The Great Culling

 

SINCE writing Mystery Babylon, I have been watching and praying, waiting and listening for weeks in preparation for this writing.

I will stand at my guard post, and station myself upon the rampart, and keep watch to see what he will say to me… Then the LORD answered me and said: write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily.(Habb 2:1-2)

Once again, if we want to understand what is here and coming upon the world, we need only listen to the Popes..

 

THE DOMINATING BEAST

The rise of the “enlightened democracies,” spread through the military and economic might of America, is not intended to last. Rather, it is to create a dependence of nations upon the “beast”: those secret societies and powerful men who have had a great hand in forming and directing the United States for their ulterior purpose (see Mystery Babylon). The beast uses the harlot to prepare the world for global goverance—a “new world order”—but in the end, her sovereignty will be destroyed along with other nations so as to relinquish all power to the global elite. In this regard, the “beast” truly hates the harlot, her notion of democracy, personal freedom, the right to private property, etc.

The ten horns that you saw and the beast will hate the harlot; they will leave her desolate and naked; they will eat her flesh and consume her with fire. For God has put it into their minds to carry out his purpose and to make them come to an agreement to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are accomplished. (Rev 17:16-17)

Already, those who belong to these secret societies have been openly brazen in their goal to bring nations under the power of a “United Nations.” The process of this globalization is already being achieved by economic and military “regionalization”. It is much easier to merge, say, a couple dozen or less regions, than it is hundreds of individual nations.

This regionalization is in keeping with the Tri-Lateral Plan which calls for a gradual convergence of East and West, ultimately leading toward the goal of one world government. National sovereignty is no longer a viable concept. —Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter; from Hope of the Wicked, Ted Flynn, p. 370

It is the sacred principles enshrined in the United Nations charter to which the American people will henceforth pledge their allegiance. —President George Bush, address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, February 1, 1992; Ibid. p. 371

We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans. —President Bill Clinton, U.S.A. Today, March 11th, 1993

Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring about? —Maurice Strong, Head of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and Senior Advisor to the President of the World Bank; from Hope of the Wicked, Ted Flynn, p. 374

If we look at the immediate situation on the horizon, we can see that nations have already lost much of their sovereignty by becoming indebted to the banking establishments or other foreign entities. Soon… and very soon… one nation after another will begin to collapse as they can no longer pay their debts.

We think of the great powers of the present day, of the anonymous financial interests which turn men into slaves, which are no longer human things, but are an anonymous power which men serve, by which men are tormented and even slaughtered. They are a destructive power, a power that menaces the world. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Reflection after the reading of the office for the Third Hour this morning in the Synod Aula, Vatican City, October 11, 2010

The Holy Father’s words here are some of the most telling of a global plan to subvert humanity, to “turn men into slaves.” He speaks of “anonymous financial interests” working behind the scenes whose activities “torment” and even lead to the slaughter of human beings! Perhaps one would be tempted to dismiss such words as “conspiracy theory” had they come from a lesser authority. But this is the successor of Peter speaking. Still, do we want to listen? Do we engage these words and the present realities unfolding around us, or do we prefer to listen to the deceptive hum of the world that lulls us back to sleep, like the sleepiness of the Apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane?

…we don’t hear God because we don’t want to be disturbed, and so we remain indifferent to evil…. ‘the sleepiness’ is ours, of those of us who do not want to see the full force of evil and do not want to enter into his Passion.” —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Catholic News Agency, Vatican City, Apr 20, 2011, General Audience

Once again, brothers and sisters, the words of Scripture rise up in my mind with a new force:

…the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. When people are saying, “Peace and security,” then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (1 Thess 2:5)

Some Christians have wrongly taken this Scripture to refer to the final coming of Jesus at the end of time. Rather, it refers to the coming of the “day of the Lord” which is not a 24 hour day, but a period of time toward the end of the world ^[1]cf. Two More Days. Just as the “day of the Lord” celebrated each Sunday begins in vigil the night before, so too, the coming “day of the Lord” begins in darkness. The dawning of an Era of Peace is born in “labour pains.”

We need to understand the nature of this darkness, not to be frightened, but to be spiritually prepared and armed so as, in fact, to confront it. ^[2]cf. My People are Perishing

Today the word ecclesia militans (Church militant) is somewhat out of fashion, but in reality we can understand ever better that it is true, that it bears truth in itself. We see how evil wishes to dominate the world and that it is necessary to enter into battle with evil. We see how it does so in so many ways, bloody, with the different forms of violence, but also masked with goodness, and precisely this way, destroying the moral foundations of society. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, May 22, 2012, Vatican City

 

AWAKENING TO THE “FULL FORCE OF EVIL”

In an unforgettable speech to the Roman Curia less than two years ago, Pope Benedict sounded a remarkable warning of the consequences of a world losing a moral consensus on what is truth and what is not.

Only if there is such a consensus on the essentials can constitutions and law function. This fundamental consensus derived from the Christian heritage is at risk… In reality, this makes reason blind to what is essential. To resist this eclipse of reason and to preserve its capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true, is the common interest that must unite all people of good will. The very future of the world is at stake. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, December 20th, 2010

The very future of the world is at stake.What does he mean by this? In a recent speech this past Easter, Pope Benedict went a step further:

The darkness that poses a real threat to mankind, after all, is the fact that he can see and investigate tangible material things, but cannot see where the world is going or whence it comes, where our own life is going, what is good and what is evil. The darkness enshrouding God and obscuring values is the real threat to our existence and to the world in general. If God and moral values, the difference between good and evil, remain in darkness, then all other “lights”, that put such incredible technical feats within our reach, are not only progress but also dangers that put us and the world at risk. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Easter Vigil Homily, April 7th, 2012

Here, the Holy Father says that the threat is to our very “existence.” Again, what does he mean?

In my book, The Final Confrontation, I explained how the past four centuries have been a long historical process where man has been slowly led astray by Satan, “a liar and the father of lies.” ^[3]John 8:44; watch: The Big Picture; cf. A Woman and a Dragon By believing and embracing sophistries—philosophical distortions of the truth—reason itself has been eclipsed in our times. The murder of the unborn is embraced as a right; the deliberate killing of the sick and aged is passed as “mercy”; the right to kill oneself is openly debated in our legislatures; the categories of “male” and “female” have been refracted into dozens of “genders”; and marriage itself is no longer based on logic and reason, sociology and biology, but on the whims of a vocal minority. We have reached the point of…

…a dissolution of the image of man, with extremely grave consequences. —May, 14, 2005, Rome; Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI) in a speech on European identity.

Once man is no longer perceived as made in the image of God, but just another by-product of the “big bang”, then indeed the very “existence” of man is threatened, particularly if those in power and who govern no longer hold the dignity of man above that of a worm; if they believe that “survival of the fittest” can by hastened to root out the “inferior” elements of the human race.

Human beings, as a species, have no more value than slugs. —John Davis, editor of Earth First Journal; from Hope of the Wicked, Ted Flynn, p. 373

Man, at that point, can not only be viewed as just another animal among thousands of species, but as a threat to other species and the planet itself. He must, therefore, be eliminated “for the good of the environment,” at least so that only a relatively small number continue to inhabit the planet. Indeed, today, man is being considered more and more a blight that must be eradicated.

With tragic consequences, a long historical process is reaching a turning-point. The process which once led to discovering the idea of “human rights”—rights inherent in every person and prior to any Constitution and State legislation—is today marked by a surprising contradiction. Precisely in an age when the inviolable rights of the person are solemnly proclaimed and the value of life is publicly affirmed, the very right to life is being denied or trampled upon, especially at the more significant moments of existence: the moment of birth and the moment of death… This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government: the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people—even if it is the majority. This is the sinister result of a relativism which reigns unopposed: the “right” ceases to be such, because it is no longer firmly founded on the inviolable dignity of the person, but is made subject to the will of the stronger part. In this way democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Evangelium Vitae, “The Gospel of Life”, n. 18, 20

Communism is really the sum of Marxism, Darwinism, atheism, and materialism. That is, the ideology that man can create a utopia on earth to satisify his longing for pleasure, materialism and even immortality—but without God… and without the “inferior” elements of the human race.

 

THE GREAT CULLING

Thus we see Jesus’s other description of Satan coming into focus:

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth… (John 8:44)

Satan lies so as to murder. The historical process of the past four centuries has been one whereby mankind has believed lie after lie to the point where he no longer has the “capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true.” Satan lies so as to draw men into his snare so that he can then destroy them. But how powerful is the deception when man himself has embraced death as a solution! When man himself becomes his own destroyer!

Recently, 18 scientists from around the world published a paper predicting an imminent and irreversible planetary collapse induced by mankind, particularly through his conversion of natural landscapes into agricultural or urban areas. Their solution is far more stunning than the proposed problem:

Society globally has to collectively decide that we need to drastically lower our population very quickly. More of us need to move to optimal areas at higher density and let parts of the planet recover. Folks like us have to be forced to be materially poorer, at least in the short term. We also need to invest a lot more in creating technologies to produce and distribute food without eating up more land and wild species. It’s a very tall order. —Arne Mooers, a Simon Fraser University biodiversity professor and a co-author of the study: Approaching a state-shift in Earth’s biosphere; TerraDaily, June 11th, 2012

A tall order—and obtusely immoral one. With a straight face, they are proposing the immediate reduction of the human race, the deprivation of private property, state-imposed control of one’s wealth, and finally, the use of technology to mass-produce food in laboratories rather than in fields. This is nothing less than a re-echoing of the United Nations Agenda 21. It’s a plan under the mirky terminology of “Sustainable Development” to herd humans into urban centers, take control of natural resources, direct the education of children, and ultimately control (and dismantle) organized religion. The plan is already underway.

The Club of Rome, a global “thinktank” concerned with population growth and dwindling resources, drew a chilling conclusion in its 1993 report:

In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself. —Alexander King & Bertrand Schneider. The First Global Revolution, p. 75, 1993.

How can we fail to see the same pattern unfolding that emerged under Hitler in Nazi Germany? There, the Jews were seen as the enemy of the “Third Reich”. They were herded into “ghetto” cities, which then made their extermination much easier.

…we must not underestimate the disturbing scenarios that threaten our future, or the powerful new instruments that the “culture of death” has at its disposal. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Caritas in Veritate, n. 75

With the “scientific community” gathering behind them, the powerful controllers of world economics and politics, such as billionaire David Rockerfeller, most certainly see a window of “opportunity” opening for a “new world order” to emerge at last.

But this present window of opportunity, during which a truly peaceful and interdependent world order might be built, will not be open for long. —David Rockerfeller, speaking at the Business Council for the United Nations, September 14th, 1994

Note the coolness with which Rockerfeller praises the Chinese Revolution (1966-1976), which is believed to have taken the lives of up to 80 million—more than four times the deaths under Stalin and Hitler combined:

Whatever the price of the Chinese Revolution, it has obviously succeeded not only in producing more effecient and dedicated administration, but also in fostering high morale and community of purpose. The social experiment in China under Chairman Mao’s leadership is one of the most important and successful in human history. —David Rockerfeller, New York Times, August 10th, 1973

Chairman Mao Tse-tung was the leader of the Communist Party in China. The fruit of his regime continues to this day with the brutal enforcement of a “one-child” policy in China. If the global elites are praising the brutal “efficiency” of Mao’s Communism, and see this as a model for a new world order, then the words of Our Blessed Mother in Fatima are on the verge of coming into their full reality:

When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.  —The Message of Fatima, www.vatican.va

The errors of Russia, that is, atheistic-materialism, are now spreading throughout the world producing an individualistic society that has embraced death as a solution.

This [culture of death] is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency. Looking at the situation from this point of view, it is possible to speak in a certain sense of a war of the powerful against the weak: a life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected in one way or another. A person who, because of illness, handicap or, more simply, just by existing, compromises the well-being or life-style of those who are more favoured, tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated. In this way a kind of “conspiracy against life” is unleashed. This conspiracy involves not only individuals in their personal, family or group relationships, but goes far beyond, to the point of damaging and distorting, at the international level, relations between peoples and States. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Evangelium Vitae, “The Gospel of Life”, n. 12

Certainly, it is damaging when globalists such as Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, have openly stated:

If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels. —leader of the World Wildlife Fund, quoted in “Are You Ready for Our New Age Future?” Insiders Report, American Policy Center, December 1995

Likewise, former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, said:

Depopulation should be the highest priority of U.S. foreign policy towards the Third World. —National Security Memo 200, April 24, 1974, “Implications of world wide population growth for U.S. security & overseas interests”; National Security Council’s Ad Hoc Group on Population Policy

The Pharaoh of old, haunted by the presence and increase of the children of Israel, submitted them to every kind of oppression and ordered that every male child born of the Hebrew women was to be killed (cf. Ex 1:7-22). Today not a few of the powerful of the earth act in the same way. They too are haunted by the current demographic growth… Consequently, rather than wishing to face and solve these serious problems with respect for the dignity of individuals and families and for every person’s inviolable right to life, they prefer to promote and impose by whatever means a massive programme of birth control. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Evangelium Vitae, “The Gospel of Life”, n. 16

Whether it is laced vaccines, abortion, forced sterilization, or contraception, the culling of the human race has already begun. Tens of millions of people who should be here are not through abortion alone; how many millions more have been erased through contraception? However, when human life is viewed as dispensable and of such little value, there are other methods such as plagues, famine, and war that can more quickly reduce populations…

The suicide of the human race will be understood by those who will see the earth populated by the elderly and depopulated of children: burnt as a desert. —St. Pio of Pietrelcina, conversation with Fr. Pellegrino Funicelli; spiritdaily.com

 

THE THIEF IN THE NIGHT

These are horrifying prospects and troubling realities. Some will accuse me of “doom and gloom”. Yet, am I saying anything that the Pope’s themselves have not already said? In the vision of the three seers of Fatima, they saw an angel standing over the earth with a flaming sword. In his commentary on this vision, Cardinal Ratzinger  said,

The angel with the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the threat of judgment which looms over the world. Today the prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his inventions, has forged the flaming sword. —The Message of Fatima, from the Vatican’s website

When he became Pope, he later commented:

Humanity today is unfortunately experiencing great division and sharp conflicts which cast dark shadows on its future… the danger of an increase in the number of countries possessing nuclear weapons causes well-founded apprehension in every responsible person. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, December 11th, 2007; USA Today

In no uncertain terms, the “powerful of the earth” believe that the world population needs to be reduced, and quickly. “We need to save the planet,” they say, and in the same breath, “… the human population is unsustainable.” However, the facts are that the world presently produces enough food to feed 12 billion. ^[4]cf. “100,000 people die from hunger or its immediate consequences every day; and every five seconds, a child dies from hunger. All of this takes place in a world that already produces enough food to feed every child, woman and man and could feed 12 billion people” —Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteu, October 26th, 2007; news.un.org Furthermore, the entire global populace, standing shoulder to shoulder, could fit into Los Angeles, CA. ^[5]cf. National Geographic, October 30th, 2011 Neither space nor resources are the issue here, but the will of the wealthy Western nations to put the human person at the center of development, not profit. This was the theme of Pope Benedict’s encyclical letter, Love in Truth:

…without the guidance of charity in truth, this global force could cause unprecedented damage and create new divisions within the human family… humanity runs new risks of enslavement and manipulation… —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Caritas in Veritate, n.33, 26

But we have not arrived at this dark moment by chance. For four centuries, Our Blessed Mother has been appearing throughout the world, most notably, at the same time major philosophies have emerged that would move the human race further away from God and further away from himself. Thus, we can now see in hindsight that the end times is really a period when man himself tries to become god again as he once attempted in the Garden of Eden. ^[6]cf. Back to Eden?

We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through… We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. —Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (JOHN PAUL II), at the Eucharistic Congress, Philadelphia, PA; August 13, 1976

However, man’s attempt to build a new Tower of Babel will fail, and the Scriptures tell us that he ends up enslaving himself, ultimately, to the adversary himself through the Antichrist. This is Satan’s plan all along: to bring about the destruction of the greater portion of mankind through the advance of technologies that in the end destroy creation.

There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least… some scientists in their laboratories [are] trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves. —Secretary of Defense, William S. Cohen, April 28, 1997, 8:45 AM EDT, U.S. Department of Defense; see www.defense.gov

Here we have a description in part by a high level government official essentially describing the seals of the book of Revelation (Rev 6:3-17). And yet, that does not account for the destruction occurring already through genetic modification, chemicals in our food, water, and “medicines,” not to mention the tinkering with human DNA through other means.

The new messianists, in seeking to transform mankind into a collective being disconnected from his Creator, will unknowingly bring about the destruction of the greater portion of mankind. They will unleash unprecedented horrors: famines, plagues, wars, and ultimately Divine Justice. In the beginning they will use coercion to further reduce population, and then if that fails they will use force. —Michael D. O’Brien, Globalization and the New World Order, March 17th, 2009

Events are coming that will surprise many like a thief in the night. Few realize that the collapse of the global economy may be only months away—an event that some economists admit will be “cataclysmic”. ^[7]cf. “Handwriting on the Wall” by Dr. Sircus

We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.” – David Rockefeller, Sept. 23, 1994

 

THE WOMAN SHALL CRUSH HIS HEAD

In the end, the Scriptures tells us, indeed, that only a remnant will pass into the Era of Peace.

In all the land — oracle of the LORD — two thirds of them will be cut off and perish, and one third will be left. I will bring the one third through the fire; I will refine them as one refines silver, and I will test them as one tests gold. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them; I will say, “They are my people,” and they will say, “The LORD is my God. (Zech 13:8-9)

This is confirmed in modern prophesy that has been given official approval. Our Lady of Akita seems to describe an event in which God intervenes to destroy the disastrous experimentation with the planet’s resources and human life itself.

As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful.  —Blessed Virgin Mary at Akita, Japan, October 13th, 1973; approved as worthy of belief by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI) while he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Brothers and sisters, this writing is troubling to many of you, as it should be.

We cannot calmly accept the rest of humanity falling back again into paganism. —Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), The New Evangelization, Building the Civilization of Love; Address to Catechists and Religion Teachers, December 12, 2000

Heaven has been sending Our Blessed Mother for centuries in order to call us back from this ungodly precipice on which we now stand. The Popes themselves could not be clearer. And yet, speaking of this “final confrontation”, John Paul II also added that this trial “lies within the plans of divine providence.” God will permit these things in order to bring about the purification of the world unto an Era of Peace.

The more noteworthy of the prophecies bearing upon “latter times” seem to have one common end, to announce great calamities impending over mankind, the triumph of the Church, and the renovation of the world. —Catholic Encyclopedia, Prophecy, www.newadvent.org

As Scripture tells us, the satanic aspirations of the powerful will come to a sudden end, and the knowledge of Jesus will then spread throughout the entire world. Hope lies beyond the labour pains.

Ah! you who pursue evil gain for your household, setting your nest on high to escape the reach of misfortune! You have devised shame for your household, cutting off many peoples, forfeiting your own life; for the stone in the wall shall cry out, and the beam in the frame shall answer it! Ah! you who build a city by bloodshed, and who establish a town with injustice! Is this not from the LORD of hosts: peoples toil for what the flames consume, and nations grow weary for nothing! But the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the LORD’s glory, just as the water covers the sea. (Hab 2:9-14)

Those who do evil will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD will inherit the earth. Wait a little, and the wicked will be no more; look for them and they will not be there. But the poor will inherit the earth, will delight in great prosperity… (Ps 37:9-11)

But he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide fairly for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb… They shall not harm or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea. (Isaiah 11:4-9)

Then I saw the heavens opened, and there was a white horse; its rider was [called] “Faithful and True.” He judges and wages war in righteousness. The armies of heaven followed him, mounted on white horses and wearing clean white linen. Out of his mouth came a sharp sword to strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, and he himself will tread out in the wine press the wine of the fury and wrath of God the almighty…. Then I saw an angel come down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a heavy chain. He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the Devil or Satan, and tied it up for a thousand years and threw it into the abyss, which he locked over it and sealed, so that it could no longer lead the nations astray until the thousand years are completed… Then I saw thrones; those who sat on them were entrusted with judgment. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image nor had accepted its mark on their foreheads or hands. They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years… (Rev 19:11-20:4)

So, the blessing foretold undoubtedly refers to the time of His Kingdom, when the just will rule on rising from the dead; when creation, reborn and freed from bondage, will yield an abundance of foods of all kinds from the heaven’s dew and the fertility of the earth, just as the seniors recall. Those who saw John, the Lord’s disciple, [tell us] that they heard from him how the Lord taught and spoke about these times… —St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Church Father (140–202 A.D.); Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons, V.33.3.4, The Fathers of the Church, CIMA Publishing Co.; (St. Irenaeus was a student of St. Polycarp, who knew and learned from the Apostle John and was later consecrated bishop of Smyrna by John.)

Since God, having finished His works, rested on the seventh day and blessed it, at the end of the six thousandth year all wickedness must be abolished from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand years… —Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (250-317 A.D.; Ecclesiastical writer and Church Father), The Divine Institutes, Vol 7.

We do confess that a kingdom is promised to us upon the earth, although before heaven, only in another state of existence; inasmuch as it will be after the resurrection for a thousand years in the divinely-built city of Jerusalem… We say that this city has been provided by God for receiving the saints on their resurrection, and refreshing them with the abundance of all really spiritual blessings, as a recompense for those which we have either despised or lost… —Tertullian (155–240 A.D.), Nicene Church Father; Adversus Marcion, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Henrickson Publishers, 1995, Vol. 3, pp. 342-343)