The Ancient Witnesses

266 • The Ancient Witnesses: A Journey to Discover Our Sacred Roots

After the hymn, Ambrosiaster, whom we had met in the previous session, stepped up to the lectern and declared, “Christ the Lord will himself come down by the will of the Father, like the chief angel of God with the heavenly host, as is written in the revelation of John, and will wage war in God’s name against the antichrist.” 7 With these words I was reminded that the second coming of Christ is the beginning of the end for Satan. “After the antichrist has been wiped out,” continued Ambrosiaster, “the dead will rise again at Christ’s command. God’s trumpet will sound and war will be waged in the name of God. This is what Christ himself, the commander and chief of God’s army, said to Joshua the son of Nun, for which reason he was called an archangel.” 8 Ambrosiaster was teaching that Christ himself had appeared to Joshua, and that the conquest of the Promised Land led by Joshua was a type of the Second Coming of Christ. 9 Mentor continued his reading from 1 Thessalonians 4. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 10 “The Lord, here, is Christ—the true Son of God,” explained Ambrosiaster. “He is also the commander

7 Revelation 12:7. Gerald Bray, Ambrosiaster, Galatians—Philemon , Ancient Christian Texts (Downers Grove, IL:IVP Academic, 2009), page 108.

8 Same as previous note.

9 See Joshua 5:13-15.

10 1 Thessalonians 4:16b-17.