And having finished these things, I added: And that your teachers, O men, acknowledge that all the words of this passage were spoken concerning Christ, I know; and I also know that they say He has not yet come; and even if they say He has come, they say it is not known who He is, but that, when He becomes manifest and glorious, then it will be known who He is, they say.
And then, they say, the things spoken in this passage will come to pass, as though no fruit had yet come from the words of the prophecy—unreasoning men, who do not understand what has been demonstrated through all the words, namely, that two comings of His have been announced: one, in which He has been proclaimed as subject to suffering, inglorious, dishonoured, and crucified; and the second, in which He will come from the heavens with glory, when also the man of apostasy, who speaks outrageous things against the Most High, shall dare lawless deeds on the earth against us Christians—we who, having come to know the worship of God from the Law and the word that went forth from Jerusalem through the apostles of Jesus, have taken refuge in the God of Jacob and the God of Israel;
and we who were full of war and mutual slaughter and every wickedness, each from every part of the earth have changed our weapons of war, our swords into ploughshares and our pikes into farming tools, and we cultivate piety, righteousness, love of mankind, faith, and the hope which is from the Father Himself through the crucified One, each of us sitting under his own vine—that is, each making use of his own one wedded wife. For that the prophetic word says, 'And his wife shall be as a fruitful vine,' you know.
And that there is none to make us afraid or to enslave us, who have believed in Jesus throughout all the earth, is manifest. For though we are beheaded and crucified and thrown to wild beasts and bonds and fire and all other tortures, it is plain that we do not depart from our confession; but the more such things happen, the more do others in still greater numbers become faithful and God-fearing through the name of Jesus. Just as, if one cut off the fruit-bearing parts of a vine, it grows up and yields other branches flourishing and fruitful, so likewise it is with us. For the vine planted by God and the Saviour Christ is His people.
But the rest of the prophecy will be fulfilled at His second coming. For 'her that is afflicted and driven out'—that is, from the world, so far as in you and in all other men lies—each of the Christians has been cast out not only from his own possessions but from the whole world, since you allow no Christian to live.
But you say this happened to your people. Now if you were cast out after being made war upon, you have justly suffered these things, as all the Scriptures testify; but we, having done nothing of the kind after coming to know the truth of God, are testified to by God, together with the most righteous and only spotless and sinless Christ, that we are being taken away from the earth. For Isaiah cries: 'Behold how the righteous perishes, and no one lays it to heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no one considers it.'