John Wycliffe on the End of the World, Almost

With the recent close call with the end of the world, I've been thumbing through some of my prophecy books. I don't make it very far. Way back when, I could read a book and not get bogged down by footnotes and tedium. 

Some of my fresh readings just turn out now to be nitpicking. For example.  I do appreciate Gary DeMar's Last Days Madness, but his footnotes have stalled any sort of progress in re-reading his book. On page 17 Gary states,

My immediate question was, "Where did Wycliffe say this?" Gary's note #4 refers to "Wycliffe's England: A Time of Turmoil," Christian History, Issue 3 (1983), 8. Note #5 refers to the same source and page. The way DeMar has the paragraph set up,  it appears Wycliffe himself is being cited via Christian History magazine. Note the quote within the quote of "covetousness, sensuality, and fraud."  Here is what Christian History Issue 3, 1983 states:

Although some people turned to superstition for security, most felt it was God's anger against wickedness of the people of that day. Wycliffe seemed to have yielded to a popular apprehension that the final judgment was approaching. He describes the "covetousness, sensuality, and fraud" of the clergy as infecting all of humanity, thus causing the chastisement under which Europe mourned.

Although the nation was shaken by the loss of life and by the fear of the unknown evil, penitence was lacking. Shortage of labor hastened economic changes and social unrest. Substitution of wages for services accelerated. Distinction between the classes became less rigid. The arts reflected the melancholy and morbid. Exaggerated forms of religious mysticism developed. Lack of educated clergy reduced the church's intellectual vigor.

I did find it curious that Christian History cautiously stated, "Wycliffe seemed to have yielded to a popular apprehension that the final judgment was approaching," while DeMar more forcefully concludes Wycliffe thought it was indeed the last days.

In the above section from Christan History, only four words are attributed to Wycliffe: "covetousness, sensuality, and fraud." Christian History does not document these four words.  Doing a quick Google search, I'm very tempted to say these aren't Wycliffe's words at all, but are rather a summary statement from Robert Vaughan book, The Life and Opinions of John de Wycliffe Vol I. After describing Wycliffe's belief that the close of the 14 century would be the end of the world (after four periods of tribulation), Vaughan states:

The modern reader will probably smile at these speculations, and it is no less probable that some future race will look with equal self-complacency on many of our gravest conclusions, with regard to the future, whether relating to science, religion, or the world. It is worthy of observation, that while the writers who record the sufferings of the period under review, attribute them principally, to the vanity of the people, especially as evinced in the costly caprice of their apparel, and the general disposition to luxurious indulgence; Wycliffe traces the malady to a higher source, describing the clergy as so addicted to covetousness, sensuality, and fraud, as to have infected every portion of the community, with the same vices, and thus to have been the main cause of that chastisement, under which Europe had been called to mourn." [source]

My guess is Christian History probably lifted their Wycliffe information from Vaughn.

Unfortunately, the documentation here is likewise vague. Vaughn goes on to cite "On Prelates, C. i. iv." That source is probably this. He also cites "M.S. on the Seven Deadly Sins" which can probably be found here. But previous to the quote Vaughn also mentions Wycliffe's "The Last Age of the Church." Which source? I have no idea. I am though very tempted to say, Wycliffe was not cited at all by either DeMar, Christian History, or Robert Vaughan.

Pope Gregory: The End of the World is not Far Off

Yesterday I posted an out of context Tertullian quote from Gary DeMar's Last Day Madness.  I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the next quote from page 19:

In the sixth century, Pope Gregory assured the world that the return of Christ could not be far off since he claimed that so many prophecies were being fulfilled in his day.


Of all the signs described by our Lord as presaging the end of the world some we see already accomplished…. For we now see that nation arises against nation and that they press and weigh upon the land in our own times as never before in the annals of the past. Earthquakes overwhelm countless cities, as we often hear from other parts of the world. Pestilence we endure without interruption. It is true that we do not behold signs in the sun and moon and stars but that these are not far off we may infer from the changes of the atmosphere.[Quoted in T. Francis Glasson, His Appearing and His Kingdom (London: Epworth, 1953), 45].

This quote, in context, indeed says what Gary DeMar says it does. While it was written long ago, it stands as a pertinent testimony that one cannot know the day or the hour of the end of the world. You may "'feel" like it is based on the current state of things, but there's no absolutely certain way to know for sure. Read Gregory's words, and see how similar his sentiment is to our current doomsday experts:

Gregory to Leander, bishop of Seville:
With all my heart I have wished to answer you better, but the burden of my pastoral calls so overpowers me that I would rather weep than speak, as your reverence undoubtedly gathers from the very character of my correspondence when I am remiss in addressing one whom I warmly love. In fact, so beaten about am I by the billows in this corner of the world, that I can in no wise bring to harbor the ancient, rolling ship at whose helm I stand through God's mysterious dispensation.


Now the waves break over us from the front, now at the side the foaming mountains of the sea swell high, now in the rear the tempest pursues us. Beset by all these perils, I am forced first to steer directly in the face of the storm, again to swerve the vessel and to receive obliquely the onset of the waters. I groan, because I know that if I am negligent the bilge water of vice is deepening, and that if the storm assails us furiously at that instant the decaying planks forebode shipwreck. Fearful, I remember that I have lost my quiet shore of peace, and sighing I gaze toward the land which, while the wind of circumstances blows contrarily, I cannot gain. So, dearest brother, if you love me, stretch forth the hand of prayer to me amid these floods, and, as you aid me in my troubles, thus as a reward shall you come forth more valiantly from yours. . . .

[Of all the signs described by our Lord as presaging the end of the world], some we see already accomplished; the others we dread as close upon us. For we now see that nation rises against nation, and that they press and weigh upon the land in our own times as never before in the annals of the past. Earthquakes overwhelm countless cities, as we often hear from other parts of the world. Pestilence we endure without interruption. It is true that as yet we do not behold signs in the sun and moon and stars; but that these are not far off we may infer from the changes in the atmosphere. Before Italy was given over to be desolated by the sword of a heathen foe, we beheld fiery ranks in heaven, and even the streaming blood of the human race as it was afterwards spilt. [source]

One point of tedium: the phrase "Of all the signs described by our Lord as presaging the end of the world" as cited by DeMar is placed in brackets in the context above. I have yet to locate a better primary source to determine if the phrase is original to Gregory.

DeMar's Last Days Madness... What Did Tertullian Really Say?

When R.C. Sproul came out with his "The Last Days According to Jesus" many mainstream Reformed people all of a sudden became... "partial preterists." I admit, I did buy Sproul's book when it came out, and investigated many of the partial preterist writers. I was never fully persuaded by their argumentation, particularly since post-millenialism appears to be the logical next step. I've been assured by many it's not, but it is odd the leading partial preterist voices are post-millennial.

I like partial preterist Gary DeMar. I have his books, a recording somewhere of him debating Dave Hunt, and I get Gary's perpetual spam email that comes about five times a day.  This morning I pulled out my copy of DeMar's  Last Days Madness (Atlanta: American Vision, 1999).   I read this a long time ago, and haven't thumbed through this book in many years. I flipped open the first page of chapter one and read the following quote from Tertullian:

Chapter One THE DATING GAME
Dip into any period of history and you will find prophets of all types, from any number of theological traditions, who claimed they knew when the next endtime event would occur. Some have pointed to the rise in apostasy, lawlessness, natural disasters, signs in the heavens, and an increase in rival religions in their day as unmistakable evidence that the end was near for them. Finding hidden meanings in biblical numbers was another favorite pastime that assured the faithful that the end had to be at hand.

In the second century, Tertullian, in Ad Nationes, wrote, "What terrible wars, both foreign and domestic! What pestilences, famines ... and quakings of the earth has history recorded!" Evaluating current events and concluding that they offer "compelling evidence" that Jesus would return soon has been a common practice among prophecy writers.

DeMar then goes on to quote Pope Gregory for further proof that "Last Days Madness" has been around a long time. I was just about to post this Tertullian quote in a comment box on another thread, but decided first to look it up. DeMar actually cites a secondary source for the quote: "Quoted in Carl Olof Jonsson and Wolfgang Herbst, The 'Sign' of the Last Days - When? (Atlanta, Ga: Commentary Press, 1987), ix." I'm not about to purchase a copy of this book, particularly since the context for this Tertullian quote isn't all that hard to track down. Read the following Tertullian quote in context, and notice what it actually says. Tertullian states,

Chapter IX.The Christians are Not the Cause of Public Calamities: There Were Such Troubles Before Christianity.


But why should I be astonished at your vain imputations? Under the same natural form, malice and folly have always been associated in one body and growth, and have ever opposed us under the one instigator of error Indeed, I feel no astonishment; and therefore, as it is necessary for my subject, I will enumerate some instances, that you may feel the astonishment by the enumeration of the folly into which you fall, when you insist on our being the causes of every public calamity or injury. If the Tiber has overflowed its banks, if the Nile has remained in its bed, if the sky has been still, or the earth been in commotion, if death has made its devastations, or famine its afflictions, your cry immediately is, “This is the fault of the Christians!” As if they who fear the true God could have to fear a light thing, or at least anything else (than an earthquake or famine, or such visitations). I suppose it is as despisers of your gods that we call down on us these strokes of theirs. As we have remarked already, three hundred years have not yet passed in our existence; but what vast scourges before that time fell on all the world, on its various cities and provinces! what terrible wars, both foreign and domestic! what pestilences, famines, conflagrations, yawnings, and quakings of the earth has history recorded! Where were the Christians, then, when the Roman state furnished so many chronicles of its disasters? Where were the Christians when the islands Hiera, Anaphe, and Delos, and Rhodes, and Cea were desolated with multitudes of men? or, again, when the land mentioned by Plato as larger than Asia or Africa was sunk in the Atlantic Sea? or when fire from heaven overwhelmed Volsinii, and flames from their own mountain consumed Pompeii? when the sea of Corinth was engulphed by an earthquake? when the whole world was destroyed by the deluge? Where then were (I will not say the Christians, who despise your gods, but) your gods themselves, who are proved to be of later origin than that great ruin by the very places and cities in which they were born, sojourned, and were buried, and even those which they founded? For else they would not have remained to the present day, unless they had been more recent than that catastrophe. If you do not care to peruse and reflect upon these testimonies of history, the record of which affects you differently from us,in order 118especially that you may not have to tax your gods with extreme injustice, since they injure even their worshippers on account of their despisers, do you not then prove yourselves to be also in the wrong, when you hold them to be gods, who make no distinction between the deserts of yourselves and profane persons? If, however, as it is now and then very vainly said, you incur the chastisement of your gods because you are too slack in our extirpation, you then have settled the question of their weakness and insignificance; for they would not be angry with you for loitering over our punishment, if they could do anything themselves,—although you admit the same thing indeed in another way, whenever by inflicting punishment on us you seem to be avenging them. If one interest is maintained by another party, that which defends is the greater of the two. What a shame, then, must it be for gods to be defended by a human being!

The way DeMar uses it, one is left the image that Tertullian was commenting on it being the end of the world. Well maybe Tertullian did somewhere else, but he certainly isn't doing it here. In context, the quote refers to calamites that took place before the birth of Christianity. Note the immediate sentence which preceeds the quote DeMar used: "As we have remarked already, three hundred years have not yet passed in our existence; but what vast scourges before that time fell on all the world, on its various cities and provinces!"

I still like Gary DeMar, he makes some good points. But I did find it rather discouraging that the first quote of chapter one was cited out of context.

Addendum
Gary DeMar uses the Tertullian quote here as well: Billy Graham Association Goes Apocalyptic:

In the second century, Tertullian, in Ad Nationes, wrote, “What terrible wars, both foreign and domestic! What pestilences, famines … and quakings of the earth has history recorded!” Evaluating current events and concluding that they offer “compelling evidence” that Jesus would return soon has been a common practice among prophecy writers. In the sixth century, Pope Gregory assured the world that the return of Christ could not be far off since he claimed that so many prophecies were being fulfilled in his day [ Quoted in Carl Olof Jonsson and Wolfgang Herbst, The “Sign” of the Last Days—When? (Atlanta, GA: Commentary Press, 1987), ix].