ΑTheology of the AgesΩ

The Creation Days and the Beast Heads as Image of the Whole of Salvation History

Parallel Theology of the Days of Creation and the Beast of the Apocalypse

An Analysis of the Perpetual Cycle of Darkness and Light in Salvation History

Returning from the first great part of this book, we saw that abstract argumentation very much explains the greater ages of our world. Toward that end, let us recall how the abstract world is fulfilled in our actual world.

Summary of the Ages of Any Fallen World that is to Receive an Incarnation

 

Early Fall of Man, Two Greater Ages:

 

I.                 Anti-Baptism

 

1.      The Fall and Wickedness of Noah’s day

 

2.      The Flood, an Apocalyptic Baptism

 

II.               Anti-Marriage

 

1.      Tower of Babel

 

2.      Confounding tongues, Marriage to Prefiguring People (Abraham)

 

The Three Greater Ages of the Prefiguring Covenant:

 

III.            The Purgative Way:

 

1.      Dark Night of the Senses: Oppression by glory-seeking pagan power (Egypt)

 

IV.            The Illuminative Way:

 

1.      Exodus and Preaching of Prophets, development of OT doctrine on the Law

 

2.      Dark night of soul, intermediate Jewish apostasy from Old Law

 

V.              The Unitive Way:

 

1.      Exile, Vindication of Prophets, Repentance of Jews, Restoration to Holy Land, Restoration of faithfulness to OT Covenant

 

2.      Martyrdom: The Crisis of OT Antichrist and final Jewish apostasy (Maccabbees)

 

*******First Coming of Incarnate One***********

 

The Three Greater Ages of New Covenant:

VI.            The Purgative Way:

 

1.      Dark Night of the Senses: Persecution by glory-seeking pagan power (Pagan Rome)

 

VII.          The Illuminative Way:

 

1.      The Development of Church Doctrine

 

2.      Dark night of soul: intermediate apostasy from New Law (our modern minor apostasy)

 

VIII.       Unitive Way

 

1.      Minor Chastisement, Vindicating Church, Restoration of Christian Unity and Catholic Christendom, Age of Peace (prophecy of Our Lady of Fatima)

 

2.      Martyrdom: Great Apostasy, NT Antichrist, Great Persecution and Tribulation

 

******* Second Coming of Incarnate One ********

 

Now, the thesis to this next greater section of the book is that there are several great portions of scripture that provide wonderful analogies to fulfill the scenario of the great ages of the world above. In this chapter we will explore the first scripture, which is the days of creation.

Toward this end, one may now ask, is there any support for this days of creation analogy in Sacred Tradition? Absolutely! St. Augustine himself delineates the Old Testament ages as five ages of the Old Law in his On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. Let us look at the passage:

Five ages of the world, accordingly, having been now completed (there has entered the sixth). Of these ages the first is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from Adam, who was the first man that was made, down to Noah, who constructed the ark at the time of the Flood. Then the second extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called the father indeed of all nations which should follow the example of his faith, but who at the same time in the way of natural descent from his own flesh was the father of the destined people of the Jews; which people, previous to the entrance of the Gentiles into the Christian faith, was the one people among all the nations of all lands that worshipped the one true God: from which people also Christ the Savior was decreed to come according to the flesh. For these turning-points of those two ages occupy an eminent place in the ancient books.

On the other hand, those of the other three ages are also declared in the Gospel, where the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh is likewise mentioned. For the third age extends from Abraham on to David the king; the fourth from David on to that captivity whereby the people of God passed over into Babylonia; and the fifth from that transmigration down to the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With His coming the sixth age has entered on its process; so that now the spiritual grace, which in previous times was known to a few patriarchs and prophets, may be made manifest to all nations; to the intent that no man should worship God but freely, fondly desiring of Him not the visible rewards of His services and the happiness of this present life, but that eternal life alone in which he is to enjoy God Himself: in order that in this sixth age the mind of man may be renewed after the image of God, even as on the sixth day man was made after the image of God.1

The text perfectly provides what we are looking for. That is, Augustine is equating the sixth age of human history, or the church, with the six day of creation, where just as God created man on the 6th allegorical day so, in the sixth figurative age of humanity, God recreates man in his likeness and image by bringing the gentiles into the church, the supernatural light of the Gospel, which remakes human beings from darkness into light. Let us apply it. Simply notice that, first, St. Augustine delineates five epochs for the OT, and this is the same number as our five sets of darkness and light traversed above. Similarly, if we look closer, the partitioning points of St. Augustine’s rendition are precisely the points of light in our analysis, leaving the greater history between his same points of light as the points of darkness in our discourse. Just follow it:

Firstly, the lights:

Secondly, the phases of darkness in between:

Profoundly as well, again, at the end of our citation, Augustine brings us into the days of creation himself, the same allegorical days we mentioned and traversed: St. Augustine points out that the sixth age, the Church, is the age in which man is remade in mind and heart through the Gospel, even as God made man in his image and likeness on the sixth day.

Surprisingly, St Methodius of Olympus gives us a similar, but slightly altered layout: “Five are the ages of the old law, the sixth age is designated to the Church, the seventh is the millennium of rest, and the eighth designates the eternity of heaven.”2

Pausing here for a moment, the reader that is familiar with Catholic eschatology will eye the “millennium of rest” with well-warranted suspicion, for it seems to imply chiliasm, an ancient heresy that took the thousand-year reign of Jesus in Apocalypse literally. Admittedly, caution, or even a red light, is understandable here. However, momentarily we can peruse this curiosity, but first, let us just continue walking through the history from the first Coming of Christ down to our own day to ascertain what phases of darkness or light may have already transpired in our sixth age.

The Age of the Church’s Labor Against Sin and Heresy

To begin, we should notice that a day of creation starts with darkness (“evening came”) and ends with light (“morning followed”), just as a head of the beast arises and is subsequently “slain.” Hence, if the light of the fifth day, the first Coming of Christ, completes the fifth day, then immediately after that same first Coming of Christ must come a spiritual darkness to start the sixth day. Indeed, this is the case: pagan Rome! Yes, after Jesus came, the succeeding great age of darkness that we are aiming at that great, wicked Empire of vicious persecution of Christians which manifested vehement pagan resistance to conversion for a great time, some three centuries—an Empire that misunderstands Christians and lashes out against them.

Of course, this gave way to light: Constantine, and the conversion of the Empire. To be sure, the Edict of Milan constitutes an incomprehensible transition for all of human history. At this juncture, much of the world will be transformed from the darkness of paganism into the light of the Gospel.

Here, however, the question remains; we speak of the light of the sixth day and at least one more darkness: either the great apostasy, which is final, or two phases of darkness—a minor apostasy (followed by Our Lady’s Age of Peace, as with our private revelation scenario) and then the great apostasy.

Yet, when we speak of “darkness,” the waters become murky here, for the Church has faced innumerable obstacles since Rome was converted. At what point can we say that the “light’ of the sixth day has set and it is “darkness” again, the seventh day, or beyond? In short, what we will find is that the sun does not set again till our modern time, roughly the 20th century. The way to look at it is, “light” does not necessarily mean bright and unobscured. Rather, imperfect days have rain, clouds, and so forth. In other words, if there is still gray in the sky, or even twilight, it is still light. Hence, as we move through Church history, we can say that as long there is still some light, if even natural, in her primary spiritual oppositions of the associated time, we are still in the sixth day.

So what would we say the major spiritual oppositions have been since pagan Rome? This a good question. I would say that the key is to look at the bigger picture of the ages and not get distracted by exceptions to a rule for an age. When we do that, a definitive pattern emerges: the devil is taking pot shots at the lesser evident sources of Catholic truth and moving down to the most evident sources, and, derivatively, at the most reliable sources in terms of truth, down to the least reliable. In that way, truth peels off little by little, like knocking off layers of a pyramid.

Let us look into this in more depth; first, when speaking of the sources of Catholic truth, we traditionally think of three sources of truth:

However, God himself as Trinity and Incarnation is a source, too, even if he is no longer here in direct, revelatory presence. In fact, this is the ultimate source, non-mediated. Additionally, Reason is a source of truth, since even from natural wisdom, we can know monotheism and natural law in some sense, if even with difficulty in some cases.

Moreover, the Magisterium has two degrees to it: general Apostolic Succession, or the collection of regular Bishops, and then the supreme Apostolic Successor, Peter. Also, Tradition never exists apart from a valid Bishop. Where the valid Bishop is, there also is Tradition. And Tradition is the property of the Bishops, who are its custodian. Therefore, Bishops and Tradition go together always. Hence, a more accurate rendering of the sources of truth is not merely three but five, like the toes of the human foot:

  1. The Trinity and Incarnation
  2. The Supreme Apostolic Successor [the Pope]
  3. The General Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition
  4. The Written Tradition [Scripture]
  5. Reason

Note, too, something very important about the above order in which the sources are listed: these fountains of the Church's mysteries are stacked upon one another in such a way that the higher up the stack you are, the greater treasure of truth one can obtain from the particular source at that level, yet, at the same time, the higher you get in the stack, the less evidence there is for the source as legitimate.

Now, If we look at the history of the Church and consider the greater phases of doctrinal development and assault on the Church spiritually, it is no surprise that the dragon has instigated attacks precisely in the order of the pyramid above, from top to bottom, meaning, from the most reliable source to the least reliable source and, at the same time, from the least evident source to the most evident source.

First, let us work out this theology of the pyramid, and then we can show that the Church’s historical doctrinal trajectory has descended the pyramid perfectly. Well will start from the bottom and work upward:

Reason: The weakest source in terms of truth is Reason, since it only gives natural truth, as in mainly basic monotheism and natural law, but it is the most evident source; all men have reason and can plainly see it. No man may excuse himself from seeking out truth with reason. "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." (Ps 14:1)

Scripture: Scripture is less evident than reason in the world, since only Christians have it in full. For example, the New World Indians only had reason before Europe came to them. Before the Spaniards came to the Aztecs, they did not have Scripture. No savage can ever have Scripture unless it is brought to him. So, again, whereas all men have reason, not all men have Scripture. Scripture is less evident. But it is the most evident source of Revelation. All three forms of Christendom accept the Scriptures. Yet, the Scriptures are also the least reliable source of revelatory truth by themselves, since they are highly susceptible to misinterpretation without Tradition and Bishops. Protestants only have Scripture, but they are all over the board on truth.

Tradition and Bishops: the evidence for general Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition is less in the writings of the Fathers than for Scripture. The vast majority of early church father testimony is citing Scripture. Quotes that argue for valid Tradition and Succession from the Apostles are much less. So, again, Tradition and authoritative Apostolic Succession are less evident to humanity than Scripture. But Tradition is far more reliable than Scripture, since it gives the right interpretation. With only Tradition, the Orthodox would still have all their dogmas, even without Scripture. But again, the evidence for Tradition is less than Scripture, hence why only two of the three forms of Christendom accept Tradition, Orthodox and Catholic.

Peter: Quotes in antiquity that speak of Peter's special office of infallibility are far less than general quotes about general Apostolic Succession. Therefore, Peter's special role in Apostolic Succession is less evident than general Bishops, hence why the Orthodox do not accept him. But Peter is even stronger in truth than his other brothers combined, since with Peter, the fullness of truth on earth is known in Catholicism. Hence why the Orthodox are a little bit in error and debate a thousand years of what we know to be certain as dogma.

Finally, the Trinity and Incarnation lies even above Peter, since God is the ultimate source of truth, but those mysteries are so elusive, so hidden!

What we have shown is that as you ascend the pyramid of sources, the truth increases but the evidence for reliability decreases, and down the pyramid, vice versa. The historical journey of doctrine in the Church bears this out completely!

  1. After Pagan Rome, the majority of the primary heresies afflicting the Church until the Schism were mainly attacking God in His special nature as Triune and Incarnate: Arianism, Monophysitism, Monothelytism, Nestorianism, Apollinarism, Pneumatomachianism, Tritheism, and so forth. Too, Islam culminated these: it totally denied the Trinity and Incarnation and, if that were not enough, went on to suggest a revelation beyond Jesus, the Quran, which Arianism, while also denying the Trinity and Incarnation, did not. Too, even the Iconoclastic heresy is an affront to the Incarnate God, since, it involves the interpretation of the First Commandment which is to have no other gods before him, sacred images, and the reality that images of the saints, because of the presence of deifying sanctifying grace, are images of Christ, an Incarnational mystery.
  2. Then, the next great attack was clearly the Great Schism of the East, which assaulted Peter, the supreme apostolic successor, just underneath God.
  3. As for the next great attack, really, in the Middle Ages, Albigensianism or Catharism were minor compared to what was the clear continuing trajectory of the opposition to the Church, the moral fall of the clergy in the late Middle Ages, paving the way for the great assault, the Protestant Rebellion; and lo and behold, the ultimate thing that all Protestants have in common is in contesting the general Bishops and Sacred Tradition, which are just beneath Peter, the supreme Apostolic Successor.
  4. It just keeps going: the Protestants’ confounding of the Scriptures only served to make humanity doubt the veracity of the Bible itself and, in fact, all Divine Revelation, which gave rise to a general climate of solo-ratio, or faith in Reason alone, the natural digression from the Protestants’ counterpart rallying-cry, sola-scriptura (Enlightenment, French Revolution, Masonry, and so forth).
  5. Finally, in the 20th century, even Reason dies, and we have total apostasy, as in atheism in the East [which is irrational since it denies God, who can be known from Reason alone, Vatican I] and relativism and materialism in the West [which is irrational since it denies objective truth].

Hence, in all but the fifth phase, anti-Reason, some light is present. Let us analyze it.

  1. To begin, the heresies against God’s special nature still leave much light: all but Islam still have Scripture and Tradition in some respects, and even Islam is supernatural light: a Judaeo-Christian shell and belief in the necessity of revelation and divine assistance.
  2. Schism? Ditto. The Orthodox are practically Catholic, like a bright sun with a little cloud to the side, the rejection of Peter and the Filioque.
  3. Protestantism is bringing in rain and sadness but still much supernatural light: most of Scripture and two sacraments, Baptism and Marriage. Protestants, for all the rhetoric they may spout at us, are not devil’s children; they are God’s children and just misguided.
  4. Even, too, in the Enlightenment and the general age characterized merely by natural light, Reason, it is like a dim twilight: deists and rationalists still hold to a Creator and some sense of natural law, usually. And even when Reason later became diverted away from supernaturally dead religion and towards merely this world, still, Reason directed toward science, math, psychology and economics is aimed at truths and things that concern a reflection of the divine, for the created order and its laws and relationships were made by God and so imprint the divine wisdom. Hence, man’s pursuit of the truths of chemistry, and biology, and geology, and economic theory, and the maths, and the psychological order, and so forth, are already approaching God.
  5. Hence, only when man, in the 20th century, sheds Reason in diabolical horror with atheism in the East and relativism in the West, was there no longer any of the divine sources of truth left, no light left in the sky, sparing the nightly luminaries.

Consequently, it truly is the case that after the sun rises with Constantine, it does not set fully till our modern time.

 

Apocalypse 10 and the angel with the scroll

An Addendum is in order here. “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth.” (Rv 10:1–2)

Now, the scroll can image the totality of God’s truth and mystery. Moreover, by common Gospel symbolism, we are called to walk in the “Way” which is clearly the “Way [of] Truth”, as in “follow me.” Hence, that our feet are called to walk the way of truth could be extrapolated to mean, at least on one layer of meaning, that our feet become images of the truth themselves. Toward that end, the angel bearing in his hand the entire mystery of truth coupled with the vivid symbolism of his feet in alternate environments could easily imply that some of the mystery of Catholic truth extends into the feet of the angel.

Indeed, this will be strikingly appropriate, as follows: note, first, that the strong foot (the right foot, since right, in the biblical theology, means the stronger, as in “and he is seated at the right hand of the Father”) rests on the sea, a weak foundation, and the weak foot, the left foot, rests on the earth, a strong foundation. Bingo! This can image that strong sources of truth rest on weaker evidence, and weaker sources of truth rest on stronger evidence, just like our pyramid analogy!

 

The Seventh Night: Private Revelation Completes Remaining History

This, then, is the seventh night, our modern age. So now, our only options are the end of the world or another sunrise followed by an eighth darkness. This is a crucial juncture. After all, Public Revelation speaks of an apostasy at the end. Is this it? Because, on the one hand, Europe and her children, the lands of former Christendom, have this great darkness of apostasy and secular messianism spread across them. On the other hand, the Church doesn’t seem to be saying we are at the end. She is trying to have hope through the vision of Vatican II. Well, duh! The very oceans’ worth of fully approved mystics that we saw referenced above gives us the hope we need!

Once again, we reiterate, the majority of fully approved private revelations, per EWTN scholarship,3 suggest, as the most likely scenario, an intermediate, minor apostasy toward the end, together with a conditional threat of a minor tribulation, after which occurs a glorious reunion of Christendom and a period of wonderful peace. All this must precede the final phase of human history, the great apostasy of Public Revelation and its associated Antichrist, great persecution, full conversion of the Jews, and incomprehensible great tribulation, within which, at an unknown “hour,” our dear Savior Jesus returns to end human history, judge and raise all humanity, and form the New Creation that shall never end.

Private Revelation Fulfilled in the Scriptures: The Days of Creation and the Beast

Here, there will be some objections. Firstly, one will argue that Private Revelation is not required for any Catholic. OK, admittedly, no portion of Private Revelation is ever necessary to be believed in. However, I would say, firstly, how could so many countless plain witnesses be wrong? Secondly, we will see that this private revelation scenario most fully agrees with the theology of the days of creation and beast kings [forthcoming]. It would behoove us, then, to simply show in the raw sense that this perfect correlation exists before delving into deeper reasons.

The Days of Creation Fulfill Private Revelation

Let us proceed with the days of creation. We already saw that the sixth night was pagan Rome, and that we are now, with the modern minor apostasy, in the seventh night. Well, the private revelation scenario lays out that the next great phase of history is a light, the age of peace [the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart], following a preemptive conversion in the world or a chastisement and then a conversion. Bingo! This is the seventh light! Note, too, it has the semblance of a Sabbath, like the seventh-day Sabbath of the Genesis allegory: the near whole of humanity will be voluntarily Catholic and living the Gospel in their hearts. The Church will, temporarily, cease having to labor against sin and heresy. She will rest, just as God rested from his labors on the seventh day. Again, this perfectly mirrors the seventh day of allegory, which is a metaphorical Sabbath in the same days of creation. This enables us to interpret St Methodius’s “millennium of rest” referenced above as this age of imperfect rest, the age of Our Lady’s Peace.

Finally, the next phase, again by the scenario, is the great apostasy, where the world will grow lax and forget the lessons she learned. This is the night, the eighth night. And lo and behold, the remaining phase after this is nothing short of the end of time, the eternal light of the Second Coming and New Creation. This eighth light is an eternal, most perfect Sabbath, where the just shall forever behold God and one another in love and peace, never to suffer again. Too, remember, they shall rise at the Judgment, just as the Christ rose on the eighth day. It fits perfectly!

In the next chapter we will move on to the beast Kings of Apocalypse 17. Here, astonishingly, the same theology and delineation perfectly correlates!

 

1St. Augustine, On the Catechising of the Uninstructed, ch. 22:39, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1303.htm

2 New Catholic Encyclopedia, McGraw-Hill Pub., NY, 1967, Vol. IX, 742

3 Susan Brinkmann, “Are We Living in the End Times?”, https://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=24182, Women of Grace Blog, Sep 16, 2013