ACC ~ Matthew 24 v4 - 5

THEY WILL LEAD MANY ASTRAY

ORIGEN: Come up to the moral and spiritual sense of Scripture and see if you can discover an interpretation worthy of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ and of the discernment of the Evangelists, lest you denigrate the dignity of evangelical wisdom with a lesser interpretation. Let us see then if mindful of that which was handed down from above concerning him who said “Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will seduce many,” we can interpret these things in accordance with their consequences. It is inevitable that everyone who has been made perfect and has been given to see the glorious coming of the Word in his soul, everyone who has destroyed, devoured and crucified the world so that all things worldly are dead to him, and has trained his mind for understanding, will eventually engage doctrinal battles in the course of his search and discernment. He will hear many voices from divergent traditions professing to have the truth. Like a good soldier of the Word, however, his soul shall remain safe from all those opponents of the truth who feign adherence to the truth. In this way, he will be made worthy to receive in his soul the glorious coming of Christ, the Word of God who was “in the beginning with God,” [1] who comes to those who, having recognized him “according to the flesh” [2] and having received the Word who “became flesh,” [3] then ascended far beyond these things to behold no ordinary glory, but “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” [4] COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 35. [5]

[1] Jn 1:1.

[2] 2 Cor 5:16.

[3] Jn 1:14.

[4] Jn 1:14.

[5] GCS 38.2:65.