The Two Witnesses and the Seventh Trumpet

Section II: On Chapter 11 — Of the Persecution of Antichrist, and of the Seventh and Last Trumpet

§ 1. On the Time of the Persecution of Antichrist. Chapter 11, Verses 3–13

I. VERSE 3. And I will give my spirit to my two witnesses; and clothed in sackcloth, they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred sixty days. In this text, Saint John describes the reign — or rather the tyranny — of Antichrist, and the final desolation proceeding from the empire of Muhammad and ending in that of Antichrist; that is, the figure becomes reality, and the reign of the precursor becomes the consummator of all iniquity.

This new empire will be born, formed, and will draw its power from the first. Because of this relation and affinity between these two empires, God also establishes a relation and affinity of time between them, so that the second reign will last as many days as the first lasted years. For this reason Saint John expresses, with truth, the duration of both these reigns by forty-two months, which, if reduced to prophetic days, make a period of one thousand two hundred seventy-seven and a half years, which will be the duration of the reign of Muhammad.

But if these forty-two months are counted in their natural sense — which is the true sense and the one canonically recognised in the second case — it follows that the time of the persecution of Antichrist will be one thousand two hundred seventy-seven and a half days. It is on that final day that Antichrist, wishing to rise up to heaven, will be cast down into hell, as we shall see later.

His persecution will be the most dangerous and the greatest that has ever taken place, as Jesus Christ clearly foretells in Saint Matthew 24:21: "Then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be." Nevertheless, divine goodness will send several robust athletes of the faith of Christ, among whom Enoch and Elijah will especially be distinguished. They will preach and work great wonders in the Name of Jesus against the impostures and false miracles of Antichrist; and when they have finished their mission and given their testimony, he will put them to death.

Hence the text continues: And I will give my spirit to my two witnesses. These two witnesses will be Enoch and Elijah. The first lived under the natural law, and the second under the Law of Moses. They will return at the end of the world and will bear witness to Jesus Christ of Nazareth by astonishing miracles and by their powerful preaching against Antichrist and his followers.

They will persuade the nations, and even the Jews, that Jesus of Nazareth is truly the Messiah, the Son of the living God, who has already come into this world as Redeemer; that He was truly crucified at Jerusalem by the chief priests; that He died for the salvation of the whole universe; that on the third day He rose again from the dead; that He ascended into heaven; and that He sits at the right hand of God, from whence He will come on the last day to judge the living and the dead.

From this one sees that, just as Saint John the Baptist was the precursor of Christ at His first coming, so Enoch and Elijah will be the precursors at His second appearing. And just as the Apostles bore witness to Him to the ends of the earth that He is the Christ, Acts 1:8, so Enoch and Elijah will do in the last days of the world.

Their testimony, therefore, will be expressed by their mouth, and it will be confirmed by their wonders: that Jesus is the Christ. This is what the son of perdition will formally deny. 1 John 2:22: "Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son." And again, 1 John 4:1–3.

And I will give, etc. This verb is placed here in the future active, whereas above, in the Latin, it is placed in the past passive, to signify that God only permits evils, and that He is the remunerator and distributor of goods. And just as in all times He granted to the Church and to His people consolations and helps proportioned to the needs and tribulations they had to endure, so He will continue to do, especially in the last and most dangerous persecution. He will therefore give to these two witnesses, chosen for this circumstance, great wisdom and powerful virtue against Antichrist, against the false prophets, and against the false Christians.

And clothed in sackcloth, they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred sixty days. By these words, Saint John designates the time, the office, and the clothing of these two witnesses of Christ, the Son of God. The time of their preaching will therefore be a thousand two hundred sixty days, taken from the forty-two months of the tyranny of Antichrist and his followers.

The office of these saints will be preaching: they shall prophesy — that is, they will preach to the nations and to the Jews the end of the world, the Last Judgment, penance; and finally, they will preach that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who will come to judge the living and the dead. Such is their destination and the purpose for which they are reserved: the conversion and penance of the nations and of the Jews.

Enoch is spoken of in Ecclesiasticus 44:16: "Enoch pleased God, and was translated into paradise, that he may give repentance to the nations." And Elijah is spoken of in the same book, Ecclesiasticus 48:9–10: "Thou who wast taken up in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot of fiery horses; who art registered in the judgments of times, to appease the wrath of the Lord, to reconcile the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob."

VERSE 4. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the Lord of the earth. These words must be taken both in a passive and in an active sense. Passively, because they will be anointed with the oil of holiness, charity, and heavenly wisdom. Actively, because they will pour the oil of salvation upon the wounds of the nations and the Jews; because they will soften their hearts, enlighten them in the truth and faith of Jesus Christ, and thus bring an end to the dispersion of Israel.

This is why Jesus Christ says in Saint Matthew 17:11: "Elijah indeed shall come, and restore all things." And in Saint Mark 9:12: "Elijah, when he shall come first, shall restore all things." Hence the text adds that these two olive trees and these two candlesticks stand before the Lord — that is, they are reserved alive, by the will of God, for the penance and conversion of the nations and of the Jews. For those among the nations and Jews who will exist upon the earth in the last days will adhere to the doctrine of Antichrist.

Saint John, in representing these two prophets under the figure of two candlesticks, here takes the container for the contained. The garment with which the two saints will be clothed when preaching throughout the whole earth will be the same as that which Saint John the Baptist wore when he came out of the desert to preach penance: that is, sackcloth and haircloth, which are the only garments suitable for fulfilling this office worthily. This ought to make preachers and pastors of souls blush with shame, who, after the example of worldlings, dare to adorn themselves and appear in courts and worldly society with luxurious clothing and all the refinements of effeminate dress.

II. VERSE 5. And if any man will hurt them, fire shall come out of their mouths, etc. These words and the following express the virtue and power of the great miracles and wonders which it will be given to these two saints to work in those last days, in order to confound the imposture and power of Antichrist and of the false prophets. For what was done in Egypt in the days of Pharaoh by the hand of Moses and Aaron, and in the days of Ahab and Jezebel by the hand of Elijah, will be renewed in the last days by the power of these two prophets.

Their first and special virtue will be to destroy by fire the enemies whom Antichrist and his followers will send against them to kill them; and this wonder will be repeated frequently and publicly during the course of their mission. This is why it is said: If any man will hurt them — that is, kill them and destroy them — fire shall come out of their mouths. Not really and substantially, but by their commanding voice. For by the word of God they will command the elements, and lightning will descend from heaven and devour their enemies.

We read, in fact, in Scripture, that this wonder was really worked at the word of Elijah. 4 Kings 1:9: "The king sent to him a captain of fifty, and the fifty men that were under him; and he went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said: Man of God, the king hath commanded that thou come down. And Elijah answering said: If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee, and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and the fifty that were with him." Ochozias sent another captain of fifty, who said to Elijah: "Man of God, thus saith the king: Make haste and come down." Elijah answered: "If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty." And immediately fire came down from heaven and consumed that man and his fifty soldiers.

Ochozias sent a third captain and his fifty soldiers with him, etc. Moreover, the virtue of the power of these two prophets will be general; that is, they will cause every kind of evil to fall back upon the heads of those very persons who dare to attack them. Their enemies will fall into the very pit which they have dug to lay snares for them, of whatever kind they may be: death or other evils. For the text adds: And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. It is thus that Elijah destroyed all the prophets of Baal at the torrent of Cison, when Jezebel was seeking to put him and his followers to death. 3 Kings 18.

The third virtue of their power will be manifested in heaven, for: VERSE 6. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy. This happened in the days of Ahab, king of Israel, by the hand of the prophet Elijah, because of the impiety and idolatry to which this king and his people gave themselves. 3 Kings 17. For during three years there was neither dew nor rain upon that land, and heaven was shut.

The fourth virtue of the power of these saints will be manifested upon the waters, which they will change into blood. This is what Moses and Aaron did when they struck the waters with their rod. Exodus 7:20. This is why the text says: And they have power over waters to turn them into blood.

The fifth virtue they will manifest upon the earth, by striking it and its inhabitants with plagues, according to the text: And to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. This is what Moses did in Exodus 8, 9, and 10, when he sent upon the land of Egypt frogs, gnats, flies, locusts, hail, lightning, pestilence upon animals, ulcers upon men, darkness, death upon the firstborn, and finally the despoiling of gold and silver.

With such plagues, and with many others still, these two prophets will strike the earth toward the end of times, in the presence of the son of perdition and before the nations and the people of Israel, as Moses and Aaron did. And just as Pharaoh succeeded, by his enchantments, in imitating some of these wonders, though imperfectly, and resisted those two men of God and His people, so, in the last days, Antichrist will enjoy, by God's permission, a still greater power to imitate Enoch and Elijah — but not to equal them in the great wonders which they will work by the power of God in heaven, on earth, upon the waters, upon the fruits, upon the animals, and finally upon the impious, whom they will strike with plagues so cruel that they will die of pain. The son of perdition, in his turn, will do similar things, but he will not be able to do all of them, nor as perfectly. He will do them in a spirit of iniquity and falsehood, and by the power of the demon by whom he will be possessed and whom he will adore, etc.

VERSE 7. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. In these words and those that follow, Saint John describes the war, the death, and the bodily victory in which God will grant Antichrist triumph over these two prophets, after their war and spiritual victory against him. Antichrist is here called the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss.

And when they shall have finished their testimony — that is, when the time of one thousand two hundred sixty days has passed, during which they will preach that Jesus of Nazareth is truly the Messiah — the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war against them. By the beast, Saint John therefore designates Antichrist, or the son of perdition, who will appear in the world toward the end of times.

1. He is called the beast because of his abominable life, which he will pass in lust and the concupiscence of women. 2. Because of his unparalleled cruelty, with which, like the fierce leopard, he will rage against Christians. 3. A wild beast devours and tears everything it encounters; and so Antichrist will devour and mutilate all holy and sacred things. He will abolish the continual sacrifice, he will tread under foot the Holy of Holies, he will not fear the God of his fathers, and he will not concern himself with any god. Daniel 11:37. 4. As the final destiny of the beast is to be born and live only to be killed or to perish, so Antichrist will be born, appointed, and chosen to do nothing but evil, and to run to his perdition. It is for this reason that he is called the son of perdition.

The beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 1. It is said that the beast will ascend from the abyss because Antichrist will come to the empire through the most secret and hidden frauds, and by the most criminal artifices; and it is by the help of the power of darkness that he will enter into the kingdom and exalt himself above all things. It is also because he will possess the treasures of gold, silver, and the most precious stones hidden in the abysses of the earth and of the sea; and these treasures will be revealed and delivered to him by the demon Moazim, whom he will adore. Daniel 11.

Finally, the word abyss also signifies an immense quantity of water whose depth is unknown; and the waters, according to Apocalypse 12, "are peoples, nations, and tongues." Now the quantity of these waters which will adhere to the doctrine of Antichrist and will recognise him will be almost infinite. It is from this abyss that the son of perdition will rise; and over its immense surface, which will be as great as the world, his empire will extend.

2. The beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. One must notice here that the verb ascendeth is placed in the present, whereas the verbs make, overcome, and kill are in the future. This teaches us that it will not be permitted to Antichrist to rage against the two prophets from the very moment of his elevation to the throne, but only after they have rendered and completed their testimony of Jesus Christ, according to Saint John's own expression: When they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

3. The war that Antichrist will make against these two saints will be of two different kinds: war in miracles, and war in torments. For the beast will seek to rival these holy prophets by astonishing but false prodigies, which he will succeed in working by diabolical artifices. And because he will not succeed in equalling fully and perfectly their virtue and power, which they will hold from God Himself, the beast will avenge his defeat and supply for it by torments and by tyrannical acts against the temporal life of these prophets.

By God's permission, he will overcome them and kill them. Then he will cast away their bodies and expose them in the public squares of Jerusalem before the eyes of the nations and of the Jews. He will take care to have their death published, so that all men, as far as possible, may see and believe that he is above every virtue and every power.

VERSE 8. And their bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. This great city is modern Jerusalem. It is called the great city because of its numerous population and because of the immense celebrity which it will especially have then. It will be great by its riches, by its treasures, by the peoples, nations, and men of various tongues who will inhabit it and flow into it from all sides; for in that time Jerusalem will become very powerful and very celebrated.

It is in the streets of this city that the bodies of the two prophets, Enoch and Elijah, will truly lie, along with those of several other holy martyrs who will have been constant, firm, and unshaken in the confession of the holy Name of Jesus, and who will have resisted the son of perdition unto death. Among them will be found especially the priests and doctors of the Church of whom Daniel speaks in Daniel 11:33: "And the learned among the people shall teach many: and they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days."

This persecution will not take place only in Jerusalem, but will rage in a horrible and frightful manner over the whole surface of the earth, and will greatly surpass all the preceding persecutions, as Jesus Christ announces in Saint Matthew 24:21: "Then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be."

This city is called spiritually — that is, allegorically — Sodom, because of the resemblance which Jerusalem will then have with Sodom, by the consummated vices of every kind which will be committed there, as well as throughout the whole earth. For in that time the fear of God will have disappeared, and men will give themselves over to sin in complete security; and such as the leader is, such will the people be. The impious of those last times will reproduce the summary and the height of all the scenes of impiety which the world has produced since its origin.

Moreover, this city is called Egypt because Jerusalem and its king will do against Jesus Christ, in the days of Enoch and Elijah, what Egypt and its king Pharaoh did against God in the days of Moses and Aaron. And just as then there was a struggle of miracle against miracle, prodigy against prodigy, so it will happen at the end of times. Again, just as Pharaoh made every effort to prevent the children of Israel from entering the Promised Land, so Antichrist will employ all his power to prevent Christians from entering the dwelling of the promise, which is eternal life. All these words are said by allegory, for the scenes of the Old Testament were the figure of the secrets and mysteries of the New.

Finally, so that it may be clearly shown that this city will be no other than Jerusalem, the text adds: Where also their Lord was crucified. These words apply literally to the death of Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all things. And just as at the death of Christ the Jews and the Gentiles rejoiced, and the people dared to blaspheme, saying, Matthew 27:40: "Thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it, save thy own self. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." So also, at the death of Enoch and Elijah, the impious will rejoice and clap their hands in applause over their death and over the death of the just; and they will glorify the son of perdition, their false messiah.

They will exalt him above all things and will consider him as God. His power will appear to them above every power, because he will have conquered and killed these two prophets who before had been so powerful in word and deed. For this reason they will judge them as magicians and false prophets, will turn them into mockery, will cover their bodies with spittle, and will treat them with ignominy.

VERSE 9. And they of the tribes, and peoples, and tongues, and nations shall see their bodies lying three days and a half. The day is here taken for a week, which is the time appointed for man's labours, as though the week formed only one day. Thus the bodies of the two prophets will remain exposed to the mockery of the impious, who will make a plaything of them, for three and a half weeks; and Antichrist will enjoy, throughout all this time, the fruits of his victory and triumph amid the most horrible scenes.

It will not be permitted to bury these bodies, because they must serve as witnesses to the assembled nations of the greatness, power, and even divinity of the false messiah who will have conquered and killed them. This is why the text adds: And they shall not suffer their bodies to be laid in sepulchres. Then the son of perdition will see himself so glorified by this victory, and he will be so intoxicated by it, that, in the heat of his enthusiasm, he will go and place himself upon the summit of the Mount of Olives, in order to be publicly adored there as though he were God.

And in order better to manifest the glory of his divinity, he will make preparations to celebrate his ascension into heaven. It is to this circumstance that the words of the prophet Daniel refer, Daniel 11:45: "He shall pitch his tabernacle in Apadno, between the seas, upon a glorious and holy mountain; and he shall come even to the top thereof, and none shall help him."

VERSE 10. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them: and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another. These words show the intoxication of joy, carried even to frenzy, which the impious will manifest during those twenty-four days, or three and a half weeks, that their triumph will last.

In their blindness they will exalt and glorify Antichrist. And since he will have taken care to have his victory over these two so celebrated prophets published, the mass of men covering the surface of the globe will be agitated like the waves of the sea; and tribes, nations, and men of various tongues will flow in those days to Jerusalem to see these so renowned corpses, and to contemplate their deified king in all the splendour of his majesty.

Then men will dance for joy over the death of the two prophets and of the other just ones who will have been martyred for the holy Name of Jesus, as Herodias danced and rejoiced over the beheading of Saint John the Baptist. They will erect throughout the earth trophies and magnificent statues to Antichrist; they will burn incense upon his altars and will adore him as their god and their messiah. All men who believe in him will be invited to feasts, banquets, dances, weddings, and pleasures of every kind.

They will seek to satisfy all the desires of the flesh, because they will think they have arrived at the fullness of rest, now that their peace has no longer been troubled by the two preachers of penance. They will be so stupefied by the happiness and bacchanals of those twenty-four days of worldly madness that they will not suspect at all the last and horrible evils which will surprise them like a thief.

And they shall send gifts one to another, from village to village, from city to city, and from country to country. For after the death of the two prophets, power will be given to the beast over all men powerful in works and words; and these will be put to death in every region of the earth, or will be forced to flee into the mountains and desert places, to hide in the dens of rocks and in dark caves. For no one will dare to declare himself a Christian publicly. On their side, the impious will be in joy, feasts, and pleasures, and their triumph will be perfect upon the earth.

The God of heaven will no longer give signs either in heaven, or on earth, or in the waters after these two prophets, who previously taught true doctrine to many, maintaining them in the faith by the greatest prodigies. So much so that in those last days, truly all men will adore the beast; and even Christians, except the elect, seeing at the same time the ignominious death of their prophets, the peace of the wicked, the victory of Antichrist, and the silence and apparent abandonment of God, will take scandal and will defect.

They too will burn their incense before the altar of the beast; and after having accepted his character on the hand or on the forehead, as we shall explain later, they will adore his image. Saint John now indicates to us the cause of this mad joy: Because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the earth. That is, by their prodigies and by their great miracles, which they will work in heaven, on earth, and in the waters, to bear witness to Jesus that He is the Christ; and by striking the earth and its inhabitants with every kind of plague and temporal scourge, to compel them to have recourse to penance and to save their souls.

Now these impious ones, obstinate in their sins, will be supremely thwarted by this; and they will rejoice to be finally delivered from their physical evils, because these two prophets tormented those who dwelt upon the earth.

VERSE 11. But after three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them. These words and the following suddenly show us the change of the right hand of the Almighty, who does not permit the triumph of the impious over the just to last long. But after three days and a half — that is, after these twenty-four days — the spirit of life from God entered into them. By His infinite power, God will raise these two prophets from the dead.

And they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that saw them. Indeed, the sudden and unexpected change of this imposing scene will be terrible for the impious. This solemn transformation of the state of men upon the earth gives us an idea of the one we shall see in the other life. In the eyes of men, the impious triumphs and the just man is oppressed; but before God, the groanings of the just will be changed into glory and eternal consolation, while the passing and ephemeral triumph of the wicked will be followed by torments immense in their rigour and endless in their duration.

Wisdom 5:1: "Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those that have afflicted them and taken away their labours. These seeing it shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation." "They shall say within themselves, repenting, and groaning for anguish of spirit: These are they whom we had some time in derision, and for a parable of reproach. We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour. Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints."

III. VERSE 12. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying to them: Come up hither. And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. One must take literally all the words contained in this text; and their meaning is natural and without figure. For it will truly happen that God, wishing to give a public and solemn testimony to the truth of the preaching of these two prophets raised from the dead, will cause them to ascend into heaven in body and soul, in the presence of all peoples, of all tribes, and of all tongues who will have come from all the ends of the earth, and will have rushed like waves of population toward the king of Jerusalem.

Then Antichrist will feel himself troubled with icy fear. He will tremble with rage; and in the excess of his pride and infernal presumption, wishing to give a final proof of his false divinity, and wishing also to hold the peoples in the abyss of error by the help of the power of demons, he will rise from the Mount of Olives into the air with great majesty, and will strive to reach Enoch and Elijah in order to cast them down to the earth.

But behold: at that solemn moment, the power of the Almighty strikes him and casts him down into the greatest ignominy and confusion. A horrible earthquake overturns the whole region. A great part of Jerusalem falls into ruin. The false prophets and most of their followers are killed. And the son of perdition, falling into the gulfs of the opened earth, is cast alive into hell.

Then the remnants of the Jews and of the nations, seeing with their own eyes the power of God and the deception of their king, the false messiah, will be converted to the Lord and to His Christ. Seized with horrible fear, they will strike their breasts and pronounce these words which Jesus Christ predicted of them: "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

VERSE 13. And at that hour there was a great earthquake: and the tenth part of the city fell; and there were slain in the earthquake seven thousand men: and the rest were cast into fear, and gave glory to God.

§ 2. On the Last Trumpet and the Last Woe. Chapter 11, Verses 14–19

I. After the tribulation of those great days and the ruin of Antichrist, there will no longer be years, but only days, still granted to the human race for doing penance. And it is in those last days that the great signs and horrible portents will take place which will precede the dissolution of heaven and earth, and the great day of judgment. These signs and portents will be manifested in the four elements: in the sun, the moon, the stars, in the sea, and upon the hills.

This is what we read in Saint Matthew 24:29–31: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light; and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty. And he shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them."

We read likewise in Saint Luke 21:25–26: "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved." Thus, after the fall of Antichrist, there will no longer be months or years, but only a few days filled with every misery, every calamity, and horrible portents. For then the earthly globe itself will fight against the foolish men who will be living especially in those times.

VERSE 14. The second woe is past; and behold the third woe will come quickly. This third and last woe, the most horrible of all, as well as the seventh and last trumpet, refers to the consummation of the ages, to the dissolution of the world, and to the universal judgment. Moreover, this seventh angel who will sound the trumpet will not be, like the preceding ones, an evil angel, but a good one.

It will even be the Archangel Saint Michael, who, like a military commander, after having ended the battle and won a definitive and eternal victory, will call his own to the universal judgment and to the resurrection of the dead, so that the works and secret thoughts of men may be manifested in the full light of day. Then the soldiers of Christ who have fought bravely will receive their reward and their crown. On the other hand, the enemies of God and the soldiers of Lucifer will be cast into the torments of hell.

Saint Paul speaks of the trumpet of this angel in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 15, and he also calls it the last trumpet. He says further, in 1 Thessalonians 4:15–16: "For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven with commandment, and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first." We see also in Saint Matthew 24:31: "He shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds."

Thus, at the sound of the trumpet of this seventh angel, the present age will end with its trumpets, wars, sins, and calamities. The system of this world will be dissolved. A new heaven and a new earth will be established. God will judge the age by the fire which tests gold, and the mystery of the kingdom of God will be consummated, as He declared it through the prophets His servants from the beginning of the world.

II. VERSE 15. And the seventh angel sounded the trumpet; and there were great voices in heaven, saying: The kingdom of this world is become our Lord's and his Christ's, and he shall reign for ever and ever. Amen. These words and the following describe the great joy which the Church triumphant will experience after the victory won over Antichrist and the world, because at last the great day of the Lord will have arrived: the day on which vengeance will be taken upon the enemies of the Cross of Christ, and on which the just will be rewarded.

And there were great voices in heaven, saying, etc. That is, in the Church triumphant there will be great acclamations made to the Lord God and to His Christ. These voices from heaven will be those of the saints: that is, their desires, prayers, praises, and thanksgivings, which all the choirs of holy martyrs, virgins, angels, and all the saints will make heard with acclamation after this victory won over Antichrist and after the extermination of all his adherents upon the earth.

And these saints will say: The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever. Amen. This acclamation perfectly suits the King of kings, who has conquered all others and who alone reigns as absolute sovereign, without any opposition whatever, to whom all subjects are perfectly submitted, and whose reign is eternal. For Satan will no longer be able to make war against Him, nor against His friends who will serve Him in glory, while His enemies will be subject to Him in hell without ever being able to leave it.

This reign is spoken of in the Psalms of David, Psalm 109:1: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool." And in Daniel 2:44: "In the days of those kingdoms, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and His kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people; and it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever." It is said also in Saint Luke 1:33: "Of His kingdom there shall be no end."

VERSE 16. And the four and twenty ancients, who sit on their seats in the sight of God, fell on their faces and adored God, saying, etc. By the twenty-four ancients, Saint John designates the universality of the judges. He represents them already seated upon their thrones, to make us understand that the universal judgment is so near that the judges have already taken their places to judge all men.

These twenty-four ancients fell upon their faces, and they adored God, saying, etc. These acts testify to the most perfect submission and to the worship of adoration which the saints render to the Lord God in heaven, in peace, love, and truth. They are perfectly submitted to Him, recognising, praising, glorifying, and adoring Him alone, for His greater glory, for ever and ever.

VERSE 17. We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who art, and who wast, and who art to come. These words are an act of the most just thanksgiving, by which the saints attribute to Almighty God, the first principle and eternal source of every good, all the glory and happiness which they enjoy in heaven. For indeed, everything that we are, and everything that we shall become, we must render glory for it to God the Father, because it is from Him, first, that we hold everything we can possess.

VERSE 18. Because thou hast taken thy great power, and hast reigned; and the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged; and that thou shouldst render reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, little and great, and shouldst destroy them who have corrupted the earth. The Apostle here specifies the causes of this brilliant and solemn joy of the saints.

The first cause is this: Because thou hast taken thy great power, and hast reigned. This is a human manner of speaking, which Scripture also uses to express that God is immutable, and that He possesses in Himself all that He manifests outwardly. It is in this sense that He has received and exercised His great power against the impious, and that He has finally subdued and conquered all His enemies, in order to reign alone throughout all eternity.

It is in the same manner that one says of a prince or warrior: "The king gave him the sword to fight his enemies," although he already carried that sword beforehand. It is again in this same sense that the Psalmist says, Psalm 92: "The Lord hath reigned, He is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with strength, and hath girded himself."

God has undoubtedly worked many wonders during the course of time; but it is especially for the consummation of the age that He reserves His great blows, when He will strike Antichrist with all his followers, when He will manifest signs and work astonishing prodigies, when He will shake heaven and earth, and when He will come on the last day with great power and great majesty to judge all men, rendering to each one what is due, without respect of persons.

It is with reason that the Church triumphant will then manifest her joy by loud acclamations, because the Lord God Almighty will finally have armed Himself with His great power to exterminate the impious and all the kings who have tyrannised the just, and to grant the good an eternal reward in His kingdom.

The second cause of these acclamations is indicated in these words: The nations were angry. And why? Because they will no longer be able to dominate, oppress, or afflict the just; nor despoil the widow and the orphan; nor despise the poor; nor satisfy their evil desires.

For according to the Psalmist, Psalm 58:14–17: "They shall return at evening, and shall suffer hunger like dogs: and shall go round about the city. They shall be scattered abroad to eat; and shall murmur if they be not filled. But I will sing thy strength: and will extol thy mercy in the morning. For thou art become my support, and my refuge in the day of my trouble." In this world, it is the widows, orphans, poor, oppressed, miserable, persecuted, and saints of God who run around the cities, imploring — too often without success — the mercy of those who possess the substance of the earth.

But in the other life, circumstances will have greatly changed, when Jesus Christ, the King of kings, will reign alone for eternity in justice, truth, and holiness; and when the reign of wicked princes, tyrants, and merciless rich men will have passed away and been changed into eternal torments. It is then that such nations will be angry against the eternal kingdom of Almighty God. Psalm 98:1: "The Lord hath reigned; let the people be angry: he that sitteth on the cherubim; let the earth be moved."

But the anger of these nations will be vain, and their torments will be eternal. A worm will gnaw them without ceasing. They will grow old and dry up in their endless pains; and the effects of their anger against the Lord will be much more powerless than a grain of sand from the sea is against the firmament. This is why it is said in Psalm 111:10: "The wicked shall see, and shall be angry: he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away; the desire of the wicked shall perish." For they will be like starving dogs, with no hope of ever being freed from their eternal chains, because they themselves were without pity and without mercy upon the earth.

The third cause of their rage will be this: And the time of thy wrath is come. That is, the day of universal vengeance, the day of darkness and of the great tempest which will strike down the wicked, has arrived. And they will be angry in vain. For if the wrath of God is just and all-powerful throughout all eternity, their anger will have less effect than the efforts of an ant attempting to overturn the universe.

Psalm 2:4–6: "He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall deride them. Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his rage. But I am appointed king by him over Sion, his holy mountain, preaching his commandment." David also prophesied of this wrath of the impious in Psalm 20:10: "Thou shalt make them as an oven of fire, in the time of thy anger: the Lord shall trouble them in his wrath, and fire shall devour them." Finally, we leave to the reader the care of reading in Scripture the numerous passages that concern the wrath of the Lord on the last day. It is this same wrath that the Church sings in the Dies irae, dies illa, etc.

The fourth cause is found in these words: And the time of the dead, that they should be judged. The saints will rejoice at this wrath and at this just vengeance of God, and they await it. It is by this that the Lord consoles His own even in this life amid their tribulations, saying in Romans 12:19: "Revenge not yourselves, but give place unto wrath. For it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."

Deuteronomy 32:22–35: "A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell, and shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains. I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them. They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite. I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground and of serpents. Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and terror within," etc.

"But because of the wrath of the enemies I delayed, lest their enemies should be proud and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things. They are a nation without counsel and without prudence. O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end! Vengeance is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide. The day of destruction is near, and the times make haste to come." Thus, on the day of judgment, God will execute His vengeance. The saints will rejoice in it, and they desire it beforehand.

For then: 1. All hypocrisies will be revealed. Hypocrites will be troubled with horrible confusion, and the just will rise with strength against those who dominated and shone in the world, while they themselves were despised, rejected, unrecognised, poor, and oppressed. 2. All the most hidden secrets will be brought into the full light of day. Then glory will be rendered to God alone, and each one will receive according to his works.

This is the shield of patience which Saint Paul recommends in 1 Corinthians 4:5: "Judge not before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise from God." 3. God will judge us all without respect of persons; and no one will be forgotten: neither the poor nor the rich, neither the subject nor the king, neither the simple faithful nor the prelate.

Colossians 3:24–25: "Serve ye the Lord Christ. For he that doth wrong shall receive for that which he hath done wrongfully: and there is no respect of persons with God." The fifth cause of the wrath of the impious will be the reward given for the labours, tribulations, and good works of the saints in the service of God.

And that thou shouldst render reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, little and great. Saint John designates all these classes to make us understand that God will forget no one, and that there will be special rewards for each. Baruch 3:24: "O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast is the place of his possession." And John 14:1–2: "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many mansions."

Finally, the sixth cause will be the general and universal extermination of all the wicked and all the impious of the earth. They will be destroyed from top to bottom: all those who, from the origin of the world — and especially at the end — have shed the blood of the just and oppressed their fellow men, corrupting the earth by their crimes. They will perish like Sodom, like Egypt, and like the men of the flood of whom Genesis 6:11 says: "The earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity." This universal extermination of the wicked is expressed in these words: And shouldst destroy them who have corrupted the earth.

III. VERSE 19. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple; and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail. After the acclamations, praises, thanksgivings, and desires of the Church triumphant cited above, there follows the solemn coming of Jesus Christ in the air.

And the temple of God was opened in heaven. That is, the Son of man will come and appear upon the clouds. For He is the temple of the living God. Colossians 2:9: "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead corporeally." And according to Saint John 2:21, He calls His body a temple.

And the ark of his testament was seen in his temple. That is, the Cross of Christ, the sign of the Son of man, will appear in heaven on the last day. Why is the sign of the Cross here called the ark of His testament? The reason is that, just as His testament and His secrets remained hidden and deposited in the ark of the covenant of the Old Testament until they were explained and renewed, so the Cross of Christ is the true ark of the New Testament, in which the mystery of our redemption will remain impenetrable to the eyes of the impious until the day of judgment.

Then the Cross will be manifested to their confusion, because they did not wish to accept its inheritance, considering that Cross as folly and scandal, according to Saint Paul, 1 Corinthians 1:23: "We preach Christ crucified: unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness." But when this ark appears and they see it, they will groan — but too late. Apocalypse 1:7: "And all the tribes of the earth shall bewail themselves because of him." Scripture also says in John 19:37: "They shall look on him whom they pierced."

And there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail. The lightnings make us understand the immense terror which will descend from heaven; for the eternal Judge will come to judge the earth and the age by fire. The voices are the groanings, weepings, and gnashings of teeth of the wicked; and also the cries of joy, acclamations, and applause of the saints. The earthquake is the greatest that ever was, since the earth and the sea will render up their corpses; all the dead will come out of their tombs; and Christ will descend from heaven with thousands upon thousands of angels and saints to judge all men.

And there was great hail — that is, the greatest and most horrible storm, in the midst of which the damned will be cast with the demons into hell by the fire which will come out of the mouth of the sovereign Judge, Jesus Christ, who will say to them: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels."

All that was revealed to Saint John in this chapter concerning Antichrist and the Last Judgment is only a general and incidental description. The prophet's purpose in this was to end the whole of his revelation by the description of the seventh trumpet, omitting, so as not to break the course of his narration, several special and particular descriptions concerning the horrible reigns of Muhammad and Antichrist, and also concerning the last plagues, and so forth, which were revealed to him in the nine following chapters.

§ 3. Concordance of the Prophecy of Daniel with That of Saint John on the Two Last Circumstances of the End of the World

I. From the moment when the continual sacrifice shall have been abolished, and when Antichrist shall have entered into the fullness of his power, the prophet Daniel counts one thousand two hundred ninety days; while Saint John fixes forty-two months, which make three and a half years, and one thousand two hundred seventy-seven and a half days.

These two prophets therefore differ from one another by twelve and a half days. And this is with reason, for Daniel announces the fullness of the reign of Antichrist, whereas Saint John, who comes after him, announces that reign as it was shortened by divine mercy, as Jesus Christ expressly says in Saint Matthew 24:22: "If those days had not been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect, those days shall be shortened." These days will therefore be shortened by twelve and a half days, by the fall of Antichrist, who, as has been said, will be cast down into hell at the moment when he wishes to rise into the heavens after Enoch and Elijah.

Thus Antichrist, having arrived at the fullness of his power — leaving aside the time during which he will make war upon all kingdoms and subject them all — will reign forty-two months, which make three and a half years, and one thousand two hundred seventy-seven and a half days. Now, if one subtracts this latter number from the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days which Daniel fixed for the duration of the last times, from the death of Antichrist until the dissolution of the world, there will remain to men only fifty-seven and a half days to do penance.

But since it is written in Saint Matthew 24:36: "Of that day and hour no one knoweth, no, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone," the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days of Daniel must be taken in an indeterminate sense with regard to the last hour and the last day, just as Saint John does in chapter 10, verse 7, when he also says in an indeterminate manner: "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God should be finished."

Moreover, Daniel cited the days as they were revealed to him. But the last day and the hour of the second coming of Jesus Christ were certainly not revealed to him in a precise manner, since Jesus Christ Himself says that they are reserved to the foreknowledge and will of His Father alone.

One may object that Saint John fixed one thousand two hundred sixty days for the duration of the testimony of the prophets Enoch and Elijah, and that after their death Antichrist will still reign twenty-four days. Now these two numbers added together make one thousand two hundred eighty-four days. Therefore Antichrist would reign more than forty-two months, and the shortening of those days of calamity would not take place.

The solution to this difficulty is found in this: these two prophets will have appeared to begin their mission by as many days before Antichrist enters into the fullness of his power. For this passage of chapter 11, verse 7: "The beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war against them," must be understood in the present and not in the past; that is, the beast will not make war against them after having fully ascended from the abyss, but while ascending from the abyss.

This concludes Book Five.