There is no passage in Scripture,
Manning pointed out, relating to the coming of Christ more
explicit and express than those foretelling Antichrist; it
therefore behoved the faithful to consider the matter more fully
than they are wont to do. In the first place, Antichrist is a
person. 'To deny the personality of Antichrist is to deny the
plain testimony of Holy Scripture.' And we must remember that 'it
is a law of Holy Scripture that when persons are prophesied of,
persons appear'.
Again, there was every reason to believe that Antichrist, when he
did
appear, would turn out to be a Jew. 'Such was the opinion of St.
Irenaeus, St. Jerome, and of the author of the work De
Consummatione
Mundi, ascribed to St. Hippolytus, and of a writer of a
Commentary
on the Epistle to the Thessalonians, ascribed to St. Ambrose, of
many
others, who said that he will be of the tribe of Dan: as, for
instance,
St. Gregory the Great, Theodoret, Aretas of Caesarea, and many
more. Such
also is the opinion of Bellarmine, who calls it certain. Lessius
affirms that
the Fathers, with unanimous consent, teach as undoubted that
Antichrist will be a Jew. Ribera repeats the same opinion, and
adds that Aretas, St. Bede, Haymo, St. Anselm, and Rupert affirm
that for this reason the tribe of Dan is not numbered among those
who are sealed in the Apocalypse.
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