And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
This does not mean that they have come, or shall come, to one place, as if the camp of the saints and the beloved city should be in some one place; for this camp is nothing else than the Church of Christ extending over the whole world. And consequently wherever the Church shall be,— and it shall be in all nations, as is signified by the breadth of the earth,— there also shall be the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and there it shall be encompassed by the savage persecution of all its enemies; for they too shall exist along with it in all nations,— that is, it shall be straitened, and hard pressed, and shut up in the straits of tribulation, but shall not desert its military duty, which is signified by the word camp.
Like wild beasts from their lairs, so these also will be released over the earth from their places through the Devil their general, so that they may destroy the camps of the saints-that is, the Church- which have been established in the four extremities of the world; unaware that not one angel but many are those that surround the fearers of God, as the Psalm says, “Camps of angels of the Lord surround his fearers and guard them.” Ps 33:8 Straightaway they will also lay hands on the holy city Jerusalem; whence the divine law was spread throughout the whole world by the apostles, and where too we have learned from the Apostle that Antichrist sits in the temple. 2Thess 2:4
This belongs to the last judgment. And after a little time the earth was made holy, as being at least that wherein lately had reposed the bodies of the virgins, when they shall enter upon an eternal kingdom with an immortal King, as they who are not only virgins in body, but, moreover, with equal inviolability have protected themselves, both in tongue and thought, from wickedness; and these, it shows, shall dwell in rejoicing for ever with the Lamb.
