Against Heresies: Book V

IN A CLEARER WAY: John in the Apocalypse has shown the Lord’s disciples what will happen in the last times and about the ten kings who will arise. The existing empire will be divided among them. He explains what the ten horns seen by Daniel are, telling us this is what was said to him: “The ten horns you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom but will receive power as kings for one hour with the beast.

They have a single purpose and give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings.” It is clear that among these rulers, the one who is to come will kill three and bring the rest under his control, and he will be the eighth among them. They will lay Babylon waste, burn her with fire, give their kingdom to the beast, and drive the Church into exile.

Afterward, they will be destroyed by the coming of our Lord. The Lord states that the kingdom must be divided and thus come to ruin: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” Therefore, the kingdom, the city, and the house must be divided into ten. For this reason, He has already foreshadowed the coming partition and division. Daniel also specifies that the end of the fourth kingdom is represented by the toes of the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, on which the stone cut without hands fell.

Daniel himself says: “The feet were part iron, part clay, until the stone was cut out without hands and struck the image on the iron and clay feet, shattering them to pieces, all the way to the end.” Then, he interprets: “As you saw the feet and toes, partly of clay and partly of iron, the kingdom will be divided. There will be a root of iron in it, as you saw iron mixed with baked clay. The toes were partly iron, partly clay.” The ten toes are these ten kings among whom the kingdom will be divided.

Some will be strong and active; others will be sluggish and useless, unable to agree, as Daniel says: “Part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will break away. As you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, there will be mixtures among the human race, but no unity, just as iron cannot combine with pottery.” Since an end will come, he says: “In the days of these kings, the God of heaven will raise up a kingdom that will never decay, and His kingdom will not be left to another people.

It will break and scatter all kingdoms and will be exalted forever. As you saw that the stone was cut without hands from the mountain and broke the baked clay, iron, brass, silver, and gold, God has shown the king what will happen after these events; the dream is true, and the interpretation is reliable.”

IF: therefore, the great God revealed future events through Daniel and confirmed them by His Son; and if Christ is the stone that is cut out without hands, who will destroy temporary kingdoms and introduce an eternal one, which is the resurrection of the just, as it is declared, "The God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed,"—let those who are thus refuted understand, who reject the Creator and do not agree that the prophets were sent beforehand from the same Father from whom also the Lord came, but who claim that prophecies originated from diverse powers.

For the things predicted by the Creator through all the prophets has Christ fulfilled in the end, serving His Father’s will and completing His plans regarding the human race. Let those who blaspheme the Creator, whether by openly expressed words like the followers of Marcion, or by twisting the meaning of Scripture, like those of Valentinus and all falsely called Gnostics, be recognized as agents of Satan by all who worship God; through whose agency Satan now, and not before, has been shown to speak against God, even Him who has prepared eternal fire for every kind of apostasy.

For he did not dare to blaspheme his Lord openly by himself; just as in the beginning he led man astray through the serpent, hiding as it were from God.

Truly, Justin noted: Before the Lord’s appearance, Satan never dared to blaspheme God, as he did not yet know his own sentence, because it was hidden in parables and allegories; but after the Lord’s appearance, when he clearly learned from the words of Christ and His apostles that eternal fire has been prepared for him since he turned away from God of his own free will, and likewise for all unrepentant continuing in the apostasy, he now blasphemes, through such men, the Lord who brings judgment upon him as being already condemned, and blames his Maker for his apostasy, not his own free choice.

Just as it is with those who break the laws, when punishment catches up to them: they blame those who make the laws, not themselves. In the same way do those men, filled with a satanic spirit, bring countless accusations against our Creator, who has given us the spirit of life and established a law suited for all; and they will not admit that the judgment of God is just.

Therefore, they imagine some other Father who neither cares about nor governs our affairs, even one who approves of all sins.