"Apocalypticism," writes Frank Moore Cross Jr.,
"sees world history in the grip of warring forces, God and Satan, the
spirits of truth and error, light and darkness. …The world, captive to evil
powers and principalities which have been given
authority in the era of divine wrath, can be freed only by the divine might.
But the day of God's salvation and judgment dawns. The old age has moved to its
allotted end and the age of consummation is at hand, the age of the vindication
of the elect and the redemption of the world. Current events signal the
approach of the end. The final war, Armageddon, has begun. The Messiah is about
to appear, 'bringing a sword.' The Satanic forces, now
brought to bay, break out in a final, defiant convulsion, manifest in the
persecutions, temptations and tribulations of the faithful… [I]n the
earnestness of his faith and the vividness of his hope he [the apocalypticist] is certain that God is about to act. The
faithful will be given the gift of salvation." Frank Moore Cross Jr., The Ancient Library of