Christ will return

Christ will return to judgement at the end of the age

Parousia

Ahiyah Asher Ahiyah I Am Who I Am Yahweh El Olam eth Abba Our Father and Son Jesus Christ OLS and Ruach Yahweh Holy Spirit our Paraclete, Pantocrator Omniscient Ubiquitos, Yahweh Elohim eth Creator and ruler of all the Lord thy God Incarnate, subsuming flesh of all men, Jesus Christ our only Saviour, 70 generations from Adam and the beginning of all creation through Whom, the Word of God, all that has been created was created and without Whom was nothing that has been created, Who hast commanded all men:
1. “Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me;
2. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain;
3. Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath Day;
4. Honor thy Father and thy Mother;
5. Thou shalt not kill;
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery;
7. Thou shalt not steal;
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness;
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife;
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods;
3. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.
5. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
6. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.
7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
8. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God
9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
10. Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11. Blessed are you when men reproach you, and persecute you, and, speaking falsely, say all manner of evil against you, for my sake.
12. Rejoice and exult, because your reward is great in heaven; for so did they persecute the prophets who were before you.
“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
22. Blessed shall you be when men hate you; and when they shut you out and reproach you, and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
23. Rejoice on that day and exult, for behold your reward is great in heaven. For in the selfsame manner their fathers used to treat the prophets.
24. But woe to you rich! for you are now having your comfort.
25. Woe to you who are filled for you shall hunger.
Woe to you, who laugh now! For you shall mourn and weep.
26. Woe to you when all men speak well of you! In the selfsame manner their fathers used to treat the false prophets!”
The Disciples Compared to Salt and Light
13. “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its strength, what shall be salted with it? It is no longer of any use but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.
14. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
15. Neither do men light a lamp and put it under the measure, but upon the lamp-stand, so as to give light to all in the house.
16. Even so let your light shine before men, in order that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
The Old Law and the New
17. “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
18. For amen I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall be lost from the Law till all things have been accomplished.
19. Therefore whoever does away with one of these least commandments, and so teaches men, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever carries them out and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20. For I say to you that unless your justice exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul with thy whole depth of being and with thy whole strength. 38. This is the greatest and the first commandment.
39. And the second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
40. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.
I say it now.
34. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: that as I have loved you, you also love one another. 35. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Forgive us our sins as we also do forgive those who trespass against us”
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach us Thy statutes and therefore remember us when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, grant us understanding of Thy statutes and therefore remember us when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, enlighten us by Thy statutes and by our obedience of them therefore remember us when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom
ST. AUGUSTINE, THE CITY OF GOD
BOOK VIII.
CHAP. 24.—IDOLS ARE THE MEANS BY WHICH DEMONS ENSNARE MEN TO DAMNATION…For although man made gods, it did not follow that he who made them was not held captive by them, when, by worshipping them, he was drawn into fellowship with them,–into the fellowship not of stolid idols, but of cunning demons; for what are idols but what they are represented to be in the same Scriptures, “They have eyes, but they do not see,”(2) and, though artistically fashioned, are still without life and sensation? But unclean spirits, associated through that wicked art with these same idols, have miserably taken captive the souls of their worshippers, by bringing them down into fellowship with themselves. Whence the apostle says, “We know that an idol is nothing, but those things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I would not ye should have fellowship with demons.”(3) …”Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name; declare well His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, among all people His wonderful things. For great is the Lord, and much to be praised: He is terrible above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols of demons: but the Lord made the heavens.”(4)
… a time was coming when the worship of idols should be abolished, and the domination of the demons over those who worshipped them (by Jesus Christ condemning and defeating paganism)
BOOK XIX
CHAP. 21. …For if they assert that in their republic the Romans did not serve unclean spirits, but good and holy gods, must we therefore again reply to this evasion, though already we have said enough, and more than enough, to expose it? He must be an uncommonly stupid, or a shamelessly contentious person, who has read through the foregoing books to this point, and can yet question whether the Romans (or any other pagans as Augustine makes the point time and again) served wicked and impure demons. But, not to speak of their character, it is written in the law of the true God, “He that sacrificeth unto any god save unto the Lord only, be shall be utterly destroyed.”{Augustine’s quote from Ex:22:20:
20 He that sacrificeth to gods, shall be put to death, save only to the Lord. (DRV) which St. Augustine quotes many times to drive the point home.} He, therefore, who uttered so menacing a commandment decreed that no worship should be given either to (supposedly) good or bad gods.
CHAP. 22.–WHETHER THE GOD WHOM THE CHRISTIANS SERVE IS THE TRUE GOD TO WHOM ALONE SACRIFICE OUGHT TO BE PAID.
But it may be replied, Who is this God, or what proof is there that He alone is worthy to receive sacrifice from the Romans? One must be very blind to be still asking who this God is. He is the God whose prophets predicted the things we see accomplished. He is the God from whom Abraham received the assurance, “In thy seed shall all nations be blessed.”(2) That this was fulfilled in Christ, who according to the flesh sprang from that seed, is recognized, … He is the God whose divine Spirit spake by the men whose predictions I cited in the preceding books, and which are fulfilled in the Church which has extended over all the world.
….
CHAP. 23.–PORPHYRY’S ACCOUNT OF THE RESPONSES GIVEN BY THE ORACLES OF THE GODS CONCERNING CHRIST.
…
In this oracle of his god Apollo, Porphyry avowed that the God of the Hebrews is so great that the deities themselves are afraid before Him. I am surprised, therefore, that when God said, He that sacrificeth to other gods shall be utterly destroyed, Porphyry himself was not afraid lest he should be destroyed for sacrificing to other gods.
This philosopher, however, has also some good to say of Christ, oblivious, as it were, of that contumely of his of which we have just been speaking; or as if his gods spoke evil of Christ only while asleep, and recognized Him to be good, and gave Him His deserved praise, when they awoke. For, as if he were about to proclaim some marvellous thing passing belief, he says, “What we are going to say will certainly take some by surprise. For the gods have declared that Christ was very pious, and has become immortal, and that they cherish his memory: that the Christians, however, are polluted, contaminated, and involved in error. And many other such things,” he says, “do the gods say against the Christians.”
BOOK XX.
CHAP. 19.–WHAT THE APOSTLE PAUL WROTE TO THE THESSALONIANS ABOUT THE MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST AS THE TEMPLE OF GOD, THE FALSE CHURCH, WHICH SHALL PRECEDE THE DAY OF THE LORD.
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,”(2) 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. And on this account some think that in this passage Antichrist means not the prince himself alone, but his whole body, that is, the mass of men who adhere to him, along with him their prince; and they also think that we should render the Greek more exactly were we to read, not “in the temple of God,” but “for” or “as the temple of God,” as if he himself were the temple of God, the Church.(3) Then as for the words, “And now ye know what withholdeth,” i.e., ye know what hindrance or cause of delay there is, “that he might be revealed in his own time;” …(St. Justin Martyr says this is Jesus Christ Himself Who “withholdeth”)…”For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now holdeth, let him hold until he be taken out of the way: and then shall the wicked be revealed?” … That which there is no doubt he said is this, that 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. …they shall be such signs and wonders as shall seduce those who shall deserve to be seduced, “because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.” Neither did the apostle scruple to go on to say, “For this cause God shall send upon them the working of error that they should believe a lie.” For God shall send, because God shall permit the devil to do these things, the permission being by His own just judgment, though the doing of them is in pursuance of the devil’s unrighteous and malignant purpose, “that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Therefore, being judged, they shall be seduced, and, being seduced, they shall be judged. But, being judged, they shall be seduced by those secretly just and justly secret judgments of God, with which He has never ceased to judge since the first sin of the rational creatures; and, being seduced, they shall be judged in that last and manifest judgment administered by Jesus Christ, who was Himself most unjustly judged and shall most justly judge.
Prophecies, The.
The 12 lessons taken from the Old Testament which are chanted before the blessing of the Baptismal Font on Holy Saturday morning. The Prophecies treat of Old Testament history and the prophecies. They were read in the early Church to instruct those about to be baptized.
The Creed
from St. Irenaeus
BOOK I CHAP. X. – UNITY OF THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD. { note that St. Irenaeus is the first to record the creed later called the apostles creed – with a lot more than we usually see } I. The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith; [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and. the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents and the birth from a virgin, and the passion and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven, in the glory of the Father, “to gather all things in one,” and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that I every tongue should confess” to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send spiritual wickednesses,” and the angels who transgressed and became apostates,together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have keptHis commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning [oftheir Christian course and others from [the date of] their repentance, andmay surround them with everlasting glory. 2. As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully ,preserves it. She also believes these points of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. For the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions I of the world { Jerusalem, the mother of all the Churches is here referred to }. But as the sun, that creature of God, is one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shineth everywhere, and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth. Nor will anyone of, the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master) ; nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little, diminish.it. 3 It does not follow because men are endowed with greater and less degrees of intelligence, that they should therefore change the subject-matter of the faith itself, and should conceive of some other God, besides Him who is the Framer, Maker, and Preserver of this universe ( as if He were not sufficient for them ), or of another Christ, or another Only-begotten. …while the Catholic Church possesses one and the same faith throughout the whole world, as we have already said. (Pg.) 332 T&T Clark Erdmans edition;also see CCEL on-line (Pg.) 497 ibid Book 4 Chapter XXVI Section 4. ibid ( Concerning how we act towards heretics – the evolutionary Gnostics ) From all such persons, therefore, it behoves us to keep aloof,…but to adhere to…the doctrine of the Apostles.
The evolutionary Gnostics will have their final version of apostasy in the final Antichrist and his followers all of which will be damned by Jesus Christ. This final Antichrist will not be Nero come again, he will be worse. See below for Nero’s name as the original type of which the final fulfillment of the Antichrist is in the future:
(Hebrew words read right to left) — Hebrew letters for Kaiser (Caesar) Neron (Nero) = nrwn ksr = (Hebrew in parentheses) 100 (Kop)+ 60 (Samek)+ 200 (Res)+ 50 (Nun)+ 200 (Res)+ 6 (Waw)+ 50 (Nun) = 666. {Source The Anchor Bible Dictionary volume IV – page 1145.}
In all of this, of course, there is no doubt that Nero was as much a beast as all of the other persecuting Roman Emperors. May he rest in unease on this his 1,938th anniversary of his demise (June 9th, 2006). Nero will not rise again until the general resurrection of all men when Jesus Christ returns as the Judge.
The final Antichrist will persecute the Church just before Jesus Christ returns.
The visible Church is neither impeccable nor infallible. Too many ecclesial misbehaviours for anyone to seriously consider that. Dogmatically it has never been suggested either.
We are called with St. David to repentance, Psalm 50, Septuagint
A Psalm of David
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy great mercy;
and according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my
transgression.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from
my sin.
For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.
Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy
sight; that Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and overcome
when Thou art judged.
For behold I was conceived in sins; and in iniquities did my mother bear me.
For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.
Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness: and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.
Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my heart.
Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
The final persecution will cleanse Christ’s bride of all the dross and leave Him the gold dressed in white garments only. That bride is His Church which is in fact by His cleansing impeccable. All praise and glory and honor and blessing be to the Lord Jesus Christ with God the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.
But first comes the persecution. That is God’s way of testing the faithful. It always has been. The persecutors will undoubtedly appear moral in a very specious superficial aspect and will be very naturalistic and extremely indignant that anyone would dare to suggest that a supernatural God would interrupt their activities here on earth. They have a very unpleasant surprise coming. Jesus Christ said:
Matthew 24:
32 ¶ And from the fig tree learn a parable: When the branch thereof is now tender and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh.
33 So you also, when you shall see all these things, know ye that it is nigh, even at the doors.
34 Amen I say to you that this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass: but my words shall not pass.
36 But of that day and hour no one knoweth: no, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone (in the Greek the word for alone that is used is an inclusive expression so thatwhat the Father knows is known by the Son Jesus Christ andthe Holy Spirit as well).
37 And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For, as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that dayin whichNoe entered into the ark:
39 And they knew not till the flood came and took themall away: so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.
40Then two shall be in the field. One shall be taken and one shall be left.
41Two women shall be grinding at the mill. Oneshall be taken and one shall be left.
42 Watch ye therefore, because you know not what hour your Lord will come.
43 But this know ye, that, if the goodman of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch and would not suffer his house to be broken open.
44 Wherefore be you also ready, because at what hour you know not the Son of man will come.
45 Who, thinkest thou, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lordhath appointed over his family, to give them meat in season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come he shall find so doing.
47 Amen I say to you: he shall place him over all his goods.
48 But if that evil servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming:
49 And shall begin to strike his fellow servants and shall eat and drink with drunkards:
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopeth not and at an hour that he knoweth not:
51 And shall separate him and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
From the: CATHOLIC DICTIONARY The Catholic Press, Inc. CHICAGO: ILLINOIS Imprimatur + Samuel Cardinal Stritch Archbishop of Chicago Chicago, August 5, 1950
Resurrection of Christ. The greatest of all Christ’s miracles and the proof of His divine mission. For although He worked many other wonders, yet without His Resurrection, as Saint Paul states (1 Cor. 15:17), our faith would be vain and we would still be in our sins. The reason for this is that resurrection from the dead was the sign which Christ Himself promised as the proof of His divine mission (Matt. 12:38 – 41; John 2:19), and had He failed to return to life on the third day He would have been convicted of being an imposter. His enemies, the priests and Pharisees, understood full well the importance of this sign, and therefore took precautions to seal the tomb and post guards (Matt. 27:62 – 66). Since these arrangements excluded the possibility of fraud, they thereby increased for posterity the certainty of the miracle. The Resurrection was not an apparent return or a mere hallucination of the Apostles, but resumption by Christ of His human body. It is a historical fact attested by witnesses who could neither deceive, wish to deceive, nor be deceived. Those whom the Bible mentions as having seen the Risen Christ include: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome; the Apostles; Cleophas and another disciple at Emmaus; Saint Paul; more than 500 disciples. Of the fact of Christ’s Resurrec tion, therefore, there can be no doubt (Matt. 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20). The Apostles bore witness to it constantly; in fact, it formed the basis of their entire preaching (e.g., Acts 2:24-32; 2 Cor. 5:15; 2 Tim. 2:8). Not only is it the foundation of our faith; it is also the pledge and example of our own resurrection. Easter Sunday is the Feast of the Resurrection. Resurrection of the Body. The doctrine that the souls of all men, both good and bad, will be reunited to their bodies at the second coming of Christ. Just as the body shares in the good acts or in the sins of the soul in this life, so it will share in its reward or in its punishment in eternity. Each soul will be reunited, by the power of God, to identically the same body which it inhabited in this life. The risen body, will be without any defect of human nature and will be invested with the special qualities of the glorified body. This doctrine is the 11th article of the Creed, and one of the principal doctrines of our Faith. This consoling truth was known to the orthodox Jews of the Old Testament (2 Mach. 7:9-11) and was more clearly and emphatically taught by Our Lord on various occasions (Matt. 22:23-32; John 5: 28-29). Indeed, by Himself rising from the dead, Christ gave us a pattern and a pledge of our own resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-23; 1 Thess. 4:13); for at His command on the last day our bodies will be restored to us in a condition like to His own glorified body: subject to our souls, and immune from decay, suffering, and death (1 Cor. 15:42-44).
Colors
Red and white baptism
Baptismal liturgy
SUNDAY VESPERS HYMNS
I beg you, Son of the living God; you have worked so many miracles; you changed water into wine at Cana to enlighten Israel;
you healed the eyes of the blind,
you restored hearing to deaf ears
and movement to paralysed limbs,
you corrected the stammering tongue,
freed the possessed,
made the lame run like the deer,
raised up the dead,
and taking him by the hand you made Peter walk upon the water, safe from sinking.
You have left us this saying:
“Ask and you will receive,
knock and it will be opened to you.
All that you ask of the Father, in my name,
I too will ask of my Father, that you may have it”.
I ask that I may receive, seek that I may find,
knock that it may be opened to me.
I ask in your name that you will ask your Father and.
he will hear me.
I am ready to pour out my blood,
as a victim, for your name’s sake,
to bear any torment.
You, Lord, are the one who hears and protects me; defend me from the enemy.
May the angel of light protect me,
for you have said, “What you ask of me
with faith in prayer, I will grant” . . .may your holy spirit work in me; your will be accomplished in me, that I may be wholly yours all the days of my life.
blue and gold eucharist
The first Christian prayer
Father;
May your name be glorified;
Your kingdom come;
Give us day by day,
The bread by which we live;
Forgive us our sins;
As we forgive those who have sinned against us;
And do not allow us to be overcome by temptation.
Luke 11, 2-4
Prayer to Christ
Jesus, immaculate Lamb,
you are both father and lamb
my brother and my friend; . . .
You are he who is all, and that all is in me;
You are he who is, and nothing exists apart from you.
Take refuge in him, you too, my brothers;
and when you have understood that only in him will you have life, then you will receive that joy that was promised:
“That which eye has not seen
nor ear heard,
nor has it entered into the heart of man to imagine”.
Grant to us, then, what has been promised.
We praise you, we thank you, we bear witness to you; we, weak mortals, give you glory,
you who alone are God, for there is no other.’
Glory to you, now and to the end of time. .
Amen. .
Acts of Peter
Offertory prayer
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and for ever and through the ages! Amen.
Lift up your hearts!
- To you, God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Israel, O King of glory! The offering is made to God, the Lord of all things.
- It is right and praiseworthy so to do.
it is right that every tongue should glorify, every voice attest, every creature venerate and celebrate the adorable and glorious name of the most holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who created the world in their loving kindness and out of their goodness saved men and granted to mortals eternal benefits. ‘
Thousands upon thousands of heavenly spirits bless and adore you, myriads and myriads of angels, their spirits on fire, sing to your name. With the cherubim and seraphim, they glorify and adore your grandeur saying to each other as they proclaim unceasingly: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; heaven and earth are filled with his wonderful presence, with the splendour of his greatness.
Hosanna in the highest, hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes and who will come with heavenly power in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
We affirm your presence, Lord, we, your servants, to whom you have made an immense gift which we cannot possibly repay.
You clothed yourself with our humanity, you came down from heaven with your divinity, you have raised up our littleness, lifted us from our prostration, raised to new life our mortal flesh, pardoned our sins, condoned our debt; you have brought light to our minds, vanquished our enemies, given honour to our poverty. Lord, our God may our song meetly give glory, acknowledgement and adoration to your superabundant grace, now and for ever and through all ages. Amen.
Chaldean liturgy
Prayer to the Divine Master
be propitious, 0 Father, Master, to your disciples;
0 Father, Guide of Israel, Father and Son who are one: Lord. Grant to those who obey your precepts,
to be modelled in your image, and to enjoy, after they have been proved, the goodness of God
and not the severity of his judgement.
Grant that we may all live in your peace,
that we may walk in the ways that lead to your city,
resolutely passing over the waters of sin,
sure of the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
your ineffable wisdom.
Grant that day and night, till our last hour,
we may pray in thanksgiving and give thanks in prayer
to the one Father and Son, the Son and the Father;
the Son, the leader and master,
together with the Holy Spirit.
All belongs to the One, in whom is all.
Through him all is one; eternity is his.
We are all his members; all ages are his glory.
To Goodness, to Beauty, to .Wisdom,
To the Just One, all. To him be glory,
now and for all ages.
Amen.
Clement of Alexandria
Prayer over the people
the hand of the only Son, alive and uncontaminated, the hand which cures all our ills,
which sanctifies and protects,
is stretched out over the bowed heads of these people. May the light of the Spirit,
the blessing of heaven, .
the invocation of prophets and apostles
descend upon them.
May it keep their bodies pure in chastity,
their minds intent on study and the knowledge of the mystery. All in union, may they be blessed Father almighty,
through your only Son, Jesus Christ;
through him your glory and omnipotence is known
in the Holy Spirit,
now and for all ages.
Amen.
Serapion of Thmuis
Thanksgiving to Jesus
lord Jesus, I give you thanks,
not only with the lips and heart,
which often comes to little, but with the spirit, with which I speak to you, question you,
love you, and recognise you.
You are my all, and everything is in you.
In you we live, and move, and have our being.
You are our father, our brother, our all;
and to those who love you, you have promised such things as no one has ever seen or thought of,
no one ever enjoyed.
Make the gift of these things to your humble faithful; you who are God, true and good,
and there is no other besides you.
You are the true God, the true Son of God, to whom be honour and glory and majesty in eternity and for all ages to come.
Gallican Formularies
blue and white prayers after eucharist
To Christ the first-born
Christ Jesus our only lord and saviour
the stars that shine and the powers in motion
all vanish in the splendour of your light
and remain still before the power of your greatness.
You alone are visible,
you reveal the image of the Father almighty,
and thus you manifest the sublimity of the Father and the Son. As the Father is almighty in the heavenly sphere,
so are you, the Son, in our universe
the first-born, the guide and lord of all power;
you, from the beginning, are the second grandeur
that comes from that of the Father;
you are the foundation of all the world.
You are our archetype,
the mind which ordains and the one who steers;
you are the way and the door that opens into light.
You are the image of justice;
you are ever our shining star.
To you we render thanks, praise and blessing.
Before you we bend the knee
and we ask, with trust, that we be made holy.
Grant that we may be ever strong in faith,
sound in mind and body
to sing for ever and without ceasing your praises,
that you, the Immortal, ,the Infinite, the Eternal
may be celebrated in every place.
You are the model and essence of the Spirit,
you are our blessed Father,
our king and our God.
With eyes fixed on you, we shall not die, 0 Lord;
if we confess your name we shall not be lost.
Anonymous hymn
Hymn to Christ the light and life
Christ come among men
as source of light,
your ineffable birth
is before the beginning of time. You are the radiant light shining with the Father. You irradiate lustreless matter
and illumine the souls of the faithful.
You have created the world
and fixed the orbit of the stars;
you sustain the axis of the earth, you save all mankind.
You guide the sun in its course
to light up all our days
and the crescent moon
which dispels the darkness of night. You make the seed to sprout preparing food for the flocks.
From your inexhaustible fount
you pour out the splendour of life making fruitful the whole universe. . .
Synesius of Cyrene
Morning hymn
A festive chirrupping announces the day, singing in the light of dawn.
Christ spurs on the soul, .
inviting us to a rebirth, this day.
Arise from your beds, he urges,
where a feeble languor makes you inert. Be watchful, chaste, good, and sober;
for I am close to you. .
. Let us invoke Jesus, aloud, sorrowing, praying, repentant; an ardent invocation
keeps a pure heart on the alert.
O Christ, drive away sleep, break the chains of night, make good the ancient fault, bring to us new light.
Glory be to God the Father,
and to his only Son,
together with the Spirit, the consoler,
now and for ever.
Prudentius
Preface for Epiphany
on the banks of the Jordan
[Father] your voice resounded in the roll of thunder coming from heaven making manifest the Saviour,
showing yourself as Father of eternal light.
You have rent the heavens,
blessed the air,
purified the water,
made manifest your only Son
through the Holy Spirit
appearing in the form of a dove.
Today the fountains, having received your blessing,
cast off the ancient curse;
and so, the faithful, purified from their sins,
are presented to God, for eternal life,
as sons by adoption.
In fact those who through birth in the flesh
were destined for the life of time,
those whom death had seized through the complicity of sin are welcomed into eternal life
and brought back to the glory of heaven.
Ambrosian liturgy
blue and black prayers on awakening
To the eternal creator of the world
eternal maker of the world, who rules over night and day dividing up our daily round to ease the body’s weariness.
O night light for wayfarers
Which distinguishes night from night, the dawn bird now sings aloud calling up the light of the sun.
Holy day star unveiled by him, drives darkness from the face of heaven and malefactors in their troops abandon now their brigandage.
Sailors gain strength as he appears, and the sea’s waves grow calm again; hearing him, the Rock of the Church Christ Jesus our only lord and saviour, [Peter] weeping, mourns his sin.
Let us arise then speedily.
The cock awakens those who sleep and rouses up the drowsy ones; the perjurors are accused by him.
At cock crow hope is born again, and health returns to those who ail; the brigand hides his dagger now, and faith revives in apostate soul.
Jesus, look on those who waver; and, looking, help us to be firm; under your care shame fades away and tears wipe out the stain of sin.
O light, shine now within our souls and torpor fly from every mind; and at the dawn our voices rise
in songs of prayer and praise to you.
Prayer to Christ the creator
Sun of justice, blessed ray,
the first source of light;
O ardently Desired, above all else; powerful, inscrutable, ineffable;
joy of the good, vision of fulfilled hope, .
praised and heavenly, Christ the Creator;
king of glory, assurance of life, . .
fill the void of my miserable voice
with your almighty word;
and offer it as a supplication
pleasing to your Father Most High,
for you have come into the world in likeness to me, subjecting yourself to human suffering,
the heritage of the curse.
O blessing of life, watchful providence
for all, both small and great!
If you accepted to die for me,
you, God and Lord of all,
how much more,
for the sake of the body you assumed, of your nature, will you pardon the weakness that leads me into danger, interceding for me, a sinner,
with the Father whose glory you share.
Gregory of Narek
blue and white nativity matins
Prayer for the Nativity
Jesus Christ, radiant centre of glory,
image of our God, the invisible Father,
revealer of his eternal designs,
prince of peace;
father of the world to come. . .
For our sake he took the likeness of a slave,
becoming flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary,
without intervention of man;
for our sake, wrapped in swaddling bands
and laid in a manger
adored by the shepherds
and hymned by the angelic powers, who sang:
Glory to God in the heavens
and on earth peace and good to men.
Make us worthy, Lord, to celebrate and to conclude in peace the feast which magnifies the rising of your light,
by avoiding empty words, working with justice, fleeing from the passions and raising up the spirit above earthly goods.
Bless your Church, formed long ago
to be united with yourself through your life giving blood.
Come to the aid of your faithful shepherds,
of the priests and the teachers of your Gospel.
Bless your faithful whose only hope is in your mercy; christian souls, the sick, those who are tormented in spirit and those who have
asked Us to pray for them. .
Have pity, in your infinite clemency, and preserve us in fitness to receive the future, endless good things.
- We celebrate your glorious nativity
with the Father who sent you for our redemption,
with the life-giving Spirit,
now and for ever and through all ages. Amen.
Syriac liturgy
Hymn for the Nativity
Sons of men, do you truly speak of justice? Dwellers on the earth,
do you truly judge with fairness?
We confess with unshakable faith
that God, who was made man
and who was given birth by a Virgin.
Before all time he was begotten. ¬
of an immeasurable Father;
now we adore him who became incarnate
in a Virgin’s womb.
He is the creator of all,
himself remaining invisible and distinct from creation.
So we are able to say:
in you, Lord, is clemency; glory be to you.
a holy God,
you have deigned to be born, a tiny child, from a Virgin. I
O God, holy and strong,
you have willed to rest in the arms of Mary.
O God, holy and immortal,
you have come to rescue Adam from hell.
O immaculate Virgin, Mother of God, full of grace,
Emmanuel, whom you have carried,
is the fruit of your womb.
In your maternal bosom you have nourished all men.
You are above all praise and all glory.
Hail, Mother of God, joy of the angels.
The fullness of your grace
goes beyond what the prophets foretold.
The Lord is with you,
you have given birth
to the Saviour of the world.
Fragment from an ancient eucharistic liturgy
Christmas prayer
we praise you, Lord Jesus Christ,
God-Saviour of men,
stupendously powerful with the Father;
we praise you, we invoke you, we pray to you; assist us with your pardon, with clemency give us your grace.
Awaken in our hearts desires deserving of fulfilment; suggest to us words that are worthy to be heard; grant that our actions may be worthy of blessing.
We beg you to renew your birth in human nature, penetrating us with your invisible godhead
as you did in a unique way in Mary
and do now spiritually in the Church.
May you be conceived by our faith,
that a mind untouched by corruption may bring you forth, that the soul, ever confirmed by the power of the Most High, may offer you a dwelling place.
Be not born in us, but reveal yourself in us. Be truly for us the Emmanuel, God with us.
Deign to remain with us, to fight for us. Only so can we conquer.
Mozarabic litUrgy
dark red and black lent lauds
A plea for pardon
MONDAY VESPERS HYMNS
Jesus, come, make yourself a servant for me.
Pour the water into the basin; come, wash my feet. I know that what I ask is temerarious, but I fear your
words:
“If I do not wash your feet, you can have no part with me”.
Wash, then, my feet, that I may have a part with you. But what do I say, wash my feet?
Peter could say this
for he needed only his feet to be washed
for he was all adamant.
But I, once bathed,
have need of that baptism
of which the Lord said:
“As for me, there is another baptism with which I must be baptised” .
Origen
Canticle for the resurrection of Lazarus ¬
Lord of the heavens, merciful father of the humble, who by a single word restored Lazarus to life,
grant to those who have gone before us
the grace to contemplate the light of your countenance.
Give us the grace to live in peace in our time, to accept the death you have prepared for us, to be guided, both in life
and in death, by your will.
Give but a sign, a word,
0 Lord, and already we are saved.
You will not abandon those who love you
but keep them in life, and call them to yourself who are risen. You are the resurrection and the life.
Romanos the Melodious
Lenten hymn
remain, 0 Christ, in the hearts you have redeemed.
You who are perfect love,
pour into our words
sincere repentance.
We raise our prayer to you,
0 Jesus, with faith;
pardon the sin we have committed.
By the holy sign of the cross,
by your tortured body,
defend us constantly as your sons.
The Venerable Bede
Yellow and black easter prime
Easter Hymn
It is the Pasch; the Pasch of the Lord. . .
0 you, who are truly all in all! . . .
The joy, the honour, the food and the delight of every creature; .
through you the shadows of death have fled away,
and life is given to all,
the gates of heaven are flung open.
God becomes man
and man is raised up to the likeness of God.
O divine Pasch! . . .
O Pasch, light of new splendour . . .
The lamps of our souls will no more burn out.  The flame of grace,
divine and spiritual,
burns in the body and soul,
nourished by the resurrection of Christ.
We beg you, O Christ, Lord God,
eternal king of the spiritual world, stretch out your protecting hands
over your holy Church
and over your holy people;
defend them, keep them, preserve them. . .
Raise up your standard over us
and grant that we may sing with Moses
the song of victory, .
for yours is the glory and the power for all eternity! Amen. .
Hippolytus of Rome
Canticle for the Easter vigil
Today we have contemplated upon the altar
our Lord Jesus Christ. . . Today we have heard his voice, powerful yet gentle, admonishing us:
This is the Body which burns up the thorns of sin and gives light to the souls of men. . .
This is the Body in whose presence
the daughter of the Canaanite was cured.
This is the Body, which, approached
in full confidence by the sinful woman,
set her free from the mire of sin.
This is the Body Thomas touched
and recognising, cried out:
my Lord and my God.
This is the Body, great and most high,
Which is the principle of our salvation.
One day he who is the Word
and our Life determined
that his blood should be poured out for us and offered for the forgiveness of our sins.
We have drunk of the blood
by which we have been redeemed, restored, instructed, given light.
Who is entitled to celebrate the mystery of grace? we have been found worthy to share in this gift. Let us keep it to the end that we may hear
from his holy and blessed voice:
“Come, 0 blessed, to my Father,
Receive the inheritance of the kingdom prepared for you”.
Then those who crucified the Lord will fear; those who have not believed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will be ashamed;
those who have denied and not borne witness to the most holy Trinity, one God, will be lost.
As for us, beloved,
we celebrate the wonder of the baptism of Jesus, his holy and life-giving resurrection,
through which salvation has come to the world. We await the happy fulfilment of redemption
in the grace and love
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to whom is due all glory, honour and adoration.
Fragment from an ancient eucharistic liturgy
Easter hymn
we glorify you, 0 Christ, singing: glory to the Lord! He was born of the Holy Spirit in order to give us life. He deigned to dwell among us.
To him we render our veneration,
crying out together: glory to the Lord!
Behold: the Virgin has given birth to Emmanuel. He has come down from heaven,
has saved from Egypt a people that was lost. Let us exalt him, crying: glory to the Lord!
He has willed to overcome our enemy;
has made his dwelling in the Virgin Mary: the invisible has become visible in flesh.
Let us adore him, crying out: glory to the Lord!
Born of a woman ever virgin,
the Word of truth rose again for us. Let us celebrate the Lord, intoning: glory to the Lord!
Light from light, Christ our king
is risen for us.
He has saved us from the land of Egypt; all together let us sing: glory to the Lord!
Fragment from an ancient eucharistic liturgy
Paschal doxology
O Pasch, great and holy mystery that purifies the universe, I would speak to you as if you had a soul.
O Word of God, light and life, wisdom and power!
I greet you with your many names.
Illustrious shoot, breath and image of the Spirit!
O Word of God, visible being in whom all is assumed
and all governed by your power!
Deign to listen to my words: .
they are not the beginning
but certainly the fulfilment of my offering.
Grant that they may be both thanksgiving and supplication.
Grant that I may bear only the trials of the spirit
that bring the reward assigned to our life.
Lighten the weight of the body;
You know, O Lord, how heavily it weighs.
Mitigate the severity of your judgment,
when we come to be winnowed by you.
But if our desires will be realised
grant that we may set out on our way and find welcome
in the heavenly mansions.
We will go on offering to you an acceptable sacrifice,
on your altar, Father, Word and Holy Spirit.
To you be the glory, the honour and the power through all ages. Amen.
Gregory Nazianzen
Easter hymn
night clearer than the day!
O night more luminous than the sun! 0 night whiter than the snow! giving more light than our torches, sweeter than Paradise!
O night that knows no darkness;
driving away our sleep,
you make us keep watch with the angels.
O night, the terror of the demons,
paschal night, awaited for a year!
The Church’s wedding night
which gives life to the newly baptised
and renders harmless the torpidity of the demon. Night in which the Heir
brings the heirs into eternity.
Asterius of Amasea
Preface for Easter
It is necessary, and for our well-being, to give you thanks God, holy and almighty,
to celebrate your praise with devotion, Father of glory, creator and author of the universe,
through your Son, Jesus Christ.
He, being God, full of majesty, humbled himself
to the point of accepting the punishment of the cross
for the salvation of men.
In the depth of ages
Abraham prefigured this in his son;
the people of Moses with the paschal lamb they immolated.
He it is of whom
announcement was made by the voice of the prophets:
he would take upon himself the sins of all men,
cancel out the whole of our misdeeds.
This is the great Pasch
which the blood of Christ has covered with glory,
making the Christian people exult with joyous devotion!
O mystery of grace!
Inexpressible mystery of divine munificence!
O festival most venerated among all festivals,
in which he abandoned himself to men
even unto death, to save mere slaves!
O blessed death, which has broken the chains of death!
Now the prince of hell is vanquished,
and we, saved from the abyss of guilt,
exult in joy and take with Christ once more
the road to heaven.
Ambrosian liturgy
Red and white Pentecost terse
Prayer for help
TUESDAY VESPERS HYMNS
have pity, O Christ,
on those who believe in you. You are the God of glory for all ages.
Hasten to the aid of those who suffer, make speed to comfort those in trouble.
Father of believers, life of the living,
God who is over all, for there is no one above you.
Creator of all things, universal judge, Lord over princes, God of the world.
Sublime majesty of the heavenly Jerusalem, king, glory, and triumph of the kingdom.
God of eternal light, inexpressible,
highest, most loveable, beyond compare.
Great and clement God, wise and omniscient, mover of all things, ancient and new.
Pope Pelagius I
Prayer for salvation
my Saviour, grant that the arduous task of my salvation may be brought to a happy conclusion. May neither the lashing rains,
nor the impetus of torrents racing down from the
mountains,
nor the violent storm be able to shake my house.
With your victorious hand, assist me, Lord!
Be my help, preserve my life,
that I may praise you, the giver and Lord of all that is most precious and the salvation of men.
Without you, Almighty, no work would exist, no project, no idea, no proposal, no security, nor any of those things that
would serve to attain the final end.
You have created and given me, both soul and body; you have raised me up when I had fallen,
and have shown me the way to heaven.
And you will bring me in, without merit of mine, to your house to live with you in eternity
and to sing a hymn to your glory
along with all the blessed.
Maximus
Prayer for the catholic Church
we beg you, good Jesus, our Lord,
by the intercession of the glorious Virgin Mary your Mother, and of all angels and saints,
to increase the faith of your catholic Church, to grant us peace and forgive our sins.
Grant health to the sick,
a good journey and happy arrival
to those who travel by land or sea or air,
serenity to those who suffer,
liberty to the oppressed;
to slaves, to the vanquished, to pilgrims, liberty, clemency and return to their homeland.
Send your holy angel on sentry
over those who place obstacles to fraternal charity;
in your kindness grant true faith to those who believe not, and eternal repose to those of our brothers
who have died in the faith.
Alcuin’s Liturgical Collection
FOR THE SUNDAY OF PENTECOST
The Work of His Hands. Alleluia.
tHE heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaimeth the work of His hands.
By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established.
And all the might of them by the Spirit of His mouth.
For he hath looked out from His holy height. The lord looked down from heaven, He beheld all the sons of men.
Fire shall go before Him.
And round about Him shall there be a mighty tempest.
Coals were kindled therefrom.
And he bowed the heavens and came down.
from the Far-shining radiance that was before Him there passed by clouds.
The wings of a dove covered with silver.
And her pinions of sparkling gold.
Out of Sion is the magnificence of His comeliness.
When He that is in the heavens ordaineth kings over her.
They shall be made snow-white in Selmon.
All the ends of the earth shall remember and shall turn unto the lord.
And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him.
For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He Himself is sovereign of the nations.
The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls.
The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, bringing wisdom to infants.
The statutes of the Lord are upright, gladdening the heart.
The commandment of the Lord is far-shining, enlightening the eyes.
The earth was shaken and the heavens dropped dew, at the presence of
The God of Sinai, at the presence of the God of Israel.
A raIn freely gIven shalt Thou ordaIn, 0 God, for ThIne inheritance; yea it became weak.
But Thou shalt restore it.
In the stead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee.
Thou shalt make them princes over all the earth.
Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth.
And their words unto the ends of the world.
Thou wilt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created.
And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
Thy good Spirit shall lead me in the land of uprightness.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.
And with Thy governing Spirit establish me. The Lord shall give speech with great power to them that bring good tidings.
The Lord will give strength unto His people.
The Lord will bless His people with peace.
Glory; both now. Alleluia.
Red and black cross sext
Invocations before martyrdom
WEDNEDAY VESPERS HYMNS
Let no creature, visible or invisible, attract me, so that I may belong to Jesus Christ alone.
Fire and the cross; herds of wild beasts; torn, stretched, rent, lacerated limbs; dislocated bones; crushed body; and all the tremendous torments of the devil let them all come upon me if only I can rest in Jesus Christ.
All the kingdoms of this world and the joy of them are nothing to me. I prefer to die in Christ than to reign from one end of the earth to the other.
I seek him who died for us; I long for him who rose again for our sakes.
Be good to me, my brothers; do not impede my birth into life, do not kill me [by preventing me from dying for Christ], do not give to the world one who desires to belong only to God. Allow me to turn to that pure light: when I arrive there [in the arena] I will be a man of God indeed.
Let me imitate the passion of my God. Let anyone who lives with God in his heart understand my desire, and sympathize with me in my torment.
Ignatius of Antioch
Prayer at the stake
he was not nailed but bound. And bound thus, with his hands behind his back, he seemed like a lamb chosen from the flock for the sacrifice, prepared as a holocaust pleasing to God; and raising his eyes to heaven he said:
Lord, God almighty, Father of Jesus Christ, your blessed and beloved Son who has taught us to know you.
God of the angels, of the whole of creation, of the whole race of the just who live in your presence: I bless you because you have judged me worthy of this day and of this hour; worthy to be added to the number of the martyrs; worthy to drink the chalice of your Christ, so as to rise up to eternal life in body and soul in the immortality of the Holy Spirit.
May I today be numbered among the martyrs in your presence as a precious and acceptable victim; bring to completion that which your will has prepared and revealed to me; God, faithful and true, for this grace and for all the others, I praise you, I glorify you, and bless you through our eternal heavenly priest, your beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
Through him, with him, and with the Holy Spirit, may you be glorified now and through all ages.
Amen.
Poly carp of Smyrna
Prayer to Christ
Communion chant
Let us invoke Christ.
The sacred Body of Christ! The lamb of God,
the sacred Body of him who died for our salvation!
The sacred Body of him
who revealed the mystery of grace of the new covenant
to his disciples.
The sacred Body which washed with water
the feet of the apostles, and with the Spirit washed their souls.
The sacred Body which pardoned the penitent woman; the sacred Body whose blood makes us clean.
The sacred body which
received the kiss of betrayal; the sacred Body which
loved the world so much
as to accept even death on a cross.
We bless and glorify your name.
Fragment from an ancient eucharistic liturgy
Communion chant
your sacrament, Lord Jesus Christ,
gives life
and the remission of sins;
you have suffered the passion for our sake.
For us you have drunk gall to take from us all bitterness;
you have drunk a bitter wine for us to lift us from our weariness;
you have been despised for us,
that the dew of immortality might be poured upon us;
you have been beaten with scourges to ensure to our frailty eternal life;
you have been crowned with thorns that your faithful might be crowned with the evergreen laurels of love;
you have been wrapped in a winding sheet that we might be clothed in your strength;
you were laid in the tomb
that in a new age loving kindness might again be granted to us.
Fragment from an ancient eucharistic liturgy
Communion chant
He has given them a heavenly bread
and man has eaten the bread of angels.
He has given them a heavenly bread
we have received a bread of blessing:
the Body of Christ and his precious Blood.
The Lord. . . then took the bread,
and a saving drink, the chalice of life.
We have received the holy bread.
Let us bless the Lord who has done great things on all the earth. All the people, praise the Lord,
exult with joy in the Lord, 0 you just:
you have received the Body and Blood of Christ.
We give you thanks, 0 Christ, our God,
because you have deigned to share with us
your Body and your Blood, 0 Saviour;
you have drawn to yourself our hearts. . .
Fragment from an ancient eucharistic liturgy
Communion chant
You, who once spoke to Moses
on mount Sinai,
have received from an immaculate Virgin flesh that is free from all sin.
You who once pastured Israel, now feed on the milk of a Mother who has not known man.
a marvellous happening!
You who once punished kings now save yourself from a king by flight into Egypt.
You, seated in majesty [on a high throne] were laid in a manger
retaining all your dignity.
And now, full of faith,
we praise the Mother and sing to the Son.
He who in heaven is God and has no mother,
has descended to earth and lived as though motherless.
To you be the glory!
Fragment from an ancient eucharistic liturgy
Prayer before martyrdom
lord, God almighty, Jesus Christ, who came to call not the just but sinners to repentance, in fulfilment of your promise you have graciously said: In the moment that the sinner repents of his fault, I forget his sin.
Accept my repentance in this hour of pain, and by means of this fire prepared for my body, set me free from the eternal fire that would burn both soul and body.
I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for having accepted me as a holocaust to your name. I thank you for having offered yourself on the cross as a victim for the whole world; you, the just for the unjust; the good for the evil; you, the innocent, a victim for sinners.
I offer my sacrifice to you, who with the Father and the holy Spirit, live and reign, God, for ever and ever. Amen!
Afra of Augusta
Prayer to the suffering Christ
I fall in adoration at your feet, Lord! I thank you, God of goodness;
God of holiness, I invoke you,
on my knees, in your sight. . .
For me, an unworthy sinner,
you have willed to undergo the death of the cross, setting me free from the bonds of evil.
What shall I offer you in return for your generosity?
Glory to you, friend of men!
Glory to you, most merciful!
Glory to you, most patient!
Glory to you who forgive sin!
Glory to you who have come to save us!
Glory to you who have been made man in the womb of a Virgin!
Glory to you who have been bound!
Glory to you who have been scourged!
Glory to you who have been derided!
Glory to you who have been nailed to the cross!
Glory to you, laid in the sepulchre, but risen again!
Glory to you who have preached the Gospel to men and have been believed!
Glory to you who have ascended to heaven!
Glory to you, seated at the right hand of the Father
and who will return with him, in majesty, among the angels, to judge those who have disregarded your passion!
The powers of heaven will be shaken;
all the angels and archangels, the cherubim and seraphim will appear in fear and trembling before your glory;
the foundations of the earth will quake
and all that has life will cry out before your majesty.
In that hour let your hand draw me beneath your wings, and save me from the terrible fire, from the gnashing of teeth, from the outer darkness and from despair without end. That I may sing to your glory:
glory to him who through his merciful goodness
has designed to redeem the sinner.
Ephrem Syrus
In praise of the Cross
O Cross, ineffable love of God and glory of heaven!
O Cross; eternal salvation;
O Cross, terror of the reprobate.
O Cross, support of the just, light of Christians,
for you, God became a slave in the flesh, here on earth; by your means, man in God is crowned king in heaven;
from you streams the true light, victorious over accursed night. You gave believers power to make
the pantheon of the nations quake;
you are the soul of peace
that unites men in Christ the mediator;
you are the ladder for man to climb to heaven.
Be always for us, your faithful, both pillar and anchor;
watch over our homes, set the course of our ship.
In the Cross may our faith remain strong,
and there be our crown prepared.
Paulinus of Nola
Hymn to the Cross
he regal banners now advance, now shines the mystery of the cross on which the Creator of mankind made man, was raised on high to die.
With arms fast bound and nailed hands the cross-piece fixed, we now behold the sign of our redemption there where Clemency the victim makes.
His side, sore wounded by the point, transpiercing, of the cruel lance,
to cleanse the world from sinful stain pours blood and water from the wound.
Now is the prophecy fulfilled
of David speaking with such truth when to the nations he foretold that God would reign upon a tree.
O shining and majestic tree adorned with regal mantle now, most noble trunk, chosen to bear limbs of such great sanctity.
O blessed tree, that with your arms support the Saviour of the world a balance for that flesh divine . that snatched away the prey of hell.
From your bark a perfume breathes in sweetness surpassing nectar far, proudly you bear the fertile fruit while shouts acclaim his triumph now.
From the glory of the Passion praise to the altar and Victim blest in passion, undergoing death, with death, restoring life again.
Hail cross, our one and only hope, in this our time of mourning, grant that all the faithful grow in grace and sinners have their guilt forgiven.
O Trinity, the source of life,
all spirits sing their praise to you.
To those time-bound give comfort still, who by the cross have been redeemed.
Venantius F ortunatus
Prayer to obtain forgiveness
pardon, Lord; pardon your people
whom you have redeemed with your blood, 0 Christ; may your anger not weigh upon us.
We pray you for your infinite clemency; turn away your wrath from this city and turn from this holy house.
We have sinned against you
and you have been angry with us
and no one can flee from your punishments.
We have sinned against you, 0 Lord, we have sinned.
Be merciful to us, set us free from ills which every day fall upon us.
Pardon, O Lord, the sins of your people, according to your infinite generosity.
You once showed kindness to our fathers: be merciful to us and your glory
will shine out in our lives.
Pardon, O Lord, those who have sinned; give your grace to those who repent; have pity on us who pray to you,
O Christ, Saviour of the world.
Jesus, look upon us and have pity. Amen.
Hibernian-Celtic hymnody
Ode to Christ the saVIOur
Christ incarnate makes me worthy of God, Christ humbled for me, raises me high, Christ, the giver of life,
suffering in human nature,
makes me impassive.
And so, I sing a hymn of thanksgiving,
to him who is glorified.
Christ crucified raises me high,
Christ who is slain makes me rise again with him;
Christ gives me life.
And so, clapping my hands with joy,
I sing to the saviour a hymn of victory,
to him who is glorified.
Cosmas of Maiuma
Ode to Christ crucified
by the tree of the cross
you have healed the bitterness of the tree, and have opened Paradise to men.
Glory be to you, Lord!
Now we are no longer prevented.
from coming to the tree of life;
we have hope in your cross.
Glory be to you, Lord!
O Immortal One, nailed to the wood,
you have triumphed over the snares of the devil. Glory be to you, Lord!.
You, who for my sake have submitted
to being placed on the cross,
accept my vigilant celebration of praise,
O Christ, God, Friend of men.
Lord of the heavenly armies,.
who knows my carelessness of soul,
save me by your cross,
O Christ, God, Friend of men.
Brighter than fire, more luminous than flame,
have you shown the wood of your cross, 0 Christ.
Burn away the sins of the sick and enlighten the hearts of those who, with hymns, celebrate
your voluntary crucifixion.
Christ, God, glory to you!
Christ, God,
who for us accepted a sorrowful crucifixion,
accept all who sing hymns to your passion,
and save us.
Byzantine liturgy
Plea for protection
with the seal of the cross,
impressed with your blood,
with which we have been baptized
to make us ready for adoption,
you have modelled us into the image of your glory:
By all these divine gifts:
satan be put to confusion, his plots overturned,
his snares evaded, the enemy vanquished,
his sharp weapons repelled,
light shine through the gloom,
darkness be dispelled,
mists fade away.
Would that your arms might receive us
into your protection,
your right hand press its seal upon us.
You are indeed full of love and clemency
and your name is invoked over your faithful.
To you, together with the Father
through the Holy Spirit,
be glory and majesty through all ages. Amen.
Gregory of Narek
Blue and yellow twilight none
Hymn for Ascension Day
THURSDAY VESPERS HYMNS
on this day the new bread of the spirit has gone up to heaven.
The mysteries were revealed in your Body which has gone up as an offering.
Blessed be your bread, 0 Lord!
The Lamb has come to us from the house of David;
the priest, from the stock of Abraham,
has become for our sakes the Lamb of God,
the new minister of sacrifice.
His body is the victim, his blood is our drink. . Blessed be the new sacrifice!
He has descended from heaven like the light; is born of Mary as a divine shoot;
as a fruit he has fallen from the cross;
and is offered up to heaven as the first fruits. Blessed be his will!
You are the offering of heaven and of earth, immolated and at the same time adored.
You came to be a victim,
you ascended as a singular offering,
you ascended, Lord,
bearing with you the offering of your sacrifice.
Ephrem Syrus
Blue and gold evening hymn vespers
Evening hymn
FRIDAY VESPERS HYMNS
O Christ Jesus, radiant light
of the immortal glory of the Father of heaven! As the sun sinks to its setting
we are face to face with the twilight of evening: we honour God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy ever to be hymned by voices that are pure, Son of God who gives us life.
The universe proclaims your glory.
Athenegoras, Christian martyr, at the lighting of the lamps
Prayer to Christ
he who is immortal
has suffered much for us.
Come to help us, Son of God, born of Mary! Christ Jesus, come to our aid, born of Mary!
Heavenly shoot from the stock of David,
come to our aid, O Son, born of Mary!
Christ Jesus, come to our aid, 0 Son, born of Mary!
May the immortal Son be praised over all the earth. Come to our aid, O Son, born of Mary!
Christ Jesus, come to our aid, O Son, born of Mary!
In your clemency, you came from heaven to earth. Come to our aid, O Son, born of Mary!
Christ Jesus, come to Our aid, O Son, born of Mary!
master of true life from all eternity,
Come to our aid, O Son, born of Mary!
Christ Jesus, come to our aid, O Son, born of Mary!
Egyptian epigraph
Hymn for the night
O Christ, Word of God,
light of light, without beginning,
help of the Spirit, we praise you. Threefold light of one undivided glory, we praise you.
You have banished the darkness and created the light and in this you have created all things 70 generations before your incarnation ex nihilo on one day at the very beginning
To matter you have given life
Giving it the imprint of the face of the world
and the traits of its beauty on the rest of the first 6 days
You have illumined man’s spirit
with reason and wisdom when on the last of the first 6 days you formed adam from the moist earth and breathed into him and he became a living soul cast him into a deep sleep and formed eve from his side the first man and woman with none other before them anywhere else and none other with them at the beginning anywhere else from whom are all men descended here on earth wherein all salvation is worked out from the first adam to the last saint saved by no other than you jcols by your +
Your eternal light is reflected everywhere,
so that, in the light, man might discover
true beauty, and all become luminous.
You have lit up the heavens with variegated lights.
The night and the day you have commanded to take turns in a rule of fraternal friendship; .
the first brings to an end the fatigue of the body,
the other spurs us on to work as commanded;
and we flee from the darkness
to hasten towards that day
which no sadness of the night
can ever bring to an end.
Give to my eyelids a light slumber
that my voice may not long remain silent.
While created things watch to sing psalms with the angels, may my sleep be ever restful in your presence;
may the night make me oblivious of the day’s sins,
and its oddities not beset my dreams.
Even if my body is inert
my spirit, O God, gives you praise! Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
to you be honour and glory and power through all ages. Amen.
Gregory Nazianzen
Evening hymn
give to us, O Lord, the peace of the evening and save us from the snares of the enemy in the strength of your holy and victorious
cross.
Lord of my salvation,
I implore you day and night,
may my prayers come unto you,
bend your ear to my pleading.
May there come to us, a Lord,
a guardian sent by you
to protect us always.
Implant in us, a Lord,
the power of your holy cross
which will protect us always.
Make us worthy, O Lord,
to spend this evening
in peace and without temptation.
Deign, O Lord,
during this night,
to keep us in peace and without sin.
The Lord God is with us;
know this, you nations, and be bewildered;
for God is with us.
In him will we hope
and he will be our salvation;
because God is with us. . .
And the people that dwelt in darkness
see the great light;
for God is with us.
And you who live in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
light will shine upon you;
because God is with us.
And we have been given a Son; for God is with us.
And the dominion
will be on his shoulders;
because God is with us.
And his name will be
“Messenger of the great mystery”; for God is with us.
And “Wonderful Counsellor”;
because God is with us.
And “God the strong prince”; because God is with us.
And the “Prince of peace”,
“Father of the world to come”;
the “Lord God with us”.
Armenian liturgy
Dark blue and gold Night prayer compline
Prayer from the anaphora of Gregory
SATURDAY VESPERS HYMNS
O Christ, our God, we beg you:
give stability and strength to the Church, implant in the depths of our souls
the harmony of love,
that the integrity of faith may grow.
Give firmness to the shepherds
and soundness to the flock.
May the clergy be irreprehensible in their morals, the monks continent,
the virgins pure,
married couples in accord;
may the penitent receive your pardon;
the rich be generous,
those in power, moderate;
may the poor receive help.
Be strength to the old
and teacher to the young.
Enlighten those without faith,
make divisions in the Church to cease,
break the pride of heretics
and deign to hold us all united
in concord and love.
Coptic liturgy
Prayer of an old man
lord, Christ Jesus, king of kings, you have power over life and death; you know the intimate secrets and none of our thoughts and sentiments are unknown to you. Repair the evil which I have done in your sight.
My life declines from day to day and my sin is growing. O Lord, God of soul and body, you know the extreme frailty of my soul and of my flesh, give strength to my weakness and sustain me in my anguish.
You, who are my powerful support, know that I am esteemed by many. Give me a grateful heart, which will not forget your benefits, Lord of infinite goodness! Forget my many sins and pardon all my treachery.
Lord, do not despise the prayer of one who is sorry; keep me in your grace as you have kept me in the past. This has shown me the wisdom of: blessed are those who pass swiftly through life, for they will receive a crown of glory.
Lord, I praise and glorify you in spite of my unworthiness, for your mercy to me has been without limit. You are my help and my protector. May your name be ever praised!
To you, O Lord our God, be glory!
Ephrem Syrus
Prayer in sickness
give me strength, O Christ. Your servant is undone. My voice, singing to you, is now silent.
How can you allow it?
Give me strength, and do not abandon your minister. I would have health once more;
sing to your praise and sanctify your people.
I beg you, my strength, do not desert me.
If my faith has grown less in the storm,
yet I would return to you.
Gregory Nazianzen
“Dura-Europos”
Dura europos is simply the house churches that the early Church met in. In each of these as the Didache (written 49 A.D.) tells us people selected their own bishops. St. Clement of Rome (Apostolic Father), in his epistle, tells us the same — he rebuked a small group in Corinth for not honoring the bishop that the whole local congregation had selected.
The Church began in small house churches and she will great her Lord when He returns from the same with all the faithful in all the faithful churches of every size.

Apostasy

Mt:10:13:
13 And if that house be worthy, your peace shall come upon it; but if it be not worthy, your peace shall return to you. (DRV)
Lk:10:6:
6 And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him: but if not, it shall return to you. (DRV)
Mt:10:14:
14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words: going forth out of that house or city shake off the dust from your feet. (DRV)
Mk:6:11:
11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you; going forth from thence, shake off the dust from your feet for a testimony to them. (DRV)
Lk:9:5:
5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off even the dust of your feet, for a testimony against them. (DRV)
ST. AUGUSTINE, THE CITY OF GOD
BOOK VIII.
CHAP. 24.—IDOLS ARE THE MEANS BY WHICH DEMONS ENSNARE MEN TO DAMNATION…For although man made gods, it did not follow that he who made them was not held captive by them, when, by worshipping them, he was drawn into fellowship with them,–into the fellowship not of stolid idols, but of cunning demons; for what are idols but what they are represented to be in the same Scriptures, “They have eyes, but they do not see,”(2) and, though artistically fashioned, are still without life and sensation? But unclean spirits, associated through that wicked art with these same idols, have miserably taken captive the souls of their worshippers, by bringing them down into fellowship with themselves. Whence the apostle says, “We know that an idol is nothing, but those things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I would not ye should have fellowship with demons.”(3) …”Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name; declare well His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, among all people His wonderful things. For great is the Lord, and much to be praised: He is terrible above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols of demons: but the Lord made the heavens.”(4)
… a time was coming when the worship of idols should be abolished, and the domination of the demons over those who worshipped them (by Jesus Christ condemning and defeating paganism)
BOOK XIII
CHAP. 5.–For then death was incurred by sinning, now righteousness is fulfilled by dying. In the case of the holy martyrs it is so; for to them the persecutor proposes the alternative, apostasy or death. For the righteous prefer by believing to suffer what the first transgressors suffered by not believing. For unless they had sinned, they would not have died; but the martyrs sin if they do not die. The one died because they sinned, the others do not sin because they die. By the guilt of the first, punishment was incurred; by the punishment of the second, guilt is prevented. Not that death, which was before an evil, has become something good, but only that God has granted to faith this grace, that death, which is the admitted opposite to life, should become the instrument by which life is reached.
BOOK XIX
CHAP. 21. …For if they assert that in their republic the Romans did not serve unclean spirits, but good and holy gods, must we therefore again reply to this evasion, though already we have said enough, and more than enough, to expose it? He must be an uncommonly stupid, or a shamelessly contentious person, who has read through the foregoing books to this point, and can yet question whether the Romans (or any other pagans as Augustine makes the point time and again) served wicked and impure demons. But, not to speak of their character, it is written in the law of the true God, “He that sacrificeth unto any god save unto the Lord only, be shall be utterly destroyed.”{Augustine’s quote from Ex:22:20:
20 He that sacrificeth to gods, shall be put to death, save only to the Lord. (DRV) which St. Augustine quotes many times to drive the point home.} The dreadful sanction of this command makes it clear that God wanted no sacrifices offered to such gods, good or evil. (As St. Augustine states repeatedly elswhere, all the other gods are, in reality, evil.)
CHAP. 22.–WHETHER THE GOD WHOM THE CHRISTIANS SERVE IS THE TRUE GOD TO WHOM ALONE SACRIFICE OUGHT TO BE PAID.
But it may be replied, Who is this God, or what proof is there that He alone is worthy to receive sacrifice from theRomans? One must be very blind to be still asking who this God is. He is the God whose prophets predicted the things we see accomplished. He is the God from whom Abraham received the assurance, “In thy seed shall all nations be blessed.”(2)That this was fulfilled in Christ, who according to the flesh sprang from that seed, is recognized, … He is the God whose divine Spirit spake by the men whose predictions I cited in the preceding books, and which are fulfilled in the Church which has extended over all the world.
….
CHAP. 23.–PORPHYRY’S ACCOUNT OF THE RESPONSES GIVEN BY THE ORACLES OF THE GODS CONCERNING CHRIST.
…
In this oracle of his god Apollo, Porphyry avowed that the God of the Hebrews is so great that the deities themselves are afraid before Him. I am surprised, therefore, that when God said, He that sacrificeth to other gods shall be utterly destroyed, Porphyry himself was not afraid lest he should be destroyed for sacrificing to other gods. (which false sacrifice Porphyry did offer and caused others to do)
This philosopher, however, has also some (pretended) good to say of Christ, oblivious, as it were, of that contumely (slanderous lies) of his of which we have just been speaking; or as if his gods spoke evil of Christ only while asleep, and recognized Him to be good, and gave Him His deserved praise, when they awoke. For, as if he were about to proclaim some marvellous thing passing belief, he says, “What we are going to say will certainly take some by surprise. For the gods have declared that Christ was very pious, and has become immortal, and that they cherish his memory: that the Christians, however, are polluted, contaminated, and involved in error. And many other such things,” he says, “do the gods say against the Christians.”
St. Augustine in the rest of this chapter goes on to relate how Porphyry then claims that one of pagan goddesses, Hecate, the underworld three headed goddess of black magic whose animal familiar was a dog, claimed that Jesus Christ was not resurrected in the flesh but only spiritually and was only a good man and not God. St. Augustine absolutely condemns this as diabolic lies by enemies of Christians.
BOOK XX.
CHAP. 19.–WHAT THE APOSTLE PAUL WROTE TO THE THESSALONIANS ABOUT THE MANIFESTATION OF ANTICHRIST AS THE TEMPLE OF GOD, THE FALSE CHURCH, WHICH SHALL PRECEDE THE DAY OF THE LORD.
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,”(2) 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. And on this account some think that in this passage Antichrist means not the prince himself alone, but his whole body, that is, the mass of men who adhere to him, along with him their prince; and they also think that we should render the Greek more exactly were we to read, not “in the temple of God,” but “for” or “as the temple of God,” as if he himself were the temple of God, the Church.(3) Then as for the words, “And now ye know what withholdeth,” i.e., ye know what hindrance or cause of delay there is, “that he might be revealed in his own time;” …(St. Justin Martyr says this is Jesus Christ Himself Who “withholdeth”)…”For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now holdeth, let him hold until he be taken out of the way: and then shall the wicked be revealed?” … That which there is no doubt he said is this, that Christ will not come to judge the 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. …they shall be such signs and wonders as shall seduce those who shall deserve to be seduced, “because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.” Neither did the apostle hesitate to go on to say, “For this cause God shall send upon them the working of error that they should believe a lie.” For God shall send, because God shall permit the devil to do these things, the permission being by His own just judgment, though the doing of them is in pursuance of the devil’s unrighteous and malignant purpose, “that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Therefore, being judged, they shall be seduced, and, being seduced, they shall be judged. But, being judged, they shall be seduced by those secretly just and justly secret judgments of God, with which He has never ceased to judge since the first sin of the rational creatures; and, being seduced, they shall be judged in that last and manifest judgment administered by Jesus Christ, who was Himself most unjustly judged and shall most justly judge.
The Abomination of Desolation
The Moloch sacrifice of abortion to the Mother Goddess and the Black Mass (especially at the Vatican II pseudo-council) are the precursor to the ultimate abomination in a rebuilt Solomonic temple in Jerusalem. That is the sacrifice of living infants to Satan at the feet of the Antichrist in that rebuilt temple.
Lk:16:15:
15 And he said to them: you are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is high to men is an abomination before God. (DRV)
Lv:18:25:
25 And with which the land is defiled: the abominations of which I will visit, that it may vomit out its inhabitants. (DRV)
Dt:18:9:
9 ¶ When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee, beware lest thou have a mind to imitate the abominations of those nations. (DRV)
Dt:18:
1 ¶ The priests and Levites, and all that are of the same tribe, shall have no part nor inheritance with the rest of Israel, because they shall eat the sacrifices of the Lord, and his oblations,
2 And they shall receive nothing else of the possession of their brethren: for the Lord himself is their inheritance, as he hath said to them.
3 This shall be the priest’s due from the people, and from them that offer victims: whether they sacrifice an ox, or a sheep, they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the breast:
4 The firstfruits also of corn, of wine, and of oil, and a part of the wool from the shearing of their sheep.
5 For the Lord thy God hath chosen him of all thy tribes, to stand and to minister to the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever.
6 If a Levite go out of any one of the cities throughout all Israel, in which he dwelleth, and have a longing mind to come to the place which the Lord shall choose,
7 He shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, that shall stand at that time before the Lord.
8 He shall receive the same portion of food that the rest do: besides that which is due to him in his own city, by succession from his fathers.
9 ¶ When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee, beware lest thou have a mind to imitate the abominations of those nations.
10 Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire: or that consulteth soothsayers, or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any wizard,
11 Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead.
12 For the Lord abhorreth all these things, and for these abominations he will destroy them at thy coming.
13 Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God.
14 These nations, whose land thou shalt possess, hearken to soothsayers and diviners: but thou art otherwise instructed by the Lord thy God.
15 ¶ The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a PROPHET of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me: him thou shalt hear:
16 As thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the assembly was gathered together, and saidst: Let me not hear any more the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see any more this exceeding great fire, lest I die.
17 And the Lord said to me: They have spoken all things well.
18 I will raise them up a prophet out of the midst of their brethren like to thee: and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.
19 And he that will not hear his words, which he shall speak in my name, I will be the revenger.
20 But the prophet, who being corrupted with pride, shall speak in my name things that I did not command him to say, or in the name of strange gods, shall be slain.
21 And if in silent thought thou answer: How shall I know the word that the Lord hath not spoken?
22 Thou shalt have this sign: Whatsoever that same prophet foretelleth in the name of the Lord, and it cometh not to pass: that thing the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath forged it by the pride of his mind: and therefore thou shalt not fear him.
(DRV)
Dt:32:16:
16 They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations. (DRV)
Jer:32:35:
35 And they have built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Ennom, to consecrate their sons and their daughters to Moloch: which I commanded them not, neither entered it into my heart, that they should do this abomination, and cause Juda to sin. (DRV)
Mt:10:28:
28 And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell. (DRV)
Jer:32:
1 ¶ The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord in the tenth year of Sedecias king of Juda: the same is the eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor.
2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremias the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the house of the king of Juda.
3 For Sedecias king of Juda had shut him up, saying: Why dost thou prophesy, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it?
4 And Sedecias king of Juda shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans: but he shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon: and he shall speak to him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes.
5 And he shall lead Sedecias to Babylon: and he shall be there till I visit him, saith the Lord. But if you will fight against the Chaldeans, you shall have no success.
6 And Jeremias said: The word of the Lord came to me, saying:
7 Behold, Hanameel the son of Sellum thy cousin shall come to thee, saying: Buy thee my field, which is in Anathoth, for it is thy right to buy it, being next akin.
8 And Hanameel my uncle’s son came to me, according to the word of the Lord, to the entry of the prison, and said to me: Buy my field, which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and thou art next of kin to possess it. And I understood that this was the word of the Lord.
9 And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that is in Anathoth: and I weighed him the money, seven staters, and ten pieces of silver.
10 And I wrote it in a book and sealed it, and took witnesses: and I weighed him the money in the balances.
11 And I took the deed of the purchase that was sealed, and the stipulations, and the ratifications with the seals that were on the outside.
12 And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neri the son of Maasias in the sight of Hanameel my uncle’s son, in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, and before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
13 And I charged Baruch before them, saying:
14 Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Take these writings, this deed of the purchase that is sealed up, and this deed that is open: and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
15 For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Houses, and fields, and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
16 ¶ And after I had delivered the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neri, I prayed to the Lord, saying:
17 Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, behold thou hast made heaven and earth by thy great power, and thy stretched out arm: no word shall be hard to thee:
18 Thou shewest mercy unto thousands, and returnest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: O most mighty, great, and powerful, the Lord of hosts is thy name.
19 Great in counsel, and incomprehensible in thought: whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the children of Adam, to render unto every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his devices.
20 Who hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even until this day, and in Israel, and amongst men, and hast made thee a name as at this day.
21 And hast brought forth thy people Israel, out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm, and with great terror.
22 And hast given them this land which thou didst swear to their fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.
23 And they came in, and possessed it: but they obeyed not thy voice, and they walked not in thy law: and they did not any of those things that thou didst command them to do, and all these evils are come upon them.
24 Behold works are built up against the city to take it: and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it, by the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken, is all come to pass, as thou thyself seest.
25 And sayest thou to me, O Lord God: Buy a field for money, and take witnesses, whereas the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans?
26 ¶ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
27 Behold I am the Lord the God of all flesh: shall any thing be hard for me?
28 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they shall take it.
29 And the Chaldeans that fight against this city, shall come and set it on fire, and burn it, with the houses upon whose roofs they offered sacrifice to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to strange gods, to provoke me to wrath.
30 For the children of Israel, and the children of Juda, have continually done evil in my eyes from their youth: the children of Israel who even till now provoke me with the work of their hands, saith the Lord.
31 For this city hath been to me a provocation and indignation from the day that they built it, until this day, in which it shall be taken out of my sight.
32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel, and of the children of Juda, which they have done, provoking me to wrath, they and their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
33 And they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces: when I taught them early in the morning, and instructed them, and they would not hearken to receive instruction.
34 And they have set their idols in the house, in which my name is called upon, to defile it.
35 And they have built the high placesof Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Ennom, to consecrate their sons and their daughters to Moloch: which I commanded them not, neither entered it into my heart, that they should do this abomination, and cause Juda to sin.
36 And now, therefore, thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to this city, whereof you say that it shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence:
37 Behold I will gather them together out of all the lands to which I have cast them out in my anger, and in my wrath, and in my great indignation: and I will bring them again into this place, and will cause them to dwell securely.
38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me all days: and that it may be well with them, and with their children after them.
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and will not cease to do them good: and I will give my fear in their heart, that they may not revolt from me.
41 And I will rejoice over them, when I shall do them good: and I will plant them in this land in truth, with my whole heart, and with all my soul.
42 For thus saith the Lord: As I have brought upon this people all this great evil: so will I bring upon them all the good that I now speak to them.
43 And fields shall be purchased in this land: whereof you say that it is desolate, because thereremaineth neither man nor beast, and it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.
44 Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be written, and sealed, and witnesses shall be taken, in the land of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, in the cities of Juda, and in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities of the plains, and in the cities that are towards the south: for I will bring back their captivity, saith the Lord.
(DRV)
Ez:8:15:
15 And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man: but turn thee again, thou shalt see greater abominations than these. (DRV)
THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
Zionist Secret Society Conducts Luciferian Rituals Deep in Cave Under City of Jerusalem
MASONIC JEWS PLOT TO CONTROL WORLD
http://www.texemarrs.com/042003/masonic_jews_plot_world_control.htm
The well known rabbi, Isaac Wise, was emphatic when he concluded: “Freemasonry is a Jewish establishment, whose history, grades, official appointments, passwords, and explanations are Jewish from beginning to end.”
In the classic treatise of the Masons, Morals and Dogma, authored by the late Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite,Albert Pike, we discover the revelation that the Jewish cabala is the very basis of Masonic practice and ritual and that the cabalistic “Theology of the Sephiroth” is at the root of all Masonic knowledge. This, admits Pike, is “high magic,” the “Sacerdotal Art,” and the “Royal Art.”
The Jewish cabalistic nature of Masonry is demonstrated by the Lodge’s odd view of evil. Pike writes: “The true name of Satan, the Kabalists say, is that of Yahweh reversed; for Satan is not a black god, but the negation of God…For the Initiates, this is not a Person, but a Force, created for good, but which may serve for evil. It is the instrument of Liberty and Free Will.”
As for Lucifer, the alternate name for the Devil, the former Sovereign Grand Commander frankly admits that he, Lucifer, is a good angel, and a divine god worthy of our esteemed worship. “Doubt it not!,” Pike commands.
Intimating that the antichrist, the one whom the Bible warns shall have the unholy, combined triple number 666, is the one whom the Masons (Jews) await and shall recognize as their Messiah, Pike cryptically refers to the “Triple Secret of the Great Work.”
Of course, he adds, “Masonry…conceals its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead.”
Having studied the dark recesses of occultism and satanism for nearly two decades and having produced and authored dozens of books and videos on this foul subject, I can assure you that Masonry, which, as Pike, Wise, and others assure us, is nothing more than pure Jewish cabalism, is rife with sorcery and witchcraft.
The idolatrous image of the double-headed eagle—shown [there] on the cover of Albert Pike’s classic text, Morals and Dogma—is a much-treasured symbol of Jewish Masons. It represents the [Egyptian] – Babylonian god of money and forces, Mammon-Ra, as well as the Hegelian dialectical process practiced by the Jewish elite. This same symbol is the “Masonic Jewel” awarded high-level Masons initiated into the 33rd degree.
Prophecy Of Ezechiel
Chapter 8
The prophet sees in a vision the abominations committed in Jerusalem; which determine the Lord to spare them no longer.
1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the ancients of Juda sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. 2 And I saw, and behold a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins, and downward, fire: and from his loins, and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the appearance of amber. 3 And the likeness of a hand was put forth and took me by a lock of my head: and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the vision of God into Jerusalem fn.‘n’, near the innergate, that looked toward the north, where was set the idol of jealousy to provoke to jealousy. 4 And behold the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision which I had seen in the plain. 5 And he said to me: Son of man, lift up thy eyes towards the way of the north. And I lifted up my eyes towards the way of the north: and behold on the north side of the gate of the altar the idol of jealousy in the very entry.
6 And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou see, thinkest thou, what these are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should depart far off from my sanctuary? and turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations. 7 And he brought me in to the door of the court: and I saw, and behold a hole in the wall. 8 And he said to me: Son of man, dig in the wall. And when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. 9 And he said to me: Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they commit here. 10 And I went in and saw, and behold every form of creeping things, and of living creatures, the abomination, and all the idols of the house of Israel, were painted on the wall all round about.
11 And seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and Jezonias the son of Saaphan stood in the midst of them, that stood before the pictures: and every one had a censer in his hand: and a cloud of smoke went up from the incense. 12 And he said to me: Surely thou seest. O son of man, what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every one in private in his chamber: for they say: The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. 13 And he said to me: If thou turn thee again, thou shalt see greater abominations which these commit. 14 And he brought me in by the door of the gate of the Lord’s house, which looked to the north: and behold women sat there mourning for Adonis. 15 And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man: but turn thee again: and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.
14 “Adonis”… The favourite of Venus, slain by a wild boar, as feigned by the heathen poets, and which being here represented by an idol, is lamented by the female worshippers of that goddess. In the Hebrew, the name is Tammuz.
16 And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord: and behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men having their backs towards the temple of the Lord, and their faces to the east: and they adored towards the rising of the sun. 17 And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man: is this a light thing to the house of Juda, that they should commit these abominations which they have committed here: because they have filled the land with iniquity, and have turned to provoke me to anger? and behold they put a branch to their nose. 18 Therefore I also will deal with them in my wrath: my eye shall not spare them, neither will I shew mercy: and when they shall cry to my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.
fn. ‘n’ Dan. 14, 6.
1.Ver. 3. The statue of jealousy which stirs up jealousy: the statue which provokes the Lord’s jealousy for his honor. This was the statue of the goddess Ashera erected by the wicked King Manasse[cf. 4 Kgs. 21, 7 (449); 2 Par. 33, 7. 15 (519)]. Though.1t had
been removed by King Josia [4 Kgs. 23, 6(451)], it had been set up again in the repaganizing of Jerusalem that fol lowed on Josia’s death.
2-Ver. 5. He: an angel accompanies Ezech Iel in these visions and represents the voice of the Lord; cf. Ezech. 40, 3f (1000).
3-Ver. 10. Creeping things ana loathsome beasts: Egyptian deities, which were represented in animal form. During the last days of Jerusalem King Sedecia was al lied with Egypt, trusting in it for protection against the Chaldeans.
4-Ver. 14. Weeping tor Adonis, i.e. Tammuz: the With ering of trees and plants in autumn was
thought to be due to the descent.of Tammuz, the Babylonian god of fertility, to the nether world of the dead; this descent was bewailed by the women.
5-Ver. 16. Bowing down to the sun: sun worship had been made an important part of Judaite idolatry by the impious kings; cf. 4 Kgs. 23,11 (452). a
6-Ver. 17. Put the branch to their nose: the meaning is certain. It refers to an Egyptian practice imported into Juda: the Egyptian sun god Re is pictured with a
vine branch at his nose, signifying the trans fer of creative power (divine breath) to liv ing things, especially included in this practice was the sacrifice of infants to Mammon-Re as a way of influencing and divining the future and the disembowelment of these children for the conjuring of the demon they believed was attached to the soul of these “immaculate” children as they called them in Graeco-Egyptian religion which dated back to 1500 B.C. Such rites were and have always been abominable to the Lord.
Prophecy Of Ezechiel
Mt:24:15:
15 When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand. (DRV)
Dan:11:
36 And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall be lifted up, and shall magnify himself against every god: and he shall speak great things against the God of gods, and shall prosper, till the wrath be accomplished. For the determination is made.
37 And he shall make no account of the God of his fathers: and he shall follow the lust of women, and he shall not regard any gods: for he shall rise up against all things.
38 But he shall worship the god Maozim, in his place: and a god whom his fathers knew not, he shall worship with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and things of great price.
39 And he shall do this to fortify Maozim with a strange god, whom he hath acknowledged, and he shall increase glory, and shall give them power over many, and shall divide the land gratis.
(DRV)
Mk:13:14:
14 ¶ And when you shall see the abomination of desolation, standing where it ought not (he that readeth let him understand): then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains. (DRV)
Prophecy of Daniel
Chapter 11
War between Syria and Egypt
The angel declares to Daniel many things to come, with regard to the Persian and Grecian kings: more especially with regard to Antiochus as a figure of Antichrist.
1 And from the first year of Darius the Mede I stood up that he might be strengthened and confirmed. 2 And now I will shew thee the truth. Behold there shall stand yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be enriched exceedingly above them all: and when he shall be grown mighty by his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. 3 But there shall rise up a strong king, and shall rule with great power: and he shall do what he pleaseth. 4 And when he shall come to his height, his kingdom shall be broken, and it shall be divided towards the four winds of the heaven: but not to his posterity, nor according to his power with which he ruled. For his kingdom shall be rent in pieces, even for strangers, beside these. 5 And the king of the south shall be strengthened, and one of his princes shall prevail over him, and he shall rule with great power: for his dominion shall be great.
2 “Three kings”… Viz., Cambyses, Smerdes Magus, and Darius, the son of Hystaspes.– Ibid.
2 “The fourth”… Xerxes.
3 “A strong king”…Alexander.
5 “The king of the south”… Ptolemeus the son of Lagus, king of Egypt, which lies south of Jerusalem.– Ibid.
5 “One of his princes”… that is, one of Alexander’s princes, shall prevail over him: that is, shall be stronger than the king of Egypt. He speaks of Seleucus Nicator, king of Asia and Syria, whose successors are here called the kings of the north, because their dominions lay to the north in respect to Jerusalem.
6 And after the end of years they shall be in league together: and the daughter of theking of the south shall come to the king of the north to make friendship, but she shall not obtain the strength of the arm, neither shall her seed stand: and she shall be given up, and her young men that brought her, and they that strengthened her in these times. 7 And a plant of the bud of her roots, shall stand up: and he shall come with an army, and shall enter into the province of the king of the north: and he shall abuse them, and shall prevail. 8 And he shall also carry away captive into Egypt their gods, and their graven things, and their precious vessels of gold and silver: he shall prevail against the king of the north. 9 And the king of the south shall enter into the kingdom, and shall return to his own land. 10 And his sons shall be provoked, and they shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and he shall come with haste like a flood: and he shall return and be stirred up, and he shall join battle with his forces.
6 “The daughter of the king of the south”… Viz., Berenice, daughter of Ptolemeus Philadelphus, given in marriage to Antiochus Theos, grandson of Seleucus.
7 “A plant”… Ptolemeus Evergetes, the son of Philadelphus.
8 “The king of the north”… Seleucus Callinicus.
10 “His sons”… Seleucus Ceraunius, and Antiochus the Great, the sons of Callinicus.– Ibid.
10 “He shall come”… Viz., Antiochus the Great.
11 And the king of the south being provoked shall go forth, and shall fight against the king of the north, and shall prepare an exceeding great multitude, and a multitude shall be given into his hand. 12 And he shall take a multitude, and his heart shall be lifted up, and he shall cast down many thousands: but he shall not prevail. 13 For the king of the north shall return and shall prepare a multitude much greater than before: and in the end of times and years, be shall come in haste with a great army, and much riches. 14 And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the south, and the children of prevaricators of thy people shall lift up themselves to fulfill the vision, and they shall fall. 15 And the king of the north shall come, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take the best fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, and his chosen ones shall rise up to resist, and they shall not have strength.
11 “The king of the south”… Ptolemeus Philopator, son of Evergetes.
16 And he shall come upon him and do according to his pleasure, and there shall be none to stand against his face: and he shall stand in the glorious land, and it shall be consumed by his hand. 17 And he shall set his face to come to possess all his kingdom, and he shall make upright conditions with him: and he shall give him a daughter of women, to overthrow it: and she shall not stand, neither shall she be for him. 18 And he shall turn his face to the islands, and shall take many: and he shall cause the prince of his reproach to cease, and his reproach shall be turned upon him. 19 And he shall turn his face to the empire of his own land, and he shall stumble, and fall, and shall not befound. 20 And there shall stand up in his place, one most vile, and unworthy of kingly honour: and in a few days he shall be destroyed, not in rage nor in battle.
16 “He shall come upon him”… Viz., Antiochus shall come upon the king of the south.– Ibid.
16 “The glorious land”… Judea.
17 “All his kingdom”… Viz., all the kingdom of Ptolemeus Epiphanes, son of Philopator.– Ibid.
17 “A daughter of women”… That is, a most beautiful woman, viz., his daughter Cleopatra.– Ibid.
17 “To overthrow it”… Viz., the kingdom of Epiphanes: but his policy shall not succeed; for Cleopatra shall take more to heart the interest of her husband, than that of her father.
18 “The prince of his reproach”… Seipio the Roman general, called the prince of his reproach, because he overthrew Antiochus, and obliged him to submit to very dishonourable terms, before he would cease from the war.
20 “One most vile”… Seleucus Philopator, who
sent Heliodorus to plunder the temple: and was shortly after slain by the same Heliodorus.
A Figure of the Antichrist
Dan:
21 And there shall stand up in his place one despised, and the kingly honour shall not be given him: and he shall come privately, and shall obtain the kingdom by fraud. 22 And the arms of the fighter shall be overcome before his face, and shall be broken; yea also the prince of the covenant. 23 And after friendships, he will deal deceitfully with him: and he shall go up, and shall overcome with a small people. 24 And he shall enter into rich and plentiful cities: and he shall do that which his fathers never did, nor his fathers’ fathers: he shall scatter their spoils, and their prey, and their riches, and shall forecast devices against the best fenced places: and this until a time. 25 And his strength and his heart shall be stirred up against the king of the south with a great army: and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with many and very strong succours: and they shall not stand, for they shall form designs against him.
21 “One despised”… Viz., Antiochus Epiphanes, who at first was despised and not received for king. What is here said of this prince, is accommodated by St. Jerome and others to Antichrist; of whom this Antiochus was a figure.
22 “Of the fighter”… That is, of them that shall oppose him, and shall fight against him.– Ibid.
22 “The prince of the covenant”… or, of the league. The chief of them that conspired against him: or the king of Egypt his most powerful adversary.
25 “The king”… Ptolemeus Philometor.
26 And they that eat bread with him, shall destroy him, and his army shall be overthrown: and many shall fall down slain. 27 And the heart of the two kings shall be to do evil, and they shall speak lies at one table, and they shall not prosper: because as yet the end is unto another time. 28 And he shall return into his land with much riches: and his heart shall be against the holy covenant, and he shall succeed and shall return into his own land. 29 At the time appointed he shall return, and he shall come to the south, but the latter time shall not be like the former. 30 And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall be struck, and shall return, and shall have indignation against the covenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed: and he shall return and shall devise against them that have forsaken the covenant of the sanctuary.
30 “The galleys and the Romans”… Popilius, and the other Roman ambassadors, who came in galleys, and obliged him to depart from Egypt.
31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice, and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation. 32 And such as deal wickedly against the covenant shall deceitfully dissemble: but the people that know their God shall prevail and succeed. 33 And they that are learned among the people shall teach many: and they shall fall by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days. 34 And when they shall have fallen they shall be relieved with a small help: and many shall be joined to them deceitfully. 35 And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and may be chosen, and made white even to the appointed time, because yet there shall be another time.
31 “They shall place there the abomination”… The idol of Jupiter Olympius, which Antiochus ordered to be set up in the sanctuary of the temple: which is here called the sanctuary of strength, from the Almighty that was worshipped there.
36 And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall be lifted up, and shall magnify himself against every god: and he shall speak great things against the God of gods, and shall prosper, till the wrath be accomplished. For the determination is made. 37 And he shall make no account of the God of his fathers: and he shall follow the lust of women, and he shall not regard any gods: for he shall rise up against all things. 38 But he shall worship the god Maozim in his place: and a god whom hisfathers knew not, he shall worship with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and things of great price. 39 And he shall do this to fortify Maozim with a strange god, whom he hath acknowledged, and he shall increase glory and shall give them power over many, and shall divide the land gratis. 40 And at the time prefixed the king of the south shall fight against him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with a great navy, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall destroy, and pass through.
38 “The god Maozim”… That is, the god of forces or strong holds.
39 “And he shall increase glory”… He shall bestow honours, riches and lands, upon them that shall worship his god.
41 And he shall enter into the glorious land, and many shall fall: and these only shall be saved out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the principality of the children of Ammon. 42 And he shall lay his hand upon the lands: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43 And he shall have power over the treasures of gold, and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt: and he shall pass through Libya, and Ethiopia. 44 And tidings out of the east, and out of the north shall trouble him: and he shall come with a great multitude to destroy and slay many. 45 And he shall fix his tabernacle Apadno between the seas, upon a glorious and holy mountain: and he shall come even to the top thereof, and noneshall help him.
45 “Apadno”… Some take it for the proper name of a place: others, from the Hebrew, translate it his palace.
Prophecy Of Daniel
Ver. 36-39. Instead of venerating Apollo, one of the gods of his ancestors, Antiochus
venerated, and even identified himself with, Zeus Olympios, whom the Romans equated
the god of their fortress in Rome, Jupiter Capitolinus, the god, of strongholds.
From:
http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-357#cite
In the Temple an altar to Zeus Olympios was erected, and sacrifices were to be made at the feet of an idol in the image of the King.
Mk:13:14:
14 ¶ And when you shall see the abomination of desolation, standing where it ought not (he that readeth let him understand): then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains. (DRV)
O LORD JESUS CHRIST OUR ONLY LORD
AND SAVIOUR LIVING AND REIGNING
AND RULING WITH GOD OUR FATHER IN
THE UNITY AND POWER OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT OUR PARACLETE
WITH AND BY THE PRAYER AND
COMPANY OF ALL YOUR ELECT ANGELS
AND SAINTS FOR AND WITH US
UNCEASINGLY, ESPECIALLY SAINT
MICHAEL AND SAINT GABRIEL, SAINT
ENOCH IN THE FLESH AND SAINT ELIJAH
IN THE FLESH YOUR HOLY PROPHETS
YET TO COME, WITH ALL THANKSGIVING
WE LOVE YOU FOR YOU FIRST LOVED US WITH ALL THANKSGIVING FOR ALL YOUR
GIFTS AND MERCIES TO US
UNCEASINGLY ESPECIALLY YOUR ALL
HOLY ALMIGHTY VINDICATION absolutely totally and completely deliver all Your faithful, including our families, from the hour of trial which has come upon the earth from all spirits visible and invisible of:
Psalm 78. Psalmus Asaph (A Psalm for Asaph). DEUS, venerunt gentes in hereditatem tuam, polluerunt templum sanctum tuum (O GOD, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance, Thy holy temple they have defiled)
O GOD, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance; * Thy holy temple have they defiled, and made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.
2 The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the air, * and the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood as water, round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them.
4 We are become an open shame to our enemies, * a very scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
5 LORD, how long wilt Thou be angry? * shall Thy jealousy burn like fire for ever?
6 Pour out Thine indignation upon the heathen that have not known thee; * and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon Thy Name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob, * and his place have they made desolate.
8 O remember not our sins of old; let Thy compassions quickly go before us, O Lord, for we are become exceedingly miserable.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy Name: * O deliver us, and forgive us our sins for Thy Name’s sake:
10 Lest they should say among the heathen: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes.
11 O let the vengeance of Thy servants’ blood that is shed, * be openly showed upon the heathen, in our sight.
12 Let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come in before thee. According to the greatness of Thy arm, take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.
13 And for the blasphemy wherewith our neighbors have blasphemed thee, * do Thou reward them, O LORD, seven-fold into their bosom.
14 So we, that are Thy people, and sheep of Thy pasture, shall give Thee thanks for ever, * and will always confess Thee, O God, for ever; we will declare Thy praise from generation to generation.
Amen.
The False Prophet
St. Irenaeus tells us to beware of the false prophet which will endeavor to make people worship the beast (the Antichrist). St. Irenaeus quotes St. John the Apostle and Evangelist in the Book of the Revelation and refers to the false prophet as the armour bearer of the Antichrist.
…he likewise describes his armour-bearer, whom he also terms a false prophet: “He spake as a dragon, and exercised all the power of the first beast in his sight, and caused the earth, and those that dwell therein, to adore the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he shall perform great wonders, so that he can even cause fire to descend from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and he shall lead the inhabitants of the earth astray.”(4) Let no one imagine that he performs these wonders by divine power, but by the working of magic. And we must not be surprised if, since the demons and apostate spirits are at his service, he through their means performs wonders, by which he leads the inhabitants of the earth astray. John says further: “And he shall order an image of the beast to be made, and he shall give breath to the image, so that the image shall speak; and he shall cause those to be slain who will not adore it.” He says also: “And he will cause a mark [to be put] in the forehead and in the fight hand, that no one may be able to buy or sell, unless he who has the mark of the name of the beast or the number of his name; and the number is six hundred and sixty-six,”
The current apostasy from which the false prophet will arise is the Ecumenical Movement (especially at Assisi), with all of it’s mixture of sorcery and magic and false-christian one worldliness and especially it’s reference to Talmudic Judaism as a true religion.
And from:
http://www.orthodoxfaith.com/ecumenism_papacy_masonry.html
Neither Truth nor Papal ‘infallibility’ can hinder Rome’s grand design to rule the world from a reconstructed temple at Jerusalem in non-Semitic, anti-Semitic, Zionist Israel.
“Such a secular, earthbound state [Israel] could easily become the political and military power base for the Antichrist when he comes. For the Antichrist will be in perfect accord with the ideals of such a Zionist state. Moreover, the State of Israel has demonstrated that it has the will and ability to go to war and win the secular goals to which its heart is attached. Thus when the Antichrist comes to power as head of such an efficient, superbly equipped, scientific State, founded on nationalism, race and blood, he will be able to conquer the rest of the world. He will be the first, the only Jew to reign with political, economic, military power over the whole world from his capital city, Jerusalem, the city in which Our Lord was crucified” (Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., The Antichrist, p. 152).
Modern Israel is the Antichrist (Ma-Gog)
Heb:6: 1 ¶ Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to things more perfect: not laying again the foundation of penance from dead works and of faith towards God,
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms and imposition of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this will we do, if God permit.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come,
6 And are fallen away: to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God and making him a mockery.
7 For the earth, that drinketh in the rain which cometh often upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is tilled, receiveth blessing from God.
8 But that which bringeth forth thorns and briers is reprobate and very near unto a curse: whose end is to be burnt.
(DRV)
See: Zionism – The Occult Guild Of Antichrist, A Christian Perspective By Alton Raines 9-25-5
http://www.rense.com/general67/znsm.htm
The churches are without excuse in this despicable pro-Israel politic, which is stained in the world with much blood, rooted in the corruptions of the flesh, hopeless for reformation, condemned to the eternal grave, drowning in sin and founded upon the unpardonable blasphemy of the Spirit of Grace.
The Personal Antichrist (Gog), who is the Beast from the Sea with the number 666 in gematria, will arise out of this. For gematria and isosephia and king of Israel, especially, the name that almost certainly will be the name equaling 666 in Hebrew that the Antichrist will be known by see:

Judgement

Holy Holy Holy Lord God of hosts who will return in glory and in flaming fire taking vengeance upon those who know not God and who obey not the Lord Jesus Christ
Heb:5:
1 ¶ For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins:
2 Who can have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err: because he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
3 And therefore he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
4 Neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was.
5 So Christ also did not glorify himself, that he might be made a high priest: but he that said unto him: Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee.
6 As he saith also in another place: Thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech.
7 Who in the days of his flesh, with a strong cry and tears, offering up prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death, was heard for his reverence.
8 And whereas indeed he was the Son of God, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
9 And being consummated, he became, to all that obey him, the cause of eternal salvation:
10 ¶ Called by God a high priest, according to the order of Melchisedech.
11 Of whom we have much to say and hard to be intelligibly uttered: because you are become weak to hear.
12 For whereas for the time you ought to be masters, you have need to be taught again what are the first elements of the words of God: and you are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that is a partaker of milk is unskilful in the word of justice: for he is a little child.
14 But strong meat is for the perfect: for them who by custom have their senses exercised to the discerning of good and evil.
(DRV)
St. Paul explains this same thing with different wording in Philippians.
Phil:2:
5 For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.
8 He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.
9 For which cause, God also hath exalted him and hath given him a name which is above all names:
10 That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth:
11 And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.
(DRV)
This is crucial to our understanding of Christ’s mission to save us. In the above “emptied” is kenosis in the Greek. Christ’s kenosis (He Who is the Immortal Son of God and has always existed from before He created anything, His emptying out of Himself for us and to us) consists of “taking the form of a servant” at His incarnation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, “being made in the likeness of men” extremely important — His incarnation in the flesh, “in habit found as a man” this part explains phrases like “learned obedience”. Jesus never had to learn anything for Himself since He is God and Omniscient – All Knowing. But He willed to be born and grow up and be taught by Joseph and Mary. Think about it, it was the Blessed Virgin who taught Him the Psalms that He was the Mediator for David to receive by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and record for us. In simple terms He taught David the Psalms and willed that Mary would teach Him on earth the same psalms, though, of course He knew them already. So all references to His learning and growing and being perfected are only those things that He willed to go through for two basic reasons for our sakes. Number two first: to show us what our attitude and efforts should be on His behalf as His ambassadors to the rest of mankind. He “learned” but is actually teaching us. Number one in importance: “being made in the likeness of men” extremely important — His incarnation in the flesh. St. Athanasius Contra Mundum (against the world [opposing heresy]) addresses this when he explains that had Christ the Immortal Son of the Father in the Unity and Power of the Holy Spirit simply have erased Adam’s sin then the natural debt we all inherited to die from that sin would have meant that all men would die forever and be lost since God doesn’t lie and He pronounced that the separation of man from God due to sin would by the natural property of human nature make anything else impossible. In other words if God simply erased the sin He would have erased men as well thereby. Worst yet, St. Athanasius tells us, the devil would thereby have won that round. But what God did, the Son, Who because of His Divine substance/essence – nature cannot die, is to take upon himself the real human nature of all men subsumed from Mary — and therefore of Adam (see the genealogies in St. Matthew’s, Chapter 1, and St. Luke’s, Chapter 3, Gospels; in St. Luke’s Gospel all the way back to Adam). Since of Adam, then, of all men. Since He had and has that nature in total union with His divine nature, when he suffered and died (it is in this sense that St. Paul says “learned obedience”) in our place as the ransom from death then we become sons and daughters by adoption unto real eternal life at the future Return of Christ and the General Resurrection of the flesh, each of us, our bodies reunited with our same soul and same spirit. Therefore death, which insured that God’s law would be obeyed, was originally God’s way to insure that man would not become a diabolic creature totally in bondage to the devil, incapable of being in union with the Holy God, Himself. Christ took death, merited by all men, upon Himself preserving what God had said to Adam and Eve “upon that day (of disobedience) you will die”. Therefore, Christ’s death, then becomes the ransom to bring us out of thralldom to the devil and into union with God in Christ. Christ’s Resurrection then becomes the guarantor of our resurrection — which will absolutely happen. This is a brief description of Christ’s kenosis. Christ’s kenosis is the weightiest subject in the whole Bible. Christ’s obedience loosed the debt of Adam’s disobedience as Mary’s obedience undid the knot of Eve’s disobedience (that last is from St. Irenaeus). A note of warning: those who retie the knot of
Eve’s disobedience and who bind themselves again in the debt of Adam’s disobedience by becoming part of pagan religions, who profess atheism or agnosticism, who follow after the Jewish Antichrist or who walk not in God’s commandments though they pretend to be Christ’s, will certainly be resurrected, but to eternal undying destruction in the lake of fire with the devil and all the fallen angels and all of the demons. Only the saints will inherit paradise with the elect angels in this universe recreated by God at the second coming of Jesus Christ at the end of this age of grace.
Rv:18:
1 ¶ And after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power: and the earth was enlightened with his glory.
2 And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen: and is become the habitation of devils and the hold of every unclean spirit and the hold of every unclean and hateful bird:
3 Because all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication: and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her; And the merchants of the earth have been made rich by the power of her delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying: Go out from her, my people; that you be not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven: and the Lord hath remembered her iniquities.
6 Render to her as she also hath rendered to you: and double unto her double, according to her works. In the cup wherein she hath mingled, mingle ye double unto her.
7 As much as she hath glorified herself and lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to her. Because she saith in her heart: I sit a queen and am no widow: and sorrow I shall not see.
8 Therefore, shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine. And she shall be burnt with the fire: because God is strong, who shall judge her.
9 ¶ And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived in delicacies with her, shall weep and bewail themselves over her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning:
10 Standing afar off for fear of her torments, saying: Alas! alas! that great city, Babylon, that mighty city: for in one hour is thy judgment come.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her: for no man shall buy their merchandise any more.
12 Merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones: and of pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet: and all thyine wood: and all manner of vessels of ivory: and all manner of vessels of precious stone and of brass and of iron and of marble:
13 And cinnamon and odours and ointment and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots: and slaves and souls of men.
14 And the fruits of the desire of thy soul are departed from thee: and all fat and goodly things are perished from thee. And they shall find them no more at all.
15 The merchants of these things, who were made rich, shall stand afar off from her, for fear of her torments, weeping and mourning,
16 And saying: Alas! alas! that great city, which was clothed with fine linen and purple and scarlet and was gilt with gold and precious stones and pearls.
17 For in one hour are so great riches come to nought. And every shipmaster and all that sail into the lake, and mariners, and as many as work in the sea, stood afar off,
18 And cried, seeing the place of her burning, saying: What city is like to this great city?
19 And they cast dust upon their heads and cried, weeping and mourning, saying: Alas! alas! that great city, wherein all were made rich, that had ships at sea, by reason of her prices. For, in one hour she is made desolate.
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven and ye holy apostles and prophets. For God hath judged your judgment on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying: With such violence as this, shall Babylon, that great city, be thrown down and shall be found no more at all.
22 And the voice of harpers and of musicians and of them that play on the pipe and on the trumpet shall no more be heard at all in thee: and no craftsman of any art whatsoever shall be found any more at all in thee: and the sound of the mill shall be heard no more at all in thee:
23 And the light of the lamp shall shine no more at all in thee: and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee. For thy merchants were the great men of the earth: for all nations have been deceived by thy enchantments.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth.
(DRV)
“The angel speaks of the fall of Rome as something already accomplished to show that it must surely come to pass. It shall be left so desolate that wild beasts will find it a fitting abode and unclean birds will hover about its ruins. Thus also did Isaias prophecy concerning ancient Babylon: ‘Wild beasts shall rest there and their houses shall be filled with serpents. . . and owls shall answer one another there, in the house thereof, and sirens in the temples of pleasure.
“Some interpreters take the words of the angel to mean that the ruins of Rome shall become the lurking place of evil spirits according to the words of Christ: ‘When an unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest.’
“The terrible destruction and desolation of Rome is a punishment for her many sins and for the sins into which she has led other nations. The kings and merchants of the earth have been led into the sins and vices of Rome, and with her they have upheld Antichrist in his efforts against the Church.
“Another voice from heaven – a voice of mercy – warns the faithful of the impending ruin and exhorts them to seek safety in flight. In like manner did our Lord warn His disciples to flee from Jerusalem upon the approach of the Roman army. Heeding these words of warning the faithful fled to Pella in Peraea and thus escaped the terrible sufferings of the siege.
“These verses are an apostrophe to the ministers of God’s judgments, apparently the ten kings of the preceding chapter. They are to punish the wicked and unfaithful city for all the evils she has heaped upon them, presumably the evils resulting from apostacy and adherence to Antichrist. They shall punish her also for her own apostacy and worship of Antichrist: ‘Double unto her double according to her works: in the cup wherein she hath mingled mingle ye double unto her.’
“The ruin and desolation of Rome shall be commensurate with her former glory, riches and power. The proud city that ’sits a queen’ with neither fear nor anxiety, shall be humbled in the dust.
“The kings of earth who have shared her guilt shall lament the fate of the city, but they stand afar off fearing to come to her assistance. Such is usually the friendship between nations!”
“At the breaking of the fifth seal St John sees the souls of the martyrs beneath the altar where they enjoy eternal happiness in union with Christ, yet they cry out for justice. They beseech God to manifest His Glory, His justice and His mercy by the resurrection of their bodies, the punishment of His enemies and the general judgement of all men. The imagery of this vision seems to refer to the altar of holocaust which stood in the inner court of the temple before the Holy Place. In the Jewish ritual the blood of the victim was poured out at the foot of the altar. The life of the victim was said to be in the blood: “the life of the flesh is in the blood” and again. “Beware of this that thou eat not of the blood, for the blood is for the soul and therefore thou must not eat the soul with the flesh”. Hence the life or the soul of the victim was conceived as being under the altar. In like manner the souls of the martyrs are seen beneath the alatar because they they too have become victims to God through martyrdom and the voice of their blood cries out to God for justice. “The voice of thy brothers blood crieth out to me from the earth”. The martyrs have received the white robes of eternal happiness and glory, but they must wait for the ressurection of the body until the number of their fellow martyrs has been filled up. They have but a short while to wait since the whole course of ages is as a few moments when compared with the eternity that follows: “For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday which is past and as a watch in the night” This verse clearly foretells that there shall be marytrs other than those of the first ages of the church. There shall be witnesses to God by their blood in every age especially in the days of Antichrist and at the end of the world. The resurrection and general judgement shall not take place until after this last persecution.
On opening of the sixth seal we catch a glimpse of the last persecution and the destruction of the world. This is to show that the prayers of the martyrs have already been heard in the designs of God and shall be answered in due time. These verses make it clear that there is no question of real locusts such as those that ravaged Egypt in the days of Moses. They are purely symbolic, and their ravages chiefly spiritual. Their sting burns and poisons the soul with false doctrines but has no power to injure those who remain faithful to the graces received in Baptism and Confirmation. For a short time these locusts are permitted to harass and persecute without killing, but they cannot destroy the church. In those days men shall seek death and find it not. The good would welcome death as an escape from the evils and miseries that surround them. Many who have been led astray by false doctrines would likewise welcome death as a relief from their doubts and remorse of conscience. The locusts resemble horses accoutred for war. Heresy and schism are ever fruitfrul sources of religious wars and persecutions. The crowns indicate that rulers – emperors, kings, and princes will be arrayed against the Church as actually happened at the reformation of the 16th century. The crowns merely resembled gold, because there was but a mere semblance of real Christian charity in those days. The human faces prove that these locusts symbolize real persons. The hair of the woman probably signifies vanity and immorality; the teeth of a lions strength and cruelty. The breastplates of iron show preparedness for defense as well as for attack. The sound of their innumerable wings resembles the thunder of chariots rushing to battle. This indicates their great numbers and impetuousity. The scorpion like sting is a symbol of heresy that stings and poisons the soul. Its location in the tail signifies deceit and hypocrisy. The king of these symbolic locusts is called the destroyer (Exterminans). He is Lucifer, the angel of the abyss, the leader of the rebel angels. His minions on earth are the leaders of heresy, schism and persecution. The invasion of the locusts is the first woe predicted by the eagle. The two yet to come will fill up the mystery of iniquity with the appearance of Antichrist and his prophet. God sends a sixth angel to instruct and guide the church. This mission will still further reveal the thoughts of many hearts. The wicked continue to be separated from the just.
A voice from the golden altar commands the captive angels of the Euphrates to be released. As noted above the altar is Christ who makes trials and tribulations a means of sanctification for souls and an increase of fervour and holiness in the church. They also serve to spread the blessings of the Gospel for as Tertullian says “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Christians”. Christ Himself gives command to release the captive angels thus showing that the enemies of the Church have no power against her unless God Permits. The Church can say to her enemies as Christ said to Pilate “Thou shouldst not have any power against me unless it were given thee from above” The captive angels are demons who will arouse new enemies and increased enmities against the Church. In a figurative sense they represent the new enemies thus aroused against the Church, whether they be nations, individuals or secret societies hostile to her. Four, the number of universality indicates how widespread will be their influence. With the prophests of old the region of the Euphrates was ever the country whence came the enemies of God’s people. Its mention here indicates that these new enemies will arise among nations already hostile to the church. In a secondary sense the term may be taken literally to represent peoples from that region who are hostile to the church.The Four angels of the Euphrates now ordered to be released may be the same as those whom Christ forbade to injure the earth until the Church should be formly established after the persecutions. Even the time for the manifestation of these evil spirits and their minions has been accurately fixed in the designs of Providence. The very day and hour has been determined. Great umbers will be done to death in the religious wars and revolutions stirred up
by these angels from the Euphrates. The prophecy may also mean that large numbers will be lead into new errors and schisms. Both interpretations are fully justified by the history of the pretended Reformation and the wars that followed it.
These scourges shall be more terrible than any yet predicted. The first plagues were brought to earth by the four horsemen. Then we saw four charioteers, the four winds, ready to scourge mankind. Here we find a vast array of cavalry. The chastizements sent upon the world increase with the growth of iniquity and the approach of Antichrist. The description of horses and riders in this vision gives some idea of their boldness, strength and cunning ferocity. They inflict upon men the plagues of fire smoke and sulphur. The fire is persecution and war. Smoke symbolizes the obscuring of doctrine and the weakening of faith, sulphur the moral depravity which follows. The fire smoke and sulphur issue from the mouth of the horses. From the mouth should process words of wisdom instead there comes forth heresies and incitements to revolt and revolution. It should be noted that Luther openly preached revolt and revolution to the peasants of Germany but when they put his words into practice, he turned to the princes and urged them to stamp out the revolt with fire and sword. The horses of this vision inflict injuries with their tails which resemble serpents. Amongst all peoples the serpent is a symbol of lying and hypocrisy. These vices have ever characterized the enemies of the Church. There is no question here of real artillery as some have imagined. St. John is giving only the broad outlines of the Church’s history. He is not concerned with the material means employed by men to wage war against her.The vision of locusts and the vision of cavalry horses are not two representations of one and the same event. They foreshadow two distinct events that follow one another in the order of time. The one is the great revolt against the Church brought about by the fallen star. The other consists of wars and disturbances which follow in the wake of that revolt. After these plagues have passed there still remain many who worship idols and many guilty of robbery, murder and immorality. This is verified today. Although nineteen hundred years have elapsed since the first preachingof the Gospel, whole nations are still steeped in idolatry and Christendom seems hopelessly divided by heresy and schism.
An angel coming in clouds of grace and glory brings to St. John a book of further prophecies. The rainbow about his head symbolizes mercy while the brightness of his countenace expresses the power of his teachings to enlighten souls. The feet as of fire indicate that he shall lead the Church in the ways of truth and justice as the pillar of fire guided the Israelites in the wilderness. The book is open to signify that the prophecies therein revealed to St. John are intelligible and shall be understood in due time according to the needs of the Church. The angel places one foot upon the sea, the other upon the land to express God’s supreme dominion over all things. The voice like the roar of a lion is the voice of the Gospel which shall penetrate the very ends of the earth teaching divine truth, condemning error and threatening persecutors with the vengeance of God. Here as elsewhere the thunders may symbolize the anathemas of the church against all wickedness and error; but it would be useless to comment on their exact meaning since St. John was ordered to seal up the words of his prophecies until the time appointed by God for their publication. The words of the seven thunders may also have been such as St. Paul heard – “ secret words which it is not granted to man to utter”. Lifting his hand to heaven the angel calls upon the God of all creation to witness the truth of his words that time shall be no more. This does not mean that the end of the world is at hand, but that the time for judgement against obstinate sinners and persecutors has arrived. This judgement shall be the greatest persecution of Antichrist and his attendant evils. Then shall be accomplished the “mystery of God” which has been announced (evangelized) by the prophets of old. To evangelizeis to announce good tidings hence this mystery of God is probably the plenitude of the Redemption applied to all nations of the earth. After the destruction of Antichrist and his kingdom all peoples shall accept the Gospels and the church of Christ shall reign peacefully over all nations. Eating the book symbolizes an intimate union with the Holy Ghost by which the mind of the Apostle is illuminated with the spirit of prophecy. St John finds the book sweet to the taste because it announces mercy to the elect and the final triumph of the church. It is bitter in so far as it predicts dire persecutions for the church and terrible punishments for the wicked.
The followers of antichrist have been warned of defeat and eternal punishment – the faithful have been encouraged by the promise of victory here and the eternal happiness hereafter. The time of judgement is at hand; the final conflict now begins. The separation of the good from the bad will be still further accomplished. As on the last day Christ sends forth His angels to gether the wheat in the barns while the cockle is being bound into bundles for the fire, The gathering in of the good through martyrdom is represented as a harvest. The destruction of the wicked is depicted as the vintage of God’s wrath. The realization of this judgement will be found in the complete destruction of the kingdom of Antichrist in subsequent chapters. The reaper sitting upon a bright cloud is an angel who comes in the name of Christ to execute His orders. Hence he bears the resemblance of Christ and is surrounded by a cloud of glory. He also wears a crown of gold, the emblem of royalty because as representative of Christ he exercises dominion over all peoples. The cloud of glory and the crown of royalty might lead one to accept the reaper as Christ Himself. Yet the context makes it plain that the reaper cannot be identified with Christ since he is commanded by an angel to thrust in his sickle. Furthermore Christ has told us in the Gospel that angels shall be commissioned to separate the wheat from the cockle. The voice from beneath the altar commanding the vintage to be gathered is the voice of a martyr whose blood cries to heaven for vengeance. The martyr who has “power over fire” is probably Elias who will destroy Antichrist by sending down fire from heaven. The prohet Joel also describes the judgement of God against unholy nations as a vintage and a treading of the wine press. The wine press of divine wrath shall be trodden outside the city of Jerusalem. Final victory over Antichrist will be won through great slaughter and bloodshed in a battle near the Holy city, perhaps in the valley of Josaphat. The prophecy of Joel may refer to this event instead of the last Judgement; “Let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about…in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near”
Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, D.D.
The Apocalypse of St. John
“In the forgoing chapter [12] St. John outlines the history of the Church from the coming of Antichrist until the end of the world . . . In this chapter he shows us the true nature of the conflict. It shall be a war unto death between the Church and the powers of darkness in a final effort to destroy the Church and thus prevent the universal reign of Christ on earth.
“Satan will first attempt to destroy the power of the Papacy and bring about the downfall of the Church through heresies, schisms and persecutions that must surely follow . . . he will raise up Antichrist and his prophet to lead the faithful into error and destroy those who remain steadfast . . . . . . The Church, the faithful spouse of Jesus Christ, is represented as a woman clothed in the glory of divine grace . . .
” . . . In this passage there is an evident allusion to some particular son of the Church whose power and influence shall be such that Satan will seek his destruction at any cost. This person can be none other than the Pope to be elected in those days. The Papacy will be attacked by all the powers of hell. In consequence the Church will suffer great trials and afflictions in securing a successor upon the throne of Peter.
“The words of St. Paul to the Thessalonians may be a reference to the Papacy as the obstacle to the coming of Antichrist: ‘You know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold until he be taken out of the way. And then that wicked one shall be revealed.’
“ . . . St. John . . . sees in heaven a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns . . . The dragon is Satan red with the blood of martyrs, which he will cause to flow. The meaning of the seven headsand ten horns must be sought in the description of the beast that represents Antichrist where they symbolize kings or worldly powers. (II Thessalonians 2:6-7) . . . Satan’s attacks against the Church will be organized and carried out by the governments and ruling powers of those days.
“With the beast of Antichrist only the horns have diadems as symbols of royalty or governing power. The heads are branded with names of blasphemy. (Apocalypse, 13:1) Hence they symbolize the sins and errors that will afflict the Church . . . in this final struggle to prevent the universal reign of Christ all forms of sin and error will be marshaled against the Church . . . all errors which have afflicted the Church may be summed up in these seven: Judaism, paganism, Arianism, Protestantism, rationalism, Communism and atheism.
“The dragon is seen in heaven which is here a symbol of the Church, the kingdom of heaven on earth. This indicates that the first troubles of those days will be inaugurated within the Church by apostate bishops, priests, and peoples, — the stars dragged down by the tail of the dragon.
“ . . . The dragon stands before the woman, ready to devour the child that is brought forth. In other words, the powers of hell seek by all means to destroy the Pope elected in those days.
“. . . It is now the hour for the powers of darkness. The new-born Son of the Church is taken ‘to God and to his throne.’ Scarcely has the newly elected Pope been enthroned when he is snatched away by martyrdom. The ‘mystery of iniquity’ gradually developing through the centuries, cannot be fully consummated while the power of the Papacy endures, but now he that ‘withholdeth is taken out of the way.’ During the interregnum ‘that wicked one shall be revealed’ in his fury against the Church.” [In his interpretation of the Apocalypse, Fr. Berry suggests that it will the martyrdom of the Pope,immediately after his election, that will precipitate an extended interregnum, causing manifold tribulations to be visited upon the faithful. However, the suppression of a true Pope, and the intense agony suffered by the rightful Pontiff, who watches helplessly as the Church is ravaged by demonic powers usurping his see for a generation, could certainly be compared to a type of prolonged martyrdom.]
“It is a matter of history that the most disastrous periods for the Church were times when the Papal throne was vacant, or when anti-popes contended with the legitimate head of the Church. Thus also shall it be in those evil days to come.
“The Church deprived of her chief pastor must seek sanctuary in solitude there to be guided by God Himself during those trying days . . . In those days the Church shall . . . find refuge and consolation in faithful souls, especially in the seclusion of the religious life.
“ . . . Our Divine Savior has a representative on earth in the person of the Pope upon whom He has conferred full powers to teach and govern. Likewise, Antichrist will have his representative in the false prophet who will be endowed with the plenitude of satanic powers to deceive the nations.
“ . . . As indicated by the resemblance to a lamb, the prophet will probably set himself up in Rome as a sort of antipope during the vacancy of the papal throne . . .
“ . . . The ‘abomination of desolation’ has been wrought in many Catholic churches by heretics and apostates who have broken altars, scattered relics of martyrs and desecrated the Blessed Sacrament. At the time of the French Revolution a lewd woman was seated upon the altar of the cathedral in Paris and worshipped as the goddess of reason. Such things but faintly foreshadow the abominations that will desecrate churches in those sorrowful days when Antichrist will seat himself at the altar to be adored as God.
“. . .Antichrist and his prophet will introduce ceremonies to imitate the Sacraments of the Church. In fact there will be a complete organization – a church of Satan set up in opposition to the Church of Christ. Satan will assume the part of God the Father; Antichrist will be honored as Savior, and his prophet will usurp the role of Pope. Their ceremonies will counterfeit the Sacraments . . .”8
“The prophecies of the Apocalypse show that Satan will imitate the Church of Christ to deceive mankind; he will set up a church of Satan in opposition to the Church of Christ
“Antichrist will assume the role of Messias; his prophet will act the part of Pope, and there will be imitations of the Sacraments of the Church. There will also be lying wonders in imitation of the miracles wrought in the Church. (p.119)
“And, there seems to be no reason why a false Church might not become universal, even more universal than the true one, at least for a time.” (p.155)
Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, D.D.,
The Church of Christ, An Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise.
Herder, St. Louis and London, 1927 & 1941.
“16. The followers of Antichrist will be marked with a character in imitation of the sign that St. John saw upon the foreheads of the servants of God. This indicates that Antichrist and his prophet will introduce ceremonies to imitate the Sacraments of the Church. In fact there will be a complete organization ―― a church of Satan set up in opposition to the Church of Christ. Satan will assume the part of God the Father; Antichrist will be honored as Saviour, and his prophet will usurp the role of Pope. Their ceremonies will counterfeit the Sacraments and their works of magic be heralded as miracles. A similar project was attempted in the fourth century when Julian the Apostate counterfeited Catholic worship with pagan ceremonies in honor of Mithras and Cybele. He established a priesthood and instituted ceremonies in imitation of Baptism and Confirmation.”
Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, D.D.
The Apocalypse of St. John
Discussion on Apoc: xiii, 16.
John W. Winterich, Columbus, Ohio, 1921
The Mark, the Name, the Number of the beast Pundarika is given in the Greek under the English. Hammelek el Israel (king of Israel), the name or title, that in all probability, the Antichrist will claim for himself, is given in Hebrew under the English.
The Cosmic Christ – Cosmocrator and the fruits of that bad tree
P U N D A R I K A
P U N D A R I K A
80+ 400+50+ 4+ 1+ 100+10+ 20+ 1=666
Note: pundarika in Sanskrit (the above English and Greek are direct transliterations letter for letter from the Sanskrit) is literally “the great white dragon in the abyss” which is the core and basis of the whole esoteric tradition, priesthood, and the dainichi nyorai (the head of the diabolic trinity of the dragon in Buddhism). The dainichi nyorai is also the exact very basis for their magic/sorcery with it’s six elements they manipulate. Elements here are exactly the stoichea in Col. 2:8.
(Note in the below that the Hebrew characters normally read in reverse order than the English letters)
Hammelek l Yisrael
H M L K L Y S R A L
ה מ ל כ ל י ש ר א ל
5+ 40+ 30+ 20+ 30+ 10+ 300+ 200+ 1+ 30 = 666
Originally there were in ancient religion four elements (fire spirit water earth) with spirit deleted by the pagans and air and then also and/or aether inserted. These were variously identified with the visible planets and gods/goddesses of the pagans. The order was also rearranged variously and finally a sixth element was added: universal mind (just as the heretical interpretation of Jesus Christ as the impersonal word of God, instead of enhypostasia which is correct that Jesus Christ is the Person-al Son and Word of God incarnate). Finally language was seen as the mystical means of connecting with the powers of the gods/goddesses (actually Satan and the other fallen angels and the demons [demons are, according to the Church Fathers, the non-human souls of the pre-flood nephilim]), and with that alpha-numeric theosophies, namely Hebrew Gematria (Greek and Roman variations are Isopsephia) were especially used. These connections were for the sorcery/magic astrological control over the elements (Greek – stoichea) and even other men. Trigrams, pentagrams, hexagrams et al were symbols used in conjunction with this. The final Mark of the Beast will not be accidental or co-incidental. The final mark of the Antichrist (the Beast) will be willful knowingly on purpose representation of the damned individual’s name by gematria/isopsephia spelling of his name to equal 666. He will seek to impress this knowingly on all men. All who knowingly take it will be irrevocably damned.
If one studies freemasonry one finds that it is the worst kept secret there is, on purpose. They intend to be more and more open about their aims until people openly join in their rebellion against God for that very reason. It is true that there are roots of Byzantine-Venetian banking — Phnariot, Darius Socinus etc., and there is a stabilization of the power that was concentrated there in and in connection with Switzerland (including the powerful Warburgs and Rothschilds). It is also true that without the connivings of Cardinal Richelieu it would have been stopped a long time ago. It is also true that unscrupulous Jews were involved every step of the way as Bernard Lazare, himself a Jew tells us. There were Jews round Adam Weishaupt in the late 1700’s when Weishaupt added the very Lurianic Illuminism, overt Satanism, the final formulation in which (Weishaupt’s formula) “it will advance until its final conflict with Christianity must determine whether Christ or Satan shall reign on this earth to the end.” Weishaupt’s way is the way of the Masonic lodges today, to first seduce men into his organization through its lower degrees. To quote Monsignor Dillon from his Edinburgh lectures:
“A man, though in Masonry, may not be willing to become an atheist or a Socialist, for some time at least. He may have in his heart a profound conviction that God exists, and some hope left of returning to that God at or before his death. He may have entered Masonry for purposes of ambition, for motives of vanity, from mere lightness of character. He may continue his prayers and refuse, if a Catholic, to give up the Mother of God and some practice of piety loved by him from his youth. But Masonry is a capital system to wean a man gradually away from all these things. It does not at once deny the existence of God, nor at once attack the Christian dispensation. It commences by giving the Christian idea of God an easy and, under semblance of respect, an almost imperceptible shake. It swears by the name of God in all its oaths. It calls Him, however, not a Creator, only an architect — the great Architect of the universe. It carefully avoids all mention of Christ, of the Adorable Trinity, of the unity of Faith, or of any faith. It protests a respect for the convictions of every man, for the idolatrous Parsee, for the Muslim, the heretic, the Jew, the schismatic, the Catholic. By and by, in higher degrees, it gives a ruder shock to the belief in the Deity, and a gradual inducement to favor Naturalism.”
{In this quote neither Catholicism nor Islam is condemned. Mixing them with paganism is condemned. Freemasonry does that.}
It is Masonry that we find at the core of the Vatican II apostasy. It is especially the black mass child sacrifice by murdering and offering this murdered child to Satan, it is that form, that is the core of the Novus Ordo and Vatican II and everyone that is connected with it; this Masonry with the Cardinals of the Vatican who were and are the willing servants of Satan and the Antipopes who are the willing pawns of Satan. Those Antipopes are: John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.