11-05-2022, 06:41 AM
The Judgment of Nations - II
The Latter Times: The Conversion of the Jews & Anguished Days
The Latter Times: The Conversion of the Jews & Anguished Days
TIA / Margaret C. Galitzin [adapted - emphasis in the original] | June 8, 2021
In the last article, I looked at some passages from the Old Testament that predict the Latter Times, before the End Times or end of the world that will close with the Final Judgment. This chastisement or Judgment of Nations will mark the beginning of the Latter Times. Then, a remnant of people will remain on the earth and will establish a period of peace when the Catholic Church will be triumphant.
Jeremiah the Prophet, by Aleijadinho, Brazil
Today, I continue with another corroborating text from the Old Testament. In Jeremiah (1) the Lord spoke through his prophet announcing: "The Lord shall roar from on high, and shall utter his voice from his holy habitation ... the shout shall be given out against all the inhabitants of the earth ... for the Lord enters into judgment with the nations: he enters into judgment with all flesh; the wicked I have delivered up to the sword, says the Lord.
"Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation: and a great whirlwind shall go forth from the ends of the earth ... and they [the evil ones] shall not be lamented, and they shall not be gathered up, nor buried: they shall lie as dung upon the face of the earth." (25:30-33)
The chastised will be many and shall "lie as dung upon the face of the earth." If the evil ones will lay unburied after a great punishment, this will not be, then, the End of the World. Because at the Final Judgment, when all men will resurrect and God will judge all mankind, each will go to his final ending place, Heaven or Hell.
Further on, the Prophet Jeremiah concludes specifically mentioning the epoch when these things will happen: "Behold the whirlwind of the Lord, his fury going forth, a violent storm, it shall rest upon the head of the wicked. The Lord will not turn away the wrath of his indignation, till he have executed and performed the thought of his heart: In the latter days you shall understand these things." (30:23-24) (2)
The time to "understand these things" is our times. The great chastisement mentioned by Jeremiah will be a Judgment of Nations; and in that Judgment, nations will disappear as Our Lady told the three shepherd children at Fatima. But it is not the end of the world. There must a time when the people who remain on this earth will give glory to Our Lord and Our Lady, building the Reign of Mary as predicted by the great 17th-century Prophet St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort.
I emphasize this point because I have read “authoritative” words by various otherwise informed traditionalist priests and writers warning that we are nearing the End Times with the coming of the Antichrist, etc. This is not true.
I agree that there can be a precursor of the Antichrist before the chastisement that will start the Latter Times. It is not only possible, but very probable. Who could question that the last seven Popes – who have fooled so many Catholics for more than a half century – have formed, as a whole, a type of precursor to the Antichrist who will fool so many of the faithful in the End Time?
But, since we have not faced the dreadful previous chastisement and not seen the period of peace when Christ will reign in the social and religious orders throughout the earth, we are not in the End Times. We are in the time that precedes the Latter Times when, at a certain moment the chalice of God’s wrath will be filled, and He will let His sword fall over the world. [...]
Those who are prepared for this moment will become the builders of the Reign of Mary.
Prophecies about the Conversion of the Jews
Fr. Sánchez cited a text of Luke to affirm that the conversion of the Jews will take place after the Great Chastisement and before the End of the World.
St. Luke wrote: "But woe to them that are with child, and give suck in those days; for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and shall be led away captives into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles; till the times of the nations be fulfilled." (21:23-24) (3)
The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70
The wrath of God that is to fall upon Israel, Fr. Sánchez noted, has three effects, and the first two have been fulfilled.
The first is the woeful death by the sword that took place in 70 AD when Jerusalem was besieged by the Roman armies under the command of Titus. Flavius Josephus told us that one million Jews died in the siege and 97,000 were taken captive and dispersed among the nations.
The second is that the Jews would become a people without a country, scattered into all nations. This continues to our days, for even though Israel was allowed to become a Jewish State in 1948, the peaceful possession of that land has never taken place because the Jews have been in constant warfare with the Palestinians and other Arab countries who claim the same territory. So, during these more than 70 years, Israel has been contested about its claim over that territory.
The third effect is the installation of their enemies in Jerusalem until "the fulfillment of the times of the nations." What does the expression "times of the nations" signify? Fr. Sánchez explained: "Without a doubt, the words of Jesus Christ refer to those of Prophet Ezekiel: "Howl ye, woe, woe to the day: For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near: a cloudy day, it shall be the time of the nations." (Eze 30:2-3)
"Surely, they signify the beginning of a new era which will be characterized by a lack of faith in the world or a parting, a falling away, of men from God. The Scriptural scholar Fillion comments this, too: 'It is the time in which God will propose to vent His wrath against the entre pagan world.'" (4)
That is, it is a time when God will chastise the nations for the Revolution that began with Humanism, the Renaissance and Protestant Revolt and will end after the Chastisement .
Another prophecy about the conversion of Israel is in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (11): "For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery (lest you should be wise in your own conceits), that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in. And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written ... " (5)
What the meaning of the phrase "until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in"? Fr. Sánchez deduced that the phrase is equivalent to "when Faith arrives at its plenitude," that is, when all those Gentiles whom God has determined to call "will form a faithful people consecrated to His name." (Acts 15:14) (6) This would be a time after the great Chastisement when all nations will return to the Faith and establish a New Christendom before the end of the world.
Times of Anguish
Before entering into the prophecies of Our Lady and Saints that speak of the Great Chastisement followed by a time of peace when the social Reign of Christ will again be established on earth, Fr. Sánchez goes to the New Testament. He presented, with little commentary, "some of the evangelical texts containing words of Jesus Christ which seemingly refer to the Latter Times." He does not include the texts which make a clear reference to the End of the World. (7)
A medieval tapestry showing St. John, the 7-headed Dragon and the Beast of the Sea
For the sake of brevity, I will simply list the headings and chapters of the texts he cites: Times of Anguish, Mt. 24, Mk 13, Lk 21; The Great Tribulation, Mt. 24:21-24, Mk 13: 19-22, Lk 21:25-26; Parable of the Fig Tree: Mt 24:32-35; Mk 13:28-31, Lk 21:29-33; Exhortations to Vigilance: Lk 17:26-30; 21:34-36, Lk 21:20-21, 2 Pet 3:10-12; Prophecies of the Apostles: 1 Thes 5:1-3, II Thes 2:1-12; 1 Tim 4: 1-2; II Tim 3:1-5; 4:2-42 Pet 2:1-2, 3:1-13; 1 Jn 2:18-23, 2 Jn 1:7, Jude 1:8, 12-21. (8)
Fr. Sanchez concluded saying that he could cite texts from the Apocalypse of St. John, but he deems it sufficient to say that this book presents a picture of the terrible catastrophes and struggles that are to move the world until the triumph of Christ and the definitive downfall of all His enemies.
He stated: "The apocalyptic beast, which is the reign of evil, will scatter his errors. They are the incarnation of the powers that fight against the kingdom of God, the incarnation of the Antichrist, the ’seven-headed dragon.’ (Apoc 12:3) This is the same Satan who desires to destroy the plans of God, and even though God will permit him to make war against His Saints and Christians and seemingly conquer them, there will come, without a doubt, the moment when Satan will be chained and an era of peace will take place. (Apoc 20:1-3)" (9)
Continued
1. Benjamín Martin Sánchez, The Last Times: Public and Private Prophecies, TOP, 1st ed., Imprimatur: Bishop Eduardus Zamorensis, 1968, p. 58. Unfortunately Fr. Sanchez does not provide a source for his quote. However, this prophecy is fully substantiated by the words written about the Latter Times in Hildegard von Bingen's famed work Scivias.
2. Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, trans. by Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop, NY: Paulist Press, 1990.
3. Ibid., pp. Ibid., pp. 493-494.
4. Ibid.. The Last Days and the Fall of the Antichrist, pp. 493-494.
5. Ibid., pp. pp. 494-495.
6. Ibid., pp. 495-496.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre