How close are we to Judgement Day? Here's what Christ's signs tell us
The signs that heralded Jerusalem's fall now break forth with far greater strength as the world's end draws near.
The signs that heralded Jerusalem’s fall now break forth with far greater strength as the world’s end draws near.
Editor’s Notes
Jerusalem’s Doom—Part IV
In the last part, Fr Coleridge explained the three signs which Christ gave as indications of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem (70 AD) and, additionally, the end of the world. Having considered Jerusalem, Coleridge turns his attention to his own day and our modern age.
He tells us…
How the signs foretold before Jerusalem’s fall recur throughout Church history and intensify toward the end.
That these recurring trials—wars, heresies, persecutions—reveal God’s pattern of warning and preparation for final judgment.
Why our age witnesses these signs on a scale surpassing all former times, with permanent armies replacing temporary ones.
He shows us that prophecy speaks to multiple ages, each fulfillment deepening until the last.
For more context on this episode and its place in the liturgical year, see Part I.
The Doom of Jerusalem
Passiontide—Part I
Chapter XIII
St. Matt. xxiv. 1-28; St. Mark xiii. 1-23; St. Luke xxi. 5-24;
Story of the Gospels, § 144.
(Read on the 24th and Last Sunday after Pentecost)
Signs often repeated
At the same time, what has been said about the false prophets and seducers, already mentioned in the first clause of this prophecy, must be repeated here. The signs now mentioned as preceding the destruction of Jerusalem may be quite enough to fulfil the prediction if it is to be understood as limited to that event.
But they are in themselves signs which are continually repeated in the history of the Church and the world, and each time that they break out upon the gaze of a fresh generation of the faithful they more and more approach in character the notes that may be expected to herald the great Day of Judgment.
They do not constitute the normal state of things, either in the Church or in the world, but they appear frequently at times of trial, and sometimes in so striking a manner that the saints of the time are inclined to believe that the end is certainly at hand. Such was St. Gregory’s idea, as it seems, in his time, and, at a later period, was the impression of St. Vincent Ferrer, not to speak of others.
The predictions, therefore, which describe one great period of this kind may very well pass on to another. When this prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem is considered in this light, we may be inclined at least to doubt whether our Lord was speaking of that only.
The whole history of the Church, whose continual earnest prayer is, Da propitius pacem in diebus nostris, shows that there are but rare breathing times from the continual tumults and conflicts in which human society lives.
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