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Dialogue with Trypho
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Chapter 110: A Part of the Prophecy Already Fulfilled by Christians: The Remainder Will Be Fulfilled at the Second Coming.
AND WHEN I HAD FINISHED THESE WORDS: I continued: “Now I am aware that your teachers, sirs, admit that the entire passage refers to Christ; and I also know that they claim He has not yet come. Or if they say He has come, they argue that His identity is still unknown; but when He becomes manifest and glorious, then it will be known who He is. And then, they say, the events mentioned in this passage will happen, as if there has been no result yet from the words of the prophecy.
O unreasoning men! Not understanding what has been proved by all these passages—that two comings of Christ have been announced: the first, in which He is depicted as suffering, inglorious, dishonored, and crucified; and the second, in which He will come from heaven with glory, when the man of apostasy, who speaks against the Most High, will dare to commit unlawful acts on the earth against us Christians, who, having learned the true worship of God from the law and the word that went forth from Jerusalem through the apostles of Jesus, have sought refuge in the God of Jacob and God of Israel.
We, who were once filled with war, mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have throughout the earth, each transformed our weapons—our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into tools for farming—and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the Father Himself through Him who was crucified; and each of us sits under his own vine, that is, each man with his own married wife. For you know that the prophetic word says, ‘And his wife shall be like a fruitful vine.’ Now it is clear that no one who believes in Jesus can be terrified or subdued throughout the world.
Though we are beheaded, crucified, thrown to wild beasts, put in chains, burned, and suffer other forms of torture, we do not give up our confession; instead, the more such things happen, the more others in larger numbers become faithful and worshippers of God through the name of Jesus. Just as if one should cut away the fruit-bearing parts of a vine, it grows again and yields other flourishing and fruitful branches; the same thing happens with us. For the vine planted by God and Christ the Savior is His people.
But the rest of the prophecy will be fulfilled at His second coming. The expression, ‘He that is afflicted [and driven out],’ i.e., from the world, means that, as far as you and all other men have power, each Christian has been driven out not only from his own property but even from the whole world; for you permit no Christian to live.
Yet you say the same fate has befallen your own nation.
Now, if you have been cast out after defeat in battle, you have suffered such treatment justly, as all the Scriptures bear witness; but we, though we have done no such evil acts after we knew the truth of God, are testified to by God, that together with the most righteous and only spotless and sinless Christ, we are taken away from the earth.
For Isaiah cries, ‘Behold how the righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no man considers it.’