Again the shepherd showed me many trees, some of which blossomed and others were dry.
«Do you see these trees?»
«Yes, I do, my lord», I answered. «Some of them are dry, and some are covered with leaves».
«These green trees», he said, «signify the righteous who will reach the age to come. For the coming age is like unto summer for the righteous and winter for sinners. So when the goodness of the Lord shines forth, then those who serve God will be revealed and all things will be seen. For as the fruit of every tree ripens in summer, and it becomes clear what it is, so the fruit of the righteous will be revealed and seen, and they will all be joyful in that age. Pagans and sinners are the dry trees that you saw; they will be found withered and barren in the age to come and will be burned like wood, and it will become obvious that during their lives on earth their deeds were evil. Sinners will burn because they have sinned and have not repented of their sins. And heathen will burn because they have not come to know their Creator God. Therefore, bring forth good fruit that it may ripen during that summer. Keep from the many cares of the world, and you will never sin. For those who have many cares sin a lot, troubled as they are by their worries. Such people do not serve God. How can a man who does not serve God ask and receive anything from God? Those who serve God will ask, and God will answer their petitions, but those who do not serve God will never receive anything from Him. He who has but one focus can serve the Lord because his spirit is not alienated from Him. He serves God out of a pure mind. So, if you do this, you will bear fruit in the coming age, as well as all those who obey this and bear fruit» (Shepherd, book 3, Likeness Four).
St. Polycarp of Smyrna (c. 70/80 – 155/167)
Therefore, having girded your loins, serve God in fear [Ps 2:11] and truth, leaving behind the vain rhetoric and delusions of many. Believe unto Him «that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory» [1 Pet 1:21] and allowed Him to sit at His right hand, to whom all things are subject whether in heaven or earth, and who is served by all the things that breathe, who will come as the Judge of the living and the dead and whose blood God will require of them who do not put their faith in Him. He who raised him from the dead will also raise us if we obey his will, walk in his commandments, and love what he loves, if we flee from all unrighteousness, covetousness, avarice, slander, falsehood, do not repay evil for evil, blame for blame [1 Pet 3:9], blow for blow, curse for curse, and if we remember what the Lord taught in saying: «Judge not, that ye be not judged [Mt 7:1]. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven» [Lk 6:37; Mt 6:12, 14] (Philippians, chapter 2).
St. Papias of Hierapolis (c. 70 – 155/165)
«Explanation of the Sayings of the Lord» written by St. Papias has been preserved only in fragments, partly in St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies, 5, 33, 4) and in Eusebius Pamphilus of Caesarea (Church History, 3, 39).
St. Justin, the Philosopher and Martyr (c. 100 – 165)
(80) «I have told you, my lord», answered Triphon, «that in every way you try to guard yourself against evil by strictly following the Scriptures. Tell me, do you really believe that this place in Jerusalem will be restored, and do you hope that your people will gather here and have a blessed life with Christ along with all the patriarchs, prophets, and believers from our nation as well as those who have become our proselytes before the coming of your Christ? Or have you made this confession just to win this argument?»
«I am not so miserable, Triphon», I said, «that I should say something I don’t believe. I have told you before that I and many others believe that this will actually take place, just as you are entirely convinced of. But, as I have explained, there are many Christians with a pure and Godly disposition who do not believe that. As for those who only bear the name of Christ but are in fact godless and unholy heretics, I have shown you that they are teaching what is entirely blasphemous, godless, and foolish. And so that you may know that it is not something I say only in your presence, I will record the whole of your conversation in this book inasmuch as my strength allows. And I will put the very same thoughts of mine there which I have expressed before you now. For I desire to follow no man nor any human teachings but God Himself and His teachings. If you should meet such people who call themselves Christians but do not believe this and even dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and do not accept the resurrection of the dead believing that their souls will be taken up to heaven immediately after death, then do not consider them Christians, just as a reasonable person does not consider Sadducees or similar sects – Genists, Merists, Galileans, Hellenian, Pharisees and Baptists (do not be offended if I openly speak my mind) – as Jews, as well as those Jews and Abraham’s children who only bear the name but honor God just by their lips, yet their hearts, as God Himself says, are far away from Him. As for me and other Christians who are sensible in every way, we know that there will be a resurrection of the body and a thousand-year reign in the city of Jerusalem which will be adorned, decorated and magnified as declared Ezekiel, Isaiah, and other prophets.
(81) – Isaiah speaks of this millennial Kingdom in this way: «For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people. And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD» (Is 65:17—25). I continued – from the words «for as the days of a tree are the days of my people» we gather that this is a mystical prefiguration of the Millenium. For Adam was told: «For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die» (Gen 2:17), but we know that when he died he was not yet a thousand. We also know the utterance: «The day of the Lord is like a thousand years» (Ps 90:4 [Ps 89:5 rus]; 2 Pet 3:8). In addition, we have someone named John, one of the Apostles of Christ, who in the book of Revelation predicted that believers in Christ would dwell in Jerusalem for a thousand years [Rev 20:6], and after that there would be a universal, that is, eternal resurrection of all the dead, and then the judgment would come even as the Lord had said: «They neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven like unto the children of God’s resurrection» (Lk 20:35—36).
(82) – We still have the prophetic gifts which point to the fact that we received something that had already existed in your people. Just as there were false prophets among the holy prophets, so now we have many false teachers whom we should beware according to the command of our Lord. So we are prepared for everything, knowing that He told us in advance what would happen after His resurrection from the dead and ascension. He said that they would kill us and hate us for His name and that many false prophets and false Christs would come under His name and deceive many (Mt 10:21—22; 24:5,9,11,24). It is being fulfilled because many, under His name, are spreading godless, blasphemous, and unholy doctrines. They have taught and still teach what the evil one, the Devil, has put in their minds. We try to convince such people, as well as you, that they should reject the falsehood, being fully convinced that anyone who can speak the truth and does not do so will be condemned by God, even as God Himself testified through Ezekiel: «I have made thee a watchman unto