By the Moderator.
This is a repost of a dream from 2017. It also features the visions of Romanian preacher, Dumitru Duduman, who envisioned a successful, pre- emeptive strike on the USA. We are now at the beginning of this reality.
For further information, see my previous post: https://onlinechurchforchrist.com/2022/03/06/world-war-three-is-here-and-no-one-told-us/
A few weeks ago, hardly anyone in America had ever heard of Pastor Dana Coverstone, but now hundreds of thousands of people all over the country are buzzing about him. He leads a very small church in Burkesville, Kentucky and on June 25th he posted a video on Facebook about some remarkable things that he had seen in some of his dreams. He probably thought that only a handful of his friends would see the video, but it quickly went viral. At this point it has been watched by more than a million people on Facebook, and a copy that was posted to YouTube has now been viewed more than 600,000 times. Personally, I have had countless people share his video with me over the past week, and it still hasn’t stopped. But even though this video is spreading like wildfire, the mainstream media has been completely silent about it. In fact, if you do a search on Google News for “Pastor Dana Coverstone”, you won’t find a single news story about his video. What he was shown definitely does not fit their agenda, and so I expect that they will continue to generally ignore this phenomenon.
Well, it is because he saw the catastrophic events of 2020 in advance, and he was also shown that more catastrophic events are coming.
Let’s start from the very beginning. In December 2019, Pastor Coverstone had a dream in which he saw some very unusual things. The following is from a transcript of his original video that my wife put together…
Here’s what happened:
Back in December I woke up, I had a dream. In that dream I saw a calendar. Starting January 2020.
It was being flipped. I saw January, I saw February, I saw March. When March came up the hand held it and I saw the thing of finger underline the month of March, and the tap it three times.
So underline the month of March, tapped it three times.
So to me it was emphasis, something’s going to happen in March.
Then I saw April, May, June. When June came, the hand underlined June again and tapped it three times.
Then, in the vision I saw people marching, I saw protests. I saw people wearing masks, I saw lines going into hospitals. I saw typical medical doctors with needles or syringes, I saw people on ventilators I saw people who were very, very sick, very, very ill. I saw newspaper headlines trumpeting thousands of people getting sick. I saw ambulances, just flying down roads, and then I saw cities on fire.
I saw buildings being burned. I saw protesters with masks. I saw people who had their fists in the air, people who were yelling and screaming angry at just at the world. I saw courthouses, I saw state houses surrounded. I saw people who were mad at the world. I saw I saw guns shotguns specifically put in the air, held like this, (showing above his head) and I saw barriers within cities.
I told several men in my church about this and I can confirm who those men were and they’ll confirm what I’m telling you is what I told them.
Obviously this is a description of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rioting, looting and violence that erupted in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.
Since Pastor Coverstone posted his video after these things happened, a lot of people out there may think that he just made this dream up.
To head off that sort of criticism, Pastor Coverstone has posted testimonies from two men from his church that affirm that he shared this dream with them back when he was first given it. You can find those testimonies right here.
Of course there will be some people that try to claim that those two men are “making it up” too. It amazes me the lengths that some people will go to in order to deny facts that are inconvenient.
As the events of 2020 began to unfold, Pastor Coverstone and members of his church came to realize the importance of that first dream.
Then, it late June, Pastor Coverstone had another dream that pertains to the second half of this year. The following is another excerpt from the transcript of his original video that my wife made…
With that in mind, on Monday night I had another dream.
It woke me from my bed. I made notes about it. I shot some video of myself just making sure to remember.
Here’s what I saw.
I saw a calendar. Start with the calendar. As I was having this, the calendar was up, a white figure appeared. To me, it was a representing God the Holy Spirit, something pure, something righteous, something true, something Holy because there was nothing sinister about it. Nothing evil, but I heard the voice say, “part two, part two”.
I saw June, go, I saw July. I saw August, and then I saw September, and I saw the finger underneath the word September and I like like emphasizing it and tap the three times.
Then I saw October come up, and then I saw November and this is when it got real to me in the dream. I think the intensity for me… when I woke up my heart rate was about 180.
So that was Monday night, and I woke up not feeling very well at all I was up during the night not feeling well.
But anyway,… The minute the finger underlined November three times instead of tapping it, I saw a fist ball up and it hit the calendar.
And literally, the calendar exploded into the wall, the numbers seem that they were 3d and they were falling everywhere.
There was a cloud of chaos that started in there. The next thing I saw was I saw I saw armed protesters. I saw fighting in the streets, I saw people pummeling one another. I saw businesses shuttered and shut up.
I saw schools close. I saw school rooms with cobwebs hanging in them and like things like papers falling off the wall and posters… like no one had been in them for months.
I saw banks. Bank buildings with the roof being taken off. It looked almost that alien abduction because money was flying through the roof into some type of like a vacuum cleaner. It sounds kind of strange, but I was watching wealth, just being taken. I saw politicians in back rooms, making deals with people. Patting people on the back and laughing and smiling and smirking.
I saw monuments. I saw Washington DC, burning. I saw Washington DC blazing. I saw fires, everywhere. I saw people being rounded up. I saw Chinese and Russian soldiers on the ground. The Russian soldiers would tell the Chinese soldiers to go “pick up these people”…” secure this quadrant”….” secure this area”… I saw blue helmets of the UN. I saw a military things taking place. I also saw no sign of President Trump. I saw no sign of leadership in Washington DC.
The vultures that I had seen were like gargoyles. They were 10 feet off the ground…. 10 to 15 feet off the ground. They were just attacking people mercilessly. I saw people hiding in their homes and garages. I saw churches, being burned, I saw homes, being burned.
I saw absolute chaos. The fist punch on the November of 2020 is what got my attention. Then I heard the words again. ” Brace yourself, Brace yourself. Brace yourself.”
That has been something that I have heard for almost, almost seven months now. Starting, … once we get to July, it’s gonna be seven months.
I’m not claiming to be a prophet I’m not claiming proclaiming … just, … let’s see what happens in November,… through November and see if I’m right about this. But I know when I hear God’s voice, I know, I know what God’s voice sounds like to me. I know when He speaks. I know when I had a dream that I know is Him. The things that I am saying, I don’t say this to scare people but I say this to warn people that there are some pretty sinister things coming down the pike, and not just for the lost but for God’s people as well.
The second dream I had last night,… It woke me up.
In this dream. We just had a yard sale to help fund team going to Ecuador this next year.
We had a yard sale. I had asked our secretary to get some change for that for that yard sale. So, in the dream that I’m having, .. I walk to the bank. I walk into the bank to get some change. On the door, it says there’s no change available.
I saw the sign and registered in mind. I walked on in, and the president of the local bank was at the teller station. She was taking care of business.
And I said, I need to get $10 in quarters for yard sale and she said, I’m sorry, but the US Mint is no longer making currency or making change… ( like pennies nickels dimes quarters half dollars), “We’re not doing that anymore”,
“well what do you mean”
She said, … ” they stopped doing it”
I said, “Well, how am I going to be able to charge $1.50 for anything ?
She said, ” prepare for hyperinflation and just charge $2 “
Then she said to me in the dream… Oh by the way, $1 and $5 bills will follow soon after that.
Then I heard those words. “Brace yourself. Brace yourself. Brace yourself.”
I wrote these things down.
I have never gone on video and recorded the dreams that I’ve had and I hesitated to not do the one I had back in December, but everything I saw in that dream in December, came true between March and June when in the dream I was shown March through June.
I don’t think I would be doing anyone a service if I don’t show what I saw in these dreams and visions.
I believe that we’re going to see not just going to see a second huge wave of Covid between September, October, November.
We’re going to see major things with the elections,…
We’re going to see major chaos in our country.
We’re going to see troops in our cities.
We’re going to see the protests get even worse,
We’re going to see buildings burn.
We’re going to see which can only lead to civil war in this country.
And so for my friends that are believers, … I’m just going to show that what I think you need to hear.
First of all, you need to be preparing food.
Make sure you’ve got alternative forms of currency like silver or gold or whatever.
I believe you need to have an ample supply of both guns and ammunition. That’s not just the Second Amendment fan of me coming out, that is the things that we’re seeing. They are talking about defunding the police. That means one thing … you’re on your own a lot of areas.
I also believe you need to be praying like you never prayed before.
Make sure your family knows what’s going on, where you are have some sort of communication between your family about if certain things happen if certain things go down.
I’m not saying, get off the grid, and I’ve never ever said anything like this in my church. I have said I believe that this could happen but I’ve never done what I’m doing right now.
I’m telling you that between September and November of this coming year. And by the time we get to November and nothing’s happened … man you call you call me on this and say .. you are an absolute idiot and a fool for saying those things.
Go right ahead.
I realize I’m responsible for what I’ve spoken. I also know what I sense and I know the Holy Spirit’s voice enough to know that what I’ve heard.
I believe is going to happen. What I heard in December happened between March and June.
Considering the fact that “part one” ended up being completely accurate, what Pastor Coverstone was shown in “part two” should be extremely sobering for all of us.
It appears that things will start to really escalate starting in September, and it appears that November will be some sort of major turning point.
Sadly, Pastor Coverstone is being relentlessly attacked on social media for sharing what he was shown, and that is extremely unfortunate.
We live at a time when there is so much hatred in this country, and it is only going to get worse.
This chapter in American history is going to be a very painful one, and most of the U.S. population still has absolutely no idea what is coming.
Pastor Coverstone.
In 1972 a biography of Pope Pius XII was published in France entitled Pie XII devant l’Histoire written by Msgr. Georges Roche and Philippe Saint Germain, never translated into Italian [or English]. The authors relate various unpublished statements made very “long ago” – in 1933 – by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli to two of his friends, Count Enrico Pietro Galeazzi and Msgr. Slozkaz, regarding the apparitions at Fatima and the apostasy of the Catholic Church. It is interesting to note that it was only in 1944 that Sister Lucia Dos Santos wrote down the visions and secrets. For this reason, what Cardinal Pacelli said in 1933 – which is all tragically coming true – leads us to conclude that everything was not revealed to us [by the Holy See’s statement on the Third Secret of Fatima] during the Jubilee Year 2000. We have translated these statements of the future Pius XII – which are truly prophecies – for you here. Read and meditate.
14 Maggio 2020 Pubblicato da Marco Tosatti —
“Let us suppose that communism is one of the most evident instruments of subversion used against the Church and the Traditions of Divine Revelation. Then we will witness the contamination of everything that is spiritual: philosophy, science, law, education, the arts, media, literature, theater, and religion.
I am worried about the confidences given by the Virgin to little Lucia of Fatima. This insistence by the Good Lady on the dangers that threaten the Church is a divine warning against the suicide that would be contained in the altering of the Faith in its liturgy, its theology, and its soul.
I sense all around me that the innovators want to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, throw out all of its ornaments and make it full of a sense of guilt for its historic past. Look, I am convinced that the Church of Peter must rediscover a sense of pride about its past, otherwise it will dig its own grave.
I will fight this battle with all my strength within the Church as well as outside Her, even if the forces of evil one day take advantage of my very person, my actions, or my writings, just as today they attempt to distort the history of the Church. All the human heresies that alter the Word of God are made to seem like they are better than Her.
A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God, that God’s Son is only a symbol, a philosophy just like any other. In the churches, Christians will seek in vain for the red lamp where Jesus waits for them: like the sinful woman weeping before the empty tomb, they will cry out: “Where have they taken him?”
It will be then that there will arise priests from Africa, from Asia, from the Americas – who have been formed in the missionary seminaries – who will speak out and proclaim that the “Bread of Life” is not ordinary bread and the Mother of the God-Man is not a mother just like many others. And they will be torn to pieces for having testified that Christianity is not a religion just like others, because its Head is the Son of God and the [Catholic] Church is His Church.”
Translated by Giuseppe Pellegrino @pellegrino2020
PETITION: Yes to reform. No to riots & revolution! Sign the petition here.
By MAIKE HICKSON
June 9, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – There is a small part of an interview conducted by the well-respected American historian and book author, William Thomas Walsh, with the Fatima seer Sister Lucia that might now strike a special note with us, in light of the ongoing disorderly and revolutionary conditions in the U.S.
Sister Lucia of Fatima was one of three children who witnessed apparitions of the Blessed Mother in 1917 in Fatima, and she continued to receive messages from heaven for years afterward. One of the messages pertains to the then-impending Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the need to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In 1947, Professor William Thomas Walsh authored a book about Fatima, titled Our Lady of Fatima, at the end of which he recounts in an epilogue an interview he had conducted with Sister Lucia of Fatima the year before.
Speaking with the seer in 1946 about the Blessed Mother’s earlier request that Russia be consecrated by the Pope together with the bishops in the world to Her Immaculate Heart, Sister Lucia told Professor Walsh:
“What Our Lady wants is that the Pope and all the bishops in the world shall consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart on one special day. If this is done, she will convert Russia and there will be peace. If it is not done, the errors of Russia will spread through every country in the world.”SUBSCRIBEto LifeSite’s daily headlinesSUBSCRIBEU.S. Canada World Catholic
“Does this mean,” Walsh then asked, “in your opinion, that every country, without exception, will be overcome by Communism?” And Sister Lucia answered: “Yes.”
As the translator of this interview, Father Manuel Rocha, was later to reveal, Walsh then asked explicitly about the United States of America, adding: “and does that mean the United States of America, too?” Whereupon Sister Lucia responded once more time with “yes.”
That is to say, the seer of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, which have been approved by the Catholic Church, predicted that the United States, under certain conditions, would also become Communist. The quotes can also be found here.
This answer might have sounded somewhat unrealistic in 1946, just after the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War. However, today, in light of these revolutionary riots that seem to change America in a very deep way, they might strike an even stronger tone.
Black Lives Matter appears to be the organization that is at the center of the revolt against the established structures in the U.S., for the defunding of police and a radical change of society. Their influence is being proven by the fact that Washington D.C. just named a square next to St. John’s Church that had been put to fire by some of the protesters Black Lives Matter Plaza.
The group has received heavy funding from the wealthy promoter of leftist causes, George Soros (as did its partner organizations Color of Change and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP.)
Looking into the official agenda of Black Lives Matter, one can easily detect the Marxist anti-family and LGBT ideology of this movement that has been funded by those outside the black community, such as the globalist Soros:
“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.
We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).”
Another aggressive element of the current violent protests which has been called out by President Trump himself is the Antifa movement. As recently has been pointed out, the symbol the Antifa movement still uses today – two flags placed on top of each other – goes back to the founding of the Antifaschistische Aktion (Anti-fascist Action) in the 1930s by German Communists. And even the more recent successors of this original movement were organized in the 1970s by the German Maoist Communist League (Kommunistischer Bund). Thus, also this strain of the current violent and aggressive protests in the United States are of Communist inspiration. They have in common an anarchistic view against state authority and especially against the police.
As Fox News’ Tucker Carlson recently commented on this new political development that aims at defunding the police departments yet at the same time suppresses messages from citizens who announce they will defend themselves with their own weapons: “This is a move toward authoritarian social control.” “They create the chaos,” he stated on 8 June, “you are not allowed to defend yourself.”
The future of the left as Tucker Carlson sees is that only those will have weapons “who are on their team, and that is exactly what ‘defund the police’ really means,” that is to say: “partisan law enforcement.” Carlson also described in his show the “vicious crackdown on free speech and free thought” that has been taking place in the last couples of days. The new rule is: “You are not allowed to question Black Lives Matter in any way,” and this is being enforced by social media giants like Facebook and others. After adding that “we have never lived in an environment like this,” the journalist added that many people get the message and follow suit. “And the weak ones are very quick to join in, just like the little Red Guards they have always been underneath of it all,” he explained.
In light of techniques of public humiliation of those with different opinions or positions – here an example of a public humiliation of the mayor of Minneapolis when he declined to promise to disband the Police Department – one feels also reminded of the techniques of earlier Communist revolutions that forced those of other views into submission.
Also in light of the outrageous acts of lootings and riots which have terrorized millions of Americans over the course of the last two weeks, we can surely say that we are getting closer to at least a Communist atmosphere in America. We more and more feel reminded of an atmosphere similar to Eastern communist countries in Europe whose citizens had to support the thesis of the proletariat’s enduring suffering and moral superiority, at the end of which one had to be ashamed of one’s own background and heritage if one was not of proletarian background. Purges followed, to include the removal of “counter-revolutionary statues” and other items of tradition and heritage. The damage to millions of lives worldwide is well-known.
In all of these turmoils, a weakened Christianity is becoming further eroded, as we can now witness it with our own eyes, where an archbishop rebukes the U.S. President for visiting a Catholic shrine and a priest hopes that George Floyd intercedes for us already from heaven, independently of his own moral life here on earth.
We might also remember here Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s new open letter to President Donald Trump, in which he writes: “We will also discover that the riots in these days were provoked by those who, seeing that the virus is inevitably fading and that the social alarm of the pandemic is waning, necessarily have had to provoke civil disturbances, because they would be followed by repression which, although legitimate, could be condemned as an unjustified aggression against the population. The same thing is also happening in Europe, in perfect synchrony. It is quite clear that the use of street protests is instrumental to the purposes of those who would like to see someone elected in the upcoming presidential elections who embodies the goals of the deep state and who expresses those goals faithfully and with conviction. It will not be surprising if, in a few months, we learn once again that hidden behind these acts of vandalism and violence there are those who hope to profit from the dissolution of the social order so as to build a world without freedom: Solve et Coagula, as the Masonic adage teaches.”
In light of Archbishop Viganò’s words on the Masonic rule, let us remember here a historic 1918 letter – written not long after the 1917 apparitions in Fatima – in which the Catholic Church is being warned by the German Emperor Willhelm II of the impending Bolshevic takeover as part of a Freemasonic plan to establish a “world republic.” This letter is authentic and has been found in the Secret Vatican Archives.
The message of the Emperor was “that, according to news that came to him yesterday, the [Freemasonic] Grand Orient has just decided first to depose all Sovereigns – first of all him, the Emperor – then to destroy (?) the Cathol.[olic] Church, to imprison the pope, etc and, finally, to establish on the ruins of the former bourgeois society a world republic under the leadership of American Big Capital. The German Freemasons are purportedly loyal to the [German] Emperor (which is to be doubted!) and they informed him about it. Also England wants to preserve the current bourgeois order. France and America, however, are said to be under the full influence of the Grand Orient [Freemasonic Lodge]. Bolshevism is said to be the external tool to establish the desired conditions. In the face of such a great danger which threatens in addition to the Monarchy, also the Catholic Church; it is thus important that the German episcopacy be informed and that also the pope be warned.”
This letter is more than one hundred years old. Our readers can judge for themselves whether there can be seen parallels to our current situation.
May we be aware of these insidious beginnings and resist them as long as we still can. But not only with practical means such as articles and items of news; most importantly, this needs to be done with spiritual means. We need to pray the Holy Rosary, do the devotions to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as asked from us by heaven, and, finally, we need to insist that the full, explicit, and correct Consecration of Russia be done, as Cardinal Raymond Burke and the Italian historian Professor Roberto de Mattei have, just recently, called for again.
End times perspective from our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. Published in 1970 as “The Coming Chastisement” by Yves Dupont, some interesting insights and parallels emerge if one ignores the anti-Protestant and ultra, self-glorifying Catholic perspective. Keep in mind that a peace arises after the war when the anti-Christ appears. I do not endorse or agree with all of the views contained, but believe it may show pieces of the larger eschatology. It is best to rely fully on the Bible instead of personal revelation. A general summary is as follows:
“General Events • Not a two-camp war, but a multi-sided war. • Not a war only, but a world-wide revolution as well. • Not simply a man-made holocaust, but also a God-sent chastisement, accompanied by cosmic disturbances. • To last about four years. Particular Events The whole world will be involved in the fighting. A unique feature is the internal disintegration of the Western democracies and the invasion of Western Europe by (people of the Crescent moon) forces. The roles of the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. (Russia) are not clear in the beginning. The U.S.A. may be involved in the Far-East or at home or both. The U.S.S.R. may want to keep out of the fray at first, while abetting the (Crescent) world, or may be involved in Siberia. Civil wars rage in Western Europe. The Church is persecuted; the Pope leaves Rome and dies in exile: an anti-pope is installed in Rome; the Catholic Church is split, leaderless and completely disorganized. Communism is victorious. The (Crescent moon people) invade Europe and commit innumerable atrocities. In the West, however, Christians rally around an unexpected leader, an army officer of royal blood, but their chances seem very slim. The natural disturbances begin: floods, droughts, famines. A comet approaches the earth: Whole mountains split open; huge tidal waves swallow up low-lying lands; stones fall from the sky; a deadly fog or gas poisons the atmosphere; a prolonged darkness envelops the earth. Two-thirds or three-fourths of the human race is wiped out. The powers of evil are shattered. The Christian Prince leads his growing army to battle and wins victory upon victory. In West Germany he crushes a Germano-Russian Army. Communism collapses everywhere. The Crescent people are thrown back to the sea. The war is carried to Africa and the Middle East, where the Crescent Power is dealt a deadly blow. At this stage, if not earlier, U.S. troops come to the assistance of Western Europe. Russia and China are converted to Catholicism, as also the (Crescent people). All non-Catholics return to Mother Church. A holy Pope is elected; he shows great firmness; and he restores all the former disciplines in the Church. All the nations of Western Europe unite and form a new Roman Empire, and accept as their emperor the great Christian Prince, chosen by God, who works hand-in-hand with the holy Pope. The triumph of the Catholic Church is universal. The whole world enjoys a period of complete peace and unprecedented prosperity in mutual love and respect among people and nations. This great peace will last until the coming of Antichrist.”
Download here:[Yves_Dupont]_Catholic_Prophecy_The_Coming_Chastisement
God of goodness! take me, take me out of the world before those fearful times come! Alas! what would become of us! It is easy for us to say that we would trample on the proffered riches, honors, and pleasures. Now while we are living in peace and quietness and have every opportunity of considering the matter duly, the least temptation is often enough to make us transgress most shamefully and renounce the friendship of the God Who is so worthy of our love. How then can we dare to say that we should be strong enough to resist the attacks of such a monster?
Statim autem, post tribulatimem. dierum illorum, sol obscurabitur, et luna non dabit lumen suum.–Matt. xxiv. 29.
“And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.”
(Moderator Note: This historical sermon is from a Roman Catholic priest. Although the emphasis on sacramental acts and some aspects of theology are contrary to reformed and evangelical theology, elements of the sermon are pertinent to our postmodern world.)
Terrible are the signs of which today’s Gospel speaks as forerunners of the day of general judgment, the last day of the world. There shall he many such signs, some of which are to appear a long time beforehand, while others shall immediately precede the final catastrophe. Of the former class are those we have already known and experienced; such as the destruction of the Jewish nation: a people now without faith or king or commonwealth; the conversion of the heathens to the true religion, which has been already preached and accepted in all parts of the globe; the persecution of the Church by so many heretics as precursors of Antichrist; and besides these we have seen wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, the increase of wickedness and sin, men growing cold in the love of God, the want of reverence towards God in the churches and towards priests and spiritual superiors, and the fall of the Roman empire, which the Apostle St. Paul alludes to, according to Tertullian, St. Jerome, and St. Cyril. All these are signs of the approaching end of the world and the terrible day of judgment. Therefore St. John writes in his first Epistle: “Little children, it is the last hour.”(1) These are, as St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom. say, the sickness of the earth which is to precede its death; ” because we are in the dying moments of the world, certain sicknesses of the world must go before.”(2) A sickness of the world is famine, a sickness of the world is plague, a sickness of the world is war and persecution;” by these things God reminds us that it is approaching the end, so that we may not become too attached to it, too fond of it. Other signs of the coming of the last day, besides the fall of the Roman empire, are the advent of Antichrist and the terrible portents in the sun, moon, and stars, and the distress of all nations on earth, of which we read in today’s Gospel. This latter class of signs I shall take as my subject, my dear brethren, today and during Advent, and shall try with God’s help to deduce from them some moral doctrine for our advantage. Today I begin with the first, namely, the coming and the tyranny of Antichrist.Plan of Discourse.
Who shall Antichrist be, and what has he to do in the world? That I shall explain in the first part. What should be our thoughts regarding this? This shall be the moral lesson of the second part.
Give us Thy light and grace, future Judge of the living and the dead, Christ Jesus; we ask it through the merits of Thy Mother Mary and the prayers of our holy guardian angels.
Who then is Antichrist? Of what nature shall he be? In the Scripture the Holy Ghost never gives him a proper name, because, as St. Irenaeus says He did not wish to mention the name of such a wicked man; therefore He calls him only Antichrist, that is, one who is opposed to Christ in everything. The Prophet Daniel names him ” a beast, terrible and wonderful, and exceedingly strong.”(3) St. Paul calls him a man of sin, made up, as it were of vice and wickedness: ” The man of sin, the son of perdition.”(4) In any case he will be a man of the same nature as we, created by God for the same end, and he shall also have sufficient graces and means given him to save his soul, if he only chooses to make use of them. According to the opinion of St. Augustine and St. John Damascene, this wicked man is to be the offspring of adulterous intercourse, and as St. Jerome and St. Gregory maintain, to be born in the Jewish tribe of Dan at Babylon, and to be secretly brought up by people of the lowest kind: sorcerers and witches. It is easy to imagine the kind of training he is likely to get from such teachers.
When he comes to man’s estate he will at first conceal his wickedness and craft under a mask of hypocrisy and apparent sanctity; he will be very zealous for the law of Moses, and pretend to despise all earthly things; to be an enemy of idolatry and a lover of the Sacred Scriptures. Although he will privately wallow in all kinds of impurity, he will outwardly condemn adultery and decry it as most criminal; he will be very charitable to the poor; in a word, he will put on such an appearance of virtue that many nations shall desire to have him as their king. Above all, says St. Anthony, he will try to persuade the people that all that the Prophets have said of the Messias is fulfilled in him. Thus he will draw the Jews to his side in crowds, and they will soon look on him and adore him as their long-expected Messias, when they see that he is a sworn enemy of Christ and the Christian law and an upholder of the Jewish law and its ceremonies, and moreover that they can hope to profit by having him in power.
When he shall thus have raised himself to a high position in the world and secured a great number of followers, then this wicked serpent shall commence to spit out his poison and to spread his authority over the world by craft, promises, and force of arms. Besides Turks, heathens, and Jews, he will attract to his standard and subject to his authority countless numbers of Christians. That he will effect first by the riches, honors, dignities, and sensual delights that he will place in the power of all his followers, as the Prophet Daniel says of him: “He shall increase glory and shall give them power over many, and shall divide the land for nothing.”(5) For besides the immense revenues he shall have from conquered countries, the devil with the divine permission shall discover to him mines of gold and silver, and treasures hidden in the sea: “And he shall have power over the treasures of gold, and of silver, and all the precious things.”(6) Alas! what an attractive bait that will be to ensnare the vain, ambitions, and greedy children of the world, who are already only too willing to grasp at such things! How will they be able to withstand this seductive and powerful temptation?
But when Antichrist finds virtuous souls who will not allow themselves to be turned aside from the love of God by promises, flattery, caresses, money, honors, or pleasures, then he will use against them another terrible weapon, namely, tortures such as the most cruel tyrant has never yet even thought of. “For there shall be then great tribulation,” says Our Lord of him in the Gospel, “such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be.”(7) So that even many just and pious servants of God shall yield under the pressure of tortures and deny their God. “And it was given unto him,” says St. John in the Apocalypse, speaking of the terrible beast, by which he meant Antichrist, “to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. And power was given him over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation.”(8) So that he will overcome even the saints, some according to the body by martyrdom and torturing and putting them to death; and others, which is far more deplorable, according to the soul, by forcing them with cruel torments to deny Jesus Christ and His faith. There will be no choice left between enduring intolerable torture and falling away from the true religion, or else perishing with hunger and want in caverns and deserts.
All that could encourage a pious Christian and console him in such tribulation shall then be removed; for this cruel beast in his daring pride shall set himself up as the true God and claim to be adored and to have churches built in his honor. “And the king shall do according to his will,” says the Prophet Daniel; “and he shall be lifted up, and shall magnify him self against every god.” (9) All the temples consecrated to Our Lord shall be pulled down and desecrated, the sacred images destroyed, spiritual books burned, all preachers and priests made away with, and the use of the holy sacraments and the celebration of Mass utterly abolished: “And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice: and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation.”(10) Such are the words of the Prophet Daniel. Thus for about four years, the duration of the reign of Antichrist, the public celebration of the holy Sacrifice shall be nowhere tolerated in the whole world; not a single crucifix shall there be that one might comfort himself in his sorrows by looking at it. He will give his followers another sign, which they are to wear on their foreheads or on their right hands, and a man who has not that sign may not buy or sell the least thing, or do any business whatever; and the sign shall be the blasphemous words: Nego Jesum–” I deny Jesus.” O truly deserving of compassion shall the Christians be who are to live in those troublous times! Alas! how will it be with them? And how clearly they shall see the words of Our Lord verified “Many are called, but few are chosen.”(11)
And this shall be the case especially when Antichrist shall have recourse to the third and most powerful means he is to use to confirm his false doctrine; for, as St. John testifies of him, he shall by means of witchcraft and sorcery perform countless apparent miracles and wonders. “And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from heaven unto the earth in the sight of men. And he seduced them that dwell on the earth for the signs which were given him to do.”(12) And not only he, but also his servants and followers shall have the power of working those false miracles. Our Lord has foretold that already, as we read in the Gospel: “For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders.”(13) Alas! how many souls shall be misled when this great and mighty monarch so powerful in the eyes of the world, shall in the presence of Christians, as St. Hippolytus says, cleanse lepers, heal the paralytic, free those possessed by the devil, and even apparently raise the, dead to life, and then all these cured by him shall adore him as the true God! How will it be when he commands the sun in the heavens to stand still, and it will obey his command? when he calls forth storms from the sea, and quiets them again? when, as Lactantius says, he shall cause dumb beasts, infant children, nay, even lifeless images to cry out that all that Jesus Christ has taught is false, that He is not the Son of God, but a traitor, who is damned forever? when he shall call down fire from heaven, to consume those who oppose him, as the Prophet Elias did in former times; or to burn sacrifices in his honor, or to give his disciples fiery tongues, so that they can speak all languages, as was the case with the Apostles when they received the Holy Ghost in the form of fiery tongues? How will it be when, according to the testimony of Albert the Great, he shall appear to die and to come to life again in three days, and afterwards be carried by the demons heavenwards in the air? How will it be when legions of those demons disguised as angels of light shall assist and serve him in visible form, and sing hymns of praise in his honor, as if he were the true God and promised Saviour of the world?
“Alas!” exclaims St. Gregory, imagining what those terrible times must be, ” what a severe temptation that shall be for the human mind! “(14) And in fact it will be so great that, if possible, the elect would be deceived by it, as Our Lord says: ” Insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect.”(15) Thus shall Antichrist draw to his side almost all the world: the wicked and tepid by riches, honors, and pleasures; the pious and God-fearing by the intolerable torments he will inflict on them; the simple and incautious by the wonderful signs and prodigies he shall perform. “And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved.”(16) Three years and a half shall his reign last, after which this cruel man shall raise himself up in the air from Mount Olivet towards heaven, and there, as some say. Our Lord shall strike him with lightning, or, as others maintain, shall by his mere voice hurl him down to earth and thence body and soul into the abyss of hell. “And then,” says St.Paul, “that wicked one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of His mouth.” (17) There you have, my dear brethren, a short description of Antichrist as a forerunner and precursor of the last terrible day of judgment, according to the prophets and apostles in the holy Scriptures, and to the holy Fathers of the Church and the commentators on Holy Writ. What do you think of this? What lesson should we draw from it for the good of our souls? That we shall see in the Second Part.
What would you think, I ask again, if, as might easily be the case, Antichrist were to be born soon, so that we should live in his time? For no man knows when that time is to come, as God has reserved the knowledge of it to himself alone. Let us at all events imagine that the cruel man is really in the “world, and that we hear and see all that has been said about him; what should we do? Should we dare to renounce Christ and to side with that monster? Should we allow ourselves to be marked with that odious sign: “I deny Christ”? What! each one of you will say, deny Christ? Side with the demons? God forbid that I should think of such a thing! I would rather die a thousand deaths than be untrue to my Saviour and God, or abjure His faith in which alone salvation is to be found! I would laugh at the pretended miracles, and trample on the proffered delights of the flesh, the honors, and riches; I would heroically resist the torture, no matter how terrible, with the divine assistance; all this I would readily do in order not to lose my one immortal soul and the eternal joys of heaven. Oh, truly, that is a beautiful and Christian resolution! And such should be the determination of each one of us even under such terrible circumstances.
But, alas! poor mortals that we are with all our resolution and professions! God of goodness! take me, take me out of the world before those fearful times come! Alas! what would become of us! It is easy for us to say that we would trample on the proffered riches, honors, and pleasures. Now while we are living in peace and quietness and have every opportunity of considering the matter duly, the least temptation is often enough to make us transgress most shamefully and renounce the friendship of the God Who is so worthy of our love. How then can we dare to say that we should be strong enough to resist the attacks of such a monster? Even now, although we are somewhat humiliated, the breath of human praise and the hope of honor or a high position are capable of so blinding our mind’s eye that contrary to the law of Christ we become puffed up with filthy pride and show it in our dress and outward demeanor. How could we then be true to the humility of Our Saviour, if we were exalted by the whole world? Even now, although we learn by daily experience the transitory nature of earthly things, and how soon and easily we can lose them, we are sometimes so beset by the passion of avarice that we sell our souls and our salvation for a miserable coin, we try to make our profit out of public calamities, and when our conscience or the thought of losing our souls troubles us, we dispatch such thoughts by saying to ourselves: what matter how the money is made as long as I succeed in making it! How then could we hope to be able to trample riches under foot if they were offered to us in abundance? Even now, when we have such frequent occasion to bewail and deplore our weakness, with the Christian law painting to us the abomination and deformity of impure love and carnal pleasure, we allow ourselves to be so infatuated and be fooled by a friendly look, a laugh, a joking word, a caress, that we forget our God, indulge our lust, and sacrifice recklessly our modesty, purity, honor, and fidelity. What should we do if such pleasures were held out to us as lawful and praiseworthy? Oh, may God grant that such a terrible time may never come for us!
It is easy to say that we should laugh at hypocrisy, false doctrine, and pretended miracles. Even now, while we have at hand countless opportunities of doing good, invited as we are to be zealous in the service of God by so many public devotions, having it in our power to frequent the sacraments almost daily, to cleanse our souls from sin in the sacred tribunal, to feed them with the body and blood of Jesus Christ; having our ignorance enlightened by so many sermons which encourage us to good, warn us against evil, exhort us to avoid the occasions of sin and the evil customs and usages of the world; with all this we still remain so tepid and cold in the divine service, so obstinate in the habits we have once acquired, that sometimes we even attach but little credence to the word of God, or at all events believe no more of it than suits our fancies. What the corrupt world preaches, what we learn from the example of others, what idle people say to us, that must be always true, valid, and lawful; to it must yield the maxims and infallible teaching of the holy Gospel, along with the doctrine of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. If we see one who has the name of being pious, conforming to the customs of the world, we say at once: oh, there can be no harm in it, since such a one does it! If here and there we hear a confessor who is liberal in certain matters in which we do not like restraint, we look on him as if he were as infallible as the Gospel itself, while we laugh at and ridicule all who hold the contrary opinion. So, I repeat, if this is how we act in the full light of day, what will we do when the use of the sacraments is abolished, public devotions prevented, sermons and instructions prohibited, and in the midst of general corruption and perversion, a new law promulgated to flatter our sensuality and pride, and that, too, confirmed by miracles and supported by a false appearance of godliness and by the approval of the whole world? Oh, no! I repeat, may God grant that we have not to live in such. troublous times; we know that we should be too weak for them.
It is easy to talk of resisting torments and braving martyrdom! Ah! how could they give up their bodies to the rods, the scorpions, the leaded clubs, the iron hooks, to be torn and flayed, who are now so delicate and tender that they cannot bear the prick of a needle; who find a fast day intolerable, and are absolutely unable to stand or kneel for an hour in church, or to rise early in the morning on account of the cold? How could they allow themselves to be roasted or boiled alive who, if their beds are the least uncomfortable, cannot sleep for impatience? How could they laugh at torments to whom all crosses are terrible, who sigh and moan at the least trial, and give vent to their feelings in oaths and curses at the most trifling annoyance, expressing their dissatisfaction also by giving up the practice of prayer and devotion and the frequentation of the sacraments? Oh, no! God of goodness! we are not in want of an Antichrist to prove our virtue, our faith, hope, and charity by putting us to the torture! We have daily tribulations enough: more than we wish for, to try our virtue! Would that we could only bear them with patience and resignation for Thy sake and to gain heaven! Every hour, of the day we have abundant opportunity of mortifying our eyes, ears, tongue, sensuality, and evil inclinations; but to do so is often for us a bitter martyrdom that, without any tyrant to compel us, causes us to forget the obedience we owe Thy holy law.
A slight chagrin, a word of contradiction, a cross look is sometimes enough to upset our so-called virtue, and change it into impatience, hatred, and anger. What would then become of us in the midst of a terrible persecution, which many even of the holiest and most innocent shall not withstand?
Finally, it is easy to say that we should prefer rather to die a thousand deaths than deny Christ and take sides with His wicked enemy! Already most men are on the side of Antichrist against Jesus, our Saviour. Hear what St. John says in his first Epistle: “Every spirit that dissolveth Jesus is not of God, and this is Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, and he is now already in the world.”(18) “Not in person,” says Cornelius a Lapide, “but in spirit; that is, in his precursors.”(19) If you look into the matter, my dear brethren, you will find not one, but many Antichrists. Are not those parents Antichrists, that is, against Christ, who allow their children all license, bring them up to the vanity and filthy pride of the world, to idleness, and keep them from the zealous love of God and true devotion? Is he not an Antichrist who, contrary to the law of God, cherishes revenge against his neighbor and frequents the dangers and occasions of sin? Is he not an Antichrist who tries to lead a maiden astray from the path of virtue by presents and money? Is not that woman an Antichrist who by indecency in dress and dissolute manners leads others into sin? Is he not an Antichrist who gives scandal by sinful talk and bad example? All these, says St. Augustine, are Antichrists and servants of the devil: every one, no matter who he is, priest or layman, who lives contrary to justice and the requirements of his state is an Antichrist and a minister of Satan.(20) What better are you for not denying Christ with the lips, or not denouncing your faith, if you deny Him in work, and lose Him by mortal sin? Of what use will your faith be to you if not to serve for your deeper damnation? What else do you do when you allow yourself to be seduced by the antichrists you live amongst but renounce Christ in work? What is the false oath you have taken but renouncing God for the sake of some trifling temporal gain? When you indulge in impure thoughts and desires, what else are you doing but stamping on your heart the words: “I deny Christ”? When you sin by unchaste touches, do you not bear that same sign on your hand? In a word, every mortal sin you commit in thought, word, or action, is nothing else but a declaration that although you do not abjure your faith in Christ, yet you refuse Him the love and obedience due to Him, and you refuse it for the sake of some wealth, honor, or pleasure that the spirit of the hellish Antichrist offers you. And, alas! how many mortal sins are not committed daily in the world!
Christians! what a responsibility this is for us! Ah, poor, unhappy souls that are to live in those times of Antichrist, how you are to be pitied! But if you, almost forced as you shall be by grievous persecutions, temptations, torments, hypocrisy, and pretended miracles to abandon God, shall nevertheless be condemned by a most just sentence to eternal torments, what excuse shall we have? What sort of a hell awaits us who can so easily enjoy the freedom of the children of God, and who yet allow ourselves to be led astray, to be turned away from God, to be drawn over to the side of the devil, and to live like antichrists, that is, sworn enemies of Jesus Christ?
Innocent souls who have hitherto remained faithful to your Lord, ah, fly, fly with all possible diligence those who would try in any way whatsoever to lead you to do anything contrary to the law of God! Be firm in all temptations and occasions of evil! Think and say with courage against Antichrist and his followers: Away with you! I love Jesus! This sign shall be in my heart, in my eyes, and on my hands. I love Jesus Christ! Him alone will I faithfully serve; His friendship I will not sell for any worldly goods, honors, or pleasures. I love Jesus Christ, and will love Him while I have breath. I renounce forever all that is opposed to Him. And do Thou, Almighty God! grant us all Thy powerful grace that we may forestall the terrible times of Antichrist by a true repentance for all our sins, and by flying all those abuses which shall serve that proud, wicked monster to spread his kingdom! Grant that we may serve Thee with greater zeal, with more patience in adversity, with a more fervent love for Thee, O God and Saviour, in our public professions, in our outward actions and demeanor, so that we may have nothing to do with Antichrist and his followers, but persevere in Thy faith and love till death. Amen.
Preached on the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost. The same sermon with its introduction may serve for the first Sunday of Advent: text from Luke xxi. 25. “There shall be signs,”etc.
1. Filioli, novissima hora est.–I. John ii. 18.
2. Quia in saeculi sumus, praecedunt quaedam aegritudines mundi.–S. Ambr. L. 10, In Luc. xviii.
3. Bestia terribilis, atque mirabilis, et fortis nimis.–Dan. vii. 7.
4. Homo peccati, filius perditionis.–II. Thess. ii. 3.
5. Multiplicabit gloriam, et dabit eis potestatem in multis, et terram dividet gratuito.– Dan. xi. 39.
6. Et dominabitur thesaurorom auri et argenti, et in omnibus pretiosis.–Ibid. 43.
7. Erit enim tunc tribulatio magna, qualis non fuit ab Initio mundi, usque modo, neque fiet–Matt, xxiv. 21.
8. Et est datum illi bellum facere cum sanctis, et vincere eos; et data est illi potestas in omnem tribum, et populum, et linguam, et gentem.–Apoc. xiii. 7.
9. Et faciet juxta voluntatem suam rex; et elevabitur et magnificabitur adversus omnem deum.–Dan. xi. 36.
10. Et brachia ex eo stabunt, et polluent sanctuarium fortitudinis; et auferent juge sacrificium, et dabunt abominationem in desolationem.–Ibid. 31.
11. Multi sunt vocati, pauci vero electi–Matt. xx. 16.
12. Et fecit signa magna, ut etiam ignem faceret de caelo descendere in terram in conspectu hominum. Et seduxit habitantes in terra, propter signa, quae data sunt illi facere.–Apoc xiii. 13, 14.
13. Surgent enim pseudo Christi, et pseudo prophetae, et dabunt signa magna, et prodigia. –Matt. xxiv.24
14. Quae erithumanae mentis illia tentatio!–S. Greg. L. 32. Moral. c. 13.
15. Ita ut in errorem inducantur (si fieri potest) etiam electi.–Matt. xxiv. 24.
16. Et nisi breviati fuissent dies illi, non fieret salva omnis caro.–Ibid. 22.
17. Et tunc revelabitur ille iniquus, quem Dominus Jesus interficiet spiritu oris sui.– II. Thess. ii. 8.
18. Omnis spiritus qui solvit Jesum, ex Deo non est; et hic est antichristus, de quo audistis quoniam venit, et nunc jam in mundo est.–I. John iv. 3.
19. Non in persona, sed in spiritu, scilicet in suis praecursoribus.20. Quicunqne contra justitiam vivit, etc., Antichristus est, minister Satanae.–S. Aug. c. 9. Tract, de Antichristo.Source
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