MY VIEW

I briefly discussed private revelations as well as an interesting quote from Pope Benedict XVI on the meaning of Revelation in my last post. The reason I did this was that my view of the Second Pentecost of the Church has been strongly affected by two contemporary visionaries who have received private revelations. These are not what I would consider recent, private revelations. In both cases, they have been occurring over more than 19 years. I have been reading them for more than 15 years. As I did, much to my surprise, I slowly began getting a better understanding of Holy Scripture!

In the early Church, it was commonly believed that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent. This is not surprising considering some of the statements we find in the Bible. For example, in the First Letter of John, he writes these words: “My children, this is the last hour! You were told that the Antichrist was to come, and now many antichrists have appeared; which proves to us that this is indeed the last hour.” (1 John 2:18) In Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 24 refers to prophecies and warnings. We read that the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked Him: “Tell us, when will this happen? And what will be the signal for your coming and the end of the age?” (Matt. 24:3) Jesus tells them that the “Time is coming when you will hear the noise of battle near at hand and the news of battles far away; see that you are not alarmed. Such things are bound to happen; but the end is still to come. For nation will make war upon nation, kingdom upon kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes in many places. With all these things the birth-pangs of the new age begin.” (Matt. 24: 6-8) Jesus tells them to learn a lesson from the fig-tree, that as the tree starts to leaf that the summer is not far away. Jesus continues: “In the same way, when you see all these things, you may know that the end is near, at the very door. I tell you this: the present generation will live to see it all.” (Matt. 24:33-34)

To be continued in the next post.