VISIO DECIMA, cap. XXXIII

The Two Witnesses Chosen and Preserved

God recalls choosing Enoch and Elijah as holy witnesses, teaches them in hidden mystery, protects them bodily, and promises their return in the last days to confront the son of perdition.

But I, who exist, will remember how I formed the first human being, and how I foresaw all the works by which Lucifer, through the human race, was to wage war against me, and how I marked out the holy virtues to fight against him, just as I did in Enoch and Elijah, whom I chose from among humankind — people who clung to me with their whole heart.^✦ And around the last days I will show people that they may confidently receive the testimony of these two witnesses.^✦ For in my mystery I teach them, and I make the works of humankind known to them, so that they know these things as if they had seen them with their own eyes; and they are wiser than the writings and words of the wise. For when they were taken up physically from among humankind, all fear and trembling were removed from them, so that they endure everything that comes upon them with calm composure, and I keep them in hidden places without any harm to their bodies.^✦ And when the son of perdition spews out his perverse teaching, he will bring these same ones back by the same power by which they had earlier been removed from among humankind — as if on the wind — and as long as they remain on earth with humankind, they will be restored every forty days, just as my Son also hungered after forty days had passed.^✦^✦^✦

The Power of Their Signs and the Flood of Martyrdom

The goat symbol on the necklace of justice signifies the witnesses' strength, whose true miracles will mock the Antichrist's deceptions and draw all nations to faith and joyful martyrdom.

Now these strong and wise ones — the head of the goat, shown on the aforementioned chain of the necklace of justice — signifies that just as the goat is strong and climbs to the heights, so they too, in my power, will be strong, quickly raised to the height of my miracles. For they will have such great power in my miracles that they will perform greater signs in the heavens and in the elements, and in the rest of creation, for the son of perdition, so that the deceptive signs of that one will be mocked by the true signs of these witnesses.^✦^✦ And because of the immense power of their miracles, people from all nations will run to them, believing their words, and to the martyrdom that the son of perdition will bring upon them, hastening with burning faith as if to a feast, so that even their killers will grow weary of counting the vast number of those slain, because the multitude of their blood will pour out like a river of water.^✦

The Antichrist's Rage and the Fullness of Martyrdom

The son of perdition, unable to overcome the witnesses, orders their cruel martyrdom and the erasure of their memory, fulfilling the golden number of martyrs from the primitive Church, after which the Son of God intercedes with the Father.

But in the end, when the son of perdition has been unable to overcome these two men of true holiness through flattery or threats, or to overshadow their signs and miracles, he will order them to be finished off by cruel martyrdom, and their memory to be completely blotted out from the earth, so that no one among all the people on the whole earth would thereafter dare to resist him.¹² Then, as was said above, the golden number of blessed martyrs who were killed in the primitive Church on account of true faith will be brought to the fullness of their perfection in these martyrs who will be killed in the error of the last time, because this time, trampling and devouring all things, designates the wolf that is described in the book Scivias, since just as a wolf devours whatever it can in its rapacity, so too in that time the faithful who believe in the Son of God will be swallowed up.³⁴ Therefore the same Son of God says to the Father again, as was said before:

Christ's Intercession for Mercy

The Son shows his wounds to the Father, interceding that the faithful be spared and called to bend their knees so that mercy may be shown to them.

Likewise, the Son's intercession to the Father in the showing of his wounds is directed to the same people: so that he may spare them as he commends them, and so that those same people may bend their knees to the Father, because he may show mercy to them as he exhorts them.

Read the original Latin

Sed Ego qui sum recordabor quomodo primum hominem formaverim, et quali modo omnia opera quibus Lucifer contra me per hominem pugnaturus esset praeviderim, atque quomodo sanctas virtutes adversus illum pugnando signaverim, quemadmodum in Enoch et Elia feci, quos de germine hominum, qui toto desiderio mihi adhaeserant, elegi. Et circa novissimum tempus hominibus ostendam quatenus testimonium istorum duorum testium homines confidenter recipiant. Nam in mysterio meo eos doceo, operaque hominum eis manifesto, ita ut illa sciant, quasi ea corporaliter viderint; sapientioresque scriptis et sermonibus sapientium sunt. Cum enim ab hominibus corporaliter sublati sunt, omnis timor et tremor eis ablatus est, ita ut aequanimiter omnia quae circa ipsos sunt sufferant, egoque in secretis locis absque omni laesione corporis eos servo. Et cum filius perditionis perversam doctrinam suam evomet, istos eadem vis per quam prius de medio hominum ablati fuerant, quasi in vento reducet, et quandiu cum hominibus in terra morabuntur, semper post quadraginta dies reficientur, quemadmodum etiam Filius meus quadraginta diebus transactis esurivit. Istos autem fortes et sapientes caput capricorni in praefata catena monilis justitiae demonstratum significat, quoniam sicut capricornis fortis est, et in altum ascendit, sic ipsi in potentia mea fortes erunt, in altitudinem miraculorum meorum velociter elevandi. Tantam enim virtutem in miraculis meis habebunt, quod majora signa in firmamento et in elementis, ac in caeteris creaturis filio perditionis facient, ita ut fallacia signa illius veris signis istorum deludantur. Unde et ob nimiam virtutem miraculorum eorum ex omnibus populis homines ad ipsos current verbis eorum credentes, atque ad martyrium, quod eis filius perditionis inferet, cum ardenti fide velut ad convivium properantes, ita ut etiam occisores ipsorum pro nimia multitudine occisos dinumerare taedeat, quia multitudo sanguinis eorum sicut rivus aquarum effundetur.

Sed tandem cum filius perditionis hos duos verae sanctitatis viros nec blanditiis, nec minis potuerit superare, nec signa, nec miracula eorum offuscare, jubebit eos crudeli martyrio consummari, memoriam que ipsorum de terra penitus deleri, quatenus nec ullus hominum in tota terra sit, qui ei deinceps audeat resistere. Tunc, ut supra dictum est, aureus numerus beatorum martyrum, qui in primitiva Ecclesia propter veram fidem occisi sunt, in martyribus istis, qui in errore novissimi temporis occidentur, ad plenitudinem perfeetionis suae perducetur, quoniam tempus hoc omnia conculcans omniaque devorans, lupus, qui in libro Scivias describitur, designat, quia ut lupus in rapacitate sua quaecunque potest devorat, ita et in tempore illo fideles qui in Filium Dei credunt, absorbebuntur. Quapropter et idem Filius Dei ad Patrem iterum dicit ut praefatum est:

Item interpellatio Filii ad Patrem in ostensione vulnerum suorum ipsis hominibus ut eis parcat commendantis, et eosdem homines ut genua sua Patri flectant, quod ipsorum misereatur, exhortantis.

Scripture echoes

↩Exod.3.14 — And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.'
↩Rev.11.3-Rev.11.12 — And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. Rev.11.4 — These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. Rev.11.5 — And if anyone wants to harm them, fire pours out from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. Rev.11.6 — These have the authority to shut the sky, so that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying. They also have authority over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. Rev.11.7 — And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the abyss will make war on them and conquer them and kill them. Rev.11.8 — And their corpse will lie upon the broad street of the great city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Rev.11.9 — And peoples and tribes and tongues and nations look upon their corpse three days and a half, and they do not permit their corpses to be placed in a tomb. Rev.11.10 — And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. Rev.11.11 — But after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. Rev.11.12 — And they heard a great voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.
↩Gen.5.24;2Kgs.2.11 — Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him. 2Kgs.2.11 — And it came to pass, as they were walking along and talking, that behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
↩2Thess.2.3 — Let no one deceive you in any way, because the rebellion must come first, and the man of lawlessness must be revealed—the son of destruction.
↩Matt.4.2;Luke.4.2 — And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Luke.4.2 — for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days. And when they were completed, he was hungry.
↩1Kgs.19.8 — He got up and ate and drank, and he walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
↩Rev.11.6;Matt.24.29 — These have the authority to shut the sky, so that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying. They also have authority over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. Matt.24.29 — But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
↩Rev.13.13-Rev.13.14;2Thess.2.9 — And he performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to the earth before the eyes of mankind. Rev.13.14 — And it deceives those who dwell on the earth, because of the signs that it was given to perform before the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image for the beast that had the sword wound and yet lived. 2Thess.2.9 — whose coming is according to the activity of Satan with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood
↩Ps.74.13;Rev.12.15-Rev.12.16 — You broke apart the sea by your strength; you shattered the heads of the sea monsters over the waters. Rev.12.15 — And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so as to sweep her away in the torrent. Rev.12.16 — And the earth came to the aid of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth.

Notes

1 ↩The phrase 'completed by cruel martyrdom' (crudeli martyrio consummari) carries the sense of martyrdom as the consummation or crowning of their witness; the passive infinitive leaves the agent of killing implicit while the son of perdition is the one issuing the order.
2 ↩offuscare is a rare/uncertain lemma; rendered 'overshadow' in the sense of dimming or obscuring their signs and miracles, following the candidate gloss.
3 ↩perfeetionis is a medieval spelling of perfectionis; rendered 'perfection'.
4 ↩The clause 'designates the wolf' makes the trampling, devouring time the subject that designates the wolf; the sense is that this age of devastation figures or signifies the wolf described in Scivias.

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