“These are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for those who are with child and for those who are nursing in those days! For great distress shall be upon the earth and wrath upon this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” Lk 21:22–28.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux always asked, Quid hoc ad aeternitatem? “What is the value of this for eternity?”
The Times of the Gentiles
The Acts of the Apostles describes the origin of a great persecution against the Church. It began with the stoning of St. Stephen, the first deacon.
And on that day a great persecution arose against the Church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentation over him. But Saul laid waste the Church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Acts 8:1-3.
The persecution was so severe that the young Church was unable to evangelize among Jews, so Peter and the other Apostles began to evangelize Gentiles. The Jewish persecution against the young Christians continued until AD 63, when Roman procurators took control of Israel, and persecuted both Jews and Christians.
Speaking of “those who are in Judea” Lk 21:20 (the Jews who had rejected him) Rabbi Yeshua‘s first part was:
For great distress shall be upon the earth and wrath upon this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled Lk 21:23–24.
The “times of the Gentiles” were the times that the Church had to evangelize Gentiles because no Jews were available to evangelize. Rabbi Yeshua foretold that “Jerusalem would be trodden down by the Gentiles,” that is, under Gentile control, until the Church would start to see Jews come again in great numbers. The sign that “the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” Lk 21:24 would be when Jerusalem would again be entirely under Jewish control. Rabbi Paul added, “A hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in” Rom 11:25.
The Early Warnings
Jewish Visions and Prophecies Predicting the Second Coming 51:45
Rabbi Yeshua always warns us. In 1907, about ten years before Fatima, he gave Pope St. Pius X a vision of the Apostasy of the Gentiles that was to come before the end of the world. Pope St. Pius X wrote it down as Pascendi Dominici Gregis, an encyclical on the doctrines of the modernists, and how to overcome them. It remains very much worth reading today. But our fallen race did not pay attention.
About ten years later, at Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary gave her three visionaries, Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco a vision of hell. And she told the three children, “When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light, you will know it is the sign God gives you that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.” This occurred 20 years later, on January 28, 1938. EWTN’s Fatima Consecration Chronology shows that it was successful. Our fallen race had followed the Blessed Virgin Mary‘s directions and gained great benefit in the Fulfillment of the Gentiles.
But there would be more warnings. A Crucifixion of the Jews, which St. John Paul II told a group of Jewish leaders on June 14, 1987 was the saving warning for all the world. And St. John Paul II‘s prophecy, which appears below, at the Apostasy of the Gentiles.
Fulfillment of the Gentiles
The Six Day War
June 1, 1967: The Balance of Forces
At the beginning of June 1967 it looked to all the world as if the Arab nations would annihilate Israel, bringing back memories of Auschwitz. A great many Jews prayed to God to rescue them. He had given Biblical victories to Joshua, to the Judges and kings of Israel. Would he give them one more Biblical victory?
June 4, 1967: The Gathering Storm
The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon were poised on the borders of Israel. Behind them were the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, and Sudan. Supporting them were the whole Arab world, and a world power, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
In the south, Egypt had 80,000 soldiers with 550 tanks and 1,000 pieces of heavy artillery. On Israel’s eastern border Jordan had amassed 60,000 soldiers with 300 tanks, in addition to Iraqi forces which had entered Jordan. On Israel’s northern border, Syria had 50,000 soldiers. All this was backed up by a formidable Arab air force of some 600 Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi combat aircraft ready for action. These forces so greatly outnumbered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that many Israelis feared a second Holocaust.
Egypt maintained a blockade of Israel’s southern port, Eilat. Israel hoped the United States would send a flotilla to break the blockade, but President Johnson refused, fearing that it might escalate into a war with USSR.
Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon surrounded a Jewish State so small that one could drive its entire north-south length from Mt. Hermon to the Red Sea in a few hours, or in the same few hours walk the nine miles across its narrowest point, from Netanya on the Mediterranean to Tulkarim in the West Bank. Israel’s military command knew the Arab forces, with 200,000 soldiers and 1,000 tanks were ready to attack at any moment. The Soviets had poured two billion dollars worth of arms into the Arab nations. Israel was outmanned and outgunned on each of its three fronts, Egypt in the south, Jordan in the east, Syria in the north. Overall, the Arab nations had twice as many soldiers, three times as many tanks, and four times as many airplanes compared with tiny Israel.
These Arab nations surrounding Israel had vowed to make the blue waters of the Mediterranean run red with Jewish blood. Waiting for a coordinated air strike on all three fronts would have meant Israel’s certain and complete annihilation.
June 5, 1967: Day One of the War
Early in the morning, 7:10 am, Israel launched a pre-emptive air strike on Egypt’s air force bases. All of the Israeli Air Force’s (IAF) 250 jet fighters, except for only 12, took off, flying low to avoid radar detection and maintaining strict radio silence. They bombed and destroyed the runways of 11 Egyptian air force bases and their aircraft. In just four hours, Israel demolished two thirds of the entire Egyptian air force, the largest in the Arab world, giving Israel control of the air space over southern Israel, Egypt, and Sinai and freeing its air force for use in the north and east.
God‘s hand was visible. Although the IAF planes were flying very low and maintaining radio silence, a Jordanian radar facility detected an unusually large number of aircraft heading towards the Mediterranean sea. The Jordanian officer on duty immediately sent a message, Inab, the codeword for war, to Jordan’s military headquarters in Amman. The message was encoded and passed on to Egypt’s defense minister in Cairo. By a miracle, Egypt had changed its coding frequencies the day before, and had not notified the Jordanians. As a result, Egypt’s aircraft could not take off in time to attack the arriving IAF aircraft.
A second miracle occurred. Egypt had enough anti-aircraft ammunition to destroy all of the attacking IAF planes, but miraculously, no order was given for them to be launched! The IAF was able to annihilate six Egyptian airfields, two in Egypt and four in the Sinai desert, destroying about two-thirds of Egypt’s warplanes.
The IAF was able to destroy all the runways, warplanes, and anti-aircraft guns before a single one could be used, so the Israelis accomplished their mission with virtually no resistance!
If these two miracles had not occurred, all 250 of Israel’s planes and most of its pilots would likely have been lost and the Arabs would easily have been able to drive Israel into the sea!
Israel then told Jordan that if it would stay out of the war Israel would not retaliate, even though the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and other Jewish holy sites would have remained under Jordan’s control. Neither side knew that God planned this war to return full control of Jerusalem to Israel. God allowed Egypt to send Jordan false information claiming massive crippling attacks against Israel, so Jordan joined the war.
June 6, 1967: Day Two of the War
Israeli ground troops moved into the Sinai desert and engaged Egyptian forces positioned to attack Israel. Although Israel’s tanks were outnumbered three to one, Israel won the battle. Egypt’s forces retreated, leaving the Sinai in Israel’s hands. Israel re-opened the port at Sharm El Sheik on the southern tip of the Sinai, recovering access to the sea lanes Egypt had blocked only two weeks earlier.
Syria controlled the Golan Heights, sending mortar shells into Haifa’s oil refineries and nearby Jewish communities. Jordan, controlling the West Bank highlands, shelled civilian targets in the Jewish areas of Jerusalem all the way to Tel Aviv. The Israeli air force was stretched thin by the three-front war, with Egypt in the south, Jordan in the east, and Syria in the north. The IAF had been in nearly constant battle for 24 hours. Its pilots were tired, and its aircraft were low on fuel and ammunition. Egypt still had half its air force, and was still capable of mounting a ferocious counterattack against Israel.
God sent another miracle. Somehow Egypt’s leaders gave incoherent and disorganized instructions to their troops, leaving them free to return home for refueling, reloading, and sleep.
There was another miracle. IDF ground troops moved toward the Sinai front. As they approached the massively fortified Kusseima outpost they heard massive explosions. When they arrived they saw that the Egyptians, for no visible reason, had destroyed their equipment and abandoned the base! As the day continued, the IDF saw Egyptians hastily abandoning many of their outposts, in some cases even leaving their supplies behind.
June 7, 1967: Day Three of the War
Now on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem, Israeli forces overlooked the Old City of Jerusalem. In 1948, when modern Israel began, Jordan had taken control of East Jerusalem including the Temple Mount, Judaism’s most holy site. Under Jordanian rule, Jews had been evicted from the city’s Jewish Quarter, synagogues were destroyed, and the Mount of Olives, Judaism’s oldest and most holy cemetery, was vandalized.
IDF (Israeli Defense Force) soldiers had entered the holy city of Jerusalem without artillery support, risking their own lives to prevent damage to the holy sites.
The Arab strategy had traditionally been that whenever Israel’s forces looked as if they would be victorious the Arabs would call for a cease-fire and rally United Nations opinion to get it, preventing Israel from completing its victory.
But this time God intervened. Miraculously, at the last moment, Jordan’s King Hussein decided he was unwilling to comply with the cease-fire that he himself initiated! Of course it fell apart, allowing the IDF to finish annihilating Jordan’s military assets in Jerusalem, especially on the Temple Mount. Israel Defense Force paratroopers entered the holy city without artillery support, risking their lives to prevent damage to the holy sites. The battle lasted from the early morning to late afternoon, when the paratroopers sent a joyful message, Har Habayit Beyadenu! Har Habayit Beyadenu! “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” For the first time in 19 years Jews could pray at the Western Wall, and Jerusalem, the Holy City, was for the first time in 2,000 years entirely back in Jewish hands! The times of the Gentiles had been fulfilled Lk 21:24.
After capturing Jerusalem, the paratroopers moved south to defend the cities surrounding Jerusalem to the south, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Gush Ezion, which were captured by Israel with little if any resistance. The battle on the eastern front was now virtually over.
June 8, 1967: Day Four of the War
With the southern and eastern fronts secure, Israel turned to the north. But Day Four began with the most tragic accident of the war. Israeli planes attacked an American electronic surveillance ship in the Mediterranean sailing just offshore, the U.S.S. Liberty. The attack was stopped immediately when the mistake was realized, but by then 34 American sailors had been killed. Israel’s Prime Minister Levi Eshkol conveyed his profound condolences to the Americans.
The West Bank, the historical birthplace of the Jewish people, had maintained a Jewish presence for 3,000 years. In the Bible we know it as Judea and Samaria. In 1948, when Jordan’s forces had entered Hebron, a holy city in the West Bank, they banned Jews from living there and destroyed all of its 58 synagogues. But God intervened yet again. The IDF forces expected a hard battle to gain it, but when they entered Hebron, they found white sheets hanging from the windows, and an Arab population surrendering peacefully.
The war in the West Bank was over. Israel now had full control over the entire region.
June 9, 1967: Day Five of the War
To the north, Syria remained. On the Golan Heights, Syrian military forces had since 1948 looked down on Israel’s Galilee region. From 1948 to 1967 Syria had fired more than 1,000 rockets and shells on northern Israel’s cities, towns and communities. Syrian terrorists had regularly infiltrated into Israel to attack Israeli civilians, murdering more than 120 Israelis.
On that day God gave still another miracle. A small Israeli platoon had only 25 men left after suffering heavy casualties as they tried to climb the Golan Heights. They didn’t know that they were riding right into one of Syria’s most heavily fortified positions. It had bunkers, trenches, an arsenal of antitank guns, machine guns, and 82 mm mortars, all behind a double row of wire. The Syrian captain ordered his men not to fire until the Israelis reached the wire. However, somehow, they didn’t fire until the Israelis were already inside and the Syrians had taken heavy casualties.
Syria continued firing on Israelis even while Israeli soldiers moved onto the slopes of the Golan Heights. Syria, determined to hold the Golan, had an army of 75,000 troops. The troops and ammunition were entrenched in bunkers too deep to be hit by air attacks. However, remarkably, after seven hours of intense battle, Israel took control of all the roads and access points. At nightfall the battle for the Golan continued.
June 10, 1967: Day Six of the War
In the morning the weary Israelis, determined to take the Golan so that Syria would never again be able to fire rockets into Israel, expected another day of ferocious fighting. However, once again God intervened. The Syrians, in a sudden panic, pulled out of the Golan and chaotically fled, leaving behind most of their weaponry.
By mid-day the last Syrian forces were gone, Israel was in firm control of the Golan the war was over. A ceasefire was signed, and went into effect at 6:30 pm local time.
When the Dust Settled
Israel was recognized by all as the dominant military power in the Middle East. Israel also occupied the West Bank, Judea and Samaria, so it was no longer nine miles wide at its narrowest point with a long tortuous border that had been very hard to defend. Now Israel was 44 miles wide at its narrowest point, and its boundary with Jordan was relatively straight, making it much more defensible.
Fifty years after Fatima, in the Six Day War of June 5-10, 1967, God’s mighty hand gave Israel a stunning victory, as he had done so often in the days of the Old Testament. Israel gained control of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Gaza Strip.
After two thousand years, Rabbi Yeshua’s prophecy Lk 21:23–24 that the times of the Gentiles would be complete was fulfilled on June 10, 1967, when the Six Day War ended in victory for all of Jerusalem!
The Ingrafting
Who Do They Say That I Am
Michael Medved tells us, “For most American Jews, the core of their Jewish identity isn’t solidarity with Israel; it’s rejection of Christianity.”1 He gives us evidence for the first part of his statement: “In an era of budget plane flights and elegantly organized tours, more than 75 percent of American Jews have never bothered to visit Israel.”2 And he gives us evidence for the second: “What is the one political or religious position that makes a Jew utterly unwelcome in the organized community? We accept atheist Jews, Buddhist Jews, pro-Palestinian Jews, Communist Jews, homosexual Jews, and even sanction Hindu-Jewish meditation societies. ‘Jews for Jesus,’ however, or ‘Messianic Jews’ face resistance and exclusion everywhere.”3
This resistance to Rabbi Yeshua had its origins in a sinat khinam, hatred without cause, that had set in among God‘s people Israel, when Jews in great numbers turned against each other. God reached out to Israel through Isaiah, “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” Is 1:18.
Roy Schoeman, in his Confirmation of Jesus in the Talmud 48:17, tells us how this sinat khinam, hatred without cause, led to the Temple destruction in AD 70.
Rabbi Yeshua was a sword that divided the Jewish nation Mt 10:34. Many Jews followed him, others did not follow. The Jews who followed him are today called Catholics. Today’s Jews are descended from Jews who rejected him and passed their resistance from father to son across the centuries.
This national Jewish rejection of Rabbi Yeshua is in fact Judaism’s testament to the truth of the Catechism § 674: “The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by all Israel.” Jews across the spectrum from Orthodox to Reform, who agree on nothing else, agree on rejection of Christianity. Just as there has been a national Jewish rejection, so there will one day be a national Jewish acceptance of Rabbi Yeshua as God’s Mashiakh. Rom 11:15. This is the proof that the Church’s rapprochement with the Jews is no man-made decision but part of God’s mighty providence. Jn 12:24.
Who Do You Say That I Am
The Catholic Church has always believed that, before the Second Coming, all Israel would recognize Rabbi Yeshua as God’s Mashiakh. Desmond Birch tells us: “There is a vast body of oral tradition, Scripture, and private prophecy, and commentary by Doctors of the Church, concerning Enoch [sometimes spelled Henoch] and Elias [often spelled Elijah], and the role they will play at the time of Antichrist.”4
The Book of Genesis tells us: “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” Gen 5:24 Sirach confirmed it. “Enoch pleased the Lord, and was taken up; he was an example of repentance to all generations” Sir 44:16. So did Rabbi Paul. “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him” Heb 11:5.
So are the references for Elijah. “And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” 2 Kings 2:11. “You who were taken up by a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot with horses of fire; you who are ready at the appointed time, it is written, to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury, to turn the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob” Sir 48:9–10. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes” Mal 4:5.
The Jews in Rabbi Yeshua’s time were familiar with these prophecies. They asked Rabbi Yokhanan HaMatbil, “Are you Elijah?” Jn 1:21. Rabbi Yokhanan said no. But Rabbi Yeshua later, speaking figuratively, said of Rabbi Yokhanan, “He is Elijah who is to come” Mt 11:14.
Are Enoch and Elijah already at work among the Jews? The Church does not say, so we can only speculate. After two thousand years, in the time of the Holocaust, the Six Day War, and many other signs of the times, Jews in appreciable numbers have suddenly begun streaming toward Rabbi Yeshua and entering the Church in substantial numbers.
Rabbi Yeshua will accept into heaven only Jews who have put behind them the sinat khinam, hatred without cause and have come to love him. Catechism § 1260 tells us, “Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.” Up to now this “invincible ignorance” has saved many Jews. But, if the Second Coming is getting close, Enoch and Elijah may be teaching the Jews about Rabbi Yeshua so there will be no more “invincible ignorance.” The time for decision has come. In our own time the many Jews who follow him will sit with him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb Rev 19:9.
During the Holocaust, Rabbi Israel Zolli had been Chief Rabbi of Rome. In 1945 he was baptized into the Catholic faith. He wrote,
The Synagogue pointed to Christianity. Christianity presupposes the Synagogue. So you see, one cannot exist without the other.5
Catholic mirrors of Rabbi Yeshua, their hearts shining like the sun against the dark background of our time, are starting to call down God’s grace that will bring Israel to recognize its Mashiakh. In the crucible of the Holocaust Pope Pius XII, the Vicar of Christ, saved Israel as best he could, which after his natural death brought upon him a personal crucifixion. It is the beginning of the ingrafting, “that they may be one” Jn 17:11.
God’s providence in salvation history is awesome. The Catholic Church completed Judaism. And the full inclusion of the Jews will complete the Catholic Church.
The Journey Begins
The Holocaust had been all about the full inclusion of the Jews. After the Holocaust, and particularly after Rabbi Zolli’s baptism, Satan evidently concluded that the time of ingrafting was near. Rabbi Paul reminded the Gentiles, “For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree” Rom 11:24.
Pius XII was Christlike in his courage against both communists and Nazis. The Jews’ traditional fear of the Catholic Church, had been overcome when she stood with them against the Nazis. Rabbi Barry Dov Schwartz wrote: “Many Jews were persuaded to convert after the war, as a sign of gratitude, to that institution which had saved their lives.”6
At that time a great change came over the Jewish people. In God’s immense providence the fulfillment of Rabbi Yeshua‘s prophecy brought the Holocaust to the forefront of American Jewish consciousness. Perhaps some of them remembered,
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all Is 53:3–6.
They compared him with the appearance of the Holocaust victims. Many remembered Rabbi Lapide’s conclusion that Pope Pius XII and his Vatican saved about 860,000 Jews. Some Jews began coming into the Catholic Church and Messianic Judaism. “Who can retell the things that befell us?” Mi Y’malel 3:31
Perhaps some of them reflected that the evidence warranted belief. Perhaps some thought, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” Mt 19:26. Either way, as in Rabbi Yeshua’s time, many Jews followed!
Rabbi Yeshua had miraculously rescued Israel on the third day of the Six Day War in 1967. Rabbi Paul suggests that it will continue until all Israel completes its entry into the Church. “Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!” Rom 11:12. All Israel means the entire tribal family of Israel, a collective group representing all twelve tribes Rev 7:1–8. It does not mean every individual Israelite.
The Journey Fulfilled
The first step was important in that after the Six Day War many Jews embraced Rabbi Yeshua. But some Jews who entered the Catholic Church were seen as converting, abandoning their Jewish identity. Other Jews who entered various Protestant denominations were similarly seen as now Christian and no longer Jewish.
A sense began to arise that Rabbi Yeshua, who had lived all his mortal life as a Jew § 578, wanted to recognize the Jews who recognized him as God’s Mashiakh. Catechism § 674 had said, “The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by kol Israel, all Israel.” Rabbi Yeshua had said, “Salvation is from the Jews” Jn 4:22. Rabbi Paul had said, “It is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you” Rom 11:18. Rabbi Yeshua had prayed that “they may be one” Jn 17:11, 21.
The Helsinki Consultation for Jewish Continuity in Messiah was formed in 2010. Jewish continuity in Messiah means that a Jew who enters into Messiah continues to be a Jew. For instance, a Jew who enters the Catholic Church is both fully Jewish and fully Catholic. Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) remarked in 2001, “The whole of Eucharistic Christology is present in the todah spirituality of the Old Testament.”7
This does not detract from the fullness of our Catholic faith. We are not half Jewish and half Catholic, but all Jewish and all Catholic. Rabbi Yeshua did not come to destroy our Jewish faith but to fulfill it Mt 5:17. He came to institute the Catholic Church, whose source and summit is the Holy Eucharist CCC § 1324. Rabbi Yeshua taught the Holy Eucharist to the Jews in Capernaum Jn 6:51–59. About 80 percent of the Catholic Canon of Sacred Scripture is the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible. On one Hanukkah he told the Jews who had gathered around him, “I and the Father are one” Jn 10:30.
“I and the Father are one” Jn 10:30. The Father and the Son are one in the Holy Trinity. “The whole of Eucharistic Christology is present in the todah spirituality of the Old Testament.” The Jewish faith and the Catholic faith are one faith, one continuing revelation, called Jewish when it was the religion of the Judean people, and Catholic when it was opened to all the world. The revelation was separated into two parts by time, but the same God spoke to the same people. Many Jews followed, others did not follow, but all were of the same ancestry.
Nowhere else do we find a faith community begun by a national revelation, a revelation simultaneously heard and understood by the entire faith community. The Protestants find their origin in Martin Luther, an ordinary man. The Muslims find theirs in Muhammad, an ordinary man whom they call a prophet, and so on.
Rabbi Yeshua taught his shlikhim, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind Deut 6:5. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself Lev 19:18. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” Mt 22:37–40.
“On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” Rabbi Yeshua said the Father gave all of Moses’ 613 Torah mitzvot to lead his twelve tribes to understand these two great commandments. If they fully lived them they were fulfilling all 613 mitzvot. But they, and we, had to live them at a higher level than we ever had before, above human power because he re-opened heaven Lk 23:43 which we cannot enter by our own power. And he gave us sanctifying grace to help us get there.
CCC § 581 The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a rabbi. He often argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of the Law. Yet Jesus could not help but offend the teachers of the Law, for he was not content to propose his interpretation alongside theirs but taught the people as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. In Jesus, the same Word of God that had resounded on Mount Sinai to give the written Law to Moses, made itself heard anew on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate interpretation in a divine way: “You have heard that it was said to the men of old … But I say to you …” With this same divine authority, he disavowed certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were making void the word of God.
The Helsinki Consultation continues to explore various questions and issues about the Jews in the Body of Messiah. In 2018 the First International Congress of Jewish Disciples of Yeshua was held. It represented the next phase in the journey by opening up the discussion and witness to Jewish disciples interested in the proceedings, to build on a wider foundation.
Apostasy of the Gentiles
Rabbi Yeshua will likely to again make his resurrected Church very small but intensely faithful, so it would witness by its very presence.
So what are we faithful to do with all this? Same thing we’ve been doing all along, fighting to protect the Church. We haven’t received any “stand down” directive. Rabbi Yeshua’s plans are much deeper than we can ever understand. The Blessed Virgin Mary gave us our marching orders two thousand years ago at Cana, and they have never changed: “Do whatever he tells you” Jn 2:5.
Or, in Cardinal Burke’s words: “Those who love the truth and therefore the Church are called as ‘co-workers of the truth’ and living members of the Body of Christ … to do all within their power to defend the authority of Christ [and his] Church. There could be no place for silence or for an attitude of defeat.”8
Cardinal Burke spoke in the great Catholic tradition that truth and love have an intrinsic relationship. They need each other. St. John Paul II tells us in his Homily for the Canonization of Edith Stein (6) that the life and earthly death of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross 3:24 testify to us all:
Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth! One without the other becomes a destructive lie.
Rabbi Yeshua told the scribes and Pharisees that Satan is the exact reverse of truth and love.
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.
Rabbi Yeshua adds, “But he who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come” Mt 24:13–14.
St. John Paul II’s Prophecy
In 1976, two years before he became St. John Paul II, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, then the Archbishop of Kraków in Poland, visited the United States on the occasion of the bicentennial anniversary of American Independence in 1976. His parting talk included this prophetic passage:
We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence; it is a trial which the whole Church, and the Polish Church in particular, must take up.
It is a trial of not only our nation and the Church, but in a sense a test of 2,000 years of culture and Christian civilization with all of its consequences for human dignity, individual rights, human rights, and the rights of nations.
We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is possible to alleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it. … How many times has the renewal of the Church been brought about in blood! It will not be different this time.
The Polish Church in particular? Cardinal Wojtyla knew his Polish history, and Israel’s history. During the past thousand years Poland has been a predominantly Catholic land. In the time of the Crusades, Jews from all over Europe fled there. For the next eight centuries, when other European countries persecuted or expelled Jews from their lands, they fled to Poland, Israel-in-Exile, during that time the world‘s largest Jewish community and foremost center of Jewish learning and culture.
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head” Mt 8:20. Poland and Israel share with the Son of God that their survival rests on God, not on territory. Poland as a sovereign land had gone in and out of existence several times during the past thousand years. In 1795 Russia and Prussia partitioned it, erasing its national existence and submerging its language and culture for 123 years until 1918, the year after Fatima, when the Treaty of Versailles restored it. Then in 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union again took Poland out of existence, dividing it between them until 1945, staining its land with rivers of Polish and Jewish blood. Yet Poland, always deeply Catholic, by God’s grace survived as a faithful people, a land, and a culture. Israel’s national existence had been erased even longer, from 63 BC to AD 1948, yet God also preserved it as a faithful people, a land, and a culture.
Did Fulton Sheen Prophecy About These Times?
The First Fulfillment
It did not take long for the Holy Father‘s prophecy to see its first fulfillment. An anti-communist Polish pope together with the anti-communist Ronald Reagan represented a grave threat to the USSR. Attempts were made to assassinate both. On March 13, 1981 John Hinkley Jr. shot and nearly killed President Reagan. On May 13, 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Bulgarian sharpshooter, shot and very nearly killed the Holy Father. God intervened. John Paul II and President Reagan survived, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) did not.
Marriage and the Family
God‘s created woman ezer kenegdo, to protect men from their propensity to sin. Only healthy women can do that and the Blessed Virgin Mary protects us best of all. Damaged women leave us men open to Satan‘s depredations.
Sr. Lucia in the Cardinal Caffarra interview published by Rorate Caeli in 2008 prophesied, “The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family.” Satan would disfigure marriage and the family to open us to Satan‘s depredations:
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error” Rom 1:26–27.
It swiftly became much worse:
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them Rom 1:28–32.
This is why Father Hardon constantly admonished,
Without heroic Faith Catholics will soon not be able to endure and survive, much less grow in the Faith and pass it on intact and faithfully—whole and entire– to their own children. I say it again, and earnestly: our Faith, and all of our derivatively cultivated virtues, must become and truly be heroic.
The Great Sign in Heaven
Many Catholics are familiar with Rabbi Yokhanan‘s great Revelation 12:1–6.
And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another sign appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth Rev 12:1–4.
The woman is both the Blessed Virgin Mary and also the remnant of Israel crying out for God‘s Mashiakh. The dragon is God‘s archenemy Satan Jn 8:44, whose horns are symbols of his strength Dan 7:7 and his diadems (crowns) symbols of his ruling power over the fallen earth Jn 12:31.
The third of the stars, from the war in heaven, were the fallen angels, one-third of all Rabbi Yeshua‘s angels, who had made war against him and been kicked out of heaven. The third of links the war in heaven prophecy with the third of mankind who will be killed in the Apostasy of the Gentiles. “So the four angels were released, who were prepared for this hour, day, month, and year to kill a third of the human race” Rev 9:15. “By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulphur issuing from their mouths” Rev 9:18. Supporting passages include: “A third of the earth was burnt up, and a third of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up” Rev 8:7. “A third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed” Rev 8:9.
The early Christians believed that Antichrist would come as Rabbi Yeshua did, one man with his followers. “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” 1 Jn 2:18. However, the Catechism emphasizes the central teaching: § 675 “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.” Many devout Catholics believe that we are living today in the time of the final apostasy.
Satan’s first deception and final apostasy, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” Gen 3:5, is already with us in the world. The Catechism continues, § 676 “The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment.” We see it in the long twilight struggle between God and government as the organizing principle of our lives and the source of all that we need.
The last things are death, judgment, resurrection of the body, heaven, purgatory and hell. In Christ’s superbrilliant light, at the moment each soul passes into eternity, in the particular judgment it sees all the events of its earthly life with the blessings or trials each event has brought to others, to their most distant consequences, and instantly receives its particular judgment for heaven or hell. Rabbi Yeshua reveals only our own events because only the record of our own life is complete. The record of man is not yet complete.
In the last judgment at the end of time, the record of man will be complete. Each soul will see the events of every person’s life to their most distant consequences and the judgment he received. In short, we will see ourselves and one another as Rabbi Yeshua sees us.
The resurrection of all the dead, of both the just and the unjust, will precede the last judgment.
§ 1038 The resurrection of all the dead, of both the just and the unjust, will precede the Last Judgment. This will be the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man’s] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. Then Christ will come in his glory, and all the angels with him. 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 he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
§ 1039 In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare. The last judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life: All that the wicked do is recorded, and they do not know.
Rabbi Yokhanan continued,
Men worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it? Rev 13:4.
And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months; it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. Rev 13:5–8.
Rabbi Yokhanan tells us how to understand this vision of a world authority: “Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints” Rev 13:10.
Diabolical Forces
The Great Divide
We recall that the Spiritual War is centered on the question:
Will God or man be the organizing principle of our lives and the source of all that we need?
Rabbi Yeshua‘s forces say God has to be the organizing principle. Satan‘s forces say man should replace God:
You will be like God, knowing good and evil Gen 3:5.
God told our first parents,
Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth Gen 1:28.
In the World
St. John Paul II‘s reference to “the Polish Church in particular” has another interpretation. Europe has accepted millions of Muslims into its own countries. They are procreating so much faster than Europeans that within one or two generations Muslims will start outvoting Europeans in country after country. When they do, Italy and all the other countries will suddenly come under Shariah law, and all of Europe’s churches will be destroyed. Muslims for centuries have wanted to destroy the Vatican.
Poland has so far strenuously resisted Muslim invasion. The country is now more Catholic than Rome. That may be where they will take as much of the Holy See as they can, St. Peter’s tomb, St. Paul’s tomb, the archives, the records of each dicastery, and the statues and art works. With Rabbi Yeshua’s promise that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” Mt 16:18, there it would likely remain until the Second Coming.
The Traditional
Changing demographics are driving emphasis on man as the organizing principle of our lives. When Europe, the cradle of Christianity, abandoned Rabbi Yeshua in the 1960s it emptied his great cathedrals and abandoned his great teaching. Europe fell to Satan‘s master temptation, pride: “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” Gen 3:5.
Europe believed that it could have high social safety nets with low fertility rates. Its high social safety nets would have protected status for aging workers, early retirement, and sustained millions in lifelong leisure without productive work.
Low fertility rates can’t support high social safety nets, but Europe’s citizens refused to face reality: They could joyfully expend youthful energy and money raising the large families needed for native population replacement, accept the reduced retirement benefits that their fast-declining native populations were able to pay for, or bring in a high-procreation workforce that would dilute Europe’s national identity.
Europe chose the third. Germany became less German, France became less French, England became less English, and so on. But Satan’s forces wanted to go much farther, and much faster.
The Radical
Satan’s first and central temptation to man was, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Gen 3:5. Now, in these last days, Satan is returning to his central temptation against Rabbi Yeshua‘s image and likeness, using his angelic intelligence, which even the fallen angels retain, to make us think we can be like God. In fact, he is teaching us, “You can be like Satan.” Rabbi Yeshua said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” Jn 15:5. Satan is falsely teaching us to reply, “Apart from you I can do anything.”Only a few months after Fatima, Satan‘s forces, in the person of Woodrow Wilson, began the Progressive Movement, which led to the globalist movement, a new world order in which one worldwide government would have godlike global power.
Since God created man in his own image and likeness, Satan sent his globalist forces out to attack God by destroying most of mankind. One element of the plan is to seek open borders everywhere in the world, overrunning First World nations with Third World illegal aliens to populate them with poorly educated masses that would be easy for globalists to control and exterminate. Their efforts to promote abortion of native populations fit right in with their efforts to bring as many illegal aliens as possible to transform highly developed nations into Third World countries that will be easy to exterminate when the time comes. The left’s efforts to disarm First World countries also fit in with its efforts to make them much easier to exterminate.
The globalists have also declared carbon dioxide to be a pollutant. Carbon dioxide is of course the single most important plant life nutrient on Earth. Abundant carbon dioxide in the atmosphere brings abundant rainforests, food crops, and ecological diversity. Declaring carbon dioxide a poison lets them collapse photosynthesis, and therefore the global food supply!
The New York Times on December 17, 2018, published an op-ed by Todd May, “Would Human Extinction Be a Tragedy?” May is careful not to let the cat out of the bag, but flashes of it come through, such as,
Human beings are destroying large parts of the inhabitable earth and causing unimaginable suffering to many of the animals that inhabit it. This is happening through at least three means. First, human contribution to climate change is devastating ecosystems, as the recent article on Yellowstone Park in The Times exemplifies. Second, increasing human population is encroaching on ecosystems that would otherwise be intact. Third, factory farming fosters the creation of millions upon millions of animals for whom it offers nothing but suffering and misery before slaughtering them in often barbaric ways. There is no reason to think that those practices are going to diminish any time soon. Quite the opposite.
And,
One might ask here whether, given this view, it would also be a good thing for those of us who are currently here to end our lives in order to prevent further animal suffering. Although I do not have a final answer to this question, we should recognize that the case of future humans is very different from the case of currently existing humans. To demand of currently existing humans that they should end their lives would introduce significant suffering among those who have much to lose by dying. In contrast, preventing future humans from existing does not introduce such suffering, since those human beings will not exist and therefore not have lives to sacrifice. The two situations, then, are not analogous.
There have been other articles in The Times and in many other publications discussing strategy and tactics for the extinction of man. To keep from awakening Rabbi Yeshua‘s forces, most of them are in leftist publications that Christians don’t read, but they are all happening now.
In the Church
Cardinal Burke reminds us, Fatima foretold that diabolical forces would enter the Church in our time. Cardinal Arinze tells us that Fatima reveals Hell is for Real.
Back in the early 1990s we already saw a glimpse of the one world religion flash by largely unnoticed. CCC § 841 declared,
The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims … and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.
“Together with us Muslims adore the one merciful God?”
At the time CCC § 841 was written it may have appeared so, but Islam sees no Holy Trinity. It sees Rabbi Yeshua as a prophet, not as the Son of God. Compare “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” Mt 5:44 with any of the Quran’s fighting verses, for instance, “But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war) 9:5. These differences are irreconcilable. The same Almighty God did not tell us that he is a Holy Trinity and also that he is not. The same God did not tell us to love our enemies and also to kill them. CCC § 841 can not be written off simply as ecumenical outreach because it goes straight to the most central Catholic dogmas. It can be understood only as an early foray into one world religion.
In recent years some churchmen have been caught up in the ancient serpent’s heresy. “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” Gen 3:5. They want to change the Church’s teaching to conform with changes in the world. They want the bishops of each country to decide their own teachings, even their own doctrines. For instance, some countries’ local churchmen say a divorced-and-remarried Catholic commits adultery while local churchmen in other countries say he doesn’t. The Catholic Church is not an amusement park with different rides in each area. Rabbi Yeshua told us clearly,
I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery Mt 19:9.
Rabbi Yeshua, leading us toward sanctity in the New and Eternal Covenant, built his Church on Rabbi Kefa Mt 16:18, and planned since time immemorial for Peter in Rome. Her centuries-old motto is Roma locuta, causa finita est.
The Crisis in Christendom
Did Fulton Sheen Prophesy About These Times?
Back in 1943, Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen gave a radio talk, on Crisis in Christendom: War & Revolution 26:57. He saw the problem clearly that far back. He returned to the subject in 1954:
Crises of the World Part 1 9:55
Crises of the World Part 2 9:55
Crises of the World Part 3 3:50
The great Archbishop gave a talk on The Fourth Great Crisis in the Church 38:29 We do not know the date, but he mentions abortion so we can conclude that it was after 1973. And he gave a television talk on the same subject in 1974.
Archbishop Sheen’s Warning of a Crisis in Christendom is worth reading as a convenient summary.
Persecutions Foretold
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people. For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses, who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth” 2 Tim 3:1–7.
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come” Mt 24:9–14.
“So the four angels were released, who were prepared for this hour, day, month, and year to kill a third of the human race” Rev 9:15. In the United States today, a third of all the children conceived each year are being killed in their mother’s wombs. As of 2023, a third of all of the population under 50 years of age have already been killed. Twenty years after that a third of the entire United States population will have been murdered in its mothers’ wombs.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you” Mt 5:10–12. Rabbi Yeshua spoke these words from a mountainside as the crown of his Beatitudes, the § 1716 “heart of Jesus’ preaching.” They were for all time, but especially for the Apostasy of the Gentiles. As Rabbi Yeshua‘s forces and Satan‘s forces move farther and farther apart, we will see the Christians pray for the conversion of Satan‘s forces Mt 5:44 while Satan‘s forces persecute and kill the Christians Jn 8:44.
Rabbi Yeshua emphasized that we, his followers, are of use to him only if we are faithful to his calling. “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men” Mt 5:13. We are to salt the earth with peace Mk 9:50 and gracious speech Col 4:6.
Rabbi Yeshua also emphasized, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” Mt 5:14–16.
On our own we will fall short Jn 15:5. But with Radical Transformation our God will give us the victory.
Archbishop Viganò: Our Lady warned of ‘great apostasy’ in Church followed by risk of World War III 29:25
The Desolating Sacrilege
“So when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to get a coat. And alas for those who are with child and for those who are nursing in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. 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. And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. Then if any one says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; if they say, ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man. Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together” Mt 24:15–28.
The body? “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” Lk 22:19.
All creation will await the Second Coming because all will be eager to know whether Rabbi Yeshua will place them at his right or at his left Mt 25:31–34. For that time, Rabbi Yeshua gave Rabbi Yokhanan an extraordinary vision of a rider on a white horse.
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed which no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, followed him on white horses. From his mouth issues a sharp sword with which to strike the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords Rev 19:11–16.
The white horse suggests that Rabbi Yeshua will not appear in natural human form but in his glorified body under the appearance of the white unleavened bread of the Holy Eucharist. He will be leading the armies of heaven which will also be riding on white horses. Strengthened by the same Holy Eucharist, they will fight together with Rabbi Yeshua toward victory.
The Coming of the Son of Man
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other Mt 24:29–31.
The Short View
Rabbi Yeshua volunteered to enter into our earthly life as true God and true man to redeem all who chose God as the organizing principle of their lives and the source of all that they needed. His redemption had to be Crucifixion. He had to die, be entombed for three days, and then he would rise from the tomb! In this way he would reverse Satan’s lie. We could return to paradise only by relying entirely on God. On the Cross, Jesus re-opened heaven Lk 23:43.
Rabbi Yeshua taught us that God built into his Creation from the beginning a general principle:
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit Jn 12:24.
He showed it to us in the earth itself. Every autumn the leaves fall from the trees to the ground. During the winter the trees are bare and quiet, everything looks dead. But in the spring new leaves appear on the trees, the birds sing, and life returns to nature.
Two thousand years ago Rabbi Yeshua delivered to his saints a deposit of faith, our fallen race’s uphill path to heaven. Every pope’s highest responsibility is to preserve intact the Catholic “faith once delivered to the saints” Jude 3 by Rabbi Yeshua himself for generations yet unborn.
For now, we can safely reflect that Rabbi Yeshua‘s law for us is eternal Mt 24:35; Mk 13:31; Lk 21:33. What Rabbi Yeshua taught, and what the 265 popes who preceded Pope Francis have taught, will remain God‘s law until the Second Coming. And we can safely reflect on Gerhard Cardinal Müller’s Manifesto of Faith 22:01.
It is well known by now that Pope Francis is deeply heterodox in ways we have never seen in two thousand years. Each pope in his time is the Vicar of Christ, with authority to command the faithful only what Rabbi Yeshua has commanded us. Pope Francis sometimes faithfully teaches Rabbi Yeshua‘s law and at other times contradicts it. Catholics who have been well catechized recognize the difference in an instant, but many Catholics today have been poorly catechized and are led astray. Rabbi Yeshua told us, “Woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” Mt 26:24. Father Rosica, a Vatican advisor close to Pope Francis, has declared that Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants.
As an example, Pope Francis on February 4, 2019 signed A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together. It declares, “The pluralism and the diversity of religions … are willed by God.” However, God commanded all mankind, “You shall have no other gods before me” Ex 20:3, and again, “You shall have no other gods before me” Deut 5:7. In another example, Pope Francis reversed a teaching on the Death Penalty that had been in place since the Book of Genesis was written down Gen 9:6.
Tracking Francis’ day-to-day path is the work of others, such as EWTN, Church Militant, LifeSite News and the National Catholic Register.
The Intermediate View
The intermediate perspective is that Pope Francis speaks often of a true world political authority. It has been under construction since 1917, the time of Fatima and the foundation of the Progressive Movement. Originally, the Progressives believed that the family was the foundation stone of the United States, but over time their idea became a world government, often called the New World Order. It is already being built.
The first stage, the United Nations born in 1945, necessarily had to retain national sovereignty but accustomed states to the idea of a “parliament of man.” Subsequent steps systematically transfer sovereignty from nations to international organizations. The European Union, born in 1992, has a much higher level of sovereignty over its member nations, including its own currency, the Euro.
Many faithful Catholics, reading the Gospels, conclude from all this that the Second Coming will come soon, but we have no divine revelation whether soon is measured in minutes or centuries Mt 24:36.
Rabbi Yeshua lives in eternity so his magisterium is eternal. What he taught two thousand years ago is his teaching for the morning of the Second Coming. Cardinal Burke says that Francis is “a legitimate pope,” and so we have to follow (LG 25) when he gives a teaching consistent with the Catholic magisterium.
However, where Francis breaks Catholic traditions, I would not accept preternatural evidence that he is speaking for Rabbi Yeshua. Preternatural is above the order of human nature. The saints and angels in heaven are above the order of human nature because they are pure spirit while man is both spirit and matter, so even fallen angels (demons), can produce false events that look like miracles to us. Supernatural is above the order of created nature. God created all things, so only God can accomplish supernatural events. I would accept only true supernatural evidence, such as the national revelation.
The Long View
In the Old Testament days there was a firm belief that Israel’s future would be protected by a faithful remnant surviving its destruction. “For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return” Is 10:22. “Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply” Jer 23:3. “I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob, I will gather the remnant of Israel” Mic 2:12.
Rabbi Paul even told the Romans that Isaiah’s prophecy had application in the New Testament as well. “And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved” Rom 9:27. We can call them the Remnant of the New Israel. After the Holocaust, those who lived through it were called in Hebrew she’erit ha-peletah, “the remnant that survives.”
At present many Catholics are following Pope Francis into his “new church,” perhaps expecting easy salvation. But Rabbi Yeshua told us, “because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth” Rev 3:16. A smaller number constitute the Remnant of Israel that will hold fast to the faith once delivered to the saints Jude 3.
We now turn to the Catechism, § 677. It comes from The Revelation to John.
§ 677 begins:
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.
During his incarnate life Rabbi Yeshua chose Yehuda Ish Krayot, a shaliakh, perhaps because he needed a betrayer with stature enough to complete his plan to redeem us on the Cross. Rabbi Yeshua, shepherding Holy Mother Church across her own death and Resurrection, might have needed a betrayer for our time, perhaps a Francis. Only a betraying pope could ignite the final unleashing of evil that Rabbi Yeshua alone could conquer to bring the Last Judgement into being Mt 25:31–46.
The Remnant of Israel will be at his right hand Mt 25:31–40. Those who succumbed to temptation will be at his left hand Mt 25:41–45.
§ 677 continues:
“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.”
Mary’s Immaculate Heart
The Blessed Virgin Mary has her own page in a place of honor on the Second Exodus web site. She is extremely important as our intercessor with Rabbi Yeshua and I invite my site visitors as we approach the Judgment of the Nations to re-read the entire Blessed Virgin Mary page. But there is one part of the story that belongs here: Mary’s Immaculate Heart:
When the Blessed Virgin Mary sees all Israel seated eternally beside her Son at table for the marriage supper of the Lamb Rev 19:7, the triumph of her Immaculate Heart will be complete.
What does this mean, “My Immaculate Heart will triumph”? Cardinal Ratzinger told us, in the final paragraph of The Message of Fatima:
I would like finally to mention another key expression of the “secret” which has become justly famous: “my Immaculate Heart will triumph”. What does this mean? The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Savior into the world—because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remain so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this: “In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.
The Judgment of the Nations
The Nations Gathered
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 he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left Mt 25:31–33.
The Saved
Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ Mt 25:34–40.
The Damned
Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life Mt 25:41–46.
Amen
I Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star Rev 22:16.