ST.
EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN (b.
circa 306 - d. 373) - Doctor of the Church
Also
known as St. Ephraim of Edessa, (also spelled as Ephrem, or Ephraem),
he was
a Syriac Christian deacon and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer
and theologian of the fourth century.
St. Ephraim wrote a wide variety of hymns, poems,
and sermons in verse, as well as prose exegesis. These were works of
practical theology for the edification of the Church in troubled
times and remained popular for centuries after his death. He has been called the most significant of all of the
fathers of the Syriac-speaking church tradition.
St. Ephraim
is especially beloved in the Syriac Orthodox Church, and counted as a
Venerable Father (i.e., a sainted Monk) in the Eastern Orthodox
Church. His feast day is celebrated on 28 January and on the Saturday
of the Venerable Fathers.
He
was declared a Doctor of the Church in the Catholic Church by Pope
Benedict XV in 1920.
St.
Ephraim wrote a sermon on the events of the Last Days preceding the
Antichrist, and, foretold that invaders from the Middle East would
take Jerusalem, (suggests Muslim invaders). However, they will be
destroyed by St. Michael and his armies, and also by miraculous acts
of God, in particular, by thundering and fire falling from the sky
that will also reach as far as the sea and the islands, (suggests the
chastisements and the Three Days of Darkness). After that, God will
establish a long time of peace during which a 'Roman Kingdom' will
establish its borders to the ends of the earth, (i.e. an empire),
which will not be conquered. (A 'kingdom' suggests God will raise up
a good king to keep this peace). After that, the world will grow lax and evil again,
the Antichrist will then makes his appearance.
This
is in accordance with the events foretold by other mystics regarding
the arrival of the Great Catholic Monarch destined to restore the Holy Roman Empire.
::::::::::::
Prophecy
of St. Ephraim
“In
the last days Agog and Magog (Ancient
Lands in the Middle East, now Iran and Iraq, the Caucasian Mts.)
shall burst forth and come from the land, and Agog and Magog shall
ascend to the mountain of Jerusalem, to place their camp there. And
their flying horsemen shall descend into Egypt, and against the
Indians. They shall seize an infinite body of men, of riches, of
cattle and sheep, for food for themselves … . (…) Then Divine
Justice shall call upon Michael, the leader of the Hosts, and send
him to destroy their camps; as the camps of Sennacherib. At the
command, and with his mighty and terrible sword, the Angel shall go
forth and destroy their armies in the twinkling of an eye, and in the
same moment the Divine Justice, thundering from on high, shall
destroy their camps with rocks of fire. Their slain shall lie upon
the ground, innumerable as the sands. Beasts and men shall die, and
the whole camp shall perish, and flame shall be set loose against the
sea and against the islands. The bow of Agog, the evil king, shall
fall from his left hand, and the arrows from his right (Ez. xxxix:3);
and his camp shall be wholly destroyed (...) Then
the Lord from His Glorious heaven shall set up his peace. And the
kingdom of the Romans shall rise in place of this latter people and
establish its dominion upon the earth, even unto its ends, and there
shall be no-one who will resist it.
After
iniquity shall have subsequently multiplied and all creatures have
become defiled, (I.e. they will grow complacent during the great time
of peace), then divine justice shall appear and shall wholly destroy
the people and coming fourth from perdition the man of iniquity shall
be revealed upon the earth, the seducer of men and disturber of the
whole earth…” (i.e Antichrist)
(Source:
The
Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers Vol 4,
Translated and edited by M.F. Toal, Henry
Regenery
Co. 1964, pp. 335, 352)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Prophecy continued.... (Source, 'Prophecies of the Antichrist, Unity Publishing Website, Rick Sabalto)
"Let us learn, my friends, in what
form shall come on earth the shameless serpent, (i.e the Antichrist) since the Redeemer,
wishing to save all mankind, was born of a Virgin and in human form
crushed the enemy with the holy power of his godhead. This then the
enemy, having learnt that again shall the Lord come from heaven in
the glory of His divinity, thus bethought him to assume the form of
His coming and beguile all men. So in very truth shall he (the
Antichrist will) be born of a defiled woman, his instrument. In the
form of Him shall come the all-polluted, as a wily thief to beguile
all beings. Humble and gentle, hating the speech of the unjust,
overturning all idols, honouring piety, a good lover of the poor,
exceedingly fair, altogether well disposed, pleasant towards all. To
conciliate all, he plots craftily, that he may be loved soon by the
peoples; neither gifts shall he accept, nor speak in anger. He shows
himself not sullen, but ever cheerful. And in all these well-planned
schemes he beguileth the world so long as he shall rule. For when the
many peoples and nations shall behold such great virtues, fair deeds
and powers, all of one mind shall become and with great joy shall
crown him, saying one to another, surely there is not found such
another man so good and just... For the shameless one, grasping
authority, sends his demons unto all the ends of the earth to
announce unto all that a great king hath appeared in glory; come
thither and behold... The peoples shall be gathered, and they shall
come that they may see God, and the crowds of the peoples shall
cleave to him, and all shall deny their own God and invite their
fellows to praise the son of perdition, and one on another they shall
fall and with swords each other destroy... Magnifying his miracles,
performing his portents, Deceiver and not in truth manifesting these
things, in such fashion the tyrant removeth the mountains, and
simulates falsely and not truly while the multitude stands by, many
nations and peoples applauding him for his illusions... Again this
same dragon stretches out his hands and gathers the multitudes of
reptiles and birds; and likewise he moves over the surface of the
deep, andas on dry ground he walks thereon. But he simulates these
things... The lightnings shall be his ministers and signify his
advent; the demons shall constitute his forces, and the princes of
the demons shall be his disciples; to far-distant lands he shall send
captains of his bands, who shall impart virtue and healing... A great
conflict, Brethren, in those times amongst all men, but especially
amongst the faithful, when there shall be signs and wonders wrought
by the Dragon in great abundance, when he shall again manifest
himself as God in fearful phantasms flying in the air, and show all
the demons in the forms of angels flying in terror before the tyrant,
for he crieth out loudly, changing his forms also to strike infinite
dread into all men...
"Then the skies no longer rain,
the earth no longer beareth fruit, the springs run out, the rivers
dry up, herbs no longer sprout, grass no longer grows, trees wither
from their roots and no longer put forth fruits, the fishes of the
sea and the monsters therein die out, and thus they say a fetid
stench emits with a fearful roar, that men shall fail and perish
through terror. And then in dread shall moan and groan all life alike
when all shall see the pitiless distress that compasseth them by
night and eke by day, and nowhere find the food wherewith to fill
themselves... For stern governors of the people shall be appointed
each in his place, and whoso bears with him the seal of the tyrant
may buy a little food.
"But before these things be, the
Lord sendeth Elias the Thesbite and Enoch the compassionate, that
they may proclaim reverence to the race of men, and openly announce
unto all the knowledge of God, that they believe not nor obey the
false one through fear, crying out and saying, "A deceiver, O
men, is he; let no one believe in him." But few are those who
shall then obey and believe in the words of these two prophets.
"Many therefore of the saints as
many are then found, as soon as they shall hear of the coming of the
man of corruption, shall most speedily flee to the deserts and lie
hid in the deserts and mountains and caves through fear, and strew
earth and ashes on their heads, destitute and weeping both day and
night with great humility. And this shall to them be granted by God
the Holy One: And grace shall lead them unto the appointed places.
"But all those dwelling in the
east of the earth shall fly to the west, through their great fear,
and again those dwelling under the setting sun unto its rising shall
fly in trembling...
"In the end like lightning
flashing from heaven shall come God, our King and the deathless
Bridegroom, in the clouds with glory unimaginable. And behold his
Glory shall run the serried hosts of angels and archangels, all
breathing flames, and a river full of fire, with a frightful crash...
"How may we then endure, my
beloved brethren, when we shall see the fiery river coming out in
fury like the wild seething ocean, and the hills and the valleys
consuming, and all the world and the works therein; then, beloved,
with that fire the rivers shall fail, the springs shall vanish, the
sea dry up, the air be agitated, the stars shall fall out from the
sky; the sun shall be consumed, the moon pass away, the heavens
rolled up like a scroll..."
And when the son of perdition has drawn
to his purpose the whole world Enoch and Elias shall be sent that
they may confute the evil one
The man of evil will prepare and
coming he will enter Jerusalem; he will build up and establish Sion
and will make himself God and entering he will sit in the temple as
the apostle has written as if he were God.
