Andreas of Caesarea

Also the great Justin says that at the coming of Christ the devil will first learn that he is condemned to the abyss, that is, to the Gehenna of fire. It is, therefore, possible also to understand the sentence of Christ against the devil in the words just spoken. The seer says that the angel administers this sentence, thereby revealing that [the devil] is weaker in power than the ministering powers and showing the vanity of one who insolently opposes him who has rule over all things. For our understanding, he speaks of a “chain,” meaning the work of restraining [the devil’s] evil. It is in no way good to understand the “thousand years” as referring to a thousand years as such. For when David says “of the word that he commanded for a thousand generations,” we ought not to understand this to mean a hundred years times ten. Rather, David means many [generations] taken as a whole. So also in this case, we regard the number “thousand” to signify either many or that which is complete. If we take it to mean “many,” then it refers to the preaching of the gospel into all the world and the sowing of the seeds of piety in the world. [Or] should it mean “complete,” then it signifies that during this time, having been released from the life learned from the law, we have been called to the “perfect man,” to the measure of the maturity of the fullness of Christ. Therefore, the “thousand years” are the time from the incarnation of the Lord until the arrival of the antichrist. Whether the matter is as we have interpreted it, or the thousand years are one hundred times ten, as some believe, or the thousand years are less than this, this is known to God alone, who knows how long his patience is beneficial to us, and he determines the continuance of the present life.

Judgment, that is, the authority to judge, was given to the rest of the saints, namely, to the martyrs who suffered for Christ and did not receive the mark of that spiritual beast, the devil, that is, the image of his apostasy. And as we can see, even to the present time they judge the demons by this authority, for they reign with Christ until the consummation of the present age and are honored by pious kings and faithful rulers and demonstrate their God-given power against every bodily weakness and demonic activity. It is clear that the devil, the antichrist and the false prophet share with one another both their deeds and their names, since each of them is called “beast,” and the dragon, clearly Satan, is shown with seven heads and ten horns with as many diadems. Moreover, the beast that comes up out of the sea, clearly the antichrist, appears in a similar form and testifies to the same will and activity for the destruction of those who have been deceived. Those who have been freed from this will reign with Christ in the manner just mentioned until his second coming, and after that they will enjoy more abundantly the promises of God.

From the holy Scriptures we are taught that there are two lives and two deaths. The first life, which is after the transgression of the commandment, is temporary and fleshly. The [second] life is eternal and is promised to the saints because of Christ’s obedience to the divine commandments. Likewise, there are two deaths. The first is that of the flesh and is temporary. The other is eternal and is the reward for sins. It occurs in the age to come; this is the Gehenna of fire. We also know a distinction among the dead. There are the accused, of whom Isaiah wrote, “The dead shall not see life.” These are those persons who by their deeds bring upon themselves both stench and death. There are … the praiseworthy, who in Christ put to death the deeds of the body and crucified themselves with Christ and died to the world. The dead who are rejected, who were not buried with Christ and did not rise with him through baptism but who remained in that death which comes through sins, they shall not live with him until the completion of the thousand years, that is, that perfect number that extends from his first appearance until his second, glorious appearance.… Having been born only from the earth and not from the Spirit, these return to the earth. Their death becomes the beginning of the punishment coming to them. However, those who have a portion in the first resurrection, that is, in the rising from thoughts that bring death and from dead works, these are blessed, for the second death, that is, the unending torment, shall have no power over them.

Some interpret the period of a thousand years to be the three and a half years from the baptism of Christ to his ascension into heaven, and they believe that after this the devil is to be loosed. Others say that after the completion of six thousand years the first resurrection of the dead will occur for the saints alone, so that on this very earth on which they endured suffering, they might enjoy temporal largess and glory for a thousand years, and that after this [period] the general resurrection will occur, which will be not only of the righteous but also of the sinners. It is unnecessary to say that the church receives nothing of this.Rather, we listen to the Lord when he says to the Sadducees that the righteous will be “as the angels in heaven.” We listen also to the apostle who says, “the kingdom of God is not food and drink.” And so we interpret the thousand-year period to be that of the preaching of the gospel.… It is not necessary to think of these thousand years in terms of a number. When it is said in the Song of Songs “everyone was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver,” and again, “Solomon shall have a thousand and they who keep its fruit two hundred,” the precise number is not indicated, but the full and complete harvest. So also here, the harvest of faith in its entirety is meant, after which “the son of perdition, the man of lawlessness” will come “so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness,” as the apostle says. And the Lord said, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; another will come in his own name, him you will receive.”

Satan will be loosed from his prison and will deceive all nations and will entice Gog and Magog to war for the devastation of the world. Some believe that these two are the remote northern people of the Scythians, whom we call the Huns, and, as we see, are the most populous and warlike of any kingdom on earth and are kept from seizing the whole earth until the loosing of the devil by the hand of God alone.… Some interpret on the basis of the Hebrew language and render Gog as “one who gathers” or “that which is gathered” and Magog as “one who is exalted.” In this way, these names signify either the gathering of the nations or their exaltation. We should note that Ezekiel prophesied that these nations would come upon the earth with great power at the end of time, that Israel would fall and for a period of seven years would burn by their arms as though through a great fire. Some interpreters refer this to the fall of the Assyrians under Sennacherib at the time of Hezekiah, which happened a long time prior to the prophecy of Ezekiel. Others refer this to the destruction of the nations that attacked those coming to rebuild Jerusalem after the conquest by the Babylonians, when first Cyrus the Persian and then Darius ordered the governors of Syria to do this. Yet others refer to the forces of Antiochus, which were defeated by the Maccabees. However, it is clear that the arrival of these nations best suits the final times. First of all, it is nowhere written that the nation of the Scythians waged war against the Jews at that time, but only those nations round about them that envied their prosperity. Second, concerning Gog it is written, “He will be prepared from the days of old and will come at the end of time.” Third, in the present Revelation, which foretells future events, it is written that Gog and Magog will come toward the end of this age.

Just as fierce animals come out of their caves, so, it says, those led by the devil and the demons with him will come from their various locations and spread themselves out over the earth to ravage the camp of the saints, clearly meaning the church, which is established throughout the four corners of the world. But they do not know that it is not only a single angel but many angels who encamp round about them who fear God, as the psalm says. They will come to subdue the new Jerusalem, the beloved city, from which the divine law has gone into all the world through the apostles. Then, they say, the antichrist will seat himself in the temple of God. This refers either to the ancient temple of God among the Jews that was destroyed because of their audacity against Christ and which those Jews who hate God still expect to be rebuilt by him, or it refers to the true temple of God, namely, the catholic church. The antichrist will usurp for himself what does not belong to him and “proclaim himself to be God,” as the apostle says. Not long afterward, it says, fire comes down from heaven. This will be either a physical fire such as that which burned the two groups of fifty at the time of Elijah, or the passage refers to the glorious coming of Christ, who will slay them “by the breath of his mouth” and consume the aforementioned nations and their leader, the devil. Christ will hand them, along with the antichrist and the false prophet, over to the lake of fire, where they will be tormented forever and ever. Christ the Savior has taught us to pray that we enter not into temptation, and so, recognizing our weakness, let us do that earnestly, that we be saved from the trials of that which is prophesied.

The image of the “white throne” signifies the divine rest that God will establish among the saints, who are resplendant with virtues and among whom God will be enthroned. The flight of the earth and sky signifies their transformation from what they were into something better. And there will be found no longer any place for change. For if the creation was subjected to corruption because of us, as the apostle says, it will also be transformed with us into the freedom of the glory of the children of God, being made new into that which is more brilliant. [The creation] will not be subjected to complete annihilation, as we learn from Irenaeus, Antipater and other saints. For the blessed Irenaeus writes, “For neither is the substance nor the essence of the creation annihilated (for faithful and true is he who has established it), but the fashion of the world passes away, that is, those things among which transgression has occurred, since humankind has grown old in them. And therefore this fashion has been formed temporary, God foreknowing all things.” Similarly, the great Methodius comments as follows in On the Resurrection: “It is not satisfactory to say that the universe will be utterly destroyed, and sea and air and sky will be no longer. For the whole world will be deluged with fire from heaven and burned for the purpose of purification and renewal; it will not, however, come to complete ruin and corruption.” And a little later he says, “And Paul clearly testifies this, saying, ‘For the creation waits with eager longing for the manifestation of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but through him who subjected it in hope. Therefore, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay’ ” and so on. But before these saints the holy David sang to the Lord, saying, “You sent forth your Spirit, and they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” And Isaiah says, “There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come into mind; but they will find gladness and rejoicing in it.” Certainly in the superabundance of joy and in the greatness of their rewards they will forget the struggles and pains that they endured. In another place Isaiah says, “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, so shall your descendants and your name remain.” It follows, therefore, that the creation, which was made for our sake, receives with us a change for the better, not going into nonexistence, just as we do not go into nonexistence after our death.