A response to a criticism of True Life in God
(see also other criticisms)
Ronald Conte's objections to the True Life in God [TLIG] messages of Vassula Ryden are among many others which have been judged as true or false prophecy by him. His website gives the impression that he is a theologian who has been assigned by the Church to make these judgements. His judgements are false because he clearly does not take into account or accept:-
a) the standing of three of these prophecies which he condemns but which the Vatican itself states are not under condemnation.
b) he lacks all knowledge and qualifications in Mystical Theology thereby invalidating practically all his condemnations in regard to the works of Vassula Ryden.
c) Conte judges the writings of Vassula from the biased basis of his opinion concerning dates he has written out in detail concerning the next 500 years: as will be seen in this apologetic anything with does not fit into his date system is judged erroneous and therefore the texts are frequently misread in order to use a seeming theological basis for rejecting them as false prophecy.
Because many people are being confused and mislead this apologetic will hopefully help to clarify the situation.
1)
[Jesus] "remember that I am One, the Holy Trinity is One. I want that our union be perfect. discern Me carefully. yes, you have seen well, I have with Me two rings..."
[Vassula] "Jesus many will blame this as fantasy!!."
" why; many come to Me and marry Me, glorifying Me, and I so much rejoice to be united to them! Vassula, I have risen you from the dead; I shed My Light on you; I looked after you, and soothed you; leave Me free to continue My works on you daughter....It is I who sanctified our marriage; do not worry, it is I Jesus, leave your fears and approach Me; I felt your hand;"
"I had been looking at His picture (big format) of the Holy Shroud * while writing, and unconsciously with my mind I had pushed gently His hair (left side) placing it behind, away from His cheek. I was surprised at the immediate reaction "Have you felt my hand really?"
"I have; Vassula do you realize I am God?"
"I am sorry I did this."
"Do not be; be intimate with Me, just like you are; come, give Me your hand and I will keep it in Mine."
* The Holy Shroud Face of Jesus with the eyes open.
TLIG Messages March 23 1987
Conte's Objection: a)"This claim to have married Jesus, with a supernatural ring given to her, is bizarre. Nothing like this is found in the lives of any of the Saints...Therefore, this is not the way that Christ Jesus treats his female disciples. Furthermore, Christ does not play favourites with his disciples; having a so-called 'sanctified' marriage with one woman exalts her above the other female disciples of Christ The Virgin Mary has a special role in Christ's plan of salvation, because she is the Mother of God. On the other hand, Vassula claims to have married Christ, or, as it seems in the beginning of this message, to have married the One God who is the holy Trinity. Such a claim is contrary to the roles given to women, even holy women, in the Church and in God's plan for salvation.. "
and again, speaking of Vassula's Mystical Marriage at a later point, b) "...the language that refers to her relation with God is very nearly obscene (I have spared the reader from the full force of this language...)"
Reply to Obj. (a) Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre compiled a list of close to 100 persons admitted to the Mystical Nuptuals. 55 of these received rings. [cf They Bore his Wounds Michael Freze SFO. p. 205]. Jesus does not make Vassula one special alone elevated person but tells her that many are espoused to Him. These objections to Vassula reveal a direct ignorance of Mystical Theology which studies all the modes of inter-relationship of God with the body, mind and soul on every spiritual level up to and including Mystical Marriage and the ever deepening degrees of love that follow it.
Reply to Obj. (b) Conte accuses Vassula relationship with Christ as being very nearly obscene, so much so that he says he will spare the reader the actual quotation. In actual fact Conte's quotation omits completely Vassula' explanation and her words to Jesus in between. He writes the quotes as a continuous unbroken words wherein they read as if Jesus is saying without interruption , "I felt your hand do not be; be intimate with Me, just as you are." There is nothing obscene whatever in having mentally touched the picture of the Holy Face in a gentle reverent manner. For Vassula, as a mother of children, no doubt there were times when she pushed their hair gently our of their eyes when they were talking to her. By accusing Vassula of obscenity and omitting the intervening parts of the conversation Conte is camouflaging a very beautiful illustration of truth - that our thoughts and prayers to Jesus are spiritual realities and actually touch Jesus: he feels it. If we mentally meditate on the stations of the Cross and with out minds kiss Jesus' crucified feet or with Veronica desire to wipe the face of Jesus He feels it. This is the truth to be seen in this event with Vassula: prayer, even with actions alone, are a reality because we are present to Jesus in all of His redemptive act.
2)
"My Holy Spirit, like a Bridegroom, appears in your days, to court you, seduce you and wed you; My Holy Spirit is laid like a precious cornerstone in your heart, to be the foundation stone of your faith, of your hope, of your love and of your zeal for Me your God..." TLIG Messages December 23 1993
Conte's Obj.: "The messages also call the Spirit the Bridegroom, whereas Christ is considered the Bridegroom of his Spouse the Church. But these messages replace the Church with Vassula as Christ's Bride."
Reply to Obj. This message quoted by Conte does not say 'The Holy Spirit is the Bridegroom", it says, "like a Bridegroom". However both are true. It is true that the Church is the Bride of Christ whether collectively or individually. Irrespective of gender every member of the Church is a Bride of Christ and this reality is given prophetic witness by those who experience the reality in a vision in order to teach it to us** and also in those who by vows give public prophetic witness by their religious dress and mode of life. The fathers and doctors of the Church always refer to the soul as 'she'. Not because it denotes gender but because the term is expressive of being one who receives Divine Life from God and cannot itself produce It. Vassula is a Bride of Christ - and so are we all: it is only the degree that differs in each person.
Throughout the whole of the Scriptures up to Jesus Yahweh is revealed by the prophets as the Bridegroom of Israel. That is, the Triune God for he was always triune even if this inner reality of the God-head was revealed by Jesus.
** Saint Bernard -see Section 6:Reply to Objection.
St Ambrose speaks of the heavenly espousals and the bride led there 'betrothed to the Spirit' [Breviary: Nov 1st].
The Church teaches that the Church is the bride of Christ.
These are facets of one reality in Mystical Marriage. The Spirit is the soul of the Church - to be one soul with the Spirit is the definition of marriage as in St Paul One body, one Spirit in Christ. Mystical Theology reveals that in the grace of Mystical Marriage the soul is wedded to the Trinity (this of necessity involves pericoresis). St John of the Cross writes:
Even in the perfect transformation of this state of spiritual marriage, which the soul reaches in this life, she superabounds with grace and...loves in some way through the Holy Spirit who is given [Spiritual Canticle 38:3].
And again,
By the divine breath-like spiration, the Holy Spirit elevates the soul sublimely and informs her and makes her capable of breathing in God the same spiration of love that the Father Himself, Who in the Father and the Son breathes out to her in this transformation, in order to unite her to Himself (with notable frequency and blissful love) [ibid 39:3 (4)] This is transformation in the three Persons in power and wisdom and love, and thus the soul is like God through this transformation. He created her in His image and likeness that she might attain such semblance [ibid 39:4]
All are called to experience this union with God for the call to all is to be holy as the Lord your God is holy - that is, we can only be holy with God's own indwelling because only He is holy. Vatican II was the clarion call for all Catholics to recognise their universal call to holiness.
No one, whether man or woman, teenager or old person, healthy or handicapped, married or single should consider the invitation to being one, fully wedded with the Divine Triune Holiness of God is not for them. Be holy for I the Lord your God am Holy [Leviticus 19:1]. Put simply we can reflect that only God is holy, You alone are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord, You alone are the Most High Jesus Christ we sing each Sunday and feast day. To be holy as God is holy is to be holy with the very holiness of God Himself. It is for the holiness of God to descend into man and unite Himself to the souls of man so that the very powers of the soul (memory, understanding and will) are in perfect union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When this union is total, utter, and complete: that is divinisation. Nothing more - nothing less.
The full union of the soul and the Trinity is termed Mystical Marriage and it truly means a Mystical Marriage whereby the Holy One, the Triune God, weds the soul to Himself in perfect fusion while the "spouse" retains perfect individuality and free will.
It is a cause of sadness that by focussing on his objection to this message of 23 December 1993 Conte distracts from the fact that this full two page message is a most lovely writing on the Holy Spirit describing His works of love and sanctification in the human soul. One is reminded of the Pharisees who did not see that Jesus had worked the miracle of healing a man but only saw what they thought was the Sabbath Law being broken by Jesus. In fact He did not because Jewish Law allowed for the fact that God could work on the Sabbath but not anyone else. (They allowed that God 'worked' on the Sabbath because He had to sustain the universe in being.)
3)
"I love being called Father. I am father of all humanity." TLIG Messages February 17 1987
Conte's Objection: "Although Vassula claims to be married to Jesus, she refers to him as 'Father'."
Reply to Obj. Vassula's reply to the CDF was accepted by them as clarifying this point which was one of the five that formed the basis for the notification.* In brief, Vassula explains her use of the term father as addressed to Christ is an affectionate term because Jesus taught her so gently that she likened him to a father teaching a little child. Julian of Norwich also uses the affectionate term Our Mother Jesu to illustrate His bringing forth of us and nourishing us. It is the traditional teaching of the Church that Jesus begot, brought forth, the Church from His side on the Cross. We are collectively or individually His 'child' as Eve the spouse of Adam was initially brought forth from Adam as a 'child' of Adam yet became Bride of Adam. One could recall also that St Paul said that In Christ Jesus I became your father through the Word of the Gospel. If the Gospel is the seed that Jesus scatters as He claims in the Gospel itself, then we are begotten, fathered, by Jesus. If, as the Church puts in Her Liturgy, the Church is our Mother then the spouse of our mother must be our father - Christ is the Spouse of the Church - is it not so? In general we do not call Jesus 'Father' so as not to confuse Him with the Father but in essence that is what Jesus is: our father in spiritual mode.
* Note: Notification not Condemnation. A Notification means 'read with caution' and not 'this is condemned'. However all five points which formed the reason for the notification were clarified cf. Cardinal Ratzinger's letter of July 10 2004 Ref number: Prot. N 54/92-19631.
4)
"daughter, I love to hear you surrendering let Me be your Captor". TLIG Messages May 5 1987
Conte's Obj. "The use of the term 'Captor' to refer to Christ's relationship with anyone is contrary to all that the Church teaches. God gave us freewill to such an extent that we can even choose serious sin and choose, in effect, Hellfire. Christ is the Captor of no one. He gives grace freely and he does not control anyone, even those closest to Him."
Reply to Obj. The essence of all union with God is total surrender to Him in all things.
Conte has not read the text correctly, it says, Let me be which is an invitation, a courteous request not an imperative I will be. "Let me be your Captor" is the language of love. It is used between the Bride and Bridegroom in the Song of Songs which the Jews interpret as God the Bridegroom and Israel the Bride. In a four volumes' commentary consisting of eighty-seven sermons for his monks, St Bernard interprets the Song of Songs as the Bride-soul and Christ. If it is thought to be a breach of free-will then what about Christ being made captive by us! A king is held captive in your tresses [Song of Songs 7:5,6]. Is Christ's free-will violated by the soul? St John of the Cross likewise uses the hair as a capturing Christ in The Spiritual Canticle 31, 32]
You considered
That one hair fluttering at my neck;
You gazed at it upon my neck
And it captivated You;
And one of my eyes wounded You.
When you looked at me
Your eyes imprinted Your grace in me;
And thus my eyes deserved
To adore what they beheld in you.
St John is referring to this hair as perfection in the human spirit and which that renders it so beautiful that Jesus falls in love with it. St Thomas Aquinas also states that just as the sensual man falls in love with physical beauty so God falls in love with the beauty of our souls. Saint Thomas Aquinas requested and actually had the Song of Songs read to him as he lay dying. The language of saint-lovers-of-God is used within the context of mystical realities which the crude unspiritual and unpurified mind sees only as sensual. It is therefore more of a statement of the state of soul of the one who criticises than a true perception of the spiritual reality that is hidden from such a one by the cataracts of coarseness.
5)
"I will make of you my altar, upon which I will place My burning desires of My Heart, My Flame will live within you; be drawing from My Heart and fill your heart. I, the Lord, will keep My Flame ablaze for ever and ever." TLIG Messages March 22 1987
Conte's Obj. "The claim that she is Christ's altar exalts her above the Virgin Mary and above the rest of humanity.. Such self-exalting claims are characteristic of false private revelation."
Reply to Obj. The text is again not read correctly. Vassula does not claim that she is Christ's altar - on the contrary it should be noted that Vassula sees that it is the grace of Jesus as pure gift that is able to make her into an 'altar' "I will make of you my altar." Moreover the Flame of love to be burning upon is also seen as pure gift, "I will place my burning desires... I, the Lord will keep My Flame ablaze." This is correct theology - Jesus does it all and we are only receivers.
The term altar exalts no one. It is again, the language of mystical love which in love identifies its desires to be a holocaust for Christ. Contemplatives have a vocation to lay down their life as a sacrificial holocaust for love of Christ and the redemption of the world. It is common to phrase this in contemplative life in terms of offering ones life to God on the altar of one's heart for the fire of the Holy Spirit to consume with a flame of love one's whole being as a holocaust in union with Jesus Crucified. I certainly made this prayer on entering contemplative life 44 years ago to be one with Christ who is altar, victim and priest. It has been a central concept which I have tried to live and continue to do so: to be in Christ an altar of holocaust for love of Christ and for all humanity. I certainly do not make myself higher than the Virgin Mary and humanity but am one of many, many thousands called to this holy vocation. Once again this objection is trite and reveals a lack of knowledge of Mystical Theology in this area.
With regard to the altar. The Servant of God Archbishop Luis Martinez D.D. in his book Only Jesus (page 151) says this:
"The altar is the place upon which the victim is immolated, the fruits for the sacrifice are spread out, or the blood of the victim is shed. Doubtless, an altar must be clean from stain, because it must be anointed by the Holy Spirit, the Fountain of purity.... The first and only essential purity to appear upon this earth was Jesus. There, He Himself had to be the altar of His sacrifice. Through His sacrifice Jesus has purified some souls and anointed them with His Spirit so that they may be altars where His sacrifice may be perpetuated. The material altars, purified and anointed by the Church, are figures of Jesus and symbols of the souls who are altars because they are Jesus.... In order that a soul may be an altar, in order that Jesus may be immolated there, she needs to be empty of self and full of the Holy Spirit. An altar is like an oasis in the desert upon which the Father may fasten His gaze and upon with the Divine Dove may rest. In one word, an altar is Jesus. The intimate relations among these three are clear: priest, victim, altar, for there are various participations with Jesus which must be intimately united. ... The soul that shares in the mystical priesthood of Jesus must necessarily be priest, victim and altar, that is, that soul must be Jesus."
It should also be remembered that Vassula writes in the introduction to the messages:
"Jesus asked me to tell you to always take my name, Vassula, out of the messages and replace it with your name. You will hear Him then speaking to you, re-animating your soul to move, aspire and breathe in His Glory. God will draw you very delicately into His Heart so that you no longer belong to yourself but to the One who moves you in union with Their Oneness (The Holy Trinity)"
Telling people that when they read the messages that they should put their own name in place of Vassula's name is an instant indication that she is not complacent as someone exalting themselves above others but one person among others called to union with God. This is because the graces Jesus gives her He desires to give us all. We are all invited to complete holiness: mystical marriage even if we are not given visions symbolizing this grace. Visions in the lives of those with the charismatic gift of the Holy Spirit of prophecy are always visual aids to help the rest of us to understand that these spiritual things are real. If therefore anything looks like an elevation of spiritual development 'up there' then we are all equally called to go 'up there' too by accepting the graces God is offering us today in this Time of Mercy. This is the will of God - your sanctification [1 Thess 4:1 RSV trans].
One of the signs to look for in false prophets is the desire that they alone are exalted and one of the many tests for this is to look them in the eye when they have told you about their revelation and tell them it is one of many similar ones you have heard of over the last month. In false prophets, or in one with a true message but who have succumbed to pride and self-glory, there is an unmistakable look of disappointment or disgust. They wanted to be the only one, the 'exalted one'. Vassula on the contrary always insists that whatever is said of her is for all and never her alone - even mystical marriage. This is correct theology: divinisation is for all.
6)
Vision of Satan torturing tied up souls in Hell with lava. TLIG Messages March 7 1987
Conte's Obj. "This description of Hell is contrary to the teachings of the Church about Hell. First, the souls in Hell do not presently have bodies, for the general Resurrection (of the just and the unjust) has not yet occurred. So the souls in Hell cannot be tied up, nor do they have physical faces on which to throw lava. Second, neither do fallen angels have bodies, for they are spiritual being only....Satan does not torture people in Hell; they suffer in Hell due to their own sins. This message of Vassula again clearly shows that her messages are not from God. False and distorted theology is characteristic of false claims of private revelation."
Reply to Obj. This was only a few months after Vassula's conversion and Jesus was teaching Vassula religious truths. These truths could have been infused directly into the intellectual part of the soul by an intellectual vision which bypasses the senses. However it is also true that although demons and souls do not have bodies St Bernard says that physically perceived visions are given in order for the person who sees it may have images whereby to teach others the spiritual reality thus represented. Myriad persons have had such visions down through the centuries, in fact, an image of souls tormented by demons in Hell by Doctor of the Church St Alphonsus de Liguroi's in his book Preparation for Death (Consideration xxvi The Pains of Hell) gives just such a description fully backed by quotes from Holy Scripture and is remarkably similar to that given by Vassula.
It is quite possible that Satan or the angels of Satan torture the damned in Hell when the Holy Scriptures certainly reveal Satan or the angels of Satan torturing people here on earth. 1 Corinthians 1:1 tells us of Saint Paul's horror concerning 'a ,man living with his fathers wife....' So Paul instructs the Church at Corinth [in verse 5] '...you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord'. Elsewhere Paul writes to Timothy, By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith, among them Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. [1 Timothy 1:18]. Paul also attributes to an angel of Satan his being beaten, Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. [2 Cor 12:7]. Jesus also speaks of men being tortured by torturers if they do not forgive their brother from their heart in the parable of the servant forgiven a great debt and demanding a very small debt repayment from one of his debtors - "...the master handed him over to the tortures till he should pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart." Surely these torturers in the parable are not speaking of torturers in this world but the next. Who else are the torturers but the demons as Saint Paul indicates? (this latter paragraph is replicated for the reply to objection 9 where it is also apposite.)
7)
a) "This prophecy of the Perpetual Sacrifice abolished will come concretely ..."
b) "the antichrist already among us."
TLIG Messages Dec 23 1993 [NB These are in a footnote - not an actual message of Jesus].
Conte's Obj. to
a) ...the claim that the Mass and Eucharist will be abolished is exaggerated and distorted, and thereby falsified....it is not true that the Antichrist will succeed in abolishing the Mass and the Eucharist...
b) The antichrist is not already among us.
Reply to Obj a)
(i) Nowhere in the writings of Jesus in TLIG does Vassula say that the Mass and the Eucharist will be abolished by antichrist. In this footnote she interprets that the prophecy of the Perpetual Sacrifice abolished will come concretely. This can be interpreted as referring to the cessation of the Perpetual Sacrifice as perpetual. We say in the Mass 'from the rising of the sun to its setting a perpetual sacrifice is offered to the glory of your name...' or, in some translations, 'From East to West a perfect offering is made......'. At all times for twenty-four hours a day without cessation the Mass was perpetually offered somewhere in the world. Due to the increasing areas in some parts of the world in which the Mass is not being offered or, in some places is invalid, these gaps in time are increasing: this perpetuity is being broken. These time gaps are increasing.
(ii) There is another way of considering this 'cessation'. It is that the Perpetual sacrifice has ceased for faithless individuals who have fallen into the present apostasy of Naturalism. We need to look at the Book of Revelation to explain this.
'Antichrist' is not found in the Book of Revelation. St John's definition of the Antichrist says that the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ is denying the Father as well as the Son because no one who has the Father can deny the Son, and to acknowledge the Son is to have the father as well [1 John 2:22,23]. John says in the same verses, he is the liar, he is Antichrist. The Book of Revelation is the heavenly liturgy of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Sunday, Altar, candles, incense, High Priest, Readings for the congregations, Alleluia, Gloria, Sanctus, Great Amen, intercession of saints and angels. And, central in all this, the Agnus Dei - the Lamb which has been sacrificed before whom all fall prostrate in adoration. As all the Liturgy of Heaven in the Book of Revelation is the Catholic High Mass portraying the Great Truth (Jesus is truly present as Son of God) so all the other evil images portray aspects of the 'Great Lie': Jesus Christ is not divine, not truly present in the Mass. This is the Lie, the antichrist is the Liar. The 144,000 (symbolic number 144 in Old Testament for 'remnant' and 144,000 for large remnant) are those who have never allowed a lie to pass their lips. (Rev 14:5). Those who do not teach the Great Lie to others.
The 'Great Lie' which Saint John relates directly to the Antichrist is also in Vassula's writings which reveal that the Great Lie is the apostasy which contains 1) the 'many antichrists' (heresies of Rationalism and Naturalism) which, especially the latter, by denying the intervention of Divine Power in the world, and hence denying divine power to Christ also, prepares the way for 2) the Great Lie which declares that Jesus Christ is not Divine and therefore cannot be truly present in the Holy Eucharist.
Those who are deceived and believe or teach the Great Lie still attend Mass and receive the Holy Eucharist but for them the Perpetual Sacrifice of the Mass has ceased. Where they should be adoring the Lamb of God on the altar of their hearts in the temple of their flesh they have exchanged the True Presence for their own rationalistic idea and adore instead the idol of their own intellect. Vassula does not say that the Mass and Holy Eucharist will be abolished but that the perpetual sacrifice will ceased for them*. They have exchanged the image of God for the image of a mere mortal man: themselves. St Paul says that to eat and drink of the Body and Blood of the Lord without discernment eats and drinks a judgement on himself. The Church call this act a sacrilege. This 'exchanging' of the Great Truth of Divinity of Christ for the Great Lie is the concept behind the 'traders' in Revelations' imagery.
*unless they repent in the light of the Second Pentecost.
Reply to Obj. b) ...namely that the antichrist is not already among us.
This objection is based entirely on Conte's personal conviction that the prophecy of Daniel 70 weeks of years began in 1948 even though he has not accepted that the Vatican has not recognised the State of Israel and the Hasidic sector of the Jews do not accept that Israel's land should be fought for because always in history God sent prophet for them to return and fight those who occupied the land and no such prophet has arisen. Also, the Holy Scriptures clearly tell us that we will be given signs but not dates for it is not for us to know the day or the hour. Dates are usually the consequence of either a false prophet or a person who has speculated as so many before him down through the centuries and thought himself to have worked it all out. Due to the speculative nature of the deductions, however logical it all appears, it would be serious pride to use one's own deductions as the criteria for judging others to be false if they do not match up to it. (One should judge these things in the light of Church tradition and Sacred tradition using the time honoured means of Theology both doctrinal and Mystical Theology.)
We can say that we do know with absolute certainty that Jesus said the date would not be given us but the Holy Scriptures have given us plenty of signs to know that the time is near: frequent natural upheavals, signs and portents in the sky, apostasy in the Church, famines, plagues and warfare in various sectors of the globe. In a word, all that we are going through now! But no dates. Personally I believe the word of Jesus in Holy Scripture not Conte. He invalidates all his own speculations by his conceit in being convinced that he is right when his objections reveal he is in an obvious state of ignorance in regard to Mystical Theology and therefore unqualified to make the comments in the first place - let alone misleading all who read these objections and accusatory condemnations of Vassula as a false prophet.
As said above, it is false to use one's own deductions as the criteria for judging others to be false if they do not match up to it. This is what Conte has done again in order to present 'evidence' of Vassula's falseness in a footnote (not in Jesus' messages) saying that the antichrist is already among us. The church allows for the fact that the writings of saints and mystics in history often reveal an incorrect interpretation of their own revelations. This does not invalidate the revelation. This is why Saint Paul says that where an interpretation of a revelation can be given it should be given but it may be by another with that particular gift. I do not know if Vassula has the gift of interpreting her own works or not or whether she applies human logic in meditating on the words Jesus gives her. But I do know personal footnotes cannot be held up as a sign of falseness in a message given for they may or may not be an accurate interpretation. However, we do know that infallibly that Jesus said the date would not be given us.
8)
...the rest of My Messages now will be given to you promptly before the day of the antichrist's appearance...
How are we to continue when he appears?
for just over three days and three nights* you shall not be able to continue as you want; but this silence will be broken by My Own Hand upon opening the sixth seal; **
* Vassula's footnote: 'For just over three Days.' Ap. 11:11. "After the three-and-a-half days, God breathed life into them and they stood up..." .....The three-and-a-half-days, all heavenly prophecy will be silenced, which will be the time of the reign of the Antichrist.
** Vassula's footnote comment on: "this silence will be broken by My Own Hand upon opening the sixth seal." This will be the end of those three and a half years of the Antichrist's power. TLIG Messages March 31 1995
Conte's Obj. (a) Vassula claims that the Antichrist's appearance is imminent, during Vassula's own lifetime. (b) The order of events is confused for the sixth seal precedes the Antichrist's reign by hundreds of years
Reply to Obj. (a) Nowhere in Vassula's writings are the words found "own lifetime". The question of 'when' is left open. Conte's objection is due to judging Vassula' words using his own hypothesis of dates regarding the coming of the Antichrist-and-his-rise-to-power in the 25th century - 2420 - the return of Jesus in 2437 and the Second Pentecost in the 2440's.
There is a reference to the Reign of Jesus beginning "in your days" in 3 June 1993. This could refer to the Reign beginning in the remnant first and whose prayers and sufferings bring down the Second Pentecost for all at a later date. This is expounded fully in Section 10: subsection entitled Return to reply to objection: Paragraphs 2 and 3.
Vassula uses the term 'three and a half years' which is actually a Scriptural Hebraic idiomatic term meaning a Period of Distress which can be of indeterminate length. Sometimes it is written as: 'a time two times and half a time'; a week, two weeks and half a week: 1260 days or 42 months. [The calendar year of the Jewish people is 12 lunar months which accounts for the slight numeric discrepancy.] However Conte deduces his dates literally by adding the 490 years of Daniel's prophecy re the Babylonian Exile to 1948. (So extravagant are the claims to detailed lists of dates and happenings for the next 500 years on his website that one is tempted not waste time trying to answer these objections. People are being mislead to accept his incorrect objections to Vassula and so reject her due to his claim to be a theologian which gives the impression he has been appointed by the Church to judge and condemn false prophets. This is a presumption when the Vatican itself has never condemned Vassula. In fact the then Cardinal Ratzinger's letter to the five countries was written by him for her to show the Church leaders in those countries that she could now speak anywhere with Ratzinger's express wish - for they had previously not permitted her to speak. So, to enlighten those confused by Conte I will continue.)
Some Rabbinical commentaries interpret the 70 weeks in Daniel 9:24 as 70 'weeks of years' (=490 years). Not all Hebrew scholars agree for the word for years and the word for weeks is very similar. Those who take 'weeks' to mean 'years' put them together to make a week of years but this is by no means the fully accepted translation by all. Those who interpret this as 'weeks of years' hold that these 490 years commenced with the destruction of the First Temple in the year 3338 from Creation (Bible time) The beginning of the restoration of the Temple in the second year of Darius the Persian ( Haggai 1:1 - 8) took place seventy years later in the year 3408. The second Temple stood 420 years. This adds up to a total of 490 years with the destruction of the Second Temple taking place in the year 3828 (on the Hebrew calendar).
Reply to Obj. (b) Conte's own hypothesis that the 6th seal is broken about 2033 - 2037 and consists of, quote, 'World War 4 - an all-out nuclear war' once again is used as evidence that Vassula is a false prophet as he claims that Antichrist arrives about 380 years after the breaking of this sixth seal.
The reply to this objection concerning the coming of the Antichrist is also covered in Section 7:Reply to Obj b): Para 3.(see above).
9)
a) "today daughter, the antichrist is a spirit of Rebellion given by Satan, as Scriptures define him: the Rebel..."
b) "anyone who denies Me is the Antichrist..." TLIG messages June 27 1991
Conte's Objection: Vassula "claims that the Antichrist is merely a spirit of Rebellion against God."
Reply to Obj. "merely a spirit of Rebellion!" Satan is the Rebel and Antichrist is a spirit of Rebellion. In casting out evil in the deliverance ministry the Antichrist is, alongside Jezebel and Death-and-Hades one of the persistent 'strong men' [principalities] that has to be bound first in order to deliver all the lesser demons first. Also, the spirit of Antichrist rules over every place and person where the Divinity of Jesus is denied. Its first action when getting into power over nations is to use the government to ban and forbid the Holy Gospel under pain of great penalties or imprisonment and/or torture. That means the spirits of Antichrist are ruling in all communist regimes - China (one fifth of the world's population), Russia, another vast area with 80 years of militant atheistic beliefs; there are huge tracts of countries with beliefs in gods and goddesses, false faith countries and western European governments that legalise the breaking of many of the Ten Commandments of God: especially the First Commandment by making the state's laws the primary law of man. There is an apostasy mainly within the western Church consisting of the errors of modernism which includes rationalism, naturalism and liberalism. There is a rise of paganism in all forms of New Age throughout the civilized world. Given the widespread international reality of sin and the millions involved there is no question of 'merely' here.
Conte's saying that the Antichrist is merely a spirit of Rebellion is an understatement of the grossest kind. It is like saying "Hitler was merely exhibiting a greed for power", Or, "Adam and Eve merely ate a fruit." What is more alarming is the lack of spiritual appreciation of the spiritual realities. The spirit of Rebellion, and the pride that underlies it, is purely diabolical. The spiritual value of the human soul is known only to God. Not even the Blessed Virgin can fathom the depths of the worth of the human soul. Its value is worth the infinite precious blood of Jesus Christ. The spiritual refinement of the human soul's beauty is beyond our Lady's knowledge because we are created directly by and from the depths of the creative power within the Godhead which is purest mystery to us. Jesus told Saint Battista Varani regarding mortal sin,
"But, think again, how much more bitter is that separation of the spiritual member from the spiritual body than that of the bodily member from the natural body, for, consider how much more precious is the soul than the body? This same you can never understand, not you nor any living soul, but only I Who know the nobility of the soul and the vileness of the body seeing that I made the one and the other. Hence it follows that neither you nor any living creature can comprehend the nature and intensity of My most cruel and bitter pains in the separation of My spiritual members from My living body."
In the Western church sacrilege is rife with Communions made without confession and no resolution to give up immoral living let alone the underlying pride. This is the evil spirit behind the actual words, or, actions which proclaim implicitly: "The Church says...but I say..." One only has to look around the earth in a sweeping panoramic gaze to see that we are truly in the hour of the Spirit of Rebellion.
Conte's Objection "The same message goes on to claim that "anyone who denies Me is the Antichrist." So, in some passages of these messages, the Antichrist is not a person but an attitude of rebellion, then in other passages anyone denying God is the Antichrist (not an antichrist) and in still other messages the Antichrist is described as if he were a particular individual."
Reply to the Obj. b) What Conte says here of the various descriptions of the Antichrist in Vassula's messages does not deny but on the contrary accords directly and absolutely with Saint John's different understandings in the New Testament which reveals differences in regard to the mode of 'antichrist' manifestations.
Saint John gives us the definition of 'antichrist' and he gives three modes.
1) Individual persons: The man who denies that Jesus is the Christ - he is the liar, he is Antichrist. [1 John 2:22]. notice he does not say an antichrist but Antichrist.
2) Collective body of persons: every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus the Christ has come in the flesh is from God; but any spirit which will not say this of Jesus is not from God, but is the spirit of Antichrist. [1 John 4:2,3] Since many will not say this of Jesus then obviously the Spirit of Antichrist is in all of them:
3) Possible single person or many: You were told that an Antichrist must come, and now several antichrists have already appeared. [I John 2:18].
Notice that John is referring to one Antichrist and several antichrists have turned up: not one but several! This becomes more obvious by analogy "I was expecting one bus to come and now six have turned up." In other words Saint John comes to see that the antichrist expected appears to be one among many others who are the same - a collective body which some have called the mystical-body-of-satan and which can be detected in every age.
Scripture does not specifically call the Man of Sin or the Man of Perdition the antichrist which is not to say that the Man of Sin or Perdition may not deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ and therefore be an Antichrist who is known as the Antichrist. We use the word the to denote one of many but nevertheless a special one. Although the speculations on the Antichrist have been in Church tradition nevertheless the Church has not officially given interpretations of 'Antichrist'. Why would It when Saint John has given it to us clearly in Sacred Scripture? Any other interpretation would be contrary to Holy Scripture and the Church herself affirmed the canon of Holy Scripture and this includes the epistles of Saint John.
Any speculation in the Fathers and Doctors, Saints and mystics are found to be applying the name Antichrist to currant socio-political events or ideologies or leaders of religious heretical movements. All prophecies regarding 'Antichrist' throughout history (I have read literally hundreds of them) are found to be in total disagreement with each other - even among the early fathers. Hence they can be considered private opinions only for the Church has never promoted, interpreted them absolutely or made any of the Church fathers' statements an object of belief.
10)
I ask you then My beloved ones to pray daily for My Second Coming which is the second Pentecost, pray daily for the conversions of souls that they may convert before My Coming... TLIG messages April 22 1990
Conte's Obj. Some events predicted in the book of Revelation are mentioned, but their interpretation is contrary to any interpretation given in the history of the Church and the order of events is mixed up... This message confuses the Second Coming of Christ with the Second Pentecost. It also implies, as is asserted more clearly in other messages, that the Return of Christ and the Second Pentecost are imminent, within Vassula's own lifetime, which is not the case.
Reply to Obj. The author of these replies is at researching historical and scholarly (university standard) biblical studies and a full scale investigation into the Father and Doctors of the Church for every verse of Revelation. It takes five hours for every two or three verses. There is very little agreement among them and in fact the ante-Nicene fathers' interpretations are in many places now deemed heretical on the subject of the second coming and the 'new era'. If Vassula gives different interpretations from those found in history it is because for every age the eternal creative Word of God holds a specific message in the same way, as Origen realized, that the Word of God uses the same words in Scripture for a simple peasant, child or professor and is understood by each whereas we speak using different words to convey the same concept to a peasant, child or professor. The words of Revelation for every era likewise have a truth to convey to that era. Just before the end of time and the Last Coming there will be yet another interpretation which is not for us to know now.
The simultaneous aspects of the New Pentecost and the Second Coming which Conte objects too are easily explainable when viewed in the light of Theology with a smatter of Mystical Theology. Those with knowledge of these two will recognise the truth of the following.
1) each person will have a theophany which necessarily involves pericoresis [which is a Church teaching that when one Person of the Blessed Trinity acts then all persons act together].
2)This theophany is the coming of Christ in His Pneumatic Coming* to every individual in glory in a vision and involves perichorisis (cf Rev 1:7).
note
* Pneumatic Coming of Christ. The Fathers speak of the intermediary coming of Christ as a spiritual coming and also of the Great Conflagration as a Spiritual Fire which we now know to be the Holy Spirit. The Pneumatic Coming of Christ is then the spiritual yet actual coming of Christ in an intellectual vision to each individual but Who can take up residence fully in the repentant soul. [cf the following:]
3) the eyes of Christ are a flame of fire (Rev 1:14)
4) this fire is the Holy Spirit flowing in the penetrating gaze of Christ (Rev 5:6) and which penetrates us and reveals to us all our sins for all our life together with an infused knowledge of the suffering our sin cost Jesus Christ.
5) the grace of repentance is offered that we may sorrow for our sins thus shown.
6) If we are contrite because of the pain we see we have cost Christ then our sorrow is Pure Contrition which, the Church teaches, is matter for such purity that if we died after an act of Pure Contrition we would go straight to heaven.
7) Because we are shown all our sin which includes our most hidden and buried ones (often these can be a lack of forgiveness for injuries received in the past) then the purification by contrition is absolute and renders the soul fit for spiritual espousal but not yet Mystical Marriage. (The former is as two candle flames which while in perfect union can be pulled apart but the latter is like a drop of water in a river henceforth irretrievable (definition of St Teresa of Avila)
8) The espousal with Jesus Christ is maintained and helped because the second Pentecost experience leaves an abiding sorrow in the soul for the purest reason: not to give suffering to Jesus Christ out of love for Him. This abiding sorrow acts as a motive which exerts a gentle magnetic force to draw us away from sin in the future. This grace of abiding sorrow is a pure gift of the Holy Spirit and therefore has a spring-time quality of spiritual joy within it. There is a theological Greek word for this type of sorrow - charmoulus. This graced experience of abiding sorrow is a gratuitous and fortuitous aid to draw us into rapid ascent to God as described in True Life in God messages: namely, divinisation.
How do we know all this? We have many written testimonies of the saints who received the second Pentecost experience and the spiritual espousals soon or instantly afterwards. It is one of the aspects of Mystical Theological study. The events that are unfolding are not new to a mystical theologian. What is new is that this grace should be widely distributed throughout the church during the same epoch and also offered to all persons universally.]
9) Due to pericoresis (found in every theophany throughout the Scripture) this vision by the direct presence of the Most Holy Trinity and the vision of ourselves as God sees us includes a flash vision of the Father. This single touching of our soul effects in us that deep thirsting for God, to return to Him, that also remain and acts as a quiet magnetic force away from sin thereafter.
10) If responsive to grace the spiritual espousal leads into Mystical Marriage wherein there is the deification of the soul (St John of the Cross: Spiritual canticle: stanzas 34ff. The soul becomes deiform - transformed into the form of God.)
11) In this state of transformation Christ reigns in His divinity in the person and is Lord of the whole person by their ongoing loving consent and they share Christ's Lordship over all creation even in this life just as Adam did before the Fall.
12) This spiritual state of souls living wholly transformed into the divinity, fully partakers of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4), is the reign of Christ on earth.
13) The spiritual sustenance which maintains this state in man is the Eucharist which releases all Its Power - Body, Blood, Soul and divinity. This is why this New Era of Divine Holiness is also called the Eucharistic Reign. The Holy Eucharist does not only sustain but deepen the degrees of union [cf St John of the Cross The Living Flame of Love].
14) This total Lordship and reigning of Christ in His divinity in man on earth in the majority is the Second Coming: Christ reigning for a thousand years in His divinity. The Coming of Christ to reign a 1000 years in Rev is not a definitive time span but an indefinite period during which the Divine Will is lived on earth as it is in heaven. [Living wholly in the Divine Will is one of the major characteristics of Mystical Marriage along with heroic virtue in regard to faith, hope and charity.]
All the numbers in Revelation have symbolic Hebraic meanings. To the Hebrew mind, the term 'one thousand years' (in the singular) is a theological symbolism of the Divine Existence.
Attention is drawn to this fact by B. Vawter CM in his Introduction to Genesis in 'A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture'. While discussing the great ages of the patriarchs, B. Vawter comments:
"The fantastic ages are also a part of the Babylonian pattern, where they are reckoned in the tens of thousands in contrast to the comparatively modest figures of Genesis, which never exceed 1000. There was doubtless a theological symbolism involved here, since a thousand years was associated in the Hebrew mind with Divine Existence (Dt. 7:9; 1 Chron. 16: 15; Ps 90(89):4), and thus denied to any man."
The various texts by which the Divine Existence is associated by this symbolic 'one thousand years' can indicate the eternality of God as in Psalm 90:4: "to You a thousand years are a single day" or the bestowal of blessings "for a thousand generations" on those who keep His commandments, (c.f. Ex 20:6).
We can see from the above that there is a coinciding of all the aspects regarding New Pentecost Second Coming and the New Era of New and Divine Holiness. There are those who have already had this experience and also those who will have but have not had it yet. There is no dichotomy in Vassula's words which indicate that the theophany contains both aspects within the one theophany and relate to Cause, Effect and Response both short term and long term.
11)
"Our Two Hearts will prevail - this is to fulfil the words written in Scriptures: 'after the three and a half days, God breathed life into them and they stood up'; (Ap.11:11) yes, in all Glory, for, 'these are the Two Anointed Ones' (Zech 4:14) who stand side by side; Our Two Hearts are like 'Two Olive Trees, one to the right and one to the left'. TLIG Messages March 3 1992
Conte's Objection "This claim is contrary to well-established Catholic thinking about the future, which hold that the two prophets as individual persons, two men, not Jesus nor Mary, who are killed by the Antichrist and are raised from the dead by God and brought up to heaven by God."
Reply to Obj. In fact there is no definitive church teaching on the two witnesses other than deduction and hypothesis. The fathers' of the Church disagree on who the two are: Moses and Elijah or Enoch and Elijah. Only the early church historian Eusebius suggested Enoch and some others through the centuries take him up on it. But it is conjecture based on the fact that Enoch in the Pseudepigrapha is said to have been assumed into heaven. The Scripture simply says 'God took him'. However a closer look at the evidence given in the text of Revelation itself equally suggests Moses and he too is said to have been assumed into heaven in the Pseudepigrapha . Moreover Moses and Elijah were seen 'in the flesh' - that is with bodies - by the three apostles Peter, James and John. The description of the two witness in the text of Revelation 11:6 applies clearly to Elijah [lock up the sky so that it does not rain] and to Moses [turn water into blood and strike the world with any plague]. Moses never locked up the sky to cause famine as Elijah did in Israel and Elijah never turned water into blood or struck lands with plagues as Moses did. Enoch did none of these miracles at all.
If we conclude that Moses and Elijah are the two witnesses expected before the Lord's return then we must look to the Gospel to find out the witness promised for the First Coming - we find that it is Elijah. After the disciples have seen Moses and Elijah [Matthew 17:1-8] their very first question to Jesus as then walk back down the mountain is "Why do the scribes say then that Elijah has to come first?" Jesus tells them "that Elijah has come already and they did not recognise him..." [Matthew 17:12] and the "disciples understood then that he had been speaking of John the Baptist." In fact Jesus had told the people about John the Baptist, "he, if you will believe me is the Elijah who was to return." [Matthew 11:14].
We see from these quotes that John the Baptist, the first Witness of Jesus, Behold the Lamb of God, was Elijah in that he was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb... With the spirit and power of Elijah preparing for the Lord a people fit for Him. [Luke 1:16,17]. Jesus himself calls John 'Elijah' when it means the spirit and power of Elijah, one filled with the Holy Spirit. So too for the second Coming. The King of Prophets and the Queen of Prophets, Jesus and Mary have visited our world, Why? to prepare for the Lord a people fit for Him.
The 'silencing' could refer to all the messages that are genuine in the world from Jesus and Mary or the silencing of those persons, prophets, who pass on the words of Jesus and Mary. Vassula in her footnote to March 31, 1995 message speaks of 'The-three-and-a-half days, all heavenly prophecy will be silenced, which will be the time of the reign of the Antichrist.'
The 'assumption' of the two witnesses after a period of tribulation and during the Great Tribulation which we are in now may relate in Vassula's writings to the resumption of the voices of Jesus and Mary being heard through the various prophets around the world to whom Jesus and Mary speak to prepare the world for the second coming. It is right that Vassula interprets this 'assumption' in this spiritual way for Mystical theology, and especially St John of the Cross teaches that the first interpretation of revelation should be spiritual. There may be other levels but the primary one is the spiritual one. This is an important area for Vassula Ryden is consistently accurate in observing this spiritual interpretation throughout all the writings: false prophets never do: they inevitably get into physical chastisements and sometimes dates.
12)
"Then the New Heavens and the New Earth will come upon you, the kingdom of the world will become My Kingdom and I will reign in every heart; the world of the past will be gone; soul, My reign will being in your days:" TLIG message June 3 1993
Conte's Obj. "God will make a new heaven and a new earth..." "The order of events and description of events in Vassula's messages are distorted, disordered, and false."
Reply to Obj. This was another one of the five aspects used for the notification. It was clarified to and accepted by the CDF along with the other four clarifications in Cardinal Ratzinger's letter of July 10 2004 Ref number: Prot. N 54/92-19631. It is reproduced in the clarification booklet prepared for Bishops worldwide but later made available to the laity. Ratzinger personally asked Vassula (she worked with the Vatican for two years on these matters) to put these clarifications in the front of all her books in future. Hence Ratzinger's implicit indication for people to read the books for how could they read the clarification unless they bought the books?
In brief the new heavens and the new earth is the soul in the message from which the isolated text was taken out of context. The Holy Spirit cultivates the 'soil' of the soul to produce virtues and the heavens is when the Holy Spirit governs the person in holiness in the sky [heavens] of the soul. The soul becomes the new heavens and the new earth of holiness and the old earth which was under the domain of sin passes away. This concept is also upheld in Revelation for when there was "a new heaven and a new earth: the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now and there was no more sea" [Rev 21:1] No more sea means no more satan and demons on this new 'earth' for in Holy Scripture the sea is the place from which Satan - the seven headed Leviathan of Revelation's beasts - comes. No more sea means no more direct evil. Satan is cast out of the soul by the accepted descent of the Blessed Trinity into the soul at the true repentance consequent upon the Second Pentecost as explained above under the reply to objection 9.
On the subject of Christ's coming being followed by the Second Pentecost it could be said that His coming in glory in the theophany in which the Spirit flows from the penetrating eyes of Christ into us to reveal our sin that this Spirit enters us a split second later than our instant perception of the figure of Christ. Hence the second Pentecost is 'after' his coming. But that is splitting hairs. To take it further we could say that with our contrition after seeing all our sin when Christ comes and takes up his reign in us either instantaneously or after sacramental confession if mortal sin is involved, He begins his reign on earth then. Again this is splitting hairs. But it will be true that our contrition and confession will wholly cast our Satan from us. The Doctors of the church teach that Satan cannot get into this pure area of holiness seeing that it is in the will and Satan can only tempt us in body and imagination with desires or thoughts. The Second Pentecost/Second Coming experience only takes a few seconds. This is because we are confronted with a vision of pure truth. People with near-death experiences especially in the case of suicide, have a replay of their whole life in the seconds between the bridge and the water into which they have hurled themselves. The visions of sins may take longer as the scenes are revealed before the eye of our soul. But the after affects are lasting. For some people after this they see only some of their sins and all the others 'come up' during the weeks that follow. It only takes a single flash of Divine Truth because in It we see all. This is why the Coming of Christ is described in the Gospel as a flash of lightning from east to west.
What Conte does not do in once again judging Vassula's message from the standpoint of his own chronology of dates, is give the context of this quote concerning the New Heavens and the New Earth. The context is the Day of the Lord whose Coming causes personal reactions of awe and fear such as are seen in the lives of the Saints who had this experience of a flash of God's awesome Holiness and the vision of the spiritual reality of the evil of their sins and even imperfections in the sight of the All-Holy One. In other words, the spiritual interpretation of the New Heavens and the New Earth as being Virtues and the Holy Spirit in the soul fit exactly the state of souls in those who repent at the Vision of the sin and with whose soul Christ unites as we saw in Section 10. In a word, for these souls they experience a New Heaven and a New Earth. For them in the new state of unity with God their Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier as Power, Wisdom and Love it is 'a whole new world'.
13)
satan's activities within the church by way of the apostasy which has set clergy and hierarchy against each other. (February 12 1996)
satan's activities by way of the smoke of the apostasy and replacing the truth with a lie. (July 16 1991)
innocent blood is shed of My sons' and daughters' for satan. (November 24 1991)
satan entering the hearts of God children. (December 24 1991)
satan's hour is here. (December 10 1995) TLIG messages
Conte's Objection "Many messages sound like satan boasting of the harm he will do. This boasting of evil is a common characteristic of false private revelation."
Reply to obj. As noted before for other texts, Conte is not reading the text accurately. This is not of what satan will do but what he is doing. This misreading possibly comes because his judgements are all made by seeing the texts it through the eye of his bias of everything having to fit his date schema (This is on his website).
In regard to satan's activities within the church by way of the apostasy which has set clergy and hierarchy against each other. One only has to look around. Can it be said that Liberalism, Naturalism and Rationalism has not caused rifts among the clergy? Consider how some clergy treat with disdainful comments or mockery Marian priests. We cannot be unaware of fractions and comments in regard to priests and laity who follow Mary or go on pilgrimage to one of her sites: "Running after visions", "Marian fixation" "needing a mother substitute". In regard to Eucharistic Adoration "True Presence obsession.". In regard to holding to the Church teaching Magisterium "rigid and inflexible", in regard to observing the ritual proscribed for Mass, "Legalistic, pharisaical." For upholding the moral teachings of the church, "Lacking in compassion" in regard to overt homosexual behaviour, "homophobic." I am not making these up they are all actual statements and the latter five have been used for turning young men applicants away from the seminaries by the psychology screening tests they have to take to access their suitability for the priesthood.. (cf Goodbye, Good Men by Michael Rose ISBN 0-89526-144-8 available from Amazon.com).
In regard to satan's activities by way of the smoke of the apostasy and replacing the truth with a lie. In Section 7: Reply to Obj: sub Section a)2 fully covers this replacing of the 'Truth with the Lie.'
In regard to innocent blood is shed of My sons' and daughters' for satan: Satanism is rife and innocent children's blood is being shed both by abortion and in satanic rituals. It is true. Only the complacent say these latter things do not exist.
In regard to satan entering the hearts of God children. - just look around in society at the level of immorality, marital break-up and divorce, abortions, crime, murder, violence, theft, the profanation of the Sabbath by trading and the profanation of God's name in the entertainment media, the use of secular laws directly in opposition to God's Laws. These things are not what is going to happen in the future but what is happening here and now as the result of the Spirit of Antichrist.
In regard to satan's hour is here. This self-evident and has been covered in Section 9: Reply to Objection: First Paragraph
These are not what Conte calls the typical "boasting of evil" which "is a common characteristic of false private revelation." These messages are not satanic boasts of the harm in the future but an observation of the facts of daily reality. All these inferences in the words of Vassula's messages are referring to realities. Obviously they need to be said for people like Conte do not know they are going on. In the True Life in God Messages God who so loves us is deploring with sadness the evils among us and begging us with tender appeals of love and compassion to return to Him with prayer and repentance and to encourage others to do so. Conte does not seem to see the compassionate heart of our God exposing in word through Vassula the desire of His Sacred Heart which is to see us come back to Him.
14)
"I will allow the Dragon to bite this sinful generation and hurl a Fire the world has never seen before or will ever come to see again, to burn her innumerable crimes..." TLIG Messages December 24 1991
Conte's Objection "This last message goes so far as to claim that the afflictions that will come upon the world are from Satan, not from God. To the contrary, the Book of Revelation declares that Christ is the only one who can open the Seven seals, which bring great afflictions on the earth. Such sufferings are sent by God to correct us...Such messages are not true private revelation from Heaven."
Reply to Obj. a) Once again the text has not been read accurately. Vassula mentions a particular type of affliction and not all the afflictions there are to come upon the world as if it were all of them as Conte wrongly deduces. Nevertheless it remains true that in Holy Scripture it is very evident that sometimes God sends plagues and sometimes the demons effect them. Satan sent disaster after disaster upon Job but only insofar as God allowed him to do so. The pagan magicians using powers of evil at Pharaoh's court replicated many of the plagues of Egypt up to a certain point but not beyond it: the demonic power is limited and the magicians could not go beyond what God permits and they recognised this and said, 'The Finger of God is here'. [Exodus 8:15/19]. Scripture shows us the afflictions suffered by the woman bent double by satan for 18 years: And this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has held bound these eighteen years, was it not right to untie her bonds on the Sabbath day? [Luke 13:16]. Saint Cyril, bishop and doctor of the church, says in regard to this text that Jesus
"says, spirit of infirmity, because the woman suffered from the cruelty of the devil, forsaken by God because of her own crimes or for the transgressions of Adam, on account of which the bodies of men incur infirmity and death. But God gives this power to the Devil, to the end that men when pressed down by the weight of their adversity might betake them to better things" {Quoted in St. Thomas Aquinas' Catena Aurea. Pub. by St Austin's Press].
It is quite possible that Satan or the angels of Satan torture the damned in Hell when the Holy Scriptures certainly reveal Satan or the angels of Satan torturing people here on earth. 1 Corinthians 1:1 tells us of Saint Paul's horror concerning 'a ,man living with his fathers wife....' So Paul instructs the Church at Corinth [in verse 5] '...you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord'. Elsewhere Paul writes to Timothy, By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith, among them Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. [1 Timothy 1:18]. Paul also attributes to an angel of Satan his being beaten, Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. [2 Cor 12:7]. Jesus also speaks of men being tortured by torturers if they do not forgive their brother from their heart in the parable of the servant forgiven a great debt and demanding a very small debt repayment from one of his debtors - "...the master handed him over to the tortures till he should pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart." Surely these torturers in the parable are not speaking of torturers this world but the next. Who else are the torturers but the demons as Saint Paul indicates?
Scripture reveals many times when God allows evil to triumph in order to procure a greater good: the repentance of man. Indeed, the curses of the law for breaking the ten commandments are an invocation to evil (that is precisely what a curse is) to come upon those who sin: cf Deuteronomy 27:12ff. and look at the effect of the evil of those curses in Leviticus 26: 14ff. It will be seen upon analysis that they consist of plague, war, famine and land desolation [due to wild animals which made living in an area impossible in those days]. These four evils from the curses are exactly the curses at work in Revelation and which would have been recognised by the Jews when all four came upon them for the final breaking of the Covenant with God.
On the cross Jesus took the curse of the law on himself but if we sin even after confession (the church teaches) we may have 'dark areas' due to weakness or 'imperfect contrition' [terminology: CFLCL-Ch.4 QB# 1. Penitence. Sect 1.b. The technical word for this is attrition] This 'dark area' is a key for the deliverance ministry for this is the point where evil spirits can get a foothold with the right to be there - dark dwells in dark - and very often these spirits cause afflictions. Many people are healed of physical ailments or diseases when spirits are cast out which have no ostensible link to the type of spirit exorcised. We notice too that sometimes the demon convulsed and threw down the person Jesus was exorcising and at other times did not harm the person at all [cf Mark 9:26 and Luke 4:35 respectively]. There is no doubt that God does allow satan and other evil spirits to inflict afflictions. Notice in Vassula's message Jesus words are of authority "I will allow the Dragon..." But always these sufferings are meant to bring us to repentance.
Reply to Obj. b) In regard to I will allow the Dragon to bite this sinful generation and hurl a Fire It should be noted that in the above message the word 'fire' is used in prophecy in four ways as it is based in the Hebrew tradition and Jesus throughout Vassula's writings uses Hebraic expressions.* Fire can mean plague for one 'burns' with fever. It can mean war for the slashing sword catching the sun takes on the fiery appearance of lightning. It can mean famine for the sun has scorched the land and land desolation for hailstones in the lightning storm has smashed down all the fields. Any of these four constitute the four great afflictions meted out by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which are not holy angels. This reveals to us that we are under the same 'curse' of the Law if we step outside the covenant based in the Ten Commandments - this was not revoked by the New Covenant in Jesus Blood. Jesus took the curse of the law on Himself but if by sin we step outside of the light of the Cross into the darkness we give the right for any of these things to come upon us. Indeed, the evil spirits tempt us to sin precisely so that they can use us to plague or destroy us. They have not learned that the suffering will affect repentance. Thus does God use evil spirits. Saint Francis of Assisi calls them 'God's policemen' for this very reason.
The fact that God allows evil spirits to afflict us is not to say that he does not sometimes let His holy angels inflict them. We see from the bowls poured out on the land, sea, grass etc that a third of each suffers. A third means not all - not universal but plagues here, wars there and famine elsewhere. And it may be that they are direct from God via the angels. Certainly angels stop plagues (St Michael in Rome) and certainly angels bring chastisements (Fatima vision). So we can accept either good or evil angel may be God's instrument. Vassula cannot be condemned for saying that Satan will inflict some chastisements.
* see the article Recognisably Jewish
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