But when you shall hear of wars and tumults, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not yet.
Read Chapter 21
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
But of the heavenly words none are greater witnesses than we, upon whom the ends of the world have come. What wars and what rumors of wars have we received! .
The ruin of the world then is preceded by certain of the world's calamities, such as famine, pestilence, and persecution.
There are also other wars which the Christian wages, the struggles of different lusts, and the conflicts of the will; and domestic foes are far more dangerous than all foreign.
There are also other wars which the Christian wages, the struggles of different lusts, and the conflicts of the will; and domestic foes are far more dangerous than all foreign.
The Apostles are also exhorted notto be alarmed by these forerunners, nor to desert Jerusalem and Judea. But the kingdom against kingdom, and the pestilence of those whose word creeps as a cancer, and the famine of hearing the word of God, and the shaking of the whole earth, and the separation from the true faith, may be explained also in the heretics, who contending one with another bring victory to the Church.
But that the end will not immediately follow these evils which come first, it is added, These things must first come to pass; but the end is not yet For the last tribulation is preceded by many tribulations, because many evils must come first, that they may await that evil which has no end. It follows, Then said he to them, Nation shall rise against nation For it must needs be that we should suffer some things from heaven, some from earth, some from the elements, and some from men. Here then are signified the confusions of men. It follows, And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places. This relates to the wrath from above.
Look at the vicissitudes of bodies. And famine. Observe the barrenness of the ground. And fearful sights and great signs there shall be from heaven. Behold the variableness of the climate, which must be ascribed to those storms which by no means regard the order of the seasons. For the things which come in fixed order are not signs. Forevery thing that we receive ...
For an earthquake is at one time a sign of wrath, as when our Lord was crucified the earth shook; but at another time it is a token of God's providence, as when the Apostles were praying, the place was moved where they were assembled. It follows, and pestilence.
But He says, that the end of the city shall not come immediately, that is, the taking of Jerusalem, but there shall be many battles first.
"Wars "I observe, "and kingdom against kingdom, and nation against nation, and pestilence, and famines, and earthquakes, and fearful sights, and great signs from heaven"
Now some have wished to place the fulfillment of these things not only at the future consummation of all things, but at the time also of the taking of Jerusalem. For when the Author of peace was killed, then justly arose among the Jews wars and sedition. But from wars proceed pestilence and famine, the former indeed produced by the air infected with dead bodies, the latter through the lands remaining uncultivated. Josephus also relates the most intolerable distresses to have occurred from famine; and at the time of Claudius Caesar there was a severe famine, as we read in the Acts, and many terrible events happened, A forboding, as Josephus says, the destruction of Jerusalem.
