https://www.thebestcatholic.com/202...tober-2023-my-personal-prophetic-experiences/ There was an American writer who gave a very good timeline like that of Dupont. I think most of his compatriots prefer him. Someone will remind me. Ahh here it is: It will be online,its a Golden Oldie
Thanks for giving me another book to look into, I will definitely check it out. Also, I am getting a bit into chapter 13. Do you think the 100 years Satan was given is referenced in the following verse? Revelation 13:7 It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. The part preceding this in chapter 13 seems like the beast is referring to Islam. In this instance the dragon seems like the authorities in England. The second half of the chapter seems like the Vatican would then go on to endorse Islam. I also saw this in regards to the mark of the beast. I have much more to research
The Book of the Apocalypse is the strangest, strangest thing. As soon as I read that these chapters marked our present days from various mystics and visionaries I Started to read them to work things out. Of course I got lost in it right away. It seemed like total mumbo jumbo. I then understood unless the Holy Spirit guided me it was all Double Dutch. However that was so many years ago and events have moved forward. I think they become plainer when they actually happen. As they are.
I read up to chapter 14 yesterday. I immediately thought of Pope Leo's vision when I read that part of Ch. 13, just as you did. I don't know about any one particular group or country being the beast. I think that the beast is something mystical that transcends these things, which is why people of all times since Christ see the end times signs appearing to be fulfilled in their day. I was teaching my kids about the crusades today, and it occurred to me that the Christians of that time probably thought those were the religious wars of the end times. I think that we're all meant to feel that we're near the end, because we're all supposed to be bright-eyed and engaged in the war against evil, with our eyes always on Christ, looking for His return.
Of course, there has to come a time in which it actually IS about to be the end! But one thing I've been reflecting on a lot, and was shown again in my reading of the Apocalypse, is that all of history is laid out before God like a map. He sees it all at once, and therefore from His eternal perspective, it happens all at once. That's why it says in the Apocalypse that Jesus saved the world from the very beginning. In the eternal moment outside of time, Jesus had already popped into our timeline, died for our sins, and popped back out into that eternal moment. That's why Mary was free from sin even before Jesus died on the cross and won that gift for her. Truly a thousand years are as a day for God. It puts things into perspective, when we're sitting around wondering when the end times are, and when the Antichrist comes, and when the world ends. In a sense, it's all already happened, in the blink of an eye. Our little human minds are so limited when we fixate on timelines.
If the seven churches in the Book of Revelation correspond to distinct chronological eras, then the partial fulfillment of the book may occur throughout history as a sign of the times and a call to their mission and vocation.
And yet we are encouraged by a blessing to read and know the book. Why reveal a book that only God can understand? Why allow such a book to be a part of canon? A third of the Bible is prophetic, therefore we are supposed to be paying attention. Not paying attention is something that Jesus admonished the Jews for because they were clueless as to when he was coming, even though it all was in Daniel and Isaiah. I have noticed an odd thing about Revelation 12-20. It keeps going back in on itself in reference to the elect, the beast, the WoB and Armageddon. Thereby breaking the timeline. I wonder if it is more movie like where multiple things are happening all at once, flashing back and forth in time and events. Because it is becoming more evident it isn't entirely sequential.
Yes that's what I'm trying to get at. My theory is that the events of the Apocalypse are happening in all times and eras since Christ, at once. For instance, the beast is simultaneously manifesting himself in multiple ways on various places on our timeline. I'm sure that the last manifestation on the timeline (right before the end of the world) will be the most intense. And much of it can be taken literally and/or figuratively, just like many of the prophecies before Christ pointing to Him. There were some that were super literal, and others that weren't, so must have been figurative. I think that Christ was disappointed in people for not recognizing Him through the prophecies because they had been interpreting the prophecies in a way that would benefit them in a worldly way. It's not that they didn't know the prophecies or weren't paying attention. They just glossed over the ones that clearly foretold His suffering and death because they only liked the prophecies about Him being a great king that would restore their kingdom. So they blinded themselves to the spiritual meaning while looking only at the worldly interpretation, and therefore missed Christ's fulfillment of the spiritual prophecies. That's why I think we need to look deeper at the spiritual meaning of it all rather than focusing too much on which country or group or person is the beast or false prophet or antichrist. If our hearts are set fully on following Christ and His commandments, and we've read our Bible and follow the Church, I think that we will recognize spiritually what is happening in every age. But it is still really neat to study this stuff closely! I'm going to keep reading!
You could be right about your theory, that much of this has already been happening. Happy to hear you are still enjoying the book. I started re-reading this from the perspective of a movie which flashes around while still understanding many of the meanings based on their scriptural links to other parts of the Bible. A kind of visualization in my mind as everything moves around. It has become much more alive for me from this perspective. Because it is like God is revealing the story from a perspective he wants us to see, which obviously contains the entirety of biblical history. It is allegorical, symbolic, historic, prophetic, typological, dramatic, poetic, literal, playful and much more. Revelation 18 “Rejoice over her, you heavens! Rejoice, you people of God! Rejoice, apostles and prophets! For God has judged her with the judgment she imposed on you.”
Yes, and today is the feast of Our Lady of Victory, the Feast of the Holy Rosary, recalling the battle of Lepanto. God bless!
The overarching theme of the Apocalypse is the "unveiling," specifically the unveiling of the Immaculate "Bride," also called "the woman," a reference to what Jesus called His and Our Mother. But the Bride is not only Our Lady but also her faithful remnant, the true Church. In the Apocalypse, the Bride is contrasted with the Harlot. The harlot is the Counterfeit Catholic Church, ultimately those of the baptized who have played the harlot in Jesus's absence by worshiping idols, specifically themselves, human beings acting like humanity is more important than God. When the Bridegroom returns, he will take his true Bride with him and leave the Harlot to her satanic idols. So, the entire narrative is about this spiritual battle between Satan and God for the souls in the Church. It is not about those outside the Church, the unbaptized. The battle symbolism is a common trope in apocalyptic literature. But remember what St. Paul said: "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places." The Beast represents Satan, his earthly false vicar (also called the false prophet), and the cohort of the false Church. This false Church has 7 heads (Popes) who rule sequentially until we get to the 8th head (who "goes to perdition"). The 10 horns are false cardinals that rule in the aftermath of the eighth head. It is the eighth head who is the one described as appearing to die but still living somehow or other. He is the Beast from the Sea. The Beast from the Earth is the assistant of the Beast from the Sea, who causes the cohort in the false Church (called the Harlot) to worship the Beast from the Sea and follow his humanistic doctrines instead of God by keeping His Commandments. The Mark of the Beast is an allegorical reference to Deuteronomy 6, specifically the "shema prayer." But the false church does not keep God always in their hand and always on their mind. Rather, they keep the Beast always in their hand and on their mind. It is this characteristic that dooms those people. It is not about a materialistic, socio-economic system where people will be denied buying food for the stomach. It is a religio-spiritual system, a false Church, in which people will be denied access to the true Sacraments, and food for the soul. How will they do it? They will provide false Sacraments emptied of grace, just like the Anglican false sacraments. If you read the Apocalypse with this framework in mind, it should make more sense to you.
I think the part I most think of at the moment is that the devil , the dragon fell to Earth in a Great Wrath knowing that he has a short time left. God gave him a certain amount of time to test the Church but that time is limited. It is now running out. Exorcists say the demons actually know this. that their time is running short. 100 years does not actually mean an actual 100 it is a way of referring to a limited period of time. My guess would be it started round about the end of the 19th century. R0und about 1880. I also think something happened round about 1981 because a lot of Marian Phenomena kicked of round them. In a kind of way the devil has succeeded but in another way he has totally failed. Yes he has taken over the Church Leadership, the Vatican and most of the Cardinals and more and more of the Bishop and many, many priests and religious. But with the bottom rung, the poor and little ones he has very often failed, even catastrophically. The more they were tested the holier they became. So that you could even say Satan has created many saints. The Faithful Remnant. So we see now two Churches. The False Church that blesses icebergs and accepts sodomite pilgrimages. Alongside it the true Church the Faithful Remnant portrayed by the woman with child who flees to the wilderness pursued by the dragon. If you look to the symbolism in many of the Marian Apparitions it is straight our of the Book of the Apocalypse.
Another good example is the Woman with the 12 stars. Straight out of the Apocalypse. At Medugorje she is crowned with 12 stars. The Miraculous Medal again the 12 stars. At Knock in Ireland St John stand beside Mary with the Book of the Apocalypse open.
My ( admittedly limited) experience with God's Word to me on various occasions shows me He is always both literal and figurative. Both metaphysical and physical. A both/and situation. The mark will be spiritual and also physical.
Yes, it is literally the Sacrament of Baptism. In Baptism, an indelible "mark" is placed upon the soul. It stamps the person as a child of God. The Mark of the Beast is "taken" when a baptized person renounces their baptism (implicitly or explicitly) by refusing to follow the True God, but instead follow the doctrines of a man, the Beast, the head of the counterfeit Church on earth. This is the opposite of what is expressed in the Deuteronomy 6 "shema prayer." They do this specifically by "consenting to iniquity," as St. Paul describes in 2 Thessalonians 2. The economic allusion related to the "Mark" in Apocalypse 13 is figurative. It references what is known in Catholic theology as the economy of salvation. The exchange of penance for divine grace. This includes the idea of forgiving us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Those are economic concepts used in a spiritual context. That is what the "Mark of the Beast" is turning upside down. It is a different "economy of salvation" that replaces 1) God --> with Man, and 2) God forgiving our sins as a result of our repentance --> with men consenting to the sins of others men so that we can live in "harmony" and "fraternity" and "synodality" while we are "caring for our common home," the earth. It is earthy, human focused replacement of God's salvific economy that leads souls to Heaven. Instead of leading them to heaven, it leads them to Hell. This is the theme of 2 Thessalonians 2, CCC 675-677, and the Apocalypse.
I have always wondered about the mark of the beast. There is tons of evidence that the mark already happened and the beast was Nero however, Revelations can have dual meanings and we could see it twice in history but Nero was the number 666 and he already made the people of the time have a mark to buy and sell then he destroyed the temple as prophesized. It would be hard for John to look forward 2000 to 3000 years versus looking forward to the time of Nero and Nero being another form of anti Christ in the bible but not the anti Christ.
John says, Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man: and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six. He explains the meaning. 666 refers to "man." As I said above, the Mark of the Beast is the participation in self-worship, the worship of the doctrines of human beings rather than the worship of God and His doctrines. The triple 6 symbolism is in contrast to the triple 7 symbolism in the Apocalypse (for example, 7 seals/7 trumpets/7 bowls). The sevens are God's responses to the sixes. In Genesis, man was created on the 6th day. So, 666 refers to this apotheosis of man: humanity as a whole, the singular neighbor, and the self.
