01-24-2021, 04:07 PM
PREFACE
It has not been my intention to inject myself or my personal opinions into this book. On the whole it is not to be considered so much a theological as an historical presentation~ The purpose has been to put into the hands of as many readers as possible the thoughts of many different persons, all of them pious and some of them learned. In all cases where I could detect any intention to deceive, the material has been excluded. In other cases, and this is really my only intrusion, when a statement seemed to me in need of clarification or of modification from a doctrinal point of view, I have added a footnote or remarks in parenthesis.
Were it not for a book such as this, it would be humanly impossible for the ordinary person, lay or clerical, to get an over-all picture, in original sources, of the thought of true believers on the Antichrist through the long centuries that the Antichrist idea has formed an indispensible segment of divine teaching. This because Antichrist literature is widely scattered and for the most part in books long out of print and besides closed to the ordinary person in that they are not in the English language.
I do not pretend to have satisfied the requirements of scholars in the presentation of these texts; but I do not write the book for scholars. They can look up the material for themselves. Were the texts to be issued in the critical manner of the scholar, the lifetime of one man and the wealth of many could not have produced this book and when it was produced, no one but a scholar could or would have read it.
I am not satisfied myself with some of the sources; but I doubt that any serious errors, that have not been pointed out, have crept into the books that I have used Some of the translations, too, are imperfect; but not so imperfect that they distort the original.
A really good book on Antichrist by several scholars working together and in libraries, which my busy life in a parish made impossible, is surely in order. I will be the first to hail the man or men who will issue a better book on this fascinating subject.
The Author
November 16,1949
Author's Preface
This first edition of THE REIGN OF ANTICHRIST has been printed at the request of and exclusively for several persons who own and appreciate a copy of THE PROPHETS AND OUR TIMES. It is a second volume along the same idea.
Apart from being the first attempt in any language to give a complete picture of the Antichrist of prophecy, this work also lays claim to being the first genuine book printed with paper plates instead of with type, or the zinc plates heretofore in use.
We have issued the book as a printed manuscript but as noted at the end of the Editor's Preface, it is issued with the bishop's permission. To assure our readers, however, we submitted the book in its present form to the book censor for the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno, Reverend Amancio Rodriguez, S. T. D. His reply is as follows:
"I have examined the book, THE REIGN OF ANTICHRIST, and found nothing in it against Faith or Morals. However, it should be noted at the beginning that the scriptural texts never have received an authentic interpretation by the church and that in the case of private revelations they are only matter of private opinion."
If this edition meets with favor we shall issue another for the general public. Meanwhile, we will appreciate your criticism and any information you may have on additional prophecies, old and new.