The Book of Revelation is not given to easy interpretation. It cannot be deciphered in a literal or fundamentalist manner that seeks to make quick and easy contemporary correlation. We have to appreciate it as a particular form of literature that utilizes symbolic and allegorical phraseology. Similar such writings of this genre appear in Daniel, Zechariah, and Ezekiel. While many will interpret it strictly in terms of future events, it actually has a great deal to say about the crisis in the early Church and her future hope.
11:7 – “And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them, . . . ”
This beast was understood to be the antichrist, the one who symbolizes evil in his own person, the Roman emperor, Nero. Christians witnessed to their faith by shedding their blood. (See Rev. 13:1-8; 17:8).
11:8 – “ . . . and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.”
While it is geographically true that Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, this is not the thrust of the apocalyptic text here. Rather, the emphasis is upon the figurative Jerusalem that repudiates God and his witnesses. This is clearly the new “Babylon”, another code word for pagan Rome. See chapters 16 through 18. (Anti-Catholics go so far as to make the leap in logic that the beast and his city are not the pagan emperor and Rome but rather the pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Such a view violates the meaning of the text and defames the sacrifice of early Catholic Christians.) “Sodom” and “Egypt” are symbols for immorality (cf. Isaiah 1:10) and for the oppression of the people of God (cf. Exodus 1:11-14). The authority of pagan Rome crucified Christ through its emissaries. Christ is being crucified anew in his members. It is an early holocaust of the Christian believers at the hands of a bloodthirsty pagan Rome.
The Book of Revelation is composed to deal with a specific crisis. Believers of Christ are dying in droves and the inspired author is urging the Christian community not to abandon hope or to betray the Lord. Jesus’ promise comes to mind: “ . . . and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Catholic Christians are reminded that God has not abandoned them.
Hope this breakdown helps, although it hardly exhausts the layers of meaning here.
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GIO: I don’t know. When Cardinal Ratzinger wrote about the explanation of Fatima in 2000 upon the revelation of the third secret, he compared the Angel with the fiery sword in Revelation to the Angel that the children saw at Fatima, saying something like “the risk of judgment looms over us.”
ARMANDO: Shalom! Fr. Joe, I am a devout Catholic and I’m very curious about the Catholic interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Father, can you tell me, who is the second beast? Who is this beast with a name equivalent to 666? I believe in the messages of Our Lady of Fatima. Actually, I’m praying the Rosary four times a day since I started working here in Saudi Arabia. I hope for your kind reply to these questions because I categorically don’t believe other interpretations of the Bible. I believe in the Catholic view alone, because it is the only true Church founded by Christ with its visible Head as St. Peter and His successors. May the God Abraham, Isaac and Jacob richly bless us all always! Thank you very much Father. I will include you in my prayers.
FATHER JOE: I would recommend a faithful Catholic commentary and a Catholic Bible with good footnotes. Throughout history there have been many antichrists. It refers to any and all who reject and oppose Christ and his Church. The term also signifies a false Christ or counterfeit messiah. This is not to deny the possibility of a singular apocalyptic antichrist; however, many authorities suggest that this pointed to the Emperor Nero or possibly another tyrant of pagan Rome who persecuted the early Church.
ARMANDO: May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob richly bless all always! Father Joe, thank you very much! I learned just yesterday night, from Brother Michael of EWTN about the intimate relation of the Book of Revelation to the Holy Catholic Mass. It enlightened my heart and mind so much and it strengthened my Catholic faith even more. You know Father, I’m actually a Catholic Charismatic and I’ve been serving the Lord since I was 10 years old through our humble St. Joseph Chapel in Ibabao, Cuenca, Batangas, Philippines. I’ve been a choir guitarist up to the present here in the Muslim country of Saudi Arabia. We are without a Church and must worship in secret. Despite this situation, my friends and I, Filipinos and an Indian, started a small Prayer Group. We pray the Holy Rosary, singing praise and worship songs. I lead a Catholic Bible Study. You know, Father, we are very happy because there are many Catholics who turned away from our Church but now turning back again because of Catholic Life in the Spirit Seminar or CLSS. Two more questions Father: when will the 1000 years of peace happen and is Satan already loosed? Mama Mary, pray for us.
FATHER JOE: You are from the Philippines! My brother married a Filipina a few years ago and traveled to Manila to see her family. I have many Filipinos in my parish here in Maryland, USA. Many are far better educated. You can ask questions of faith and I will do my best to answer. But, please understand, I am quite fallible. The Catholic Church does not teach a millennium rule. Rather, we believe that when Jesus comes he will consummate all things to himself. As for when the second coming will happen, we cannot know for sure, despite various signs. Look at Matthew 24:36. Our Lord tells us that “no one but the Father knows the day and the hour.” As for Satan, look around the world today. He is still very much around and prowling about for souls to devour. Trust Jesus and Mary. Invoke the special aid of St. Michael the Archangel. May God bless you!
ARMANDO: Shalom again, Fr. Joe. Why is it that the Catholic Church does not teach a millennium rule since it is written in Revelation? Am I right that maybe it’s not a literal 1000 years of peace? And what are those seven plaques w/c the 7 angels brought?
FATHER JOE:
The notion of an earthly kingdom ruled directly by the Messiah finds its roots in the Jewish aspirations of a military and political leader. This imagery is picked up by the Scriptures but the time of Christ’s rule is spiritual and found in the Catholic Church and her sacraments. The new Zion or Jerusalem is, similarly, not the political state of modern Israel but the Church. Some authorities claim that a false Messiah or Christ will seek to establish an early kingdom. Here we are talking, not about Christ but about the anti-Christ. It is said that he would persecute the Church.
There are seven plagues preceding the destruction of Babylon. The imagery is borrowed from the plagues of Egypt.
[1] Men and beasts are smitten with ulcers (Exodus 9:9-10).
[2] & [3] The seas and rivers become blood (Exodus 7:17-21).
[4] The sun burns men to death.
[5] The throne of the beast causes great darkness (Exodus 10:11-29).
[6] The waters of the Euphrates are dried up and form a passage for the kings of the East (Exodus 14).
[7] Storm and earthquake destroy Babylon.
The Catholic Church gives no literal or fundamentalist interpretation to these plagues. It is enough that there will be both man-made and natural calamities.
Pope John Paul II (February 2003) identified seven deadly plagues that threaten the future of humanity:
[1] an insidious terrorism capable of striking at anytime and anywhere;
[2] the unresolved problem of the Middle East with the Holy Land and Iraq;
[3] the turmoil disrupting South America, particularly Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela;
[4] the conflicts preventing numerous African countries from focusing on their development;
[5] the diseases spreading contagion and death;
[6] the grave problem of famine, especially in Africa;
[7] the irresponsible behavior contributing to the depletion of the planet’s resources.
ARMANDO: Thanks again, little by little, the Book of Revelation is getting clearer to me. Is the “holy city Jerusalem” in Rev. 21: 10-21, the same as the New Jerusalem which symbolizes the Church? Why does it have walls, gates, foundation stones, etc?
FATHER JOE: The heavenly Jerusalem is paradise. The New Jerusalem is the kingdom breaking into the world through the Church. The Church is an extension of the Church in glory.
CATHOLIC GIRL:
Gio, during the Fatima apparitions, Our Lady gave the children a horrific vision of hell. They said that so many souls were going there so fast it was like snowflakes falling. She also told them that one of their school mates – a child – would be “in purgatory until the end of the time.” Without the Mercy of God, no one would be saved but his sword is a mighty sword of justice.
As far as Revelations, I feel that the Protestant “Tim Lehaye” books (and movies) have spread heresy into Catholic beliefs. Here in the south, it is the most argued point in adult Bible study. It is another aspect of too little knowledge of the faith. In a class I was in, where a Nun from the Seminary literally went through chapter by chapter, people walked out – and many called the Chancery swearing that SHE was the heretic. Most Catholics simply do not understand that we are not literalists as far as the Bible goes.
I often wonder why Catholics do not have more organized Bible Study (with nuns or priests as a guide). I think a lot of eyes would be opened.
ARMANDO: Father, does our Church teaches about rapture? I do not hear any priest teaching about this matter. And what is Armageddon?
FATHER JOE: The Church believes that Christ will consummate the world to himself. Rapture as understood by certain Protestants and in the LEFT BEHIND books is not part of Catholic teaching. As for the conflict against the anti-Christ, we are already in the thick of it. The Church does not insist upon a literal final battle in the Middle East. Apocalyptic literature cannot be read like a history book.
CHARLIE: It is true that the book of Revelation is complicated. I can’t stop thinking though how Revelation 17 and how the Woman fits the description of the Catholic church.
FATHER JOE: Mary and the Church is associated with this woman (with child). However, the Church is NOT the harlot or “whore of Babylon.” Be careful not to associate the Church with the anti-Christ. There have always been grave sinners in the Church; but the Church is holy because Christ is holy.
CHARLIE: It seems to me that the church is trying very hard NOT to tell us the REAL meaning of Revelation.
FATHER JOE: Give me an instance. Why is it that you, as a Catholic, would put your personal interpretation of Scripture over that of the Magisterium? If you believe that the Church is evil, why are you still a Catholic. Sorry, this does not wash! You are buying into all the conspiracy theory nonsense.
CHARLIE: With the church being around for so long and with all the scholars in the church, they could be more specific like all the other churches when it comes to interpreting Revelation.
FATHER JOE: How is the Church not specific? Apocalyptic language is inherently difficult, given our proximity in time and place from the source. Other churches, and I can just imagine what fundamentalist authorities to which you refer, make up or fictionalize their commentary. The Catholic Church is grounded on truth.
CHARLIE: I almost feel like they are hiding something.
FATHER JOE: Almost? Please, stop playing games. What have you read from Catholic sources about the Book of Revelation that makes you say this? What commentaries? What Church documents? You have cited nothing. You are imagining things. Be careful that you do not deliberately slam the Church.
CHARLIE: We need to understand more and get more input from the church on Revelation because we don’t want to fall into a trap in the end times.
FATHER JOE: [At this point it became clear that Charlie was a ringer or poser. He may have been Catholic but now he was something else. Some anti-Catholics use such deception to get under the Catholic defenses. They may cite catholic sources, but they are not really interested in the truth or discussion. They come to slam the Church and to steal believers.] Then get it already. What are you waiting for? The problem is you, not the Church. Here are a few books you might find useful. Also, look at the footnotes in a Catholic Bible.
The Book of Revelation: A Catholic Interpretation of the Apocalypse by John Tickle.
Apocalypse: A Catholic Perspective on the Book of Revelation by Stephen C. Doyle.
New Jerome Biblical Commentary (3rd Edition) by Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy.
CHARLIE: Satan is a deceiver and the father of lies and we need to have a CLEAR picture of things when it comes to prophecy. Now more than ever….with the Prophecy of Saint Malachy and his clear prophecies of the popes…..which by the way are true and we see that even with his prediction of Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II. We see clearly that we need more information on the Book of Revelation.
FATHER JOE: The prophesies of St. Malachy belong to private revelation only and are not doctrinal or required for belief. It also appears that they do not belong to St. Malachy but to some anonymous source.
CHARLIE: It says in Revelation 17 that John was amazed by what he saw and this would clearly state to me that he was AMAZED by this vision because perhaps he saw that the church which Saint Peter started was in the end corrupted and polluted by an evil power.
FATHER JOE: Jesus promised that his Church would endure until his consummation of the world.
CHARLIE: I see this clearly as the last Pope predicted by Saint Malachy which he said would lead the church to destruction. Why are none talking about this?
FATHER JOE: It is because the prophesies are not reliable. They are interesting but I place no confidence in them.
CHARLIE: You can’t wait until it happens and have people led astray to the tricks of Satan. I know in my heart the church MUST know things, but chooses to keep people in the dark….because the latter days the church would be led by forces of darkness. It clearly states this in Revelation. “Woman” in prophecy means CHURCH.
FATHER JOE: All you need is to be faithful. Worrying about such things is not from God.
JOHN: I came to this partial understanding around 1980. The two horned goat is USA and Russia. The image of the beast is the Islamic republic of Iran.
FATHER JOE: Such connections are only conjecture. I tend to give the apocalypse a historical understanding. The beast is Nero and the old pagan Roman Empire. Apostate Christians might be the other beast. Anyone who opposes Christ and his Church is an antichrist.
JOHN:
Yes, such connections are only conjecture. Some conjectures are more compelling than others. Consider, the two horned ram and angry beast allegory is first found in Daniel (well before the first century). What is this fire from heaven, but the bombs of two nuclear super powers. The foreign policy slogan of current Iran is “Neither east nor west.” Thank you for your courage, which I know can only come from our lord, Jesus Christ.
I sent the above comments (in fuller form) to Pope John Paul II in the Spring of 1980. The response received was a letter from the secretary of state of the Vatican (July 1980). Here is the text: “The Holy Father has seen the kind letter sent to him, and has asked that I express his thanks, and convey his blessing.”
CHRIS: I think an inspired interpretation of Apocalypse is Steven Paul’s Apocalypse: Letter by Letter. Very sick with cancer during the penning of his book, this staunch Catholic had an intimate understanding of Revelation and just about managed to get all his knowledge on paper before his death. I can’t recommend it enough for any Catholic who wants a clear understanding of Revelation.
FATHER JOE: I asked around about Steven Paul’s book and found that not everyone is excited about it. One critic even remarked that there are a number of factual mistakes and interpretations which are contrary to Catholic tradition. A book that I would recommend is Apocalypse: A Catholic Perspective on the Book of Revelation by Fr. Stephen Doyle.
CHRIS: Unfortunately, Steven isn’t around to answer any of his critics. Given that he was a committed Catholic I’m surprised to hear there are elements of his book which are contrary to Catholic Tradition. Do you have an example from his book that I can check out?
JOHN:
It’s my understanding that those who hold anti-Catholic interpretations use the “seven hill” phrase to justify their view.
Must the singular anti-Christ be present for the present age to end? I had thought that Khomeini was such. When popes die their personnel letters are to be burned. When Khomeini died I burned my written interpretations of Revelations. Later, I remembered it was written (by me): “the image to the beast is the beast itself, that is, the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
FATHER JOE: Deciphering possible prophecies of the eschaton and the beast is no easy business. Is there ever a singular anti-Christ? During WWII and afterwards there were many contenders. What I can tell you is that there is ONE Christ. Put your emphasis there and on your relationship with him.
JOHN: Jesus was beaten, scared, and killed. His justice is not, and will not be blind. May he grant us the mercy, grace, and courage to help the needy when we see him. I believe you, Father Joe, have the best job this world has to offer. Thank you for your courage!
NEIL: Very interesting dialogue. I’m a 2010 convert to Catholicism from practically every Protestant denomination out there. I’m quite interested in Revelation and appreciate some of the questions here. Pertaining to Revelation 17, I’ve heard the reference to the Vatican before which never made much sense. An interpretation of the new Babylon being America and the new city being New York, actually registered with me. Are you saying Father Joe that this is referring to the fallen Roman Empire instead? Glory to God!
FATHER JOE: The reference was to pagan Rome. Further connections to present-day earthly cities and nations are merely speculation.
DOLORES:
Dear Father Joe, I am currently involved in a Bible study entitled “Journey through Revelation: Apocalyptic Hope for Today,” written for Presbyterian USA women. I came across your web site while googling for a Catholic interpretation of Rev.12.
I was pleased to read all the queries and responses on the subject of Revelation. The information pretty much jibes with this study and other sources I have read. I was particularly interested in how the Catholic Church interpreted “the Woman” in Chapt.12. I had always thought she was the Virgin Mary, and you did state that in one of your responses. Most of my sources say the woman represents the Church or people of God or Israel. You also mentioned this in the same response.
We are studying Revelation, taking into consideration the time in which it was written, the type of literature that would have been familiar to the people John was writing to, the terrible persecution the early Christians were undergoing— a book of hope rather than a book of prophecy. I’m learning a lot and looking forward to the rest of the study.
I’m glad I found your website. If you have anything more to say about Mary as the woman in Chapter 12, I would be very interested to have the Church’s view. Thank you.
JOHN: I’m so glad Jesus has promised his earthly return and kingdom. The prophetic message ends with this realization. I don’t really care who lines up as the bad guys of prophesy, but that his will is fulfilled. The epistle of Barnabas and Paul’s writings seem to indicate there will be a singular anti-Christ at the end times. The hope of this Christian is to understand and live with his/her God. I am a sinner.
CHRIS: Excerpt from Steven Paul’s interpretation of Apocalypse, p.171, may be relevant to what is currently going on in North Africa/Middle East: “It has already been shown, however, that the Beast will rise from that formerly Roman territory designated as ‘the sea’; therefore, the Beast will initially seize about 60% of the ‘sea,’ not just 30% by violence, because the ‘sea’ comprises North Africa and the Middle East, i.e., about half of all that was once the Roman Empire. Of the ‘sea’s’ two main regions, the Asian is the larger and richer in oil: it includes Turkey and the small countries immediately south of the Caucasus Mountains—Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. In order to seize that initial 60% of the ‘sea,’ the Beast or ‘little horn’ must take possession of some part of the Asian region along with all of the African, or he will simply take all of the Asian, or he will take much of the Asian and part of the African, such as Egypt and Libya.”
FATHER JOE: I suspect that like many before him, Steven Paul’s interpretation will be proven false. Such preoccupations detract from the true antichrists that surround us and who may even share our homes. All who are spiritually dead in mortal sin are opposed to our Lord.
DEBRA: Father, I am a revert. I am reading John’s Revelation. I have read these threads. Yours is a voice of reason and common sense. Thanks be to God for that. Please pray for me.
NEIL: Father Joe, what do you make of the locusts in Chapter 9? I’ve heard opinions that they are attack helicopters. Also, what are the Four Living Creatures mentioned in Ezekiel and Revelation? God Bless!
FATHER JOE: They might only be a blight of locusts.
JOHN: It puzzles me that Catholics, and Christians as a whole, argue over facts. For example, what does it matter weather Mary was taken up alive, bodily, or died and rose the usual way. Some things don’t affect the heart, one way or another. While it doesn’t hurt to put out a heartfelt opinion, to state it as fact, though it’s objectively non-provable, does no one good. Jesus’ resurrection is provable by its result.
FATHER JOE: Catholic Christianity treasures both faith and reason. That is why the facts about things are important and worth the appropriate discussion. Looking at your example, you seem to miss the whole point of Mary’s Assumption. Catholic doctrine is very clear: at the end of Mary’s earthly life, she remained incorrupt and was taken body and soul into heaven. The issue as to whether she “fell asleep” or “died” is not a contentious one for the Magisterium as both perspectives are acknowledged. What actually is death if one is not consumed by the grave, anyway? Her corporeal assumption is a critical point because it resonates with Christ’s resurrection and ascension. She is seen as the first fruits, or evidence that our Lord would share his life and victory with others. Mary is a figure for the Church. (It is this connection we find in the Book of Revelation.) We are also promised a share in eternal life and the restoration of our bodies and souls. This honor is granted her because of her unique role in the history of salvation. Her assumption flows from her cooperation with Christ’s redemptive work as the Mother of God and the Immaculate Conception. Our sentiments about Mary are not merely matters of the heart, but declared dogmas of the Catholic Christian faith.
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Blogger Priest 
Father Joe,
Our Lord said in Matthew 24:37: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the day of the Son of Man.”
That statement certainly bears scrutiny and a willingness to deal with some literal realities. Although not a Catholic, Chuck Missler goes into some very helpful detail in this area in his lectures on the Nephilim and the pre-Flood world.
I will try to keep it short, but suffice to say that while protestants often take the Bible too far in an attempt pull meanings out, our Catholic Church is at times not going far enough to discern what is being said. We have been too willing to approach the Bible in the abstract while ceding whole areas of Scripture to other groups.
We know that Jesus came in the flesh. He came to redeem a corrupted flesh – the corrupted seed of man that had been cut off by the devil’s deceit. We also know that Noah was perfect in his generations – his seed or genetic line was undefiled by the evil one. He would not mix with it.
So what was it like in the days of Noah? It is getting pretty bad in our days and unfortunately it is going to get worse. It was at least this bad, but consider that it was so bad “God repented of having made Man.”
The Lord put it upon my heart to write a screenplay about Noah and his family, which I was able to complete some months ago and have been searching for an agent or interested patron to examine and support. I was wondering if you know anyone working in Catholic media who might be interested in reading this work. I would be happy to send a letter of inquiry regarding the screenplay to you or a Catholic person who might be of help to get it produced. The story puts Noah squarely in the line of a pre-figurement of Christ and reveals very powerful connections between Biblical history and common stories of pre-history. It is absolutely worth reading.
Any help is appreciated and will contribute to a powerful tool for evangelization of the world (I hope).
Mark R.
Father Joe,
In relation to the Hydroplate theory, its founder, Dr. Walt Brown, insists on leaving the Bible completely out of debates on the topic of earth origins when engaging evolutionists on the topic. And that one point gets them angry and disarms their number one counter argument, namely that creation science is self-referential and hangs on the Bible.
No, in truth it is the evolutionists who refuse to see the world in terms of the processes that had to have taken place to make it into its present form. Theirs is the blinding prejudice; creation science simply says we will look at things as they are and try to understand what forces must have formed them, whether those forces are still at work or not. The forces themselves are scientifically well understood and can be reproduced in the lab by any mechanical engineer. That those processes are not at work now is not the issue of the science, but becomes of urgent need for the evolutionist to discount out of hand for certain philosophical reasons of prejudice.
No, true science stands on the power of the evidence. Now we know the Bible makes reference to earthly conditions and even refers to unusual creatures that do not seem to exist anymore (as in Job). Every great scientist of the past was a believer in the creation and our Creator as a starting point. That foundation helped them see the world clearly and is why so much progress was made in the past in understanding the world. As a Catholic and as a life-long student of science I can tell you that the Hydroplate theory does explain in detail what happened when the ‘fountains of the deep’ broke open and the rain came down for 40 days. These are topics worth pursuing in their own right and in parallel to the Gospel message, since the ‘heavens proclaim the Glory of God.’ True science avoiding fables and fairy tales supports sound moral development as it reveals a rational Creator, His design, our purpose and our end.
It is work worth pursuing by the Church as Galileo and other good Catholics also did.
Father Joe,
It is true that priest scandals have greatly damaged our witness as a Church. Some from within and from without will use it as an excuse for all time.
So we have to rebuild the Church and be proud of the Gospel message, not ashamed. we have to build our priests and our people back into a holy people powerful with the Gospel and in the power of the Holy Spirit empowered by the Living Word – Jesus. While many search the Scriptures thinking in it they have eternal life, the Lord Himself stands waiting day after day in every Catholic church of the world waiting for people to accept Him and receive Him. But as when He walked the earth, many say they believe in the Scriptures but the Scriptures point directly to Him in the flesh. He stood in front of them but they would not accept Him. So it is today of those who say they go by the Word yet refuse to beileve the lines which they will not bear – the authority of the Church – the true Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist – the Pope’s role as universal pastor of the visible Church.
Besides, where in the Bible does the Bible refer to itself as the only authority? No, Our Lord gives that power to His Apostles and to His Church. Authority passes from the old to the new Israel.
In Revelation 12 we see the church as symbolized by the mother of God’s Son (Mary as the first and greatest disciple, as Mother of the Church and symbol of God’s sojourning people) in the desert for 1260 days (3 1/2 years) symbolizing, along with the 3 1/2 of Jesus’ earthly ministry, as the life of the Church the completion of which comes at the end of time.
It is not 1260 literal years as some fundamentalists claim, as if Napoleon’s overthrow of the Pope could possible do any good for the world. On the contrary, the Church’s loss of earthly power allowed the unruly of the world and the netherworld to go crazy – bringing from the abyss every evil doctrine that had come down from above in Genesis, but with a purpose so sinister and destructive we have seen through the years – the French Revolution (several years prior), spiritism, evolutionism, communism, feminism, nazism, secularism, satanism and you name it.
No, the Church’s loss of earthly power was a travesty whose end is still not done on the earth
Father Joe,
As a practicing Catholic who fell away and was born again in a small protestant church, I fell in love with Our Lord and the Bible and I could not put it down. It was as if I would not be able to breath or live unless I was glued into the pages of the New Testament for as many hours of the day as possible. I took menial jobs and even got fired from one job for being in the Bible and not watching my work. I needed to fully appreciate what St. Paul was saying and what sufferings he went through in service to our Lord as a person who had been one of Jesus’ most violent enemies and was now paying back his terrible debt.
While I do not recommend that line of behavior to anyone, (losing jobs over the Bible), it did show how I was literally suffocating and starving spiritually from so many years deep in the world away from Holy Communion and the Church.
My early years of being reintroduced to the Christian faith were like that of the Prodigal son who returns from the degrading depths of the world back to his father’s house. If that story were to be continued beyond the account of his brother’s resentment, it would surely include the prodigal giving some kind of special respect and homage to his brother who had remained faithful while he took the easy way of the world. The prodigal’s road back to self-respect and health is a long one, and is more severe the more one has immersed oneself in the world.
I developed several strong friendships as a Bible believing Christian, relationships which survive strongly to this day.
As a Bible believer, I came to the unavoidable conclusion that the Catholic Church is the only church teaching the full Gospel message. These topics include: the role of Peter and his office, the replacement of the Apostles after their deaths, the special role of Mary in the Church, the True Presence of Jesus in the Communion, the teaching authority of the Church and Christ’s rule of the nations through Peter and his successors, the later loss of interest by the world in sound doctrine, the slide of the world back into paganism, the rise of demonic doctrines, direct attacks upon the church and the rise of false religions.
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I do believe the accounts in Genesis are true as written and constitute a powerful source of conversion for worldly people if presented properly. There is a fantastic theory, called the Hydroplate Theory, developed by Walt Brown, PhD, which quite handily explains in clear scientific terms how the Flood happened and why it might appear to the casual observer that millions of years were required to produce such results. This man was a West Point Graduate, Vietnam war hero, an Army Corp Engineer and an MIT PhD in Mechanical Engineering. His book ‘In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood’ is available online. I highly recommend it to you and to all people seeking a sincere and honest analysis of the earth we live on. The theory stands on its own independent of the Bible but supports the Genesis account at every point. Dr. Brown conveniently includes within the book a comparative analysis of his Hydroplate Theory next to evolution and plate techtonics. It is a book not to be missed and one that will help convert many souls to Our Lord and bring lapsed Catholics back to the fold.
I highly recommend Dr. Brown’s book to you and hope you will read his theory as a powerful for evangelization. Many unbelievers today use the theory of evolution as evidence that the Bible and Christianity are myths. In fact in a recent interview, Marco Rubio was asked how old he thinks the earth is. He balked and said he rarely thinks of such things, but such moments are cues to the unbelieving world that conservatives can be dismantled and secularized with one simple question. If someone gives them the answer to shatter their world, it will certainly turn heads and get the discussion started.
In the book of revelation the black horse referred to Obama; in fact it was about all the American presidents. The red horse was Bush. It said two terms for Obama if you read… When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart[h] of wheat for a denarius,[i] (1st term) and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”(2nd term) Regards, Stanley Fernandes (sfernandesf@gmail.com)
Father Joe, from reading your blog, we are near the same age. Those who lived through the Iranian revolution of 78-79 certainly saw that it,’s impact was beyond the middle east to the whole world. The old adage is absolute power corrupts , absolutely. The only exception is for he who is incorruptible , Jesus
Father Joe, thank you for being there to defend the Holy Catholic Church. I am a Catholic Christian from Cameroon. May the Lord in his infinite mercy continue to give you the strength to continue with your work. It hurts me to see how lay preachers are leading many people astray, instilling hatred for the Holy Catholic Church into their hearts. May God help us as we all struggle to win souls for him in the Holy Catholic Church (his Body). Amen.
I found this in Wikipedia. In his posthumously-published Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John, Newton expressed his belief that Bible prophecy would not be understood “until the time of the end”. Yes, I know there is great gravity in accusing one, or another, or some of being the great and frightful beast of prophesy.
Father Joe, Do you know anything about Isaac Newton’s research of the Apocalypse? Glancing over some of it on the internet, I found it very dry, and not relevant to our age.
The man-God Jesus brings good from bad circumstances, new from old. The narrative tells us he will prevail, and joy will abound.How happy are we who cling to that joy. We love him, because he cares for us. Thank you for your blog Father Joe. peace
Recently I have been questioning the rapture theory since everyone who believes in it has not been able to give me a scriptural verse to confirm it. And further, the word never appears in the Bible.
God has made it very clear the saints or elect will never be left in the dark or unaware.
Instead, he tells us that only the Father knows the exact time; but, we will have knowledge of the season and the unrighteous will be caught as by a thief in the night.
God refers to it like in the days of Moses. They knew of what Moses was preparing, How could they not see the Ark with its great size. It was only through their own sinful natures and Satan’s power over them that blinded them to God’s plan.
Remember God is light. He never leaves his followers unaware.
Only Satan (the father of lies and deception) wants to feed the flesh. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Revelation tell us that everyone will go through great tribulations. Those who survive and stay true will reign with him for a thousand years.
He also tells us that he will come with great noise and the sound of a trumpet….This is not a thief in the night….This is all done in the light of his glory… the Shekina Glory.
Keep looking it up, not for a rapture of the church, but for the TRUE AND ONLY SECOND COMING. Just think, if the church were raptured, who would be here to convert the sinners?
This is just my interpretation of Scripture. And as you can see, this is all scripture.
You have read the article above and this is only one of the many tricks of the Roman Catholic church. How about Saturday Sabbath, Christmas, Estar (easter) and all pagan Catholic (satanic) doctrine.
The Catholic church has named POPE As Gods representative on earth.
They have blasphemed Gods first 4 Commandments (written WITH HIS OWN FINGER). Idolatry is at the center. Satan has really SLAPPED GOD IN THE FACE. The Bible has all the truth. Be cautious of the teachers of today and their doctrine.
Don’t bow to the Satanists of the Catholic church. Satan has weakened today’s evangelist movement. Scripture tells us that wide is the Path and narrow the Gate.
Of coarse you are right Father Joe. There are many anti-Christs living even right among us. Any bully is anti- Christal in that he or she doesn’t exemplify the love of Jesus that has been revealed in their heart. I am reminded of that song “Lean on me” and it’s line “swallow your pride”. I thank Jesus for the length of my days in order that I may fully realize, and exeplify his life giving lessons.
The White horse in revelation refers to Nixon and Space ShuttleThe Red horse is Bush the Twin Towers 2nd Seal
The black horse in revelation refers to Obama. 1st Black President
The secular world has put the Catholic church in it’s place.How a person can think the Catholic hierarchy or any part of it can become the great and frightful beast of the apocalypse is beyond comprehesion.That person’s mind must be stuck in the late middle ages. Nation states rule the world, and large corporations are a close second. The beasts from the book of Daniel were nation states. We live in a wonderfull time with the flowering of technology(perhaps the sickle is ready and harvest time is near).I would like to see Jesus dressed in a tuxedo weilding his just and mighty sword.for all he stands for.
Dear Fr Joe,
With the advent of a new year, and some apparant significance in its numbering, the ‘end of worlders’ are hot on the predictions, either the plannet X, or Wormwood, or Iran lobbing some nuclear stuff at Israel and an atomic winter descending on the Earth………….but if we do look closely at much of what is written by John in Revelation and not apply it retrospectively towards the Rome Empire but to events yet to come, and that might just be as valid a way of reading it as any, then we are in for something nasty.
Fr Gobbi seems to imply that he heard The Virgin Mary tell him that at year 2,000 Satan had already had a decade for his rising, and I still wonder if the details that John describes about fires from heaven and the death of one third of all, and so many other terrible predictions are simply yet to come.
You said that The Catholic Church requires us to believe in the story of creation; OK not necessarily Adam and Eve although you seemed to imply that those two, and Noah and his big boat, might well be historically accurate, and perhaps that is true. I don’t know for sure if it was as described in Genesis or not, and I certainly believe that God created humans, and He did it somehow that is difficult to understand, but can you say what will happen at the end of the world?
Every time I say the Apostles Creed, I say that I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. And yet I don’t really know what I mean by that. I have worked with an undertaker for a number of years and come across hundreds of dead bodies and both lowered them into the grave and pushed them into the furnace. I have seen dead bodies consumed by fire and dead bodies in various stages of decay, and it’s obvious that ‘my new body’ will be something other than the old one, but just what will it be like?
Will it be flesh and blood and live in the New Earth for 1,000 years as John seems to say? What is the meaning of; “The New Heaven and The New Earth”? And what of The Rapture.
I will probably die before the End of the World, but that might not be the case, and even Jesus Himself, in Matthew, says that it’s going to be terrible at that time, and were it not for ‘something’ (and I can’t remember exactly what) cutting short those times, virtually all would be destroyed. So perhaps I might well live through it or be killed by it.
There’s huge problems in the World, it looks like every Nation is in debt to someone and the debt is so large it’s impossible to repay. There’s terrible unrest in the Middle East and a very real possibility of nuclear war, but John does say that there will be fire from the sky and the sun will be darkened etc. Now all this has not yet happened, but might well be just around the corner. If there has been sighting of Wormwood out in space, and it’s a big plannet set to come very close to us then it would probably fit all of John’s descriptions about the end of the world, so my point is that this book of Revelation could well be about stuff yet to come, and possibly very soon, but who knows.
As you say, we are certain about our future in as much that we will die, and can trust in God’s loving and forgiving judgement to find a home in eternity with Him.
With love, Paul.
I thank divine providence for your faith. Father Joe, you are a blessing in my life. Growing up, my local parish priest’s sermons nearly moved me to tears. My own petty selfishness is very distracting to my hope for salvation. Thank you for your selfless example. I am sure there is a halo around your face. If we can’t give flowery words to a faithful priest, who can we give them to?
Dear Fr Joe,
Thank you for your commentary and confirmation of what the Catholic Church still teaches about our beginings and the vague possibility that, as you seem to imply, the tale of Noah might actually be true. You may well be right and you may well be inspired by the Holy Spirit, just as Peter was after Pentacost, but for me, this poor doubting Thomas, who 2,000 years on now that the wood is no longer green, and with no Jesus to insist that I place my fingers into the wounds in his hands, I still struggle with certainty, I still struggle to believe.
I know what the Church teaches, and even though The Holy Father Benedict got a bit more real recently, I can not believe that there was an Adam or an Eve, but I also can not explain how we came to be here either. Nor can I believe that a flood sent by God as punishment killed every wrong doer who displeased Him and every animal has thus descended from those contained on a wooden boat constructed back in those days.
At the age of 4 I learned, by rote, that: “Who made you?” – “God made me”. “Why did God make you?” – “God made me to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him, forever, in the next”……That was 60 years ago. I know it, and I believe it but I can not be 100% certain if I look deep within my heart. So, if anything, my Faith is even stronger that yours. You are certain yet I am not, so I really have to make an effort to believe. Every day it is a conscious struggle; every day I have to work hard to believe; every day I ask Jesus to come to me and hold out His wounded hands so that I, too, this struggling Thomas, may be confirmed……..And every day it doesn’t happen.
So every day I struggle, and yet I too believe……..is that not worth something?
And I am not unique. Many give up long before they get to the point where I am today. Many get distracted or just see God as irrelevant, and certainly they can use these myths in Genesis, the harsh rules in Leviticus, and the apparant madness in Revelation to justify their rejection of a truth that seems incomprehensible, however their alternative explanation is even more bizarre to believe, and that seems to be that ‘it all just happened and there is no designer’
I believe in God the Creator because it is much easier to believe in that than to believe in anything else. He designed and made everything and was The Word, as John declares, and John also declares that “The Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us”……and John, in his lucid and teaching role is correct and true, and John was the one Jesus loved and even entrusted His Mother to. So, for me, John as an evangelist, is to be believed and understood.
What he wrote in his later years and why he wrote it is beyond me, just as the tale of Adam being made of spittle and dust and Eve being made from one of his ribs and an Angel with a firey sword banishing them from an idylic paradise is also too much for this simple one with little faith to believe in, no matter what the Church may teach.
I, and many like me, yearn to know the future. We turn to fortune tellers, dangerously dabble with ouija boards, and seek out hidden meaning in little understood texts. I even gave a gypsy my last £13 when I was on ‘skid row’ because she promised to tell me what the future would hold for me. I suffer from mental illness and was particularly vulnerable at that time of my life. And so, too, with this part of The Bible.
Do I believe that it is “The Word of God?”……….well yes and no really
I believe that some of its authors were holy men and may well have been inspired by The Holy Spirit, but as far as it was dictated by God and written down by mortals……nah! I can’t buy that one.
I still think that, at the end of his life, John was suffering from dementia, and, although still fighting the good fight and also trying to deal with all the problems of his day, he tended to get carried away, just as some Holy People have been today with the so called recorded words of Marian apparations and warnings. They are all valid and pertenant in their own way, and possibly from the pen of an inspired person, but not directly from the Mouth of God.
So, I believe but I ask God to strengthen my faith, because it is very hard work just for me alone.
With Love, Paul.
Dear Fr Joe,
The more I look at The Bible and try to get a deeper and better understanding of just what it’s all about the more I struggle to know ‘the’ answer. Many new religions with various flavours of Christianity have seized on the Book of The Apocalypse as well as Daniel, and tried to get the elements to fit literal understanding, their understanding of what we see around us.
We only have to start at the very begining to see that the whole Bible is the written down struggle of man, with his limited and defective understanding, trying to come to terms with the answer to one very simple question, viz: “Why are we here?”
There was no Adam and Eve, there was no serpent, God did not make Eve from one of Adams ribs, and there was no tree with its potent fruit, but it was all part of an inspired attempt to explain that which is beyond our understanding.
Similarly there was no flood over the whole Earth, there was no arc where all of the World’s animals were held captive for selective breeding, and God did not punish the blackman for looking at his father’s nakedness.
There was no prodigal son, nor was there a Good Samaritan.
All of this is alegorical and just stories to get to a truth, and so with ‘Revelation’.
Perhaps John was even suffering from a form of dementia in his later years, and yet it is still valuable as a certain flavour, a warning and a consolation that can be everywhere found in the Bible.
We all struggle to know the meaning of life, we would all like to know what will happen tomorow and many readers try to use the Bible as a means to look into the future, to get some sort of hidden knowledge, and they concentrate on the rather more obscure books rather than the recorded words of Jesus and His take on how we need to behave.
It was Augustine, I believe who argued to have the Book of Revelation included in the bible, just as Luther argued to have several excluded, especially those that contradicted his theories, but to base a whole religeous ethos too strongly on the apocraphal and use a single interpretation to condemn the One True Faith is simply to create a cult that is so off kilter as to be seriously heretical and will only consign very many souls to damnation where it not for the immense love and forgiveness of The Lamb before the Thrown.
I got caught up in this bizarre stuff for a while, but have finally admitted that I can not expect to understand it just as I can not try to understand how we came to be here, nor what it’s really going to be like after death. I just have to try to trust in what Jesus told us to do to gain eternal life, and do it to the best of my ability, and with my whole heart and soul.
The writings of John before he went a bit doolally, give me greater comfort and I will try to concentrate more on those and less on the sooth sayer stuff.
With Love, Paul
You responded exactly as I anticipated, with defensiveness and lecturing. And without answering the question I posed. Where did the author go wrong? Where did he divert from Catholic teaching? He quotes only Catholic Bibles, and Church fathers. You claim he is not in conformance without giving even none example. You have judged him unfairly in my opinion. That’s not an attack on a priest. It’s a fact until you give an example.
The only feedback we’ve received in 5 years since publishing the book that comes close to criticism is concerning the “Great Sign”. Two blog posts around that can be found here:
BLOG LINK: Letter By Letter at blogspot – when-woman-is-not-woman.html
and
BLOG LINK: Letter by Letter at blogspot – when-heaven-isnt-heaven.html
But since I don’t even know if you are referring to that passage, I can’t even defend the book properly.
Surprised you’re so dismissive of Steven Paul’s book. He spent a lifetime researching it and used logical proofs for all his conclusions. One of your commenters asked you to give a specific example of an error in his reasoning. You never provided one. Was the book over your head?
Someone once voiced the opinion to me that the average American doesn’t have the time to care about world changing events and associations, but that their concern and labor is solely directed towards paying their bills. While my interests are not so narrow, our daily labor does seem to get in the way of painting a bigger and better picture.
On another topic Father Joe, what are your views on man and computers singularity? Do we “lean on our own understanding” by making the world a better place through science?
Continuing the discussion…
JOHN: Declaring myself Catholic Christian, i certainty uphold it’s dogmas. My point is that Christians should be careful of missing the forest for the misspercieved trees. For example, many Christian fundamentalists miss the beauty of the Catholic church body because they get stuck on doctrines of salvation. Jesus’s commandment that we should love one another should be our prime mover. The love he shows is our best example.
HAZEL: I meant inverted cross, & the twisted cross the Pope would hold.
HAZEL: I’m not expecting u to publish my comment but should you do that, I’m expecting you to become defensive.
HAZEL: I know what I said are not new to your ears. and I’m sure you know why there are protestants. you may tell me too to “be careful” for attacking the catholic church.. well I’m not afraid because i stand by the truth.
HAZEL: there shall be no graven images of the Lord, there is NO purgatory.
HAZEL: Jesus has promised The Holy Sprit to dwell in us, to give is wisdom until he comes back.
HAZEL: The Holy Spirit is our intercessor, all our prayers are heard & answered when we acknowledge Jesus Christ alone as our only Lord & Savior.
HAZEL: Not a dead Mary, not dead saints, as they do not have any knowledge now nor do they hear us because they will only be resurrected only later when Jesus comes back.
HAZEL: Please read the Bible! Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to the truth (God) and rebuke the evil spirit of lies in you, in Jesus’ name.
HAZEL: the pope is the Antichrist. what’s with the inverted & inverted cross? Babylon is the catholic church in the book of Revelation.
HAZEL: wake up people as you’ve been deceived for thousand years.
HAZEL: Jesus is the only way to God, not prayers thru dead saints, not thru priests, and we have only 1 Father who is God. Jesus is our only mediator, not priests & not a dead Mary!
HAZEL: Where in the bible does it teach us to pray the rosary & thru dead Mary & thru dead apostles?
HAZEL: Jesus himself taught us how to pray not with meaningless repetitions like the blasphemous Hail Mary. Who changed the Sabbath to Sunday? It’s the Catholic church who adopted this from paganism.
HAZEL: I’m angered that some Catholics who are earnestly seeking the truth are deceived completely by the blasphemous Catholic leaders. Woe to you who teach false doctrines. READ the Bible and follow/obey everything it says. Do not add, do not alter anything to it. Do not stumble people. Repent now and Jesus will pardon you of your sins.
Dear Fr Joe,
We can not take all evil(or evil actions by men) out of this world by public actions. While the church certainly has good influence , absent the leader(Christ) , we are left with less than full glory.
Sure he said with faith we can move mountains, but
can i place that mountain on all evil ones? Should we not all pray that Jesus Christ returns to bring the full kingdom on earth, and ends suffering? Isn’t the first sentiments of the Lord’s prayer equal to this.
Dear Fr Joe,
Thank you for that and you are ‘spot on’ with your understanding.
In St Davids Cathedral here in the UK (Church of Wales and not Roman Catholic) we have an original copy of the gospel of St Thomas, or Dydimus as Jesus called him. I believe he died in Egypt. I have read it and to be honest it doesn’t say very much; it certainly doesn’t suggest that Jesus married Mary Magdalen and fathered a whole tribe of gnostics and His bones are in Glasgow. The fact that it says very little is probably the reason that it was never considered for inclusion in ‘The Bible’. There must be many, many other writings that have never made it as well. But, as I said, the Book of Revelation did and I have read various commentaries over the years. A comprehensive one by Eduard Schick (nihil obstat) is very good, but then the “Revelation – Its grand climax at hand” by the Watch Tower and Bible tract society of Pennsylvania is also good but reads more like a Greek legend where gods marry humans and all sorts of really bizarre truths emerge. But I have never got to the point where I am satisfied with any explanation. I do most certainly, however, try to become aware and make sure as far as I am able that I am not led away by any ‘false profit’ or anti-christ. As for the mark of the Beast, so many here suggest it’s going to be the dermal implant and I can understand how that could become law as we have so many illegals coming into this country and they only have to ‘lose’ their passports to remain here indefinately. An implanted identity chip would confirm everyones true identity, until they started re-implanting them….and it would be the same for electronic money transfers….commerce in other words. Would that be the ‘mark of the beast’?……I doubt it as, with circumcision being the ‘mark’ of salvation St Paul tries to get across a far better understanding when he talks about the circumcision of the heart. I believe that ‘the mark of the beast’ is more to do with refusal to accept God’s love of us and thus not belonging to His flock. But I could be wrong…..very wrong.
However, notwithstanding the possible ramifications of dismissing this book lightly, it certainly does not constitute the path of salvation for me. It is an adjunct that I need to heed, and look at the warnings as they might apply to me, but I am compelled to concentrate more diligently on the 4 Gospels for the best understanding, and the interpretation and teaching that my Church places on them. The Book of revelation, whilst certainly having a small place in the whole, for me, will never constitute the biggest part of my disclipine.
The assumption into heaven, body and soul, was a precident set in the Old Testament, and Jesus followed it also. The Church has taught for some time now that Mary, the Mother of God, was also assumed into Heaven, body and soul and spared the death and corruption of her body here on Earth. I have no difficulty in accepting and believing that on two accounts.
1) Because the Church teaches it and it sounds right
2) Because, over the years and for various motives. relics have been collected, exhibited and in some cases, traded, within and without the Church chiefly for devotional purposes. The wood of the Holy Cross scores pretty high on the list of coveted objects, but also I do not want to deny its supreme value by seeming to make light of it. However there are 2 significant ‘black holes’ when it comes to this collection of Holy objects, which if they had ever existed would have fetched a fortune on ebay. The First or course is ‘The bones of Jesus’. I’m obviously ignoring the claimed contents of an ossury recently found in the holy land where it is claimed that the bones of Jesus, Mary Magdalana, and their son have been found, and no doubt also the bones of Jesus as a young boy were probably also there!. The bones of Jesus could never have been found as we have it on good authority, first by word of mouth and then written down, that He assended into Heaven complete. And so it is with Mary. Tradition and Church teaching tells us that she was assumed into Heaven, body and soul, and that is true; it is the truth, and it is confirmed in this very peculiar way by the fact that her bones have never been found and so there could never, ever be a true relic of her here on earth.
And it goes without saying that never, ever, could She, or the Catholic Church be considered to be the Harlot as written in the Book of Revelation and it even makes me uncomfortable associating those two subjects in the same sentence.
I do not understand how God created the Universe, and I certainly do not believe in Genesis as a factual account of that creation, but the truth is that God did do it, and out of nothing, and it is so truely vast that the universe itself, even though I can see some of it and am aware of much of it, is way beyond my understanding, so the creation as documented in the first book of the Bible is not accurate but it is certainly ‘true’. That is how I feel I must relate to the ‘Book of Revelation’
There are many misguided believers who, whilst they believe in the absolute truth of every word of Genesis, and say, Noah and the whale, and Lot and the pillar of salt, and possibly Moses and the tablets of stone that God had actually written onto, they refuse to accept the truth of Jesus’ recorded words: “This is my body”………..just how bizarre is that. It is these people, generally, who claim to ‘know’ what Revelation’ means, and it is usually these people who condemn the Catholic Church and say that the Pope is the Anti Christ and some even suggest that the ‘proof’ is seen with the inverted cross at his chair…………little do they know that St Peter was crucified up side down as a public demonstration of his unworthiness to be equalled to Christ, and it is this heritage, from St Peter, Jesus’ chosen one, that is the reason for the ‘inverted cross’ and not some sinister secret allegiance to Satan or the beast.
The Church will always be attacked, Satan hates to see it grow, and will try to destroy it from without and from within; he deceives many souls and they in turn, attack it and some use intelect and confusion which can sound plausable to the nieve. It is our duty to study scripture diligently, accept the teachings of the Church and dedicate ourselves to Jesus, the Christ, as our Saviour and Redeemer, and ask His Holy mother for her intercession, just as the chief steward did at the wedding feast when Jesus, at her request, performed his first miracle out of compassion for the celebrants of that feast. So too can we have total confidence of God’s love for us and His desire to celebrate when we too can become worthy of entry to the wedding feast in His Kingdom yet to come.
With Love, Paul (the other)
Dear Fr Joe,
I believe that it was St Augustine (a Catholic!) who championed the inclusion of ‘Revelation’ in the Bible as we have it today as there were many wanting to exclude it for various fears. His courageous or possibly misguided intervention means that we have this book of much struggle at the end of the Holy Bible and it has caused me much doubt and fear over the years.
Assuming it was written by the Apostle John, whom Jesus loved, in his latter years he may well have been suffering from a degenerative brain disease, or he may have genuinely been overcome by Heavenly visions and the instructions that he received were possibly genuine. He might have been writing in coded language to enthuse the current Christians, or he might have been fortelling events that were yet to come.
Much of the ‘Old Testament’ was prophetic as well as apocalyptic literature, some was just the ‘regulations’ that Jehovah required of the Isrealites. So, too, with the New Testament. Unfortunately some modern day branches of Christianity, especially the Witnesses of Jehova and many Internet Christian Sites concentrate almost exclusively on this Last Book of the Bible to the exclusion of almost everything else.
Jerusalem itself has seven hills surrounding it, but then so too does Bath, my home city here in England.
Do I believe that Adam and Eve existed in The Garden of Eden about 6,500 years ago?>>>>NO, Do I believe that there was a flood over all the Earth and only Noah and his menagerie of smelly animals survived?>>>>>>>>>>>>NO, Do I believe that Job actually existed and sat on a dung heap?>>>>>NO. They were all man’s interpretation of a growing understanding of the Nature of One God and man’s desire to explain this to others as was the growing revelation of this One God to man himself.
Now, what of Revelation (or The Apocalypse)? Firstly I fear that, as Catholics, we do most often dismiss it as irrelevant, or beyond understanding, and in the most recent attacks of Satan on The Church of Christ and the way that it’s image has been tainted by tremendous corruption of parts of that Church we can sometimes be a little too dismissive. There were paedophiles and perverts and heretics hiding within the Roman Catholic Church of Christ and for a long time (possibly assisted by the misuse of the Sacrament of Confession) some trusted leaders did nothing to purge the evil from within. It is also so very wrong for so many Priests and Catholic Spokesmen to deny this or make light of it.
In Ireland there were about 45 priests convicted of terrible acts of perversion towards children, truely Satanic sexual acts and many of those children have been damaged beyond salvation. If there were 45 priests convicted then there may well be many who managed to escape detection, but there are over 5,500 priests who have no finger of suspicion pointed towards them at all. Many of those are good men.
Evil only flourishes when ‘Good Men’ do nothing, and for too long ‘The Church’ has done nothing, or worse, denied the reality. They should have made a whip and driven the evil from it’s midst just as Jesus, Himself, did when He saw the terrible corruption of The Temple in His day.
Similarly, I fear that we must not dismiss the possible truth within the Book of Revelation, and not, too simply, dismiss it as ‘apocalyptic literature’ referring generally to the persecution of the church in the days of Nero. If some of it can apply to the Church of Today, then let us courageously accept that possible implication and make sure that we do not, too readily, dismiss it, and the criticism we face from the World around us, as poppycock.
Without doubt, The Catholic Church has behaved outrageously, and sinfully, in the past. One of our English Kings, whilst still a Catholic, managed to marry 6 times. He would not accept the rule of Rome in the end, but then The Church in Rome was also very far from Jesus’ original message some of the time.
We are all sinners and fall short of the Glory of God. I admit that I am a sinner, and many lovely Priests I have met, whilst doing good and striving to be good, admit also that they, too, are sinners. The ones to beware of are those who never admit that they sin, and, as with any Christian Denomination, there are those in positions of power who become corrupted by that power and place themselves in opposition to God, exaclty as Satan did before ‘the fall’ Do I believe in ‘The Fall?’ I’ll leave that for another day!
With Love, Paul.