{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030604.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030604.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030604.htm","text":"Chapter XXII.\u2014The Scriptures Forbid Our Supposing Either that the Resurrection is Already Past, or that It Takes Place Immediately at Death. Our Hopes and Prayers Point to the Last Great Day as the Period of Its Accomplishment.\nWe must after all this turn our attention to those scriptures also which forbid our belief in such a resurrection as is held by your Animalists (for I will not call them Spiritualists), 7412 that it is either to be assumed as taking place now, as soon as men come to the knowledge of the truth, or else that it is accomplished immediately after their departure from this life. Now, forasmuch as the seasons of our entire hope have been fixed in the Holy Scripture, and since we are not permitted to place the accomplishment thereof, as I apprehend, previous to Christ\u2019s coming, our prayers are directed towards 7413 the end of this world, to the passing away thereof at the great day of the Lord\u2014of His wrath and vengeance\u2014the last day, which is hidden (from all), and known to none but the Father, although announced beforehand by signs and wonders, and the dissolution of the elements, and the conflicts of nations. I would turn out the words of the prophets, if the Lord Himself had said nothing (except that prophecies were the Lord\u2019s own word); but it is more to my purpose that He by His own mouth confirms their statement. Being questioned by His disciples when those things were to come to pass which He had just been uttering about the destruction of the temple, He discourses to them first of the order of Jewish events until the overthrow of Jerusalem, and then of such as concerned all nations up to the very end of the world. For after He had declared that \u201cJerusalem was to be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled,\u201d 7414 \u2014meaning, of course, those which were to be chosen of God, and gathered in with the remnant of Israel\u2014He then goes on to proclaim, against this world and dispensation (even as Joel had done, and Daniel, and all the prophets with one consent 7415 ), that \u201cthere should be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men\u2019s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the p. 561 earth.\u201d 7416 \u201cFor,\u201d says He, \u201cthe powers of heaven shall be shaken; and then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds, with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.\u201d 7417 He spake of its \u201cdrawing nigh,\u201d not of its being present already; and of \u201cthose things beginning to come to pass,\u201d not of their having happened: because when they have come to pass, then our redemption shall be at hand, which is said to be approaching up to that time, raising and exciting our minds to what is then the proximate harvest of our hope. He immediately annexes a parable of this in \u201cthe trees which are tenderly sprouting into a flower-stalk, and then developing the flower, which is the precursor of the fruit.\u201d 7418 \u201cSo likewise ye,\u201d (He adds), \u201cwhen ye shall see all these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of heaven is nigh at hand.\u201d 7419 \u201cWatch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all those things, and to stand before the Son of man;\u201d 7420 that is, no doubt, at the resurrection, after all these things have been previously transacted. Therefore, although there is a sprouting in the acknowledgment of all this mystery, yet it is only in the actual presence of the Lord that the flower is developed and the fruit borne. Who is it then, that has aroused the Lord, now at God\u2019s right hand, so unseasonably and with such severity \u201cshake terribly\u201d (as Isaiah 7421 expresses it) \u201cthat earth,\u201d which, I suppose, is as yet unshattered? Who has thus early put \u201cChrist\u2019s enemies beneath His feet\u201d (to use the language of David 7422 ), making Him more hurried than the Father, whilst every crowd in our popular assemblies is still with shouts consigning \u201cthe Christians to the lions?\u201d 7423 Who has yet beheld Jesus descending from heaven in like manner as the apostles saw Him ascend, according to the appointment of the two angels? 7424 Up to the present moment they have not, tribe by tribe, smitten their breasts, looking on Him whom they pierced. 7425 No one has as yet fallen in with Elias; 7426 no one has as yet escaped from Antichrist; 7427 no one has as yet had to bewail the downfall of Babylon. 7428 And is there now anybody who has risen again, except the heretic? He, of course, has already quitted the grave of his own corpse\u2014although he is even now liable to fevers and ulcers; he, too, has already trodden down his enemies\u2014although he has even now to struggle with the powers of the world. And as a matter of course, he is already a king\u2014although he even now owes to C\u00e6sar the things which are C\u00e6sar\u2019s. 7429\nFor the opinions of those Valentinians who held that Christ\u2019s flesh was composed of soul or of spirit\u2014a refined, ethereal substance\u2014see Tertullian\u2019s De Carne Christi, cc. x.\u2013xv.\n560:7413 560:7414 560:7415 561:7416\nLuke 21:25, 26.\n561:7417 561:7418 561:7419 561:7420 561:7421 561:7422 561:7423\nCompare The Apology, xl.; De Spect. xxvii.; De Exhort. Cast. xii.\n561:7424 561:7425 561:7426 561:7427 561:7428 561:7429","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: The Sc...","type":"page"}