Cyril of Jerusalem, Lecture 15, Part B

Cyril of Jerusalem

Lecture 15, Part B

https://www.swrktec.org/catechism

“I beheld till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit, and then, I saw in a vision of the night, and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven….” — Daniel 7:9-14

Summary: St. Cyril explores some of the mysteries of Antichrist, thought to be one among the kings of the Romans; as well as other aspects of Eschatology.  He returns in time to consider Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.  He ponders the Desolating Abomination; internecine war and corruption within the Church, which was already well-developed in his time; he fears the hatred among the brothers and sisters, as well as the fracturing that will come of it: we must always be on guard.  To counteract all the negativity concerning Antichrist he brings us back to glorious visions of the Second Advent, with the sign of the Cross.[i]

Preview:  12.  “But this aforesaid Antichrist is to come when the times of the Roman empire shall have been fulfilled, and the end of the world is now drawing near.  There shall rise up together ten kings of the Romans, reigning in different parts perhaps, but all about the same time; and after these an eleventh, the Antichrist….”  “For as the first kingdom which became renowned was that of the Assyrians, and the second, that of the Medes and Persians together, and after these, that of the Macedonians was the third, so the fourth kingdom now is that of the Romans.”[ii]  “His ten horns are ten kings that shall arise; and another king shall rise up after them, who shall surpass in wickedness all who were before him.”[iii]  14.  “Who is this?”  “Whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders.”[iv]  15.  Who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he seats himself in the temple of God.”[v]  “He means, the Temple of the Jews which has been destroyed.”[vi]  “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints.”[vii]  16.  “Then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains.”[viii]  Whom we must resist: for, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ….”[ix]  “For then shall be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be.”[x]  “And he swore by Him that lives forever that it shall be for a time, and times, and half a time.”[xi]  17.  “Who then is the blessed man, that shall at that time devoutly witness for Christ?” … resisting Antichrist?  “And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book; and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt; and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and of the many righteous, as the stars for ever and ever.”[xii]  18.  “Guard yourself then, O man; you have the signs of Antichrist; and remember them not only yourself, but impart them also freely to all.”  “I fear the schisms of the Churches; I fear the mutual hatred of the brethren.  But enough on this subject; only God forbid that it should be fulfilled in our days; nevertheless, let us be on our guard.”  19.  “But let us wait and look for the Lord's coming upon the clouds from heaven. Then shall Angelic trumpets sound; the dead in Christ shall rise first.”[xiii]  20.  “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth….  Therefore remove anger from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh... and remember your Creator... or ever the evil days come.... or ever the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars be darkened.... and they that look out of the windows be darkened; or ever the silver cord be loosed; and the flower of gold be broken; and they shall rise up at the voice of the sparrow, yea, they shall look away from the height, and terrors shall be in the way.  Then shall they see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven; and they shall mourn tribe by tribe.  The almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall grow heavy, and the caper-berry shall be scattered abroad.”[xiv]  21.  “All foretell the coming of the Lord.”  “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God.”[xv]  “God shall manifestly come, even our God, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall burn before Him, and a fierce tempest round about Him….”[xvi]  “And the Father shall sit, having His garment white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool.”[xvii]  “And they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”[xviii]  22.  “But what is the sign of His coming?”  “The sign of the Cross shall be a terror to His foes; but joy to His friends who have believed in Him, or preached Him, or suffered for His sake.”  “He shall send forth His Angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds.”[xix]  “Come, you blessed of My Father.”[xx]

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[i] The key to rooting out any deceiver, deception, or flaw is not to focus on such flaws.  The only way to detect flaws is to focus intently on the genuine article, Christ.  When the original is thoroughly known: bad, flawed copies are immediately and readily detected; even those that have never occurred before.  New flaws are only discovered because they don’t look like the original.  We must know Christ and Him only; this is both the Father’s will, and the Spirit’s powerful gift: in knowing Christ, we fellowship with the Father and with the Spirit.  If we wish to see the Father, we must look to Christ.  If we would learn from the Spirit, we must see that He teaches Christ.  The Father does not resemble pseudo-Christs; the Spirit does not reveal quasi-Christs.

[ii] Daniel 2 (gold, silver, brass, iron, corrupted iron, diamond); 7 (lion, bear, leopard, a beast with ten horns); 8 (ram, he-goat with four horns; which are interpreted in Scripture as Medo-Persia – the Achaemenid era, the Greeks under Alexander, the Greeks divided to the four winds, the emergence of the Seleucids.); with more details in Chapters 9-12.

[iii] Daniel 7:24

[iv] 2 Thessalonians 2:9

[v] The difficulty is in knowing which temple.  There was at least one instance of an idol being installed in Herod’s Temple, which is necessarily dated prior to 70, when it was destroyed by Titus.  There is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Church, which St. Cyril rejects as a possibility, out of hand: yet, several deceivers have presumed to take the earthly throne of the Church.  Sabbatai Zevi (circa 1666) fits the bill without any temple.  There is the possibility of constructing a new Jerusalem Temple, which is still in the possible future.  Now, in 2018 the picture looks considerably different than it did in St. Cyril’s day: it’s still quite confusing.  2 Thessalonians 2:4

[vi] Titus himself fits this mold; as also does the Dome of the Rock.

[vii] This could indicate a first century event.  Daniel 7:21

[viii] This could indicate the flight of the Jews to Masada (70), or the flight of Christians into the Araba to escape Titus at about the same time.  Matthew 24:16; Mark 13:14; Luke 21:21; Revelation 12:6, 17

[ix] Romans 8:35

[x] This, again seems to speak of a first century event.  Matthew 24:21

[xi] Daniel 12:7

[xii] Daniel 12:1-3

[xiii] 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

[xiv] Ecclesiastes 11:10; 12:1-7; Daniel 7:13; Zechariah 12:10-12; quoted in the New Testament as well.

[xv] 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

[xvi] Psalm 50:3-7

[xvii] Daniel 7:9

[xviii] Matthew 24:30

[xix] Matthew 24:31

[xx] Matthew 25:34

Cyril of Jerusalem, Lecture 13, Part D

Cyril of Jerusalem

Lecture 13, Part D

https://www.swrktec.org/catechism

“Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? ... He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter….” — Isaiah 53:1,7

Summary: St Cyril finishes with a flurry of other powerful, mostly Apostolic, witness.  He emphasizes the importance of making the sign of the Cross for every place, situation, and time; upon ourselves, others, and other things; yet, he never indicates a right or wrong way to make the sign of the Cross; he never restricts its use to the officers of the Church, or other specific individuals: hence, the sign of the Cross is, most of all, for all the laity… we can see no other possible conclusion.

Preview:  31.  “What power, O robber, led you to the light?  Who taught you to worship that despised Man, your companion on the Cross?  O Light Eternal, which gives light to them that are in darkness!”  “This day shall you be with Me in Paradise.”  The robber enters Paradise before Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, Adam.  32.  “For the mystery has been fulfilled; the things that are written have been accomplished; sins are forgiven.  For Christ having come an High-Priest of the good things to come, by the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption; for if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more the blood of Christ?”[i]  33.  “These things the Savior endured, and made peace through the Blood of His Cross, for things in heaven, and things in earth.[ii]  For we were enemies of God through sin, and God had appointed the sinner to die. There must needs therefore have happened one of two things; either that God, in His truth, should destroy all men, or that in His loving-kindness He should cancel the sentence.  But behold the wisdom of God; He preserved both the truth of His sentence, and the exercise of His loving-kindness.  Christ took our sins in His body on the tree, that we by His death might die to sin, and live unto righteousness.”[iii]  34.  “The Sun was darkened, because of the Sun of Righteousness.[iv]  Rocks were rent, because of the spiritual Rock.  Tombs were opened, and the dead arose, because of Him who was free among the dead; He sent forth His prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.”[v]  35.  “And [Prophets] say, Look into the solid rock which you have hewn.[vi]  Look in and behold.  You have in the Gospels In a sepulcher hewn in stone, which was hewn out of a rock.  And what happens next?  What kind of door has the sepulcher?  Again another Prophet says, They cut off My life in a dungeon, and cast a stone upon Me.  I, who am the Chief corner-stone, the elect, the precious[vii], lie for a little time within a stone….”  36.  “Let us not then be ashamed to confess the Crucified.  Be the Cross our seal made with boldness by our fingers on our brow, and on everything; over the bread we eat, and the cups we drink; in our comings in, and goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we rise up; when we are in the way, and when we are still.”[viii]  37.  “And if you ever fall into disputation and have not the grounds of proof, yet let Faith remain firm in you; or rather, become thou well learned, and then silence the Jews out of the prophets, and the Greeks out of their own fables”: for, “if Christ be not risen, we are yet in our sins.”[ix]  38.  “Take therefore first, as an indestructible foundation, the Cross, and build upon it the other articles of the faith.  Deny not the Crucified; for, if you deny Him, you have many [witnesses] to arraign you:” everyone from Judas to Simon the Cyrenian.  39.  Everything from the stars to Thomas will cry out against you.  40.  Everyone from the Twelve Apostles to the Egyptians “persuade you of the power of the Crucified.”  41.  “This shall appear again with Jesus from heaven; for the trophy shall precede the king: that seeing Him whom they pierced….”[x]

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[i] Hebrews 9:11-14

[ii] Colossians 1:20

[iii] 1 Peter 2:24

[iv] Malachi 4:2

[v] Psalms 88:5-7; Zechariah 9:11

[vi] Isaiah 51:1

[vii] Lamentations 3:53; 1 Peter 2:6

[viii] St. Cyril goes to great pains in urging us to make the sign of the Cross on ourselves “and on everything” else.  Yet he never once specifies how to do it: left to right, right to left, or otherwise; he never once restricts the blessing of others with the sign of the Cross, to Deacons and above.

[ix] 1 Corinthians 15:17

[x] Zechariah 12:10