If you would like to see the other web sites and articles of Rev. Joseph Dwight, click on the photo.
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This blog site is often updated due to the rapid development of world events today. In particular, see PART II. Last update: November 8, 2009.
CONTENTS:
THIS ARTICLE IS ORGANIZED IN THREE PARTS:
PART I: CATHOLIC PARAMETERS FOR BIBLICAL PROPHECY
SUBTITLES: 1. There Is Much Biblical Prophecy; 2. The Catechism of the Catholic Church; 3. Skeptics; ; 4. The "Last Days"?; 5. The Church Interprets the Word of God; 6. Dispensationalism; 7. The Rapture; 8. The Church and Israel; 9. The Kingdom of God; 10. The Millennium; 11. Postmillennialism; 12. Amillennialism; 13. Premillennialism; 14. The Period of Tribulation; 15. Interpreting the Book of Revelation; 16. Parameters of the Catholic Church;
PART II: PROPHETIC SIGNS MANIFESTED IN CURRENT WORLD EVENTS:
SUBTITLES: 17. The Puppets of Satan; 18. The Controlled Destruction of the US Dollar; 19. A Little Gun History; 20. Cyber Attacks From China!; 21. The Folly of Government; 22. SOCIALISM!; 23. Subsidiarity; 24. We Have Cast Aside Our Real Power!; 25. The Tea Parties; 26. The Consequences of Individual Failure!; 27. “You Are Of Your Father”; 28. Honorary Doctorate at Notre Dame?; 29. A Deaf Ear to the Success of Adult Stem Cell Research!; 30. The Health Care Bill; 31. Why Was Obama Elected?; 32. History Repeats Itself!; 33. The Vicious Onslaught Against the Culture of Life; 34. The Truth Or Not The Truth; That Is The Question!; 35. The Great Attack Against the Family!; 36. Radical Feminism; 37. The Battle of Battles; 38. The Romantic Model of Judging!; 39. The “Theocracy” Of “Atheism”!; 40. Renewal of the Church; 41. The “Tyranny Of Relativism”; 42. The Great Default of Religious Leaders!; 43. The “Mark of the Beast”, 666; 44. Do Not Deny Christ!; 45. ONE Antichrist in Particular; 46. The False Prophet; 47. No Public Holy Mass?; 48. The Prophecies of St. Malachy; 49. Unresolved Questions!; 50. The Numerous Apparitions of Our Lady; 51. The Maya Calendar; 52. Hope and Salvation!; 53. The Final Battle!
PART III: APPENDIX – NON CATHOLIC INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY
SUBTITLES: 54. Our "Generation" Shall See All!; 55. The Antichrist; 56. The Seven World Empires; 57. The Two Beasts; 58. The Twenty-One Judgments; 59. Signs of the Times; 60. The Two “Babylon”s of the book of Revelation; 61. The Fall of "Babylon"; 62. The Wounding of the Beast; 63. The “Mark of the Beast”, 666; 64. Moral Decay; 65. Sins During the Tribulation Period; 66. Occultism; 67. The Third World War; 68. Damascus Destroyed?; 69. "The Abomination of Desolation"; 70. Armageddon; 71. The Rapture
(Many of the points made in this article can be found illustrated as Editorial Cartoons in a humorous but serious way at: “Editorial Cartoons”; http://god-politics.blogspot.com/2009/09/editorial-cartoons.html).
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THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
PART I: Catholic Parameters For Biblical Prophecy
1. There Is Much Biblical Prophecy
MORE THAN ONE FORTH of the Bible is dedicated to prophecy. There is prophecy relating to the first coming of Christ and prophecy relating to the second coming of Christ. The vast majority of these prophecies are dedicated to the second coming of Christ and the period preceding His coming after which He will come "in the clouds with great power and glory" (Mt 24:30; Mk 13:26; Lk 21:27). There are more than 1800 verses in the Bible that speak about the second coming of Christ and over 10,000 verses that are surrounding texts to this event. It is not by chance that there are so many prophetic verses in the Bible; these verses are for us to read! "Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand" (Rev 1:3; 2Tim 4:8); this verse proves that the book of Revelation is not some deep, mysterious and confusing book.
2. The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Pope John Paul II spoke often of the second coming of Christ in his numerous talks. One also finds references to Christ's second coming, as well as to the period of his second coming, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 840: "The coming (or the return) of the Messiah"; 2816: "The kingdom of God is just ahead of us; in Christ we shall reign"; 2818: "Thy kingdom come" (in the "Our Father") refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's return"; 2817 (also see 671, 2853): "The petition "Marana tha" is the cry of the spirit and the Bride: "O come Lord Jesus", indeed come as soon as possible"; 349: "The eighth day begins the new creation (the 7th day is the 1000-year reign of Christ (Rev 20:4)); 1042: "The universe itself will be renewed" (not recreated); 1047: "The visible universe itself is destined to be transformed and restored to its original state"; 674: “The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by “all Israel,” for “a hardening has come upon part of Israel” in their “unbelief” toward Jesus” (Rom 11:20-26; cf. Mt 23:39).
3. Skeptics
Father Desmond A. Birch, a leading Catholic scholar and author who wrote the book, "Trial, Tribulation and Triumph", asks the following: "Is eschatology (or the study of things to come) still important in the 20th century? There are those Catholics who would tell you that to study doctrine concerning the Antichrist or the latter end times is either a waste of time or unimportant. That opinion is even held by some orthodox Catholic scholars. There are also those who say that we must not abandon ourselves to terror or to anxiety about the imminent end. However, if eschatology is a waste of time or something frightening, then why is it treated with such importance in Scripture, in Tradition and the Magisterium or the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church?"
It is unfortunate that there are many people and cults today, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons, that MISUSE PROPHECY for there own interests and attention; this misuse of prophecy causes many to reject all prophetical studies.
Years ago perhaps there were many people who spouted off warnings about the end of the world, often in an imprudent and EXAGGERATED way, etc. But today, precisely when there are more signs than ever before that match up with so many prophecies, the great majority of people DO NOT WANT TO HEAR anything about it! I truly believe that those who have the courage to look at the prophetical signs of today openly and honestly without fear and with trust in Almighty God, will be much better prepared for what many learned people of today believe will happen in our lifetime.
4. The "Last Days"?
Are we, as many Christians believe, living in the last days? We read in the book of Daniel: "And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, “Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end"” (Dan 12:8-9). Certainly the many signs of our times, that were not present years ago, as well as recent revelations of God, help us to open up these sealed prophetic verses. See “SIGNS OF THE TIMES” below.
But according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, the "last days" refers not only to the "end of time," but to THE LAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS. Scripture teaches that the Incarnation ushered in "the last days." According to Hebrews 1:1-2, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world." At Pentecost, Peter preached that "the last days" had arrived, in fulfillment of the words of the prophet Joel (Acts 2:15-17; cf. Joel 2:28-32).
"The last days" or "the end times," properly understood, refers to the time of the New Covenant, the gathering together of God's people in the Church, which is "on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom" (CCC 567, 669; Lumen Gentium).
This understanding of the "LAST DAYS" differs from that of those who believe in premillennialism or the Rapture. Catholics agree that there will definitely be an "end of time" and that history as we know it will one day be complete. But we also recognize that each of us will face the end of our time on earth, and that this should, in many ways, concern us more than the end of the world (see CCC 1007).
5. The Church Interprets the Word of God
As Catholics, we believe that “all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God” (CCC 119). The Church approaches Divine Revelation through Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and Magisterial teaching, each of which have equal weight in the Catholic Church, no one of which can subsist without the other two. And so the Church helps us to interpret the Word of God properly, giving us also so many magnificent documents throughout history to guide us. We would never be in most of the messes we contrived for ourselves if we had listened to the Churches teaching. The Church’s social teaching is nothing new!
This does not mean that the Catholic Church has definitively interpreted every single passage of Scripture or that individual Catholics cannot study Scripture for themselves. On the contrary, the Church has definitively interpreted less than a dozen passages, while encouraging Catholics to READ THE BIBLE in light of the "living Tradition of the whole Church" (CCC 113).
Often the puzzling and sometimes shocking images of Revelation are INTERPRETED in clever, bizarre, and often laughable ways. Most Catholics who encounter such misinterpretations usually steer clear of the biblical books that deal with apocalyptic themes, Daniel and Revelation. They are content to let their non-Catholic friends battle over these confusing matters.
This is unfortunate for a couple of reasons. First, CATHOLICS SHOULD STUDY all of Scripture, including difficult books such as Daniel and Revelation, because God gave it to the Church for that purpose. Second, the Catholic Church offers two thousand years of reflection and study of Scripture, resulting in a rich, balanced, and nuanced understanding of the whole Bible. If the Catholic Church has the authority that Catholics believe she possesses, then they need to take seriously her understanding of Scripture. At the very least, doing so will help them avoid the serious misunderstandings of some other Christians and will equip Catholics to discuss these misunderstandings with them.
6. Dispensationalism
Many non-Catholic Christians believe in a theological system known as dispensationalism. The core of dispensationalism is incompatible with Catholic doctrine, although there are some secondary issues compatible. Dispensationalism is a Christian theological view of history and Biblical interpretation that became popular during the 1800s and early 1900s and is held today by many conservative Protestants. Dispensationalism refers to the belief that God works in history through a series of different epochs, or dispensations. In each of these periods, God tests man in a certain way. Man fails the test, and then God judges man. On this view, man now lives during the "Church Age," which is so full of apostasy and error that only a remnant of "true believers" remains.
Dispensationalism advocates a form of premillennialism in which it sees the past, present, and future as a number of successive administrations, or "dispensations" (Eph 3:2, KJV), each of which emphasizes aspects of the covenants between God and various peoples at various times. Consequently, it places a heavy emphasis on prophecy and eschatology, the study of the "end times."
According to dispensationalism, God is pursuing TWO PURPOSES in history: one involving an earthly people (Israel) and the other, a heavenly people (the Church). Dispensationalists believe that when Jesus Christ came, He offered the earthly people, Israel, a physical, earthly kingdom, but that they rejected Him as their Messiah. Consequently, Jesus formed a heavenly people, the Church, who are not meant to reign here on earth, but will reign with Him in heaven.
However, God will still fulfill the many Old Testament promises to Israel, His earthly people, because, dispensationalists insist, those promises were unconditional. When Christ founded the Church, all of those promises were "put on hold" until the heavenly people were removed from the earth in the Rapture. Since Israel has now been re-established as a nation, most dispensationalists believe that the removal of the Church via the Rapture can occur at any moment.
7. The Rapture
The Rapture will be a secret "SNATCHING UP" of all true believers in Christ to heaven; it will be immediately followed — according to most dispensationalists — by seven years of Tribulation and the reign of the Antichrist. At the end of the Tribulation, Christ will come again to establish an earthly, thousand-year reign, based in Jerusalem, where a new temple (complete with animal sacrifices) will exist.
NONE OF THE CHURCH FATHERS believed in a secret removal of true believers prior to the Tribulation. On the contrary, they taught that the Church would undergo a period of intense tribulation prior to the Second Coming. Christians are called to follow Christ crucified in order to share also in His resurrection! It seems to me that the Rapture is too easy! The Rapture theory is a NOVELTY; this idea only began with John Nelson Darby in the 1830s.
8. The Church and Israel
Eschatology, the study of the last things, flows directly from ECCLESIOLOGY, the doctrine of the Church. This explains some of the significant differences between what Catholics and many Fundamentalists believe about the end of time. While most dispensationalists teach that God has TWO PEOPLE, the Church and Israel, the Catholic Church asserts that God has always had only ONE PEOPLE, or family, throughout history. According to the Catechism, "This 'family of God' is gradually formed and takes shape during the stages of human history, in keeping with the Father's plan. In fact, 'already present in figure at the beginning of the world, this Church was prepared in marvelous fashion in the history of the people of Israel … Established in this last age of the world and made manifest in the outpouring of the Spirit, it will be brought to glorious completion at the end of time" (CCC 759).
Therefore, the Catholic Church has always understood herself as being the NEW ISRAEL (Gal. 6:16; Eph. 2:11-12) and the new People of God (1 Pet. 2:9-10), the recipients of the New Covenant given through Christ (Heb. 8:8-13). The Old Covenant was not rejected by Christ, but fulfilled and taken up into the New Covenant; it concluded with the New Covenant and is included in it. This difference between dispensationalism and Catholic doctrine is the basis for other disagreements, including those involving the Rapture and the nature of the millennium.
Another issue is the FATE OF ISRAEL. What will happen to Israel in the end? According to the Catechism, "The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until His recognition by 'all Israel', for 'a hardening has come upon part of Israel' in their 'unbelief' toward Jesus" (CCC 674). The Church, reflecting upon Romans 9-11, believes that Israel will somehow come to recognize Christ for who He is. The Church has not indicated how this will precisely occur.
9. The Kingdom of God
Catholic doctrine also teaches that the Church is intimately related to the Kingdom of God. The Church is "ultimately one, holy, catholic, and apostolic in her deepest and ultimate identity, because it is in her that 'the Kingdom of heaven,' the 'Reign of God,' already exists and will be fulfilled at the end of time" (CCC 865). The Kingdom is not yet complete, but began with the Incarnation and will be fully realized at the end of time: "The kingdom of heaven was inaugurated on earth by Christ. 'This kingdom shone out before men in the word, in the works and in the presence of Christ.' The Church is the seed and beginning of this kingdom. Its keys are entrusted to Peter" (CCC 567). In its fullness, the Kingdom is not an earthly reign, but the final triumph of Christ over the power of sin and Satan, culminating in an eternity spent in communion with the Triune God: "The kingdom has come in the person of Christ and grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated into him, until its full eschatological manifestation" (CCC 865).
In contrast, dispensationalists believe that the Kingdom will be a THOUSAND-YEAR, EARTHLY REIGN OF CHRIST, known as the Millennium (from the Latin word for "thousand years"; c.f., Rev 20:4). Belief in a literal thousand-year earthly reign is called millenarianism or millennialism. It has been explicitly rejected by the Catholic Church. In 1944, the Holy Office warned against ". . . the system of mitigated Millenarianism, which teaches . . . that Christ the Lord before the final judgment, whether or not preceded by the resurrection of the many just, will come visibly to rule over this world. . . . The system of mitigated Millenarianism cannot be taught safely" (CCC 676).
10. The Millennium
The reign of Christ and the thousand-year period found in Revelation 20 is popularly called the millennium. The millennium is a forerunner of the end of the world, and Revelation 20 is interpreted in three ways by conservative Protestants. The THREE SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT are called postmillennialism, amillennialism, and premillennialism.
11. Postmillennialism
Postmillennialism is that view of last things which holds that the kingdom of God is now being extended in the world through the preaching of the gospel and the saving work of the Holy Spirit, that the world eventually is to be Christianized, and that the return of Christ will occur at the close of a long period of righteousness and peace, commonly called the millennium.
This view was popular with nineteenth-century Protestants, when progress was expected even in religion and before twentieth-century horrors were tasted. Today few hold to it, except such groups as Christian Reconstructionists, an outgrowth of the conservative Presbyterian movement.
12. Amillennialism
The amillennial view interprets Revelation 20 symbolically and sees the millennium not as an earthly golden age in which the world will be totally Christianized, but as the PRESENT PERIOD OF CHRIST’S RULE in heaven and on the earth through his Church.
Amillennialists also believe in the coexistence of good and evil on earth until the end. The tension that exists on earth between the righteous and the wicked will be resolved only by Christ’s return at the end of time. The golden age of the millennium is instead the heavenly reign of Christ with the saints, in which the Church on earth participates to some degree, though not in the glorious way will it participate in at the Second Coming.
Amillennialists point out that the thrones of the saints who reign with Christ during the millennium appear to be set in heaven (Rev 20:4; cf. 4:4, 11:16) and that the text nowhere states that Christ is on earth during this reign with the saints.
They explain that, although the world will never be fully Christianized until the Second Coming, the millennium does have effects on earth in that Satan is bound in such a way that he cannot deceive the nations by hindering the preaching of the gospel (Rev 20:3). They point out that Jesus spoke of the necessity of "binding the strong man" (Satan) in order to plunder his house by rescuing people from his grip (Mt 12:29). When the disciples returned from a tour of preaching the gospel, rejoicing at how demons were subject to them, Jesus declared, "I saw Satan fall like lightning" (Lk 10:18). Thus for the gospel to move forward at all in the world, it is necessary for Satan to be bound in one sense, even if he may still be active in attacking individuals (1 Pet. 5:8).
13. Premillennialism
Premillennialism is currently the most popular among Fundamentalists and Evangelicals (though a century ago amillennialism was). Most of the books written about the End Times, such as Hal Lindsey’s ‘Late Great Planet Earth’, are written from a premillennial perspective.
Like postmillennialists, premillennialists believe that the thousand years is an earthly golden age during which the world will be thoroughly Christianized. Unlike postmillennialists, they believe that it will occur AFTER THE SECOND COMING rather than before, so that Christ reigns physically on earth during the millennium. They believe that the Final Judgment will occur only after the millennium is over (which many interpret to be an exactly one thousand year period).
But Scripture does not support the idea of a thousand year span between the Second Coming and the Final Judgment. Christ declares, "For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done" (Mt 16:27), and "when the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats … And they [the goats] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Mt 25:31-32,46).
Most of the mainstream Protestants fall into the amillennial camp. Fundamentalists and evangelicals use to be amillennialist, but in more recent times most commonly fall into the premillennial camp. The Catholic position, the position of the Reformation fathers, and the position of historic Christianity, is in the amillennial camp.
14. The Period of Tribulation
The Church also says relatively little about the time of trial or tribulation in the final days. The Church will go through the great trial, but we do not know how long it will last. The Catechism declares, "Before Christ's Second Coming the Church must PASS THROUGH A FINAL TRIAL that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the 'mystery of iniquity' in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth" (CCC 675; also see CCC 2642).
This time of trial will be at the start of the "last days" in the sense of the end of history: "According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by 'distress' and the time of evil which does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching" (CCC 672).
15. Interpreting the Book of Revelation
The Catholic Church has not officially interpreted the difficult passages in Revelation. There are FOUR MAIN APPROACHES to the book of Revelation: futurist, preterist, historicist and idealist. Futurists believe that most or all of the book of Revelation has yet to be fulfilled; preterists say that most or all of it was fulfilled in the first century; historicists claim that events described in Revelation have been transpiring for the last two thousand years; and idealists believe that the book of Revelation is allegorical and has little or nothing to do with historical events.
The Catholic Church allows a WIDE RANGE of interpretive possibilities, including forms of futurism, preterism, historicism and idealism. For example, a Catholic may believe the book of Revelation describes the conflict of good and evil as experienced by individual Christians or the Church (idealism), and makes prophetic utterances about events still to occur (futurism), and also refers to events that have already occurred, either in the early Church or later Church history (preterism and historicism). Catholic flexibility here is based on the fact that Scripture, inspired by God, often has different, yet complementary, meanings.
From early times, the Church, following the examples of Christ and the Apostles (i.e., Lk 24:25-27; 1 Cor 10:1-4), understood Scripture to have different senses, a literal and a spiritual sense (CCC 115). As the Catechism explains, the spiritual sense is always rooted in the literal sense: "The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: 'All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal'" (CCC 116).
A common MISCONCEPTION is that Catholics interpret Scripture, especially the book of Revelation, "symbolically," while Evangelicals interpret it "literally." This has often been used to explain why the Catholic Church rejects an earthly, thousand-year reign of Christ. Yet few "literalists" bother to interpret literally other images in Revelation, such as the Beast, the dragon, the locusts, and the four horsemen.
16. Parameters of the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church says relatively little about future events leading up to Christ's Second Coming. Many of her teachings are rejections (either implicit or explicit), not affirmations, of particular beliefs such as the dispensational dichotomy between the Church and Israel, the "secret" Rapture, and the earthly millennial kingdom. What she does teach is quite clear, as well as succinct: there will be a Second Coming, a time of trial which the Church must endure, an Antichrist, a conversion of Israel to Christ, a definitive judgment of all people, and the fulfillment of the Kingdom that has already begun in the Church. WITHIN THOSE PARAMETERS, Catholics may freely roam, search the Scriptures, and seek to better understand the Word of God.
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PART II: Prophetic Signs Manifested In Current World Events
The following, while staying within the parameters given to us by the Catholic Church, is my own personal investigation and speculation based on my findings and study, in particular related to current events in the world. In studying prophecy one must have much humility because it is always easier to understand prophecy after the events have taken place. In searching for the truth, one finds one piece of the puzzle at a time. Then we look for another missing piece that has on it’s edges the same color, shape and figure corresponding to the pieces already found. This article represents precisely this process. But the more humility we have and the more openness we have to newly found truths and discoveries, which are often outside of our personal categories and ideas, as well as the humility to try to seek these truths from the point of view of the Creator of all things, the quicker and easier we put the pieces of the puzzle together. If one is not looking in the right direction, he will never find many pieces of the puzzle; Satan certainly does his best to divert our attention in many ways as well as disguising himself as an angel of light. Certainly prudence is always necessary.
I hope too that my motives for this research were not for vain curiosity or to find a false security outside of God in presuming that I have discovered what the future is. Trust in God is absolutely necessary. As pointed out above, the Church encourages us to read the whole Bible, including the Book of Revelation, Ezekiel, Daniel, etc. The numerous private revelations from God in the last 150 years are for His children here on earth. Our adversary, Satan, has been and is preparing his greatest traps for each of us and for the world. Thus I hope also that this work might help to unmask some of these insidious snares so as to help us not to fall into them. In my opinion, two of the greatest traps and deceptions of Satan for our time regards the “false prophet” and the “mark of the beast”! The Beast will be able to perform "signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect" (Mt 24:24; Mk 13:22; Rev 13:8; 19:20)! Forewarned is forearmed!
You will find very numerous references in this article so as to facilitate a crosscheck of the pieces of the puzzle that I have found so far. Have fun as I also have had in seeking to put together this world wide jigsaw puzzle in the most interesting, exciting and decisive period in the history of the world, a world that God created for His creatures as a great testing ground, a “cosmic struggle”, to offer each of us the possibility to freely decide where we want to spend all eternity!
Without humility and trust in God, we will end up finding the pieces of the puzzle that the enemy holds out for us to find to divert our attention from the real truth and from the truth about their powerful organized deceptions. These egotistical puppets of Satan have systematically scratched out the truth in our modern history books about the most influential institution in the making of history in the last 2000 years, the Body of Christ, the divine and human institution founded by Christ on the Rock, the Catholic Church. Thus we must dig hard to find the truth. G.K. Chesterton once wrote that it would be very difficult for one to remain a protestant if he studied the true history of the world and of the Catholic Church.
It is true that we do not know "the day and the hour" of the second coming of the Lord, but we can "know that it is near, even at the doors" (Mt 24:33,36). God's Word admonishes the Christian to be wise (Mt 10:16) and watchful (Mt 24:42; 2Tim 4:8; Tit 2:13), especially as the day of Christ's return approaches (Heb 10:25). “YOU HYPOCRITES! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” (Lk 12:56; Mt 16:3).
God wants us, especially in times of great tribulation, to put our trust and confidence in Him (Ps 23:4; 1Pet 3:14) as well as not to fall prey to the powerful snares of the devil. IF WE KNOW BEFORE HAND about the types of traps of the devil, we will less likely fall into Satan's eternal pitfalls in this coming crucial period of the world.
17. The Puppets of Satan
If one knows even a little about the history of the world, the powerful have never been satisfied with the power that they have or had acquired. They always wanted more. Many of the super powerful and past dictators of the world even arrived to the point of wanting to be ADORED AS GOD (Hail Cesar! Heil Hitler!)! I do not think that anything has changed. The powerful people of the world who control the economy and petroleum of the world and embezzle from everyone in many ways, including by way of the Federal Reserve Board and similar entities in each country of the world (which are not controlled or owned or operated by the respective governments), are not content to control and steal from all of us to become very rich and powerful. They want to become ABSOLUTE DICTATORS of the world, just like the dictators of the past. These people, thirsty for power, in our days have worked for many years with incredible patience. When they have everything totally under their control, they will lead as many as possible to adore the image of the beast and to accept the “mark of the beast” (Rev 13,11-18).
It is very interesting the recent comments of Henry Kissinger's about the "NEW WORLD ORDER"! We have known about this for a long time but the real surprising thing is that these super powerful of the world are now so bold, after the election of Obama, that FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER THEY ARE COMING OUT PUBLICLY WITH THEIR INTENTIONS! A perfect world! WITHOUT GOD!?!? It seems that Henry Kissinger and his New World Order colleagues feel they now have all the cards in their hand and so can now come straight out with what they have been working on for so many years. Without these great saviors of the world, we will stumble “toward the abyss of chaos”! We must submit or else the world planners will have to resort to “some large-scale crisis that will make people accept the new world order” (spoken by David Rockefeller in the late 1990s)! The “New World Order”; such nice sounding words, but what is the real reality under these appealing words?
Kissinger on Obama: "The Reception of him (Obama) is so extraordinary around the world ... a New World Order (or Globalisation as they now prefer to name it) can be created"; January 5, 2009 (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09010704.html).
“Obama sets stage for 'new world order'”; (http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/09/opinionlineobama-sets-stage-for-new-world-order.html). “At U.N., Obama calls for new era in world relations”; (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/23/obama.un/index.html).
Now Kissinger has formalized his verbal statements in an essay for the “International Herald Tribune”, which is the global edition of the “New York Times”. The essay, entitled, "The chance for a new world order," came out on January 12, when Kissinger was in Beijing. He continues, developing the themes that world leaders can either continue in the present system of sovereign, independent states stumbling toward the abyss of chaos, or take the enlightened path toward world government (http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/election/677). If we do not submit to these great men, these saviors of the world, we will stumble “toward the abyss of chaos”! We should be so thankful to them for saving us from this catastrophe!!! It is interesting that Kissinger wrote his essay in Beijing, CHINA! (See also: www.independent.co.uk/.../henry-kissinger-the-world-must-forge-a-new-order-or-retreat-to-chaos-1451416.html).
The Club of Rome plans to divide “the world into ten political/economic regions... which would unite the entire world under a single form of government. These regions are: North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Rest of Developed World, Latin America, Middle East, Rest of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and China.”; (http://www.modernhistoryproject.org/mhp/ArticleDisplay.php?Article=FinalWarn08-5).
"The Council on Foreign Relations co-sponsors an assembly Rethinking America's Security: Beyond Cold War to New World Order which is attended by 65 prestigious members of government, labor, academia, the media, military, and the professions from nine countries. Later, several of the conference participants joined some 100 other world leaders for another closed door meeting of the Bilderberg Society in Baden Baden, Germany. The Bilderbergers also exert considerable clout in determining the foreign policies of their respective governments. While at that meeting, David Rockefeller [co-founder (with Zbigniew Brzezinski) of the Trilateral Commission] said in a speech:
'We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine, and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination [read as 'democracy'] practiced in past centuries."
June 5, 1991, Bilderberger meeting in Baden Baden, Germany (a meeting also attended by then-Governor Bill Clinton) www.mega.nu/ampp/bilderberg.html. [Main source: Dr. Dennis Cuddy, A Chronological History of the New World Order; http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/globalism/rockefeller.htm]
See quotes about the NEW WORLD ORDER to help wake you up; July 28, 2005; http://xiaodongpeople.blogspot.com/2005/07/quotes-about-new-world-order-to-help.html as well as Obama’s Speech in Berlin: True Partnership; July 24, 2008 (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/07/24/obamas-speech-in-berlin-true-partnership-and-true-progress/).
The Council of Foreign Relations calls for a New International Order (Nov. 25, 1959; http://www.threeworldwars.com/nwo-timeline1.htm).
Nelson Rockefeller claims a NEW WORLD ORDER is needed as the old Order is crumbling (1962; http://www.constitution.org/col/cuddy_nwo.htm).
Richard Nixon calls for a New World Order. Robert Kennedy calls for a New World Society (1967; http://www.skepticfiles.org/books/nwo.htm).
Associated press report: Nelson Rockefeller pledges support of a NEW WORLD ORDER (July 26, 1968; http://xiaodongpeople.blogspot.com/2006/02/simultaneous-policy-22.html).
Douglas Roche at the World Conference of Religion for Peace in Louvain, Belgium, calls for a New World Order (1974; http://www.cyberbright.com/hankmcintyre/nwofacts1.html).
A study titled, A New World Order, is published by the Center of International Studies, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Studies, Princeton University (1975; http://www.jackbloodforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5640).
In Congress 32 Senators and 92 Representatives sign a Declaration of Independence which states: We must bring forth a NEW WORLD ORDER (1975; http://www.khouse.org/articles/1997/90/).
President Carter appoints New World Order proponents to key positions (1977; http://www.prorev.com/2007/06/how-media-is-rigging-2008-election.htm).
International meeting in Seoul, South Korea promotes a New World Order (1986; http://www.illuminati-news.com/new-world-order-conspiracy.htm).
President H. W. Bush invites the Soviets to join a World Order in his address to the graduating class at Texas A&M (May 12, 1989; http://www.scribd.com/doc/14422709/NWO-Loss-of-Sovereignty).
President Bush praises the New World Order in a State of Union Message: "What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea -- a new world order... to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind... based on shared principles and the rule of law.... The illumination of a thousand points of light.... The winds of change are with us now." 1991; (http://www.threeworldwars.com/nwo-timeline2.htm).
A NEW WORLD ORDER is praised in State of the Union message by President H. W. Bush (1991; http://lefemineforlife.blogspot.com/2008/02/former-cfr-board-of-directors-member.html).
President Bush mentions it (New World Order) many times along with Gorbachev (1991; http://www.fatimapeaceconferences.org/spainport06/transcripts/cornf_2.asp).
Council of Foreign Relations member and Trilateralist Henry Kissinger writes in the Los Angeles Times concerning NAFTA, what congress has before it is not a conventional trade agreement, but the architecture of a New International System, the first step toward the New World Order (July 18, 1993; http://www.michaeljournal.org/nwo2.htm).
British Prime Minister Brown says we want Blair to become the permanent president of the EU so that he and Obama together can be the architects of the NEW WORLD ORDER (2009; http://blog.taragana.com/n/blair-emerges-front-runner-to-become-first-permanent-president-of-eu-25417/). “EU Leaders See Big Job for Blair if Treaty Passes”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125446469238858863.html).
“G20 to police new world economic order”; (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/6229901/G20-to-police-new-world-economic-order.html).
President Bush praises the New World Order in a State of Union Message: "What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea -- a new world order... to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind... based on shared principles and the rule of law.... The illumination of a thousand points of light.... The winds of change are with us now." 1991; (http://www.threeworldwars.com/nwo-timeline2.htm).
These powerful and very rich people, in their pride, believe that they are the ones to be the SAVIORS OF THE WORLD from all its problems. They meet regularly in secret societies (originating from a Mason, Dr. Adam Weishaupt, on May 1, 1776, the Illuminati) such as the Bilderbergers (1954), the Trilateral Commission (1973 - to control both the Republican and Democratic Parties; its founder and primary financial angel was international financier, David Rockefeller), Council on Foreign Relations (1919), Club of Rome (1968), New Age Movement (began in the late 1960s and early 1970s), the Freemasonry, etc., to increase their wealth and power. These groups represent a single elite network of globalists. These groups represent "...a vehicle for MULTINATIONAL CONSOLIDATION OF COMMERCIAL AND BANKING INTERESTS..." - Barry Goldwater. Henry Kissinger is a member of the Bilderbergers and the Trilateral Commission. Learn more about the Bilderberg group: “The rich, shadowy Bilderberg group” ; http://www.freepressinternational.com/2009/05/the-rich-shadowy-bilderberg-group/.
Probably some of the members of these groups are of good will and do not see how they are being used and manipulated in an overall plan to slowly take over the world. Many become Freemasons to get ahead in the business world even though the Church has made over 500 magisterial interventions of the Popes about the evils of Freemasonry and that it is a grave sin to be a member of the Freemasonry at any degree (e.g., 11-26-1983, Joseph Card. Ratzinger). But the great majority of these super-rich are blind in their pride and do not realize that they, in fact, are the puppets of Satan. The devils' human pawns may not know it, but the devil knows it. These devious men use any and every means to arrive at their goal of total world domination including the manipulation of races, religions, peoples, terrorists groups, whole ethnic groups (such as fanatical Muslims etc.) and religious nations, feminists, the mass media, international banks, petroleum,... so that, when they are ready, they will step forward to offer themselves as the solution for the world, as our saviors, but without the one and only true God. Only the very few at the very top of the echelon of these secret societies, who are close enough to their real head, Satan, consciously realize that the real overall game plan is to deprive the Creator of the company of His creatures for all eternity! Each co-worker in the militia of Satan receives his recompense of the delusion of pride as someone important in the great enterprise of being the great leaders and designers of the “New World Order”, just as the youth and adults in the Third Reich of Hitler, and so many other dictatorships in the history of the world. Satan cannot attack God directly, so Satan does all he can to do attack God indirectly. The real battle is not one of taking over the countries or the world or economic, etc. The real battle is a spiritual one between God with his humble and charitable followers, and Satan with his proud and egoistic followers. Eternity with God in extreme bliss and happiness, or eternity with Satan in extreme pain of the depravation of the presence of the Creator from the creatures which is a pain far worse than all the fires of hell.
18. The Controlled Destruction of the US Dollar
Less than a hundred years ago these super-rich succeeded in deceiving each government in the world to turn over to them (i.e., the FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, etc.) the power to print money or insert into our economic systems as much money as they decided without any governmental control or profit; before this trickery, inflation did not exist. Who is profiting by this insertion of money into the economic system??? Certainly not the people who live in each respective country! Only a few years ago the dollar was stronger than the Euro. What is the real cause of this rapid change??? Economist tell us that before the elections of November 2008 the world’s total wealth was measured at 47 trillion dollars; less than six months later the world’s total worth is less than 25 trillion dollars. In less than two months (January to March 2009) the Obama administration has spent almost FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS, while reducing military spending and increasing the police force throughout our country (visit “The Sack Lunches”: http://god-politics.blogspot.com/2009/11/sack-lunches.html). Was there not a great inflation of currency in Germany before Hitler came to power? Was there not a great economic crisis before communism came to power in Russia? Do not all these “BAILOUTS” shift all the money and power to the national government, forcing all who receive this money to do exactly as the dictators on high dictate or else loose the money from these bailouts?
You don't know what happened to 9 trillion dollars??? You will be absolutely stunned by this short video clip! (http://dailybail.com/home/there-are-no-words-to-describe-the-following-part-ii.html).
Associate Director of Tyche Martin Hennecke warned in a CNBC interview this morning (March 23, 2009) that actions such as the Treasury’s announcement today to buy $1 trillion more of toxic debt, allied with last week’s announcement by the Fed to throw a further $1 trillion at the problem, is merely a continuation of what caused the crisis in the first place and that such measures will ultimately lead to the destruction of major western currencies and staggering hyperinflation. “The budget deficit is already out of control, we might be talking about $3 trillion U.S. dollars (January 2009), which is 20 per cent of GDP, which is absolutely staggering,” said Hennecke, reiterating that easy money was what caused the problems in the first place.
“The High Cost of Not Counting the Cost”; (http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/news-issue/the-high-cost-of-not-counting-the-cost/).
“Decade of Debt: $9 Trillion”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125119686015756517.html?mod=rss_com_mostcommentart).
“Warning: The Deficits Are Coming!” David Walker sounds like a modern-day Paul Revere as he warns about the country's perilous future. "Our off balance sheet obligations associated with Social Security and Medicare put us in a $56 trillion financial hole — and that's before the recession was officially declared last year. America now owes more than Americans are worth — and the gap is growing!" (http://www.pgpf.org/newsroom/newsclips/the-deficits-are-coming/).
“Leap in U.S. debt saddles taxpayers - Each household 12% deeper in red”; (http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090529/1afederaldebt29_st.art.htm).
“Hyperinflation will begin in China and destroy the dollar” (http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/01/hyperinflation-will-begin-in-china-and.html).
The US now has a great trade imbalance with China. The US is issuing IOU’s everyday; the US now has a staggering 12 trillion dollar debt (August 2009). Ten percent of this is owned by China; China is the lease holder. For decades the US has had cheap Chinese made goods come into the major stores of this country which sold like hot cakes; much of this money has gone back into pumping up the dollar by buying treasury instruments to keep Chinese goods cheap. China is financing it’s selling of goods to the US by buying back treasury instruments. It’s a large vender financing scheme. Almost a trillion treasury instruments are held by China. The US is joined at the hip with China because of the ongoing trade imbalance. But we now find ourselves in a position that if they were to dump even a fraction of those treasury instruments, they would cause a run on the dollar, a collapse of our currency and send us into a serious economic crisis. I do not think China is a nation, the People’s Republic of China, that we want to be beholden to in this way. But the “New World Order” will probably not have China pull the plug on our economy until it has established it’s alternative new currency to replace the dollar as the world's standard (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123780272456212885.html). On the other hand, the controllers of the “New World Order” might go directly to a cashless society after they crash the world economic markets and then offer their diabolical “solution” for the problem that they caused: the imbedded microchip for all the inhabitants of the world.
“China Moves to Internationalize Currency”: (http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-08-voa8.cfm).
“Chinese Convey Concern on Growing U.S. Debt”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124878817147386753.html).
“China worried about safety of U.S. Treasuries”; China, the biggest holder of U.S. government debt, expressed concern about the safety of those assets. (http://www.euronewspages.com/herald-tribune/2009-3-13_china-worried-about-safety-of-us-treasuries).
“Banks on Sick List Top 400 - Industry's Health Slides as Bad Loans Pile Up; Deposit-Insurance Fund Shrinks”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125137695691263385.html).
“Failed Banks Weighing on FDIC”; (http://www.gulfbase.com/site/interface/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?n=107936).
“The Coming Deposit Insurance Bailout “; (http://www.infowars.com/the-coming-deposit-insurance-bailout/).
“UN wants new global currency to replace dollar”: (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/6152204/UN-wants-new-global-currency-to-replace-dollar.html).
Friedman Predicts the Destruction of the Dollar; Massive Inflation Coming; https://www.newsmaxstore.com/nm_mag/free_mischief.cfm?s=al&promo_code=8831-1.
These super rich are also earning less now that they have begun the economic downturn. What is their REAL GOAL now? Both Bush and Obama (controlled by the Trilateral Commission) spent trillions on the bailouts after the economic crisis was created by these world controllers (See: “How BANKS WERE BULLIED into making bad loans” at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=94031).
See also the following very revealing CONGRESSIONAL VIDEO CLIPS:
Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and Democrats are Clueless on Freddie Mac Fannie Mae and the financial credit crisis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxMInSfanqg
Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
EVIDENCE FOUND!!! Clinton administration's "BANK AFFIRMATIVE ACTION" They forced banks to make BAD LOANS and ACORN and Obama's tie to all of it!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmL-lXNy64
The Democrats and Obama caused the financial crisis of 08 by supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and covering up their bad books.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVVVzEKauzY
Covering Your Fannie, Who Really Caused Our Economic Crisis?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiEWCnpNnBQ
See also “Timeline shows Bush, McCain warning Dems of financial and housing crisis; meltdown”
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM)
See also “Former President George W. Bush FINALLY vindicated on WMD in Iraq”: (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25546334/; http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/u/uraniumyellowcake.htm).
It is virtually impossible to comprehend how much is one trillion dollars! Today 4 trillion dollars, which has been spent by the US government from October 2008 to March 2009, is about the equivalent of one sixth of the world’s entire economic value! By now (August 2009) the US has a debt of almost half the value of the entire world, 12 trillion dollars! When these prideful powerful people finally decide to crash the economy, they will MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THE REAL CAUSE IS FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE and that they are the saviors of the world! Of course their highly controlled mass media greatly assists in their endeavors. See “We Need Greater Global Governance - The crisis reveals the weakness of nation-based regulation” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124536757998629319.html).
Twenty two trillion dollars are now gone in months. That would have taken hundreds of thousands of years in previous ages to accumulate. It is the biggest evaporation of wealth in the history of the world! We are seeing the absolute economic melt down of the entire western world, the USA at the head of the list. It’s going to happen; it is happening right before our very eyes in living color as we see in the highly controlled news media.
See: Senator “Byrd: Obama in POWER GRAB” (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19303.html)
“As presidential assistants and advisers, these White House staffers are NOT ACCOUNTABLE for their actions TO THE CONGRESS, to cabinet officials, and to virtually anyone BUT THE PRESIDENT.”
Newt Gingrich says U.S. is headed toward DICTATORSHIP (see the video clip) (http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/video/gingrich_says_u_s_is_headed_toward_dictatorship/).
“Role of White House Czars Sparks Battle”; (http://www.freepress.net/node/72555).
“Where does a czar's reign end and Congress' begin?”; (http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/column-where-does-a-czars-reign-end-and-congress-begin.html).
HISTORIAN PAM GELLER WRITES:
I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied history all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these exist but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.
Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. A perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for years. THE PACE HAS DRAMATICALLY QUICKENED IN THE PAST TWO….
(http://professorofliberty.blogspot.com/2009/05/letter-from-historian-pam-geller.html)
19. A Little Gun History
In 1911, TURKEY established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
In 1929, the SOVIET UNION established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
GERMANY established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
CHINA established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
GUATEMALA established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
UGANDA established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
CAMBODIA established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 MILLION!
It has now been 12 months since gun owners in AUSTRALIA were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own Government, a program costing Australian taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The FIRST YEAR RESULTS are now in:
1) Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent; 2) Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent; 3) Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!; 4) In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!
While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
5) There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the ELDERLY. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort, and expense was expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns. The Australian experience and the other historical facts above prove it...
You will not see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information.
England and Canada are having similar problems and are beginning to worry about only the criminals having guns.
Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.
Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late!
The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.
With guns, we are 'citizens'. Without them, we are 'subjects'.
During WWII the JAPANESE decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!
The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.
THIS IS A NO BRAINER! DON'T LET OUR GOVERNMENT WASTE MILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE ALL LAW ABIDING CITIZENS AN EASY TARGET. (BECAUSE THE BAD GUYS WILL STILL HAVE THEIR GUNS).
To solve the problem of violence today, we must GO TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM! I am a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment! Our founding fathers knew well the “Folly of Government” as well as the madness of the mob as seen in the French revolution. Our founding fathers, from experience, knew that history shows that the greatest thief and tyrant in the end is the government which has no authority above it and which no longer responds to the desires of the people. Thus these founders tried their best to write a constitution with checks and balances so that each of the three branches of the government would help to check the tendency to power and control of the other two branches. But our founders also had the wisdom and spiritual insight to realize that the best democratic government is only as good as the people who elect them.
These manipulated government bureaucrats are having a very difficult time overcoming the 2nd Amendment, so they will probably succeed in taking away our bullets!
“URGENT CALIFORNIA!! --->Bill to Restrict Ammunition Moves Ahead!! CALL THEM AND SAY HELL NO!!!” (July 9th, 2009; http://www.dailypaul.com/node/98811).
If they can deprive you of ammo they do not need to take your gun! To find out more about the anti-gun group that is sponsoring this legislation and the specific legislation for each state, go to: http://ammunitionaccountability.org/Legislation.htm.
“U.S. Attorney General To Limit Gun Sales”: (http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/us-attorney-general-to-limit-gun-sales/blog-138093/).
Ammunition Sales Restrictions, Gun Show Ban Moving Forward in California; http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?id=5127.
“Our view on firearms and crowds: Guns at political events stir up a volatile brew”; (http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/debate-on-firearms-and-crowds-.html).
“Armed America: Behind a broadening run on guns”; (http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0413/p02s01-ussc.html).
Before the world planners cause a major crisis in order to bring the U.S. totally to it’s knees without any possibility of a viable reaction or sustainable resistance from the U.S. citizens, THEY MUST TAKE AWAY OUR GUNS. This is a very important priority for these ruthless global manipulators.
When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the forward assault troops were ordered to attack and take control of the local police station as a first priority. Poland had a very liberal version of the 2nd Amendment (fashioned after the US Constitution) but the citizens who owned handguns and long guns were required to register their names, addresses and list of weapons with the local police station. So the problem for the German army was pretty well solved by the registration process.
YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN HERE! WELL, HERE IT COMES!!! Gun control by secrecy! If you think this is a joke, go to the website and take your pick of the many options in this dastardly bill to undermine and negate the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the U.S. It is long and lengthy. But, more and more people are becoming aware of this. “HR 45 Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sales Act of 2009”; (http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/text).
“WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court announced today (Sept. 30, 2009) that it will hear the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, and decide whether the right to keep and bear arms secured by the Second Amendment protects Americans from overreaching state and local governments.”; (http://www.chicagoguncase.com/).
FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE:
1. "Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not." - Thomas Jefferson;
2. Those who trade liberty for security have neither. - John Adams;
3. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms;
4. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject;
5. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them;
6. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control;
7. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for;
8. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety;
9. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive;
10. Assault is a behavior, not a device;
11. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday;
12. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved;
13. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others;
14. What part of 'shall not be infringed' do you NOT understand?;
15. Guns have only two enemies; rust and politicians;
16. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves;
17. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.
They will keep coming until we are disarmed and are totally their slaves! They have succeeded in diverting our attention towards illicit and destructive pleasures so as to take fundamental control of our government from we complacent American citizens. By now they have all the cards in their hand; it is only a question of time. We have already forfeited our power and control over our government, our nation and our future. We can still pray, but there are far to many who trust only in themselves and material solutions and so very few who truly believe and trust in God as the real solution. “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26).
"When only cops have guns, it's called a "police state". Love your country, but never trust it’s government" - Robert A. Heinlein.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government" - Thomas Jefferson.
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." - Mahatma Gandhi.
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue." - Barry Goldwater.
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it." - Abraham Lincoln.
”A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” - John Stuart Mill.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” - John F. Kennedy.
20. Cyber Attacks From China!
We know for a fact that not just last year, but for the last ten years there has been an ongoing series of cyber attacks on all sorts of installations in the US, not just the Pentagon, not just the government organizations, but private major companies originating from China. China is the only country that we know of that has a fourth department of the military (after the army, navy and air force), a department of cyber warfare which employees tens of thousands of people. So they are the likely source of these attacks They have succeeded in the past of penetrating the Pentagon’s computer networks, downloading our contingency plans for bolstering our forces in the far east in the case of a crisis, etc. These are serious matters that need to be addressed in a serious fashion. This is a new front of warfare that people do not even think about. China is the only country in the world today that could muster up an army of at least 200,000,000 soldiers as predicted in the Book of Revelations killing “a third of mankind” with “fire and smoke and sulphur” indicating nuclear warfare (Rev 9:15-16,18). By now there are tens of millions of young men in China who can no longer find a wife due to the forced “one child policy” supported, to a great degree, by the tax payers of the U.S. thanks to the Obama administration.
Right now the cyber attacks are basically an information gathering operation. But if they gather enough information about key infrastructures in the US and the computers and the software that control these infrastructures, the lights could go out, the GPS could stop working, the trucks could stop running down the highway that supply us with food and fuel, etc., They could cause a major economic crisis in the US without even firing a shot, but rather just firing streams of electrons at us. The goal of China is to become the dominant power not just in Asia but in larger parts of the world, and it seems they are going toward this goal as rapidly as they can. China will soon have the second largest economy in the world. As the GNP of the US declines because of the recession, China’s GNP is still growing about 5-10% each year. China is also a creditor nation; they have trillions of dollars in the bank. The US now has to go out begging to pay it’s bills. This is not a position that we should be in.
Steven Mosher has authored two books: "China Attacks," a realistic look at a future Chinese blitz on Taiwan and "Hegemon: China's Plan to Dominate Asia and the World," a short history of China, its global ambitions, attracting significant attention after Steven Mosher's appearance on C-SPAN2's Book TV.
See also: “China’s Cyber-Militia”; Chinese hackers pose a clear and present danger to U.S. government and private-sector computer networks and may be responsible for two major U.S. power blackouts (http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/cs_20080531_6948.php).
“Cyber-attack on Defense Department computers raises concerns ... “ (http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/28/nation/na-cyberattack28; http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/08/nation/na-cyber-attacks8).
5 May 2009 ... The head of US National Security Agency says the country needs to build a digital warfare force for the future. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8033440.stm; http://www.defencetalk.com/us-military-prepares-for-cyber-command-official-18097/)
21. The Folly of Government
Is it the NBA or the NFL? 36 have been accused of spousal abuse; 7 have been arrested for fraud; 19 have been accused of writing bad checks; 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses; 3 have done time for assault; 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit; 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges; 8 have been arrested for shoplifting; 21 currently are defendants in lawsuits; and 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year. Can you guess which organization this is? Neither, it's the 435 members of the United States Congress, the same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line!
In our systems of electing government officials around the world, why is it so difficult for a person who is more motivated by genuine altruism, love of his Creator and love of his fellow creatures, to end up being elected? Without wasting words in a long analysis of this state of affairs, may I just say that a government, especially a supposedly democratic government, is only as good as the people who elect that government in their respective countries.
FAMOUS QUOTES:
“If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.” “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.” -- Mark Twain.
“In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. -- John Adams.
“Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.” -- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
“Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.” -- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University.
“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” -- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian.
“Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” -- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850).
“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” -- George Bernard Shaw.
The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.” “Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” -- Ronald Reagan (1986).
“In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.” -- Voltaire (1764).
“The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.” “No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” -- Mark Twain (1866)
“The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.” -- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903).
“There is no distinctly native American criminal class... save Congress.” -- Mark Twain.
“What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.” -- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995).
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasjeff169586.html).
See “We The People Stimulus Package”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA.
22. SOCIALISM!
As Pope Leo XIII pointed out as long ago as 1891 in his encyclical ”Rerum Novarum”, socialism does not help the poor. Rather, it reduces everyone to the same lowest common denominator of poverty and misery while at the same time drying up the very sources of capital. History very clearly shows us that every time socialism was installed as the national government’s economic policy, that which these Popes wrote in the last 150 years came true. Of course the ones in control remained or became super rich. Socialism reduces everyone to misery in a real economic crisis and so people then look for a messiah, Hitler, Stalin, etc. To allow socialism to become a country’s economic system is the KISS OF DEATH not only for an economy but for a whole society.
Popes Leo XIII and Pius XI wrote several social encyclicals explaining very clearly the great deception and dangers and evils of socialism many years ago, which are so amazingly relevant for our times as if they were written yesterday! The encyclicals of the Popes, the Church’s teachings, have a TREMENDOUS BALANCE. The Church condemns unbridled capitalism that would despise the poor and think only of the bottom line. Capitalism, if it runs amuck, certainly can be problematic and can cause a lot of suffering as we are seeing in the present day with an increase of the poor and the concentration of the wealth in the hands of the few. We see bankruptcy while many corporate executives are rich. I truly believe that this down fall of capitalism is greatly facilitate and guided and manipulated by our “world saviors” who have poised the world on the edge of economic ruin. The TEMPTATION is very strong for the PENDULUM TO SWING TOO FAR LEFT into the failed and immoral system of socialism, which is exactly what the world conspirators want and have orchestrated. Historically pure socialism has never worked, philosophically it cannot work, and morally it is inherently evil (because it undermines the right of private property ownership, an inherent human right) and hence should be avoided even if we are coerced and manipulated in that direction. We run the risk of A MUCH GREATER EVIL coming in. A few people get fantastically wealthy, and then the pendulum swings to the extreme. And then the tremendous temptation of socialism comes in. “A REVOLT IS BREWING in the middle class” (http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=55834).
Socialism is not just a vague idea that these Popes disagreed with. There were forces in society, even 150 years ago, that were marshaling large numbers of people to bring about these socialist communist movements that ended up with the destruction of hundreds of millions of people. People forget this. People blame religion as being THE GREATEST CAUSE OF WAR AND DESTRUCTION in the history of the world when it was actually these BIG GOVERNMENTS in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and communist China responsible for over 300 million deaths. This is amazing and frightening!
We have been prepared for the revolutionary socialists by what might be called the patient, but more dangerous reformed socialists who have worked within the system to capture the major cultural engines of society: the universities, schools, the media, and even the religious institutions as well. These reformed socialists realized that the culture is the mover of history, not so much economics as Marx taught. If you can shape the way that people think about the world, man and God, then everything gets filtered through this particular lens. It is then inevitable that people start thinking in this way, especially in the universities. Both of these fundamental types of socialism have the same goal and the same world view: the way they see man, who man is, the world, what is the world, and God, who God is.
We must remember that socialism is not just an economic phenomenon such as an economic collectivization with the state running the economy, etc. All this is true. But if you go back to the early writers who first conceptualized the idea of Socialism, you find it is about power, control and about trying to organize a society without any respect for the fact that society is made up of individual persons, that societies are made up of free associations. Socialists do not admit that individuals have this remarkable capacity that we call free will, free choice. Socialism cannot deal with this issue of free will.
The person who first used the term socialism was a French philosopher named Henri de Saint-Simon of the 19th century. By socialism he had in mind a very technical, technocratic orientation towards organizing society. And the primary principle driving the society was that of efficiency. He thought that if you could control society from the top down, with a small group of people at the top who basically organize everything and everyone else, then you would be able to realize what he called a socialist system. In later years with people like Marx and Engels, you get a much more explicitly economic dimension to this. They saw socialism as a pathway towards communism. By that they meant that if we are going to arrive at a communist society then we need to speed history up; Lenin was particularly insistent upon this. The way that you do this is that you have a dictatorship of the proletariat who run the societies so that we will eventually arrive at this utopia in which “everyone will be free to live happily, to fish, hunt and play”, which was the expression that Marx used.
Pope Benedict XVI indicated that when Lenin achieved the Bolshevik revolution, he must have realized that the master, Karl Marx, had no game plan. So you end up with a perpetual dictatorship of the proletariat. Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his encyclical “Spe Salvi”:
21. Together with the victory of the revolution, though, Marx's fundamental error also became evident. He showed precisely how to overthrow the existing order, but he did not say how matters should proceed thereafter. He simply presumed that with the expropriation of the ruling class, with the fall of political power and the socialization of means of production, the new Jerusalem would be realized. Then, indeed, all contradictions would be resolved, man and the world would finally sort themselves out. Then everything would be able to proceed by itself along the right path, because everything would belong to everyone and all would desire the best for one another. Thus, having accomplished the revolution, Lenin must have realized that the writings of the master gave no indication as to how to proceed. True, Marx had spoken of the interim phase of the dictatorship of the proletariat as a necessity which in time would automatically become redundant. This “intermediate phase” we know all too well, and we also know how it then developed, not ushering in a perfect world, but leaving behind a trail of appalling destruction. Marx not only omitted to work out how this new world would be organized—which should, of course, have been unnecessary. His silence on this matter follows logically from his chosen approach. His error lay deeper. He forgot that man always remains man. He forgot man and he forgot man's freedom. He forgot that freedom always remains also freedom for evil. He thought that once the economy had been put right, everything would automatically be put right. His real error is materialism: man, in fact, is not merely the product of economic conditions, and it is not possible to redeem him purely from the outside by creating a favourable economic environment.
Read also No. 20, and even the whole encyclical: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html
The socialists have always wanted a greater equalization of society. For them this does not mean a greater treating of people with equal dignity which is how Christians understand the idea of equality. For Catholics, it is not about sameness, it is not about everything being the same; it is about people being treated as human beings precisely because they are human beings. For the socialists equalization really means leveling society so that difference becomes anathema. And we see this when it comes to the homosexual movement in the way they are trying to level the definition of marriage. We see this in the negation that God created human beings male and female; but our culture today says that in order to be equal, men have to become women and women men, despite the fundamental intrinsic unity within the complimentarity of our being. We see this happening in the economy. These little gods are trying to level the amount of income. This leveling effect is extremely important in the way that they understand progress.
This not only applies to individuals but also to nations, to bring all down to the common denominator. And thus all nations and sovereignties must be leveled. This was one of the big themes that was articulated by liberation theologians in the 1970’s and 1980’s. They espoused that the poor nations are poor because of the wealthy nations. To resolve this situation they did not propose the lifting of the poor out of poverty, not by creating wealth, not by opening up markets to trade, exchange, or encouraging entrepreneurship. They declared that they have to make sure that the wealthy countries are brought down to their level, so that everyone becomes like the poor. That is really what they had in mind by the idea of progress.
Pope Benedict XVI explicitly described this idea as erroneous in his encyclical letter “Caritas In Veritate”: “It is nevertheless erroneous to hold that the market economy has an inbuilt need for a quota of poverty and underdevelopment in order to function at its best. It is in the interests of the market to promote emancipation… (35) … The processes of globalization, suitably understood and directed, open up the unprecedented possibility of large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world-wide scale; if badly directed, however, they can lead to an increase in poverty and inequality, and could even trigger a global crisis.” (42) (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html).
What is important is not so much how much wealth the wealthy have, but whether we can bring everyone else out of poverty. The poor are not raised out of poverty by just leveling everything down. This is how socialists and socialist democrats typically talk about progress; this is how it plays out economically. For the socialists, it is not about wealth creation, about making the pie bigger. It is about making sure that everyone is exactly the same.
In terms of it’s fundamental view of the human person, Pope John Paul II pointed out in his encyclical “Centesimus Annus” (1991) that the problem with socialism is that it denies the reality of human free choice and free will. It is clear with Marx and Engels, they had a major problem with the family, marriage, and religion, specifically Catholicism. They were very deterministic in that all is determinate in what they call historical materialism. “Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that THE GOOD OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS COMPLETELY SUBORDINATED TO THE FUNCTIONING OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC MECHANISM.” Pope John Paul II Centesimus Annus. (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus_en.html).
Contrast this socialistic tendency and thrust to focus on efficiency and production with what Pope John Paul II called the feminine “genius” which helps societies to focus on the human person. Without this feminine “genius”, society ends up doing many things but looses sight of the proper motive and use for all this “progress”.
“In our own time, the successes of science and technology make it possible to attain material well-being to a degree hitherto unknown. While this favors some, it pushes others to the edges of society. In this way, unilateral progress can also lead to a gradual loss of sensitivity for man, that is, for what is essentially human. In this sense, our time in particular awaits the manifestation of that "genius" which belongs to women, and which can ensure sensitivity for human beings in every circumstance: because they are human! - and because "the greatest of these is love" (cf. 1 Cor 13:13).”; Mulieris Dignitatem; Pope John Paul II (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_15081988_mulieris-dignitatem_en.html).
“The right to the exercise of freedom… is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority.” (CCC 1738).
Lord Acton phrased this by “Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.”
Mark Shea quotes GK Chesterton, “If there is one fact we really can prove, from the history that we really do know, it is that despotism can be a development, often a late development and very often indeed the end of societies that have been highly democratic. A DESPOTISM MAY ALMOST BE DEFINED AS A TIRED DEMOCRACY. As fatigue falls on a community, the citizens are less inclined for that eternal vigilance which has truly been called the price of liberty; and they prefer to arm only one single sentinel to watch the city while they sleep.” (http://markshea.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-democracies-become-tyrannies.html).
Visit: “Despotism – The Soft Way” by Samuel Gregg D.Phil. http://www.acton.org/commentary/520_despotism_the_soft_way.php. Read also: “On Ordered Liberty: A Treatise on the Free Society” by Samuel Gregg.
This is the state of our culture that we are quickly approaching. To paraphrase, democracy is hard, and many of us are tired of it; we would rather sleep. The time is a call to wake up, to belly up to the bar, to participate, to in fact do our homework, and then to exercise the freedoms and liberties that are not just gifts but responsibilities, a duty to our society, to our civilization and our children who will follow after us. America, wake up; do not settle for the easy way. We humans tend toward mediocrity. But God calls all to great holiness; it is a sin to not correspond with each and every grace from God. There is no place in heaven for the mediocre but only for saints. The Bible is for everyone, not just for St. Francis and other recognized saints. My Dad used to say that most people today prefer to go to hell graciously!
Economic socialism, in which the state owns and administers all the means of production and distribution of all goods, was the ECONOMIC COMPONENT of every evil political ideology we have seen in recent years: Nazism, communism, fascism, radical Islamic fundamentalism... all these political ideologies had the consistent thread, that consistent economic component of socialism. And the crux of socialism is the so-called community ownership. But it is not really community ownership; there is tremendous potential for abuse in this system. Ownership of private property, as the Church teaches, is an intrinsic human value that is woven into the very fabric of humanity. The EARLY CHRISTIANS practiced a type of socialism by FREELY offering their goods for the benefit of all the members in the community; the SOCIALISM of our modern day dictators FORCES people to relinquish control of their goods and production through various methods of manipulation and deception. “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery” -- Winston Churchill. People are so easily deceived. GM is no longer “General Motors” but “GOVERNMENT MOTORS”!
This may not seem as a consolation, but EUROPE is quit a few steps ahead of the USA on the way to SELF DESTRUCTION; they are well down the road to socialism. Western European socialists have realized that the best way to build up mass support for their policies is essentially to bribe the population into accepting them. This is why you have incredibly large welfare states in western Europe, which means you build up big constituencies of people who have a vested interest in making sure that large segments of the economy are controlled by the state. Then people do not want to see things change because they do not want to see their welfare checks suddenly start to decline. They do not want to see a situation whereby they have to work longer than 35 hours a week, that they actually have to get real jobs instead of being civil servants, etc. This is where they have been very successful in effectively creating a situation whereby 51% of the population are persuaded that it is good and right and proper and just to loot the other 49% of the population. They do not want to loose their easy security. The ones who led the 1968 rejection of authority on university campuses all over the world are now in the positions of power. This rejection of authority and truth from God will lead us rather quickly to the law of “Might Makes Right”!
With the help of the mass media and the tremendous influence of the militant secularists, nihilists, and relativists in key European positions of power, the European people will soon be duped into TOTALLY HANDING OVER THEIR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY to the bureaucrats in Brussels who are not elected and cannot be remove by the people after the 27 nations approve the Lisbon Treaty (the European Constitution).
Declan Ganley, the leader of Libertas, clearly shows that the Lisbon Treaty, in particular article 48, give these institutions in Brussels the ability to change the deal, to change the treaty, the constitution, after the new constitution is approved by all the 27 member nations. It is truly frightening! Americans are a little bit more awake and have a little bit more moral fiber left even after the onslaughts of these militant secularists in the last 50 years in the U.S. The generosity to life (birth rate) and church attendance is significantly higher in the U.S. than in Europe. Obama has to operate in a more covert and deceptive way to bring forth the same goal of a socialistic dictatorship. In the end, sooner than we want to imagine, the world planners will create a major crisis and eliminate those who do not totally submit to their world plan.
“Libertas’ Declan Ganley comeback against ‘democracy-hating’ Lisbon treaty”; (http://www.cafebabel.it/article/31300/declan-ganley-comeback-referendum-lisbon-treaty-09.html%22).
“After Irish 'Yes,' EU Pushes for a President”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125469119413562617.html).
“EU Lisbon Treaty to become law within weeks after Czech president concedes defeat”; (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/czechrepublic/6358673/EU-Lisbon-Treaty-to-become-law-within-weeks-after-Czech-president-concedes-defeat.html).
The frightening thing is that there are those in the USA who want to hasten our following Europe as our ideal. It is an absolute disaster in the making! I am not a pessimist. We know the last chapter of the book! We win! But we should be realists like St. Thomas, based on the purely objective reality created by God. The further we get a field of this base of objective truth the more easily Satan and his puppets can manipulate us and lead us astray.
The German people were not evil. The Japanese people were not evil. The Russian people were not evil. But it was a VERY FEW IDEOLOGUES that seized control and then MANIPULATED A COMPLACENT AND UNWARY POPULACE. Let us not say that it cannot happen in America! According to Edmund Burke, evil triumphs when the good do nothing. If the Godly, who have not fallen into the fundamental trap of being distracted and complacent with illicit pleasures and sex, do not go out to fight the forces of evil, the forces of evil will come to us. Those of good will, all true Christians, are the stars of Heaven, so we must shine brightly! On the darkest night, the stars shine the brightest. “Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!” -- Pericles (430 B.C.).
Do not forget that Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
One of the components of this takeover is economic catastrophe which is what socialism does according to the writings of the Popes. And then when that happens, when there is so much misery and so much discontent, then people like Hitler or Stalin can rise to power because it creates a situation where people are so desperate that they are LOOKING FOR SALVATION FROM A MESSIAH that is not Jesus, that’s for sure. Without grace, this eventually happens every time. In Russia there was a horrible abject poverty before WWI. Then with millions being killed with incompetent generals, they revolted and they ended up with a worse oppression than the Czar. This is where the IMPORTANCE OF BALANCE comes in which we find in the documents of the Church. When a bigger and bigger segment of the population is getting more and more poor, when we oppress the worker, the everyday man in his job, while a smaller and smaller number of people are garnering a bigger and bigger share of the wealth, what happens?
With every new bill, with different disguises and packaging, Obama is bringing all the money and power and decision making to the federal level, so that if you have a problem, you will not be able to solve it locally, but you must have recourse to bureaucrats (czars!) in Washington…
It is true that the greed of human nature enlightens us about the fact that the bosses, as well as the unions, seek to acquire as much wealth with as little work as possible which tends toward bankruptcy; but at least with a capitalistic system, with a minimally functional democratic government, there are some checks and balances. But maneuvered bankruptcy gives the greedy government bureaucrats the excuse and legal right to take more, and even total control of the businesses, especially with the help of the rich international bankers who helped to create the conditions for bankruptcy and forfeiture of the businesses.
But history has always shown that BIG GOVERNMENT IS MUCH MORE PRONE TO HUMAN GREED AND THE THIRST FOR POWER, especially since there is no one or no governing body above them to MONITOR AND CONTROL THEIR GREED. Thus with the beautiful rhetoric in the name of “progress”, “equality for all”, “the common good” and “social justice”, these insatiable government officials promote socialism with beautiful propaganda as they seek to dismantle or nullify the state or national constitution of checks and balances so as to facilitate their way to a socialistic dictatorship. These power seeking government officials offer themselves as the solution for the forfeiture of the businesses. But who or what will be the solution and control for the forfeiture and DESTRUCTION OF TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENTS who have totally failed the people who they claim to represent?
All is held in a very delicate balance by the Creator of all things. Even a tiny atom is held in existence by its Creator. So too there is a DELICATE BALANCE IN SOCIETY. The more people follow the laws and rules of the Creator of society, the better things go for society. The more people follow the human instincts of greed and power or sloth, the worse things go for the social order. This is also the reason why groups and societies are always in need of renewal as history clearly shows. Sometimes these renewals came about by saintly people who truly loved God and their fellow brothers and sisters, especially the weakest and most defenseless. But unfortunately these needed renewals most often come about after the great destruction of wars and much bloodshed and loss of life.
In an interview with the Sec. of Agriculture, Esra Taft Benson during the Eisenhower administration, KHRUSHCHEV said, “You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright; but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of Socialism until you will finally wake up and find that you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you; we will so weaken your economy UNTIL YOU FALL LIKE OVERRIPE FRUIT INTO OUR HANDS.”
AMERICAN CAPITALISM GONE WITH A WHIMPER!
Here is an excellent article on the decline of America into Marxism by none other than a Russian - who better to recognize Marxism pure and simple?
Stanislav Mishin, writing in Pravda, the Russian State Newspaper, on June 1, 2009 stated:
“It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, THE AMERICAN DECENT INTO MARXISM IS HAPPENING WITH BREATH TAKING SPEED, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people. True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.” (http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/).
“As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html).
“Don't call it 'socialism'!”; (http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/06/dont-call-it-socialism.html).
23. Subsidiarity
Among other things, including the evils of abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia and the destruction of the family (same sex marriages, etc.), I wrote the following paragraph to my representatives in the senate and in the congress: “Please promote the principle of subsidiarity so that our country does not become a socialistic dictatorship but remains “for the people and by the people”. SUBSIDIARITY is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level. Let us give the power back to the people before it is too late!”
"We the people", is one of the most-quoted sections of the Constitution and of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. President Abraham Lincoln, at his famous “Gettysburg Address” in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863, said: … “that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
The word subsidiarity is derived from the Latin word subsidiarius and has its origins in Catholic social teaching (RERUM NOVARUM, 1891, Pope Leo XIII; QUADRAGESIMO ANNO, 1931, Pope Pius XI).
THOMAS JEFFERSON, our 3rd. President of the USA, declared "That government is best which governs least." He also said: “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have...” Is this not right in line with the principle of subsidiarity? It doesn't take a brain surgeon to conclude that Mr. Jefferson must be whirling in his grave at the current effort by President Barack Obama to increase our government to a size and scope unprecedented in history, using taxpayer money in amounts that exceed our comprehension. With each new bill touted as "crucial" for the economy, the government is getting MORE CONTROL over banks, health care, jobs, housing and more. It is an all-out assault on capitalism and the form of government conceived and enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Is not a declared democratic government supposed to serve the people, or is it meant to manipulate the people according to proud bureaucrats who believe they are more intelligent and enlightened than the rest of us? Did not our free enterprise system bring the USA to highest standard of living that the world has ever known?
The UN operates exactly opposite to the principle of subsidiarity; these bureaucrats have no business telling people how many babies to have and forcing abortions and contraceptives, especially on countries where these policies are totally contrary to their local culture, as in Africa and South America!
In Pope Benedict’s recent encyclical, ”Charity in Truth”, he recognizes the need at times to be able to have a higher authority to resolve problems that the lower authorities do not succeed in resolving. Because of this admission, some want to accuse the Pope of being in favor of the “New World Order”. But he very clearly holds fast to the constant principle of the Catholic Church, SUBSIDIARITY, which means that the sovereignty of each nation must be protected and safeguarded by any possible higher authority. Pope Benedict makes numerous references to the principle of subsidiarity in his encyclical (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html).
Every day seems to be a new ADVENTURE IN DISASTER. One bailout after another bailout, huge budgets and thieves in government who call 700 billion dollars as “chump change”, considered inconsequential because it’s our money! “A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money” -- G. Gordon Liddy. “Talk is cheap... except when Congress does it” – Anonymous. “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle ...” -- Winston Churchill.
“THE ONLY THING WE LEARN FROM HISTORY IS THAT WE LEARN NOTHING FROM HISTORY.” - Friedrich Hegel. Thus we are condemned to repeat all of the mistakes and horrors of the past!
“I don't make jokes... I just watch the government and report the facts” -- Will Rogers.
24. We Have Cast Aside Our Real Power!
Our Lady of Fatima told us that wars are caused by the sins of everyone (not just the heads of state). THE MORE WE SIN AND THE LESS WE PRAY AND DO GOD’S HOLY WILL, the more the followers of Satan have power. The more we pray and do God’s will and avoid sin, the less power these prideful, powerful people of the world have. We have the power in our hands, especially those who have received more truth and grace from God, such as Catholics. If those who have received more “TALENTS” (Mt 25:14-30) from God use them wisely, the world would be in great shape. But today the great majority of those who have received more graces and truth from God, which would also unite them more closely to the sufferings of Christ crucified, have discarded these “talents”, these gifts from God especially by rejecting the cross of Jesus in their lives. This is why history shows that the first priority of the dictators of the world was to subvert and then destroy the Catholic Church in each country, in particular, to eliminate the greatest source of grace (strength and help) from God, the Most Holy Eucharist. When the oppressive regimes came to power in the last 100 years in Spain, Russia and Mexico, the first thing they did was to kill as many priests and bishops as they could to take away the greatest source of power (THE EUCHARIST) to resist the evil designs of these Godless tyrants. They killed over 4000 priests in Spain alone, less than 90 years ago. This is why these world connivers promote sin, such as using artificial contraception, abortion, euthanasia, sex outside marriage as normal and even good, pornography, compulsory sex education and “gay sensitivity training” in the elementary and secondary schools (diabolical programs that are destroying souls and corrupting our entire society), the DESTRUCTION OF THE FAMILY, every kind of egoism and hedonism, etc. (always using beautiful, nice, deceptive words (Dan 8:25; see also Dan 11:21,24) so as not to cause a reaction and awake our consciences to the truth and the real consequences of their policies), in order to render the people weak, confused and unable to resist the onslaughts of the intended enslavement. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:15-16).
The greatest obstacle for these world planners to bring about socialistic dictatorships around the world, all under their control, is the Catholic Church. See: Obama's "Catholic Plan", Divide and conquer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVN2MMuiedI&feature=sdig&et=1242466852
“But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. EVEN THE DEMONS BELIEVE – AND SHUDDER” (Jms 2:18-19). It is amazing that these powerful people, so close to their hidden leader, Satan and who claim there is no God; know better than the great majority of Catholics the source of our great strength. “For the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light” (Lk 16:8). The great majority of Catholics do not even have one hour a week to thank their Lord in the Eucharist (after a good, sincere, well-formed conscience confession), Who gave them everything they have! If we want to persevere to the end in our long life’s journey in the desert, like Jesus in the desert 40 days, amidst many dangers and trials, to arrive to our home in heaven (“the mount of God”) we need heavenly food! “And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touched him [Elijah], and said, “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you.” And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God” (1Kings 19:7-8). How can a Christian not believe in the Eucharist or believe that the Eucharist is only a symbol after reading the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John?!?
“The sons of this world” know that the more we sin, and the more the family is destroyed by the contraceptive mentality and culture, and thus leading to so many horrendous sins, the more power they have and the weaker we become. Contraception is the gateway to abortion. “The sons of light” do not realize why their society and country is crumbling and thus why their economy is now about to crash after following the allurements of these world masters for so many years!
Read: “Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century : A COMPREHENSIVE WORLD HISTORY” by Robert Royal. See also http://www.thomasewoods.com/ (“How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization”). There have been more Christian martyrs in the twentieth century than in all the rest of Christianity combined! What is happening to “America, the land of the free”? See: “Cardinal George - Keep CONSCIENCE PROTECTIONS for Health Care Workers” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NoCRwMqVzQ&feature=player_embedded. Cardinal George has no jurisdiction in all of the American Catholic Universities because in 1966 the USA Supreme Court took away all power from the Church and from the Religious Congregations who founded these universities by giving the power to the board of directors of the university which cannot have a majority of members from the founding religious congregation!
We truly have cast aside our real power! It takes humility to seek and to submit to the truth that we discover outside ourselves, in creation, in reality created by our Creator. But authentic humility is a great source of peace. Satan and his followers absolutely hate humility! The only thing Satan cannot deal with is humility. It is totally against his nature. Because HUMILITY IS TRUTH, the truth that God is the Creator and we are creatures made from nothing by divine will. The truth is not something; the truth is a Person, Jesus Christ. Lucifer, the most beautiful and intelligent angel ever created wanted to be like God, and even believed he was God. The meaning of “Michael”, in the great battle with “the dragon and his angels” in heaven, is “Who is like God?” (Rev 12:7; Dan 12:1)! There are so many people today, in their pride, who have fallen for the same temptation of Lucifer (Gen 3:4-5), who became Satan. We must pray often to St. Michael the Archangel to lead the battle once again against Satan and his numerous angelic followers, the devils, who roam the earth, and those poor duped human beings on earth who need to hear the voice of St. Michael, WHO IS LIKE GOD?. We need his help today!
“Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev 12:7-9).
Without humility there is NO VIRTUE! All good things come from God; we cannot even have a good thought without the help and grace from God. It is important to ask for this help and grace often. God is totally respectful of our fundamental gift of our free will. If we do not ask, we will not receive. This is why Jesus exhorts us to “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Mt 6:7-8; 21:22; Lk 11:10; Jn 16:24). If, in true humility and gratitude for all that we have received from our Creator, we do not acknowledge ours sins of lack of love and so much egoism, and do not ask for mercy from God, He will not give us mercy and our sins remain! We as Catholics have the incredible gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but fewer and fewer take advantage of this opportunity to be washed in the blood of Jesus by way of Christ’s instrument, the Priest. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for you souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt 11:29; see also: Mt 23:12; Lk 14:11; 18:14).
On a monument in Europe commemorating many victims of the holocaust of World War II one reads: “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it!”
We all must say in our hearts when we see a poor sinner: “Except for the grace of GOD, there go I”. We all have received a certain amount of truth, some more, some less. We Catholics have receive the fullness of the truth and the fullness of the means of sanctification especially in the Holy Sacraments. But most Catholics today have let themselves be led astray by many “angels of light” and have FORFEITED THEIR GREAT GIFTS, including their belief in the incredible treasure and power of the Eucharist, the intercession of the Mother of God and the guidance of the Rock (Mt 16:18), the living Pope, in a very confusing and perilous world. All the dictators and terrorists all rolled together are nothing compared to the devastation of immorality! A morally weak nation is easy to enslave. To know, love and serve GOD is the meaning of life. The rest is just dust! If you kick the Rock, you will break your foot on the Rock. When Christ asked, "Who do you say that I am", one person had the answer, Peter, the “Rock”; all the rest had an opinion.
25. The Tea Parties
The people who promote the so-called “Tea Party” certainly help to undermine Obama’s credibility, deflate his messianic pretensions, sow widespread public discontent with his socialist economic program, and perhaps even limit, on an ad hoc basis, the amount of damage he can cause. Like the Boston Tea Party, today there is more and more taxation without representation. See “Conservative Woodstock Rocks the Capital - Patriotic anti-big-government taxpayers blast through the million protester mark”; September 12, 2009, Washington, D.C. (http://www.lookingattheleft.com/2009/09/conservative-woodstock-rocks-the-capital/).
But just about all of their grievances relate to the pocketbook. They do not address hardly at all the greatest causes and FUNDAMENTAL ROOTS of the destruction of America. For example, among so many great evils indicated in this article, they do not address the evil of pornography, which, thanks to the “free market,” flows throughout our society like toxic waste in open sewers, corrupting generation after generation of Americans, ruining marriages and feeding the sick minds of serial killers, rapists and other deviants.
The vast majority of the conservatives in America do not recognize their real power and their real weapons as well as their principle points of vulnerability. It is amazing that the ones taking us very quickly to a socialistic dictatorship understand and recognize better than the God-loving people the most powerful weapons that they have been able to take away from us as well as our vulnerable points. “For THE SONS OF THIS WORLD ARE WISER in their own generation than the sons of light” (Lk 16:8). Take a look at the history in the last 200 years. What were the main targets they took out before the dictators were able to come to power? If you can DESTROY THE FAMILY, there will be NO VIABLE RESISTANCE LEFT to these ruthless, Godless and shrewd people to render us totally their slaves. “But because of false brethren secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage” (Gal 2:4). Just about all the participants at the tea parties do not realize that the horse is already out of the barn!
The families are the FUNDAMENTAL CELLS OF SOCIETY and of our country. A tree that is rotting from within will eventually loose it’s leaves and fall when a strong wind comes. If you heal the interior sickness of the tree, it will not fall. The present rapid meltdown of our economy, the fall of the dollar, like the tree from which THE LEAVES ARE FALLING, is only the outward symptoms of the moral sickness that our enemies have been promoting and fostering in everyway possible within our society and within our country for many years. If we would have resisted to these strong allurements offered to us and fed to us by the enemy to give up and to not live our inherited moral values of our forefathers, it would be impossible today for these world planners to destroy our economy as they are doing today. There is no longer the moral fiber and strength in the majority of Americans or citizens of the world, and thus collectively, to resist the Godless designers of the Godless “New World Order”. Due to the diligent preparations of these Godless, worldly powerful men, in the last several decades, along with the negligence and default of the American people in following the offered carrots, it probably will not be too difficult for Obama to collaborate in bringing down the U.S. so as to render the world ready for a socialistic dictatorship. If the American people begin to wake up too much to the real intentions and goals of Obama and begin to look at his fruits and concrete actions rather than his well prepared words, rhetoric and smiles, the world planners may have to resort to “some large-scale crisis that will make people accept the new world order” (spoken by David Rockefeller in the late 1990s: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/08/30/crisis-as-a-way-to-build-a-global-totali).
Before this happens, the American citizens will have to be disarmed. “Ban handguns? Supreme Court taking a new look”; (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iz6Qns7uUfAAvvLl1R6dY5oGQcOgD9B1S8F80).
“Why Obama's Ratings Are Sinking - Americans will put up with a lot. But not with someone who imperils their future”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574354383543314054.html).
Unfortunately the vast majority of Americans consider only the lose of the pocketbook as something that “imperils their future”; IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE! Having pushed the Creator aside and out of the public square and out of their lives, they do not see the connection anymore between the spiritual and the material, both of which are created by the same Creator.
So many fathers of our families today have a beer in one hand and Playboy in the other. So they are not interested in politics, or God, or as Chesterton wrote “eternal vigilance”; they are happy and consumed in their pleasures today. The good abandoned mothers, who have tried to be both the mother and the father of her children, have not been able to adequately substitute for the unique God-given essential role of the father of her children. Pride and lack of the willingness to forgive destroys so many marriages. “To forgive takes love; to forget takes humility” – Mother Teresa. “DON’T WORRY; BE HAPPY; NO ONE GOES TO HELL ANYMORE; TOMORROW WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF!” So the great majority are happy on the sidelines. There are fewer and fewer today who are willing to train and sweat so as to play on the field. And most of those who try to play on the field do not realize or use their greatest weapons in this great “cosmic struggle”.
From a website in Italian one finds the following in regards to Masonry and sexual corruption:
(http://cattoliciliberi.forumcommunity.net/?t=25524939)
In order to destroy the Church… it is better by way of corruption than by persecution. … A few statements taken from the program of the Masons.
1) “Corrupt the youth; lead them away from religion; fix their attention on sex; let them become superficial; destroy their idealism; provoke within every way the collapse of the moral virtues, honesty, purity” (Manual for the communists of Florida).
2) “Our job is to promote a wave of pornography and to present it with sympathy as the supreme goal of artistic freedom” (Word of order of the Italian Communist Party).
3) “If we want to destroy a nation, we must first destroy it’s morals; then it will fall in our laps as a ripe fruit. Awaken the interest of the youth for sex and it will be yours” (Lenin).
4) “Abrogate all the laws against obscenity. Destroy the sense of morals by diffusing pornography in the books, in the magazines, in the cinema, by way of radio and television. Present the sexual degenerations as normal, natural, favorable to the psychological and hygienic equilibrium. Destroy the family, favoring free unions and divorce” (Directives given to the communists of the United States).
5) “When man will become a being that crawls, that grunts and jumps on the female, and you will continue only to caress his sex and to unleash the beast that is in him, then the pigsty will become a slaughterhouse. The meat that you offer in your illustrated magazines is all the better to be sold, mocked, tortured, killed and burned” (Jean Cau, French writer).
6) “The first conquest to do is the conquest of the woman; she must be liberated from the chains of the Church and from the law. To knock down Catholicism, it is necessary to begin with the suppression of the dignity of the woman; we must corrupt her together with the Church. Let us spread the practice of nudity: first the arms, then the legs, then all the rest. In the end people will go around naked or almost, without even batting an eye. And, having taken away modesty, the sense of the sacred will be snuffed out, morals will be weakened and the Faith will die from suffocation” (Masonic Plan).
7) “We have associated youth, music, sex, drugs and revolution with betrayal: it is very difficult to go further” (Jerry Rubin, American revolutionary).
See: “Kissinger: ‘Obama primed to create New World Order’ – WorldNetDaily - Policy guru says global upheaval presents 'great opportunity'”; Jan. 6, 2009; http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=85442. Of course, when things get real bad, with the help of the mass media and well planned strategies, as well as the blindness caused by personal sin, the master planners of the disaster will not be recognized as the real culprits! See: “Morris: Obama a 'Disaster' at the G20 Summit”; “This was so unbelievable. Obama was the one pressing for less regulation and more spending. And he had to convince the Europeans. … This truly creates a global economic system. From now on, don't look to Washington for the rule making, look to Brussels.” (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512347,00.html).
With the help of the computer, satellites, cell phone infrastructures, microchips, biotechnology, etc., the coming world dictatorship will make all other past dictatorships seem like a picnic! We are truly “like overripe fruit” as Khrushchev predicted over 50 years ago. “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen” (Rom 1:24-25).
Even the so-called CATHOLIC SPOKESMEN for the Tea Parties, who should know better, ARE SILENT ABOUT THE REAL CAUSES of the meltdown and the destruction of our country and of our society as a whole. Upon his farewell address to the nation, GEORGE WASHINGTON tried to impress upon his fellow countrymen that it was “Religion and Morality” that served as the foundation for our young nation. Without the foundation of Religion and Morality that George Washington and the other founding fathers provided for us, there is simply no real hope for the future of this country.
One blogger responded to me by saying: “But the Tea Parties are addressing a specific agenda - the out of control spending and power of the Federal Government. We cannot co-opt this movement with these other issues. … That is what he needs to do - not saddle the Tea Parties with every social ill in the world.”
I responded to him: “You say to “not saddle the Tea Parties with every social ill in the world”!!! If most conservatives agree with you, then we will be condemned to not dust off and use our heavy artillery and to continue to put Band-Aids on the dying body until it is dead.”
Gianna Jessen, the SURVIVOR OF A SALINE ABORTION had the courage to bear witness to Christ in the very halls of government, rebuking legislators in His name. As she declared fearlessly to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution on July 20, 2000: "Today we are nothing but cowards in America. We can’t even say the truth because we are so afraid of what our colleagues will think." (See her testimony http://www.shininglamp.com/page2.html)!
26. The Consequences of Individual Failure!
The Church was given to the world by God to hold it in being. To the degree that we are faithful to our mission in the Church we lift the world up. To the degree that we are lax or unfaithful the world begins to sink into hell under the weight of its own iniquity, which is what we are seeing right now. COMPLACENCY IS THE KISS OF DEATH. Failure in personal holiness has catastrophic consequences not just for the individual soul, but for their family, their community, their country, and the whole world. All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. It's happening right now!
WE ARE ALL RELATED. St. Peter Damian, a great doctor of the Church said: “Wherever one of us is, there the entire mystical Body of Christ is made present through the inviolable mystery of unity.” You can say this about humanity in a certain sense, when one person lives outside of grace, basically the living dead, ... our country and our world is filled with morally dead people. The consequences of this are catastrophic! In this country and in the western world we esteem money and wealth. It is kind of POETIC JUSTICE that we are being brought to our economic knees because the great majority of Americans have basically rejected Gospel principles. The money in America says, 'In GOD we trust'. Do we? There is a terrible price to be paid when Gospel values are not lived one person at a time. While in their own minds Americans consider themselves to be a generous people, in reality they are proving to be anything but. (http://www.therationalradical.com/dsep/1101/america-generous.htm). The rich countries of the world have consistently gone to the poor countries in the southern hemisphere, taken their natural resources and then left these poor countries with a debt to pay. More than 80% of the wealth of the world is in the hands of less than 20% of the people of the world. Politicians of the rich countries seek to make richer their citizens at the expense of the poor countries in order to be reelected. Remember “Three Days of the Condor (1975) with Robert Redford? Do we try to do our small part in overcoming this big game greed of “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” by supporting “Distance Adoption” or “Aid to the Church in Need” or …? Most people do not want to know or discover the fact that all we have comes from God and that we are stewards of the goods we have; at the end of our life we will all have to render an account. All we have is from God. As we Catholics hear on “Ash Wednesday”, “Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return!” The great majority of Catholics around the world do not even have one hour a week to thank God, for all that we have received, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, after a good sincere confession. If God is at such a low priority in our lives as not to have even an hour for Him once a week, can we really pretend or convince ourselves that “we all go to heaven”? Or have we arrived even to the point of conveniently convincing ourselves that heaven does not exist and that the seventy or so times that Jesus refers to hell in the four Gospels is ridiculous and we intelligent, wise people know more than Jesus?!?
“US economic power 'is declining'”; (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8289302.stm). “Plenty More Bank Losses Expected Globally”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125427067994651171.html).
“Chaos erupts at Cobo as thousands jockey for aid”; (http://detnews.com/article/20091008/METRO01/910080431/Chaos-erupts-at-Cobo-as-thousands-jockey-for-aid). “It Will Be Years Before Lost Jobs Return -- and Many Never Will”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125470053662262957.html). “"In one year, 24 million slide from 'thriving' to 'struggling'”; (http://mercatoliberonews.blogspot.com/2009_09_06_archive.html). “24 million go from 'thriving' to 'struggling'”; (http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-03-09-americandream_N.htm). “Newly homeless occupy Sacramento's tent city - The Detroit News”; (http://www.stoptherecession.com/content/newly-homeless-occupy-sacramentos-tent-city-detroit-news). “No Sale: Bank Wrecks New Houses”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124148169574985359.html).
America, as a democracy, is as good as its people. As a nation, we are TURNING OUR BACKS ON GOD. We will receive what we deserve. Over seventy years ago in the young Communist nation of Russia, its new hope, during a financial crisis, Mr. Lenin was quoted as saying “we must patiently advance along the ‘roads to power’ until power falls like a ripe fruit.” The Russian people were not afraid of Stalin before the election.
If a buck Private in a war does not live up to his responsibilities, there will not be too much damage. But if a General does not live up to his responsibilities it will cause considerable damage. So too those who have received more in this spiritual battle (as instruments of God) in this “cosmic struggle” as Pope John Paul II puts it, will cause considerable damage if they do not live up to and fulfill their GOD GIVEN RESPONSIBILITY.
GOD SPEAKS TO US IN SILENCE; those who succeed in diminishing the external and internal noises (sin) begin to be able to tune into the frequency of the subtle whisperings of the Holy Spirit. The revelations to the shepherds, who found baby Jesus 2000 years ago, did not make the Jerusalem Gazette; no reporter came to interview Mary, the Mother of God.
In the ultimate end, each of us, according to the choices we make, whether we like it or not (or WHETHER WE BELIEVE IT OR NOT!), will end up spending eternity with a benevolent dictator, God, or a tyrannical, cruel dictator, Satan. Due to our great dignity of being created in the actual image of God, there will be only two places for all eternity; either in extreme unimaginable happiness and bliss, or in inconceivable pain and the separation of the creature from it’s Creator. Purgatory is a temporary place of purification so as to be able to enter heaven in a perfect state; nothing imperfect can enter heaven where there dwells the perfect God!
27. “You Are Of Your Father”
Here on earth, Satan almost always disguises himself as an angel of light (2Cor 11:14). Satan does all he can to convince people that the devil and hell do not exist so then people are not motivated to strive constantly to live according to the norms of the Gospel or of the ten Commandments or according to any other guide that stunts their “good” way and veiled egotistical style of living. Those in the state of grace, who truly follow and live God’s commandments and Gospel, will be able to RECOGNIZE THIS DECEPTION. For those who do not "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2Thess 2:11-12). “The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders” (2Thess 2:9). This is why the ever more numerous people, who are not in the state of grace, follow people who are charismatic, use BEAUTIFUL AND ATTRACTIVE RHETORIC AND SLOGANS; they are not able to see what is under this glossy venire sustained by a very powerful propaganda from the mass media. These numerous deluded people no longer want to make the effort to discover the facts or to study how each candidate has voted in the past either along the lines of the Gospel and for the culture of life, or instead has voted consistently against the Gospel and for the culture of death. So many today do not try to discover the real fruits of these clever leaders and politicians or even to study their backgrounds. “Change, we need!” What kind of change?!? Will these “enlightened” politicians let us “CHANGE” the regime of “Roe v. Wade”??? They use nice slogans like “The Common Good”, “Social Justice”, “Women’s reproductive freedom!” etc. But words are cheap! WHAT ARE THEIR DEEDS? What are their fruits? How does the voting record of our politicians square with true Christian values? “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also DISGUISE THEMSELVES AS SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Their end will correspond to their deeds” (2Cor 11:14-15)! “Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing… (Mt 24:11,24; Mk 13:22).
I did not realize until I read the following article that Sarah Palin, unlike the vast majority of politicians today, practiced what she preached. Take a look at http://www.thecarpetmachine.com/Sarah_Palin_Achievements.html.
For people of good will, it is difficult, or at least bothersome to say a lie with a big smile and then do exactly the opposite. But for those who have freely and continually rejected the graces and inspirations of their Creator, it is very easy and especially convenient and expedient for them to speak beautiful lies to others and do exactly the opposite as it serves their hidden agenda; in this behavior they have no scruples whatsoever! Many people of good will, believing that others are like themselves, believe such liars just as they would believe a person of good will thus and presume they are sincere, giving them the benefit of the doubt. But the real truth is that by now most Americans and people of the world have slid away from the truth stamped in their hearts by the Creator and revealed in many other ways, and have lived this lie for many years. Thus they easily buy into the lies of these world manipulators and do not see the deception nor where these deceivers are leading the people of the US and the rest of the world. Adolf Hitler said: “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough it will be believed!”
Wiki Answers responds to the question: Why is the devil called the father of lies?
Because he functions on deception. He has to deceive people from the Truth in order to get them on his side. The devil is an angel that turned from God. Jesus came into the world to shine a light in the darkness and expose the devil for what he is - a liar. All lies come from the devil. (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_the_devil_called_the_father_of_lies).
“YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44).
Speaking about one’s father, it is ironic that Obama is not even able to produce a valid American birth certificate!
Visit: “Keeping up with Obama lies”, by Phyllis Schlafly; September 16, 2009; Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political analyst and the author of the newly revised and expanded "Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It." Schlafly also is founder and president of Eagle Forum. (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109896).
I am so sad that so many are no longer right with God (not in the state of grace) and thus so easily believe such people with beautiful words, rhetoric, smiles, enthusiasm, promises, …! As a people, a nation, we deserve what we get and what we will get in the future!
THOSE OF GOOD WILL, WILL HAVE TO SUFFER with those who are not sincere and not of good will, just as Christ, the GOOD and TRUE ONE, suffered and died for all of us sinners! “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church…” (Col 1:24). Sorry dear evangelical brothers in Christ, there will not be a “rapture” to save us from the crucifixion of “his body, that is, the church”! "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" (Tertullian; “Apologeticus”, Chapter 50). No cross, no crown; no pain, no gain! We look in every place but the right place. The right place to look is at the intersection of the beams of the cross. We will find no real wisdom unless we look at the cross. On the cross we find the answer. If you look any place else you are wasting your time. Love is the cross and the cross is love. Jesus gives the biggest share of His cross to His best friends. Read the lives of the Saints. Oh, the joy, to suffer in Jesus. Without a cross, there is no authentic Christianity. There is no Resurrection without the Crucifixion; there is no Easter without Good Friday! This applies not only for Jesus, but for all of His true follower. In the history of the Church, the saints considered suffering and martyrdom one of the greatest gift that Jesus could share with His beloved followers! The saints were in love with THEIR BELOVED; they wanted to be like Him – CRUCIFIED! “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21)!
Doing the will of God not only includes loving each person before us in each present moment, believing that Jesus hides behind each person (especially to “the least of these my brethren” – Mt 25:40), but also this following of Jesus inevitably entails recognizing, embracing and loving Christ Crucified in our daily sufferings and sorrows! NO PAIN, NO GAIN! NO CROSS, NO CROWN!
28. Honorary Doctorate at Notre Dame?
After NOTRE DAME'S PRESIDENT, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, quoted words from Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI as well as the Second Vatican Council, he repeated that: “President Obama has come to Notre Dame, though he knows well that we are fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of human life, and we oppose his policies on abortion and embryonic stem cell research” (http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/05/rev_jenkinss_re.html).
But, in only a few months, Obama has changes all the major laws protecting unborn babies and then Notre Dame bestows on Obama an honorary doctorate degree!?! ACTIONS SPEAK MUCH LOUDER THAN RHETORICAL WORDS!
Should we fear someone who has a masters in religious education, but is blind and is leading the blind? We don't need a priest (heretic) to help us along on the road to hell. Education should lead one into a deeper study of truth. You can educate yourself into imbecility if you do not have true humility.
As for Notre Dame University, it is so tragic that SO-CALLED friends of unborn babies would give Mr. Obama such a visible platform to promote his deadly agenda. “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ” (2Cor 11:13).
Notre Dame denied the US Catholic bishops guidelines of 2004 which stated to not honor people who are prominent opponents of fundamental Catholic positions on fundamental issues.
This honor given by Notre Dame cannot be separated from the validation of putting into operation a very pro-abortion agenda, the most pro-abortion record and the most pro-abortion set of campaign promises that any US presidential candidate has ever made.
Obama sounded all the right notes of willingness to enter into dialogue, but we must look at what the actions have been, what the announced policies have been.
What did this moment provide for Obama, and what will be the long term impact of Obama speaking with almost a Catholic imprimatur now upon his policies and upon his words?
It was a very polished commencement speech and it was certainly well calculated to further, what was the political purpose, which was to bind that proportion of the Catholic vote to this set of political goals. But it is even more troublesome what the affect that Notre Dame did on the state of catechesis of American Catholics generally.
There is developing the view that has no support in the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. There is developing a view that there are two approaches to the life/social justice issues. One is the “reasonable balanced” approach that there are many issues: just war, capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, ... and that they can be balanced off against one another. The other view is the one expressed clearly by the Church in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and in the writings of Pope Benedict.
Cardinal Ratzinger's statement "Worthiness to Receive Communion: General Principles":
"Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.
http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/blog/2005/05/fr-michael-orsi-on-different-levels-of.html
See the story of MARY ANN GLENDON, the anti-abortion academic who said NO to a Notre Dame speaking engagement and the prestigious ‘Laetare Medal’ award in a pointed letter to Father Jenkins. Among many other arguments, she writes:
“In some quarters my Catholic Church in America has begun to look like a club in recent years. Many worshipers attend Catholic churches for the parties, safe schools and sense of community. That is all fine if the main goal is realized, but some parishioners have only a vague sense of moral clarity while many local priests advocate dubious Catholic teachings in their presence. Many of my fellow worshipers appear to be CONVENIENCE CATHOLICS, left rudderless by local priests with dubious social agendas....” (http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=3818)
BISHOP OLMSTED ACCUSES PRESIDENT JENKINS OF DISOBEDIENCE:
Dear Fr. Jenkins,
I am saddened and heavy of heart about your decision to invite President Obama to speak at Notre Dame University and even receive an honorary degree.
It is a public act of disobedience to the Bishops of the United States. Our USCCB June 2004 Statement "Catholics in Political Life" states: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." No one could not know of the public stands and actions of the president on key issues opposed to the most vulnerable human beings.
John Paul II said, "Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if THE RIGHT TO LIFE, THE MOST BASIC AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT AND CONDITION FOR ALL OTHER PERSONAL RIGHTS, is not defended with the maximum determination."
I pray that you come to see the grave mistake of your decision, and the way that it undercuts the Church's proclamation of the Gospel of Life in our day.
Bishop Thomas J. Olmstead; Diocese of Phoenix
(http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5685&Itemid=80)
President Barack Obama used his commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame on Sunday to call for conscience rights for physicians on abortion. However, his administration has already proposed overturning a measure President Bush put in place to uphold these CONSCIENCE LAWS. (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5057.html).
Even congressmen challenged President Obama on his Abortion-Conscience Clause Promise at Notre Dame (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5068.html)!
At the Notre Dame speech, Obama said we need to find and come up with a sensible conscience clause. The question is, and this is the problem with Obama, what does that mean “a sensible conscience”? Does that mean that one who does not fully respect the conscience of those the clause is intended to protect?
Some of the proposals would give some conscience protection EXCEPT in cases where no other health care worker is available to perform the service of abortion. So that is not that different from having no conscience clause at all.
But, in listening to Obama's speech, bioethics attorney Wesley J. Smith was struck by Obama's esurient desire to be seen as moderate on abortion yet taking hypocritical actions.
"I was reminded of how adept Obama is in saying one thing while doing just the opposite; such as claiming in his speech to support a conscience clause for health professionals on the issue of abortion," he said.
"Obama--or at least his administration (is there a difference?) plans to revoke the Bush conscience clause, not revise it (http://www.lifenews.com/nat4893.html). That is hardly honoring heterodox thinkers' consciences," Smith added.
Smith says Obama has had the opportunity "to steer a moderate course ... and he rejected the moderate course."
"Which brings to mind another trite old saying; TALK IS CHEAP," Smith concluded. (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5057.html)
It is too bad, and very tragic, that the majority of Americans vote for and follow CHEAP TALK! St. John warns us: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but TEST THE SPIRITS to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1Jn 4:1). Why do voters today throughout the world vote for the pretty faces, nice words and rhetoric and charismatic speeches instead of taking the time to see if a candidate has voted in the past in favor of the principles of the Gospel and for the culture of life, or against the principles of the Gospel and for the culture of death?
Obama leaves the people with the impression that he agrees with him. As always, at Notre Dame, he was very friendly, and conciliatory. But we have not seen any indication whatsoever of ceding of ground on the life issues.
After “Obama's slump” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8235039.stm), the world controllers have tried to bolster his popularity by awarding him the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. Obama’s only achievement at the time he was nominated was exporting taxpayer-funded abortions. Obama hadn't accomplished much else in office when the nominations were finalized. (http://www.lifenews.com/int1345.html; “President Barack Obama and the late Mother Teresa have something in common” (http://www.lifenews.com/int1344.html). “Majority of Americans Disagree With Nobel Prize for Pro-Abortion Barack Obama” (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5582.html). “If Obama can get one, you can, too”; (http://www.freep.com/article/20091011/COL01/910110484//).
In Cairo, Obama quoted the Koran five times including: “Whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he killed all of mankind.” Nice words! But the unwanted unborn babies?!? This same logic of Roe v. Wade has been used to justify laws of assisted suicide; is this not the same slippery slope of using terminology to deprive value and human existence to those who are unable to defend themselves? Should not our government policy be used primarily to protect those who are defenseless and vulnerable instead of putting them more at risk? Is life not the most fundamental right and value to be protected by any government?
Many today do not realize that abortion is murder. This is partly because of the teaching strength and value of the law. People say, well, the law is neither here nor there; it is just allowing a procedure that women should have access to. The law has taught our culture that unborn human life is not valuable since it is not in the category of murder according to the law. So people think, well if President Obama thinks this way, that’s fine; I think differently but we are both fine. But what is true then? There is no God-given truth according to most people today, and therefore no sin. If I feel good, that means I am a good person at the end of the day.
Priests and bishops have to speak out from the pulpits. Some do so, but so many just do not want to cause a controversy. They want to talk about love on Sunday. Everybody loves; God loves you; we are loving, etc. But where is the love if you are going to tolerate the killing of unborn children, or tolerate other sins such as active euthanasia deriving from the contraceptive mentality and the contraceptive culture that surrounds us today?
At Akita, Japan, Our Lady told Sr. Agnes Sasagawa (October 13, 1973): "The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops” (http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/akita.htm).
People have been led to say, well you know, you can be Catholic, there are different versions of Catholic. BUT THERE IS WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. One can stay in the Church or leave it. That is each one’s choice. But we cannot remake the whole thing because we are uncomfortable with one or two teachings. Don't mess with a strong mans bride. (The Church, the bride of Christ).
The pro-abortionist campaign, along with Obama, have made an extremely subtle shift from saying they want to “reduce the number of abortions” to “reducing the number of women in need of abortion”. After all, they do not want to admit that abortion is an evil! In this way they take the onus off the practice itself. They claim the solution is to promote contraception as we see in the stimulus bills and other recent bills. It is incredible that there has been no study done yet to show that the promotion of contraception brings down unplanned pregnancy rates or abortions anywhere this policy has been tried such as in Scotland, Sweden, UK, Africa, California. The promotion of contraception encourages people to adopt more risky behaviors and live more risky life styles causing the abortion rate to go up as well as the skyrocketing of sexually transmitted diseases among teens.
What really works are laws that involve parental involvement and consent; funding bans against publicly funded abortions through the Medicaid program; informed consent; having waiting periods where women can actually, once they have made that appointment for an abortion, to be able to consider: “maybe this is not the right thing for me” and then reaching out for more help. All of these laws have had a measurable impact on bringing down abortions. All of these proven means has been undermined and consistently rejected by the Obama administration. Obama shrewdly realizes that it is better not to seek straight out to fulfil his campaign promise to Planned Parenthood: "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the "Freedom of Choice Act"!” So he will do it slowly and incrementally, “by stealth”, so as not to cause a reaction. If you throw a frog into boiling water, it immediately reacts and jumps out. If you put the frog in cold water and slowly heat it up, the frog does not jump out and ends up cooked!
Beware also of FOCA-By-Stealth. Abortion advocates are counting on the economy and other pressing issues to divert the attention of the American people so they can surreptitiously and with little resistance advance their radical pro-abortion agenda. Read more about FOCA-By-Stealth at http://www.aul.org/FOCA_by_stealth; FOCA-by-Stealth Timeline: How Congress and the Obama Administration are Implementing FOCA by Stealth; http://www.aul.org/FOCAbyStealthTimelin.
“I am going to teach [my daughters] first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby" – Barack Obama.
Amidst all of the American flags and presidential seals, there was something missing when President Barack Obama gave an economic speech at GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY this week -- Jesus.
A DECISION TO COVER UP A SYMBOL OF JESUS for the president's speech at Georgetown is upsetting many.
The Catholic University spokesman Victor Nakas, who felt a bit more strongly on the subject said: "I can’t imagine, as the bishops’ university and the national university of the Catholic Church, that we would ever cover up our religious art or signage for any reason... Our Catholic faith is integral to our identity as an institution of higher education." (http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Jesus-Missing-From-Obamas-Georgetown-Speech.html).
What type of a person, or creature, would want to cover up a symbol of Jesus?
“Obama Bans National Day Of Prayer, But Applauds Islam Ramadan”; http://www.postchronicle.com/religion/article_212254613.shtml.
29. A Deaf Ear to the Success of Adult Stem Cell Research!
At Notre Dame, Obama said the following: “Those who speak out against stem cell research may be rooted in admirable conviction about the sacredness of life, but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son's or daughter's hardships can be relieved.” It is amazing that people did not gasp at Obama’s lack of knowledge in regards to juvenile diabetes which has been successfully treated with adult stem cell research, along with spinal cord injuries, repairing limbs, and so many other human ailments. PEOPLE FAIL TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN EMBRYONIC AND ADULT STEM CELL RESEARCH. One is killing human life, and the other is not killing human life! The Catholic Church is not against science or research, but it has to be moral.
Imagine the protest there would be regarding a litter of puppies, if a person decided to distribute some to a friend, keep four, and donate the rest for research! I am grateful to God to be alive! At one time I too was an embryo and a foetus!
Embryos have a strong tendency to form tumors and cancers because they are so uncontrollable. But even if embryos had all sorts of promise for cures, we cannot go there; we cannot have the ends justify the means, that destroying human life, killing human life to hopefully save a dear person who is strong enough to defend himself. This is absolutely not permissible.
With the Obama administration, there is a backtracking in adult stem cell research as shown in Obama’s executive order, even in the promising area of reprogramming research with adult stem cell research. Does not Obama claim that his administration will live or fall on science? Well, science has spoken with flexible pluripotent adult stem cells, but there is this wilful blind spot to not admit science into the concrete policies in this area.
30. The Health Care Bill
We certainly need health care reform. But real health care respects life! The new HEALTH CARE BILL mandates abortion and contraceptives on demand, paid by the tax payers, of course, in an economic crisis, as well as coercing every existing health care plan in America to include abortion and contraceptives. It encourages in many ways the elderly to not seek any specially treatment to prolong their lives, even those treatments considered to be ordinary means by the Catholic Church. The bill encourages the elder to check into Hospice and die to give the money to their children. The end of life costs will lead the government to deny many people treatment. This is the biggest federal grab that we have ever seen; this is socialized medicine. There will be huge categories of diseases and disabilities that will get inadequate amounts of money to do what can be done. The bill will stifle innovation in the area of breakthroughs that mitigate pain and improve the quality of life as well as the actual life expectancy.
In the Health Care reform legislation, we are told by the National Right to Life Committee that as currently drafted (August 2009), this legislation would result in the greatest expansion of abortion since the Supreme Court handed down it “Roe v. Wade” decision in 1973. Other experts say that the bill will mandate tax-payer funded abortions and abortion coverage in virtually all health care plans. And now we are also being warned that this legislation may even start us down the path for government encouraged euthanasia. Clearly, a health care system that is designed to save lives, on the one hand, must not become a vehicle for taking lives through abortion and euthanasia. Health Care reform legislation must be abortion free. The solution is clear: simply add a provision to the five or six hundred pages of this legislation, that clearly excludes abortion and euthanasia from the bill. That is what we should urge congress to do.
This is a long standing problem that we have had. Francis Crick and James Watson, the Nobel Prize winners for unraveling the DNA, in Prism magazine, years ago, recommended a demise pill; when people become 80, they take the demise pill and they die. We see in places like Switzerland where the “Dignity” organization routinely euthanizes people. We see in Holland where juvenile euthanasia is now permitted so young children are being killed. It is anything but mercy killing; it is active euthanasia. You lessen the pool by killing people as they enter life and you winnow the expenses by shoving grandma and grandpa down into the death chute. Pregnancy will be put into the category of diseases and thus denied help. There are those who will deny payment for those unborn children who have handicaps which can be mitigated. Peter Singer, James Watson and many others want to wait for many days or even years to define personhood so as to discover defects and then kill the human beings. So many are encouraged to abort their child because they could possible have a genetic defect. But so many times it is not true. But even if the child does have a defect, it is still precious in the eyes of God! There is such a utilitarian value being put on life. HAVE WE MADE OURSELVES GOD, the AUTHOR OF LIFE?!? Are we playing GOD? “I will decide when life begins and when life ends!” Are we going toward living the Gospel of altruism and self sacrifice for others as Christ crucified lived and died for each of us, or are we going toward the “Culture of Death”, of egoism and self indulgence at the expense (death!) of others, especially the weakest and unwanted who cannot defend themselves? Whether we believe it or like it or not, an infinitely Just God does exist, as well as heaven and hell for all eternity!
Money becomes more important than the human person. The bill stipulates that a committee will be formed, all Obama appointees, who will decide what the essential benefits are after the bill is passed; everything can be changed after the bill is passed. Of course, abortion and contraceptives will be a core benefit at a time when fewer women are procuring abortions. Eighty seven percent of the counties in America do not have an abortionist plying their ugly trade against mothers and young women. The coercive power of the state will enforce more abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood, which already performs more than 300,000 abortions each year in the US, will become the go-to-people endorsed by the bill. Many are being bullied into voting for this bill. The slightest use of ambiguous words, or even a comma that is missing, will allow pro abortionists to reinterpret the bill as they like, after it is passed, as they so often did during the Clinton administration. In the UK and so many other countries, when the bureaucrats came into the health care equation, the outcomes were dramatically worse. Other people, who are not relatives or friends, will make these decisions for you. Many diseased will get inadequate amounts of money and innovation will be stifled.
Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo, knows a thing or two about health care rationing. Forced to sit idly by as his sister's estranged husband deprived her of food and water for a period of 13 days before she died, Schindler is concerned the government-run health bills in Congress will foster rationing (“Terri Schiavo's Brother Concerned by Rationing in Congressional Health Care Bills”; http://www.lifenews.com/bio2907.html).
“What the universal healthcare advocates don't want you to know”; http://www.curezone.org/forums/fmp.asp?i=1465398.
“What's Really in Obama's Health Care Reform Bill - A Plain English Translation” … “Below, we reprint what he found in the health care reform bill. As you read this, keep in mind that some of these translations are a bit loose with the interpretations, but I've personally spot-checked these points, and they are indeed all contained in the bill in one form or another (shrouded in Doublespeak language, of course).” http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=56609179945.
“While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone:…” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html).
As so many other bills under the Obama administration, this bill will undermine even further subsidiarity and bring all the power of decision making to the central federal government. Subsidiarity will be totally eliminated under the “New World Order”! The master world, godless, world planners have a lot at stake in this health care bill! “Millions spent to sway health care opinions”; (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/15/health.care.lobbying/).
A centralized government bureaucracy running the government and running health care for the entire nation will limit the options and yet force things upon the population that they otherwise would not be willing to accept. There will be the reduction of personalized care, expanded bureaucracy, and the lose of personal responsibility. It is like a “Pie in the sky”, all covered, utopia, … which will lead to unjust taxes that are unsustainable.
Universal access to health care is good, but the way in which we get there must be carefully considered. The entire program as set up in principle with Federal power to determine everything from what has to be in your health insurance policy to what it costs, to what treatments will be approved, to how physicians will be punished for falling outside of spending guidelines… In principal it puts too much power in the hands of government. It is wrong and experience shows that that power will likely be abused.
People do not feel they are involved or engaged with the health care system. Often when health care is provided by the government or by the employer, people feel it is free health care but it is not free health care. Everyone is always more careful with their own money, but everybody is always freer with other people’s money. This is precisely why health care costs are so high. Once you throw everybody into a pool and you say this is all free because other people are paying for it, people are then shielded from the real costs.
We must invite the private sector to bring the expertise that they have to bear; we must let the markets work, which is the principle of subsidiarity. This brings it closer to the individuals who need care; whenever they can make choices for themselves and for their families that have an impact on their lives, there is a greater protection of human dignity. The delivery system needs to be closer to the people who are sick.
They say they are going to save money by looking after Medicare abuses. Medicare abuses have been taking place ever since the program was installed in 1965, and they have not come close to doing it. What’s going to make them think that they are going to be able to do it now when they have not been able to do it for 35 years?
What we are seeing is a Congress and an administration that is trying to speed up this process, one which they wanted done before August 1st, so that the American public cannot continue to oppose what they are trying to pass. The Republican party is accused of being the party of “NO”! But the Democrats are the party of NO; they keep telling the American people NO because they are going to do what they want regardless of how the public views it. The Republicans believe that the patient should be empowered to be the consumers of health care and to allow the free market to expand and with transparency so that the people can make their own decisions and costs can come down. The democratic model is based upon the government running the health care whereby they try to reduce the supply of health care, ration it out, and as the demographic demand pressures continue to rise, all you are going to see is costs go up, quality go down and the government being empowered. Why is the democratic controlled congress and this democratic administration all intent upon doing something that republicans, independents and democrats do not want done according to the polls?
Proposals for the Health Care Reform:
1) Make it easier for individuals and families to buy their own policies and even to pool their own resources in ways that makes sense to them. The Knights of Columbus started as a life insurance association; we could have many more associations like that based on faith or geography or interest where people could pool their recourses in a way that makes sense to them. This has to be made easier. Groups must be able to sell insurance across state lines.
2) Give people incentives to spend their money wisely. The way it works right now, the employer provides each person with supposed benefits and there is this feeling that it is free so you might as well use it.
3) We have tremendous problems with Medicare and Medicaid. We need to fix those programs first, and work toward reform, which is not even mentioned by our law makers. There is an irony to think that only the government can do it.
What will probably happen is that there will be a last minute offer to distract the American people from the huge government takeover and then after it is passed all the power will be given to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to do as she pleases.
“Legislative Strategy? Write Incomprehensible Language?”; (http://www.cathmed.org/). See also “Health Reform Hub” at http://www.healthreformhub.org/.
For news updated throughout the day, visit http://lifenews.com/. “More Pro-Life Groups Say Baucus Health Care Bill Contains Abortion Funding”; http://lifenews.com/nat5478.html.
Pro-Life Leaders Warn Obama Still Not Honest About Health Care Abortion Funding; http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/sep/09091008.html.
President Barack Obama Not Forthright on Abortion Funding in Health Care; http://www.lifenews.com/nat5432.html
Visit also the “Current Headlines”; Analysis Finds Baucus Health Care Bill… (http://surchur.com/all/capps+amendment).
“The drug industry stands to gain in a health-care overhaul by getting tens of millions of newly insured customers, while insurance companies -- especially those that cater to the individual market -- look like they are in for a tougher time.”; (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125590875879693189.html).
I never thought I would live to see the day, at least not until the election last year of a communist to the presidency. The following statement appears on the Kremlin, I mean, White House website.
“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”
The Obama “administration has asked citizens to report things that sound "fishy." He was critical of the prior administration for wiretapping terrorists, but he has instituted a policy of having citizens report the activities of other citizens to the government. He has also actively attempted to manipulate and control the free press....” (See: http://www.lifenews.com/nat5320.html, as well as “You want fishy? I'll give you fishy!” at http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106152; by Frank S. Rosenbloom, posted: August 07, 2009.)
“Obama’s Great Health Scare - The president resorts to the politics of fear”: (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204619004574318334081271414.html).
“Fact-Checking the President on Health Insurance”; (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2009/09/14/fact-checking_the_president_on_health_insurance_221144.html).
What is the purpose of government? To serve the government or to serve the people? Does not our US constitution state: “For the people and by the people”? Or does it state: “For the government and by the government”?
Basic natural rights are not given by law. The Creator endows each person with inalienable rights. Freedom of speech is not from the Constitution. Our rights do not come from the state but from the natural law given by God. Human beings are immortal and are offered the choice to spend eternity with their Creator. The basis for rights is not from states which have come into existence and gone out of existence. People or the constitution do not give rights. We have rights because of who we are; rights are given by the Creator of all things!
Are we maintaining or loosing (rather quickly!) the democratic principles handed down to us by our founding fathers, many of whom died for these principles? By “stealth” the Obama administration is sneaking in FOCA. If our government would allow people then it would listen to the 86% of the American people who want to significantly restrict abortion. In our search for COMMON GROUND let us begin there. And by covertness there is being formed in the US various groups very similar to the KGB of Russia, the Gestapo of Nazi Germany (the CIA?)…!!! “Obama Stimulus Plan - Billions for More Police”; http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/02/386904.shtml. Is all this money really for terrorists and to protect law abiding American citizens or is it for the Americans who differ or will disagree with the president of the US when the mandates of the government really get out of hand?
Ronald_Reagan_On_the_Evils_of_Socialized_Medicine.wmv; (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxV_gqsrlCg).
“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!” -- P.J. O'Rourke.
31. Why Was Obama Elected?
When a friend here in Italy asked me before the elections in November 2008 how is it possible for Americans not to know these things, I replied to him with two points. (1) It is documented how THE "MAIN STREAM" MEDIA outlets of ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN are doing everything they can to hide this incredible information about the leading candidate for the presidency of the USA. I said also that the mass media in Italy is equally controlled by those who do not want God in their lives or have totally denied His existence. (2) When people no longer pray or no longer seek to discover God’s will and NO LONGER SEEK TO DO GOD’S WILL, they quickly become blind to the truth and to reality. “What kind of “strong delusion” is this so that they “believe what is false” (2Thess 2:11)? America, as a democracy, is only as good as its people!
You might also check out “Investigating Obama: CAREER PATH TOWARD A NEO-MARXIST PRESIDENCY (http://investigatingobama.blogspot.com/2008/10/baracks-career-path-toward-american.html). When I sent this information to my relatives and friends before the elections of 2008; a couple of my cousins ask me to not send them anymore emails! I responded to them: “I believe that if a person openly proclaims that the first thing he would do as president of the USA would be to promote and increase the incredible genocide of killing tens of millions of helpless, defenceless, innocent human beings, I believe that this person would be CAPABLE OF ANYTHING! "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA). That's the first thing that I'd do." -- Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007 (http://www.nrlc.org/foca/index.html). America will get what America deserves!” Unfortunately, most Americans are like some of my cousins who are willing and desiring to BELIEVE ONLY WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE and will not listen to anything else. Most American no longer take the time to examine the fruits and the concrete actions. "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:15-20).
A communist has profaned the presidency; Exclusive: Erik Rush believes a 'vast superstructure for a far-left America' is in place; http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=109350.
“AIM Identifies Mysterious Obama Mentor As Communist Party Revolutionary; Obama's mentor "Frank" is Frank Marshall Davis”; (http://www.aim.org/press-release/aim-identifies-mysterious-obama-mentor-as-communist-party-revolutionary/).
Limbaugh: "Van Jones is Jeremiah Wright, is Bill Ayers ... Van Jones is Obama"; (http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200909080014).
“SPEAKER PELOSI'S CONTROVERSIAL MARXIST CONNECTIONS”; (http://www.newswithviews.com/Kincaid/cliff315.htm).
Poor America! We are doomed to repeat all the disasters recorded in history, but this time much, much worse!
Who was guilty of suppression of pertinent information during the last Presidential campaign. For example, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Cathleen Falsani reported in 2004 interview with Obama, that "he does not believe the central tenets of the Christian faith." "For example, he [Obama] stated point-blank, 'I believe there are many paths to the same place [Heaven].” (http://gretawire.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/07/22/ask-the-president/comment-page-6/?action=late-new&order).
Joseph Farah wrote in October 23, 2008, just before the election, in his article “Obama: Never a Christian”: “The most extensive comments ever offered by Obama about his faith came in a 2004 Chicago Sun-Times interview I first wrote about last May. … In other words, he [Obama] doesn't have a clue as to what it means to be a Christian.” (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=78757).
Did you wonder why the SPECIAL ON OBAMA on Hannity's Sunday night show (August 9, 2009) did not appear? The program was not aired Sunday, so it was googled and found that the segments had been taken off of the internet as well. Do you wonder who blocked this??? You might take a look at the following 6 segments if they have not been removed from the web yet:
Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rthv8QmJLUw
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJNhKZh8mGY&feature=fvw
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95XFUi8PrTs&feature=related
Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl4twMf1xyM&feature=related
Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKzFtKEysjw&feature=related
Part 6 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmEmRbRJFLU&feature=related
If a person can so easily advocate the killing of an unwanted, unborn or even born human beings, what will stop him from advocating and performing the KILLING OF ANY OTHER CATEGORY OF HUMAN BEINGS if this category is later decided to be “unwanted” by this person or by the persons he puts in power over us? What is the fundamental criteria here? If there are no absolutes acknowledged and accepted from the Creator by a society or by a dictator, who decides who is to live and who is to die?!?
Caught on Tape: Obama Calls Abortion the Center of His Health Care Agenda!
If you’ve seen the http://www.fightfoca.com/, you know that, as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised abortion advocates at a Planned Parenthood conference that the “first thing” he’d do as President was to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Thankfully, 700,000 who signed the “Fight FOCA” petition helped convince him that was a bad idea. But did you know that, at that same conference, Obama said that mandated abortion coverage would be at the “center and heart” of his health care agenda? He did, and we’ve got the tape. Even more than two years ago this agenda was already planned and decided (July 17, 2007), even though 87% of Americans (and counting) are in favor of restrictions on abortion as well as the protection of the rights of individual States, and lower authorities, to make these decisions at the proper, local levels, instead of being mandated and dictated at the federal level where the people have much less control and say (if any!?!) in these important decisions! See: http://www.realhealthcarerespectslife.com/.
There is a tremendous media bias. See “NBC Joins ABC in Refusing to Air Ad Critical of Pro-Rationing Health Care Measure” (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5405.html).
“Barack Obama Campaign Organization Misleads on Health Care Abortion Funding” (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5377.html).
Regarding the health care bill, we find White House officials, including the President himself, resorting to a strategy of evasion and deception that is truly alarming (http://ifrl-blog.blogspot.com/2009/08/washington-feels-wrath-of-pro-life.html).
See “100 Days of Change for the Family” (OBAMA’S FIRST 100 DAYS; by his deeds, not by his words, has Obama promoted the culture of life or the culture of death?): http://www.frc.org/special/100-days-of-change.
Regarding America's acceptance of abortion, the late Catholic apologist Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said, "If we don't stop the destruction of life, we'll come to midnight. That is nuclear war, in which there will be A TOTAL DISREGARD FOR LIFE."
32. History Repeats Itself!
AFTER THE DEATH OF JOSHUA, for the first time the people of Israel were without a leader. In the beginning of the book of Judges we read that “there arose another generation after them, who DID NOT KNOW THE LORD or the work which he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals...” (Judg 2:10-11). How many of the people of the present generation in the USA and other parts of the world do not even know how to say the “Our Father”? A great number of young people who finish 12 years in the US Catholic school system do not even know the 10 commandments! What are the priests and bishops doing? The divorce rate among Catholics is the same as the rest of the population of the US. The parents never taught their children about “the work which he [the Lord] had done for” them. Being soft hearted parents is good, but not soft headed. Parents who are soft on offering the true love (firm and loving), sometimes called “TOUGH LOVE”, of proper discipline to their children, do a very great disservice to their children who later must face the realities of life with all it’s difficulties, and an increasingly anti-God and antichristian environment. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that the parents who let their child do as he pleases, never enjoy the love or respect of their parents. The parent is useful to the child, but where there is utility there is very little love. So often parents fall into the trap of wanting to be loved cheaply. But very often to say NO is love and to say YES is a lack of love. Many parents of the “baby boomers” naively followed the imprudent advice of Dr. Spock whose son committed suicide! Parents have gone behind the world views of so-called experts who dictate “self esteem” instead of humility. Very often the men have wimped out and the women were not able to be both the mother and the father of their children. Men are by nature warriors (http://www.radixguys.com/). PARENTS HAVE ALL TOO OFTEN ABDICATED THEIR AUTHORITY, being weak in the knees with no backbones! Of course discretion is needed. But we must not let the pagan world dictate to us, else we go with the flow which carries all the dead bodies downstream! We must be strong and persevere in continually swimming upstream in picking up our cross daily and following our crucified Savior. For parents to say, we will let our children wait until they are 21, then they can make up their own minds is absurd. By then, they have already lost their souls.
As in the Old Testament, when God withdrew His protecting hand, other nations conquered the people of Israel. It will not be different this time either. As Sister Lucia of Fatima said to Father Agostino Fuentes, (1957): “Russia will be the scourge chosen by God to punish humanity.” Russia continues to build up and improve their nuclear arsenal as the great liars, Putin and Obama, tell the Americans that they have agreed to reduce and disarm! Of course, the gullible Americans, not in communion with their Creator, believe every smiling, promising word! See other biblical passages indicating these prophecies in Part III below.
How many in our modern affluent society do not even realize (or care!?) that they “do not know the Lord” or that they do what is “evil in the sight of the Lord”? How many of us do not even care that in the USA well-paid KILLERS, CALLED OBSTETRICIANS, stick a scissors into the back of the neck and into the brains of poor, innocent, defenseless, unwanted human beings struggling to defend themselves, and then suck out or pull out the rest of the body parts from their very own mothers’ womb, over a million times a year in the USA alone! It is an assault on the fundamental dignity of the human person who is created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27)! Every human life is sacred and irreplaceable.
We worship the “Baal” of the dollar, of hedonism, of egoism, of power and of self-sufficiency while rejecting and dismissing a superfluous or annoying God.
SEVEN TIMES IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES alone the people of Israel went through the cycle of sin, suffering, supplication to God, salvation from God, and then silence about God, and then they began all over again to sin again. The world is about to enter into the second part of perhaps the greatest such cycle in the history of the world, “suffering” (tribulation!) which will help many to call out to God. It is interesting that when the Israelites were tired of deciding and doing things on their own and experienced how much better it is to follow God’s chosen ones, they finally pleaded with Gideon to “rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also...” (Judg 8:22). How many Christians have also become TIRED OF BEING THE POPE and have made this same wise choice to follow God’s chosen one, the living Pope to whom Jesus promised that “the gates of hell would not prevail” (Mt 16:18)? This promise was made to Peter and his successors, not the bishops, or conferences of bishops or to theologians!
To give a fundamental example of this great decline and abandonment of God and His commandments, consider that after the second world war many peoples (especially in the USA and Europe) experienced a rather great increase in wellbeing, which is certainly not an evil. The problem was that people quickly began to want as many pleasures as possible without any restrictions or responsibility or concern for others, especially the weakest and most vulnerable in our society. The world, along with many so-called “Catholic” leaders and groups, began to put tremendous pressure on the Catholic Church to CONFORM TO THE MENTALITY OF THE WORLD of irresponsibly seeking pleasure without any restraints indicate by God’s revelation (of love of God and neighbor) and interpreted by the Church, especially after the discovery of “the pill” (1960). “We do not need a Church that is moved by the world, but a Church that moves the world” – G.K. Chesterton.
When Pope Paul VI issued his pivotal and prophetic encyclical, “HUMANAE VITAE” (1968), there was an incredible negative reaction not only on the part of the laity who wanted to enjoy the pleasures of sex without any responsibility or openness to life by using artificial birth control, but even on the part of a great number of priests and bishops, even entire Episcopal conferences (e.g., the ‘Winnipeg Statement’ of the Canadian Bishops)! Before 1930 all mainline protestant denominations were in accord with the Catholic Church that the use of artificial birth control was a grave evil and a serious sin. When the Anglican Church changed its stance in 1930 (Lambeth Conference) the other protestants churches quickly followed suit while Pope Pius XI reaffirmed the Church’s constant teaching on this grave evil in his encyclical Casti Cannubii (1930). Church discipline can change, but the doctrine of the faith which comes from God cannot change, and will not change. The Church does make progress, but not change.
Ultimately the contraceptive mentality of recreational sex, detached from responsibility and life, quickly led even to the point of the denial of equal dignity for a whole class of human beings and the genocide of countless millions of innocent, defenseless unborn babies (as JUST A FORM OF CONTRACEPTION!) in the place that ought to be the safest refuge in the world for our fellow human beings, their mother’s womb. Our modern pagan culture says that what is inside the womb of a mother is a “choice”, not a precious, defenseless human being made in the image and likeness of God Himself. In the U.S. alone, we slaughter more that 4000 human beings every single day inside the wombs of their mothers! This brings down such darkness and hell on humanity that it is hard to believe. This has everything to do with all that we are seeing today. The basic decomposition of our beloved country and the whole western world, the melt down of western civilization, is tied into this!
When the Anglican Church first approved the use of contraception in 1930 it was only for serious reasons and only for married people who have been generous for life. However, by providing an opening for contraception, the qualifying phrase “for serious reason” was quickly ignored. Subsequently the use of contraception was viewed as virtuous behavior, and even the silent holocaust of abortion has become a private ethical choice of birth control. The unborn, unwanted babies no longer have any legal protection; they are now ripped to pieces after they are brutally murdered. BABIES DO NOT CHOOSE TO DIE! Is this not a good example of the slippery slop? The former Hippocratic oath for health care workers read: “I will administer no abortafacient to a pregnant woman.” The original Hippocratic oath acknowledged that abortion was a form of doing violence not only to the child but to the woman as well.
On June 2nd, 2009, Steven Mosher was awarded the “Blessed Frederic Ozanam” award by the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. “No one is more impoverished than the child in the womb,” said Mosher upon receiving the award. “The poor may possess little, but the unborn child possesses nothing…”
As soon as we do not see life as a precious gift but only as a convenience to ourselves, our society quickly sinks into the CHAOS OF HELL in the culture of death! When everything totally crashes and there is great suffering and confusion, the great majority will wander why! We are so blind to our fundamental egoism, pride, sloth and lack of charity which caused the catastrophe!
33. The Vicious Onslaught Against the Culture of Life
I do not know a single person who does not feel very proud that the US has put it’s past of racism behind them and this election of a very likeable, attractive, young African American president is a symbol of how far we have come since “Freedom Summer” of 1964 in Mississippi; trying to get just voting rights, the ability to go to a desegregated school, and here we are.
But look at what Barack Obama has done in just his first couple of months in office:
Rescinded the "MEXICO CITY POLICY" and authorized your tax dollars to fund international groups that are promoting abortion around the world.
Begun the process of eliminating the “CONSCIENCE CLAUSE” that protects doctors and nurses from being forced to take part in the horrendous crime of abortion.
Expanded HUMAN EXPERIMANTATION by increasing federal funding of destructive embryonic stem cell research even though to this day there is no positive scientific results whatsoever using embryonic stem cells; with adult stem cells there are numerous good results!
Renewed funding with our tax dollars for UNFPA – the United Nations group that helped China carry out its "one child" policy of FORCED STERILIZATION AND FORCED ABORTIONS.
Promised to sign the “FREEDOM OF CHOICE ACT” - which, if it ever were to reach his desk, would undo every pro-life law in all fifty states even though the overwhelming majority of Americans are against this Act.
But that's far from all he's done. He's appointing RABID PRO-ABORTION EXTREMISTS to key positions in the government. The list is long and includes some of the most hard-line pro-abortion fanatics in the country.
Barack Hussein Obama is the MOST PRO-ABORTION PRESIDENT in US history. In only a few months he has:
Overturned the US ban on funding International Planned Parenthood Federation and the Center for Reproductive Rights, aggressive pro-abortion and ANTI-FAMILY GROUPS that are deeply involved in forcing abortion on unwilling people all over the world, especially in Latin America.
Obama’s negotiators at the UN have already made aggressive pro-abortion and ANTI-FAMILY STATEMENTS at the UN including signing a French declaration that seeks to make homosexuals a specially protected class at the expense of religious freedom.
Obama spouts off nice sounding words that he wants to reduce abortions, or rather “reduce the number of women seeking abortion”! But ALL THAT HAS BEEN PROVEN TO REDUCE ABORTIONS, OBAMA IS ADAMANTLY AGAINST! Why are the American people so gullible? Why is it so hard to look at the facts, the deeds, the real fruits?!? They are “victims of the enemy” (2 Tim 2:24-26). See: “President Barack Obama's Pro-Abortion Record: A Pro-Life Compilation” at http://www.lifenews.com/obamaabortionrecord.html.
“I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and BY FAIR AND FLATTERING WORDS THEY DECEIVE the hearts of the simple-minded” (Rom 16:17-18).
You can't reduce the number of abortions while funding the expansion of abortion with our tax dollars by abandoning the Mexico City Policy and funding the UN Population Fund which supports forced abortion in China. See: “What is Wrong With the UN Population Fund?” by Steven W. Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-w-mosher/what-is-wrong-with-the-un_b_154213.html.)
Further, Obama’s support of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which would wipe out any law (state and federal) that protects unborn children and their mothers - such as parental consent and involvement, waiting periods, partial-birth abortion or tax funding of abortion-on-demand, force faith-based hospitals and healthcare facilities to perform abortions - leaving no room for even the tiniest compromise.
Several recent opinion polls, including Gallop, indicate that the vast majority of American populace are in favor of restricting abortion at some level. Only about 23 or 25% are in favor of open abortion which is de facto what Roe v. Wade did.
Does our president seek to serve the American people and their desires or to serve some other agenda? The majority of Americans are against abortion (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5071.html).
During the last week of April 2009, HILLARY CLINTON appeared before the US House of Representatives while in sworn testimony and said the following. Keep in mind, she promised all these things in her official capacity as US Secretary of State!
Clinton praised Margaret Sanger, the racist and eugenicist founder of Planned Parenthood Federation. She compared Sanger to Thomas Jefferson!
Clinton praised the UN Population Fund, the UN agency that helped set up and run the Chinese one child policy which is responsible for millions of forced abortions.
Clinton said the US would ratify the pro-abortion CEDAW treaty, meaning the last meaningful CEDAW holdout will now fall.
Then Hillary made a mistake by revealing their hidden agenda too openly and forthright; normally those who promote the culture of death use very nice sounding words and phrases so as not to alert or reveal their true motives while they work not in the open as indicated above. At a certain point Hillary said:
“THE FULL FORCE OF THE US GOVERNMENT WILL BE USED TO GET GOVERNMENTS TO CHANGE THEIR LAWS ON ABORTION ALL OVER THE WORLD.”
(www.c-fam.org)
Hillary may have revealed too much at this point according to these world planners because they try to work shrewdly so as to not awaken or alert the populous. But as more people sin and turn away from God, the powers of evil will have more and more power and so they will become more and more BOLD; soon things will begin to AVALANCHE! We will ultimately arrive to the point that the forces of evil will boldly demand that all deny God and adore the image of the Antichrist or else starve to death without the mark of the beast! Sin not only exists, but today it is rampant! Without the following of Christ, or at least the living out the interior graces and knowledge given by God, by the masses of the people, it is very easy for the world rulers to manipulate those far from God, without the help of God.
It is interesting that when the Obama administration goes too far in promoting their agenda of the culture of death, THEY PULL BACK to wait for a more opportune moment in the near future when it will be LESS DETECTED. The Obama administration has officially pulled a Department of Homeland Security Report that claims pro-life people may engage in violence or extremism. The document, which has already been sent to police and sheriffs offices across the country, sparked national outrage. (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5052.html). Is Obama seeking to serve the American people by seeking to discover what the majority of American people want or is Obama seeking to put in place his agenda, “by stealth”, by going forward with his hidden agenda three steps and then one or two steps back incrementally???
“Obama Admin Used Pro-Abortion, Conspiracy Sites to Say Pro-Lifers Extremists” (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5348.html).
Does Obama want to go toward and live by the important principal of subsidiarity or does Obama want to go toward as big a government as possible? You can be sure that Obama’s recent healthcare compromises will have all the essentials to promote more government control and eliminate the practice of subsidiarity as much as possible, by “stealth”. Even the congressmen do not read all the fine print of these lengthy bills. I hope the American people will repent of their sins according to the criteria of God’s holy laws and not by their own self-made criteria or by the criteria of the masses or by the criteria of the mass media or by any other criteria that is not of God, the One and only Creator of all things. And then if we begin to pray, in union with our Creator, we will be able to see the real fruits of our present government and where these bureaucratic saviors of our nation are really leading us! “Thus you will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:20). If we are not in union with our Creator, at least to a minimal degree, these power seekers and world manipulators will be able to lead us where ever they like, using beautiful words, arguments, smiles, rhetoric and whatever else! After these puppets of Satan succeed in taking full power, they will no longer have to take one or two steps back!
You might find interesting “An Open Letter To President Obama” by LOU PRITCHETT, one of corporate America 's true living legends - an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest rated speakers. He wrote “An Open Letter To President Obama” in which he finished by writing: “Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.” (http://god-politics.blogspot.com/).
All dictators in the history of the world, past and present, could and cannot tolerate freedom of speech or freedom of the press. Once these devious little dictators take full control of the U.S., there will no longer be even freedom on the internet. EVERYTHING WILL BE TOTALLY CENSURED! I am sure that information is already being gathered in order to be able to quickly identify those who must be eliminated when full control is established - those who are opposed to the regime, the New World Order.
Jesus revealed to GLORIA POLO the following (the testimony of Gloria Polo in the church in Caracas, Venezuela, May 5, 2005, will soon be posted in English on my web site.):
“The devil, with his malefic strategy, has brought humanity to the point of killing their own children. Now I understand the reason why I lived in continual bitterness, depression, always ill tempered, ill-mannered, with ugly ways of doing things, with a bad face, frustrated with everything and with everyone. Of course! I had transformed myself, without knowing it, into a machine to kill babies, and for this reason I was sinking ever more into the abyss. Abortion is the worst of all the sins (those provoked, not when it is spontaneous), because to kill the children still in the womb of the mother, to kill a little innocent and defenseless creature, IS TO GIVE POWER TO SATAN. The devil commands from the depths of the abyss, because we are scattering innocent blood! A baby is like an innocent lamb and without stain… And Who is the Lamb without stain? It is Jesus! In that moment, THE BABY IS THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF JESUS! The fact that it might be the mother herself to kill her own child, determines a profound bond with the darkness, permitting that more devils from hell might come out to destroy and strangle humanity. It is as if one might OPEN THE SEALS… Seals that God has put to impede evil to come out, but that, for every abortion, it opens… And so horrible larva come out, so that there are more and more devils… They come out to chase and persecute humanity, and then make us slaves of the flesh, of sin, of all the bad things that we see, and we will see always more. It is as if we might give the key of hell to the devils, to let them escape. And so there escape more devils, of prostitution, of sexual aberrations, of Satanism, of atheism, of suicide, of indifference… Of all the evils that we see around us. And the world is getting worse every day… Think how many babies are killed every day: it is all a triumph of the evil one! That you might know that for the price of this innocent blood, THE NUMBER OF DEVILS OUTSIDE OF HELL GROWS; they circulate freely in our midst! Let us take shelter! … We sin without even realizing it! And our life transforms itself into an inferno, with problems of every type, with sicknesses, with so many evils that afflict us; all of this is the pure and simple action of the devil in our life. But it is we, we alone, that open the gates of evil, with our sin, and we permit him to freely circulate in our life. It is not only with abortion that we sin! … But it is among the worst sins. And then we have the nerve to blame God for so much misery, so much disgrace, so much sicknesses and so much suffering!...”
Visit: Gloria Polo's testimony 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smKKCZLiCi0); Gloria Polo's testimony 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAwgC6ednx0).
As written above, soon things will begin to avalanche, more and more quickly, as more evil spirits are freed from hell due to our misuse of our God-given freedom! Evil triumphs when the good do nothing! We, who know better, will be justly judged by God for all of our sins of omission, for not having used our “talents” wisely or for having “hid [our] talent in the ground … You wicked and slothful servant! … And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Mt 25:25-30). So many of our founding fathers and soldiers died for our freedom that so many people around the world do not enjoy. And so “slothful” Americans will loose these precious gifts and it will be too late to recuperate what we will loose. As the Mother of God said at Akita, Japan in 1973, “The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
While Obama’s administration is gearing up to make a frightening new global attack on the unborn child, Obama continues to VEIL HIS TRUE INTENTIONS by craftily telling us before and after the election that he is advocating abortion reduction with enhanced economic and social support, especially for poor, uninsured and often unemployed women. In addition, the president advocates stronger families and teenage responsibility!?! But how does this come about without Gospel principles or without the help of God by way of following God’s commandments? All the policies which have been proven to build up the family, reduce divorces and reduce abortions have been always (100%) voted against by Obama before and after his election.
Up to now, Obama has appointed four possible ambassadors to the state of the Vatican in Rome who were all pro-abortion and the Vatican has refused all four.
Read: “Bill Donohue On ‘Secular Sabotage’ In America”. The first chapter, Revenge of the Nihilists, identifies the groups he views as the chief enemies of Judeo-Christian civilization, and they are principally militant secularists, nihilists, and relativists, and particularly scoffers at all religious beliefs, such as best-selling God-deniers Sam Harris, Peter Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, T.V. scoffer Bill Maher, New York Times editorialist Frank Rich and Hustler publisher Larry Flint. (http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/09/13/arts_culture/doc4aad3f85170a5235181257.txt).
William Wright wrote that there is no political revolution without a sexual revolution!
34. The Truth Or Not The Truth; That Is The Question!
The Catholic Church has always taught that THE “ENDS” DO NOT JUSTIFY THE “MEANS”. In other words, one cannot justify or rationalize committing even one single sin, especially a grave, intrinsically evil sin such as abortion, in order to arrive at a “good end” or a “greater good”. This would be the same as telling God to BUTT OUT while we commit a horrendous crime so that we can achieve a greater good, according to our “wise” human criteria and judgment, as if God is not able to bring about good without our sin! As Pope Benedict XVI clearly teaches, WAR AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ARE NEGOTIABLE, but abortion and euthanasia are not! The Church has always taught that there is a hierarchy of values and truths; many false Catholics try to convince us that all values are equal, like a “seamless garment”, so as to justify committing the greater, and intrinsic evil. “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Mt 11:25)!
Those who are not right with God, or as we say as Catholics not “in the state of grace”, will believe every word these world planners say (2Thess 2:11-12), especially by way of the media, and even end up adoring the image of the first beast, the Antichrist (Rev 13,11-18). Nero put the blame on the CHRISTIANS for burning Rome, and most people were GULLIBLE enough to believe his lie. Things have not changed much today! Many people fall prey to SO-CALLED “Catholic” (in name only!) politicians, “Catholic” publications and “Catholic” Universities who offer themselves as a substitute for a new Magisterium of the Catholic Church, convincing many people that you can get rid of the cross of Christ and still feel holy and saved as a “Catholic” or Christian! “As we have said before, so now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed” (Gal 1:9).
Someone wrote to me before the November 2008 elections and told me that “the effects of the church’s narrow anti-abortion efforts” are hurting the pro-life cause and that “I happen to believe we need to come to people in love not with threats.” This person referred me to an article by the National Catholic Reporter: “Bishops narrow anti-abortion effort hurts pro-life cause”!!! But the 40 to 50 million babies that we have slaughtered in the USA since 1973, do we come to them “IN LOVE”??? Do the ends justify the means as the above article indicates??? Are there no "hierarchy of values"??? Has “ABORTION” become only something “political” or something without any reference to what abortion actually is? Have we become so callused and cold in spirit and estranged from reality and LIFE that it is OK to kill millions of babies for the “pro-life cause”!?*!? What kind of “strong delusion” is this so that they “believe what is false” (2Thess 2:11)?
So many desire to convince themselves that they are Christians but it is really only sentimentality and superficiality without the cross of Christ in sacrificing ourselves for others, especially those that require us to suffer including an unexpected pregnancy, an old person who is not autonomous, a difficult person, an enemy, ... Jesus commanded us to love ALL! “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? ... (Mt 5:43-48; Lk 6:27-38). See “The Hope of the World!” at http://trueevangelization.blogspot.com. “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles...” (1Cor 1:22-23). We do not follow BUDDHA ON A NICE COMFORTABLE SATIN PILLOW! And yet we want our Christian religion to be only a consolation to us without letting anyone tell us what our religion commands of us.
These pseudo Christians tell us only the one side of the truth that Christ forgave sinners such as the prostitute, but they do not ever mention that Christ also said to the prostitute: “GO AND SIN NO MORE” (Jn 8:11)! Jesus, as should all Christians, loves the sinner but hates the sin. The liberals refuse to make this distinction so as to justify their condemnation and growing persecution of true Christians who LOVE the people who have a tendency toward homosexuality but HATE the ACT of homosexuality. True Christians love those who have the temptation to fornicate but hate the ACT of fornication! Even liberals are forced to declare that they hate the ACT of homicide while they “claim” to love their fellow brothers and sisters. If one does not love “the least of these my brethren” (Mt 25:40) their “claim” to love others is really masked egoism! It is cynical, base hypocrisy! They do not even live the most basic precept of every mainline religion: “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 19:18; Mt 19:19; Jn 13:34). Our modern society enhances individualism and egoism!
Some organizations describe Pro-lifers as domestic terrorists. But it is the most peaceful human rights organization that there is. The pregnancy care centers outnumber abortion clinics three to one. The pro-life movement puts it’s money and it’s volunteer hours where it’s mouth is. This has resulted in many pro-choice women to change their mind when they discovered the facts. THE MEANING OF “LOVE” for the pro-choice people is “I want well FOR ME!” The meaning of “love” for the pro-life people is “I want well FOR YOU!”
Forty-five states have HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION on their books and now Congress is poised to add gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered people to the list of federally protected classes. Pastors will soon be prosecuted for even reading in church the parts of the Bible (or rather all of the Bible!) that indicate that THE ACT OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN as has already happened in Canada and other countries!
The National Organization for Women (NOW) and Planned Parenthood want you to believe that women have abortions to have their freedom of choice. But we know by listening to women who have had abortions, women do not have abortions because of freedom of choice; women have abortions because they have no choice. They feel trapped! But do the “Pro-Choice” people help them to have a choice? The “Pro-Life” movement does!
Abortion, the most common surgery in America; why don’t we ever see what it looks like? Not until people saw images of children in coal mines did they enact child labor laws. Not until people saw images of human torture did they rise up against slavery. America will never reject abortion, unless America sees abortion. See “Looking Abortion in the Eye” at http://www.priestsforlife.org/images/index.aspx
All human life has value. Abortion hurts women. Women will never reach equality riding on the backs of their dead babies. Adoption: it’s a choice that you and your baby can live with!
The American Holocaust: the face of “Choice”! Have you hugged your “Choice” today? Do we not see the absurdity of the “Pro-Choice” slogan?
Christians: The blood of CHRIST paid for your sins. The blood of PATRIOTS paid for your freedom. The blood of THE UNBORN is paying for your silence.
Abortion is everyone’s sin. The greatest human rights movement of our times is the PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT! Each one of us will all be judged on this issue by God. Let us build a culture of life!
Love says I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person; abortion says I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself. It is the opposite of love; that is why we conquer abortion by love.
People say that I am personally opposed to abortion but I have no right to interfere with others regarding abortion. But Jesus teaches us that every person is my brother, indeed, Jesus identifies Himself with each person, especially with “the least of these my brethren”: “You did it to Me!” (Mt 25:40). Thus the mother is my sister, but the baby inside the womb of the mother, the least of the two, is equally my brother!
“Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.” – Mother Teresa.
35. The Great Attack Against the Family!
This “COSMIC STRUGGLE” between the forces of good and the forces of evil is growing quickly everyday. These two factions are mutually exclusive. What will happen as same sex unions are increasingly assimilated to marriage or something like marriage... what happens when the rights created by those decisions come up against the conscience rights of people that want to maintain the religious identity of their religious organizations in their hiring and firing? There are very serious conflicts here.
Thus the more the same sex model of marriage is established by law, the more the traditional, GOD-GIVEN MODEL OF MARRIAGE BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN WILL BE ATTACKED AND PERSECUTED. In the end only one model will be left standing since they are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE. If Americans approve marriages between homosexuals or whatever kind of arrangement, departing from what God ordained from the beginning of the creation of mankind, the traditional, Christian marriage between a man and a woman will be looked down upon and those who do not accept this non-Christian form of marriage will be treated as racists and worse. The persecution will quickly increase against those who do not accept this non-Christian, ungodly form of marriage. As our enemies seek to DESTROY MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY, which is the fundamental element of society, it will be much easier to render us their slaves without any viable or sustainable resistance on our part. Every child has a right to a mother and a father!
(http://www.marriagematterstokids.org/)
Hiding beneath this glossy venire of the POWERFUL HOMOSEXUAL PROPAGANDA is the truth that in nearly every study it is the homosexual who is more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, to accept abusive relationships, to acquire and spread sexually transmitted diseases, to suffer in depression and doubt even to view suicide as a solution.
Homosexuality is being promoted in our children’s classrooms. The homosexual agenda has been carefully crafted and packaged to change the way Americans think about homosexuality. First they claim to be a victim. Then they cry for tolerance when actually their goal is acceptance, legitimacy and the stifling of decent. THE ARGUMENT IS REFRAMED so that there are only two positions: that of the reasonable tolerant person and that of the stifled bigot.
Why do homosexuals and their powerful constituents want to call their (unstable!) unions “marriage”? Why do they just call it living together or another name like “Sodom and Gomorrah Unions”, or whatever. We are all free! God will not force anyone into heaven or into hell. Why do they want to undermine the divine institution of marriage? What are their real motives here? Are not those with a homosexual tendency being used by powerful manipulators above them for their own purposes and goals? When the people were allowed to vote on this issue in over 30 states, the people always voted to maintain the traditional definition of marriage between a man and woman as God created human beings (Gen 1:27; 2:24), even though the powerful Gay lobby spent far more money on these referendums than the groups who were supporting the traditional marriage between one man and one woman. Gay unions are legal right now only in three states where the people were forced to accept this law imposed on them by the little dictators in their state governments.
At the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Washington, D.C. on October 10, 2009, president Obama said: “There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors, even loved ones -- good and decent people -- who hold fast to outworn arguments and old attitudes. … You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.” (http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/10/obama_human_rights_campaign_sp.html). It is interesting that Obama stayed away from this topic before elections in November 2008 because he knew how most Americans feel about this issue. Despite the powerful hammering and brainwashing of the mass media on this issue, the Americans have voted consistently up to this time to not undermine the most fundamental cell of society, the family, by redefining marriage and family according to these secular humanists. Why do Obama and the democrats not represent the people who overwhelmingly elected them last November?
A closet is by no means a suitable place to live but to abandon it only to force people of faith into it is NOT TOLERANCE.
In an age where good is called evil and evil good, concerned parents must inoculate their children from the cultural engineering of the secular humanists. THE WORLD APPLAUDS SIN! A free man need not be ashamed of virtue; honor needs no apology. Tradition is not right because it is long standing. But some traditions are long standing because they are right.
Christians need to stand; stand up for the truth, stand up for our faith and families. And yes, stand up for that poor confused soul who is being encourage to engage in behavior destructive to mind, body and soul. See the video clip: http://www.illinoisfamily.org/news/contentview.asp?c=34355.
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1Cor 6:9-11; see also CCC 2357-2359). Every person who desires to follow their God-informed conscience must resist temptations. Normal men and women must control their desire for the opposite sex for love of God and neighbor. So too those who have the homosexual tendency who desire to follow God must also resist temptations if they hope to have a happy eternity. If I have a desire to kill someone, can I do it, after all, I’m free! To this day there is no evidence of a person born with the homosexual tendency; it is acquired usually due to a unnatural or unhealthy environment during their upbringing.
THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE (Jn 8:32)!
But if you only accept part of the truth, then you are only partly liberated.
So many politicians and UN officials, who promote the “Culture of Death”, USE NICE SOUNDING WORDS AND PHRASES like “freedom of choice”, “women’s productive rights”, “there must be protection for both the life and health of the mother”, “universal access to reproductive health”, “sexual and reproductive health and rights”, “family planning and reproductive health” programs to “combat” poverty in “least developed countries”!” But what about the rights of the unwanted, unborn babies? Were we not all, at one time, an embryo? Were we not all, at one time, a fetus? Is it not by now well proven that overpopulation is a myth to keep the rich rich and the strong strong at the expense (life?) of the weak, vulnerable and defenseless. Are not the vast majority of the countries in the world today dying demographically and are unable to support those no longer working. How many human rights abuses are committed in the name of "family planning," which are counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of “overpopulation” (www.pop.org)? Europe is quickly dying and can no longer support the retired people who promoted and bought into this lie of overpopulation. Does not the Gospel teach us that the strong should help the weak? Was not the motto of Mother Teresa, as she cared for and loved the dying on the streets of Calcutta, “You did it to Me” (Mt 25:40), that is to Jesus! Jesus considers every abortion as if Jesus Himself is aborted, because Jesus identifies Himself especially with the weakest and most helpless; “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40)! Jesus truly hides behind the weakest, the defenseless, to old, the sick, the emarginated ones, … and each of us will be judged according to how we loved JESUS in each of the “least of these my brethren”! The Patroness of unborn children (and of the Americas) is OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE (Mexico, 1531) in whose miraculous image she appears pregnant with Jesus!
Perhaps we might consider the fact that the SECOND PERSON of the BLESSED TRINITY in His infinite wisdom, Who could have come into the world in anyway whatsoever, chose to become incarnate in the womb of a human woman and spend NINE FULL MONTHS IN HER WOMB!?! Christ sanctified everything He did! St. John the Baptist, as a six-month fetus in the womb of his mother Elizabeth, leaped for joy in the womb of Elizabeth when he recognized Jesus as a very small embryo in the womb of Mary (Lk 1:44)! Little boys and little girls leap for joy in their mothers wombs, not abstract foetal tissue. You might check out the book: "Redeemer in the Womb: Jesus living in Mary" by John Saward. This book is a unique and profound theological meditation on the nine months the God-man spent in His Virgin Mother's womb. Drawing on Christian philosophy, poetry, liturgy, as well as the Fathers and great theologians of the Church, Saward shows that faith in the Incarnation commits the believer inescapably to the defense of the unborn child.
God is not a disinterested spectator in the affairs of man. The Catholic Church holds that a single abortion is homicide. What are 50 million of them since Roe versus Wade? What is the DEFINITION OF GENOCIDE? What is the targeted group? Unwanted, unborn children. It does not have to be an ethnic group, or a religious group, or a national group; it is a homogeneous group: unwanted, unborn children.
The people of the world, with the help of the media, are saying suffering is useless, let us help you die. We will help kill you (EUTHANASIA)! They always use nice sounding words: “Death with dignity!” Do they think they are God? Jesus refused a drug on the cross to diminish his pain (Mt 27:34, 48; Mk 15:36; Lk 23:36; Jn 19:29). It is OK to kill old people if they do not fit into our regiment. That is their answer; they befriend death. But we befriend the One who conquered death, Jesus crucified and risen. That marks the absolute difference between us.
ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN once said: “The truth is the truth even if no one believes it; error is error even if everyone believes it!”
How would you like to be DISCARDED? How cynical and unmanly it is for men to use women for their carnal desires and pleasures and then to discard and abandon them as well as the children that they often leave in the wombs of the women they have exploited. The great majority of the women who ended up aborting their child would not have done so if their boyfriend or husband would have lived up to true and real manhood and said: “I am here with you; I will not abandon you!” These abandoned women had no where to turn for help and so ended up in the hands of the butcher shops of the legal assassins of defenseless unwanted babies. ALL MEN ARE CALLED TO GREATNESS!?!
36. Radical Feminism
One of the greatest forces working to DESTROY THE FAMILY and society is radical feminism. The goals of feminism are: the destruction of patriarchy; control of reproduction including contraception, abortion, and reproductive technologies; destruction of the fatherheaded family with divorce and illegitimacy made normal; all women in the workforce, no man able to support his family and free 24 hour day care; destruction of all-male institutions; total sexual liberation including sex for children, homosexuality, and bisexuality; destruction of worship of God as father.
Radical feminism is based on a worldview that is antithetical to biblical Christianity. The ethics of radical feminism lead naturally to sexual chaos, intergenerational conflict, and violence. Should such a worldview pervade public policy, society will become less egalitarian, more prone to use force in order to suppress dissent, and violent towards the weakest and most defenseless.
The roots of the feminism, as we know, are at variance with Christian principles. It argues from a massive discrimination of women by men, and urges women to revolt against men, thus destroying countless marriages and families. The most famous proponent of this ideology was KARL MARX and his disciple, Nikolai Lenin. They urged “a revolution depends upon the degree of participation by women.” On these terms, women’s liberation is simply part of the larger struggle for the eventual creation of a classless society.
Since the rise of Protestantism in the early 16th century, feminism has been constantly growing. However, the main reason for this growth has been the rise of Marxist Communism. The Catholic Church, we may say, is the principal target of radical feminism. Such ORGANIZATIONS as Catholics for a Free Choice; the lesbian Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual; the New Ways Ministries; the Loretto Women’s Network; Call to Action; the Association for Rights of Catholics in the Church; and the New Age movement are examples of how deeply feminism has penetrated Catholic circles.
Radical feminism is not only OPPOSED TO MASCULINITY OR FATHERHOOD. It is even more savage in its REJECTION OF MOTHERHOOD. The feminists are radically hostile to the mothering of children. In fact, the image of “mother” is just as much in need of transformation as the image of “father.”
The ENGLISH LANGUAGE has been specially used by the feminists to promote their ideology. One of the most radical changes of feminism is never to speak of God in the masculine gender. Why? Because to speak of God as “He” implies that God has mastery over the whole human race. This, in fact, may be said to be the radical foundation of feminism. At root, it is opposed to any faith in God who is Creator and Master of the universe.
37. The Battle of Battles
We are engaged in a fight for our lives. Immortal souls are at stake. “This dramatic situation of “the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one” (1Jn 5:19; 1Pt 5:8) makes man's life a battle: The whole of man's history has been the story of DOUR COMBAT with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity” (CCC 409).
Already in the mid to late 19th century Leo XIII and Pius XI warned us about the unholy movement to expunge God from society, universities, schools at every level, from our midst.
The worsening of the times will bring out a certain TEMPERING OF FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS in the faith in the crucible of trial and tribulation. In the past one might have been able to escape by being a Sunday Catholic. Not anymore! Now one must live the faith vigorously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to have a fighting chance. Difficult times drive people to extremes. Some people will be tempered. But for others it will drive them to the extremes of evil. People in the military and the police are generally good solid people. But we should remember that when things got so terrible Hitler and Stalin and all the other monsters of history never had any problem filling the ranks of the military and of the police with thugs. There will be a large number of people that are driven toward evil, and there will be some that are driven toward the extremes of highest sanctity. WHEN TIMES ARE DARK as in the night, the STARS SHINE MORE BRIGHTLY! This period of the “great tribulation” will bring out the best and the worst. Perhaps in past centuries one could get by with Sunday Mass attendance and a few prayers. But now one will have to give one’s whole heart, soul and life to Christ, even to the point of refusing to adore the image of the beast, the antichrist, and die of starvation or be tortured and killed! One cannot straddle the fence any longer! “No man can serve two masters…” (Mt 6:24; Lk 16:13)!
Not only do we have individuals failing, but we also have a MEDIA that is so good at keeping us absolutely blinded to our moral failure because they PROMOTE MORAL FAILURE AS THEIR KIND OF SUCCESS. Something that before might have seemed naughty, is now “cool” because you get on TV or in the newspapers etc. This complicity by the media, which is in the hands of the very few elite, is greatly encouraging immorality leading us rather quickly to disintegrate and to decompose as a society.
The media and so many other anti-God people also promote the false idea of the SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. But this is an absolute fallacy. The U.S. Supreme Court’s “Everson” decision in 1947 imposed an unconstitutional “Wall of Separation” between Church and State. This directly contradicted the vision of the founding fathers. Upon his farewell address to the nation, GEORGE WASHINGTON tried to impress upon his fellow countrymen that it was “Religion and Morality” that served as the foundation for our young nation. Unfortunately under this banner of “separation” many of our government representatives succeed in promoting atheism with the help of numerous judicial activists who do not do their job of applying the constitution and the laws, but make up the laws as they go along.
Roosevelt, who was a Mason, appointed 9 Supreme Court Justices; 6 were Masons and the other 3 espoused the Masonic philosophy. Truman, who followed Roosevelt, was a 33rd degree Mason. The Masons claim that Truman said that his greatest honor was not being president but being master of his Lodge. Truman appointed 4 Supreme Court Justices, all of whom were Masons, and Eisenhower appointed 2 Supreme Court Justices, all of whom were Masons. What we see objectively during this period of our American history is that when the court was dominated by Freemasons, they began taking establishment clause cases, the amendments of the constitution dealing with how the government will treat religion. During these judicial decisions by the Supreme court is where we came about with this doctrine of separation of Church and State in order to take God out of the public square. This is a Masonic doctrine that was first espoused by the established right in the New Age Journal, and finally forced upon us by our Masonic Supreme Court Justices in the first case: “Everson vs. the Board of Education, and cases thereafter. “Everson v. Board of Education”, 330 U.S. 1 (1947) was the seminal United States Supreme Court case in Establishment Clause law in the United States. In addition to incorporating the Establishment Clause (applying it to the States through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment), Everson was the beginning of a powerful separationist drive by the Court, during which many programs and practices given government sanction were found to have religious purposes or effects and thus invalidated. And so this notion of the separation of Church and State is totally antithetical to what our Judeo-Christian heritage given to us by our founding fathers. Christianity teaches that not only individuals, but societies, governments and countries must be subject to the kingship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Masonry wants to separate religion from public life in an effort to secularize public life in publics schools, etc. Masonry has been very vocal about this and we have seen this at the highest levels of our government. Visit: “Masonry Unmasked: An Insider Reveals the Secrets of the Lodge”, by John Salza (http://www.scripturecatholic.com/MU.pdf), and “Why Catholics Cannot Be Masons”, by John Salza.
“The separation of Church and State, brought about largely by Freemasonry, is evidence that Masonry is succeeding in it’s effort to bring about a New World Order of secularism.” – John Salza
“Remember that Christianity and Masonry are essentially irreconcilable, such that to join is to divorce the other.” - Pope Leo XIII
“Freemasons: The silent destroyers - deist religious cult based on the Knights Templar”: “Bilderberg Group: a powerful global elite,Group together with their 'sister' organisations-the Trilateral Commission (known also as the "Child of Bilderberg") and the Council on Foreign Relations plot the subversion and silent takeover of constitutional governments and world economy.” “Bilderberg Organiser is Head Mason's PA”: “And the Masonic connection shouldn't come as such a big surprise. The political class and professions featured at Bilderberg: banking; industry; royalty; the law; politics, are all associated with freemasonry. The chief mason's trusted PA has been organising secret conferences of European royalty and the heads of the Western world's oil and banking cartels. Any self-respecting democracy would put them under investigation for criminal conspiracy, treason at least.” (http://www.bilderberg.org/masons.htm).
“Freemasonry's Influence in Europe”; “Incompatible With Christian Religion, Says Historian”; “MADRID, Spain, JAN. 30, 2005 (Zenit.org).- To understand what is happening in Europe, the phenomenon of Masonry must be taken into account, says Protestant historian César Vidal. … The author explains that the Freemasons have an enormous role in the European Union and, by way of example, says that "the project of the European Constitution has been driven by a Freemason," Valéry Giscard D'Estaing, "who has excluded mention of the continent's Christian roots and, in addition, has insisted on the inclusion of an article that subjects the churches of the different nations but frees 'philosophical organizations' from that obligation." (http://www.zenit.org/article-12115?l=english).
“At this period, however, the partisans of evil seems to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons. No longer making any secret of their purposes, they are now boldly rising up against God Himself. They are planning the destruction of holy Church publicly and openly, and this with the set purpose of utterly despoiling the nations of Christendom, if it were possible, of the blessings obtained for us through Jesus Christ our Savior.”; (http://www.trosch.org/bks/freemaso.htm).
Look what they tried to do in the STATE OF CONNECTICUT in March 2009! For those unaware of what occurred, the incident revolved around a proposed state bill (S.B. 1098) that would change the way Catholic churches in the state are governed. The bishops argued that its provisions would have removed their ability to oversee their dioceses and individual pastors their parishes by dictating, among other things, that local congregations be allowed to elect 7 to 13 members of local parish boards. These boards would be the ultimate authority on all financial, legal and administrative issues and would, in effect, take control of the church from the hands of the bishops and priests and hand it over to the laypersons who sit on these boards.
Many times we have heard and lamented over the remark that the Catholic Church is but a "sleeping giant" and how often have we prayed that She awaken soon in time to save both our country and the world.
Bridgeport Bishop William E. Lori scathingly called the proposition an "irrational, unlawful and bigoted bill [that] jeopardizes the religious liberty of our church, and is a thinly veiled attempt to silence the Catholic Church." He went on to say that "the bill violates the First Amendment and by disconnecting parishes from their own pastors and bishops, runs contrary to the beliefs of the Catholic Church."
The bill unceremoniously died when after several days of intense debate and heated words, the public hearing on the legislation was abruptly cancelled by its sponsors. But what is interesting is the manner in which this reprehensible proposal came to die.
One only needs to look at what happened in Connecticut to realize that perhaps there is real hope that our beloved "sleeping giant" has not only awakened but is up on one knee. But this giant better hurry up and awake because there will be many more stones thrown at Her before it is all over!
38. The Romantic Model of Judging!
In listing his requirements for a Supreme Court pick, President Obama highlighted “EMPATHY” rather than loyalty to Constitutional principles. Now, we see what that means -- a judge who makes it clear she decides cases on feelings, not facts. She is a radical judicial activist who readily admits that she applies her personal political agenda when deciding cases.
In a speech at Duke Law School at 2005, Sotomayor (Supreme Court nominee) said that her own Court of Appeals -- not the democratically elected legislature -- is “where policy is made.” Taking such “judicial action,” she said in a 2004 speech, is part of the “heroics of judges today; it may dwell in protecting our own turf and ensuring that it is WE WHO INTERPRET THE LAW.”
In the past Sotomayor often made the statement: “I think a wise Latino woman would make a better decision in a judicial case than a white man”. Before the Senate, she repeats that this statement was a “misunderstanding”! But she said it many times in the last 30 years! It is not an isolated comment, she actually believes this. Her empathetic approach, endorsed by Obama, completely inverts and puts the idea of American justice on it’s head. Will each of us receive justice according to the law or according to a “wise Latino woman” or according to the whims of some other activist judge? Will we have anymore protection “under the law”? The many senators opposing Sotomayor sends the message that the next time there’s a vacancy on the Supreme Court, Americans will expect a nominee whose judicial philosophy upholds the Constitution not his or her own political ideology.
Sotomayor’s philosophy of radical judicial activism is exactly the thinking that led to the Supreme Court turning into the “National Abortion Control Board,” denying the American people the right to be heard on this critical issue. She will further entrench the Court’s self-appointed role as the sole arbiter of abortion policy. Based on her judicial philosophy, we expect her to elevate unrestricted, unregulated, and taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand to a fundamental constitutional right by reading the sweeping Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) into the Constitution (http://www.aul.org/).
There has been an enormous amount of emphasis on her personal story; her identity as a Hispanic woman, coming up from poverty, and that somehow that story has been put front and center. Is this the proper way to evaluate or vet a supreme court nominee?
Every judge, since the beginning of the Republic, has had to raise his or her right hand and swear the same oath. And this oath has a couple of things in it that are worth attention. He or she must swears to decide cases WITHOUT RESPECT TO PERSONS. That is it does not matter if the judge likes this person, if he feels empathy or sympathy for this person or if he identifies with this person; without fear or favor and without respect of persons. Some of the things Sotomayor has said makes one wonder whether she can raise her hand and swear to that.
Also in the oath a judge must swear to FAITHFULLY APPLY THE LAWS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE US. Again, if you belong to the school of thought, that many law professors unfortunately do, that it is OK to make it up as you go along, then I wonder how do they take that oath? How do they justify that?
THE ACTUAL OATH is: "I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as (title) under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God." Does not our US constitution state: “For the people and by the people”? Or does it state: “For the judges and by the judges”? I prefer to be judged under the law that I had a part in establishing rather being judged according to the personal ideas of a “wise Latino woman” or any other self interpreter of what is fair or what is not fair or right or just!
In a book that MARY ANN GLENDON wrote she formulated the oath that a lot of judges today would like to take: “I do solemnly swear to take into consideration the personal characteristics and qualities of the innocent defendants, and to interpret and apply the laws of the US in the fashion that seems best to me!” But that is not what they are putting their hand on the Bible and swearing to!
It is really important to find out what her philosophy of judging is. Glendon tries to not use activist and strict construction. The words that she uses are the “classical model” and the “romantic model”. The CLASSICAL MODEL is the model that is contained in that ancient, judicial oath, and really expresses not just American ideas but the fundamental ideas of fairness and justice that we all hope we will get from a justice system.
The ROMANTIC MODEL is more that of Earl Warren and Justice Douglas who feel that if they judge according to their idea of what is fair, then that will be fine. But does this not lead to tyranny, discrimination and ultimately terrible harm to our republic?
Is not the supreme court of California, and all supreme courts in America, not required under law to follow the VOTER-PASSED AMENDMENT that enshrined the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman in the state constitution (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09030506.html)? Is our country no longer “for the people and by the people” or have we complacent citizens allowed our country to become for the judges and by the judges? Is this not true and real dictatorship?!? But at least these judicial activists have been impeded a little in promoting atheism in the name of “separation of church and state”. On August 19th, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that Wisconsin prison officials violated an inmate's rights because they did not treat atheism as a religion: “ATHEISM IS [the inmate's] RELIGION, and the group that he wanted to start was religious in nature even though it expressly rejects a belief in a supreme being,” the Seventh Circuit declared.
39. The “Theocracy” Of “Atheism”?!?
It is true that no particular denomination or belief system should dictate their tenants or beliefs much as the Church of England did or the Catholic church did in Spain. But most of us do want believers to influence our country rather than non believers to influence our country. WHY CAN WE NO LONGER PRAY IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS OR HAVE MONUMENTS OF THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OR A NATIVITY SCENE IN PUBLIC? Why can we not mention the name of God as if His Holy Name is a curse word? Why has the religion of atheism dominated in our recent history? OUR FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD NEVER HAVE DREAMED of such a prohibition. Our founding fathers would never have dreamed of letting an extremely small minority of people, like Madeline Murray O'Hare and others like her, to take away from all “free Americans” our freedom to pray in our American public school. Our founding fathers would never have dreamed of legalizing abortion! Our founding fathers would never have dreamed of the possibility of our national government to even consider taking away the freedom of conscience for those doctors and hospitals who believe that it is murder to kill an unwanted, unborn human being! Is this not even worse that what the Church of England imposed on their subjects over 200 years ago? Our founding fathers would never have dreamed of the false interpretation of “separation of church and state” as it is used today to promote atheism.
Visit: “A Courageous High School Principal”; (http://god-politics.blogspot.com/2009/11/courageous-high-school-principal.html).
I see this stamped toward irresponsible “freedom” and personal pleasure (i.e., no regard for ones neighbor, especially the weaker ones) and the rejection of God far more of a danger today than falling into a theocracy, as some people fear. But we must remember that freedom can be enslaved. Freedom is not being able to do anything we want to do. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34). Freedom has limits. When we abuse freedom, we step outside the boundary set by GOD, and we suffer the consequences. Is a train more free off the railroad tracks or on the railroad tracks? Are we more free on the “tracks” of the Ten Commandments which one finds on the walls of our national government buildings (soon to be taken down!!!), or are we more free at the mercy and whims of political leaders and activist judges who make it all up as they go along? These liberals offer beautiful words like “Freedom of Choice (Act)”, “Pro Choice”, etc. But is not behind these slogans of “freedom” and “rights” A GREAT, DECEPTIVE LIE? The devil is “a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44)! Only the Creator offers true and lasting freedom (Jn 8:32)! “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8:36).
The US government has been forced to acknowledge atheism as a religion; this has helped to slow down this use of the false proclamation of “separation of church and state” to justify the promotion of atheism since atheism too is a “religion”. I agree with those who fear a “theocracy” but perhaps NOT in the way that they might have considered. Are we able to imagine the incredible tyranny of a “THEOCRACY” of the religion of “ATHEISM”??? “The truth shall set you free”! Only God can give true and lasting freedom. If we do not follow God and His laws of love of God and neighbor, we will end up being slaves to ourselves, to the world or to the devil. This is true slavery under the DICTATORSHIP OF A “THEOCRACY” OF ATHEISM!
Human beings who are made by God have an innate need for religion. Satan knows this and thus does not try to eradicate religion but rather offer a pseudo religion, a counterfeit Christianity without the cross of Christ incarnate in our lives. It will be a religion with beautiful words and trappings to hide the real substance of egoism and lack of self sacrifice in loving others, especially the weakest human beings.
If one studies THE WORDS AND THE INTENT OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS, this idea of “separation of church and state” did not have anything to do with what they are talking about today. Even the framing of the question is fallacious. Remember where our founding fathers came from. They came from England and they were oppressed. There was one church; it was the church of England. And they wanted to keep the state out of the affairs of the Church more than anything. And THEY WANTED TO INSURE THAT FREEDOM OF RELIGION, whatever religion that you choose, IS SAFEGUARDED. The place that one finds this phrase is in the Soviet Union’s constitution. Our constitution does not have, and will not have hopefully, separation of Church and state in the way that these Godless egotists in our government want and continue to propagate with tremendous force and perseverance. Our USA constitution stipulates the NON ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION BY THE CONGRESS.
For more information on the Judicial Confirmation, see: http://www.judicialnetwork.com/.
40. Renewal of the Church
Our Lady of Fatima said that we could still avert this TERRIBLE PUNISHMENT on all of humanity if there were enough prayers, sacrifices and penance offered to God. But Pope John Paul II, commenting on the 3rd Secret of Fatima while conversing with a small group of pilgrims in the cathedral square of Fulda, West Germany, in November 1980, said: "We have to be prepared to suffer, before long, great trials which will require of us the disposition to sacrifice even our life for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is still possible to diminish this trial, BUT IT IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE TO AVERT IT, because only in this manner can the Church be effectively renewed. How many times has the RENEWAL OF THE CHURCH BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT IN BLOOD! It will not be different this time."
Perhaps we could see the Mother of God as the vinedresser who pleaded with the owner of the vineyard to let the fig tree alone for one more year till he could “dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down” (Lk 13:6-9). Has humanity produced the fruits that the owner of the vineyard expected?
Truly, today, the Body of Christ, the Church, is being re-crucified! Those close to God understand this; St. Francis of Assisi, who suffered tremendously with the great gift of the stigmata, once exclaimed: “LOVE IS NOT LOVED!” Here on earth, we cannot imagine how much God loves each of us! But we are free to reject this love and not correspond with this love in many ways. “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt 7:13-14). And the Mother of Jesus, who loves each of us individually more than all the mothers in the world combined for their children, again sheds tears at the foot of the cross for the lose of so many of her dear children for all eternity!
After Our Lady of Fatima showed to the three shepherd children the NUMEROUS SOULS THAT FALL EACH DAY INTO HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY, she told them to offer as many sacrifices as possible, united with prayer and Jesus Crucified, especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, so as to offer the grace of conversion to these poor souls who have no one to pray and sacrifice for them. She taught them the prayer to say at the end of each mystery (decade) of the Holy Rosary: “Oh, my Jesus, forgive us our sins; save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy Mercy.”
Pope John Paul II wrote: "IT IS SUFFERING, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. Suffering, more than anything else, makes present in the history of humanity the powers of the Redemption. In that 'cosmic' struggle between the spiritual powers of good and evil, spoken of in the Letter to the Ephesians (Eph 6:12), human suffering, united to the suffering of Christ, "constitutes a special support for the powers of good, and opens the way to the victory of these salvific powers" (“On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering”, n.27; Feb. 11, 1984). To the world Good Friday was an abysmal failure; the disciples of Emmaus went away as so many today do not find meaning in life because they have not discovered one of the greatest mysteries and keys to life: suffering received, embraced and loved in union with Christ Crucified! Many people like “happy hours” at the bar, but not “joy hours” filled with the fruits of the Holy Spirit especially by way of embraced suffering in Jesus Crucified.
As CS LEWIS said, GOD whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but SHOUTS to us in our PAIN. Jesus is there for us, and while suffering does not cease to exist, what Jesus has done is take away all the power of suffering, strengthens us in mind or faith or body, and helps us get through it. Jesus will not stand by when we suffer: he is there to take the brunt of our suffering Himself, as He did on the cross. The answer to pain is Jesus' being by your side when you pray. God's goodness comes through pain.
“BUT WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1Cor 1:23-25)!
41. The “Tyranny Of Relativism”
These liberals promote the philosophical idea of PLURALISM that all ideas are equal and good. But this undercuts the opinion of the majority or what it means to be an American as well as the fact that there are legitimate emphasis and a hierarchy of values and truths. They say that they do not want everybody fighting so as to justify their claim that all ideas must be equally accepted. But this rejection of the difference of values, even from divine Revelation, ends up becoming in the society “might makes right”! Those in power can then manipulate the situation with various power plays. The atheistic or rather anti-God and anti-human ACLU certainly demands that people listen to and obey them, but there are no members of the ACLU that are willing to die for their cause as martyrs as so many Christians have done! G. K. CHESTERTON said: “When people loose their faith, they do not believe in nothing; they will believe in anything.” He also wrote: “Joining the Catholic Church does not mean leaving off thinking but learning how to think!” A few Protestant churches in Australia and Canada tried total pluralism in their congregations but the PEOPLE WALKED AWAY since the church leaders did not stand up for any particular position. This is a type of false ecumenism. This threatens the necessary unity of faith which Jesus prayed for (Jn 17) and what St. Paul urged for the early Christians (Eph 4:3, 13). Pluralism is actually radical relativism which leads to what Pope Benedict XVI refers to as the “tyranny of relativism”? If all is relative, then so too is relativism!
Relativism, according to Pope Benedict XVI, is "the most profound difficulty of our time." Pope John Paul II said it is a leading cause for lack of evangelistic and missionary zeal. And the late Allan Bloom, author of the controversial bestseller “The Closing of the American Mind”, said it is the only thing that many university students believe in.
In his homily at the Mass preceding the conclave that quickly elected him Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger said that "relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and ‘swept along by every wind of teaching,’ looks like the only attitude [acceptable] to today’s standards." He warned: "We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires." (http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/colson_relativism_may05.asp)
When a society throws out the laws and absolute truth from God and the great majority of people convince themselves that all is relative (except relativism!), then the society goes very quickly toward the law of force and strength: MIGHT MAKES RIGHT! The “law of the jungle” becomes the norm of default. You might say that relativism forms it’s own type of “gospel” in opposition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the “tyranny of relativism”! You can be sure, though, that “MIGHT” on earth, as well as in hell with the cruel dictator, Satan, is not relative! Just as in heaven, as well as on earth, LOVE is not relative either!
There is also the interior “tyranny of relativism”. We know that, in these modem times, to renounce asserting our independence and autonomy and to open ourselves to the power of God is often considered to be a humiliation or a form of alienation. The fact is, however, that by asserting our own independence we become closed within ourselves and in the end we run up against our own finite limitations. Is this not a real tyranny? Why do so many go to psychologists and psychiatrists today (“Sin as insanity”, http://www.tldm.org/news6/insanity.htm; “Depression: sin or disease?”, http://blogs.chron.com/thinkingchristian/2006/11/depression_sin_or_disease_1.html). “Number of Americans taking antidepressants doubles”; http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-08-03-antidepressants_N.htm.
If, instead, we open ourselves to God, we welcome into our lives One Who is greater than we are Who can truly help us to fulfil ourselves and find true happiness and joy.
In our times, unfortunately, we can see that in modern man there is a growing tendency to disregard God, because God is considered to be too demanding and uncomfortable. Under the influence of many factors, people want to put God aside by simply eliminating him from their lives as a useless and superfluous being. Behind this attitude there lies a cultural view which takes the conquests of science as its starting point and sets out to convince us that scientific and technological progress will more and more enable man to solve his problems and conquer the world on his own. Modern man therefore thinks he is self-sufficient and this is his great sin.
But where do such people go after they die if they do not repent beforehand? To the heaven that they created? Or have they convinced themselves and others, being little gods, that heaven does not exist and so they can live as they wish here on earth with no eternal consequences? Have they made themselves the criteria of reality and of salvation? This way of doing things seems to me very risky! When these self-made gods discover after death that they are not God, what will happen? They set themselves up as the criteria of salvation, not the real God. If these numerous little gods do not find a little humility and seek and work to discover the truth of the existence of God and His holy commandments while on earth, will God judge them innocent of not corresponding to the design stamped in their hearts of seeking, following and living the truth? After all, they say there is no God! If they are right, no problem. But if they are wrong, what happens? They will be judged severely precisely because they did not seek and accept the TRUTH, who is Jesus Christ, while they were alive on earth. Eternity is at stake and one cannot change anything after death! For so many people today their own ideas must do, they must have their own way, they are not open to higher truth. Humility makes it possible to see God and neighbor! God hides the full reality of heaven and hell, otherwise we would not be able to freely choose to be grateful and loving toward our Creator, or not. If we could see heaven only for an instant, it would be too incredibly beautiful and attractive to be able to sin again; we would die instantly of joy. If we could see hell for one instant and still live, we would never sin again due to inconceivable freight! Thus in both cases, we would no longer be free! God wants to know if we freely choose to seek to know, love and serve Him, OR NOT! The greatest joy in heaven is to see the face of God in the beatific vision. The greatest pain in hell is the total separation of the poor creature from it’s Creator; this pain is far worse than the incredible fires of hell! (http://www.ewtn.com/library/SPIRIT/LIFE_EV.TXT)
So many today do not want to pose to themselves the fundamental questions of life: why am I here; what is the sense of life; nothing comes from nothing and so where did the universe come from; … so as to begin a walk toward the truth of which God has left many tangible traces in His creation and revelation to mankind for those of good will! But without humility, we very easily fall for the primordial, continual and deadly temptation of Satan (Gen 3:4-5), “you will be like god, knowing good and evil!”
Who decides what is right and wrong, good and evil, truth and reality? One has to work very hard every day to stamp out the imprint of the Creator in the his heart and to reject the many daily inspirations and graces from God in order to convince himself that God does not exist! Thus when such a person dies, even if he says he does not believe in God, it will be revealed to him in an instant his whole life, including how hard he worked to deny and run from the truth stamped in his heart; this will be his judgment for all eternity! Whether one likes it or not, or believes it or not, man is made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27). NO ONE GOES TO HELL OR TO HEAVEN FOR ALL ETERNITY BY CHANCE! God will always respect our great gift of our free will and thus will never force anyone to spend eternity with Him in heaven or eternity without Him in hell! God created you without you, but He will not save you without you. The puppets of Satan, the proud modern philosophers, would make us to believe that each person becomes a god so we, by ourselves, decide what is reality and what is truth! The so-called “Age of Reason” actually turned reason on it’s head. There is very little enlightenment found in the “Period of the Enlightenment”! Secular humanism is bankrupt! For a believer in God-Love, René Descartes’ famous supposition “I think therefore I am” should read “I LOVE THEREFORE I AM”! “At that time Jesus declared; “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Mt 11:25; Lk 10:21).
The foundation of the easy and desirable acceptance of relativism seems to come back to the phrase, “Ignorance is bliss”! Ignorance of studying how a candidate voted in the past and only listening to nice rhetoric, speeches, promises and smiles IS BLISS. Refusing to discover that a fetus is truly a live human being by seeing an abortion so that we can easily kill “a blob of tissue” IS BLISS! To buy into our contraceptive culture is bliss even though it destroys our marriages. To shove our disagreeable parents or grandparents prematurely down the chute of death to save money and problems, IS BLISS. To interpret the Gospels according to our accommodation and comfort without the cross of Christ in our lives or to ignore the fact that Jesus refers to hell 70 times in the four Gospels which WE DECIDE does not exist, IS BLISS. We warn our child who is running toward an unseen cliff so he does not fall headlong to his death, but we do not want to discover how we will be judged after death according to the ONE who created all things; this IS BLISS. Oh, how happy the devil is today because he has succeeded in convincing so many that he does not exist, not hell, so we feel we can live as we decide; the devil delights in depriving God of the eternal company of as many of His creatures as possible!
Popes Pius XII and John Paul II wrote that THE GREATEST SIN IS THE LOSE OF THE SENSE OF SIN! Consider the sorrow and pain of a wife who loves her husband a tremendous amount but her husband does not respond to her love; the more she continues to love, the less he responds and thus the more pain and sorrow for her. Or consider a husband who loves his wife with all his heart and she does not respond. Perhaps this example might give us just a tiny drop of the pain and sorrow that Jesus suffered on the cross 2000 years ago due to our INDIFFERENCE TODAY! The majority of Catholics do not even have one hour a week to come to the Holy Mass to thank Jesus for all that they have received from Him: their very existence, their friends, their family, their capacity to have relationships, the death of their loving Savior for each one of us personally...! Sunday Mass attendance is a precept of the Church, the barebones beginning of practicing ones faith! Can we really pretend to spend eternity with Jesus when we do not have even one hour a week for Him here on earth? Or have we convinced ourselves, with the help of Satan, that hell does not exist, or if it does, we have decided that everyone goes to heaven according to our criteria which is not informed by Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition or any other revelation from God? The only thing that we take with us after death is our relationship or non-RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD and our love or lack of love for Jesus in each neighbor. If there is no relationship with God here on earth, then for all eternity we will have no relationship with Him because whatever relationship or lack of relationship we have with our Creator here on earth will continue for all eternity after our death. Behold what hell is; the TOTAL LACK OF GOD, more painful than all the fires and tortures of hell!
Jesus told St. Faustina regarding the LUKEWARM AND INDIFFERENT SOULS: "These souls cause Me more suffering than any others; it was from such souls that My soul felt the most revulsion in the Garden of Olives. It was on their account that I said: 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass Me by.' The last hope of salvation for them is to flee to My Mercy" (diary 1228).
"Everyone Against Abortion, Please Raise Your Hand!" (http://www.priestsforlife.org/images/index.aspx). Many want to conveniently believe the lie that abortion is only removing “A BLOB OF TISSUE”, even though with the sonogram we can even see how the baby suffers and tries to defend itself during an abortion! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THS2zZ4m260&NR=1). The baby, the fetus, in the mother is an independent living human being! It is said: “IGNORANCE IS BLISS!” But when one discovers the truth or is given the truth in their heart by God, it is decision time! The truth is for our good! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24). “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Mt 12:30; Lk 11:23).
There was a billboard on the side of a few public buses in Genova, Italy that read: “There is probably NO GOD, SO ENJOY YOUR LIFE.” This seems to insinuate as if with God you cannot enjoy life. But it also indicates that perhaps God does exist. If God does not exist, I have lost nothing. If God does exist, then those who live as if God does not exist have lost everything!
42. The Great Default of Religious Leaders!
It is good to know the truth before we die. While alive we can change everything with a good confession and a true change of life; after death nothing can be changed for all eternity! We need more religious leaders and laymen and laywomen to warn us of this eternal trap. Forewarned is forearmed! The Beast will be able to perform "signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect" (Mt 24:24; Mk 13:22; Rev 13:8; 19:20)! If more RELIGIOUS LEADERS had less FEAR OF HUMAN RESPECT and the courage to speak not only about the reality of sin (mortal, grave) and it’s consequences, but also about prophecy in the Bible and about the second coming of Christ, perhaps there would be less people swayed by Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults which speak in a mistaken way about the end of the world!
It is certainly DIFFICULT TO BE RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL LEADERS TODAY. But God gives more help and graces to those in authority if they ask for this help. Thus the judgment on bishops and priests will be very severe in the end if they do not preach the whole truth as taught by the Catholic Church, especially those truths which are uncomfortable and point directly to the need to suffer and to carry the cross of Christ and to avoid sin, such as the great sinfulness of artificial birth control (“Humanae Vitae”, 1968) and abortion. The priest is to bring God to a world that has forgotten God and seeks only power, money and sex! One of the primary jobs of priests is to shake up the great majority of people who feel they are OK and good, like everyone else, but in fact are motivated only by self interest even while doing things that seem good and holy to themselves and to others.
It is like the TWO POLES OF A BATTERY. If you preach only about the positive pole that God is love and merciful, which is essential and fundamental, without preaching about the negative pole of the need of sacrifice, the cross of Christ, the reality of mortal sin and hell, the current does not flow! The main tenet of the faith today is to be nice and super tolerant and to avoid strong positions against bad morality, and thus people do not dig into the truth. It is much easier and comfortable to imagine that it is almost impossible to commit a mortal sin as so many modern theologians try to convince us (contrary to CCC 1856-1861). Due to the lack of good preaching and example from our religious leaders, many take the easier path and convince themselves that God does not exist or no one knows (agnostisim!).
It is certainly more pleasant and agreeable for the pastors, priests and bishops to satisfy the people and to say what the people want to hear with a nice smile, and to preach with “our intelligence” and with our “cultural preparation”! Many preachers say they do not want to frighten the people! But what is true love? To provide for a nice life of 100 years or a beautiful life of eternity?
Sister Lucia Of Fatima said to Father Agostino Fuentes, the postulator of the cause of beatification of Giacinta e Francesco (December 26, 1957): “Our Lady is very displeased because it is not taken into account her message of 1917. Neither the good nor the bad have held them in consideration. Believe me my Father, the Lord will punish the world very soon; THE PUNISHMENT IS IMMANENT! Many nations will disappear from the face of the earth, many nations will be annihilated … WE DO NOT WANT TO FRIGHTEN THE SOULS, BUT IT IS AN URGENT APPEAL TO REALITY.”
So many parents today do not know how to say NO to their children here on earth! And thus they do not know how to say YES to eternal happiness! And then afterwards they ask why their children end up divorced and so many other problems? Is this true love? Love for who? Many bishops and priests today are like sleeping dogs who do not bark at the approach of the wolf. The last two generations, if not more, in America have received very poor catechesis. Most Catholics do not even know the Ten Commandments (not 10 suggestions!) so as to be able to have a minimal basis in order to form one’s conscience and to be able to examine one’s conscience before making a good confession. To all the negligent or false teachers out there,... your days are numbered. The Lord is taking back His Church.
Saint Padre Pio every once in a while drove insincere people out of his confessional. On one such occasion he threw out a mother of two daughters. Later Padre Pio, who could read the hearts and souls of people, revealed that this mother never disciplined her two daughters, never said NO even though these two daughters went around immodestly dressed. Padre Pio knew in his spirit that both of the daughters were already dead and both ended up in hell so he reviled the mother for this grave lack of doing her job as a mother!
The devil seeks, in everyway possible, to convince us that the devil and hell do not exist so that we do not put any effort into discovering our great lack of love and our hidden egotistical motives. If the devils do not exist, if there is no hell, then we all go to Heaven! And so we have nothing to fear?!? WHAT A DECEPTION! The first step of conversion is to realize that we are sinners. Today people are totally surrounded by the “tyranny of relativism”, each person is a little god on his own and determines for himself what is good and evil. What is right for you is OK; what is right for me is OK, and so on. The only thing that is not tolerated is the absolute truth from the Creator! People have lost the belief and connection with the Creator of all things who establishes absolute truth which can be found in His creation and in His divine revelation in Sacred Scripture interpreted by the One Church that He left us with the “Rock” as the guide and head. Pope Benedict XVI has often said that relativism is truly a “tyranny”! Priests and bishops must help people out of this grave diabolic trap of the “tyranny of relativism” to find true freedom, the true meaning of life and true happiness not only on earth but for all eternity. If the priests and bishops speak only about God as love and merciful and do not speak anymore about the reality of mortal sin and the reality of hell, many people end up believing there is not much need (or none whatsoever!) to ask for the mercy of God and thus the redemption is rendered useless and null. We no longer need Jesus Redeemer! So many people (Catholics) today do not understand anymore what is mortal sin and thus do not go to the sacrament of Confession regularly or do not go at all.
A great source of peace is authentic humility. Humility is absolutely essential for any union with God and spiritual progress. Humility is needed to discover the innate laws of nature around us and in us which are put there by the Creator as well as to seek, discover, believe and live God’s divine revelation . To refuse this inborn law is like not following the instruction manual of the car maker by putting Coca Cola in the gas tank and grapefruit juice in the crank case. Things do not work properly in our life if we arrogantly refuse to follow the revealed instructions of our Maker. Humility is also a prerequisite for being heard by GOD.
I posed a question to several people who work in the parishes: “When is the last time that you heard a priest say that it is a mortal sin to use artificial birth control and one must confess this grave sin and throw away the IUD’s and the pill before receiving the Most Holy Eucharist, otherwise one commits another mortal sin? The contraceptive mentality erodes and destroys the fundamental cell of society, the family.” ALL OF THEM SAID NEVER!
Is not THE GREATEST LOVE for another person to help that person to arrive to eternal salvation and happiness, rather than only comfort and feeling good during this very short life? One finds in the four Gospels Jesus referring to hell about 70 times, but we rarely hear about this today. Perhaps 100 years ago there were some who exaggerated the preaching of hell, fire and brimstone, without establishing the base of true love and mercy as well. But today the pendulum has gone totally to the other extreme to the great detriment of countless souls.
St. Augustine writes: “ “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.” And what must you shepherds hear? “Thus says the Lord: Behold I am superior to the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand” (Ez 34:9). Listen and learn, sheep of God: God requires his sheep from the wicked shepherds, and from them demands an account for the death of his sheep. For he says in another place through the same prophet: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved you life.” What is this, my brothers? You see how dangerous it is to keep silent? He dies, and rightly dies; he dies in his impiety and sin; for his heedlessness kills him. He might have found the living shepherd, who says, “As I live, says the Lord”; but since he has been heedless, no warning coming from the one appointed as watchman to give warning, he will justly die, and the watchman will be justly condemned. But if, says the Lord, you tell and impious man, “You will surely die”, when I have threatened him with the sword, and he neglects to avoid the sword hanging over him, and it falls and kills him, he will die in his sin; but you have saved your life. Therefore it is my part not to keep silent; it is yours , even if I should keep silent, to listen to the words of the shepherd from holy scripture. (Ez 33:7-9) (Office of Readings, week 25, Wednesday).
Why did Our Lady of Fatima show three young children a VISION OF HELL with countless souls falling into the abyss as sparks into the great fire? Lucia of Fatima said to Father Fuentes (1957) that the face of our Lady was always sad. Our Lady sheds tears for each and everyone of her children who fall into hell for all eternity, depriving their Creator of their company for all eternity! God totally respects our primordial gift of our free will, being created in His image (Gen 1:26-27). This is true love! It is not easy today to preach the whole truth! If you have holes in your shield, the devil is a very good shot, and he will shoot an arrow right through the holes and hit you. Pastors, priests and bishops must PREACH BOTH POLES OF THE BATTERY; both are essential for the current to flow, otherwise there is not true Love Who is also INFINITELY JUST!
Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said: “We don’t need a voice when everything is right; WE NEED A VOICE WHEN EVERYTHING IS WRONG.”
Read the encyclicals and writings of Pope Benedict XVI and watch EWTN!
43. The “Mark of the Beast”, 666
Some scholars of prophecy SPIRITUALIZE just about all of the Book of Revelation, the book of Daniel and other prophetic writings of Sacred Scripture. These scholars interpret the mark of the beast in a general way as sin, or perhaps as a particular type of serious sin. But these prophetic books indicate that in the latter times each person will be confronted with a concrete and fundamental choice between God and Satan in the form of the beast. Many believe that the solution or rather the next step of these powerful people, when they are ready, after they crash the economy of the world, will probably be to entice all to receive AN EMBEDDED MICROCHIP, without the prefix 666, at least in the beginning, which can be followed and monitored by satellite or perhaps by the cell phone infrastructures or by other newly developed technology. With this microchip one will be able to buy and sell without cash, but totally monitored. This imbedded microchip will render them, and later the Antichrist, the absolute dictators of the world even down to the individual level with the use of computers and satellites and modern technology! Indications have recently surfaced that the microchip will have the capability of releasing a poison to eliminate undesirable people or those who do not totally submit to the dictates of the leaders (or leader, the Antichrist) of the New World Order.
“The [Death] Chip is at the Tip of the Needle”; (http://www.liberamenteservo.it/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=3221). “Microchip Implants Ready To Be Used With Swine Flu Vaccines - The Chip Is Located In The Tip Of The Needle”; (http://loveforlife.com.au/content/09/09/15/microchip-implants-ready-be-used-swine-flu-vaccines-chip-located-tip-needle).
“Bird-Pig Flu, Desperate Military Weapon Against Americans”; (http://www.informamerica.net/Bird-Pig_Flu,_Desperate_Military_Weapon_Against_Americans.html).
“Injectable Microchips and Swine Flu Vaccinations; LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER; Next step in H1N1 scare: Microchip implants; Company developing under-the-skin devices to detect ‘bio-threats’.” … “The far left health care bill HR3200 is a non-discussed section titled National Medical Device Registry implantable device . Its at the end of the health care bill . I found it. Subtitle C-11 Sec 2521 VeriChip Corporation was FDA approved for implants. VeriChip is subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions. Also look up VeriGreen Energy Corp its part of VeriChip Corp. We will be chipped and tracked. Get the word out, its hidden. The chip will be linked to database.”; (http://contendingfortruth.com/2009/09/injectable-microchips-swine-flu-vaccinations/).
Many believe that the technology for an implantable microchip that can be tracked by satellite is a long way off. But perhaps not! “UK Plans To Microchip And Track Criminals Via Satellite”; http://inrepair.net/2008/01/14/uk-plans-to-microchip-and-track-criminals-via-satellite/. “Microchip implants to track criminals by GPS are here!; Czech Penal Code”; http://prague.tv/forum/microchip-implants-to-track-criminals-by-gps-are-here:9422. “Discussion about Secret Bilderberg Agenda To Microchip Americans Leaked ... Who knows what kind of technology the bildebergers have or where they got it. ...”; http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread362195/pg2.
“Every child will have a tag”; BANGALORE: A new technology will now make it possible to `bar code' each child, who can be tracked from birth to adulthood, through a comprehensive Child Tracking System (CTS); (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/bangalore/Every-child-will-have-a-tag-/articleshow/4278780.cms).
The leaders of the New World Order hope to be able to track every human being on the face of the earth directly by satellite. But the cell phone infrastructures and other technologies already in place would work just as well or could also be linked to satellite. It seems that they are already implanting the microchip under various guises, such as for medical reasons, lost children, etc. But more recently there is much evidence that they are including the ever smaller microchip in the swine flu vaccination, insisting, by way of the mass media and their puppets in power in the various nations, that the swine flu vaccination or whatever else they concoct, is absolutely necessary. With the overblown threat of a pandemic, they are already preparing mass graves for the populations in many countries. To many well informed professional people regarding this matter, it seems much more plausible that these mass graves are not being prepared for the deaths due to the swine flu or some other exaggerated pandemic, but for those to be eliminated by the world master planners. When, in the past, have governments ever prepared mass graves before an epidemic became a real problem?
“Swine flu mass graves planned for London”; (http://www.thelondonpaper.com/thelondonpaper/news/london/swine-flu-mass-graves-planned-for-london). “US swine flu mass graves planning”; (http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread493894/pg1).
“Refusing Vaccination Labels You A 'Criminal', So Says W.H.O.” (July 30, 2009) “The World Health Organization determined in 2005 it has the authority to dissolve sovereign governments and take control should there be a “pandemic”. This applies to any country signed onto WHO….which of course we (U.S.) are. The WHO just raised this non-existent pandemic to level 4.”; (http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/health/vaccinations/news.php?q=1250020122).
Most people do not want to hear these things or even consider this possibility. “Ignorance is bliss!” Most people put out of their mind the possibility that a person with a nice smile and beautiful words could become another Hitler, Stalin or Mao Tse Tung, who killed millions of their own people and others in the last century. “After all we are more intelligent and sophisticated today!” But as I said to my cousins who voted for Obama, if a person promises, if elected, to sign FOCA as the first thing he would do as president, that person is CAPABLE OF ANYTHING! At the beginning people were happy with Hitler, Stalin and other cunning heads of state. If a person is not right with God, or as we say as Catholics, not in the state of grace with no intention of regret or sorrow or repentance, what’s to stop him or her from doing all the atrocious things of the past and even worse? And we, who are not right with God and have no intention whatsoever of seeking God’s truth and to live by that truth, very easily believe their lies. As Adolf Hitler said: “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough it will be believed!”
These egotistical world leaders do not need six or seven billion slaves; they need to eliminate a few billion! The infamous Club of Rome is certainly clear about who they think the "enemy" is.....
"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill…. But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap of mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. THE REAL ENEMY, THEN, IS HUMANITY ITSELF."; (http://signsofthelastdays.com/archives/the-radical-population-control-and-eugenics-agenda-of-the-global-elite).
The Book of Revelation indicates that in order to receive the mark of the beast one will have to ADORE THE IMAGE OF THE ANTICHRIST, the “first beast” (Rev 13,11-18) and thus deny Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world and the Son of the living God! Of course no one can be forced to adore the image of the Antichrist and to deny Christ. Certainly one can be tortured or starved to death, but we still have our free will. The devil knows well that it is NOT A SIN TO BE FORCED TO TAKE THE “MARK OF THE BEAST” which could very well take on the form of the microchip. But it looks like most of the true followers of Christ will be forced to die of starvation, or even be tortured and killed, in order to not deny Jesus and go to heaven. Many prophecies indicate that the great majority will deny Jesus in order to receive the mark of the beast in order to eat and buy things but then will later be punished by God here on earth (Rev 16:2) as well as for all eternity in hell (Rev 14:9-11).
No one goes to hell or to heaven for all eternity by force or by chance! God himself guarantees and protects our great gift of the freedom to choose good or evil. It is not God who condemns a person to hell; it is the person who freely chooses to go to hell. Someone who is kicking and screaming to avoid spending eternity with God will not be forces against his or her will! Thus those who have already taken the microchip obviously have not denied Christ and thus there is no sin. But, if for no other reason, the incredible surveillances that one would be subjected to with the microchip is not befit of our dignity as free human beings created in the image of the Triune God (Gen 1:26, 27)! Up to this point in time, the microchips have been used for our dogs and cats!
But those who have already been unknowingly injected or duped into taking the microchip, can later be given the mandate to deny Christ and adore the image of this soon-to-appear world leader. If they refuse to deny their God, they will no longer be able to buy or sell in a cashless society or else a deadly poison will be released by the remote controlled microchip already in their bodies. It seems that right now they are in the stage of covertly and shrewdly getting as many people “chipped” as possible by way of a supposed pandemic or other highly promoted pretexts. Certainly there are real health threats today. But these Godless masters of the world use all possible ways, including media hype and psychological manipulation to arrive at their goal. We are not animals! Human beings have a great God-given dignity which is not at all recognized or acknowledged by these Godless secularists who are now in control of our world.
“US Faces H1N1 Flu Vaccine Shortage”; "You talk about it ahead of time and make sure they understand they need the shot," Tim Rigby explained, "that they're going to get the shot." (http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-29-voa10.cfm). Take a good look at the image in this article; each injection has it’s own syringe! How else would one be able to identify the unique identity of each microchip inside each syringe?!?
“1 Million More Doses of Swine Flu Vaccine on Hand”; (http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/10/28/1-million-more-doses-of-swine-flu-vaccine-on-hand.html).
“$1000 Per Day Fine And 30 Days In Jail For Refusing The Swine Flu Vaccine In Massachusetts?”; (http://thebirdflupandemic.com/archives/1000-per-day-fine-and-30-days-in-jail-for-refusing-the-swine-flu-vaccine-in-massachusetts).
“Swine flu threat greater than terrorism, says Home Secretary”; (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/5864197/Swine-flu-threat-greater-than-terrorism-says-Home-Secretary.html).
“UN holds swine flu crisis talks”; (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8094442.stm).
The world planners are now in the stage of covertly and gently leading people to receive the microchip using the mass media filled with well studied psychological methods and exaggerated pandemic scare tactics. But when they are ready and they cause a major crisis or cause the world markets to crash, they will attempt to force everyone else to take this dreadful injection of the “death chip”.
44. Do Not Deny Christ!
Perhaps one might think he can adore the image of the Antichrist outwardly but confess Jesus Christ inwardly in order to receive the "mark of the Beast" (666; Rev 13:18). But this will not work! Because those who receive this mark on "their right hand or in their foreheads" will be able to "buy or sell" for a while but will later be punished by God here on earth (Rev 16:2) as well as for all eternity in hell (Rev 14:9-11). Saint Paul very clearly writes: "If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved" (Rom 10:9). Jesus said: "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 10:32-33). For other verses regarding falsely professing Jesus Christ see: Mk 7:6; Lk 16:15; Tit 1:16; Mt 7:21-23.
The more one sins and the less one prays, the more one becomes blind to reality and to the truth. "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2Thess 2:11-12). Have not the vast majority of people and Christians (including Catholics) yielded to THE FIRST AND MOST FUNDAMENTAL AND CONTINUAL TEMPTATION OF SATAN? “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:4-5).
Today so many have put themselves in the place of God by deciding by themselves that abortion and so many other sins against the 10 commandments and against all the revelations of God is OK! Many church goers use religion for their own personal motives and desires or even to justify or camouflage their un-Godly, subtly and hidden egotistical behavior rather than to use religion to seek, to discover and to DO THE WILL OF GOD. They say in the Our Father “Thy will be done”, but only if it is “my will”. Many Christians come to church to feel good and holy, to satisfy themselves, but not to satisfy the ONE who gave them everything they have! Christians want to consider themselves “good Christians”, but the great majority of Christians “all look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil 2:21). When such a person dies, Jesus will say: “You cannot spend eternity with Me in paradise because you made up and lived by the truth according to yourself; you did not seek the truth outside of yourself in My creation and above all in My divine revelation in Sacred Scripture explained by the Church, with the Rock, that I left you.”
Since most people want to feel saved, most Christians today pick and choose from the Gospel and from the ten commandments that which suits them and ignore or reject the rest. So too most Catholics today have a cafeteria type religion, picking and choosing from the Church’s teachings that which suits them and that which they alone decide they will accept. That which God gave to Moses on the stone tablets, are 10 commandments, not 10 suggestions. The definition of heresy is, 'pick and choose'….
Pope John Paul II (among many other occasions) spoke firmly against this “PICK AND CHOOSE SMORGASBORD TYPE CATHOLICISM” in LA in his September 1987 visit: "It is sometimes reported that a large number of Catholics today do not adhere to the teaching of the Church on a number of questions, notably sexual and conjugal morality, divorce and remarriage. Some are reported as not accepting the Church's clear position on abortion. It has also been noted that there is a tendency on the part of some Catholics to be selective in their adherence to the Church's moral teachings. It is sometimes claimed that dissent from the Magisterium is totally compatible with being a "good Catholic" and poses no obstacle to the reception of the sacraments. This is a grave error that challenges the teaching office of the bishops of the United States and elsewhere. I wish to encourage you in the love of Christ to address this situation courageously in your pastoral ministry, relying on the power of God's truth to attract assent and on the grace of the Holy Spirit which is given both to those who proclaim the message and to those to whom it is addressed"; taken from the address of Pope John Paul II to the bishops of the United States in Los Angeles on September 16, 1987.
For most people there is a fundamental lack of trust in God Who truly loves each of His creatures immensely and thus there is a lack of trust that His perfect plan for each of us, from all eternity, is the best and greatest design for each of us. Most people are unwilling to suffer and to trust God more than themselves in order to carry out and fulfill this great design for each of us.
We so easily tend to be self-centered and do not think of how much Jesus suffered for us. A good mother suffers more than the child when the child chooses what will hurt the child. So too God “suffers” more than we when we choose evil rather than good. I truly believe that when Jesus cried out on the cross “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34), he suffered more than all the suffering and pain of all the souls combined on earth, in hell and in purgatory for all time! Jesus said to St. Faustina: “My daughter, know that your ardent love and the compassion you have for Me were a consolation to Me in the Garden [of Olives] (Diary, No. 1664).
Chiara Lubich wrote the well-known text "I have only one Spouse on earth: Jesus Forsaken..." on 20 September 1949. She explains it to us in the following talk (http://www.centrochiaralubich.org/index.php/en/documents/videos/54-gesu-abbandonato.html).
45. ONE Antichrist in Particular
There are also those who say there are many antichrists but not one in particular. But this idea is contrary to 1Jn 2:18: "Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour." The Catechism of the Catholic Church also indicates that there will be one Antichrist in particular: 675: "Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers (Cf. Lk 18:8; Mt 24:12). The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth (Cf. Lk 21:12; Jn 15:19-20) will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh” (Cf. 2Thess 2:4-12; 1Thess 5:2-3; 2Jn 7; 1Jn 2:18.22).
Very often Catholic commentaries on the Book of Revelation say that most or all of it was fulfilled in the early Church or in later Church history (preterism and historicism).
We find in the commentary on the NEW AMERICAN BIBLE: “A beast, symbolizing the Roman empire, then becomes the dragon's agent, mortally wounded but restored to life and worshiped by all the world (Rev 13:1-10). A second beast arises from the land, symbolizing the antichrist, which leads people astray by its prodigies to idolize the first beast” (Rev 13:11-18).
In the CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA (1917) we find: (Rev 13:1) “This first beast with seven heads and ten horns, is probably the whole company of infidels, enemies and persecutors of the people of God, from the beginning to the end of the world. The seven heads are seven kings, that is, seven principal kingdoms or empires, which have exercised, or shall exercise, tyrannical power over the people of God; of these, five were then fallen, viz.: the Egyptian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Persian, and Grecian monarchies: one was present, viz., the empire of Rome: and the seventh and chiefest was to come, viz., the great Antichrist and his empire. The ten horns may be understood as ten lesser persecutors.”
(Rev 13:3) “One of his heads…”. “Some understand this as the mortal wound, which the idolatry of the Roman empire (signified by the sixth head) received from Constantine; which was, as it were, healed again by Julian the Apostate.”
(Rev 13:11) “Another beast...” “This second beast with two horns, may be understood of the heathenish priests and magicians; the principal promoters both of idolatry and persecution.”
But as indicated above, 1Jn 2:18 as well as CCC 675 clearly state that there will be ONE ANTICHRIST IN PARTICULAR. The Catechism indicates that this Antichrist will appear in the future: “Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial.” Most scholars interpret the first beast in Rev 13:1-10 as the Antichrist. This would imply that the second beast in Rev 13:11-18 is also a real particular person who will work “great signs” in order to entice all to “worship the image of the (first) beast”, the Antichrist.
“And I saw, issuing from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet, three foul spirits like frogs…” (Rev 16:13). “And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had WORKED THE SIGNS by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image” (Rev 19:20; Rev 20:10).
MOST CATHOLIC SCHOLARS believe that the correct method of interpreting the Book of Revelation is a blending of the preterist and futurist methods. The beast is both Rome and the eschatological Antichrist, as well as any demonic power which the Church must face in her entire history.
46. The False Prophet
The super rich and powerful of today who control the banks and the petroleum and so many other things of the world, are not satisfied; they have had an incredible amount of patience, many of them never living to see their final goal achieved. It seems that they now have their representatives (puppets) in just about all the key positions in the world EXCEPT ONE. In their pride, these powerful people are dumbfounded and amazed that with all their tremendous efforts and power and wealth and even infiltration, they have not yet been able to put their man in as Pope. Obviously they do not believe in God or in the words of Jesus that “the gates of hell shall not prevail” (Mt 16:18). But surely the smoke of Satan has entered the Church. The stones of the temple are cracked and the smoke seeps in. Many learned Catholics believe that they will finally resort to violence (most likely covertly) when the opportune moment has arrived.
There are many indications that the FALSE PROPHET, the second “beast” (Rev 13:11-18) will be a TRAITOROUS CATHOLIC BISHOP OR CARDINAL. It was the learned opinion of the eminent, 20th Century scripture scholar, Father E. SYLVESTER BERRY, that in the 12th and 13th chapters of the book of Revelation, John foretells of an usurpation of the papal see by the false prophet of Antichrist resulting in great tribulations befalling the Catholic Church. Fr. Berry points out that it is the papacy which is the principal target of those who seek to establish the reign of Antichrist. Heresy, schism and the introduction of false worship upon the altars of Catholic churches are, thus, to be the direct results of the removal of the TRUE Pope from the See of Rome, and subsequent occupation of the Chair of Peter by the forces of Antichrist.
The ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN, TV personality in the 50’s and 60 said: “The false prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion to destroy other religions. The false prophet will create his own religion. Satan will crown the false prophet among our own Bishops.”
Many Fathers of the Church wrote that the False Prophet would be a Catholic bishop who will become an INVALID anti-pope while the real Pope dies a cruel death in exile.
It is interesting that ST. HILDEGARD of BINGEN (d. 1179) wrote that when the new Pope is elected immediately before the Antichrist, a cardinal will kill the elected pope before he is crowned through jealousy, he wishing to be Pope himself. Then when the other cardinals elect the next Pope this cardinal will proclaim himself (anti) Pope, and two-thirds of the Christians will go with him. She notes that this Antipope as well as the Antichrist are descended from the tribe of Dan.
If this private revelation of St. Hildegard turns out to be true, is it possible that this Antipope, who will appear “IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE ANTICHRIST”, might be the FALSE PROPHET predicted in the book of Revelation (Rev 16:13; 20:10; chap. 13 etc.) who will work hand in hand with the first "beast", the Antichrist, to subdue the world, performing also miracles (Rev 13:13-15; 19:20)?
Thus all of these authors indicate that sometime in the future there will be an INVALID, false antipope occupying the Chair of Peter. But as Christ promised “the gates of hell would not prevail” against the “Rock”, the true, VALID, living Pope (Mt 16:18).
The devil realizes that man has an innate need for religion. Thus Satan does not try to eradicate religion but to offer a “Christian” or “Catholic” religion “without a cross” as Fulton Sheen indicated. The Gospel tells us that the strong must help the weak. But this new religion will be the religion of the strong at the expense of the weak.
47. No Public Holy Mass?
Our dispensationalist brothers do not understand or believe THE INCREDIBLE VALUE OF THE HOLY MASS. In the book of Daniel we find that “the continual burnt offering was taken away … For two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state” (Dan 8:11-14; 11:31). “And from the time that the continual burnt offering is taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days” (Dan 12:11).
“And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator” (Dan 9;27).
Do these passages indicate that during this period there will not be any public Holy Mass? The past dictators of the world did all they could to eliminate the public celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. PAST DICTATORS have almost always killed as many priests and bishops of the Catholic Church as possible as an effective way of greatly reducing the flow and influence of truth and graces. I believe this time around, since the followers of Satan have succeeded in slowly seducing (and even infiltrating into the clergy many of their own men) most of the clergy, the priests and bishops will probably be given the CHOICE TO TOTALLY SUBMIT TO THE “NEW WORLD ORDER” OR BE TORTURED AND KILLED. Priests and bishops have a considerable influence; Satan would be very delighted to not waste and to be able to use this influence for his evil designs as much as possible. When the Generals and Officers in a war defect to the enemy’s side, it is a very great help to the enemy, especially if these officers bring with them many of their followers! Consider the devastating effects of traitorous bishops and priests in the history of the Church. Dr. Adam Weishaupt not only founded the Freemassons, he was also a Jesuit! Lucifer was the most beautiful and intelligent angel ever created; he became Satan! The more a creature has received from God the more he can freely use these gifts to serve God or the more he can freely choose to use these powers and talents against God and against God’s true followers. The corruption of the best is the worst!
Sister Lucia of Fatima said to Father Agostino Fuentes, the postulator of the cause of beatification of Giacinta e Francesco (December 26, 1957): “Our Lady is very displeased because it is not taken into account her message of 1917. Neither the good nor the bad have held them in consideration. Believe me my Father, the Lord will punish the world very soon; THE PUNISHMENT IS IMMANENT! Many nations will disappear from the face of the earth, many nations will be annihilated. Russia will be the scourge chosen by God to punish humanity, if we, with prayer and the sacraments do not obtain the grace of its conversion. The devil knows that the religious and priests, living less their beautiful vocation, drag many souls to hell. It is now the time to halt the punishment of Heaven. We have at our disposition TWO EFFICACIOUS MEANS: Prayer and Sacrifice. We do not want to frighten the souls, but it is an urgent appeal to reality. From the time when the Virgin gave such a great efficaciousness to the Rosary, there does not exist any material, spiritual, national or international problem that cannot be resolved by way of THE HOLY ROSARY AND BY OUR SACRIFICES. Our Lady expressly said: “We are nearing the end times”.
She said it three times:
First she stated that the devil has engaged in a decisive battle.
The second time she repeated that the last remedies given to the world are: the Holy Rosary and the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The third time she said that, the other means exhausted and despised by men, He will give with trembling the last anchor of salvation which is the Most Holy Virgin in person, signs of tears, messages of several seers spread in all the parts of the earth. Our Lady said that if we do not listen and if we still offend we will not be pardoned. Father, it is urgent that we realize this terrible reality. We do not want to fill the souls with fear, but only it is urgent a recall to reality. From when the Holy Virgin gave such a great efficaciousness to the Rosary, there does not exist any material, spiritual, national or international problem that cannot be resolved with THE HOLY ROSARY AND WITH OUR SACRIFICES. To recite it with devotion will be to consol Mary and to wipe away so many tears from her Immaculate Heart.”
And what and where will the “ABOMINATION THAT MAKES DESOLATE” be set up (Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; 2Thess 2:4; Mt 24:15; Mk 13:14)? Certainly the elimination of all public Masses and sacraments is a very great abomination. But if these Scriptural passages indicate a particular place on the earth as “the abomination”, perhaps our dispensationalist brothers might shed some light about the explanation of one particular abomination? See "The Abomination of Desolation" below.
48. The Prophecies of St. Malachy
Jesus tells us: "Truly I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Mt 24:34-35; Mk 13:31; Lk 21:33; 16:17; Mt 5:18). Only God the Father knows the day and the hour (Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32) of the second coming of the Lord, but we can "know that it is near, even at the doors" (Mt 24:33,36). Besides the Marian apparitions there are also numerous other prophecies. St. Malachy (1094-1148) born at Armagh, Ireland, died as he himself predicted, on November 2, 1148 at Clairvaux, France. Saint Malachy was a 12th century Irish monk, who, while on a visit to Rome had a vision of all the popes who would ever reign. Saint Malachy predicts that the 112th pope after his death would be the last pope which corresponds to the pope following Pope Benedict XVI. He writes in the 112th prophecy: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Petrus Romanus, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations ; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people.” I personally believe that this will be the point of the second coming of Jesus Christ.
49. Unresolved Questions!
As we have seen above the Catholic Church teaches that “the system of mitigated Millenarianism cannot be taught safely" (CCC 676). The Church interprets Revelation 20 symbolically and sees the millennium not as an earthly golden age in which the world will be totally Christianized with Christ bodily present on earth, but as the present period of Christ’s rule in heaven and on the earth through his Church, during which time Satan is bound in such a way that he cannot deceive the nations by hindering the preaching of the gospel (Rev 20:3).
With this Catholic interpretation in mind, who then are those WHO “WERE BEHEADED for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the Beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Rev 20:4)? If this period of “a thousand years” in this passage refers to the last 2000 years, then who are those referred to in this passage in such great detail? It seems clear that this prophecy has not occurred yet. Is it possible to interpret this particular passage as referring to the Kingdom of God with his saints in heaven after the period of the “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21)?
Could it then be interpreted that THE BINDING OF SATAN for a thousand years (Rev 20:3) refers to the period from the incarnation of Christ up to our recent times, but before the “great tribulation”? “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while” (Rev 20:1-3).
“And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, …” (Rev 20:7-8). Could this passage (as well as “After that he must be loosed for a little while”) refer to THE VISION OF POPE LEO XIII in 1884? Could these passages, as well as the vision of Pope Leo XIII, refer to approximately the last 100 years or so together with the period of the coming “great tribulation”?
Exactly 33 years to the day prior to the great Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, that is, on October 13, 1884, Pope Leo XIII had a REMARKABLE VISION. When the aged Pontiff had finished celebrating Mass in his private Vatican Chapel, attended by a few Cardinals and members of the Vatican staff, he suddenly stopped at the foot of the altar. He stood there for about 10 minutes, as if in a trance, his face ashen white. Then, going immediately from the Chapel to his office, he composed the prayer to St. Michael, with instructions that it be said after all Low Masses everywhere. When asked what had happened, he explained that, as he was about to leave the foot of the altar, he suddenly heard voices - two voices, one kind and gentle, the other guttural and harsh. They seemed to come from near the tabernacle. As he listened, he heard the following conversation:
The guttural voice, the voice of Satan in his pride, boasted to Our Lord: "I can destroy your Church."
The gentle voice of Our Lord: "You can? Then go ahead and do so."
Satan: "To do so, I need more time and more power."
Our Lord: "How much time? How much power?
Satan: "75 to 100 years, and a greater power over those who will give themselves over to my service."
Our Lord: "You have the time, you will have the power. Do with them what you will."
The prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII is the following:
SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host - by the Divine Power of God - cast into hell, Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
On Sunday April 24th 1994, Pope John Paul II recommended this prayer to be used by all Catholics as a prayer for the Church when he said:
'"May prayer strengthen us for the spiritual battle we are told about in the Letter to the Ephesians: 'Draw strength from the Lord and from His mighty power' (Ephesians 6:10). The Book of Revelation refers to this same battle, recalling before our eyes the image of St. Michael the Archangel (Revelation 12:7). Pope Leo XIII certainly had a very vivid recollection of this scene when, at the end of the last century, he introduced a special prayer to St. Michael throughout the Church. Although this prayer is no longer recited at the end of Mass, I ask everyone not to forget it and to recite it to obtain help in the battle against forces of darkness and against the spirit of this world."'
- - - - - - -
DOES THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST OCCUR AT THE END OF THE “GREAT TRIBULATION”? "The present time … ushers in the struggles of the last days" (CCC 672). “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be” (Mt 24:21). Does “and never will be” indicate that the Second Coming will not be immediately at the end of this period? Also Our Lady of Fatima said: “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph and THE WORLD WILL BE GRANTED A TIME OF PEACE.” Does this indicate that Christ will return at the end of the period of tribulation or after the “time of peace” which will follow the period of tribulation?
In the last century or so the Holy Spirit has sent to the world TREMENDOUS CHARISMAS that would seem to lay the foundation for a true Christian rebirth after a cleansing period, in particular the charisma of Unity by way of God’s instrument, Chiara Lubich. This seems to also indicate that the Second Coming might not be immediately after this coming tribulation period!? The great charisma of Saint Francis of Assisi was basically for his first order for men, the second order for women, and the third order for some laypeople. But this charisma of Unity is seen and understood by many experts today as not only for all people of all walks of life but even for the renewal of all facets and sectors of society, culture, economics, sociology, politics, psychology, etc.
50. The Numerous Apparitions of Our Lady
Pope Benedict XVI wrote in the book "The Ratzinger Report" (1985): "One of the signs of our times is that the announcements of 'Marian apparitions' are multiplying all over the world." There are many private revelations, in particular of Our Lady, in the last century, which indicate a great chastisement that is about to befall the world. Usually in these apparitions Our Lady encourages us to: meditate on the Passion of Our Lord, do much penance, pray and make many sacrifices for the conversion of sinners, receive and visit often the Blessed Sacrament, frequent confessions, do good works for ones neighbor, make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, consecrate oneself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and pray the daily Rosary. Our Lady tells us that if enough people do these things the chastisement can be averted or at least diminished. Some of the numerous apparitions of Our Lady include: La Salette, France (1846); Fatima, Portugal (1917); St. Faustina (1925-1938; about the Second Coming; diary: 429; 848, 965, 1160, 1588, 1146, 635, 1732); Akita, Japan (1973 – 1981) (http://www.miraclerosarymission.org/akita.htm); etc.
In the final message of the Blessed Virgin, October 13, 1973, at AKITA, JAPAN she said to Sister Agnes Sasagawa: "As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be A PUNISHMENT GREATER THAN THE DELUGE, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The SURVIVORS will find themselves so desolate that they WILL ENVY THE DEAD. The only arms that will remain for you will be the Rosary and Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the pope, the bishops, and the priests."
51. The Maya Calendar
God created the entire universe in view of His Son Jesus Christ as well as His Body, the Church. THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM has fascinated many for centuries. For millennia, believers, scoffers and the curious have wondered at the Biblical account of the Star. The Bible recounts unusual, or even impossible astronomical events at Christ's birth. For many doubters, the account of the Star is easily dismissed as myth. For many believers, it's a mystery accepted on faith. But what happens if we combine current historical scholarship, astronomical fact and an open mind?
Using Johannes Kepler's discovery of how the solar system works, improvements in our knowledge of first century history and the spread of computers, one discovers that in September, about 16 month before the birth of Christ, the wise men from the East saw something in the sky that they had NEVER SEEN BEFORE. The “King Planet”, Jupiter, made a triple pass around the “King Star”, Regulus, like a coronation. Then after Jupiter finished its rendezvous with Regulus in June of the following year, it moved beside Venus giving the impression of the most brilliant star the wise men had ever seen with the naked eye. That particular evening, our Babylonian wise men would have seen the spectacle of their career while facing toward Judea. Surely this prompted them to start off on their long journey toward Judea following the star all the way to Jerusalem which we read about in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2. Read more at the web site (http://bethlehemstar.net/).
How many very intelligent astronomers and scientists there are today who do not believe in God? You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink! Let us give praise to God for His marvels in His creation!
Another interesting fact regarding the divine creation of the universe is that the astronomers of the ancient Maya had precisely foreseen, more than 1500 years ago, THE EXACT ALIGNMENT of the Earth, of the Sun, of the star cluster of the Pleiades and of the center of our Galaxy, which will happen at the end of our present long cycle, in the Gregorian year 2012. On the Maya calendar the designated day of 4 Ahau 3 Kankin (13.0.0.0.0) falls on December 21, 2012 and this day will sign “El Fin de los Tiempos” or the end of the long cycle, when humanity will experience a new beginning. This day, according to the Maya and the successive civilization Meso-American, will happen at the return of Kukulcan (Quetzalcoatl).
All scientific evidence has shown the Mayan Long Count astronomical predictions to be accurate. The last time the planets were in this alignment was 26,000 years ago. December 21, 2012 is a date of amazing historical significance and the end of a complete time cycle. See: “2012 Frequently Asked Questions” at http://www.2012officialcountdown.com/faq.html.
It would be even more interesting if our modern day astronomers might be capable of discovering if our Galaxy will be at the center of the Universe on the same day of December 21, 2012! We Catholics celebrate every year, the last Sunday of the liturgical year (34th of Ordinary Time), the great feast of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe!
After presenting the above question TO AN ASTRONOMER FROM THE USA, he sent me the following email: “There is no center or edge to the universe. This is the essence of the Copernican Principle, which is fundamental to all successful scientific theories. This basically means the universe looks the same wherever you are. It has no preferred location or "center." The common question I get is "where did the Big Bang happen?" The Big Bang created expanding space and so the "center" is, well, everywhere and nowhere. If you picture 3-dimensional space as the 2D skin of and inflating balloon, there is to "center" to the balloon's surface (yes, the balloon does have a center, but that's off in another dimension in this analogy.) Most people find this answer unsatisfactory, but the universe would be pretty messed up if it were constructed any other way. The universe is 13.7 billion years old, and all observations give it a healthy prognosis for at least the next 1 trillion years. So there is no impending "transition" or "grand alignment" coming up in the state of Earth or the cosmos.”
Obviously GOD KNOWS ALL THINGS. Even though many people have the tendency to exaggerate and the desire to make too much out of these extraordinary occurrences, this very rare alignment will not happen by chance! God created the universe, which moves like a huge precise clock. The universe was above all created for the King of the Universe, Jesus Christ, and secondarily for human beings. Is it possible that God has chosen this date as the Second Coming of his Son to the earth? THIS IS ONLY MY PERSONAL QUESTION AND SPECULATION! If so, according to many biblical scholars, the Antichrist must appear before His second coming! Only the Father knows (Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32)! The correspondence between the prophecies of Saint Malachy and the Maya calendar are rather interesting. St. Hildegard of Bingen indicates that the false Prophet of the Antichrist will appear immediately before the Antichrist just as St. John the Baptist appeared shortly before Jesus Christ.
Perhaps when one reads the Book of Revelations, in particular chapter 13, one might get the impression that the persons who will appear as the first beast (Rev 13:1-10) and the second beast (Rev 13:11-18), the false prophet (Rev 16:13; 19:20; 20:10), will be fierce and ferocious and perhaps hideous or whatever. But instead these two personages will be VERY AFFABLE AND ATTRACTIVE AND CHARISMATIC!
Papal watchers are wondering what message Pope Benedict XVI was giving when he selected retired Bologna archbishop Cardinal Giacomo Biffi to preach the annual Lenten retreat to the Pope and the top members of the Vatican (Feb. 27, 2007). The Times of London reported in 2004 that the Cardinal described the Antichrist as "walking among us". Quoting Soloviev, the Cardinal said "the Antichrist presents himself as pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist." In his "Tale of the Antichrist" Solovyov foresees that a small group of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants will resist and will say to the Antichrist: "You give us everything, except what interests us, Jesus Christ". For Cardinal Biffi, this narrative is a warning: "Today, in fact, we run the risk of having a Christianity which puts aside Jesus with his cross and resurrection." The preacher of the Spiritual Exercises added that "there are relative values, such as solidarity, love of peace and respect for nature. If these become absolute, uprooting or even opposing the proclamation of the event of salvation, then these values become an instigation to idolatry and obstacles on the way of salvation……"; (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07030101.html).
THE SECOND BEAST will be a world religious leader, impersonating Christ (“like a lamb”; Rev 13:11), and will seek to induce all to "worship the image" of the first Beast (which will be able to speak! (Rev 13:15)), the Antichrist, performing "miracles" (Rev 19:20; 13:13; 2Thess 2:9) and "signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect" (Mt 24:24; Mk 13:22; Rev 13:8)! This false Prophet will lead many away (Rev 13:4) from Christ, the only true Savior of the world. The devil normally comes disguised as an Angel of light in order to lead astray as many as possible! St. Hildegard indicates that “two-thirds of the Christians will go with him” this evil cardinal, the false prophet!
The world controllers, being guided by the most intelligent creature ever created, Lucifer, realize that people need a religion, something to believe in. Thus rather than outlawing all religions, which would cause an unwanted reaction, they will offer a world religion, with this charismatic antichrist at the head with the help of the false prophet, this imposter and usurper of the Papal See. There are various indications that things will not get really out of hand world wide until the Pope will have to “flee from Rome”, and then probably die “a cruel death”. Perhaps at that point the evil cardinal will carry out the orders from his superiors to insert himself into the seat of Peter since he will not be elected as he had hoped. Most likely shortly after this event, the economy will be brought down, and then after this Russia will fulfill the prophecies found in the books of Ezekiel, Joel, etc.
Thus, it is so important to vote for and discover who our political candidates are not by their smooth, beautiful, nice, rhetorical words, but BY THEIR DEEDS AND VOTING RECORD! “Thus you will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:20). Their fruits can be rather hidden and yet far more destructive to our country, world and society than we might possibly realize!
Another interesting prophecy is that the total number of popes in the history of the Church will correspond to THE NUMBER OF MEDALLIONS for the images of all the popes in the church of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome. There are two medallions left empty after Pope Benedict XVI. Perhaps these two empty spaces correspond to the pope killed and the subsequently elected pope in St. Hildegard’s prophecy. Who knows? Only God the Father knows (Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32)!
52. Hope and Salvation!
Some might accuse me of being a pessimist. I am not a pessimist but a realist! We have evicted God from our bedrooms, from our schools, from our public life and public environments! What can we expect??? We reap what we sow!
But for those who believe and love Jesus Christ and Him in every neighbor and are ready to die for Him, this period of the greatest tribulation in the history of the world (Mt 24:21-22; Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1) will not be a time of desperation but of hope and salvation (Mt 24:13; Lk 21:28,36; Jn 14:1-3; 1Thess 4:16-18; Rev 15:2; 12:11; 3:10)! "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he comes shall find watching ... and doing" (Lk 12:37;43; see also 1Pet 2:9; Rev 12:11; 1:6).
One might ask at this point: “WHAT CAN WE DO?” As Pope John Paul II revealed in 1980, “it is no longer possible to avert [this trial]”. I think the best thing to do is to heed the message that our Mother Mary revealed to Lucia of Fatima: “From when the Holy Virgin gave such a great efficaciousness to the Rosary, there does not exist any material, spiritual, national or international problem that cannot be resolved WITH THE HOLY ROSARY AND WITH OUR SACRIFICES. To recite it with devotion will be to consol Mary and to wipe away so many tears from her Immaculate Heart.” Among many other things, it is also important to avoid the very numerous bad shows on TV today and watch wholesome beneficial programs such as EWTN.
As “sacrifices” we can certainly fast as the people of Nineveh did after Jonah cried against the city (Jonah 1:2; 3:5). “The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah” (Mt 12:41). But the best and most efficacious sacrifices are loving those who are the most difficult for us to love (see “The Hope of the World!” at http://trueevangelization.blogspot.com).
The body of the Rosary are the prayers of the Our Father, the Hail Mary (Luke 1) and the Glory Be. The soul of the Rosary are the 20 meditations on the life of Jesus seen through the eyes of His mother Mary. The Rosary is a tremendous way of actually PRAYING THE GOSPEL! But of course it is important and essential to LIVE THE ROSARY, to live the Gospel, by loving ever more Jesus as well as each and every neighbor (especially “the least of these my brethren”!) that stands before us in each present moment of the day as if each person were Jesus Himself (Mt 25:40), ready to die for each person as Jesus died for each of us! If we do this, we have done all that we can for ourselves, our family, our country and for the world; God will take care of the rest, even if the rest might entail the great gift and crown of martyrdom for many of us, with His help!
Very soon, as has happened when the oppressive regimes came to power in the last 100 years, the Eucharist and the other sacraments will be taken away from us and thus OUR MOST POWERFUL WEAPONS left to us will be precisely what Our Lady has so often told us: PRAYER AND SACRIFICE! We must avail ourselves of these most precious gifts, the Sacraments while we still have them. One finds frequently in the Bible the phrase “The mercy of the Lord endures forever” (Ps 118, 136 etc.), but only for those who ask for mercy; God is totally respectful of our most primary gift, our free will. If we do not ask for mercy, God will give us no mercy! Catholics should frequent the sacrament of Confession at least once a month and the Holy Eucharist at least once a week while we still have these sublime and most powerful means to prepare for the greatest trial in the history of the world!
53. The Final Battle!
Each of the billions of angels made their decision to love God or not to love God in one instant. Human beings make this same decision in the course of time in all of it’s intricacies and variations and incredible drama both as individuals and collectively in groups, societies, countries, in time and space. We are truly living in the most incredible climatic battle in not the history of the world, but in the whole history of the universe and of creation! The first great battle in heaven (Rev 12) was between the good angels and the bad angels. Now the battle is between the men and women of good will doing their best to follow their Creator, and those who have freely decided to not follow their loving Creator. The good angel are helping and urging us toward God; the fallen angels are doing all they can to lead us away from God for all eternity. We humans are loved so much by God, that we are the great prize in the middle of the great “cosmic battle”! Satan and his hideous fallen angels want to torture us for all eternity. God and his angels want to have a deep, personal communion and union of love with each of us for all eternity! God will always totally respect our free will and will not let anyone else take away this primordial gift of free will. THE CHOICE IS OURS!
The puppets of Satan are seeking to create anew the “TOWER OF BABEL”! A perfect world without God! “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” “Come, let us (the Trinity) go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Gen 11:4, 7). On the day of Pentecost, the birth of the Church, the Spirit of unity, worked the miracle of the unity of tongues (Acts 2:1-11).
These proud people have ALL THE MATERIAL POWERS OF THIS WORLD with nuclear bombs, money, banks, stock markets, mass media, petroleum, computers, satellites, microchips, etc. as well as the most intelligent fallen angel to guide them. They have intelligent philosophers, psychologists, historian, etc., who have influenced our society and culture for centuries in order to lead us, in a very powerful way, toward pride and egoism and away from the truth Who is Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit instead is silently forming His army of those who are HUMBLE AND DOCILE to Him so as to lay the foundation for A NEW SPRINGTIME for the Body of Christ, the Church, to come forth after the great period of tribulation. “The blood of martyrs is the life-giving seed of Christianity! - Those who suffered for Christ in the 20th century”; http://www.pravmir.com/article_153.html.
BOTH MILITIAS ARE WORKING FOR UNITY; one will be a forced unity under the cruel tyrant of Satan; the other will be the freely chosen unity under an infinitely loving God, who asks us to follow His crucified Son in our daily lives.
It will be the greatest battle in the history of the world! But most do not realize that it is not so much a material or economic battle, but rather a spiritual battle for the eternal souls of men and women. Pope John Paul I once said, "You Only Preserve The Truth That You Defend". How appropriate are these words to us today (http://www.eternalliferadio.org/Guild.html).
Many say that they wished they could have been alive 2000 years ago to see, hear and follow Jesus Christ in person. But I truly feel more privileged today with the most intimate contact and union with Jesus in the Most Blessed Eucharist, as well as the opportunity to be part of the crucifixion of the Body of Christ, His Church, in this great climactic period in salvation history! Many will be offered the great gift of being able to imitate their Lord and Savior by dying for their testimony to Jesus Christ! “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church…” (Col 1:24).
Some may fall into the trap of despair or hopelessness after the words of Pope John Paul II: “Through your prayers and mine, it is still possible to diminish this trial, but it is NO LONGER POSSIBLE TO AVERT IT.” But the real battle is for eternal souls, not averting a great chastisement or suffering. The more we FIGHT FOR THE TRUTH RIGHT NOW, when the forces of evil seem to have all the cards in their hands, is when we will be able to help offer the grace of conversion of many souls before they die. Our Blessed Mother sheds tears for everyone of her children who fall into hell for all eternity! I would rather go down fighting for the TRUTH, WHO IS JESUS (Jn 14:6), rather than crying and despairing without doing all I can for love of my God and love of my neighbor! WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING! We are entering the greatest battle in the history of the world and in the history of the Church; I want to discover the role God has in mind for me in this great “cosmic struggle” by preparing well with constant prayer and by mortifying my pride and the lusts of my flesh, and by loving constantly Jesus in each and every neighbor, especially “the least of my brethren”, the most difficult and outcast! In this way, I will render myself freely to serve in God’s army, whether it be like a buck private or a corporal or a captain or whatever rank. We must say “YES” not just once in our life when we enlist in God’s army, but many times everyday to His slightest little wish and inspiration and command, just as Mary, His Mother, did all of her life. When we do this, we slowly offer our will to God and He can then use us to a much greater degree in this great “cosmic struggle”! If I seek to do God’s will in each present moment, which is fundamentally loving Jesus in each person before me, God will lead me to that place in my personal divine adventure, God’s perfect design for me from all eternity, in this “dour combat with the powers of evil” (CCC 409)! "The present time … ushers in the struggles of the last days" (CCC 672).
The saints of the past did not just sit there waiting for Jesus to come and to rescue them or for some kind of a “rapture”! Everyone in this crucial period of the world will be put to the greatest test ever before. It is easy to say we would die for Jesus; but if we do not prepare spiritually beforehand, do we really believe that we will be able to suffer and die for Christ when we are confronted with real deprivation, torture, and death? Each day one takes small steps toward God or away from God, toward doing ones own will or seeking and doing the will of God. When one takes steps away from God, one becomes weaker and more blind to reality and truth, and vise versa. The more we pray and offer sacrifices now, the more people will have the grace to be able to choose the truth, to choose Christ and not succumb to the greatest pressures ever imposed on each human being to abandon the real Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. More than ever before these pressures are very subtle and deceptive to slowly lure as many souls away from their Creator as possible with beautiful words, slogans, rhetoric, mass media, economic policies, etc. Most people today are choosing to go to hell graciously, as little gods or simple copping out and telling themselves that “God does not exist” (atheists) or “no one knows” (agnostics). During the history of the Church, the greatest saints came out of the greatest periods of persecution and trial for the Church! There were many martyrs in the past and in this period there will be even more martyrs for Christ! Jesus died for each one of us individually and personally. What a great honor, privilege and reward to be able to die for Jesus!
On his journey to Rome to be thrown to the wild beasts, Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote to his faithful and grief-stricken flock (107 AD): “I am truly in earnest about dying for God – if only you yourselves put no obstacles in the way. I must implore you to do me no such untimely kindness; pray leave me to be a meal for the beasts, for it is they who can provide my way to God. I am his wheat, ground fine by the lions’ teeth to be made purest bread for Christ. So intercede with him for me, that by their instrumentality I may be made a sacrifice to God.” (Office of Readings; October 17). It is very interesting how St. Ignatius uses Eucharistic imagery of Christ’s sacrifice in referring to his own personal sacrifice.
St. Rose of Lima (died 1617, Peru) wrote: “The Lord, our Savior, raised his voce and spoke with incomparable majesty. ‘Let all know’, he said, ‘that after sorrow grace follows. … Let them be on their guard against error or deception; this is the only ladder by which paradise is reached; without the cross there is no road to heaven.’ … If they but knew, surely they would direct their energy with all care and diligence to procuring sufferings and afflictions for themselves. Instead of good fortune all men everywhere would seek out troubles, illness and suffering that they might obtain the inestimable treasure of grace. This is the final profit to be gained from patient endurance. No one would complain about the cross or about hardships coming seemingly by chance upon him, if he realized in what balance they are weighed before being distributed to men.” (Office of Readings; August 23).
“Oh, if only the suffering soul knew how it is loved by God, it would die of joy and excess of happiness! Some day, we will know the value of suffering, but then we will no longer be able to suffer. The present moment is ours.” (Diary of St. Faustina (died 1938, Poland), No. 963).
Our Mother Mary has combat boots on; put on the armor of her Son Jesus Christ crucified in our lives with continual sacrifices and prayer. “And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1)! LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER! Pray and offer as many sacrifices as possible everyday, with her crucified Son!
Some would have liked to have lived 2000 years ago with X; but we are now living in, and will live through the rest of, the passion and crucifixion of His body the Church. Those who are ready, with their lamps burning with ardent love for the Spouse (Mt 25:1-13), will receive the great gift of martyrdom! As our Lady of Fatima told us, right now is the time to pray and offer many sacrifices for the conversion of sinners before they die. This is the greatest period in the history of the world and the Church. This is the climax of the battle of battles. This is not the time to wimp out! The spiritually strong must help the spiritually weak NOW! The Gospel and the whole Bible is not just for recognized “Saints”. It is for everyone!
We must all strive to do as Saint Paul even to our dying breath: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2Tim 4:7-8).
“For we are NOT CONTENDING AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).
“In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph and the world will be granted a time of peace.” (Fatima, 1917)
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We will not be ready for this great spiritual, cosmic battle if we do not do all we can now to prepare. Of course the primary preparation is to follow Jesus Christ. But THE QUICKEST AND SMOOTHEST WAY TO FOLLOW JESUS so as to become a great saint is by way of the person who formed Jesus in her womb, and who is also the spouse of the Holy Spirit. If we consecrate ourselves to the Mother of Jesus, she will form us also to become like Jesus, in her womb, so as to be born, after death, into eternal bliss with Jesus and all the saints in heaven!
ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT writes in his little booklet, “The Secret of Mary”:
“God has entrusted Mary with the keeping, the administration, and the distribution of all His graces. There is no GRACE, no gift of God, that does not PASS THROUGH HER CARESSING HANDS. And, as St. Bernardine teaches, she gives what she wills to whom she wills, and in the way she wills, when she wills. Continually, she showers on us her treasures, the grace of her Father, the virtues of her Son, and the gifts of her Spouse, the Holy Spirit.”
“As, in the order of nature, a child must have a father and a mother, so, in the order of grace, a child of the Church must have God for his Father, and MARY FOR HIS MOTHER.”
“And, if anyone should glory in having God for his Father, and not love Mary as his mother, he is not a true child of God. He has deceived himself. He is the spawn of the devil!”
“Since Mary has formed Jesus Christ, the Head of the elect – the Head of the Church, the Mystical Body – she is qualified to FORM THE MEMBERS of that Head, all true Christians.”
“Does a mother form the head without the members, or the members without the head?”
“Whoever wishes to be a member of Jesus Christ must be formed in Mary through the grace of Christ. She possesses this grace in its fullness, so that she may bestow it fully upon her children.”
“As the HOLY SPIRIT HAS ESPOUSED MARY; and in her, by her and from her, has produced the Word Incarnate, and has never repudiated her; so He now continues to produce in her, and by her, in a mysterious but real manner, all the elect.”
“I said that this will happen especially towards the end of the world, and indeed soon, because Almighty God and his holy Mother are to RAISE UP GREAT SAINTS who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs.” (Treatise On True Devotion To The Blessed Virgin; St. Louis de Montfort; No. 47; http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm).
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We know WHO wrote the last chapter of the book! GOD! We are on the winning side! Should we have fear before men if GOD is for us? Should we fear anything if GOD says, I am with you? If you are filled with Him, then all hell cannot stop you if you are in the Truth who is Jesus Christ Himself (Jn 14:6).
“A GREAT SPRINGTIME for the Church is coming, but we must first go through Calvary” (Pope John Paul II)! Those who persevere in living fully the truth that has been revealed to them by God, even to the point of suffering and dying for Christ, will be resurrected and enjoy UNIMAGINABLE BLISS with Jesus and all the saints and angels for all eternity! “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2Tim 4:7-8).
Jesus spent thirty years in His hidden life at Nazareth, three years in His public life. But His most powerful and efficacious moment of redemption were the three hours He spent on the cross in unimaginable agony. We as Christians are called to follow our Leader and Teacher all the way to the end, to whatever destiny He has planned for us in His great love for each of us!
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white roves, with palm branches in their hands… Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” ” (Rev 7:9, 13-14)!
“But, as it is written, “What NO EYE HAS SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR THE HEART OF MAN CONCEIVED, what God has prepared for those who love Him” “ (1Cor 2:9)!
"Marana tha!" "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev 22:20).
Rev. Joseph Dwight
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PART III: Appendix – Non Catholic Interpretation of Prophecy
The issue of authority in interpreting Scripture is important because so much of what passes for "Biblical prophecy" today is really PSEUDO-BIBLICAL GUESSWORK, noteworthy for its use of sloppy methods, hazy conjecture, and overt sensationalism. Many "prophecy teachers," especially in the last three decades, have taken passages of Scripture and applied them to current events and people with little or no regard for historical context or original meaning of the texts. This has resulted, for example, in the Antichrist being identified as the Pope, Hitler, Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein, and other, lesser-known people.
One will find in this typical example (below) a certain amount of PROOFTEXTING which is the practice of using decontextualised quotations from a document to establish a proposition rhetorically through an appeal to authority (the Bible). Thus often the document, when read as a whole, may not in fact support the proposition. To many, the explanation of prophecy done in this way will seem overly simplified. But this rather simplified, straight forward type of explanation and literal interpretation of prophetical passages of Sacred Scripture often appeals to many since these passages in Sacred Scripture are often hard to understand. Perhaps one might find some of these interpretations of Sacred Scripture interesting.
Even though there are certainly these above mentioned tendencies in Biblical prophecy, I would like to offer A BRIEF TYPICAL EXAMPLE of how dispensationalists interpret the prophetic passages of the Bible in a basically literal way. Many Protestants accuse the Catholic Church of always interpreting the word Israel in the Bible as the Church and Jerusalem as heaven (“Replacement Theology”). But as we have seen above the Catholic Church asserts that God has always had only one people even though God has certainly not abandoned the Jewish people or the recently established state of Israel.
Even though there are some basic differences between the Catholic and dispensationalist interpretation of prophecy in the Bible as well as the existence of much speculation in Biblical prophecy, I think we can certainly LEARN FROM THE FOLLOWING example while always keeping in mind and remaining within the parameters given to us by the Catholic Church. By the same token, in many ways it is EASIER FOR OUR PROTESTANT BROTHERS to offer an explanation for biblical prophecy because they do not have to try to remain within the parameters of the wisdom of the Catholic Church acquired in the last 2000 years guided by the Holy Spirit with each living Pope as the head, the “Rock” (Mt 16:18). Each independent protestant group within the various dominations (tens of thousands!) INTERPRETS SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THEIR OWN WAY. You cannot read the Bible in a vacuum. Where in the Bible does it say, “Only The Bible” (“sola scriptura”)? As mentioned above, the Church approaches Divine Revelation through Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and Magisterial teaching, each of which have equal weight in the Catholic Church, no one of which can subsist without the other two.
In a rather confusing world filled with innumerable opinions, we Catholics should be grateful to Jesus for leaving us the living “ROCK” until the end of time! Jesus knew full well that there would be this confusion even though there is one God, one Jesus Christ and one Bible. This is why he left us the living Rock for those who have the humility to submit to this infallible guide, in faith and morals, that He left us!
In the last five hundred years our Protestant brothers have resolutely TENDED TO OVERREACT to their separation from the Catholic Church and thus they have thrown out the traditions and just about everything else of the Catholic Church in the first 15 centuries of the Church and after; for many Protestant denominations their distinctiveness has become identified with “not being Catholic”. Thus they basically have only the Bible which in itself comes from the early traditions of the Catholic Church. But we as Catholics must not fall into the same human tendency as the Protestants in throwing out everything that is protestant (UR 3; 2nd Vat. C.). The Catholic Church has always sought and received the truth where it is to be found, with prudence; the Holy Spirit blows where He wills. In the last 2000 years the Catholic Church has not tried to destroy other different religions and cultures but rather to convert them and take in the good and the true that can be found in these religions and cultures while leading them toward the fullness of the truth and faith found in the Catholic Church. Thus let us not do as our Protestant brothers by not overreacting and concluding that all prophetical interpretations of the Bible by the Protestants are in error. It is enough for we Catholics to stay within the parameters that the Church has give to us in this field of study.
Some Catholics might dismiss this dispensationalist interpretation as unimportant. But despite waning popularity in scholarly theological circles, dispensationalism is still a WIDESPREAD BELIEF SYSTEM among Fundamentalists and many Evangelicals, even many of those who are unfamiliar with the term. Thus in order to understand the beliefs of a great many of our non-Catholic Christian brothers, the following example might be helpful.
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54. Our "Generation" Shall See All!
Jesus indicated that one "generation ... shall see all these things" (Mt 24:34; Mk 13:30; Lk 21:32). Many scholars believe that the "generation" that "shall see all these things" began when Israel took Jerusalem which occurred in June 1967. One finds indications of this theory in the Bible (Lk 21:24; Dan 9:24). A generation in the Bible is considered approximately 50 years, thus perhaps all will happen before 2017. Jesus also said: "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near:..." (Mt 24:32; Mk 13:28; Lk 21:29). In the Old Testament the "fig tree" represented Israel (Jer 24; Joel 1:7; Hos 9:10; Israel=Jacob: 2Kgs 17:34). The state of Israel did not exist for more than 2500 years since the Babylonian captivity. By a miracle of God, against impossible odds, after a general dispersion of the Jews worldwide for more than 2000 years, Israel became again a nation on May 14, 1948 (Amos 9:14-15; Ezek 36:22-24; 37:12; 38:8-9; Jer 3:18; Mt 24:32)! Jews are coming from all over the earth, including from Russia, to Israel (Jer 3:17-18). We are the generation that Christ referred to!
55. The Antichrist
The Antichrist will appear (1Jn 2:18; 2Thess 2:8) seven years (Dan 9:27) or three and a half years (Rev 11:3; 12:6) before the second coming of Christ (2Thess 2:1-3). The Antichrist is called "the Beast" because of his character (Rev 13:2-3; 17:8). "Through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many:" (Dan 8:25; see also Dan 11:21,24); in other words, HE WILL BE VERY CUNNING AND SHREWD AND INTELLIGENT AND CHARISMATIC AND A POLITICAL, MILITARY, COMMERCIAL AND RELIGIOUS GENIUS (Dan 8:24-25; 11:21; 2Thess 2:4). He will have "a mouth SPEAKING GREAT THINGS" (Dan 7:8, 20). The Antichrist will become the head of the ten-toed, ten-horned, western federation of nations (Dan 2:40-41; 7:8,20,23-24; Rev 12:3; 13:1; 17:3,7,12,16) that were part of the old Roman Empire (Dan 2:27-36), that is the current EUROPEAN UNION! The Antichrist will exalt himself above God (Dan 11:36).
56. The Seven World Empires
This passage of Daniel (Dan 2:27-36) reveals the last five of the seven world powers (Rev 17:10) in the history of the world. The seven empires (Rev 17:10) were (1) Assyria, (2) Egypt, (3) Babylon (Dan 1:1), (4) Medo-Persia (Dan 5:28), (5) Greece (Dan 8:20-21), (6) Rome (Dan 9:26; Rom 1:7), and (future) (7) the revived Roman Empire (the European Union: Dan 2:42-43). The prophet Daniel predicted that the revived Roman Empire would become 10 nations (Dan 7:7, 20: Greece the 10th member, 1981) and then to 13 nations (Dan 7:8, 24: Austria 1995), and finally "shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces" (Dan 7:23; Rev 13:7). The head of gold of this "great image" (Dan 2:32-33) represents Babylon (Dan 2:38), the chest and arms of silver signifies the Medes and Persians who overtake Babylon, the stomach and thighs of brass typify Alexander the Great and Greece (Dan 2:39). The second to the last world empire represented by the two "legs of iron" (Dan 2:33,40) of this "great image" is the old Roman Empire with two capitals at Rome and Constantinople. It is interesting that the ten toes of iron never destroyed the legs of iron - the Roman Empire! Why? Because Rome fell through internal corruption. The final world power is a union of ten western nations represented by the ten toes of the great image (Dan 2:33,41-43). The "iron" tells us these nations were part of the old Roman Empire (Europe), whereas the "clay" speaks of a deterioration as the empire weakened over the centuries. Thus, the final world power will not be communism but a confederation of ten western nations under the first Beast, the Antichrist. The prophet Daniel indicates that after a ten-nation confederation is formed another leader will appear, remove three nations, replace them, and rule as the Antichrist in the revived Roman Empire (European Union) (Dan 7:7,8,20,24-25; see also: Rev 12:3; 13:1; 17:3,7,12,16; 1Jn 2:18; Dan 9:26) until the King of kings returns to earth and destroys his evil empire (Rev 19:11-21; Dan 2:44).
57. The Two Beasts
In the book of Revelation one finds descriptions of two beasts in particular. THE FIRST BEAST (Rev 13:1-10) is called the Antichrist; the second Beast (Rev 13:11-18) is called the false Prophet. THE SECOND BEAST will be a world religious leader, impersonating Christ (“like a lamb”; Rev 13:11), and will seek to induce all to "worship the image" of the first Beast (which will be able to speak! (Rev 13:15)), the Antichrist, performing "miracles" (Rev 19:20; 13:13; 2Thess 2:9) and "signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect" (Mt 24:24; Mk 13:22; Rev 13:8)! This false Prophet will lead many away (Rev 13:4) from Christ, the only true Savior of the world. The devil normally comes disguised as an Angel of light in order to lead astray as many as possible!
58. The Twenty-One Judgments
In the book of Revelation, there are twenty-one judgments from God: seven seals, seven trumpet blasts, and seven vials (Rev 6-18; Rom 1:18). Many of these judgments are very similar to those that God inflicted upon the Egyptians by the hand of Moses (Ex 7-12). The first seal refers to the arrival of the Antichrist, "the Beast" (Rev 6:2), who comes on a white horse, to imitate Christ's second coming (Rev 19:11); he comes also with a bow without arrows and is given a crown, which indicates that he will not be a military leader but a political leader as a king (Dan 2:40-41; 7:23-24; Rev 13:1). The second seal depicting a rider on a red horse, who takes "peace from the earth ... and there was given unto him a great sword" (Rev 6:3-4), is interpreted by many as being a MAJOR WAR WITH RUSSIA united with the Arabs. This war with Russia is also described in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 with "Magog", "Mesheck", "Tubal" and "Rosh" as the modern day Russia, and "Gog" as the head of Russia. "And you shall come up from your place of the north parts" (Ezek 38:15); Moscow is exactly north of Israel. The third seal (Rev 6:5-6) gives a picture of mass starvation after the nuclear war (nuclear bomb: 2Pet 3:10-12; Joel 2:3,30; Mal 4:1; Ezek 20:47; Is 66:15-16; 24:6; Ps 97:3; Rev 9:17-18; 8:7; 6:12-14; neutron bomb: Zech 14:12); silver or gold will not be worth anything either (Ezek 7:19). The fourth seal tells of THE DESTRUCTION OF ONE FOURTH OF MANKIND. Perhaps the global warming can be attributed to "the fourth angel [that] poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat..." (Rev 16:8-9).
59. Signs of the Times
It is interesting to note the great increase in wars, famines, pestilences (AIDS produced by the green monkeys and sexual promiscuity, SARS, Mad Cow Disease, Malaria, West Nile Fever, Bird Flu, Avion flu produced by fowls, Swine flu, Anthrax on our lettuce, salmonella poison from hamburger, salmonella - peanut butter, Lyme Disease, etc.), and earthquakes with respect to the norm of centuries past. Jesus said: "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." (Mt 24:7; Lk 21:11; Mk 13:8; Rev 6:8); "and knowledge shall be increased" (Dan 12:4). There shall be perilous times and terror in the last days (2Tim 3:1; Mt 24:37; Gen 6:11); "the sea and the waves roaring" (i.e., great increase in the frequency of hurricanes; and tsunami or seaquakes: Lk 21:25-26,36). There shall be "wars and rumors of war" and ethnic violence (Mt 24:6-7; Mk 13:7-8) as we see today!
60. The Two “Babylon”s of the book of Revelation
In the book of Revelation one finds in several places the word "Babylon". Most bible scholars believe that the "Babylon" found in chapters 14 (e.g., verse 8) and 17 refers to a religious system (One World Church!) whereas the "Babylon" in chapters 16 (e.g., verse 19) and 18 is political. The "woman" (Rev 17:3, etc) or whore (Rev 17:1,5, etc.) refers to the "One World Church" without Jesus Christ as the head. The word "fornication" (Rev 14:8; 17:2,4), spiritually speaking, has to do with idolatry, including all its evil connotations and associations. The woman, in chapter 17 of the book of Revelation, reigns from Rome (Rev 17:9) which shows that the political and religious power brokers exist together simultaneously (Rev 17:18). Since the world church forms at the time when ten western nations unite - and both the European Economic Community and World Council of Churches began unity proceedings in 1948 - Christ's coming must be near!
Chapter 18 of the book of Revelation describes the destruction of political Babylon. Religious Babylon was called "mystery Babylon," (Rev 17:5,7) but commercial Babylon is referred to as "Babylon the great" (Rev 18:2). Religious Babylon was presented as a woman or a mother, while commercial Babylon is portrayed as a city - a "great" city, a "mighty" city, and eventually a "burning" city (Rev 18:9). Religious Babylon was situated on seven hills (Rome: Rev 17:9), whereas political Babylon is visible from the sea (Rev 17:17-18,21). Religious Babylon will be destroyed by the kings of the earth (Rev 17:16), but political Babylon will be destroyed by horrendous judgments from the hand of God (Rev 18:8). When religious Babylon is destroyed, the kings will rejoice (Rev 17:16). When political and economic Babylon is demolished, however, the kings and merchants of the earth lament and weep for her (Rev 18:9,15). The believers of the Tribulation hour are told to "come out of her" [and partake not] of her [evil deeds]" (Rev 18:4; Jms 5:1-6).
61. The Fall of "Babylon"
Capitalism will be the ruling power as the ten nations bleed the world's inhabitants of their possessions; these are the rich who starve the poor (Rev 18:6-7). But in one hour the "great city Babylon" will fall (Rev 18:8-10,17-19) forever (Rev 19:2-3). Perhaps this fall refers to stock market crashes world wide (planned and coordinated?); the question is when this crash will occur, before or after the war with Russia and the Arabs. In any case, the Antichrist and his false Prophet (or at least their predecessors) will most likely be in their respective world positions before the crash occurs so as to offer to the world their solution already prepared.
62. The Wounding of the Beast
It seems that the wounding of the Beast mentioned three times in the book of Revelation, chapter 13 verses 3, 12, and 14, refers to the assassination of the Antichrist midway through the Tribulation hour of seven years. Such an event would give the great counterfeiter, Satan, the opportunity to perform a resurrection. This would prove invaluable to the prestige of the Antichrist, since the deity of the Lord Jesus was affirmed by His resurrection 2000 years before (Mt 12:39-40). The Antichrist will proclaim himself God and will even sit in the temple in Jerusalem (rebuilt: Dan 9:25; God's city: Mt 5:35) during the Tribulation (2Thess 2:4; Mt 24:15; Dan 11:31). Thus, a counterfeit resurrection would assure the world that he is all he claims to be. When this happens "all the world [wonders] after the Beast" (Rev 13:3-4). At this point the false prophet (the second beast) will try to entice all to deny Jesus Christ and to adore the image of the resurrected Antichrist (the first beast) in order to receive his mark, 666 (Rev 13:11-18).
63. The “Mark of the Beast”, 666
Many scholars believe that each person on the face of the earth will probably have a few months to update the microchip he received after the world wide economic crash - with the prefix 666. Those who do not adore the image of the Antichrist and do not deny Christ (or any other God one believes in) will not receive the prefix 666 in their microchip and thus will not be able to buy or sell anything; the police of the Antichrist will seek to kill all those who refuse to take his mark, 666 (Rev 20:4).
64. Moral Decay
In the latter days there shall be much moral decay (2Tim 3:1-5; Mt 24:37). Jesus told us: "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with dissipation, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth" (Lk 21:34-35). Saints Peter and Paul wrote very strongly against all kinds of sin including the eternal consequence of sin (1Pet 4:1-8; Gal 5:19-21; 1Cor 6:9-10). It is also very important to prepare for our eternal Judge and to forgive all of our enemies and offenders as we pray in the "Our Father" (Mt 5:43-48; 6:9-15; 18:21-35; Mk 11:25; Lk 6:37; 11:2-4; 17:4; 23:34; Col 3:13' Heb 12:3). The mercy of God it is not automatic; we will be forgiven our sins only "IF" we confess our sins (1Jn 1:8-9; Lev 26:40-42; Lk 15:21-22; Jms 5:16).
65. Sins During the Tribulation Period
There shall also be in the last days many who deny Christ (2Pet 2:1-2; 2Thess 2:3; 1Tim 4:1-2). "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Ps 9:17; Lk 21:25). Verses 20 e 21 of chapter 9 of the book of Revelation present five major sins which permeate the Tribulation scene - and for which men would rather die that switch: (1) occultism (Lev 19:31; 20:6; Deut 18:10-12; Ex 20:4-5; Ps 115:4-8; Rev 9:20), (2) murder (Mt 24:37; Gen 6:11), (3) drug abuse (Rev 18:23; 21:8; 22:15), (4) fornication (sexual orgies) (Rev 9:21; Mt 24:12; Gal 5:19; 2Pet 2:14), and (5) stealing (Rev 9:21). "... In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" (1Tim 4:1; Rev 9:20-21).
66. Occultism
During the Tribulation hour, the world - steeped in occultism and idolatry - progresses to the worship of the image of the Beast, or Antichrist, who proclaims himself as God (2Thess 2:4). This image, made in his likeness (Rev 13:14-15), is undoubtedly the "abomination of desolation" spoken of in Matthew 24:15, which is placed in the Temple in Jerusalem and which brings great heartache to the Jews of that day. One can see that the world's present surge of occultism is paving the way for the coming of the greatest religious imposter in history.
67. The Third World War
When the Antichrist takes control over the nations via a world government, "power [is] given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations" (Rev 13:7). Such a one-world government is almost upon us. Consider for a moment the global organizations which have become existent in our day. The Antichrist will be elected head of the European Union after making, in a spectacular way, a peace contract in the Middle East for seven years (Dan 9:27; in this verse the Greek word "heptad" means "seven years"); but the peace is false (Jer 6:14; 8:11; Is 28:15,18). Most likely sometime after this peace contract will occur, very suddenly (1Thess 5:3), while Israel is at rest, "without walls" (Ezek 38:11; i.e., due to the peace contract of the Antichrist), the third world war led by Russia and the Muslims and Arabs (Ezek 38-39 (Magog=Russia; Ezek 38:5 Persia=Iraq and Iran, etc. (See Gen 10); Ps 83:2-8; Rev 6:3-4). Fire (nuclear) will go before the Russian army (Ps 97:3; Is 66:15; Zeph 1:18; Joel 2:3). We also find in Ezekiel a detailed description of burial procedures after a nuclear war (Ezek 39:11-16). Although Russia is miraculously defeated (Ezek 39:1-2; "they kill each other in confusion": Ezek 38:21; victory of Israel to glorify God: Ezek 38:21; 39:21-22; will the USA be devastated?: Ezek 39:6), there will be mass starvation after the war.
68. Damascus Destroyed?
The prophet Isaiah tells us also that the city of Damascus will be totally destroyed (Is 17:1; a prophecy not yet fulfilled!); this will probably happen before Russia marches. Israel will most likely not let Syria or Iran develop and possess weapons of mass destruction. This destruction of Damascus, probably by Israel, might offer the occasion for the Antichrist to come to power in Europe after making a seven-year peace contract in the Middle East. The whole scenario revolves around the relentless hatred between Israel and the Arabs (Muslims) (Ezek 35:5-6; 38:7-9; Ps 83:1-8 (Edom=Arabs); Amos 1:11). This 4000-year enmity of the descendents of Ishmael (Gen 25:12-18) (Isaac's stepbrother) and Esau (Gen 27:38-39) (Jacob's brother), the Arabs, toward Israel will eventually draw the whole world into the conflict. God loves all people but in particular He loves the Church (i.e., those who believe and follow Jesus) and the Jews (Deut 7:7-8; Zach 2:8; Jer 3:14; His elect: Is 42:1; 45:4; 65:9,22). Although Jesus has already come, the love of God for the Jews has never been abrogated (Lk 1:32-33; Mt 5:35; Ps 2:6; Zach 2:10; 14:4; Is 59:20). Thus Satan still hates the Jews (1Cr 21:1) who gave to the world the Savior.
69. "The Abomination of Desolation"
At about half way through the seven-year period of the great tribulation, the Antichrist will commit "the abomination of desolation" (2Thess 2:4; Mt 24:15; Mk 13:14; Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11) in which he will exalt himself above all, including God (Dan 11:36). At that point there will be no more public sacrifices and offerings (Dan 9:27), or no more sacrifice in the rebuilt temple of Jerusalem as well. The Antichrist will be given power to continue "forty and two months" (Rev 13:5) which corresponds to the last half of his seven-year reign. Sometime after this abomination the surviving sixth of the army of Russia, driven back to Siberia (Ezek 39:1-2; Joel 2:3,20), will join with the "kings of the east" (China etc.; Rev 16:12; Dan 11:44) to head toward the middle east, across a dry Euphrates river (Rev 16:12), to attack Israel with an army of at least 200,000,000 soldiers killing one third of mankind (Rev 9:15-16,18). This army advances with the latest and best of equipment (Nahum 2:3-4). One would think that after experiencing such devastation, mankind would begin considering eternity. Not so! (Rev 9:20-21; 16:9,11,21). According to Ezekiel 39:8-16, seven months will be required to bury the dead, and the armaments of war will be burned for seven years afterward! Throughout this great Tribulation period Jesus will be near to those who believe and love Him: "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws near." (Lk 21:28,15).
During the tribulation period there will appear TWO WITNESSES: "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth" (Rev 11:3-12; Mal 3:1; 4:5). Many biblical scholars believe that these two witnesses are Elias and Enoch of the Old Testament.
70. Armageddon
In the end all nations will come up against Israel headed by the Antichrist (Ps 83:4; Zech 14:2) and against the Lord (Rev 17:14; Ps 2:2). Jerusalem will be "a cup of trembling" ... and "a burdensome stone for all people"... (Zech 12:2-3). At this point Jesus, the "Prince of Peace" (Is 9:6) finally returns "coming in the clouds with great power and glory" (Mt 24:27,30; Mk 13:26; Lk 21:27; 2Thess 2:8). Jesus will split the Mount of Olives with a great earthquake (Zech 14:4; Rev 16:18; Hag 2:6-7). With all His angels and saints Jesus will defeat the Antichrist and all of his followers (Armageddon: Rev 16:16; 19:11-21; Dan 2:44-45). At this point Christ will then sets up His kingdom here on earth for a thousand years (Rev 20:4) in which he will firmly rule (Is 2:3; "rod of iron": Rev 19:15; 2:27; 12:5). Satan will be bound a thousand years (Rev 20:2-3). And finally the people of the earth "shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Is 2:4; Micah 4:3)! And the world will continue without end (Is 45:17; Ef 3:21; Eccl 1:4; Ps 104:5)!
71. The Rapture
Just about all dispensationalists today believe that there are many indications in the Bible that before the great Tribulation period begins the believers in Christ, the Church, will be "raptured" or taken to heaven (Rev 4:1; 1Thess 4:16-18; 1Cor 15:51-54). The word "Church" is found sixteen times in the first three chapters of the Apocalypse, but is not found in chapters 6 through 18, the Tribulation period (see also: Jer 30:7 and Dan 12:1). Israel, however, is seen in the midst of the holocaust (Rev 12:1-13); the "144,000" is believed to be Jewish converts (Rev 7:4-8) and other Gentile converts (Rev 7:9). In the Bible we find that God has two elect groups upon the earth - the Church and Israel. This oath of God that chooses Israel as an elect group of people (Gen 12:2-3; Deut 7:7-8) has never been abrogated (Rom 11:26-29). Thus the elect and martyrs during the Tribulation period refer to Jewish (Mt 24:22; Is 42:1; 45:4; 65:9,22) and non Jewish converts after the Rapture. But the removal of the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit (2Thess 2:6-7) (the Church), via the Rapture, will cause all hell to break loose upon earth. The Rapture theory could thus explain the domination of the world by the Antichrist and the false Prophet in a rather short time, i.e., less than seven years.
