Article 6 — Whether man can know when the movement of the heavens will cease

The sixth point of inquiry is whether man can know when the movement of the heavens will cease. (Parallel texts: In IV Sent. 43.3, qa. 2; 47.1.1, qa. 3; 48.2.2, ad 8.)

Obj. 1: And it would seem that this is so. For according to Augustine at the end of The City of God, the sixth age is from the coming of Christ to the end of the world. (Augustine, City of God 22.30 (PL 41:804).) Now, it is known how long the previous ages lasted. Therefore, it is possible to know how long this age ought to last by comparing it with the others; and thus, we can tell when the movement of the heavens will cease.

Obj. 2: The end of everything corresponds to its beginning. But the beginning of the world has been known by revelation ever since Moses wrote: in the beginning, God created heaven and earth (Gen 1:1). Therefore, it is possible to know about the end of the world by revelation delivered to us in the Scriptures.

Obj. 3: It is said that the reason for our uncertainty about the end of the world is so that man may ever be solicitous about his own state. But the uncertainty about his death is enough to ensure that solicitude on his part. Therefore, there was no need for uncertainty about the end of the world, except perhaps for the sake of those in whose lifetime the end of the world will come.

Obj. 4: It is related of some, for instance, the blessed Martin, that they received a revelation of their approaching death. (That is, Martin of Tours (ca. 330–397 AD).) And Augustine says, in his letter to Orosius, that each one will appear at the judgment as he was in death; (Augustine, Letter to Orosium 6.7 (PL 42:673–74).) so there is the same reason for concealing the day of one’s death as for hiding the day of judgment. Consequently, the day of judgment, which concerns all, should have been revealed in the Scriptures, through which all are taught.

Obj. 5: A sign is ordered to knowing something. Now, certain signs of the Lord’s coming at the end of the world are given in the Gospels and by the Apostle (Matt 24:24ff, Luke 21:9ff, 1 Tim 4:1ff, 2 Tim 3:2ff, 2 Thess 2:3ff). Therefore, it seems that it is possible to know the time of the Lord’s coming and of the end of the world.

Obj. 6: No man is reproved or punished here below for what is not in his power. Now, in Scripture some are reproved and punished for ignorance of the times. Thus, our Lord spoke to the Pharisees: you know how to discern the face of the sky: and can you not know the signs of the times (Matt 16:4)? and he says: they shall not leave in you a stone upon a stone, because you have not known the time of your visitation (Luke 19:44). Again: the kite in the air has known her time: the turtle, the swallow and the stork have observed the time of their coming, but my people have not known the judgment of the Lord (Jer 8:7). Therefore, the day of judgment or the time of the end of the world can be known.

Obj. 7: At his second coming, Christ will appear more manifestly than at his first, since then every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him (Rev 1:7). Now, his first coming was foretold in Scripture even as to the exact time of its happening (Dan 9:24–27). Therefore, one would think that his second coming also should have been foretold as to its precise time.

Obj. 8: Man is said to be a microcosm because he bears in himself a likeness to the macrocosm. Now, the end of a human life can be definitely foreseen. Therefore, the end of the world can be foreknown.

Obj. 9: Great and small and long and short are relative terms whereby one thing is compared to another. Now, the time from Christ’s coming until the end of the world is described as being short, according to 1 Corinthians 7:29, time is short, and again, upon whom the ends of the world are come (1 Cor 10:11), and, it is the last hour (1 John 2:18). Therefore, this is said in comparison with the preceding time; and consequently, at least it can be known that the time between Christ’s coming and the end of the world is much shorter than from the beginning of the world to the coming of Christ.

Obj. 10: Augustine says, in The City of God, that the fire that will consume the surface of the earth at the end of the world will be caused by a conflagration of all the fires of the world. (Augustine, City of God 20.16 (PL 41:681–82).) Now, by observing the movement of the heavens, it is possible to know how long it will take the heavenly bodies themselves, which are the natural generators of heat in lower things, to be in the most favorable position to bring about this result, such that this universal conflagration might be effected by the concurrent action of the heavenly bodies and the lower fires. Therefore, it is possible to know when the end of the world will be.

On the contrary (1), it is said: of that day and hour no one knows, no not the angels of heaven (Matt 24:36).

Furthermore (2), if this were to be revealed to anyone, especially should it have been revealed to the apostles, who were appointed to teach the whole world. Yet, when they asked about the final coming of the Lord, they received the following answer: it is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father has put in his own power (Acts 1:7). Much less, then, was it revealed to others.

Furthermore (3), we are not forbidden to believe the truth and revelation that we have received in the Scriptures. Now, the Apostle forbids us to believe any sort of announcement as if the day of the Lord were at hand (2 Thess 2:2). Therefore, we must beware of the impostors who endeavor to foretell the time of the day of the Lord; therefore, he goes on to say: let no man deceive you by any means.

Furthermore (4), Augustine says: can we, I ask you, define the time of his coming, in such a way that at least we can say that he will come within, for instance, the next hundred years, or within any number of years greater or less? (Augustine, Epistle 199 to Hesychium 6.16 (CSEL 57:256–57).) But we are entirely ignorant about this. Therefore, we cannot know whether the end of the world will be within any given number of years, whether ten thousand or twenty thousand, or two or three.

I answer that the exact time of the end of the world is utterly unknown except to God alone and to Christ as man. The reason for this is that there are two ways in which we can know the future: by natural knowledge and by revelation. By natural knowledge, we foreknow certain future events in their causes which we see present, and from which we expect their future effects—either with the certainty of science, if the causes be such as to produce their effects of necessity, or by conjecture, if the causes be such as to produce their effects in the majority of cases, as an astronomer foreknows a future eclipse and a physician a future death. In this way, it is impossible to foreknow the exact time of the end of the world because the cause of the heaven’s movement and its cessation is no other than the will of God, as we have shown, (See q. 5, a. 5.) and we cannot by our natural powers know that cause. Other results of the heaven’s movement or of any other sensible cause can be foreknown by natural knowledge, such as the destruction of some particular part of the earth which was hitherto inhabitable and afterwards becomes uninhabitable.

By revelation, however, though it be possible for it to be known if such were God’s will, it is not fitting that it should be revealed except to Christ the man, and this for three reasons.

First, because the world will not come to an end until the number of the elect is complete, which completion is, as it were, a sort of execution of the whole of divine predestination; therefore, it is not fitting that the end of the world should be revealed except to him who has received the revelation of the whole of divine predestination, that is, to Christ the man, through whom the whole predestination of the human race is in a manner fulfilled. Therefore, it is said: the Father loves the Son and shows him all things which he does (John 5:20).

Second, because through our not knowing how long the present state of the world will last, whether for a short or for a long time, we look upon the things of this world as though they were soon to pass away; therefore, it is said and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away (1 Cor 7:31).

Third, so that men may ever be prepared to look forward to God’s judgment, through being in utter ignorance of its exact time; therefore, it is written: watch . . . because you know not what hour your Lord will come (Matt 24:42). Hence, as Augustine says, he who says that he knows not when the Lord will come, whether after a short or after a long time, is in agreement with the words of the Gospel. And of two who say that they know, his is the more dangerous statement who says that Christ will come soon or that the end of the world is at hand, (Augustine, Epistle 199 to Hesychium 13.53–54 (CSEL 57:291–92).) since this might occasion men to disbelieve in the end of the world, if it fails to happen when it was foretold.

Reply Obj. 1: As Augustine says, the last age of the world corresponds to the last stage in a man’s life, which does not last for a fixed number of years, as the other stages do, but lasts sometimes as long as all the others together, and even longer. (Augustine, Eighty-Three Different Questions, q. 58 (PL 40:42–44).) Therefore, the last age of the world cannot be assigned a fixed number of years or generations.

Reply Obj. 2: The revelation of the world’s beginning was useful in showing that God is the cause of all things. But harm rather than utility would result from knowledge of the end of the world, so that the comparison fails.

Reply Obj. 3: Man is naturally solicitous not only for himself but also for the state of the community whereof he is a part, for instance, of a household, or city, or even of the whole world. Consequently, in order that man might be on his guard, there was need for both things to be hidden from him, the end of his own life and the end of the world.

Reply Obj. 4: The revelation of the end of one’s own life is a particular revelation, while the revelation of the end of the whole world depends on the revelation of the whole of divine predestination, so that the comparison fails.

Reply Obj. 5: These signs were given in order to manifest that the world would at some time come to an end, not to manifest the exact time of its end. For among those signs, there are some that have been seen almost from the beginning of the world, for instance, that nation shall rise against nation (Luke 21:10), and that there will be earthquakes in places (Luke 21:11), although these things will happen more frequently towards the end of the world. However, in what measure these signs will occur near the end of the world cannot be made manifest to us.

Reply Obj. 6: This reproof of our Lord refers to those who knew not the determinate time of his first coming, not to those who are in ignorance of the determinate time of his second coming.

Reply Obj. 7: Christ’s first coming opened to us the way to merit by faith and the other virtues; hence, on our part, it was necessary for us to have knowledge of his first coming so that, by believing in him who was come, we might obtain merit through his grace. But in his second coming, rewards will be given according to merit; thus, on our part it will be a question not of what we do or what we know, but what we receive; therefore, there is no need for us to know in advance the exact time of that coming. However, this day is called “manifest” not as though it were manifestly foreknown, but because it will be manifest when it is present.

Reply Obj. 8: The life of man’s body depends on certain things already existing and on corporeal causes, from which it is possible to have some foreknowledge of his end. But it is not this way with the whole world; therefore, in this there is no comparison, although there are certain points in which man, who is called the “microcosm,” is like the macrocosm.

Reply Obj. 9: Those words of Scripture that seem to indicate a shortness of time, or even the nearness of the end, are not so much to be referred to the amount of time as to a certain disposition of the present state of the world. For no other state will succeed that of the law of the Gospel, which has led things to perfection, just as it has succeeded the Old Law, and the Old Law succeeded the law of nature.

Reply Obj. 10: This conflagration of the fires of the world is not supposed to be the outcome of some natural cause, such that it would be possible, by observing the movement of the heavens, to foresee when it will happen; rather, it will take place at the command of the divine will.