Our Lady of Mt. Carmel: The Visions of Fatima and the Battle of Har Megiddo

(The below post concerning the prophetic significance of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is based on more detailed material which can be found in my book Unveiling the Apocalypse: The Final Passover of the Church)

During the Miracle of the Sun, which took place at the Cova da Iria, Fatima, on 13th October, 1917, the three shepherd children saw something very different from the spectacular solar miracle witnessed by the rest of the vast crowd which had assembled there. While the spectators among the throngs saw the now famous dance of the Sun, the children had experienced a vision of the Holy Family, and Our Lady appeared to them in various forms - including that of Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. There was undoubtedly some hidden symbolism behind these visions, which may provide a key insight into exactly what was being communicated by the extraordinary occurrence of the Miracle of the Sun. The below excerpt is taken from Sr. Lucia's Fourth Memoir, detailing what the children saw while the miraculous dance of the Sun was taking place:

We reached the holmoak in the Cova da Iria. Once there, moved by an interior impulse, I asked the people to shut their umbrellas and say the Rosary. A little later, we saw the flash of light, and then Our Lady appeared on the holmoak.
"What do you want of me?"
"I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honour. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes".
"I have many things to ask you: the cure of some sick persons, the conversion of sinners, and other things..."
"Some yes, but not others. They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins."
Looking very sad, Our Lady said:
"Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended."
Then, opening her hands, she made them reflect on the sun, and as she ascended, the reflection of her own light continued to be projected on the sun itself.
Here, Your Excellency, is the reason why I cried out to the people to look at the sun. My aim was not to call attention to the sun, because I was not even aware of their presence. I was moved to do so under the guidance of an interior impulse.
After Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmanent, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St. Joseph and the Child appeared to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands. When, a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our Lady; it seemed to me that it was Our Lady of Dolours. Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done. This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Carmel.

(Fatima in Lucia's Own Words, pp172-173)


To those who witnessed it, the Miracle of the Sun was an event of apocalyptic importance. Many of those present thought that the gestures made by the dancing Sun were menacing in nature, believing that its whirling motions threatened to consume the planet. The spectators quite literally thought that they were witnessing the end of the world. So is it possible that we can further establish a link between the vision of the dancing Sun at Fatima and the threat of the world being consumed in flames, by examining it light of the visions which the shepherd children were experiencing at this precise moment? Perhaps so...

In the previous post The Third Secret of Fatima and the Angel with the Flaming Sword, we discussed how the Miracle of the Sun was a symbolic representation of the threat posed by the angel with the flaming sword, which was depicted visually to the children in the Third Secret. But what connects both of these visions to the symbolic importance of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel? As we shall see, the true significance of the apparition of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel during the Miracle of the Sun is to be found in the story of the prophet Elijah's experiences on Mt. Carmel, and how this ties into the account of the Two Witnesses detailed in the Book of Revelation.

The primary historical and religious importance of Mt. Carmel is in connection to the prophet Elijah, given that this was the location of the legendary battle between the champion of Yahweh and the prophets of the Phoenician deity Baal Melqart. Indeed, this contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal appears to have been the symbolic archetype for the battle of Armageddon foretold in the Book of Revelation. The word Armageddon is derived from the Hebrew Har Megiddo - the "mountain of Megiddo". A curious aspect of this phrase is that there is no "mountain" in the immediate vicinity of Megiddo, which is in fact situated on a plain at the foot of Mt. Carmel. The actual fortress town of Megiddo was situated on a small mound (or Tel) on the plain of Megiddo, strategically located at the head of the Carmel Ridge, overlooking the Valley of Jezreel. The section of hills behind Tel Megiddo (called the Menashe mountains) are actually a lower eastern extension of Mt. Carmel.

So the most likely point of reference for the "mountain" of Megiddo, is in fact Mt. Carmel - the location of the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal:


So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been thrown down. Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.” And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.
(1 Kings 18:20-40)

At the conclusion of this religious duel, Elijah calls down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice he laid out on the altar, proving victorious over the prophets of Baal. The prophets of Baal are then slain by Elijah, and the prolonged period of drought imposed by God is ended. So the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel is the symbolic prototype for the battle of Armageddon - where the forces of evil gathered against the people of God are defeated by a stream of fire being issued from heaven. The Book of Revelation tells us that this fiery rebuke lies in store for anyone who would attempt to harm the Two Witnesses:

And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.
(Rev 11:5-6)

As I explain in more detail in the book, the Apocalypse uses the literary device of recapitulation to add further emphases to key prophetic scenes, and can be better understood when related material is viewed side-by-side, rather than read as a straightforward chronological narrative. So we can greatly benefit by re-arranging and comparing all the references to the final eschatological battle in the Book of Revelation, to give added insight into the most important prophetic themes.
Later, in Rev 20, we find that the fire which falls from heaven to consume the enemies of God described in Rev 11 above, takes place during the final eschatological battle, which is one and the same as the battle of Armageddon described in Rev 16:

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
(Rev 16:12-16)

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
(Rev 20:7-10)

The battle of Armageddon is recapitulated again in Rev 19, which like the two passages above, also contains the motif of the gathering of the nations for war:

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
(Rev 19:17-21)


So we can already see the depth of symbolism behind the appearance of the Virgin Mary during the Miracle of the Sun as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel - recalling both the greatest victory of Elijah, and the location of Har Megiddo described in Rev 16, which explains the true nature of the threat posed by the angel with the flaming sword (which in turn is to be identified with the sword that issues from the mouth of Christ in the Apocalypse). When we compare our present situation (which is undoubtedly the Great Apostasy foretold in Scripture) we can see that it has many affinities with the apostasy of the Northern Kingdom of Israel before it was destroyed by Assyria. Yet even though Elijah had managed to bring many Israelites back to the proper worship of God, it was still not enough to prevent the nation from being completely overthrown.

On a symbolic level, the drought described in 1Kings reflected the apostasy of the nation of Israel, which was only ended through the victory of Elijah. The end of the period of drought, symbolised by the small cloud coming from over the sea seen from the summit of Mt. Carmel in 1Kings 18:44, represented the efforts of Elijah, who would put in motion a series of events that would eventually re-establish the religion of Yahweh in Israel after it had reached the point of near-collapse.
Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, had vigorously sought to promote her native religion of Phonecia - the cult of Baal Melqart. She incited King Ahab to worship this Baal, and proactively attempted to promote Baalism amongst the Israelites, which she achieved mostly through sponsoring religious syncretism. The situation in the Northern Kingdom of Israel was so desperate that Elijah lamented that he was the only person left in Israel that had not succumbed to the worship of Baal (1Kings 19:14). However his fears were allayed when God informed him that he had set aside seven thousand people in Israel who had refused to worship Baal. Elijah was then given the task of re-establishing Yahwism in the land by appointing Elisha as his successor and ensuring that Hazael was anointed as king of Syria, and that Jehu was anointed as king of Israel. Jehu would then begin a blood-purge which saw the overthrow of the Omride dynasty, and systematically cleansed the land of Baal worship.

When we juxtapose this situation with the Great Apostasy we are currently enduring, we can see a number of parallels. Just as Elijah combated the apostasy in the Israel of his own day, the Great Apostasy is foretold to be overturned at the coming of the Two Witnesses, one of whom is identified with the Elijah to come prophesied in the Book of Malachi:

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
(Mal 4:5-6)

And just as the Northern Kingdom of Israel was eventually overthrown despite the best efforts of Elijah to turn the people back to the faith of their fathers, so too will the world be ultimately destroyed when "the great and awesome day of the LORD comes" - a day which the prophet Amos tells us is one of darkness, not light (Amos 5:18). Malachi had already described the Day of the Lord previously as follows:

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap..."
(Mal 3:1-2)

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch."
(Mal 4:1)


It is also interesting to note that the small cloud seen by Elijah from the top of Mt. Carmel (which symbolised the end of the apostasy) is associated with the Virgin Mary in Catholic tradition - which ties in with the promise of Our Lady at Fatima in the second part of the secret:

"In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world”.


As we noted in the earlier post The Two Witnesses, there are many parallels between the Third Secret and the ministry of the Two Witnesses described in Rev 11. The two angels in the vision of the Third Secret appear to represent the cherubim which adorned the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant.


And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.


The main biblical allusion being made here is to the blood of sacrifice being sprinkled over the two cherubim on the Mercy Seat, as is described in the Book of Leviticus:

And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. 

(Lev 16:14-16)

Importantly, the Ark of the Covenant is depicted at the end of Rev 11 after the martyrdom of the Two Witnesses, just as the two angels of the Third Secret appear after the martyrdom of the pope :


The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power
and begun to reign.
The nations raged,
but your wrath came,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
(Rev 11:14-19)

So we can already see that the Third Secret seems to be largely following the structure of the narrative of the Two Witnesses described in Rev 11. And in the previous post Obama: Psalm 46 and the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, we discussed how the above passage concerning the third woe of the Apocalypse is also related to the battle of Armageddon. The key phrase "the nations raged, but your wrath came" (which takes place before the Last Judgment), refers to Psalm 46 (which speaks of mountains being moved into the sea), and also the siege of the Holy City by the forces of Gog and Magog in Rev 20, when fire comes down from heaven to consume the enemies of the Lord. Also if we study the phrase "destroying the destroyers of the earth", we find that it alludes to the judgment of Babylon by the casting down of the "destroying mountain... which destroys the whole earth" described in chapter 51 of the Book of Jeremiah. Which in turn parallels the burning mountain being thrown into the sea in Rev 8:8, and the angel casting a huge millstone into the sea in Rev 18:


 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
 “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,
  and will be found no more..."
(Rev 18:21 - see the post Mega-tsunami, for more details on this event)


Turning back to the relation between the Third Secret and Rev 11, the two angels in the children's' vision also appear to represent the Two Witnesses themselves. Martyrdom is the primary theme of this portion of the Third Secret - which of course is also the ultimate destiny of the Two Witnesses:

And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
(Rev 11:7-8)

And when we compare the "great city", the place the "Lord was crucified" (where the Witnesses are martyred in Rev 11) with the location of the vision of the Third Secret - a city half in ruins, with a large cross at the top; we find that they both are describing the exact same place - the Heavenly Jerusalem, which represents the Church itself. The Heavenly Jerusalem is depicted as half in ruins in the Third Secret, in order to symbolise the fact that the Church is enduring the prophesied Great Apostasy in this time period. The desolation of the Heavenly Jerusalem in Rev 11 is communicated in its symbolic names of "Sodom" and "Egypt" - two places which the Bible tells us were destroyed by fire falling from heaven.


Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.” Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
(Exod 9:22-23)

Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
(Gen 19:24-25)


Here, the Book of Revelation warns us that the price of the Great Apostasy is the fate of Egypt and Sodom - fire will rain down from the sky and consume the land. But mercifully, the Two Witnesses will bring many back to the faith, before this terrible day of God's wrath.

We find some more passages in the Bible which highlight the symbolic significance of the location of Megiddo. First, another primary passage which the Apocalypse refers to by invoking the name Har Megiddo is found in chapter 12 of the Book of Zechariah. This portion of Zechariah juxtaposes the end-time defeat of the enemies of Israel gathered against Jerusalem (which is the battle of Armageddon itself) with a religious revival. Significantly, this passage is also traditionally associated with the Second Coming of Christ:

The oracle of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.’

 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.

 “And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo."
(Zech 12:1-11)

This reference to wailing at Megiddo alludes to the story of the good King Josiah of Judah, who spearheaded the Deuteronomic Reformation following the discovery of the long lost Book of Deuteronomy during renovations of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. So again the theme of a religious restoration is made once again, this time ending in the death of the very person who instituted the revival - just as the Two Witnesses who will inaugurate the Second Pentecost are prophesied to die at the hands of the Beast who rises up from the Abyss.

After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him. But he sent envoys to him, saying, “What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you.” Nevertheless, Josiah did not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to fight in the plain of Megiddo. And the archers shot King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.” So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made these a rule in Israel; behold, they are written in the Laments.
(2 Chron 35:20-25)

King Josiah, who turned the people of Judah back to God before the land was finally destroyed by Babylon, appears to be the biblical prototype for the Great Monarch of Catholic prophecy - who is foretold to help restore the faith at the end-time together with the Angelic Pope, before the coming of the Antichrist. Does the example of Josiah foreshadow this future restoration? And does the description of his death in the battle of Megiddo provide an insight into the events leading to the battle of Armageddon? As Qoheleth states in the Book of Ecclesiastes:


What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
(Eccl 1:9)


Given the above combined evidence, it seems that the martyrdom of the Two Witnesses under the auspices of the Antichrist will be the final catalyst for God's judgment on the world. As Zechariah foretold, it is the two "olive trees that stand before the Lord of all the earth" (represented by Zerubbabel and Joshua the High Priest) who cause the "great mountain" to collapse (cf. Rev 8:8).

Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain...

(Zech 4:7-8)


It is the Two Witnesses who have the faith to "move mountains", described by Christ:


Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
(Mark 11:23)

We find the inspiration for Jesus' words here in the Book of Ezekiel, which also depicts a prophet causing the collapse of a mountain, before the narrative of the battle of Gog and Magog (which we have already equated with Armageddon):
 

The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say to it, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and a waste. I will lay your cities waste, and you shall become a desolation, and you shall know that I am the LORD. Because you cherished perpetual enmity and gave over the people of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment, therefore, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you; because you did not hate bloodshed, therefore blood shall pursue you. I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation, and I will cut off from it all who come and go. And I will fill its mountains with the slain. On your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines those slain with the sword shall fall. I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 

(Ezek 35:1-10)


But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, my wrath will be roused in my anger. For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Lord GOD. Every man's sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur. So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
(Ezek 38:18-23)

Turning back to the events at Fatima, we find that the appearance of the Holy Family in the first vision during the Miracle of the Sun, seems to symbolise the apocalyptic significance of the story of the Nativity, which is the primary biblical narrative alluded to in chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation. As we already argued in the post Our Lady of Light and the Apocalyptic Nativity, the true significance of the Church approved apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Zeitoun, Cairo, in 1968, lay in the fact that they appeared in a location associated with the Holy Family's Flight to Egypt, in order to escape from King Herod's slaughter of the innocents. Given that these apparitions took place in the exact same month as the first legalisation of abortion in the Western world with the implementation of the UK Abortion Act, we can thus see that these apparitions were communicating to the world the fact that it was about to engage in a modern day "slaughter of the innocents". In the book, I argue that these apparitions were a historical actualisation of the prophecy of the Woman Adorned with the Sun detailed in Rev 12. And the horror of  legalised abortion - the very pinnacle of the culture of death, is currently the ultimate threat to the Tree of Life, which is guarded by the angel with the flaming sword. The flames of this sword will finally shoot forth at the point when humanity threatens to usurp God by striving to pursue the fruit of the Tree of Life, in order to achieve artificial "eternal" life - attempting "to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 676). It should be worth citing the full quotation from the Catechism below:

Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.

The 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 judgement. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.

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

(CCC 675-677)

We have already argued elsewhere how the flight of the Woman Adorned with the Sun also symbolises the Great Apostasy at the end-time - which links us back to the threat of judgment looming over the world for the mass departure from the faith. Apostasy is always met with destruction in the Bible. The dragon persecutes the Woman Adorned with the Sun, sending forth a flood which threatens to carry her away - which symbolises the apostasy. But the Woman is protected by God, and is given the two wings of the great eagle (which represent the Two Witnesses), so that she can flee to a place of safety. The earth (symbolising the people of the world) then comes to the Woman's aid, and the flood is swallowed up - which signifies the success of the ministry of the Two Witnesses. The dragon then goes off to make war on the rest of the Woman's offspring, which is a prophecy of the final persecution of Christians under the Antichrist - who puts the Two Witnesses to death.


And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
(Rev 12:13-17)

Next in the childrens' vision, we are told that St. Joseph and the Child Jesus blessed the world, making the sign of the Cross - which sounds remarkably like the promised "great sign" which is prophesied to precede the grace of the Second Pentecost. This blessing, symbolised by the gesture of benediction, encompasses the whole world, and recalls the Gospel being preached to all nations, before the end of the world:


And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
(Matt 24:14)


This spectacle took place before the appearance of the next vision - which in remarkable contrast to this period of blessing, is the Virgin Mary as the Mater Dolorosa - Our Lady of Sorrows (we will discuss the prophetic significance of this particular vision, and how it is related to the Great Apostasy further in a future post). It is only after the appearance of Our Lady as the Mother of Sorrows, that the children saw the image of the Virgin change to that of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Now that we have attempted to establish the true significance of the appearance of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel at Fatima, we can see that it is ultimately connected to the "mountain of Megiddo" - the location of the final eschatological battle, and the death of King Josiah - a biblical precursor to the Two Witnesses. Given the fact that one of the central themes of the Third Secret is that of the martyrdom of a pope, and that it closely follows the imagery depicted in the chapter in the Book of Revelation concerning the Two Witnesses; this makes it all the more likely that these individuals are to be identified as the Great Monarch and Angelic Pope of Catholic prophecy. It thus seems highly likely that the vision of the pope being killed in the Third Secret, is ultimately connected to the martyrdom of the Two Witnesses in Rev 11:

And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
(Rev 11:7-8)

The martyrdom of these two end-time prophets of God, who restore the Faith by establishing the Second Pentecost before the coming of the Antichrist, finally results in the promised retribution for anyone who would attempt to harm the Two Witnesses - fire comes down from heaven to consume their foes. This will apparently be brought about by the collapse of the "destroying mountain... which destroys the whole earth" of Jer 51:25, which is one and the same as the "great mountain, burning with fire" of Rev 8:8, which brings about the collapse of the eschatological world empire which is symbolically called "Babylon". As I argue in the book, it the total collapse of America in the wake of the mega-tsunami caused by the collapse of the volcano Cumbre Vieja in the Canary Islands, which will plunge the world into the political chaos that will allow the Antichrist to rise to world dominance. Without the equilibrium established by the "world's policeman", the world of geo-politics will become incredibly volatile. And following the sequence of events laid out in the Bible, it seems that this last great war - the battle of Armageddon, will be brought about by an invasion of Israel - which will be left without the protection of its greatest political ally, and struggling to rebuild in the wake of the eschatological earthquake that is foretold to ravage the city of Jerusalem. It is tempting to propose that this invasion will be provoked by plans for the redevelopment of the Temple Mount complex following this disaster, which would in all likelihood lie in ruins following the greatest earthquake "since man has been on the earth" (Rev 16:18). The surrounding Muslim nations would undoubtedly be furious with any state intervention by Israel on redevelopment plans for the Temple Mount area, which could quite quickly spill over into all-out conflict. But to speculate on this any further would perhaps stray too far from the biblical texts.

Whatever the case, it seems that the true significance of the appearance of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel during the Miracle of the Sun, was to confirm that the frightening motions of the Sun on October 13th, 1917, did in fact symbolise the prospect of the destruction of the earth by fire - and that this threat is specifically related to the battle of Armageddon - when the angel's flaming sword will finally fall upon the earth.

BBC Horizon Mega-tsunami Documentary

For those interested in watching the full documentary, I've just came across the complete video on Youtube, which can be watched below:
To see how this event is predicted in biblical prophecy, see the earlier posts Mega-tsunami and The Casting Down of Mountains.

Obama: Psalm 46 and the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

I just discovered that President Obama picked an interesting Bible reading for the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks last year: Pslam 46 - one of the passages which I highlight in the post The Casting Down of Mountains as a prophecy of the effects of the future collapse of the volcano Cumbre Vieja, and subsequent Mega-tsunami that will destroy the east coast of the Americas.

It should be worth quoting the full Pslam below:

 God is our refuge and strength,
  a very present help in trouble.
 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
  though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
 though its waters roar and foam,
  though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
  the holy habitation of the Most High.
 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
  God will help her when morning dawns.
 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
  he utters his voice, the earth melts.
 The LORD of hosts is with us;
  the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
 Come, behold the works of the LORD,
  how he has brought desolations on the earth.
 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
  he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
  he burns the chariots with fire.
 “Be still, and know that I am God.
  I will be exalted among the nations,
  I will be exalted in the earth!”
 The LORD of hosts is with us;
  the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
(Psalm 46)

Note here that the important phrase "the nations rage" - which is an allusion to some other highly significant biblical passages that are directly related to the battle of Armageddon. This apocalyptic phrase first crops up in Psalm 2, which speaks of the eschatological battle in terms that appear again in the Book of Revelation:

 Why do the nations rage
  and the peoples plot in vain?
 The kings of the earth set themselves,
  and the rulers take counsel together,
  against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
 “Let us burst their bonds apart
  and cast away their cords from us.”
 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
  the Lord holds them in derision.
 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
  and terrify them in his fury, saying,
 “As for me, I have set my King
  on Zion, my holy hill.”
 I will tell of the decree:
 The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;
  today I have begotten you.
 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
  and the ends of the earth your possession.
 You shall break them with a rod of iron
  and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
  be warned, O rulers of the earth.
 Serve the LORD with fear,
  and rejoice with trembling.
 Kiss the Son,
  lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
  for his wrath is quickly kindled.
 Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
(Psalm 2)

 "The nations raged,
  but your wrath came,
  and the time for the dead to be judged,
 and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
  and those who fear your name,
  both small and great,
 and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
(Rev 11:18)

The above passage in Rev 11 which alludes to the raging nations in Pslams 2 and 46 is the third woe of the Book of Revelation, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet - which I suggest in Unveiling the Apocalypse refers to a third world war. It takes place after the martyrdom of the Two Witnesses, and should be considered to be the "fire from heaven" (symbolically poured forth from their mouths, just as Elijah called down fire from heaven to destroy his opponents) which is promised in reprisal to any harm that would come against them - as is warned in the Apocalypse:

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.
(Rev 11:4-5)

Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest in the Book of Zechariah are recognised to be the symbolic prototypes of the Two Witnesses of the Book of Revelation. And in the exact section that we find the reference to the "two olive trees" that stand before the Lord of all the earth in Zech 4, we are told that a mountain is made to collapse before Zerubbabel, who represents one of the Two Witnesses:

And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
(Zech 4:1-7)

The very last verse in this passage helps us to identify the person represented by Zerubbabel here as the Elijah to come, who prepares the way for the coming of the Lord. We are told that he brings forth the "top stone" amidst shouts of praise - and in Zech 3:9 the "top stone" is identified as the Righteous Branch, the Messiah - a stone with seven eyes, just like the Lamb of Revelation, with the seven spirits of God sent out to all the earth at the Second Pentecost:

Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.
(Zech 3:8-9)

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
(Rev 5:6)

Turning back to the third woe of the Apocalypse, which is related to the raging nations described in Psalm 46, we find another allusion to the downfall of Babylon and the collapse of the "burning mountain". The majority of scholars recognise that the phrase "for destroying the destroyers of the earth" in Rev 11:18 is a direct allusion to the destroying mountain of Babylon mentioned in Jer 51:25:

 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
 declares the LORD,
  which destroys the whole earth;
 I will stretch out my hand against you,
  and roll you down from the crags,
  and make you a burnt mountain.
(Jeremiah 51:25)

So this parallel further strengthens the relationship between the mountains being moved "into the heart of the sea" in Psalm 46 and the burning mountain of Jer 51 and Rev 8:8, linking it to the third woe of the Apocalypse after the martyrdom of the Two Witnesses in Rev 11. And the theme of the raging of the nations in Psalm 46 and Rev 11 is continued in the eschatological battle described in Psalm 2, where the kingdoms of the world are gathered against God's Anointed One - the Messiah:

 Why do the nations rage
  and the peoples plot in vain?
 The kings of the earth set themselves,
  and the rulers take counsel together,
  against the LORD and against his Anointed...
(Psalm 2:1-2)

This is final gathering of the nations against the Anointed One, who the Psalmist tells us will speak to them in his wrath and break them with a rod of iron, is to be identified with the escahtological battle described in Rev 19, where Christ strikes his opponents down with the sword that issues from his mouth:

 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on 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 written that 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, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
(Rev 19:11-21)

The sword that comes forth from the mouth of Christ is the Word of God, through which the world was created. And just as the world was created through the Word, so too will it reach its consummation. It is the command to the angel with the Flaming Sword of the Book of Genesis, to assemble the armies of the nations and send forth fire from the heavens to consume them. A scene which is first mentioned in Rev 16, before being recapitulated again in Rev 20:

And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
(Rev 16:13-16)

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them...
(Rev 20:7-10)

We also find reference to this eschatological battle in the Pauline epistles:

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
(2 Thess 1:5-8)

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
(2 Thess 2:8)

So by examining the significance of the various biblical allusions made in Psalm 46, we have yet again found several direct links between the Second Coming, the destruction of Babylon at casting of a burning mountain into the sea, and the battle of Armageddon. The exact sequence of events which I further elaborate on in the book, as a third world war being instigated by the Antichrist, who seizes the political vacuum left in the wake of the downfall of America following the devastating effects of the mega-tsunami caused by the collapse of Cumbre Vieja.

I'm sure Rabbi Johnathan Cahn would find the piece of synchronicity between Pres. Obama's 9/11 10th anniversary speech and the future chastisement of America worthy of note, since in his book Harbinger, he argues that the events of 9/11 were a warning of a worse disaster yet to befall the country if it does not turn from its sinful ways. As the story of Baalam in the Book of Numbers teaches us, God can put His words into the mouth of anyone He chooses. A fact which Cahn appears to pick up on in Harbinger, where he notes that certain events of post 9/11 America appears to be following the sequence of an obscure prophecy found in the Book of Isaiah. Cahn notes how the day after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, Sen. Tom Daschle quoted a passage from the Book of Isaiah, which speaks of Israel's act of defiance, describing their intent to rebuild stronger and better after the Northern Kingdom had been attacked by the Assyrians:

 The Lord has sent a word against Jacob,
  and it will fall on Israel;
 and all the people will know,
  Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
  who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:
 “The bricks have fallen,
  but we will build with dressed stones;
 the sycamores have been cut down,
  but we will put cedars in their place.”
(Isaiah 9:8-10)

The Israelites did not see the attacks as a harbinger of the judgment that was to fall upon the nation by the rod of Assyria, which would take place due to its state of apostasy.  Instead of turning to repentance, the Israelites arrogantly promised to rebuild. Cahn points out that this context makes Sen. Daschle's use of this quote even more strange.

Cahn goes on to note that Sen. John Edwards used the same quote on the third anniversary, and that when the foundation stone was laid for the building of Freedom Tower, it was hewn similar to the dressed gazit stone spoken of in Isaiah. Then a sycamore tree that was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks was replaced during a highly symbolic ceremony by a cedar. Also, in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament (the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the LXX, which contains some variations of Scripture), the Israelites promise that they would build a tower upon the fallen rubble - just as Freedom Tower is being built right now:

The Lord has sent death upon Jacob, and it has come upon Israel. And all the people of Ephraim, and they that dwelt in Samaria shall know, who say in their pride and lofty heart, "The bricks are fallen down, but come, let us hew stones, and cut down sycamores and cedars, and let us build for ourselves a tower."
(Isa 9:8-10 LXX)

Cahn argues that just as the precursory attacks on the Northern Kingdom of Israel were a warning sent by God, telling of the nation's impending destruction by Assyria; so too the attacks on 9/11 herald a greater chastisement still to come. A chastisement that will ultimately lead to the nation's complete downfall.

 The people did not turn to him who struck them,
  nor inquire of the LORD of hosts.
 So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail,
  palm branch and reed in one day...
(Isa 9:13-14)

In the earlier post The Two Towers and the Sixth Seal, we already discussed how the events of 9/11 appear to be intimately bound up with the future chastisement of the USA. Given that the link to Isaiah 9 was made by the leaders of America themselves in the wake of the terrible tragedy of 9/11, it seems highly significant that on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the President of the United States unknowingly quoted a passage in the Bible that tells of the exact form the punishment will take - that mountains will be "moved into the heart of the sea", so that its waters swell, roar and foam. A passage which directly parallels the destruction of Babylon, caused by a burning mountain being thrown into the sea, as foretold in both the Book of Jeremiah and the Apocalypse.

Darwinism and the Great Apostasy

This post was originally intended to be a reply to a comment in an earlier post concerning evolutionism, but the text ended up too long, so I decided to post it on the main part of the blog instead. I believe that the discovery of the theory of evolution was a test of faith deliberately sent by God. The roots of modern atheism (and thus the Great Apostasy) can be traced back to the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859. Christ himself foretold that there would be a time of testing before his return. Starting with the parable of the persistent widow (who represents the Church as the widow of Christ) concerning the importance of perseverance (the primary attribute of Job), Jesus concluded with the rather startling question:

"...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
(Luke 18:8)

This statement was made in the further background context of a discourse concerning the Great Apostasy before the Second Coming:

"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed."
(Luke 17:25-30)

So the basic point Christ seems to have made here, was that before the end of the world, there would come a period of testing, when Christians would have to undergo a time of trial - just like Job in the Old Testament. It is this time period that is cut short for the sake of the elect, with the coming of the Second Pentecost:

"And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days."
(Mark 13:20)

And it is this same era in which Satan would be unleashed "for a little while" (Rev 20:3):

"to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle..."
(Rev 20:8).

This time period, when Satan would be unleashed to deceive the earth, and gather its inhabitants for war, is to be equated with the "wars and rumours of wars" that Jesus foretold would precede his Second Coming (which I argue in the book is related to the two world wars of the 20th century), before the final eschatological battle:

"And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains."
(Mark 13:7-8)

When we look at the Prophecy of Pope Leo XIII concerning the hundred years of Satan's power, we find that this too is styled after the trials of Job. And it is also interesting to note that in Melanie Calvat's later (unapproved) 1858 version of the secret of La Salette, she foretold that the gradual weakening of faith that would result in the Great Apostasy would begin in a time period very close to her own - which was around the same general time period of the publication of the Origin of Species.

"In the year 1864, Lucifer together with a large number of demons will be unloosed from hell; they will put an end to faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of hell; several religious institutions will lose all faith and will lose many souls.
"Evil books will be abundant on earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening in all that concerns the service of God. They will have great power over Nature: there will be churches built to serve these spirits.
"'The vicar of my Son will have much to suffer, as, for a time, the Church will be the victim of great persecution: this will be the time of darkness. The Church will suffer a terrible crisis...
"As the holy Faith of God is forgotten, every individual will wish to be his own guide and be superior to his fellow-men..."
..."The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. But now Enoch and Eli will come, filled with the Spirit of God. They will preach with the might of God, and men of good will believe in God, and many souls will be comforted. They will make great strides forward through the virtue of the Holy Spirit, and will condemn the diabolical errors of the Antichrist."

(See the earlier post on Our Lady of La Salette, to see why I believe that this later unapproved version may still have a certain amount of legitimacy).

On an interesting side note, Melanie foretold that neither Pope John Paul II (who is generally agreed to be the pope who cannot be killed by his would be assassins in the secret), nor his successor (Benedict XVI) would live to see the Second Pentecost that follows the Great Apostasy - which means that it predicts that this will take place during the pontificate of the next pope:

"The Holy Father will suffer greatly. I will be at his side to the end in order to receive his sacrifice. The wicked will make several attempts on his life, but they cannot harm him. But neither he nor his successor will live to see the triumph of the Church of God."

Turning back to the Great Apostasy, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that this must take place before the Second Coming of Christ, and will ultimately result in the appearance of the Antichrist - much as is predicted in the prophecy of St. Hildegard of Bingen:

"Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh."
(CCC 675)

However we can remain hopeful in the fact that during his eschatological discourse on Mt. Olivet, Christ foretold that those who endure to the end of this Great Apostasy will be saved, when the Gospel will proclaimed to all nations during the Second Pentecost:

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 lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
(Matt 24:10-14)

Ragnarok: the End-Time Flood and the Giant with the Flaming Sword

The Giant with the Flaming Sword (1909), by John Charles Dollman

There are some interesting parallels between the major themes of Norse eschatology with the sequence of end-time events that I attempt to outline in my book Unveiling the Apocalypse. As we have already discussed in greater depth in the post The Date of the End-Time - 2012 or 2087?, Catholic theology teaches that other cultures and religions outside the Faith can be capable of genuine prophecy. So it is possible that exploring the end-time prophecies of different belief systems can help to shed light on eschatological events from a different perspective. Given that the Norse epics were composed relatively late in comparison to the eschatological texts of the major world religions, most scholars feel that they were influenced to a large extent by Christian eschatology. Indeed many extant Christian artifacts scattered throughout Britain (such as Thorwald's Cross and Gosforth Cross) bear syncretistic imagery depicting elements of Norse end-time mythology combined with certain Christian beliefs.
Chapter 51 of the Gylfaginning, found in the Prose Edda, tells how the wolf Sköll (possibly a representation of the god Fenrir) along with his brother Hati, consumes the sun and moon at Ragnarok - much like the widespread belief found in eastern cultures that solar eclipses were caused by a dragon attempting to devour the sun. The Norse believed that the sun resided in a heavenly chariot, and was constantly being chased by Sköll, and that at the end-time after the period of Fimbulwinter - when there would be three years without a summer (which sounds a bit like Ireland now at the moment:), the wolf would finally catch up on the sun and devour it.
If this tale of wolves consuming the sun and moon at the end-time refers to solar and lunar eclipses, then it would be a remarkable parallel to the biblical accounts of the eschatological astronomical phenomena we have already looked at in some depth in the post Signs in the Sky. Other events depicted in the Prose Edda speak of stars disappearing, great earthquakes and the collapse of mountains, which again strongly echoes the events I sketch out in the book. Then we are told that the great serpent of Midgard, Jörmungandr will cause the sea to violently swell over the land, before a final battle between the gods destroys the earth in a great conflagration (compare this with the post Mega-tsunami). During this battle, it is foretold that Surtr, a giant with a flaming sword, will engage in combat with the god Freyr. And at the end of this conflict, the flames issuing from the flaming sword of Surtr eventually consume the earth before the creation of the new order.
It is interesting to note that many scholars (such as Bertha Phillpotts, "Surt" in Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi, volume 21, pp. 14 ff.) believe that Surtr was a volcano god, and at least one academic on Norse mythology (Andy Orchard in the Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend) theorises that the imagery of Surtr was based on the angel with a flaming sword depicted in the Book of Genesis. We have already noted the depth of the symbolism behind the cherubim of Genesis in the post The Third Secret of Fatima and the Angel with the Flaming Sword. So once again, we have the theme of the world being destroyed after a great deluge, which will be brought about by fire falling from the sky. The relevant text of the Prose Edda can be found below:

Yet first was the world in the southern region, which was named Múspell; it is light and hot; that region is glowing and burning, and impassable to such as are outlanders and have not their holdings there. He who sits there at the land's-end, to defend the land, is called Surtr; he brandishes a flaming
sword, and at the end of the world he shall go forth and harry, and overcome all the gods, and burn all the world with fire; thus is said in Völuspá:

Surtr fares from the south | with switch-eating flame,--
On his sword shimmers | the sun of the War-Gods;
The rock-crags crash; | the fiends are reeling;
Heroes tread Hel-way; | Heaven is cloven."

(Gylfaginning IV)

Then shall happen what seems great tidings: the Wolf shall swallow the sun; and this shall seem to men a great harm. Then the other wolf shall seize the moon, and he also shall work great ruin; the stars shall vanish from the heavens. Then shall come to pass these tidings also: all the earth shall tremble so, and the crags, that trees shall be torn up from the earth, and the crags fall to ruin; and all fetters and bonds shall be broken and rent. Then shall Fenris-Wolf get loose; then the sea shall gush forth upon the land, because the Midgard Serpent stirs in giant wrath and advances up onto the land. Then that too shall happen, that Naglfar shall be loosened, the ship which is so named. (It is made of dead men's nails; wherefore a warning is desirable, that if a man die with unshorn nails, that man adds much material to the ship Naglfar, which gods and men were fain to have finished late.) Yet in this sea-flood Naglfar shall float. Hrymr is the name of the giant who steers Naglfar. Fenris-Wolf shall advance with gaping mouth, and his lower jaw shall be against the earth, but the upper against heaven,--he would gape yet more if there were room for it; fires blaze from his eyes and nostrils. The Midgard Serpent shall blow venom so that he shall sprinkle all the air and water; and he is very terrible, and shall be on one side of the Wolf. In this din shall the heaven be cloven, and the Sons of Múspell ride thence: Surtr shall ride first, and both before him and after him burning fire; his sword is exceeding good: from it radiance shines brighter than from the sun; when they ride over Bifröst, then the bridge shall break, as has been told before...

...Odin rides first with the gold helmet and a fair birnie, and his spear, which is called Gungnir. He shall go forth against Fenris-Wolf, and Thor stands forward on his other side, and can be of no avail to him, because he shall have his hands full to fight against the Midgard Serpent. Freyr shall contend with Surtr, and a hard encounter shall there be between them before Freyr falls: it is to be his death that he lacks that good sword of his, which he gave to Skírnir. Then shall the dog Garmr be loosed, which is bound before Gnipa's Cave: he is the greatest monster; he shall do battle with Týr, and each become the other's slayer. Thor shall put to death the Midgard Serpent, and shall stride away nine paces from that spot; then shall he fall dead to the earth, because of the venom which the Snake has blown at him. The Wolf shall swallow Odin; that shall be his ending But straight thereafter shall Vídarr stride forth and set one foot upon the lower jaw of the Wolf: on that foot he has the shoe, materials for which have been gathering throughout all time. (They are the scraps of leather which men cut out: of their shoes at toe or heel; therefore he who desires in his heart to come to the Æsir's help should cast those scraps away.) With one hand he shall seize the Wolf's upper jaw and tear his gullet asunder; and that is the death of the Wolf. Loki shall have battle with Heimdallr, and each be the slayer of the other. Then straightway shall Surtr cast fire over the earth and burn all the world; so is said in Völuspá:

Hrymr sails from the east, | the sea floods onward;
The monstrous Beast | twists in mighty wrath;
The Snake beats the waves, | the Eagle is screaming;
The gold-neb tears corpses, | Naglfar is loosed.

From the east sails the keel; | come now Múspell's folk
Over the sea-waves, | and Loki steereth;
There are the warlocks | all with the Wolf,--
With them is the brother | of Býleistr faring.

Surtr fares from southward | with switch-eating flame;
On his sword shimmers | the sun of the war-gods;
The rocks are falling, | and fiends are reeling,
Heroes tread Hel-way, | heaven is cloven...

...Now goeth Hlödyn's | glorious son
Not in flight from the Serpent, | of fear unheeding;
All the earth's offspring | must empty the homesteads,
When furiously smiteth | Midgard's defender.

The sun shall be darkened, | earth sinks in the sea,--
Glide from the heaven | the glittering stars;
Smoke-reek rages | and reddening fire:
The high heat licks | against heaven itself.

(Gylfaginning LI, the full text can be found online here).

Many scholars (such as Hilda Ellis Davidson in her book Gods and Myths of Northern Europe) argue that this last part, telling of the "earth sinking into the sea" and flames and smoke billowing forth to reach the heavens, was inspired by a volcanic eruption witnessed on Iceland. So it is of some interest that this activity is associated with the flaming sword of Surtr, which eventually consumes the entire world.

The Prophecy of St. Hildegard on the Great Apostasy

An Illustration from the Liber Scivias depicting St. Hildegard of Bingen receiving a prophetic vision.

I recently had a discussion with regular contributor Jamey Srdarov in the com box on the post The Abomination of Desolation which I thought would be worth posting up on the main part of the blog. As regular readers who take the time to read the com box will know, Jamey is a fervent supporter of Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), and is quite keen for its re-institution as the ordinary form of the liturgy (which I must confess, I would like to see also). During the debate, I was reminded of a prophecy made by St. Hildegard of Bingen concerning the state of the Church at the end-time, which I thought would be appropriate to mention so that everyone can read...
The exchange goes as follows:


Jamey:


Fr Stephen Somerville was a member of the Advisory Board of the International Commission on English Liturgy for translating the new post-Vatican II Latin liturgy into the English language.

http://www.fisheaters.com/frsomerville.html

Fr Somerville using scripture presents another angle linking the abomination of desolation to the end times this time in regard to replacement of the Tridentine Mass with the Novus Ordo Missae of Paul VI [NO].

http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/f007ht_Abomination_Somerville.htm

Note to readers be wary of some of the other stuff on TIA, at times they unfairly go after recent popes at other points justifiably IMHO, a bit of a mixed bag.

Emmett:


I'm all for a return to the Old Latin Mass, and the re-establishment of the High Altars. I think it would be a great blessing for the Church. But I think it is a step too far to deny the validity of the sacraments in the NO. Not only does it sow the seeds of schism in a direct disregard for the express request of Jesus that "they may all be one" (John 17:20), but it also ignores Christ's promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church (Matt 16:18).
Christ said "behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20) - a promise to be eternally present in the Eucharist until the end of the world.
The use of a different language from Latin doesn't invalidate the eucharist. Less beautiful perhaps, but not invalid. Christ almost certainly would have said the first Mass in Aramaic.
The validity of the Eucharist depends on whether the priest was ordained in apostolic succession, and whether he was using the correct words (the personal holiness of the priest doesn't count, as was determined following the Donatist schism). For an ordained priest to invalidate the Eucharist, different words would have to be used, such as "this is a symbol of my body".
Fr Gobbi depicts such a scenario for the abomination of desolation in relation to the Eucharist. He seems to suggest that the Antichrist will install an anti-pope in Rome, creating a schism, with a large portion of Catholics following the anti-pope. Fr Gobbi appears to predict that the anti-pope will then take away the sacrifice of the Mass by asserting that the Eucharist is merely a symbol of Christ's body and blood. I suppose such a scenario would fit in with Melanie's later unapproved portion of message of La Salette, that Rome would "become the seat of the Antichrist", while the true pope would be forced into exile, as is suggested by other prophecies.
But I don't think that the NO is the abomination of desolation, even though it is an inferior version of the Mass.


Jamey:


Emmett, I don't think the NO is invalid for the reasons you mention. I also don't think Latin is the biggest issue with the changes of the Mass, I think the priest facing the people (back to the tabernacle) hence being man centred, the removal of high altars and the elimination of various prayers, not to mention the stripping off churches the sacred which has led to great irreverance. The loss of the sacred is killing our times.

Although he may gone too hard at times, I thought it interesting Fr Somervilles analysis that a certain abomination occuring in the temple, specifically regarding altars that would herald the end-time. Given the Masonic connections with the NO it is in a way an abomination and I believe has led to desolation, "There we have it: desolation means being desolate, being abandoned by good people, and worse, being abandoned by God and by His grace".

I think many people stay away from the NO because they realise there is something seriously defective with it. When I have been to NO there appear to be few devout people, the main body of people have departed by the time the final hymn is finished. In fact some Masses I have been to I can only describe as abominations with the stuff going on. Lex orandi, lex credendi. I think it takes a special grace to attend the NO and maintain ones faith well, or at the very least a very strong grounding in Catholic beliefs.

It is a sad time when most bishops seem hostile to the TLM. Our new bishop in Perth has pulled the plug on 3 trad vocations. Reading at Rorate people from all over the world commented on their dioceses being generally averse to the old Mass, something which made the Church what she is, the most beautiful thing this side of heaven.

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19978542&postID=8924370084366731914


"Pope Pius XII warned about the suicide of altering the faith in the liturgy. Something that is suicidal is neither healthy nor sane. When you consider the Masonic influences on the Novus Ordo Missae you realise the utter madness of continuing with it." Fr Paul Kramer


(Emmett again):


Before we go on to look at the prophecy of St. Hildegard, it should be worth noting that according to traditional Catholic theology, the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit when acting corporately as whole - which is especially so in the case of ecumenical councils held in union with the pope. If Masonic influences were responsible for the changes to the liturgy made in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, then they could only have infiltrated the Church to such an extent with the permission of the Spirit. Perhaps the changes made to the liturgy and the TLM being taken away from the Church was a punishment for the apostasy of the majority of the laity, and a large part of the clergy. As the new Israel, the Church has always been judged as a lump - the sheep together with the goats; just as ancient Israel was judged collectively for its sins with the rods of Assyria and Babylon. Apostasy does not go unpunished, and perhaps the changes to the liturgy reflect the fact that the Church as a whole no longer gives adequate glory to God. The apostate Church may simply not be worthy enough to offer the highest form of praise to Our Lord, and will first have to be cleansed with the fire of the Holy Spirit at the new Pentecost.

In her most renowned work Scivias, St. Hildegard predicted that the Church would be in a terrible state towards the end of the world. The Church is depicted as a battered and bruised figure, and suffering being raped by the Devil, it subsequently gives birth to the Antichrist. But significantly, despite being in such a decrepit state following the assaults of the Devil weakening the faith of her children, thus giving rise to the birth of the Antichrist; the Church remains resolute, and is eventually restored in the Second Pentecost:


The image of the woman before the altar in front of the eyes of God that I saw earlier was now also shown to me again so that I could also see her from the navel down. From the navel to the groin she had various scaly spots. In her [genitalia] there appeared a monstorous and totally black head with fiery eyes, ears like the ears of a donkey, nostrils and mouth like those of a lion, gnashing with vast open mouth and sharpening its horrible iron teeth in a horrid manner.

From that head to the knees the image was white and red, bruised as with many a beating. From the knees to the two white transverse zones which crosswise seemed to touch the bottoms of the feet from above, the image appeared to be bloody. Lo, the monstrous head removed itself from its place with so great a crash that the entire image of the woman was shaken in all its members. Something like a a great mass of much dung was joined to the head; then, lifting itself upon a mountain, it attempted to ascend to the height of heaven. A stroke like thunder came suddenly and the head was repelled with such strength that it both fell from the mountain and gave up the ghost. After this a stinking cloud suddenly enveloped the whole mountain. The head was surrounded with such great filth in the cloud that the people standing by were struck with the greatest terror as the cloud stayed upon the mountain somewhat longer. The people standing there beheld it and struck with much fear said to each other: " Woe! Woe! What is this? What does that seem to be? Who will help us, unfortunate as we are? Who will deliver us? We are ignorant of how we have been deceived. Almighty God, have mercy on us. Let us, oh let us return. Let us prepare the covenant of Christ's Gospel, since we have been bitterly deceived." Behold, the feet of the aforementioned female image appeared to be white, giving out a brightness above that of the sun. I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: "Even though all things on earth are tending toward their end, so hardships and calamities is bowed down to its End, nevertheless, the Spouse of my Son, though much weakened in her children, will never be destroyed either by the heralds of the Son of Perdition or by the Destroyer himself, however much she will be attacked by them. At the End of time she will arise more powerful and more secure; she will appear more beautiful and shining so that she may go forth in this way more sweetly and more agreeably to the embraces of her Beloved. The vision which you saw signifies all this in mystic fashion."
(Scivias 3:11; Translated by B McGinn, Visions of the End, pp101-102)


It is interesting to find language in this prophecy which clearly echoes Cardinal Ratzinger's description of the "filth" within the Church, first made during his now famous Way of the Cross sermon on Good Friday, 2005:

"Should we not also think of how much Christ suffers in his own Church? How often is the holy sacrament of His Presence abused, how often must he enter empty and evil hearts! How often do we celebrate only ourselves, without even realizing that he is there! How often is his Word twisted and misused! What little faith is present behind so many theories, so many empty words!
How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the Priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency!"

"Lord, your Church often seems like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat. The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we ourselves who have soiled them! It is we who betray you time and time again, after all our lofty words and grand gestures. Have mercy on your Church... You stood up, you arose and you can also raise us up. Save and sanctify your Church. Save and sanctify us all."

The fact that St. Hildegard is one of the most revered saints in Pope Benedict's native Germany, helps to further cement the relationship between the "filth" described by the Holy Father and the "filth" depicted in the vision of the battered Church in Scivias. And it also reflects the Pope's connection of the Third Secret to the "sin" existing within the Church during his pilgrimage to Fatima in 2010:

As for the new things which we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on the Pope and the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin existing within the Church. This too is something that we have always known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church, and that the Church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice.

The "filth" that now pervades the Church, described by both St. Hildegard and Pope Benedict is a direct consequence of the apostasy we have been enduring for the past 52 years, since the passing of the date of 1960 mentioned by Sr. Lucia as when the contents of the Third Secret would be "better understood". It is from this date which marked the beginning of the sexual revolution, that we have witnessed the greatest decline in the two thousand year history of the Catholic Church, thus firmly establishing the Great Apostasy foretold in the New Testament:

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 lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
(Matt 24:10-12)

As St. Paul tells us, the rebellion must come first, before the "man of lawlessness" is revealed, just as St. Hildegard predicted that the battered Church would give birth to the Antichrist.

Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
(2 Thess 2:3-8)

So it seems that the ultimate fruit of the Great Apostasy we are currently enduring is the revelation of the Antichrist himself. The falling away of the faithful, and the lack of adequate worship being offered to God ultimately leads to the appearance of the Son of Perdition - to whom Satan transfers his great power and authority once he is cast to earth:

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.

(Rev 13:1-2)

Yet St. Hildegard foretells that the people will eventually realise the depths of their delusion, and that the Church will be restored to her former glory - preparing herself in virginal linen to meet the bridegroom, who will bring the appearance of the Antichrist to nothing with the sword of his mouth:

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints...

...Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on 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 written that 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, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
(Rev 19:6-8, 11-15)

Ezekiel's Vision of the Fall of Satan

There is yet another important biblical passage which links the casting of Satan to earth with the occurrence of the "signs in heaven" described throughout the Bible. As I point out in the book, the Bible frequently highlights the importance of the eschatological astronomical phenomena as a sign heralding the arrival of the end-time. In various places throughout Scripture, we are told that an important period during the end-time would be announced through a very rare combination of astronomical phenomena, which the Book of Revelation places at the opening of the sixth seal - when the saints are sealed in heaven, while the prophecy of the mark of the Beast is fulfilled on earth:


When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.
(Rev 6:12-13)

These events includes the "sun becoming like sackcloth", or a total solar eclipse, combined with a "blood-moon" - which only occurs during a total lunar eclipse, and a major meteorite shower, when it would appear that a large number of stars would fall to earth. In the earlier post Signs in the Sky, we already discussed at some length how the occurrence of each of these signs all appeared at the turn of the millennium - which according to the Prophecy of Pope Leo XIII, was also the exact moment of the end of the hundred years of Satan's power. And Pope Leo's prophecy of the hundred years of Satan's greater power directly corresponds to the Devil being cast out of heaven by the Archangel Michael in Rev 12:

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 pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
(Rev 12:1-12)

In the post The Year of the Dragon, we have noted several prophecies which linked the turn of the millennium with the eschatological Fall of Satan (which is to be distinguished from his primordial fall from grace detailed in the Book of Genesis), when the Devil would be cast from the heavenly court to earth, upon which he transfers his great power and authority to the Beast that rises from the sea, and the inhabitants of the earth are given his mark:

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.
(Rev 13:1-3)


The Book of Ezekiel makes a similar connection between a dragon emerging from the sea at the moment of his defeat (corresponding to the head with the mortal wound, after it has been crushed through the intercession of the Woman Adorned with Sun, by the Archangel Michael Rev 12:7), and is also marked by the appearance of solar and lunar eclipses:


“Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him:
“You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers. Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will throw my net over you with a host of many peoples, and they will haul you up in my dragnet.
And I will cast you on the ground; on the open field I will fling you, and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle on you, and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you. I will strew your flesh upon the mountains and fill the valleys with your carcass. I will drench the land even to the mountains with your flowing blood, and the ravines will be full of you. When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness on your land, declares the Lord GOD.
(Ezek 32:2-8)


This passage from Ezekiel parallels an earlier reference comparing the situation of the king of Tyre to the fall of Lucifer:


 “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD:
 “You were the signet of perfection,
  full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
  every precious stone was your covering,
 sardius, topaz, and diamond,
  beryl, onyx, and jasper,
 sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
  and crafted in gold were your settings
  and your engravings.
 On the day that you were created
  they were prepared.
 You were an anointed guardian cherub.
  I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
  in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
 You were blameless in your ways
  from the day you were created,
  till unrighteousness was found in you.
 In the abundance of your trade
  you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned;
 so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
  and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub,
  from the midst of the stones of fire.
 Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
  you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
 I cast you to the ground;
  I exposed you before kings,
  to feast their eyes on you.
 By the multitude of your iniquities,
  in the unrighteousness of your trade
  you profaned your sanctuaries;
 so I brought fire out from your midst;
  it consumed you,
 and I turned you to ashes on the earth
  in the sight of all who saw you.
 All who know you among the peoples
  are appalled at you;
 you have come to a dreadful end
  and shall be no more forever.”
(Ezek 28:12-19)


The Book of Joel directly links the appearance of the eschatological astronomical phenomena at the defeat of Satan with the arrival of the Second Pentecost:

 “And it shall come to pass afterward,
  that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
 your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
  your old men shall dream dreams,
  and your young men shall see visions.
 Even on the male and female servants
  in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.
(Joel 2:28-32)

As we have already noted in the previous posts The Two Towers and the Sixth Seal, and The Third Secret of Fatima and the Angel with the Flaming Sword, the "blood and fire and columns of smoke" mentioned in Joel, appears to correspond with the Twin Towers attacks on 9/11, adding yet another dimension to the prophecies concerning the turn of the millennium. And when we take into account the various other prophecies which link the turn of the millennium with the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary/Second Pentecost (such as is detailed in the posts John Paul II - The Triumph of Mary and the Great Jubilee, The Prophecies of La Salette and the Turn of the Millennium, St. John Bosco's Prophecy of the Turn of the Millennium, and The Third Secret of Fatima and the Turn of the Millennium), it seems fairly conclusive that we are on the brink of the era of peace promised by the Virgin Mary at Fatima. Although the Second Pentecost has not yet fully arrived, the event which will allow it to happen has already occurred at the millennial anniversary of the First Advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Second Pentecost can only take place at the defeat of Satan, when the head of the Serpent is crushed and he is cast from heaven to earth. The Angel with the Flaming Sword has dealt a fatal head-wound to the Dragon that rises from the sea, and the time when Satan would be unleashed for "a little while" (Rev 20:3), has already ended (see the post Tunguska, Pope Leo, and the Opening of the Abyss). It is this moment that was prophesied in the Book of Daniel, when the Archangel would rise up against Satan, and the elect would be delivered from unbelief:

“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book."
(Dan 12:1)

We find some parallels to this verse in Jesus' eschatological discourse on Mount Olivet which also states that this tribulation period would be cut short for the sake of the elect, to allow for a period of conversion:

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 cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
(Matt 24:21-22)

And a little further in the Gospel of Matthew, we are told that the end of this tribulation period would be marked by the appearance of the eschatological astronomical phenomena:

“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 in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, 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.
(Matt 24:29-30)

It is after this period of tribulation that we find that the elect are allowed to wash their soiled robes in the blood of the Lamb at the opening of the sixth seal:

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
(Rev 7:13-14)

Now after the defeat of Satan in heaven, we await the renewal of the Church through the ministry of the Two Witnesses, when the "gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matt 24:14).