VISIO DECIMA, cap. XVII
The Lion's Wars and the Cleansing of Cruelty
Brutal wars will rage as God permits the cruelty of the wicked to consume the peace of others, purifying iniquities through affliction.
Yet in the midst of all this, it stands out like a lion marked in the book of Scivias: harsh and brutal wars will break out again and again, with all fear of God cast aside, great numbers of people will fall in the slaughter, and very many cities will collapse in destruction. For just as a man overcomes feminine weakness by his strength, and just as a lion overpowers the other beasts, so too the cruelty of certain people will consume the peace of others in those days through divine judgment, since God will then allow the cruelty of punishments to His enemies for the cleansing of their iniquities, just as He has done from the beginning of the world.
Justice Restored as the True Bride
After purification, people will embrace justice in all church practices, casting off hypocrisy, and God will adorn justice as His bride with every true order, lest the heavenly Jerusalem be shaken.
And when people have been purified by the afflictions I have described, they will grow weary of the wars I have mentioned, and they will take hold of justice in all the church's appointed practices that are pleasing to God, through the fear of God, and they will add many good things to them, doing this as much in times of peace as in times of war and in every kind of labor. And then justice will rightly be called a bride, who will be led into the bed of the true king, having left behind the concubine, whose aim it was at times to keep certain legal precepts through pretense and at times to join herself to the custom of a corrupt fellowship, and so the king will cast her out, because those days were like a concubine to people who in some church regulations observed the ecclesiastical commands but in others abandoned them entirely. For almighty God, who is the true Solomon, will adorn His bride, that is, justice, with every ornament, that is, with every church order, so that the ornaments that the concubine had obscured in her will be clearly visible, so that at times they could not be seen. And so those days will point to the destruction of useless days, and consolation will empty out desolation, just as the new law changed the old law, and as a time of healing has led the time of falling away to something better, for if the evils I have described had continued, light and unshaken in the scandal of their own custom, truth would have been so obscured that the towers of the heavenly Jerusalem would have been shaken, and every church practice would have been corrupted, as if people were without the true God.
Faithlessness Judged and a Marvelous Peace Foretold
Those who break faith with justice will endure disgrace and affliction, yet a new and wondrous peace will arise, though tempered by the fear of coming judgment.
For those who break faith with justice will then be in disgrace like a woman who, having left a lawful marriage, commits adultery, because by violating the church's precepts they were committing what was like adultery, and so they will also endure affliction and contempt, like a woman who, having been left by her husband, has lost his comfort. And yet such new and unknown arrangements for justice and peace will then come about that people will marvel at them, saying they have never heard or known such things before; and because peace was given to them before the day of judgment, just as peace also went before the first coming of the Son of God, they will not be able to rejoice fully because of the fear of the judgment that is coming, but will seek every justice in the faith of the universal church from almighty God, even as the Jews rejoice and say that the One whom they now deny has already come.
The Shoot of the Lord: Prophecy Fulfilled in the Last Days
The peace that preceded Christ's first coming will be completed in the last days, when the shoot of the Lord will flourish and the blinded Jews will be enlightened through the fulfillment of Isaiah's words.
The peace that preceded the coming of the Incarnation of the Son of God will be brought to completion fully in those days, because strong men will rise up in great prophecy then, so that every shoot of justice will flourish in the sons and daughters of humanity, just as it was foretold through my servant the prophet, according to my will: "In that day the shoot of the Lord will be in splendor and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be exalted, and a joy to those who will have been saved from Israel."✦ The meaning of this statement is to be understood in this way: The words of the prophet Isaiah that bear witness to the Lord's first coming will be fulfilled most fully in this age through the enlightening of the Jews, who were blinded by the scandal of Christ in his passion and had withered from the freshness of faith and good works.✦
Read the original Latin
Sed tamen inter haec omnia velut leo in libro Scivias notatus ostendit, dura etiam crudeliaque bella timore Dei abjecto multoties exsurgent, et plurimi hominum in occisione cadent, plurimaeque civitates per destructionem ruent. Sicut enim vir fortitudine sua femineam mollitiem vincit, et ut leo reliquas bestias superat, ita et crudelitas quorumdam hominum quietem aliorum in diebus illis per divinum judicium consumet, quoniam Deus crudelitatem poenarum ad purgationem iniquitatum inimicis suis tunc concedet, sic etiam a principio mundi semper fecit. Cumque homines praedictis afflictionibus purgati fuerint, taedium praefatorum praeliorum incurrent, atque justitiam in cunctis ecclesiasticis constitutionibus, quae Deo placitae sunt per timorem Dei apprehendent, illique plurima bona superaddent, et hoc tam in diebus pacis quam belli et cujusque laboris facient. Et tunc justitia recte sponsa nominabitur, quae in lectum veri regis relicta concubina ducetur, cujus studium fuit, ut interdum quaedam legalia praecepta per simulationem servaret, et interdum consuetudinem pravae sodalitatis sibi conjungeret, unde et rex illam abjiciet, quia praedicti dies velut concubina erant, hominibus in quibusdam constitutionibus ecclesiastica mandata observantibus; in quibusdam vero illa omnino relinquentibus. Omnipotens namque Deus, qui verus Salomon est, sponsam suam videlicet justitiam cum omnibus ornamentis, id est cum omnibus ecclesiasticis ordinibus ornabit, ita ut ornamenta ipsius palam appareant, quae concubina hoc modo in illa obscuraverat, ut aliquando videri non possent. Unde et dies illi destructionem inutilium dierum demonstrabunt, et consolatio desolationem evacuabit, quemadmodum nova lex veterem legem immutavit, et ut tempus curationis tempus casus ad meliora perduxit, quoniam si praedicta mala in levitate et in scandalo consuetudinis suae inconcussa perdurarent, veritas ita obnubilaretur, ut turres coelestis Jerusalem moverentur, et omnis ecclesiastica institutio contaminaretur velut homines absque vero Deo essent. Nam praevaricatores justitiae in tali opprobrio tunc erunt, quasi mulier quae, justo conjugio relicto, adulterium facit, quia ecclesiastica praecepta praevaricando quasi adulterium perpetrarant, et ideo etiam afflictionem et despectionem sustinebunt, quemadmodum femina quae a viro suo relicta consolatione illius caret. Sed et tam novae et incognitae ordinationes justitiae et pacis tunc advenient, ut homines inde admirentur dicentes, quoniam talia prius nec audierint, nec cognoverint; et quia pax ante diem judicii ipsis data sit, sicut etiam pax primum adventum Filii Dei praecucurrit, pro timore tamen superventuri judicii pleniter gaudere non valentes, sed omnem justitiam in catholica fide ab omnipotente Deo quaerentes, Judaeis etiam gaudentibus, et illum jam adesse dicentibus, quem venisse modo negant.
Pax enim illa quae adventum Incarnationis Filii Dei praecesserat, illis diebus pleniter perficietur, quoniam fortes viri in magna prophetia tunc surgent, ita ut etiam omne germen justitiae in filiis et in filiabus hominum tunc florebit, velut per prophetam servum meum in voluntate mea sic praedictum est: « In die illa erit germen Domini in magnificentia et gloria et fructus terrae sublimis, et exsultatio his qui salvati fuerint de Israel . » Hujus sententiae intellectus hoc modo accipiendus est:
Verba Isaiae prophetae primum Domini adventum testificantia, quae in saeculo maxime complebuntur per illuminationem Judaeorum, qui scandalo Christi obcaecati in passione ipsius a viriditate fidei et bonorum operum exaruerant.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.4.2 — In that day the Branch of the LORD will be for beauty and for glory, and the fruit of the earth for splendor and for adornment, for the survivors of Israel.
- ↩Isa.66.23 — And it shall be, from new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.
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