Book Review

Jamey Srdarov recently put up a rather detailed (and very generous) review of Unveiling the Apocalypse on amazon.com, which I thought would be worth sharing with readers of this blog (you can find the original review here). It is an excellent summary of the book, and gives any potential readers a good idea of the main contents and topics covered.
Thanks Jamey!


This review is lengthy, given the complex and unique nature of the book I would like to do it justice particularly given it focuses on themes usually hijacked by crackpots.

The holy pope St Pius X at the dawn of the 20th century saw signs that the "Son of Perdition" may already be in the world given the degradation of society at the time. Since then we witnessed the bloodiest century in human history, the widespread killing of unborn babies (not to mention the ghoulish experiments performed on those aborted alive), the breakdown of the family unit, unprecedented material prosperity and greed in the West, and the great scandal and apostasy that has swept the Catholic Church over the past 50 years. Given all this many do believe with good reason these are the end times or at least a critical phase in salvation history. For Catholics there is further reason to believe these are the last days as both Pope Paul VI and Pope Benedict XVI (as then Cardinal Ratzinger) have said the Third Secret of Fatima involves the end times and Sr Lucia herself said it relates to Revelation 8-13.

Given things are going pear-shaped we turn to the Book of Revelation and don't know what to make of it all. Enter Emmett O'Regan's Unveiling The Apocalypse. This book is a God send to Catholics and others interested in prophecy because O'Regan's analysis of biblical end times prophecy has a focus on current events and also incorporates the most trustworthy visions of the great Catholic saints down the centuries (e.g. St John Bosco's Two Pillars, St Malachy's Prophecy of the Popes) and the Marian apparitions of the past 150 years all integrated in a logical framework.

The author has shown discernment as to which prophecies and visions were included, for example he only uses Church approved Marian apparitions and avoids those condemned or not ruled upon. The visions of saints used whilst not having had the Church make a decision upon them are solid. Adding to the quality of the work painstaking research has been done to sort fact from fiction in regard to the sources of many prophecies. For example Yves Dupont's Catholic Prophecy: The Coming Chastisement contains reference to many prophecies however the original sources for many of those cannot be historically traced back to the supposed saint/seer, O'Regan highlights which of the famous prophecies can be traced back reliably and which appear spurious. For example he does a great job covering the history of St Malachy's Prophecy of the Popes and the pros and cons of the legitimacy of this prophecy. Likewise he tackles atheists debunking attempts on major Marian apparitions such as Fatima and Zeitoun highlighting the superficial nature of their arguments.

Unveiling the Apocalypse is chaptered as follows:
Preface
Introduction
The Return to Zion
The Two Witnesses
The Worldwide Web of Deceit
Signs of the Times
Babylon Falling
Dating the End-Time
Conclusion

In the Preface and Introduction discussed is the structure and method used in Revelation which is critical in interpreting and understanding the mystical book correctly, hence giving the reader a firm theological grounding. With Revelation there is no "set form of chronological sequence, it is arranged thematically rather than chronologically". He discusses the typical Fundamentalist view of dispensationalism which uses a linear approach and subsequently adopts the heresy of premillennialism and then provides a fantastic quote by E.S. Fiorenza that "the structure of Revelation is best conceived pictorially as a conical spiral - a twisting recapitulatory configuration while driving the narrative forward, also reveals new insights into previously revealed information". He goes on to discuss the preterist view which is how most mainstream Catholic theologians seem to approach the book of Revelation - i.e. focusing on events that happened during St John's time, in particular the destruction of Jerusalem. Then there is the futurist approach which involves interpreting Revelation in light of future events which seems to be deterred in Catholic academia. O'Regan uses both approaches and makes no apologies for his futurist interpretation, yes many of those things in Revelation refer to first century events but the book has multiple layers of meaning and one text can actually refer to two separate meanings/events.

Some of the historical events that O'Regan ties into prophetical biblical texts are:
* The return of the Jews to Israel
* The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem possibly being the abomination of desolation
* The Orthodox split from the Roman Catholic Church
* Fatima and Zeitoun apparitions
* Hitler being the false prophet (uses the message from the La Salette apparition for this)
* WWII and the bloodshed of the twentieth century
* The current apostasy in the Catholic Church
* Astronomical events that correspond with signs in the sky mentioned in Revelation

Unveiling the Apocalypse has a strong focus on events of the past century in relation to the end times. In particular the author focused on the mass apparitions of the Blessed Mother in Egypt in the past 40 years, signs of the sky phenomena which occurred around the turn of the millennium, the widespread slaughter of innocent babies and broken souls the legalisation of abortion has led to, and discusses some of the remarkable coincidences these events have with Revelation and other biblical prophecy as well as private prophecies such as La Salette. The current period of time the author compares to Rev 12:6 where the "woman" flees into the wilderness, likewise the Church is currently in a desert of sorts.

The author notes "prophecies are often chronologically disjointed (particularly so throughout the Apocalypse), and quite often can only be understood when broken down into seperate oracles and then arranged in accordance with the chronological sequence already established in other prophecies". The sequence of events he believes will occur are: the Great Apostasy (which we are currently in), then the Great Sign/martyrdom of a pope, which is followed by the Second Pentecost. After which is the minor chastisement/mega-tsunami, followed by the reign of the Antichrist, which ultimately leads to the Battle of Armageddon/Great Chastisement/End of the world. Whilst there is a heavy focus on the past 100 years events to the end-times, as another reviewer mentioned O'Regan describes how humanity arrived at this point as it didn't happen overnight.

Some unique observations and predictions are also made by O'Regan based on his research:
* Linking the Blessed Mother's appearance during the Church approved apparition of the late 1960s in Zeitoun Egypt when abortion was first legalised in western countries, to the original escape into Egypt by the Holy Family during Herod's slaughter of the Holy Innocents (salvation history has a way of rhyming).

* The millstone that will be cast into the sea (Rev 18:21) and the mountain of fire that will be thrown into the ocean (Rev 8:8-9) which will destroy "the whore of Babylon" could well refer to the collapse of the Cumbre Vieja a volcano situated in the Canary Islands that prominent scientists such as S.N. Ward (Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California) and S.J. Day (the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre at University College, London) believe will collapse into the ocean on the next eruption (or due to the eschatological earthquake as O'Regan posits) due to a number of fissures that has made it extremely unstable thus generating a mega tsunami that will devastate the east coast of the US and also much of Western Europe. Refer to blog for comprehensive explanation.

For those who are wondering whether the full third secret of Fatima was fully revealed by the Vatican early in the new millennium O'Regan puts this to bed with meticulous analysis, this chapter is worth the price of the book alone.

Unveiling the Apocalypse concludes disputing the non-neutrality of technology and how it ultimately enslaves man despite having obvious benefits and relates this to the apparitions of Fatima and Akita - in particular mans use of technology in IVF, genetic modification, embryonic stem cell research and abortion will result in the angel with the flaming sword responding to protect the "Tree of Life". He also notes rather than being depressed about the great chastisement heading our way we should look forward to the Parousia and the "New Heaven and New Earth" that will ensue.

O'Regan makes it clear that these are his thoughts and he is simply putting all the information together in a way that makes sense to him after years of original research and mentions there have been great Catholic saints in the past who incorrectly thought their generation was that of the last days thus highlighting his sober and realistic attitude toward interpretation of prophecy. The 5 star rating is given due to the scholarship, research and robust analysis that have gone into the work to integrate Catholic prophecy and major historical events in a framework that makes sense often highlighting remarkable yet obscure interconnections between various historical events. It certainly brings biblical prophetical texts alive and is a brave effort considering most theologians will only view Revelation in a preterist sense.

The author has a running blog where his latest research is located: [....]

Also worth considering are Fr Vincent P. Miceli's Antichrist, and Harvard professor Carle Zimmerman's Family and Society, a historical book that documented ancient civilisations in which immorality was rampant, the family unit broken and child sacrifice prevalent were eventually destroyed.