A critique of the film The Apocalypse of St John | Introductory Comments
Sponsored
Catholic365 is sponsored by
Road to Purity
Regarding those who think that the end is upon us, and that the near godless Eurocivs are ushering in the great apostasy, and who therefore say that Our Lady’s Age of Peace was between WWI and WWII, or that it was after the fall of the Soviet Union till now, I think that Our Lady clearly means spiritual peace, so that EWTN would definitely disagree with you. The Age of Peace will mean that man has peace with Our Lady and Her Father, Her Son, and Her Eternal Spouse, the Holy Spirit.
On the other hand, left minded people in the Church who are otherwise orthodoxy, will wave their hand and say that the modern crisis could occur any number of times from now on, and only at some indeterminate apostasy will it be the end. To this, I say, firstly, the Private Revelation says that after the world is restored in this time of history, the next time it will not. The next darkness is the great apostasy, per the general scenario of the approved mystics.
Moreover, if the world is going to fall into secular apostasy many times after pagan Rome, it begs the question of how the Church would know which is the last, which it will. That is, the CCC indicates per St Paul that the Church WILL know when the final apostasy is upon man, that the man of sin is present, that it is the ULTIMATE final hour. But if the world could fall away any number of times and be restored before the final time, it would beg the question, again, how the Church would know that apostasy #17 is the last, not #3, or #9, or #29.
Actually, the sons of guns that hear this then accuse you of saying that today IS the end. Actually, no, I didn’t say that. The REAL apocalyptic debate is whether or not there will be ANY Apocalyptic LEARNING lesson for man, or not. And if there IS such a learning lesson, clearly it will be SINGULAR. Why? Because of man goes on to fall and get back up AGAIN, after one time, then why not ad infinitum? After all, in the Early Church, one could receive Public Penance only ONCE. ONE Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, ONE Apocalyptic Confession and no more. For God is NOT ARBITRARY. God gives ONE lesson. ONE Time where the world fearfully and apocalypticall almost ends. ONE time. For if MORE than one, then why? Then you have the seven brothers and the woman who married them all. Which one will be her husband in the Resurrection? And WHY? Which apostasy will man REALLY have had enough: 2? 3? 5? 18? But if God shows the world ONCE, then it is NOT arbitrary. It is definitive.
Here, too, there has to be a theology. I believe the theology would be this: The saint has three primary darknesses: the purgative dark night of sense, the illuminative dark night of soul, and martyrdom of unitive way.
Hence, the way the Church should tell it is the end is by this: Her purgative way should be pagan Rome, her dark night of soul is today (the modern age is the first time since pagan Rome in which most of former Christendom lives in a condition whose nature is totally against the gospel), and martyrdom will be antichrist, and great apostasy, which comes after the age of peace, which has yet to come after a chastisement.
Too, the analogies of beast and days of creation, corroborates:
Eight days are delineated to Creation [six labor, one rest, one eternal rest in Resurrection], also a symbol of the REcreation of the world, its REDEMPTION. Hence eight ages are delineated to human history. By Tradition, five are the OT. This leaves three for the NT: on the sixth age, God REmakes man in His Image by placing Divine Love and Life in Him through Christ, a life that had been absent since the fall. In the Seventh day< God rests imperfectly, even as humanity shall rest from sin and wickedness in Our Lady’s Age of Peace. Finally, the eighth day is the Eternal Sabbath and Resurrection. Too, after the Great Tribulation, the eighth darkness of human history, All men shall rise to eternal recompense, and the never-ending New Creation, commence, the ultimate rest for the People of God that shall NEVER by interrupted.
The beast, too:
Apocalypse 17:
And here is the understanding that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman sitteth, and they are seven kings: [10] Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come: and when he is come, he must remain a short time. And the beast which was, and is not: the same also is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction.
The text “five have fallen”, agrees that the OT is five phases of sin. This leaves six, seven, and “eight”, just right, like the days of creation: Pagan Rome, the modern MINOR Secular Apostasy, and the GREAT Secular Apostasy of the very end. For reference, here the ages in more detail:
Ages of the Fall Digested
Day 1: Darkness: The Fall, Anti-Baptism, Noah's Day Light: The Flood, God Baptizes the world
Day 2: Darkness: Anti-Marriage toward God, Tower of Babel Light: Confounding of tongues and formation of Prefiguring People, Abraham
Way of the Pilgrim for Prefiguring People (the Jews)
Day 3: Darkness: Purgative Way, Egypt Enslaves Light: Illuminative way of Light, Exodus, OT Kingdom, Prophets
Day 4: Darkness: Illuminative Dark Night of Soul, Intermediate pre-Exile Apostasy of Jews Light: Unitive Way of Light, Exile, Repentance of Jews, Restoration to Holy Land
Day 5: Darkness: Untive way Martyrdom: Maccabees, OT Antichrist Antiochus Light: First Coming of Christ, formation of Church
-- Coming of Incarnate One --
Way of the Pilgrim for the Church
Day 6: Darkness: Purgative way, Pagan Rome persecutes Light: Illuminative way of light of Church, Catholic Christendom and Development of Church doctrine, 300 - 1950
Day 7: Darkness: Illuminative Dark Night of Soul, intermediate Apostasy of Gentiles, 1950 - present Light: Unitive way of light: Minor Chastisement, Restoration of Catholicism, Fullness of Gentiles, Age of Peace
Day 8: Darkness: Unitive Way Martyrdom, Great Apostasy, NT Antichrist Light: Second Coming of Christ, end of world, General Resurrection, New Creation
A deeper analysis can be found here:
The Creation Days and the Beast Heads as Image of the Whole of Salvation History
http://www.theologyoftheages.com/home.php?target=creation-days-beast-kings
I am a Catholic revert. I desire to share deeper theology about the Catholic Church that is admittedly speculative but that makes perfect sense from Catholic doctrine and church teaching.
The Catholic Church shows us that we are all priceless regardless of what anything the world may say about us. We can hold our heads high and know that God loves us no matter what and desires us to be with him forever if we but persevere in love with him unto the end.
To know these things gives me great joy and I am just a poor sinner striving to become holier little by little.
May God bless all writers and readers on this site in all ways, amen!
