|
|
|
|
As shown in the previous chapter, Satan has deceived the nations. Interest in the occult has reached a fever pitch, and Christendom remains splintered into many factions. However, humankind is not without hope. Christ has been sending messages from heaven, mostly through his mother, warning us where we are headed.
In 1848, in Berlin, New York, a twenty-five year old Baptist woman, Marietta Davis, fell into a coma for nine days. Doctors could do nothing to arouse her. Then she suddenly awoke and related to her family and her minister a detailed dream about what awaits all of us in the next world. Her dreams were recorded in a book entitled Scenes Beyond the Grave. I have an 1870 copy of that title. Today, after many reprintings, it is still available from Amazon.com in a 1999 edition Caught Up into Heaven (Davis).
It was emphasized to Marietta that the cross of Jesus Christ saves us. She clearly saw the divinity of Jesus in her visions and was warned that the fallen angels will fight against his divinity. In describing the visions, Marietta stressed the need for repentance from sin and faith in God. Her visions quoted Scriptures frequently.
The editor of the book, in his preface, states: “Marietta was not a born-again Christian when Jesus sovereignty took her up to heaven and later down into hell. Her story focuses a great deal on what happens to stillborn children and children who die right after birth, about nurseries in heaven and how children are raised and educated by angels in heaven. She also describes the contrast between those unredeemed and the redeemed in the constitution of their makeup and why heaven for the lost is hell and why there must be forever a gulf fixed between the two. She explains the principle of violated law, how this affects man's nature now and in hell and in eternity. The story also talks about her experience of heaven and of hell” (written by Dale P. Kruse, Pastor-Evangelist).
Another famous message was given to Sundar Singh, a young boy in India. His family lived in the Patiala state in northern India. They practiced the Sikh religion. His mother took him weekly to learn from a sadhu, a holy man in the Sikh religion. She also sent Sundar to a Christian missionary school to learn English. When Sundar was fourteen, his mother, whom he loved deeply, died. Sundar blamed the Christian God for his mother’s death. He harassed his Christian teachers during class and mocked Scripture. Still angry, he burned a copy of the Bible. In spite of all his rage, he could not stop grieving for his mother.
A few days later, December 19, 1903, Sundar prayed that, if the Christian God really existed, God should reveal himself. Sundar planned to throw himself in front of a train he knew would arrive in the morning. After praying seven hours, his room suddenly glowed. A man appeared and said: "How long will you deny me? I died for you; I have given my life for you." Sundar recognized the man as Christ. From that moment, Sundar believed in Christ. He met severe persecution from his people. The Sikhs had been persecuted early in their history and became staunchly loyal to their faith. Sundar’s conversion to Christianity was considered treachery. His relatives tried to encourage or force Sundar to return to their ancestral faith. They mistreated Sundar. They attacked the Christian mission. They poisoned one of his friends.
Finally, Sundar broke with his people. He cut off the long hair he had worn like every Sikh. His angry family told him: "We reject you as if you had never been born. You will leave our home with nothing.” They poisoned his last meal. Realizing he was poisoned, he went to a Christian hospital. After his recovery, he dressed in the traditional yellow robe of India's holy men, but, unlike many of them, he kept himself clean and did no physical mortification to his body. Sundar spent the rest of his life bearing witness to Christ. He won many converts, including his father. In 1929, Sundar traveled to Tibet. Nothing was heard from him again.
Here are some sayings attributed to Sundar: “Salt, when dissolved in water, may disappear, but it does not cease to exist. We can be sure of its presence by tasting the water. Likewise, the indwelling Christ, though unseen, will be made evident to others from the love which he imparts to us.” ”It is not necessary that every single member of the body should become useless and weak before death occurs. A weakness of, or a blow upon, the heart or the brain will suffice to bring an end to life, however strong and healthy other parts of the body may be. Thus one sin by its poisonous effect on the mind and heart is sufficient to ruin the spiritual life not of one only, but of a whole family or nation, even of the whole race. Such was the sin of Adam.“ ”Thou Thyself, O Creator, hast created this heart for Thyself, and not for any other created thing. Therefore this heart cannot find rest in aught but Thee: only in Thee, O Father, who hast made this longing for peace. So now take out of this heart whatever is opposed to Thee and abide and rule in it Thyself, Amen.“
Here are additional messages Christ delivered through his mother:
(1) On July 18, 1830, Christ sent his mother to Zoe Catherine Laboure in Paris, France to warn that times are evil, that grave troubles are coming, and that there will be great danger. This marks the beginning of a long string of apparitions of Mary in modern times.
(2)Christ sent his mother to Zoe again on November 27, 1830, and told her that many do not receive God’s grace because they do not ask (Sharkey, p. 19).
(3) On July 26, 1845, Christ sent his mother to Sister Apolline Andriveau in Troyes, France to warn that the world is bringing ruin upon itself because it doesn’t try to learn from the passion of Jesus. Mary asked that people think about the sufferings of her son on their behalf (Sharkey, p. 86).
(4) On September 19, 1846, two years before Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto, Christ sent his mother to two children, eleven-year-old Maximin Giraud and fifteen-year-old Melanie Mathieu at La Salette, France, telling them that if people continue to disobey her son, she won’t be able to hold back his hand from chastising the world. She prays unceasingly to her son on behalf of the world, but people take no heed (Sharkey, p. 34).
Melanie was told a long message that consisted of thirty-three paragraphs when Melanie wrote it. Maximum was given a shorter message that consisted of ten points. One item that intrigued me was point four of Maximum’s message: “The pope who will come after this one will not be Roman.” Most of the succeeding popes have been Italian, so I struggled with this for a while. I now think I have the answer.
The messages were given during September 1846. Pius IX was pope at that time, elected pope on June 14, 1846. Something that most of us no longer remember is that, at that time, the pope was not only the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church, he was also the political leader of the Papal States, about one-third of present-day Italy. During Pius IX’s pontificate, the people of the Italian peninsula wanted to establish a republic. After much quarreling and riots, Victor Emmanuel defeated the papal army and seized all of the territory ruled by the pope, including Rome, which was made the capital of a united Italy in September 1870.
Victor Emmanuel tried to grant the pope some territory within Rome and an annual remuneration of $650,000 a year. This was known as the Law of Guarantees. It was offered on May 15, 1871. Pius IX and succeeding popes refused to accept it and preferred to remain as virtual prisoners within Rome. Finally, in 1939, Mussolini, acting on behalf of Victor Emmanuel III, and Cardinal Gasparri, acting on behalf of Pope Pius XII, signed the Lateran Treaty, which recognized Vatican City as fully sovereign and independent.
The point I discovered is that Pius IX was the last pope to exercise political power over the former Papal States. Most likely, that is what was meant by saying the pope succeeding Pius IX will not be Roman.
(5) On February 11, 1858, Christ sent his mother to Bernadette Soubrious in Lourdes, France. During a series of apparitions, Mary asked that people pray for the conversion of sinners. She asked that a chapel be built at Lourdes and that people make pilgrimages there to promote prayers for sinners. Lourdes quickly became world-famous because of the many cures that occurred there (Trochu).
(6) In 1858, Christ sent his mother to Green Bay, Wisconsin. She identified herself as the Queen of Heaven praying for the conversion of sinners. She indicated that if sinners do not convert themselves and do penance, her son would be obliged to punish them (Sharkey, p. 88).
(7) In a series of apparitions at Castelpetroso, Italy, on September 26, 1888, Christ sent his mother, who appeared weeping as the sorrowful mother of Jesus, pierced with seven swords of sorrow. Five hundred persons saw her (Sharkey, p. 91).
(8) First, some background on how the apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, intermesh with the advent of Communist rule in Russia. World War I was taking its toll on all the participants, especially in Russia, where, early in 1917, the first inklings of a communist revolution were taking shape. By February 1917, there were large-scale demonstrations in Petrograd (present-day St. Petersburg). On February 25, 1917, the city worker’s went on strike. Then next day, the Tsar abdicated. Russian troops mutinied and fired into the crowds. By February 27, 1917, virtually nothing was left of the Tsar’s administration. This uprising was known as the February Revolution (Crozier, p.12). Lenin, at this time, was in a Swiss prison. He sent a message to the Germans saying that if they get him into Petrograd, he will do all he can to bring Russia out of World War I. The Germans agreed to smuggle Lenin, with a small group of well-trained revolutionaries, into Petrograd and finance them with millions of dollars (Crozier, p. 8). They arrived in April 1917. The Tsar had abdicated in March. Early in May 1917, Pope Benedict XV, concerned about these events and about the war, asked all the world’s Bishops to make recourse to the heart of Jesus through the mother of Jesus for an end to the war and for world peace.
Soon afterward, on May 13, 1917, Christ sent his mother to three children in Fatima Portugal. She said: “I come from heaven. I have come to ask you to come here for six months, at this same hour. Later, I shall say who I am and what I desire” (Luchia) (Haffert, Meet the Witnesses) (Alonso) (Sharkey, p. 99). In mid-May 1917, Kerensky became war minister. He started a new Russian offensive against Germany, but it failed (Crozier, p. 8). On June 13, 1917, about fifty people were present during the second apparition. Mary said the two younger children, Francisco and Jancita, will soon be taken to heaven, but Lucia, the oldest, must remain here for some time to come (Luchia) (Haffert, Meet the Witnesses) (Alonso) (Sharkey, p. 99).
July 3–5, 1917, When the Petrograd Soviet heard of the May defeat, it organized a demonstration, including armed soldiers and sailors and went to the Tauride Palace. The Congress of Soviets was in progress. The demonstrators demanded that the Soviets assume full power and eject the Duma government for once and for all. This was “The July Uprising.”
July 13, 1917, during the third apparition, Mary said that in October there would be a miracle for all to see and believe. The children then saw a vision of hell. Mary said: “You have seen where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war (WWI) is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse war will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that the world is about to be punished for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
“To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on Five First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be annihilated” (Luchia) (Haffert, Meet the Witnesses) (Alonso) (Sharkey, p. 99). Note that this is the second of the famous three secrets of Fatima. The first secret was the vision of hell. The third secret starts out with the words: ”In Portugal, the dogma of the faith will always be preserved . . . ” leaving much speculation about the content of the third secret. The first two secrets were made public in 1942. The third secret was finally made public in July 2000. It will be described fully below.
In July 1917, Lenin wrote: “In times of revolution, it is not enough to ascertain the “will of the majority.” No! One must be stronger at the decisive moment, in the decisive place, and win . . . we see countless instances of how the better organized, more conscious, better armed minority imposed its will on the majority and conquered it” (Pipes, p. 32).
On August 13, 1917, to defuse wide interest in the apparitions, the mayor of Fatima put the children in jail so they could not meet the mother of Jesus as asked. She appeared to the children on August 19, 1917, after they were released. She told them that because the authorities had put them in jail, the October miracle would be less spectacular. She said: ”Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.”
On September 15, 1917, for the fifth apparition, a very large crowd had gathered. The mother of Jesus said: “In October, Our Lord will come as well as Our Lady of Sorrows, and Our Lady of Carmel. St. Joseph will appear with the child Jesus to bless the world” (Luchia) (Haffert, Meet the Witnesses) (Alonso). In mid-September 1917, Kerensky freed Trotsky and other jailed Bolsheviks leaders. By October, the Bolsheviks were a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, led by Trotsky.
On October 13, 1917, at Fatima, a very large crowd had gathered. It had rained all night, and the ground was wet and muddy. The mother of Jesus told the children a shrine should be built at Fatima. The children should continue praying every day. The war (WWI) is going to end soon, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes. Then the miracle of the sun occurred. It began to tremble and appeared to dance in the sky. It gave off bright colors and seemed to fall toward the Earth. At the last moment, the fall stopped, and the sun returned to its normal position. A permanent miracle was that the rain stopped and that the wet, muddy ground instantly dried. Eighty thousand people, many of them unsympathetic to the events of Fatima and present only to scoff and ridicule those who did believe, were present to see the miracle. Headline articles appeared all over Europe describing the mysterious disturbance of the sun and outlining the people's explanation of why it happened. The names of the three children and their recounting of what the mother of Jesus said were also publicized (Haffert, Meet the Witnesses) (Alonso). Savvy people, including those directing the German war effort and the Communist Revolution in Russia, could not have avoided becoming aware of what happened at Fatima.
On October 16, 1917, The Petrograd Soviet created the “Military Revolutionary Committee for defense Against Counter-revolution” (Pipes, p. 31). On October 24–25, 1917, The “October Revolution” created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Kerensky fled to America. On October 24, 1917, “Lenin emerged from one of the hideaways in which he had taken refuge since early July to escape the police, who ordered his arrest. . . . Had he been arrested, the Bolshevik coup might very well have never occurred” (Pipes, p. 10). By November 6, 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power (Crozier, p. 10).
On June 18, 1918, Britain, France, and the United States sent troops into Russia to intervene against the Bolshevik army in the hopes that defeating them might allow the White Russians (non-Bolsheviks) to regain control from the Reds (Bolsheviks) and resume its part in the war against Germany. It was a half hearted attempt by the allies, and they pulled out shortly after the signing of the Armistice (Crozier, p. 22). On July 10, 1918, Kerensky is elected prime minister. In the November 25, 1917, elections, the Bolsheviks were heavily defeated (Crozier, p.10). The year 1918 marks the beginning of two-year Civil war between the Bolsheviks and non-Bolshevik Russians. “The Great Russian Civil War had begun” (Crozier, p. 20).
On November 11, 1918, the Armistice is signed. The Americans, French, and British withdrew their troops from Russia before accomplishing anything other than solidifying the Russian people behind the central (Bolshevik) government that got the Russians out of the war in the first place. Thus the European allies, instead of heeding the requests of Fatima, actually carry out foreign policy decisions that helped consolidate the Bolsheviks in power.
By March 2, 1919, the Russian communist government established the Communist International (Comniterm) to spread the revolution to other countries. This fulfills another part of the prophecies warning that an atheistic government would take control of Russia and spread her errors all over the world. Around this time, Russia abandoned the Julian calendar and adopted the Gregorian calendar in use throughout Western Europe and America. This made May 13 (Gregorian) become May 1 (Julian). The famous May Day (May 1) celebration of the triumph of Communism, ironically, falls on the same day the apparitions began.
On December 30, 1922, The Bolsheviks won the Civil War (Crozier, p. 28). “In the space of sixteen years, from 1917 to 1933, the first three totalist regimes of a troubled century came into power. The first was Lenin’s in Russia, in 1917; the second was Benito Mussolini’s in Italy, in 1922; and the third was Adolph Hitler’s in Germany, in 1933” (Crozier, p. 59). The policies of the latter two brought about World War II, which could have been avoided had people heeded the apparitions.
These warnings of chastisements are easily misunderstood. It would be much more clear to state them as warnings that if we do not, of our own free wills, avoid sin, especially sins of injustice toward each other, like murder, rape, robbery, bigotry, and violence, we will wind up experiencing the consequences of sins committed by others. The spectacular miracle at Fatima lent authenticity to the messages. Unfortunately the world media did not believe the miracle because the sun was seen to move only over Fatima. It was not seen moving over the whole world. The media claimed it was mass hallucination.
Knowing what we know now about history, one wonders how three young children in Fatima could make such a preposterous prediction about Russia at a time when Russia was suffering terribly in World War I. Who would have thought that Russia could chastise the world in 1917? The mother of Jesus told the three children that if the Catholic pope, in union with all the Catholic bishops, would publicly consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart, Russia would be converted into believing Christ. The Pope, I suppose, couldn’t get all the bishops to comply. Perhaps not all of the bishops believed it. The consecration was not made. Russia then became Communist and struck terror into Europe and killed many, many persons, as Russia tried to enforce atheism in every country they captured. What a shame! There was a spirit behind Communism. God would have bound that spirit in 1917, had enough people, especially clergy, believed the children. Richard Pipes lends support to this assumption: “I have showed why tsarism need not have collapsed. Now the question arises, why did it collapse?” (Pipes, p. 13). Richard Pipes claims that the collapse of tsarism in March 1917 caught the world unawares (Pipes, p. 14). October 1917 was an overthrow rather than a revolution. “It was a coup d’état” (Pipes, p. 33). Had the consecration been made, both parts of the Illuminati’s plan (mentioned earlier) would have been nipped in the bud.
As mentioned before, Fatima is famous for three secrets revealed to the children. Two were made public soon after the apparitions, but the third secret was not made public until after the collapse of the Soviet Union, even though the surviving child advised her bishop to make the third secret public before 1960. Here is the third secret. Lucia saw an angel crying out “Penance! Penance! Penance!” Then she saw the pope with bishops, priests, monks, and nuns going up a steep mountain, on top of which was a huge cross. On the way up the mountain, the pope passed through a city half in ruin and filled with corpses. When the pope and those with him reached the top, they were all killed by soldiers firing bullets and arrows. Two angels gathered their blood and sprinkled their blood on souls making their way to God (Halfert, Deadline: The Third Secret of Fatima, p. 255) (Flynn, pp. 4–5). What do you make of it? What harm would have ensued if it were made public earlier?
The second secret predicted a great luminous sign in the sky warning that God’s request was not heeded. Therefore God will let sin run its course through another World War, famine, and persecutions. The sign was seen on January 25, 1938. Six months later, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, which was the point of no return for World War II. You know the rest. The United States and its allies built up Russia so it was, after the war, able to become the superpower that challenged the West for fifty years. On April 4, 1919, Francisco died, bringing the attention of the world back to Fatima with all its warnings and predictions. Jancinta died on February 21, 1920, adding another reminder. Two years later on July 11, 1921, Mongolia became the second nation to come under a communist government. Later, on December 30, 1922, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formally established.
December 10, 1925, Luchia was told by Jesus, in a vision, to spread the five first Saturdays devotion. Two months later on February 16, 1926, she was also told to spread devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary—two more events to jog the world's memory about the predictions of Fatima.
On December 17, 1927, ten years after the apparitions, Jesus told Luchia that she could reveal to her bishop two of the three secrets. This made Fatima a news item all over again. In retrospect, therefore, it can be appreciated that the world was constantly being reminded of the events at Fatima, giving the nations chance after chance to comply with them.
On June 13, 1929, the mother of Jesus told Luchia that she desires the formal consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, and now is the time for the Bishops in union with the Pope to do it. It wasn't done.
On September 18, 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria. This is the start of the Great War (WWII) in Asia. On December 25, 1935, two years after Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Luchia was asked by her Bishop to write her first memoir on Fatima. Its publication reminded the world once again about the apparitions. It was mainly about Jancita. On November 7, 1937, Luchia was asked to write her second memoir. Luchia finished it on November 21. It added more detail to what happened at Fatima, and heightened interest in Fatima once again.
On January 25, 1938, Luchia recognized the previously mentioned great sign that the worldwide war will start. This was observed all over Europe and even in America and brought great panic to many people who thought the flashing red sky flickering all night long was caused by huge fires or cataclysms on earth. A friend of mine witnessed this in Cleveland, Ohio, sitting on top of his parent’s garage. He said that it appeared as though neighboring cities were on fire. Luchia announced that this was the promised sign warning that another world war was about to begin, but the secular press was convinced it was nothing more than an unusual Aurora Borealis. So the world once again ignored an opportunity to avert World War II. Two months later on March 11, 1938, Hitler occupied Austria.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. World War II breaks out immediately. The war is now upon the world, but, at the moment, only two nations are communist. With the outbreak of war, Russia, according to a prior treaty with Germany, took advantage of the situation to annex by force the small nations Bessarabia, Buhovina, Estonia, Lativa, and Lithuania. Thus, immediately, five more nations came under the communist control.
On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded Russia, widening the scope of the war. On July 26, 1941, Luchia was asked by Bishop Dom Jose to write her third memoir on Fatima. She finished it on August 31. It discussed two of the three parts of the secret: the vision of hell, and the promise attached to devotion to the Immaculate Heart. Its publication was yet another reminder of the message of Fatima. On October 7, 1941, Luchia was asked to write her fourth memoir. It was the longest one and adds more detail about the apparitions and about Francisco. Two months later Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The war is now global.
A year later Pius XII made the first of several partial compliances with the request of Fatima and consecrated the entire world, rather than Russia alone, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but it was too late to avert the war. This is important. World War II was also predicted, and it could have been averted. Now that the World War II is upon the world, there are no more unusual events coming out of Fatima or out of the lives of the seers.
In December 1943, Luchia, fearing she might be killed during the war, wrote down the third part of the secret to be read by Pope. It was read but not made public. The most important warning was the spread of communism. Prior to 1943 only seven nations were communist, five of them falling under the power of the communists by force at the outbreak of the war. Before the Communist Empire collapsed, the following thirty-four nations came under communist rule: Russia (1917), Mongolia (1921), Bessarabia 1939), Buhovina (1939), (Estonia (1939), Latvia (1939), Lithuania (1939), Albania (1944), Kurile Islands (1945), Tannu Tuva (1945), Carpatho Ukraine (1945), Yugoslavia (1945), Bulgaria (1946), Hungary (1947), Poland (1947), Romania (1947), North Korea (1948), Czechoslovak (1948), East Germany (1949), China (1949), Tibet (1951), North Vietnam (1954), Cuba (1959), South Yemen (1969), Angola (1975), Madagascar (1975), Laos (1975), South Vietnam (1975), Ethiopia (1977), Mozambique (1977), Afghanistan (1978), Cambodia (Kampuchea) (1979), Nicaragua (1979), and Zimbabwe (1980). Millions of people were killed by the Communists, and millions more were killed in World War II. Not believing the warnings at Fatima has brought untold hardship to the entire world.
(9) On April 25, 1946, Christ sent his mother to Baerbel Ruess in Marienfried, Germany. Mary said the world must experience the consequences of its many sins and that Satan will try even harder to cause destruction because Satan knows his time is short. Mary said that just as humanity can find God’s mercy through the intercession of her son, in the same way, her son would hear your prayers through her intercession. Don’t pray for external goods. Much more is at stake now. Pray for the conversion of sinners. Make sacrifices on their behalf. Pray that people be given peace in their hearts, for it is only upon this peace that the nations can build world peace (Anon., p. 6).
(10) In 1961, in San Sebastian de Garabandal, Spain, Mari-Loli Mazon, Jacinta Gonzalez, Maria Cruz Gonzalez and Conchita Gonzalez had visions of St. Michael the Archangel and the mother of Jesus. They had over 2,000 apparitions spread between 1961 and1966. The visionaries were asked to plead with humanity to return to God through prayer, fasting, repentance of their sins, and acts of mercy. Christ’s mother told them that people must make sacrifices. They must do penance and pray often. If people do not do this, sin will run rampant. The cup is already filling. If people do not change, their sins will bring suffering to many.
All four of the visionaries were given predictions about the future. Four major predictions are: (1) A worldwide warning, experienced by everyone, calling humanity to repent and return to God (2) A great miracle that will occur within one year after the warning (3) A permanent "sign" that will be visible for all time (4) A terrible chastisement if people do not repent. Jancinta described the Warning as something that is seen in the air, everywhere in the world, and immediately acts in our souls. It will be short, but it will have a pronounced effect within us. Conchita said that she had been given the date of the Miracle. Conchita may announce the Warning eight days before it happens. The girls claimed they were told, among other things, that there would be only three more popes after John XXIII, which would have made John Paul II the last pope before the end of time (Perez) (Pelletier, God Speaks at Garabandal) (Pelletier Our Lady Comes to Garabandal).
(11) There is a similar prediction concerning the last pope made by St. Malachi in A.D. 1143. He predicted there would be 112 popes between 1143 and the final persecution. He gave little cryptograms for identifying the popes. Pope John Paul II is the 110th. There will be only two more popes after him. Then will come the final persecution. Then the seven-hilled city will be destroyed, and God will judge the world (Malachi).
(12) Starting on April 2, 1968 and continuing till 1971, Christ sent his mother to Zeitoun, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt. Speaking no words, she was visible to huge crowds atop a church roof. A crowd of 250,000 watched her for hours. All told, more than 4,000,000 people saw her, including Egyptian President Abdul Nasser. Some of the apparitions lasted nine hours. Doves were also seen, and a fragrant purple smoke arose from the church. Moslems who saw her repeated the Kuranic phrase, "Mary, God has chosen thee, and purified thee; he has chosen thee above all women.”
(13) A partial interpretation of Revelation came out of the locutions Don Stefano Gobbi claimed to have heard from the mother of Jesus beginning July 7, 1973 (Gobbi). He started a movement: The Marian Movement of Priests. Fr. Gobbi claimed that the mother of Jesus gave him an interpretation of the seven signs, applying them to modern times. The first sign, the woman giving birth, is the Virgin Mary ready to deliver her children (the Church) from Lucifer (Gobbi sections 175, & 314). The great red dragon waiting to devour her children is Lucifer or Satan working through Atheistic Communism (Gobbi, section 363). The dragon is bloody red because of his wars of conquest. He is huge, signifying the vast territory conquered by Communism. The mother of Jesus first warned of Communist conquests at Fatima in 1917 (Gobbi, section 406).
The beast like a leopard, the Sea Beast, is Freemasonry (Gobbi, section 405). The dragon (Lucifer) is the power animating the Sea Beast. The Sea Beast’s claws and lion’s mouth show that he works everywhere through cunning and through social communication. The Sea Beast’s seven heads represent Masonic lodges. The Beast has ten horns showing how powerfully he can influence humans through modern means of communication. The Sea Beast wants to obstruct the path opened by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. By means of Black Masses and the satanic cult, the Sea Beast blasphemes all the commandments. He does this by promoting: false idols, sacrilegious films, blasphemous literature, Sunday as a day of sports, homosexual families, abortion, pornography, robberies, kidnapping, habitual lying, sexual misconduct, and selfishness. The Sea Beast also replaces the seven capital virtues with the seven capital vices, which are the beast’s seven heads: pride, lust, avarice, anger, sloth, envy, and gluttony. Masonry’s end result is to draw all humanity away from God’s law (Gobbi, section 405).
The Land Beast is Ecclesiastical Freemasonry, or Catholic clergy, spread throughout the Catholic hierarchy, who have become Masons (Gobbi, section 406). This was announced at Fatima when the mother of Jesus said that Satan would enter even to the summit of the Church. Masons within the Catholic Church are destroying the clear understanding of who Christ is.
Freemasonry, assisted by its members, will infiltrate into the Catholic hierarchy and set up a false Christ to replace the real Christ and a false church to replace the Church Christ established. This false Church will seal those who adore the false Christ (Gobbi, section 407). Anyone who has accepted the seal on his forehead shows that he accepts the denial of God and the rejection of God’s law. Anyone who accepts the seal on his hand shows that he intends to act independently of God. He will work for himself to gather worldly goods and money.
(14) In May 1980, Christ sent his mother to Bernardo Martinez in Cuapa, Communist Nicaragua. Part of the message was about world peace. People must work for peace. They shouldn’t merely ask God for peace because if they do not themselves make peace, there won’t be peace. People no longer deserve peace because of their defiance of God.
Nicaragua, incidentally, was caught in the middle of the struggle between superpowers. A larger war in Nicaragua could have escalated into something far more serious, and it could have involved the Soviet Union. The mother of Jesus said she had asked her son to appease his justice, but if people do not change, they will bring about a third world war. People must pray. They must put God’s word in their lives. They should look for ways to please God and practice justice toward their neighbor—and make peace in the world (Martinez).
(15) On June 24, 1981, Christ sent his mother to six young teenagers in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia with a similar message (Kraljevic) urging people to strive for peace, to have faith in Jesus, to undergo an interior conversion to conform to his Gospel, to pray fervently, to practice fasting to help discipline the passions, and to come to repentance. If people do not stop offending God by their sins, then the mother of Jesus cannot hold back her son from chastising the world.
Christ’s mother told the children that a series of catastrophes (caused by the willingness of some people to disobey God) is awaiting the world if people continue in sin. Some of these catastrophes can be averted by prayer and fasting by those who do believe. The mother of Jesus promised a special sign, visible in the sky, to help convince the world when the apparitions are concluded (they are still in progress at the time of this writing), but she cautioned that now is the time to repent. If the unbelieving postpone repenting until they see the sign, it will be too late for them. She urged those who believe to make a more whole-hearted conversion to Jesus and deepen their faith in him.
Christ’s mother first came to Medjugorje on June 24, 1981, with pleas for prayer and warnings that Christ feels the world, because of rampant sin, no longer deserves peace. Christ’s mother told the children that peace is obtainable, but you (meaning all of us) must work to obtain peace. We must stop our sins, especially our sins of injustice against others. If we fail to do this, then we will experience the effects of sin: wars, robberies, rape, bigotry, all things that God has commanded people not to do. These messages began in 1981 and were ongoing during the Olympic games held in Sarajevo when Yugoslavia was an example of five ethnic groups getting along fine. The Yugoslavians ignored the warnings. Their Communist government was hostile to the visionaries. Ten years later, to the day, Yugoslavia broke up into five independent republics, and wars of aggression and ethnic hatred started.
We all remember the Bosnian war and Serbia’s ambition to build “Greater Serbia.” Since Serbia was the strongest republic, and the UN was unable to contain Serbia, NATO attacked and so weakened Serbia that Serbia became victim of ethnic violence also. Christ’s mother asked for faith, prayer, fasting, conversion, and peace. She said she was sent to bring humanity back to her Son. She warned that Satan is especially active now and that fervent prayer can ward off Satan’s advances.
More than ten million pilgrims had visited Medjugorje by the tenth anniversary of the first apparition. The mother of Jesus asked that each of us return to her Son, to become aware of Satan’s role in the modern world and to protect ourselves against Satan's actions through fervent prayer to Jesus and personal abandonment of our defiance against God.
(16) Starting in 1981, Christ sent his mother to six girls and one boy in Kibeho, Rwanda with similar messages (Soul Magazine, Jan-Feb. ’87, p. 28). The children were Alphonsine Mumureka (born 1965), Anathalie Mukamazimpaka (born 1965), Marie-Clare Mukangango (born 1961), Stephanie Mukamurenzi (born 1968), Vestine Salina (born 1958), Emmanuel Segatashya (born 1967), and Agnus Kamagaju (born 1960). Alphonsine was the first to see the mother of Jesus who said: “I am the mother of the Word. I come to Rwanda to prepare for my son’s return. The world is coming to an end. If I come to Kibeho, it does not mean that I am concerned only for Kibeho, or for Rwanda, or for the whole of Africa. I am concerned and am turning to the whole world” (Maindron).
Rwanda has a large Catholic population. Of the country’s eight million people, approximately 65% are Catholic. On April 6, 1994, President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down near Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city. Immediately thereafter came one of the most devastating massacres in human history. In three months following the assassination, an estimated eight hundred thousand to one million Rwandans, nearly one-seventh of the country’s entire population, were slaughtered by guns, machetes, hammers, and spears.
Ernest Rutaganda is the forth child of a Christian family in Cuyangugu, Rwanda. He received messages in his sleep. At 3 AM one day in 1983, he saw Jesus and Mary. Five years later, he saw Jesus again (1988) during a pilgrimage in Kibeho where Jesus and Mary were appearing to other visionaries. Rutaganda was imprisoned for six months (March 12 to December 12, 1990) in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital for refusing to obey government orders to stop holding prayer meetings in his home, where people came in great numbers daily from 1988 to 1990.
Jesus visited Ernest in prison and advised him to leave Rwanda immediately upon release, or he would be killed. When Rutaganda was released, he hesitated and was arrested and taken with others to a desolated spot to be killed. A guard recognized that Rutaganda was recently freed from prison and let him go.
During one vision of the future, which lasted eight hours, the visionaries saw horrible images of tragedy: massacre, decapitated bodies, and many bodies thrown into the rivers. They saw that if Rwanda did not return to God, there would be "a river of blood and many abandoned, decapitated corpses". The Rwandan holocaust came a few years later. Christ told one of the visionaries: "Too many people treat their neighbors dishonestly. The world is full of hatred. You will know my Second Coming is at hand when you see the outbreak of religious wars. Then, know that I am on the Way.”
In 1991, Ernest was told that there would be a massacre of Tutsi. This happened three years later in 1994. Other predictions are that if people do not pray, a country in North America, one in Europe, and one in Asia will provoke World War III. The famine following that war will encourage many to follow the Antichrist. It is important to reconcile oneself with God right now.
Recently, the Oprah TV Show interviewed Lisa Ling, who showed a documentary about the massacre in Rwanda and another massacre in The Congo: almost a million killed in Rwanda in 1994 and more than three million five hundred thousand killed in the Congo since 1997, with no end in sight. Surprisingly, Lisa did not mention the apparitions.
In late July 2005, one of the main American TV networks aired a documentary about Rwanda. The documentary covered the political background that led to the hostility between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples in Rwanda, the rebellions, the coups and counter coups, the assassination of President Habyarimana, and the ensuing genocide. I was surprised that the documentary did not mention the apparitions in spite of the fact that the apparitions would have lent a more universal appeal to the documentary. The messages given the children at Rwanda were not merely meant for Africans, they were meant for all of us.
There are also two movies about the genocide: Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April. Both are excellent, well-done movies that show the suffering the Rwandan people experienced during the genocide. Sometimes in April was especially poignant because two of the main stars portrayed brothers who were on opposite sides during the genocide. Surprisingly, neither movie mentioned the apparitions. Hotel Rwanda was a true-life story of a man who tried to save as many people as possible. He managed a hotel in Kigali, the capital city, where Rutaganda was imprisoned. It’s hard to suppose that he did not know about the apparitions.
Now that we have examined sixteen messages given through the mother of Jesus, we can appreciate that, even though God allows us to be tempted, God also continually sends means to defeat our temptations, if only people would pay attention. Satan is still deceiving us. Satan’s double aim is to destroy Christ’s Church from the outside, by any means possible, and to destroy the Church from within with internal conflict and rivalry. Rabbi David G. Dalin gave an insight into this internal conflict in a book he wrote defending the memory of Pope Pius XII. Dalin mentions that the vilification of Pius XII stems from a 1963 German stage play The Deputy, a work of fiction that depicts Eugenio Pachelli (before he was elected Pope Pius XII) as a Nazi collaborator guilty of “inexcusable silence as Europe’s Jews were murdered.” The play was a work of fiction devoid of historical evidence, but it became a sensation and “ignited a firestorm of controversy in the media and among intellectuals” (Dalin, p. 2).
This fictional distortion of the truth, just like Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code, has ignited a new controversy concerning the character of Jesus Christ. The Deputy, according to Dalin, was the club used by Catholic liberals to bash “traditional church teaching on priestly celibacy, contraception, abortion, homosexuality, the ordination of women, papal infallibility, the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Eucharist, apostolic succession, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, and the Magisterium itself.” If the liberals succeed, what will be left of the church? If The DaVinci Code convinces millions that Mary Magdalene was pregnant with Christ’s daughter during the Last Supper, and their child’s descendants are still on earth today, what will be left of the divine character and mission of Jesus Christ?
The opposition of Satan toward Jesus Christ and the church Christ founded is real and is escalating. Satan recruits anyone available to assist in defeating Christ and his church. This is a deadly conflict between God’s commands and those who freely refuse obedience. This conflict is fought in earnest and fought for keeps. God is all-powerful, but channels that power through the finite limits of those who follow Jesus. Satan is powerful, but not all-powerful. Satan is limited also to what human beings can do: those humans who follow interests contradictory to God.
Revelation predicted four major events: the fall of Judea, the rise of the Church, the release of Satan after 1000 years to deceive the nations, and the end of all opportunity to disobey. Three events have been discussed. The fourth is yet to come.
If the premises set forth in this book be true, then I cannot avoid the conclusion that we are at, or near, the final times, the times when fallen angels opposed to God will lead hordes of fallen humans to attack the Church of Jesus Christ and all that Jesus stands for. Maybe I will live to see that day, for it does not seem far away. Whatever my prejudices, be they the influence of my parents, my family, my nation, my race, my friends, or my own—no matter where my preconceived thinking comes from—the only thing that will matter when I leave this world is who do I think Jesus Christ is. How close did I recognize the Jesus Christ that he, himself, knows he is? He is the person who brought me into existence. He provides the power for me to exist today and to function. He immobilizes his will against my free will—what a crucifixion for him—as he unflinchingly carries out his father's will that I have genuine freedom.
Like almost everyone else, I have done wrong things. I know I am guilty because I freely chose to do them. Christ is implicated because his power kept me in existence as I carried them out. To my shame and his sorrow, I am guilty of many transgressions. How can I undo the harm I have done, I who cannot control the events I set in motion?
It is I, who am guilty, but in his human nature, Jesus accepted my guilt as well and paid the same penalty I must pay. In so doing, he set an example for me, to show me what kind of conduct he expects from me as I continue my pilgrimage through life. He is the Most High God become human, the divine Lord and Creator of everything that exists; and yet, he is the human savior of all who have offended him and seek forgiveness. He is God flowing through me, and I am part of him because I am marked by baptism. When my life is done, it is he and only he who will both judge me and requite me for my deeds. May he teach me humility over the few things I did right and grant me pardon for the many things I did wrong.
bravenet.com