity upon the comeliness of the youthful. 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.[1899] 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, falseapostles, 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[1900] 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.
And what am I to say with respect to men,[1901] when the very elements themselves will disown their order? There will be earthquakes in every city, and plagues in every country; and monstrous[1902] 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.[1903] 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[1904] frosts, inexorable scorching winds, unexpected thunderings, unlooked-for conflagrations; and in general, lamentation and mourning in the whole earth, without consolation. For, “because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”[1905] By reason of the agitation and confusion of all these, the Lord of the universe cries in the Gospel, saying, “Take heed that ye be not deceived; for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not yet by and by.”[1906] Let us observe the word of the Saviour, how He always admonished us with a view to our security: “Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ.”
Now after He was taken up again to the Father, there arose some, saying, “I am Christ,” like Simon Magus and the rest, whose names we have not time at present to mention. Wherefore also in the last day of the consummation, it must needs be that false Christs will arise again, saying, “I am Christ,” and they will deceive many. And multitudes of men will run from the east even to the west, and from the north even to the sea, saying, Where is Christ here? where is Christ there? But being possessed of a vain conceit, and failing to read the Scriptures carefully, and not being of an upright mind, they will seek for a name which they shall be unable to find. For these things must first be; and thus the son of perdition—that is to say, the devil—must be seen.
And the apostles, who speak of God,[1907] in establishing the truth of the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, have each of them indicated the appearing of these abominable and ruin-working men, and have openly announced their lawless deeds. First of all Peter, the rock of the faith, whom Christ our God called blessed, the teacher of the Church, the first disciple, he who has the keys of the kingdom, has instructed us to this effect: “Know this first, children, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.[1908] And there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies.”[1909] After him, John the theologian,[1910] and the beloved of Christ, in harmony with him, cries, “The children of the devil are manifest;[1911] and even now are there many antichrists;[1912] but go not after them.[1913] Believe not every spirit, because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”[1914] And then Jude, the brother of James, speaks in like manner: “In the last times there shall be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts. There be they who, without fear, feed[1915] themselves.”[1916] You have observed the concord of the theologians and apostles, and the harmony of their doctrine.
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