214    The Bible and the Future of the World 

pleasures will have bad leaders. The leaders are the fruits and the people are 

the tree. Good fruit does not come from a bad tree, nor does bad fruit come 

from a good tree (cf. Mt 7:16 20). 

    This forerunner or precursor of Antichrist is a weak image of Antichrist, 

who will also want to be worshipped as if he were God. This forerunner of 

Antichrist comes to power sometime between the end of the 25 years of 

prosperity and the time of the ten kings of Antichrist. Yet, there would still 

need to be considerable time between this forerunner and the time of the ten 

kings and Antichrist, as Mary indicates next by saying,  there will be wars 

until the last war  (paragraph 23). Thus, she makes it clear that there is a 

significant space of time between those events. 

23.   The earth will be struck all kinds of plagues [in addition to pestilence and 

famine which will be general]; there will be wars until the last war, which will 

then be made by the ten kings of the antichrist, which kings will have all one 

same design and will be the only ones who will rule the world. Before these 

arrive, there will be a type of false peace in the world; one will think only 

about amusing oneself; the wicked will deliver themselves over to all kinds 

of sin, but the children of the holy Church, the children of the faith, my true 

imitators, will grow in the love of God and in the virtues which are dear to 

me. Happy the humble souls guided by the Holy Spirit! I will fight with 

them until they arrive at the fullness of the age.  

    The phrase  the fullness of the age  has a dual meaning. It refers to 

humanity reaching the fullness of the epoch, the end of this period of time, 

when a transition is made from this time of sin to the Millennium of peace 

and holiness. It also refers to each individual, who reaches the fullness of his 

years at the end of his life. Abbe Combe, the editor of the 1904 edition, 

comments:  That is to say, at the eternal crown, for the fullness of the age 

for the children of God is immortality.  

41

    The Virgin Mary here describes what the earth will be like in the many 

years between the peace which follows the Forty Years and the reign of the 

ten kings and Antichrist. There will again be many disasters which come 

both from nature and from human events. There will be much suffering and 

numerous wars. However, in the time preceding the arrival of the ten kings, 

there will be a kind of false peace. This will be a peace as the world 

measures peace; a time when the earth is relatively free from war. But many 

people will not have peace in their hearts, because they will have given 

themselves over to all kinds of sin. This will include sins against one 

another, so that, even in times and places which are free from war, there will 

be assaults of all kinds committed against people.