Constantine, Revelation, Daniel, the 4 beasts, etc

[mesl4]

In reading through history, it seems like there’s got to be some sort of prophesy about Constantine. Does the Catholic Church teach anything about this and the early persecution? It would seem Constantine is a saviour to Christianity and that he overcame the beasts of Revelation/ Daniel by legalizing Christianity, and ending persecution. What are the RC / EO interpretations of Revelation/Daniel, end of times/God’s kingdom/Christ’s return?
Thanks!

 

[NHInsider]

Hi - welcome to the Church!

Unlike many of our evangelical brethren, the Church does not do official “glossaries” of apocalyptic writing to say “the Beast = so-and-so” or “Gog and Magog = Xia and Yistan”

Over the years various Catholic writers have surmised applications of various parts of prophecy, but there isn’t a unified “Catholic teaching” of this sort. Paragraphs 1020-1065 in the Catechism address the “last things” which is how Catholic teaching aggregates Death-Judgment-Afterlife.

And no, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone point to a particular prophecy and say “that’s Constantine” although I’ve heard many opinions that the Beast of Revelation is a thinly-veiled caricature of Nero.

I recommend Scott Hahn’s The Lamb’s Supper and Paul Thigpen’s The Rapture Trap as two good Catholic explorations of some of these issues.

 

[BereanRuss]

2​

Jesus is the Savior of Christianity. With the arrival of Constantine was the arrival of the dark ages where the word of God was no longer available to the general public. Persecution has always purified the church.

 

[COPLAND_3]

St. Andrew of Caesarea has Constantine as one of the 7 kings in Revelation 17:10, along with “Nines for Assyria, Arbakes for Media, Naebuchanezzar for Babylon, Cyrus for Persia, Alexander for Macedonia, Romulus for old Rome and Constantine for new Rome.”

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

In reading through history, it seems like there’s got to be some sort of prophesy about Constantine.

Why ? To expect the Bible to contain what we may think is important, is asking for trouble - it leads to absurdities such as the idea that because the USA is important to some people, the Bible “must” mention the USA. See, for example:​

• godsaveamericaagain.com/america.php
• moseshand.com/sitemap.htm
• geocities.com/christian_crusade/joseph.html
• america-in-the-bible.com/

With a very little effort it is possible to find countless references to Scotland in the OT. Or to anything else, if one starts by assuming the books “must” be about what is important to oneself or one’s group.

Does the Catholic Church teach anything about this and the early persecution? It would seem Constantine is a saviour to Christianity and that he overcame the beasts of Revelation/ Daniel by legalizing Christianity, and ending persecution. What are the RC / EO interpretations of Revelation/Daniel, end of times/God’s kingdom/Christ’s return?
Thanks!

No, it does not. Constantine’s effect on Christianity is, in retrospect, mixed, to say the least As for the notion that he is referred to in Revelation, this is unfounded. He did not end all persecution - the persecution in Persia in 341-2 shows this.​

 

[spauline]

In reading through history, it seems like there’s got to be some sort of prophesy about Constantine. Does the Catholic Church teach anything about this and the early persecution? It would seem Constantine is a saviour to Christianity and that he overcame the beasts of Revelation/ Daniel by legalizing Christianity, and ending persecution. What are the RC / EO interpretations of Revelation/Daniel, end of times/God’s kingdom/Christ’s return?
Thanks!

mesl4, the Traditional Catholic understanding of Daniel 2 and 7, before rationalism, which resurrected the bogus pagan Porphories doubting, is that the four empires are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

Indeed, Messiah came in the time of the fourth kingdom Rome, and indeed, the Catholic Church destroyed all these pagan kingdoms, in a certain sense, and rose up and became the great mountain of Christianity. Don’t believe me, get a Douay Rheims bible and see how they look at Daniel 2. NAB sucks, it is liberal and dismissive, interpreting the apoc like dismissive rationalists, who don’t believe in prophecy.

Also, was the fourth beast cast into the fire, and the kingdom [Rome] given to the saints of the Most High [the Catholic Church].

Constantine certainly helped fulfill that.

However, that being said, NT prophecy is no longer like Daniel.

Christ has revealed that what ulitmately matters in history is not nations and kingdoms and rulers, but the spiritual condition of the world. Hence, NT prophecy, if such a thing would exist, would not foretell things like Constantine, Napolean, or even Hitler.

Rather, the “ages of the Church” is how the ECFs tended to see the apocalypse of the NT.

The ages are determined by spiritual conditions, not by nations and kingdoms.

Greater stages that could POSSIBLY be somewhere in NT prophecy would be things like Islam, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Enlightenment, secular apostasy, the reunion of Christians.

I have an article that might help, here:

Why both Futurists and Preterists “Miss the Point”

God bless you, Maya.

 

[NHInsider]

2​

Jesus is the Savior of Christianity. With the arrival of Constantine was the arrival of the dark ages where the word of God was no longer available to the general public.

Oh right. That’s why Patrick, Boniface and the rest spent their entire lives bringing the word of God to various heathen tribes.

Russ, can you produce one shred of evidence that the “word of God” was more “available to the general public” before Constantine than after??

In Jesus’ day the Scriptures were proclaimed to “the public” in the synagogues, and studied there by the professionals. In the early Church the Scriptures were proclaimed to “the public” in the liturgy, as they have been ever since, down through the centuries, and studied in monasteries and universities.

The notion that any individual had “their own” copy of the Scriptures to read independently before 1455 is utterly absurd.

The only exposure any illiterate people could have to the Word of God was to hear it proclaimed and to see it retold in visual art. Both these were works carried out and/or paid for by the Church.

Don’t post rubbish.