Pope Saint Pius X on the Apostasy, the Antichrist, and God's Victory

Pope Saint Pius X

(1903-1914)

Encyclical E Supremis, 1903

The Apostasy, The Antichrist, and God’s Victory

«Then again, to omit other motives, We were terrified beyond all else by the disastrous state of human society today. For who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? You understand, Venerable Brethren, what this disease is - apostasy from God, than which in truth nothing is more allied with ruin, according to the word of the Prophet: “For behold they that go far from Thee shall perish” (Ps 72,27)». (nr. 3)

«For in truth, “The nations have raged and the peoples imagined vain things” (Ps 2,1) against their Creator, so frequent is the cry of the enemies of God: “Depart from us” (Job 21,14). And as might be expected we find extinguished among the majority of men all respect for the Eternal God, and no regard paid in the manifestations of public and private life to the Supreme Will - nay, every effort and every artifice is used to destroy utterly the memory and the knowledge of God». (nr. 4)

«When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the “Son of Perdition” of whom the Apostle speaks (II Thess 2,3). Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and the Divinity! While, on the other hand, and this according to the same apostle is the distinguishing mark of Antichrist, man has with infinite temerity put himself in the place of God, raising himself above all that is called God; in such wise that although he cannot utterly extinguish in himself all knowledge of God, he has contemned God's majesty and, as it were, made of the universe a temple wherein he himself is to be adored. “He sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God”». (II Thess 2,2). (nr. 5)

«Verily no one of sound mind can doubt the issue of this contest between man and the Most High. Man, abusing his liberty, can violate the right and the majesty of the Creator of the Universe; but the victory will ever be with God - nay, defeat is at hand at the moment when man, under the delusion of his triumph, rises up with most audacity. Of this we are assured in the holy books by God Himself. Unmindful, as it were, of His strength and greatness, He “overlooks the sins of men” (Wisd 11,24), but swiftly, after these apparent retreats, “awaked like a mighty man that hath been surfeited with wine” (Ps. 77,65), “He shall break the heads of his enemies” (Ps 67,22), that all may know “that God is the king of all the earth” (Ps 46,8), “that the Gentiles may know themselves to be men” (Ps 9,20)». (nr. 6)