“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son. Only the Father knows” (Matthew 24:36).

Let us put on the armor of light

“11. And this, considering the time in which we live. For now is the hour to wake up from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.

12. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. Therefore, let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

13. Let us walk respectfully, as in the daytime: no gluttony and drunkenness, no lust and debauchery, No rivalry or jealousy” (Romans 13:11-13).

Let us know the signs of the times

We must know and understand the “time,” interpreting it correctly. Every human being should know and understand it. Therefore, it is worth asking the following question: Do we know what stage of this Christian era we are in today?

Jesus Christ rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees for not being able to discern “the signs of the times” (Matthew 16:1-3). Do we discern these “signs of the times” now, as well as those of the times to come, and are capable of understanding what they indicate?

Regarding time, in my opinion, we habitually make two great mistakes:

1. Not caring to know the time and its signs.

2. Willfully ignoring the inexorable march of time toward the final outcome of each human life in particular, of history in general, of the cosmos, and of creation in its entirety.

As we have seen previously in Romans 13:11-13, we must know four facts about God’s time (Kairos), concluding the chapter with a call to holiness and warning us about the proximity of Christ’s return:

First fact: “…it is now time to wake up from sleep.” It is, therefore, time to awake. Thus, “it is now time” to open our eyes wide and get moving. There is no time for further slumber.

Second fact: “…our salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.” The passing of each day, hour, and minute brings us ever closer to the moment of Christ’s final triumph.

Third fact: “The night is far gone.” That is, the dark pall that covers all kinds of perversion, immorality, wrongdoing, crime, violence, and rebellion hangs over the world.

“The night…” refers to the uprising against God, which began before the creation of the world when Lucifer attempted to usurp the authority of the one Almighty God.

The long “night” of sin has extended to the present time, but in these times it is already “well advanced.”

Fourth fact: “…the day is at hand.” That is, “the day” of Christ’s Second Coming is at hand.

“For you (informed and understanding Christians) know perfectly well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night; when they shall say, ‘Peace and safety,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape” (Thessalonians 5:2-3).

“For the great day of his wrath has come, and the day of his wrath is come, and the day of his wrath is come.” And who will be able to stand? exclaim the unrepentant, surprised and terrified by the unexpected “end” of “all things” (Revelation 6:17 and Peter 2:7).

“But you, brothers, will not be in darkness, so that day should overtake you like a thief. For you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night nor of the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5).

Lux mundi (Photo: Albert Cortina)

Awake! Do not quench your spirit, nor despise the prophecies

“So then, let us not sleep like others, but be vigilant and live soberly. Those who sleep sleep at night; those who get drunk get drunk at night. But we who are of the day, let us live soberly, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and having the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not destin us for wrath, but for salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that, whether awake or asleep, we might live with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:6-10).

“Rejoice always. Be constant in prayer. Give thanks in all circumstances; this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench your spirit, do not despise the prophecies. Test all things; hold fast to what is good.” Guard yourselves from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-23).

The Importance of Christian Eschatology and the Theology of History

In light of the prophetic words we have transcribed in the previous section, the importance of eschatology, that is, the study of final realities (death, judgment, hell, glory, and salvation), is evident for a Christian.

In Saint Augustine’s view, no one can truly consider themselves a Christian who has not set their sights on the fullness of the times to come. In one of his early sermons, there is a very relevant phrase on this subject: “I have not paused to urge you to do this, and to do it for the sake of the future hope. For whoever does not think about the age to come, and has not become a Christian hoping to receive at last what God promised, is not yet a Christian.”

Offering the Christian people a hope grounded in Scripture, in accordance with the tradition of the Church Fathers and the orthodoxy of the faith, was a priority for Saint Augustine.

As Stefano Abbate—associate professor of Social Philosophy at the Abat Oliba CEU University—indicates in his academic article entitled “The Development of Intrahistorical Plenitude in Saint Augustine” (Pensamiento. Journal of Philosophical Research and Information. Vol. 78, No. 301 (2022): September-December), Saint Augustine adopted the Genesis schema of the seven days of creation and the final day of rest as a schema of history and its consummation.

“The first day, so to speak, of this whole world is the time that runs from Adam to Noah; The second, from Noah to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the transmigration to Babylon; the fifth; from the transmigration to the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ. From the coming of the Lord, therefore, the sixth day has been in progress; on the sixth day we live. Therefore, just as man was created on the sixth day in the image of God, according to Genesis, so also in this time, as the sixth day, of the entire century, we are renewed in baptism to receive the image of our Creator. But once this sixth day has passed, after that winnowing, rest will come, and the holy and righteous of God will keep the Sabbath“.

The Sabbath time that Augustine expects in the final intrahistorical stage is a time where works conform to justice and truth, which is previously man’s worship of his Creator.

According to Saint Augustine, the seventh day of the Sabbatical period will be followed by the eighth day, which symbolizes “the new life that will follow the end of the world.” This new stage is outside of history and beyond all experience known to humankind. It is the entry into eternity and the beatific vision of God, and coincides with the second resurrection, the final and definitive one.

The passage from the seventh to the eighth day occurs with the resurrection of the body:

“The souls of all the saints truly rest before the resurrection of the body, but they lack that activity that vitalizes the bodies consigned to them. This activity is signified by the eighth day, which is confused with the first, since it does not suspend, but rather glorifies that rest (…) The Holy Fathers, filled with the prophetic spirit before the resurrection of the Lord, already knew this sacrament of the eighth day.”

The eighth day then represents the resurrection of Jesus, which is longed for by all those who have acted with mercy during their eternal life, corresponding to the sixth day.

As Professor Stefano Abbate points out, it is very interesting to emphasize the substantial difference between the seventh and eighth stages, which consists in the entry into eternity. If the seventh age still corresponds to a time that runs and is equal to the time we know in the present condition, the entry into eternity corresponds to a transcendence of time, the end of history. Only here can we truly intuit the total transformation of the known order and the entry into a totally new and unknown dimension. We can conclude, according to Professor Abbate, that in the first stage of Augustinian eschatological thought, the difference between the seventh and eighth days lies in the difference between time and eternity. The seventh stage is included in the intrahistorical dimension; the eighth, in contrast, belongs to eternity.

The Intrahistorical Period and the Millennium in Saint Augustine

Following the research work of Professor Abbate, Saint Augustine’s eschatological approaches evolve from an initial stage where he held a millenarian eschatological position coinciding with the Sermons to a more articulate stage, with his work The City of God:

1. In the first approach, Augustine presents an intrahistorical period in which the saints will reign with God before the resurrection of the bodies and following the second coming of Christ. The saints will be safe from all snares and snares of the evil one. Here, the millennium is interpreted in a spiritual sense, with the fulfillment of messianic goods during this period of time. Thus, history culminates in a climax where the splendor of the Church is manifested on this earth, with no possibility of sin existing within it. This stage coincides with the seventh day in the saeculum, which will subsequently converge on the endless eighth day, which is eternal life after the resurrection of the body. In this period, Augustine embraces a long patristic tradition from the early centuries of Christianity. However, in Augustine’s interpretation, there are no carnal overtones; rather, it is a social and spiritual reign.
2. In the second approach, Augustine adopts a more cautious view of the end times, abandoning all forms of millenarianism and interpretations of the thousand years of the Apocalypse in an ecclesial key. Thus, in the scheme of the two cities, there is no room for any intrahistorical hope, and all messianic blessings are reserved for after the final judgment; the thousand years in which the dragon is bound correspond to the impossibility of the evil one snatching away those whom God has predestined to salvation. These are approximately a thousand years that correspond to the years of the Christian era, during which God promised the Church that the gates of Hades would not prevail against her. In this approach to The City of God, Augustine distances himself from millenarian positions, namely because they could be interpreted in a carnal sense, which was always far from Augustine’s mentality. In this new approach, the thousand years refer to the sixth day, during which the Church militant pilgrimages awaiting definitive liberation. The Church is then the kingdom of the saints over which Christ reigns. Christ’s promise that the gates of Hades would not prevail against her refers to the Church. These thousand years will conclude with the persecution of the Antichrist until his defeat by Christ. The Final Judgment and the resurrection of the dead will follow. In this framework, there is no possibility of intrahistorical plenitude.

However, despite these differences, Professor Abbate points out that a common ground can be found between the two positions assumed by Augustine throughout his life. Certainly, the change of opinion was brought about by carnal millenarians who interpreted the messianic prophecies and the Apocalypse in a completely distorted sense. But it can be recognized, also in The City of God, that at least spiritual millenarianism can be admissible to a certain extent.

End Times and Final Victory

Let the above reflections by Professor Abbate serve as an introduction to the conversation I had on January 16, 2025, with Don Enrique Cases Martín, a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei, doctor in Dogmatic Theology, and graduate in Chemistry, following the recent publication of his book: “The Eternal Gospel. The End of Times” (ExLibric, 2024).

As Enrique Cases explains, “History is not a story of isolated individuals. It is evident that each generation influences the next. Many have attempted to find the common thread of this continuity and have developed a philosophy of history, such as Comte, Marx, or Saint Augustine, in a linear sense, with a beginning and a progression. Some even seek a circular sense, such as Nietzsche’s eternal return. It is not easy to understand time and eternity. God, with his Providence and freedom, guides history. At the individual level, divine freedom combines with human freedom, moving closer or further away. Action is entirely God’s and entirely human. Something similar occurs at the collective level. God decides certain fixed things, which will necessarily be fulfilled: the incarnation of the Word in Jesus, redemption, the parousia or end of time, distinct from the end of time, and the judgment of the Gentiles. But the rest of history is a combination of human and divine will. This is the Theology of History.”