Didache Part 4: Brief Apocalypse

16 of 16

16:1 Watch concerning your life; let not your lamps be quenched or your loins be loosed, but be ready, for you do not know the hour at which our Lord comes.

16:2 Gather together frequently, seeking what is suitable for your souls; for the whole time of your faith shall profit you not, unless you are found perfect in the last time.

16:3 For in the last days false prophets and seducers shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate.

16:4 And because iniquity is abundant people shall hate and persecute each other, and deliver each other up; and then the Deceiver of the world appear as the Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands; and he shall do unlawful things, such as have never happened since the beginning of the world.

16:5 Then shall the creation of man come to the fiery trial of proof, and many shall be offended and shall perish; but they who remain in their faith shall be saved by the rock of offence itself.

16:6 And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first the sign of the appearance in heaven, then the sign of the sound of the trumpet, and thirdly the resurrection of the dead.

16:7 Not of all, but as it has been said, the Lord shall come and all His saints with Him;

16:8 Then shall the world behold the Lord coming on the clouds of heaven.

{End}

Not copyrighted, Athenaeum of Christian Antiquity. Trans: Charles H Hoole. Ed: Friar Martin Fontenot Gonzalez, St Pachomius Library, 10/1994. Contemporary Language adapted by: Father Raphael, 12/2010.

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