David-n-Vicki’s blog

In the page on prophecies concerning the times we are living in. It was in Akita Japan in 1973 that Sr. Agnes was given the message: “As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. “

Also discussed was the message given at Fatima in 1917. Sr. Lucia  dos Santos was the surviving seer who was to release the information of Fatima to the world. The other two seers, St. Jacinta and St. Francisco, both died shortly after the apparitions, just as the lady who called herself “Our Lady of the Rosary” had stated in her messages to them.
In an interview before she died, Sr. Lucia said the final confrontation between the Lord and Satan will be over ‘Family’ and ‘Marriage’.

Cardinal: “What Sister Lucia told me: Final Confrontation between the Lord and Satan will be over Family and Marriage.”
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/06/cardinal-what-sister-lucia-told-me.html?m=1

And over the last 30 years we have witnessed the degeneration of the family and what seems to be by many the optional need for a true sacramental marriage between the man, the women, and God in a covenant relationship.

There is very little room to debate the truth of the messages from Fatima, Akita, and LaSalette now that they have happened in the Church, happened in society, and have happened in our families.

This is not a post on the rest of the calamities that will befall mankind, as predicted by these messages, but of the hope that was provided in these and other prophecies about the coming renewal of the Catholic Church, and the renewal of society as a result.

Many people predict the end of the world, the physical coming of Jesus, or the complete takeover of the world by communism through Russia and China. According to the Bible, the Church Fathers, and the messages that have been received by the Blessed and the Saints of the Church, there has to be a renewal of the Church before the physical coming of Jesus as a just judge to give the ‘Final Judgement’ to all souls.

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. 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.

The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, #675, #677

As we see in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Church must go through a final trial. Is it that trial we are going through in our present times? It is shaking the faith of many believers no doubt.

How is the Catholic Church suffering as Our Lord suffered? The Catholics in China have been given over to the secular government leaders who now appoint their own Bishops to watch over everything they do and say and to prescribe the faith in terms that align with the Communist Party.

How is the Catholic Church suffering as Our Lord suffered? The homosexual clerics that run rampant as the holy clerics who want to lead their flock along the way of righteousness are marginalized, liaised, locked up, or killed. Several faithful clerics are in hiding in fear for their lives from the hands of the unfaithful.

But, in CCC #677, we also hear that this final Passover, the time when the Church will follow our Lord in his death and Resurrection, is necessary so that the Bride of Christ, the Church, can enter the glory of the kingdom.

Does this entering the glory in the kingdom coincide with the ‘Final Judgement’ when Christ judges “all souls by what was written in the books, by what they had done” [Rev 20:12]?

In 2009, Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) wrote:

…when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely… [the Church] will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.

Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Faith and Future, Ignatius Press, 2009

From God’s Word we also hear

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.

Rev 20:1-3

One characteristic of the Renewed Church is that it will be present during a time when Satan is bound. Another characteristic is that it will start from a more spiritualized and simplified Church.

In Justin Martyr’s great work in Dialogue with Trypho he discusses other characteristics of the Renewed Church through the words written by the prophets.

But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare.

For Isaiah spoke thus concerning this space of a thousand years:
“And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, or the voice of crying. And there shall be no more there a person of immature years, or an old man who shall not fulfill his days. For the young man shall be an hundred years old; but the sinner who dies an hundred years old, he shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and shall themselves inhabit them; and they shall plant vines, and shall themselves eat the produce of them, and drink the wine. They shall not build, and others inhabit; they shall not plant, and others eat. For according to the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my people; the works of their toil shall abound. Mine elect shall not toil fruitlessly, or beget children to be cursed; for they shall be a seed righteous and blessed by the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will hear; while they are still speaking, I shall say, What is it? Then shall the wolves and the lambs feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent [shall eat] earth as bread. They shall not hurt or maltreat each other on the holy mountain, says the Lord.”

Justin Martyr in Dialogue with Trypho, chapters 80. 81
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01286.htm

Justin Martyr finishes the thought as he says,

Now we have understood that the expression used among these words, ‘According to the days of the tree [of life ] shall be the days of my people; the works of their toil shall abound’ obscurely predicts a thousand years. For as Adam was told that in the day he ate of the tree he would die, we know that he did not complete a thousand years. We have perceived, moreover, that the expression, ‘The day of the Lord is as a thousand years,’ is connected with this subject. And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell a thousand years in Jerusalem; and that thereafter the general, and, in short, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise take place. Just as our Lord also said, ‘They shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be equal to the angels, the children of the God of the resurrection.’ Luke 20:35

Justin Martyr in Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 81
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01286.htm

In the post on the ‘Two Pillars Dream‘ by St. John Bosco it stated the end of the dream as

Breaking through all resistance, the new Pope steers his ship safely between the two columns and moors it to the two columns; first to the one surmounted by the Host, and then to the other, topped by the statue of the Virgin. At this point something unexpected happens. The enemy ships panic and disperse, colliding with and scuttling each other. Some auxiliary ships which had gallantly fought alongside their flagship are the first to tie up at the two columns.

Many others, which had fearfully kept far away from the fight, stand still, cautiously waiting until the wrecked enemy ships vanish under the waves. Then, they too head for the two columns, tie up at the swinging hooks, and ride safe and tranquil beside their flagship.

A great calm now covers the sea. 

St. John Bosco via  theotokas.org

The ‘great calm’ is a new era of peace for the church. An era where it starts from a more spiritualized and simplified Church.

At Fatima, Our Lady of the Rosary tried to tell the Church of a simple way to get through the crisis it has experienced in the last 100 years. Sadly, her requests were not met in time to curtail the destruction. But Our Lady also said, “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. …a certain period of peace will be granted to the world.”

6,000 Year Plan

It is universally known that Genesis details the creation story where God created everything in 6 days and rested on the 7th. Did God rest because He was tired? God is all omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotent. No rest is needed. So why did He rest?

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 

Genesis 3:8-9

In Genesis 3 God asks “Where are you?” God knows everything. Why would He ask something He already knew?

The answer to both questions reveal a characteristic of God. He needs to show us an example to follow.

For Adam, it was the example of requiring an acknowledgement of his sins, the first confession, verbally to God’s authority. God didn’t need Adam to say it for God to know it. God needed Adam to say it so Adam would know how to acknowledge his sins.

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

2 Peter 3:8

For the creation story, it takes a different example. Almost like a dual meaning between the creation the first time, and the renewing of creation to it’s original plan. If you follow the biblical timeline through Genesis you will see that Adam was born around the year 4,000 BC. In God’s time we might think of that as 4 days before the birth of the Messiah

There has been 2,000 years approximately since then. That accounts for 2 more days.

And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. ³ So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.

Genesis 2:2-3

The creation sequence then is 4-2-1. Four thousand years before Christ appears. Two thousand years after Christ appears, and then one thousand years for creation to live in the reign of Christ. To live in God’s Divine Will.

The Church as it renews itself and starts in a “spiritualized and simplified Church.” will shortly enter into a state where all creation is living in the Divine Will of God. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done. On Earth as it is in Heaven.” How different will the world be when everything is living in His Divine Will?

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 11:6-9

…they 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.

Isaiah 2:4

But, as Ecclesiastes says, “there is nothing new under the sun. So too is this concept of 6,000 years of toil before a 1,000 year Sabbath rest.

What has been is what will be,  and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

In the Divine Institutes, Book VII (Of a Happy Life), written by Lactantius (a Christian apologist of the fourth century), it states

Therefore, since all the works of God were completed in six days, the world must continue in its present state through six ages, that is, six thousand years. For the great day of God is limited by a circle of a thousand years, as the prophet shows, who says In Your sight, O Lord, a thousand years are as one day. And as God laboured during those six days in creating such great works, so His religion and truth must labour during these six thousand years, while wickedness prevails and bears rule. And again, since God, having finished His works, rested the seventh day and blessed it, at the end of the six thousandth year all wickedness must be abolished from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand years; and there must be tranquility and rest from the labours which the world now has long endured.

Divine Institutes, Book VII Chapter 14. Of the First and Last Times of the World.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/07017.htm

To be cautious on the interpretation though, the thousand years of peace may not be a literal reference as much as a symbolic one. If in God’s mind He wants for man to have 1500 years of peace, then so be it. For a day is like a thousand years does not mean a day is equal to a thousand years. No matter though, since a very long duration of time where humanity is provided a peaceful existence and old is no longer referred to for a 60 year old, but that age would be considered quite young during this last of God’s days.

The next Church Age will be a very peaceful place to live. Everything will live according to the Divine Will. The church and the world are transitioning from 6,000 years while wickedness prevailed, and now to become part of a world where “there must be tranquility and rest from the labours which the world now has long endured.” The world is going through the final labour pains to get to the rest God has so willingly wanted to give us on the 7th day of creation.

The day and the hour is known by the Father, but just as the fig tree puts forth it’s leaves before the season of summer, so to do we know the transition from one Church Age to another is upon us.