HAVE THESE THINGS BEEN FORETOLD?
Rama
Coomaraswamy
"Let no one at that day say in his heart 'unless God willed it,
He would not have permitted' No, The Apostle forewarns you, saying not that
they may be excused, but condemned.'
(St. Cyr. Catech. XV 16, 1 7)
The interpretation of prophecies is always fraught with danger. While it
is clear that Scripture contains prophecy, it is only in retrospect that one
can clearly state that "God told you so." Moreover, the Spirit of
Evil has spread abroad the earth from time immemorial and has always delighted
in both giving false interpretations to the Word of God, and to giving false
statements and prophecies that purport to be that Word. Nevertheless, it seems
important to consider this aspect of the problem if for no other reason than to
destroy the contention of those who, in the face of all contrary evidence,
persist in saying "it cannot be,' or "it will not happen.'
St. Paul warns us in his second letter to Timothy that "The time
will surely come when men will grow fired of sound doctrine,' and Christ
Himself said "I know that, after my departure, ravening wolves will
enter in among you, not sparing the flock speaking perverse things'(Acts
20:19). Such prophecies have of course been fulfilled throughout the history of
Christianity, but we have some further guidelines. We know that at some time in
history an "Antichrist' will arise and reign supreme. Indeed his reign
will only be finished by the Second coming of Christ in glory. But we are told
more.
There are other indications of the events that will precede the second
coming. Thus Christ warns Matthew (Chapter 24) that there will be "false
Christs,' and "false prophets,' "... showing signs and wonders,'
"iniquity abounding,' and "love waxing cold.' He adds further
"when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the
doors... When ye shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy
place ... then let them that be in
We have two other "facts" (the author of this accepts what is
Revealed as a "fact"), to be taken in consideration. One is that as
St. John the Apostle said some 2,000 years ago, "the spirit of
Antichrist (whereof you have heard that it should come), and even now already
is it in the world" (2:18); and St. Paul's statement "now ye
know what withholdeth, that he (Antichrist) might be revealed in his time ... He
that now withholdeth will withhold, until he be taken out of the way' (2
Thess. 2:6).
Let us sum up these "facts" in the words of Cardinal Newman:
"the coming of Christ will be immediately, preceded by a very awful and
unpararelled out-break of evil, called by St. Paul an Apostasy, a falling away,
in the midst of which a certain terrible Man of Sin and child of perdition, the
special singular enemy of Christ, or Antichrist, will appear; that this will be
when revolutions prevail, and the present framework of society breaks to
pieces; and that at present the spirit which he will embody and represent is
kept under "the powers that be,' but that on their dissolution, he will
rise his own evil way, under his own rule, to the exclusion of the Church'
One of the particular signs of this time will be the "abomination
of desolation' which we are warned of in both the Gospel of Matthew and
Mark. This phrase occurs in several places in the Old Testament which "prefigures'
the New Covenant. Thus in Daniel 9:27 it states "The Victim and the
Sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the
In Maccabees we have the story of Antiochus, the savage persecutor of
the Jews, who is often taken as a type of Antichrist. Let us consider a few passages
from this text that might well apply. "In those days went there out of
Israel wicked men, who persuaded many, saying, let us go and make a covenant
with the heathen that are round about us: for since we departed from them, we
have had much sorrow. Then certain of the people were so forward herein, that
they went to the King, who gave them license to do after the ordinances of the
heathen ... and (they) made themselves uncircumcised, and forsook the holy
covenant and joined themselves to the heathen, and were sold to do mischief...'
And after these events, Antiochus returning from
"Is there no reason to fear that some such apostasy is gradually
preparing, gathering, hastening on, in this very day... is there not an opinion
avowed and growing that a nation has nothing to do with Religion: that it is
merely a matter for each man's own conscience?-which is all one with saying
with saying that we may let the Truth fall from the earth without trying to
continue it on and on after our time... Is there not a feverish and ever-busy
endeavor to get rid of the necessity of Religion in public transactions?.... An
attempt to educate without Religion? - that is by putting all forms of Religion
together, which comes to the same thing; - an attempt to enforce temperance,
and virtues which flow from it. by means of Societies which are built on mere
principles of utility? An attempt to make experience, and not truth, the end
and the rule of measures of State and the enactment of Law? An attempt to make
numbers, and not the Truth, the ground of maintaining or not maintaining this
or that creed. An attempt to deprive the Bible of its one meaning to the
exclusion of all other, to make people think that it may have an attempt to
supersede Religion altogether as far as it is external or objective, as far as
it is displayed in ordinances, or can be expressed by written words. - to
confine it to our inward feelings, and thus, considering how variable and
evanescent our feelings are, an attempt in fact, to destroy Religion?'
And are not many of these ideas rampant in the Church today? What else
is the "encounter with Christ" but an attempt to confine religion to
our inward feelings? And what of the many new interpretations placed on
Scripture, or the open acceptance of the teachings of our "separate
brethren"? But there are still other statements. from the Bible that are
pertinent. Thus St. Paul tells us that Antichrist will "sit in the
temple of God' While the early fathers interpreted this as.... the
Synagogue, and some spiritual writers such as St. John of the Cross teach it
refers to the individual soul, there is nothing to preclude the possibility
that it can refer to some part (in place or time) of the Roman Church. Further,
Daniel tells us "In his estate shall he (Antichrist) the god of forces,
and a god whom his fathers know not shall he honor... " (I 1:38). Now,
as Cardinal Newman says, what is meant by the words translated "god of
forces,' and afterwards called "a strange God,' is quite hidden from us,
and probably will be so till the event; but anyhow some sort of false worship
is certainly predicted as the mark of Antichrist. Newman further points out
that the Antichrist will be against idol worship as we usually understand the
term, but that the idolatry involved will be such as that entertained by the
French Revolution - the idols of "LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND FRATERNITY.'
Perhaps the idol of "dynamic evolution' or "progress' will be chosen.
After all, the Devil is above all a "seducer,' and so Newman warns us:
"Do you think he (Satan) is so unskillful in his craft as to ask you
openly and plainly to join him in his warfare against the Truth? No, he offers
you baits to trap you. He promises you civil liberty; he promises you equality,
he promises you trade and wealth ... he promises you reform...'
And this enemy, as Newman says, "is characterized by some especial
sin, open infidelity.' A further characteristic of the spirit of Antichrist is
that he both speaks and does not speak in the Name of Christ. Let me explain
this paradox. Christ told us "I am come in My Father's Name and ye
received me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.'
( John 5:43). That is to say, they will teach their own doctrines, and not the
doctrines of Christ, their personal opinions and not the truth of All Times. Yet,
those who speak with this "alien spirit,' "Having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof " (2 Tim. 3:2-5), and "promising men
liberty, while themselves the servants of corruption " (2 Pet.
2:10-19), will nevertheless give forth that they are speaking in Christ's Name:
"Many will say to me in that day (of judgment): "who Lord, Lord,
'have not we prophesied in thy name ... and then will I profess unto them, I
never knew vou: depart from me, you that work iniquity' (Mat 7:22-23). Yes,
God will complain again, as he did in Jeremias (
And so we see that in these days, if our contention is right, that the
"Continual Sacrifice' is but rarely performed. And what is the
"autodestruction of the Church' but the "destruction of the
Vineyard'? "O God, they have defiled Thy Holy Temple (Ps. 78: 1) with
"dance liturgies' and "picture-slide services.' "Thy Holy Places
are come into the hands of strangers' (I Maccabees, 2: 8-12) in the manner of
heretics and "separated brethren' preaching from our pulpits. "Behold
our Sanctuary and our Glory s laid waste' (ibid), for the tabernacles
have been removed from the altars.' "And the sanctuaries shall be laid
waste' (Amos, 7:9) and "My people have forsaken Me' (Jeremias
One could of course "search the Scriptures' for still more clues -
but we shall rest with one, the Apocalyptic "mark of the beast.' This is
usually assumed to imply that man will worship some "animal' such as the
"golden calf.' However, one possible understanding of the "beast' is man
himself, that is man qua man which is so strongly stressed in some
of the documents of Vatican II This is man who is "the author of his own
culture,' man who "is striving to come to an authentic and full humanity.'
After all, the curse of the angel in 16:2 is "upon men who had the
character of the beast.' This is man who no longer prays and acknowledges God
in other than in vague and sentimental terms that have no meaning in reality. This
is man whose relationship with the supernatural is one of personal
"feeling' and "encountering' rather than one of "knowing.' and
"accepting Revelation.' This is man "through his dealings with
others, through reciprocal duties, and through fraternal dialogue, develops all
his gifts and is able to rise to his destiny" (Pastoral Constitution on
the Church, Paragraph 25). This is man whose faith is a "simple
sublimating aspiration' rather than a "belief in the doctrines of the
Catholic Church.'(Andrew Greeley). This is man who no longer needs God or His
Church, and who, if he does not proclaim that "God is dead,' at least
relegates God to the "nursing home' for the aged and infirm. This is
modern man who has divorced himself from all Tradition and is convinced that he
can "make it on his own.' This is man who has reduced himself to the level
of the "beast.' This is man who needs no special "mark,' but rather
leaves his mark on all he touches.
And if this shocks one, let us consider the words of a celebrated
anthropologist, Ashley Montagu: "I consider any so-called 'savage' far
better human being, and an infinitely superior Christian to any so-called white
man. I consider the modern European and his American counterpart a European and
his American counterpart a creature fallen so low that it would not be possible
to full any lower. I know of no so-called 'primitive people' of whom it could
not be said that they were better human beings than the members of the
so-called 'advanced peoples' ' (from a letter to Ananda Coomaraswamy)
Of course, no one can with certainly claim that the Scriptural
predictions quoted above apply to the present situation within the Catholic
Church. What however, is frightening, is that all that is going on is
consistent with these predictions and prophecies. As St. Alphonse of Liguori
says, "the Devil has always attempted, by means of heretics, to deprive
the world of the Mass, making them precursors of the Antichrist, who, before
anything else, will try to abolish and will certainly abolish the Holy
Sacrament of the altar..."(The Mass).
For the individual Catholic however, such speculation is not important. On
the Day of Judgment, he will not be held responsible for interpreting prophecy,
but for his actions. In the face of a situation that "smells' of all that
we have been warned against, he must adhere with all his he must adhere with
all his heart to heart to what is sure. In the face of what appears to be a
constantly and ever-changing liturgical practice, he must adhere to that
liturgy which is unchangeable - the Mass of All Times. In the face of doctrinal
pronouncements that seem to follow the fashions of clothiers, he must adhere to
the Doctrine of All Times. In the presence of a Faith that is described as
"personal', "encounterish' and confined to one's "inward
feelings,' he must to the Faith of All Times. Living in the when the Church's
structures seem as evanescent as the sands of time, he must adhere to the
Finally - a word about that other prophecy of Scripture, that
persecutions will be visited upon the faithful "remnant' by the powers of
Antichrist. I speak not of those persecutions that are now visited upon the
priests that persist in saying the True Mass, but of those which will be
visited upon the faithful, priest or lay, who refuse "to partake of
unclean food.' The modernist hierarchy has abdicated its right to speak the
Truth in the modern world - after all, our separated brethren also speak the
truth. In a previous day, if the Pope should speak out on an issue such as
abortion, millions of the faithful would obey and even governments would fear
to be toppled. Today, when the Pope speaks, even his closest Bishops hasten to
contradict him. His followers decry his words before the heretics have even had
a chance to read them.
If the Church can no longer be a force for truth and morality, then
governments will become the means of legislating truth and morality. Once this
happens, those who cannot accept the "new morality' will become the
"enemies of the people.' If euthanasia is proclaimed a government policy-
and it has been so declared before in Holland, a Christian country - and it
will be again - then those who refuse to accept this "good,' will have to
be "re-educated.' Our religious beliefs will be allowed only if we keep
them "private', and do not teach them to our children. When we feel called
upon to speak against the prevailing tide - to witness to the truth - when we
refuse to accept the "rulings' of a numerical majority or reject the
demands and directives of any power group that happens to control the
government, then we will be "obstructing'" the "will of the
people' and will be declared "enemies of the State.'
On that day, there will no longer be a visible Church to speak
for us and we will stand alone. There will be "weeping and gnashing of
teeth,' if not in our day, then in days of our children. It is they who
will accuse us and ask, why did you not stand firm on principle, why did you
allow yourselves to be blown hither adhere and fro like a "reed in the
wind'? Let us not become a generation that God loathes. Let Him not say to
us, "Forty years I loathed that generation, and I said. They are a
people of erring heart,and they know not my ways. Therefore I swore in my
anger: They shall not enter into my rest.'(Psalm 44)