| Devotion to Our Lady |
|
THE WAR ZONE
Heaven Has Forecast Many Wars for Our Present Era!
What Do We Know? What Can We Do?
Heaven Has Forecast Many Wars for Our Present Era!
What Do We Know? What Can We Do?
scroll down to the bottom of the page for the latest article
Article 1
War in Holy Scripture & Prophecies
War in Holy Scripture & Prophecies
War in Heaven
Wars have existed from the beginning of Creation! The first war was an angelic war―between the obedient angels and the disobedient angels, the good angels and the bad angels. “And there was a great battle in Heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels―and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the Earth, and his angels were thrown down with him!” (Apocalypse 12:7-9).
To this may be added the words of St. Jude: “And the angels who kept not their principality, but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains, unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6) … “God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower Hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4).
In the Old Testament we have a brief reference to the Fall in Job 4:18: “In His angels He found wickedness!” But to this must be added the two classic texts in the prophets: “How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer―who didst rise in the morning? How art thou fallen to the Earth―that didst wound the nations? And thou saidst in thy heart: ‘I will ascend into Heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north! I will ascend above the height of the clouds! I will be like the most High!’ But yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell―into the depth of the pit” (Isaias 14:12-15). The older biblical commentators generally consider that this interpretation is confirmed by the words of Our Lord to His disciples: “I saw Satan, like lightning, falling from Heaven!” (Luke 10:18).
A parallel prophetic passage is Ezechiel’s lamentation, which commentators apply doubly to both the king of Tyre and to Lucifer, the bearer of light, who is Satan: “You were the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in the pleasures of the paradise of God; every precious stone was thy covering; the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle, and the emerald; gold the work of your beauty: and your pipes were prepared in the day that you were created. You a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set you in the holy mountain of God, you have walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your wave from the day of creation, until iniquity was found in you!” (Ezekiel 28:12-15).
War is in Satan’s DNA
Since his battle with St. Michael and the good angels and his fall from Heaven, Satan has fomented wars from the beginning of time―whether it be his ceaseless war against God, or “war” between two or several people, or whether it be a war between nations. War divides people―and Satan’s ultimate tactic is to “divide and conquer”. He creates rifts within families; schisms in the Church; divisions among nations. He knows that if he can divide, then he can conquer―Our Lord said the very same thing: “And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand! And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand!” (Mark 3:24-25).
Anyone waging war will attack at the weakest point. Our weakest point, in general, is Original Sin and the wounds and scars it has left behind. The chief wounds to our human nature are those of concupiscence of the eyes, concupiscence of the flesh or body, and the pride of life. Each of these has multiple sub-categories. Everyone is different in this regard―some are tempted more by one thing, others by something else. The devil observes, analyzes, plans and attacks.
Fr. Ludovic Barrielle, in his booklet, Rules for Discerning the Spirits, writes: “‘The life of man is a battle upon Earth’, said Job. We must expect to fight continually for the whole of our lives ... A commander‑in‑chief who wants to attack a town sends in his spies first, to find the weakest and least fortified point before he decides where to attack. Likewise, the devil “roams about us,” as St. Peter says, looking for our weak points in order to attack them ... The devil uses everything when coming to tempt you … The devils, as well as the good angels, are pure spirits. We do not see them … The difficulty is that in these battles, where we defend our souls from the attacks of the devil, one does not see the enemy―just as the eyes of our body do not see the celestial spirits that God sends to aid us … St. Paul writes in the last chapter of his letter to the Ephesians: ‘Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and stand in all things perfect!’
“Remember the principle: ‘One must not play with the devil!’ Woe to him who consents to dialogue with the devil―for he is much stronger that we are! Eve succumbed because she ‘played’ with the devil. After having told her that God had forbidden the eating of a certain fruit, the devil followed up with new reasons. Instead of cutting him short, she started to discuss with him … Jesus said in the Gospels: ‘Watch and pray!’ Woe to the Christian that is not on his guard! The devil will do with his soul as he pleases if he is not alert ... ‘All trouble comes from the devil,’ said St. John Berchmans … The devil is eternally sad―he cannot get rid of his sadness. As soon as he comes near you he communicates his sadness without even so much as wanting to do so … The devil also excels in making the practice of virtue seem too difficult; he blows out of proportion all the difficulties. How many people think that a really Christian life is impossible, that there are insurmountable difficulties in saving oneself! Discouragement is the work of the devil … The devil is a liar―he is always confusing you … Fallacious reasoning is also an unmistakable sign of the devil. One must be very skeptical of certain false theories. Note well the six signs of the devil: sadness, regret, impediments, disturbance, false reasonings, discouragement.”
Satan and War
Holy Scripture foretells that “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth, and seduce the nations, which are over the four quarters of the Earth” (Apocalypse 20:7). Our Lady also mentions this and adds that Satan will cause division in every society and every family: “God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell. They will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... The cursed demon will achieve his victories by means of plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls … During this period, there will be bloody wars and famines … Various nations will be annihilated! … There will be a formidable and frightful war, in which both native and foreign blood will flow, including that of secular and regular priests, as well as that of other religious ... France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets ... Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes … Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling! ... This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph … There will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed ... People will believe that all is lost!” (Our Lady of Good Success, La Salette, Fatima).
Wars are a Punishment for Sin
St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima, before she died, revealed: “Our Lady said that there are many wars and discords in the world. Wars are only punishments for the sins of the world. She stated that she could not hold back the arm of her Beloved Son upon the world anymore!” These words merely echo the words of Our Lady of La Salette, who said: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth!” It only seems right and just that, if men choose to “declare war” on God through sin, then men should also have war declared upon themselves as consequent punishment―“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap!” (Galatians 6:7-8). If we merely stand by and allow millions of unborn babies to be slaughtered in the abortion war, then is it not right and just that God should stand by and allow millions of us to be slaughtered (“aborted”) in wars as a consequent punishment for insufficient action in preventing abortions?
Some Prophecies Concerning the Great War in Our Times
► HEPIDANUS, a Swiss monk in the 11th century, prophesied: “From North to South, the world will be split into two mighty hosts. The North will march against the South, the son against the father ... A gloomy cloud will appear, and a terrible tempest will come forth from this cloud. It will consume a third of mankind, still living then. And it will destroy a third of all the crops, villages and cities―and there will be a great misery and lamentation ... A mighty empire will vanish thereafter, and another will take its place. From the East blows a storm, from the West a hurricane howls; woe to those who come into the sphere of this bloody whirlpool.”
► ST. HILDEGARD OF BINGEN (1098-1179) states that “Toward the end of the world, mankind will be purified through sufferings ... many nations, the good excepted, will be scoured with want and famine.”
► JOHANNES FRIEDE, an Austrian monk of the Order of St. John, who died in 1257, prophesied: “When the great time will come, in which mankind will face its last, hard trial, it will be foreshadowed by striking changes in nature; the alteration between cold and heat will become more intensive, storms will have more catastrophic effects, earthquakes will destroy greater regions and the seas will overflow many lowlands. Not all of it will be the result of natural causes, but man will penetrate into the bowels of the Earth and will reach into the clouds, gambling with its own existence ... The powers of destruction will succeed in their design.”
► VENERABLE BARTHOLOMEW HOLZHAUSER (1613-1658), a Bavarian priest, healer and ecclesiastical writer, prophesied that “Jesus Christ will purify His people through cruel wars, famines, plagues, epidemics, and other horrible calamities.”
► LUDWIG EMMERICH’S book, Die Zukunft der Welt (The Future of the World), contained this interesting prophecy from a 17th century German monk: “The twentieth century will be a period of terror and misery. In that century everything evil and disagreeable that can be imagined will happen. In many countries, the princes will rise up against their father, the citizens against authority, the children against their parents, the pagans against God, entire peoples against the established order. A civil war will break out, in which almost all the world will be turned upside down. Financial disasters and ruin of property will cause many tears to fall. Men will be without mind and without piety. Poisoned clouds and rays which can burn more deeply than the equatorial sun; iron armies marching; flying vessels full of terrible bombs and of arrow, fatal flying stars and sulphuric fire destroying great cities. This century will be the most perverse of all because men will raise themselves up and destroy each other mutually.”
► FR. NECTOU, the Jesuit Provincial in the South West of France, who died in 1777, prophesied: “The confusion will be so general that men will not be able to think aright ... At that time there will be such a terrible crisis that people will believe that the end of the world has come. Blood will flow in many large cities. The very elements will be convulsed. It will be like a little General Judgment. A great multitude of people will lose their lives in those calamitous times, but the wicked will not prevail. They will indeed attempt to destroy the whole Church, but not enough time will be allowed them, because the frightful crisis will be of short duration. When all is considered lost, all will be found safe ... During this revolution, which will be general and not confined to France, Paris will be destroyed so completely that twenty years afterwards, fathers walking over its ruins with their children will be asked by them what kind of place that was; to whom they will answer: ‘My child, this was a great city which God has destroyed on account of her crimes!’”
► BLESSED ANNA MARIA TAIGI (1769-1837) relates her vision: “God will send two punishments: one will be in the form of wars, revolutions and other evils; it shall originate on earth. The other will be sent from Heaven.”
► FR. SOUFFRANT, who died in 1828, prophesied: “Before the Grand Monarch appears, terrible misfortunes are to arrive. The blood will flow in torrents, in the north and the south; the west will be spared because of its Faith. But the blood will color so much to the north and to the south, that I see it flow like rain in a day of great storm. Paris will be destroyed ... “The Grand Monarch will do things so astonishing and so marvelous that the most unbelieving will be forced to recognize the finger of God. In his reign all justice will be rendered. Some time before this restoration, it will be necessary to sustain an alien war; for that there will be a great levy of men, all the ones of eighteen to thirty years will be gone. All the forces of government are gripped by this alien power; the interior of France will revolt. The civil crisis will be directed above all against religion... the shock will be terrible. They will battle from the south to the north. However, this crisis will not be long, but in it will perish more men. The ruler of Russia will come as far as the River Rhine [in Germany], but an invisible hand will stop him―he will recognize the hand of God, and so he will be made Catholic. At the moment one will believe all is lost, all will be won, for one will turn around by the way of God.”
► MITAR TARABICH, who lived from 1829 to 1899, was a Serbian peasant whose gift of prophecy is uncanny with accurate predictions about Serbian and European affairs and the world’s future: “After the Great War (the Second World War), peace will reign all over the world. Many new states will appear ... black, white, red and yellow. An international court is formed, which does not allow countries to fight each other. This court will be above all kings … After a while some great kings, as well as some small ones, will start to fake their respect for the Court, while doing whatever they please... Many small wars will begin because of this... Thousands upon thousands will die … There will be a few wars around the Kingdom of Israel … In these wars, brothers fight brothers; then they make peace and kiss each other, but their hatred remains ... All these small wars are initiated by the great kingdoms, because of their wickedness and malice. The greatest and the angriest will strike against the mightiest and the most furious! When this horrible war starts, woe to those armies that fly over skies; better off will be those who fight on ground and water. People waging this war will have their scientists who will invent different and strange cannon-balls. When they explode, these cannon-balls, instead of killing, will cast a spell over all that lives ― people, armies and livestock. This spell will put them to sleep, and sleep they will instead of fight; and after, they will come back to their senses.
“The evil ones will do evil deeds. They will poison air and water and spread pestilence over the seas, rivers and earth, and people will start to die suddenly of various ailments. Those good and wise will see that all this leads to the destruction of the world … but it will be too late because the evil ones will already ravage the whole Earth, and men will start to die in great numbers. The whole world will be plagued by a strange disease, and nobody will be able to find a cure. Everybody will say ― ‘I know, I know, because I am learned and smart!’ ― but nobody will know anything. People will think and think, but they will not be able to find the right cure, which will be with God’s help, all around them and in themselves ... Then people will run away from the cities to the country and there they will be able to breathe and drink water. Those who escape will save themselves and their families, but not for long because a great famine will appear. There will be plenty of food in towns and villages, but it will be poisoned. Many will eat because of hunger and die immediately. Those who will fast to the end will survive, because the Holy Ghost will save them and they will be close to God.”
► BLESSED ANNE CATHERINE EMMERICH was a German visionary and stigmatic who died in 1824. She was gifted with a lifetime of visions, of which one part was as follows: “All around me I see a terrible, bloody war, which approaches from Midnight, the North, and Evening, the East ... I saw countries and people in the greatest of distress, and fighting each other violently. In the center of the battleground was a giant abyss, into which the warring factions seemed to fall.”
► BROTHER LOUIS ROCCO (19th century) prophesied: “Terrible wars will rage all over Europe. God has long been patient with the corruption of morals; half of mankind He will destroy. Russia will witness many outrages. Great cities and small towns alike will be destroyed in a bloody revolution that will cause the death of half the population.”
► SR. ROSA COLUMBA OF TAGGIA, who died in 1847, received this vision of the future: “A great revolution will spread over all of Europe … A lawless democratic spirit of disorder shall reign supreme throughout all Europe. There will be a general overthrow. There shall be a great confusion of people against people, and nations against nations, with clashing of arms and beating of drums. The Russians and Prussians shall come to make war in Italy.”
► SR. MARIE OF JESUS CRUCIFIED, a French nun, was given a glimpse of the apocalypse [therefore not the First or Second World Wars] just before her death in 1878. She relates: “All states will be shaken by war and civil conflict.”
► COUNTESS FRANCESCA DE BILLIANTE, in the early 1900's, prophesied the following: “I see yellow warriors and red warriors marching against Europe. Europe will be completely covered with a yellow fog that will kill the cattle in the fields. Those nations which have rebelled against the law of Christ will perish by fire. Europe will then be too large for them who survive.”
► POPE ST. PIUS X, in 1909, received a vision, of which relates: “I saw that the present wickedness of the world is only the beginning of the sorrows which must take place before the end of the world.”
► POPE PIUS XII (reigned 1939 to 1958), added: “We believe that the present hour is a dread phase of the events foretold by Christ. It seems that darkness is about to fall on the world. Humanity is in the grip of a supreme crisis.”
Wars have existed from the beginning of Creation! The first war was an angelic war―between the obedient angels and the disobedient angels, the good angels and the bad angels. “And there was a great battle in Heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels―and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the Earth, and his angels were thrown down with him!” (Apocalypse 12:7-9).
To this may be added the words of St. Jude: “And the angels who kept not their principality, but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains, unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6) … “God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower Hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4).
In the Old Testament we have a brief reference to the Fall in Job 4:18: “In His angels He found wickedness!” But to this must be added the two classic texts in the prophets: “How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer―who didst rise in the morning? How art thou fallen to the Earth―that didst wound the nations? And thou saidst in thy heart: ‘I will ascend into Heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north! I will ascend above the height of the clouds! I will be like the most High!’ But yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell―into the depth of the pit” (Isaias 14:12-15). The older biblical commentators generally consider that this interpretation is confirmed by the words of Our Lord to His disciples: “I saw Satan, like lightning, falling from Heaven!” (Luke 10:18).
A parallel prophetic passage is Ezechiel’s lamentation, which commentators apply doubly to both the king of Tyre and to Lucifer, the bearer of light, who is Satan: “You were the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in the pleasures of the paradise of God; every precious stone was thy covering; the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle, and the emerald; gold the work of your beauty: and your pipes were prepared in the day that you were created. You a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set you in the holy mountain of God, you have walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your wave from the day of creation, until iniquity was found in you!” (Ezekiel 28:12-15).
War is in Satan’s DNA
Since his battle with St. Michael and the good angels and his fall from Heaven, Satan has fomented wars from the beginning of time―whether it be his ceaseless war against God, or “war” between two or several people, or whether it be a war between nations. War divides people―and Satan’s ultimate tactic is to “divide and conquer”. He creates rifts within families; schisms in the Church; divisions among nations. He knows that if he can divide, then he can conquer―Our Lord said the very same thing: “And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand! And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand!” (Mark 3:24-25).
Anyone waging war will attack at the weakest point. Our weakest point, in general, is Original Sin and the wounds and scars it has left behind. The chief wounds to our human nature are those of concupiscence of the eyes, concupiscence of the flesh or body, and the pride of life. Each of these has multiple sub-categories. Everyone is different in this regard―some are tempted more by one thing, others by something else. The devil observes, analyzes, plans and attacks.
Fr. Ludovic Barrielle, in his booklet, Rules for Discerning the Spirits, writes: “‘The life of man is a battle upon Earth’, said Job. We must expect to fight continually for the whole of our lives ... A commander‑in‑chief who wants to attack a town sends in his spies first, to find the weakest and least fortified point before he decides where to attack. Likewise, the devil “roams about us,” as St. Peter says, looking for our weak points in order to attack them ... The devil uses everything when coming to tempt you … The devils, as well as the good angels, are pure spirits. We do not see them … The difficulty is that in these battles, where we defend our souls from the attacks of the devil, one does not see the enemy―just as the eyes of our body do not see the celestial spirits that God sends to aid us … St. Paul writes in the last chapter of his letter to the Ephesians: ‘Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and stand in all things perfect!’
“Remember the principle: ‘One must not play with the devil!’ Woe to him who consents to dialogue with the devil―for he is much stronger that we are! Eve succumbed because she ‘played’ with the devil. After having told her that God had forbidden the eating of a certain fruit, the devil followed up with new reasons. Instead of cutting him short, she started to discuss with him … Jesus said in the Gospels: ‘Watch and pray!’ Woe to the Christian that is not on his guard! The devil will do with his soul as he pleases if he is not alert ... ‘All trouble comes from the devil,’ said St. John Berchmans … The devil is eternally sad―he cannot get rid of his sadness. As soon as he comes near you he communicates his sadness without even so much as wanting to do so … The devil also excels in making the practice of virtue seem too difficult; he blows out of proportion all the difficulties. How many people think that a really Christian life is impossible, that there are insurmountable difficulties in saving oneself! Discouragement is the work of the devil … The devil is a liar―he is always confusing you … Fallacious reasoning is also an unmistakable sign of the devil. One must be very skeptical of certain false theories. Note well the six signs of the devil: sadness, regret, impediments, disturbance, false reasonings, discouragement.”
Satan and War
Holy Scripture foretells that “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth, and seduce the nations, which are over the four quarters of the Earth” (Apocalypse 20:7). Our Lady also mentions this and adds that Satan will cause division in every society and every family: “God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell. They will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... The cursed demon will achieve his victories by means of plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls … During this period, there will be bloody wars and famines … Various nations will be annihilated! … There will be a formidable and frightful war, in which both native and foreign blood will flow, including that of secular and regular priests, as well as that of other religious ... France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets ... Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes … Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling! ... This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph … There will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed ... People will believe that all is lost!” (Our Lady of Good Success, La Salette, Fatima).
Wars are a Punishment for Sin
St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima, before she died, revealed: “Our Lady said that there are many wars and discords in the world. Wars are only punishments for the sins of the world. She stated that she could not hold back the arm of her Beloved Son upon the world anymore!” These words merely echo the words of Our Lady of La Salette, who said: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth!” It only seems right and just that, if men choose to “declare war” on God through sin, then men should also have war declared upon themselves as consequent punishment―“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap!” (Galatians 6:7-8). If we merely stand by and allow millions of unborn babies to be slaughtered in the abortion war, then is it not right and just that God should stand by and allow millions of us to be slaughtered (“aborted”) in wars as a consequent punishment for insufficient action in preventing abortions?
Some Prophecies Concerning the Great War in Our Times
► HEPIDANUS, a Swiss monk in the 11th century, prophesied: “From North to South, the world will be split into two mighty hosts. The North will march against the South, the son against the father ... A gloomy cloud will appear, and a terrible tempest will come forth from this cloud. It will consume a third of mankind, still living then. And it will destroy a third of all the crops, villages and cities―and there will be a great misery and lamentation ... A mighty empire will vanish thereafter, and another will take its place. From the East blows a storm, from the West a hurricane howls; woe to those who come into the sphere of this bloody whirlpool.”
► ST. HILDEGARD OF BINGEN (1098-1179) states that “Toward the end of the world, mankind will be purified through sufferings ... many nations, the good excepted, will be scoured with want and famine.”
► JOHANNES FRIEDE, an Austrian monk of the Order of St. John, who died in 1257, prophesied: “When the great time will come, in which mankind will face its last, hard trial, it will be foreshadowed by striking changes in nature; the alteration between cold and heat will become more intensive, storms will have more catastrophic effects, earthquakes will destroy greater regions and the seas will overflow many lowlands. Not all of it will be the result of natural causes, but man will penetrate into the bowels of the Earth and will reach into the clouds, gambling with its own existence ... The powers of destruction will succeed in their design.”
► VENERABLE BARTHOLOMEW HOLZHAUSER (1613-1658), a Bavarian priest, healer and ecclesiastical writer, prophesied that “Jesus Christ will purify His people through cruel wars, famines, plagues, epidemics, and other horrible calamities.”
► LUDWIG EMMERICH’S book, Die Zukunft der Welt (The Future of the World), contained this interesting prophecy from a 17th century German monk: “The twentieth century will be a period of terror and misery. In that century everything evil and disagreeable that can be imagined will happen. In many countries, the princes will rise up against their father, the citizens against authority, the children against their parents, the pagans against God, entire peoples against the established order. A civil war will break out, in which almost all the world will be turned upside down. Financial disasters and ruin of property will cause many tears to fall. Men will be without mind and without piety. Poisoned clouds and rays which can burn more deeply than the equatorial sun; iron armies marching; flying vessels full of terrible bombs and of arrow, fatal flying stars and sulphuric fire destroying great cities. This century will be the most perverse of all because men will raise themselves up and destroy each other mutually.”
► FR. NECTOU, the Jesuit Provincial in the South West of France, who died in 1777, prophesied: “The confusion will be so general that men will not be able to think aright ... At that time there will be such a terrible crisis that people will believe that the end of the world has come. Blood will flow in many large cities. The very elements will be convulsed. It will be like a little General Judgment. A great multitude of people will lose their lives in those calamitous times, but the wicked will not prevail. They will indeed attempt to destroy the whole Church, but not enough time will be allowed them, because the frightful crisis will be of short duration. When all is considered lost, all will be found safe ... During this revolution, which will be general and not confined to France, Paris will be destroyed so completely that twenty years afterwards, fathers walking over its ruins with their children will be asked by them what kind of place that was; to whom they will answer: ‘My child, this was a great city which God has destroyed on account of her crimes!’”
► BLESSED ANNA MARIA TAIGI (1769-1837) relates her vision: “God will send two punishments: one will be in the form of wars, revolutions and other evils; it shall originate on earth. The other will be sent from Heaven.”
► FR. SOUFFRANT, who died in 1828, prophesied: “Before the Grand Monarch appears, terrible misfortunes are to arrive. The blood will flow in torrents, in the north and the south; the west will be spared because of its Faith. But the blood will color so much to the north and to the south, that I see it flow like rain in a day of great storm. Paris will be destroyed ... “The Grand Monarch will do things so astonishing and so marvelous that the most unbelieving will be forced to recognize the finger of God. In his reign all justice will be rendered. Some time before this restoration, it will be necessary to sustain an alien war; for that there will be a great levy of men, all the ones of eighteen to thirty years will be gone. All the forces of government are gripped by this alien power; the interior of France will revolt. The civil crisis will be directed above all against religion... the shock will be terrible. They will battle from the south to the north. However, this crisis will not be long, but in it will perish more men. The ruler of Russia will come as far as the River Rhine [in Germany], but an invisible hand will stop him―he will recognize the hand of God, and so he will be made Catholic. At the moment one will believe all is lost, all will be won, for one will turn around by the way of God.”
► MITAR TARABICH, who lived from 1829 to 1899, was a Serbian peasant whose gift of prophecy is uncanny with accurate predictions about Serbian and European affairs and the world’s future: “After the Great War (the Second World War), peace will reign all over the world. Many new states will appear ... black, white, red and yellow. An international court is formed, which does not allow countries to fight each other. This court will be above all kings … After a while some great kings, as well as some small ones, will start to fake their respect for the Court, while doing whatever they please... Many small wars will begin because of this... Thousands upon thousands will die … There will be a few wars around the Kingdom of Israel … In these wars, brothers fight brothers; then they make peace and kiss each other, but their hatred remains ... All these small wars are initiated by the great kingdoms, because of their wickedness and malice. The greatest and the angriest will strike against the mightiest and the most furious! When this horrible war starts, woe to those armies that fly over skies; better off will be those who fight on ground and water. People waging this war will have their scientists who will invent different and strange cannon-balls. When they explode, these cannon-balls, instead of killing, will cast a spell over all that lives ― people, armies and livestock. This spell will put them to sleep, and sleep they will instead of fight; and after, they will come back to their senses.
“The evil ones will do evil deeds. They will poison air and water and spread pestilence over the seas, rivers and earth, and people will start to die suddenly of various ailments. Those good and wise will see that all this leads to the destruction of the world … but it will be too late because the evil ones will already ravage the whole Earth, and men will start to die in great numbers. The whole world will be plagued by a strange disease, and nobody will be able to find a cure. Everybody will say ― ‘I know, I know, because I am learned and smart!’ ― but nobody will know anything. People will think and think, but they will not be able to find the right cure, which will be with God’s help, all around them and in themselves ... Then people will run away from the cities to the country and there they will be able to breathe and drink water. Those who escape will save themselves and their families, but not for long because a great famine will appear. There will be plenty of food in towns and villages, but it will be poisoned. Many will eat because of hunger and die immediately. Those who will fast to the end will survive, because the Holy Ghost will save them and they will be close to God.”
► BLESSED ANNE CATHERINE EMMERICH was a German visionary and stigmatic who died in 1824. She was gifted with a lifetime of visions, of which one part was as follows: “All around me I see a terrible, bloody war, which approaches from Midnight, the North, and Evening, the East ... I saw countries and people in the greatest of distress, and fighting each other violently. In the center of the battleground was a giant abyss, into which the warring factions seemed to fall.”
► BROTHER LOUIS ROCCO (19th century) prophesied: “Terrible wars will rage all over Europe. God has long been patient with the corruption of morals; half of mankind He will destroy. Russia will witness many outrages. Great cities and small towns alike will be destroyed in a bloody revolution that will cause the death of half the population.”
► SR. ROSA COLUMBA OF TAGGIA, who died in 1847, received this vision of the future: “A great revolution will spread over all of Europe … A lawless democratic spirit of disorder shall reign supreme throughout all Europe. There will be a general overthrow. There shall be a great confusion of people against people, and nations against nations, with clashing of arms and beating of drums. The Russians and Prussians shall come to make war in Italy.”
► SR. MARIE OF JESUS CRUCIFIED, a French nun, was given a glimpse of the apocalypse [therefore not the First or Second World Wars] just before her death in 1878. She relates: “All states will be shaken by war and civil conflict.”
► COUNTESS FRANCESCA DE BILLIANTE, in the early 1900's, prophesied the following: “I see yellow warriors and red warriors marching against Europe. Europe will be completely covered with a yellow fog that will kill the cattle in the fields. Those nations which have rebelled against the law of Christ will perish by fire. Europe will then be too large for them who survive.”
► POPE ST. PIUS X, in 1909, received a vision, of which relates: “I saw that the present wickedness of the world is only the beginning of the sorrows which must take place before the end of the world.”
► POPE PIUS XII (reigned 1939 to 1958), added: “We believe that the present hour is a dread phase of the events foretold by Christ. It seems that darkness is about to fall on the world. Humanity is in the grip of a supreme crisis.”
Article 2
How God Uses War
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back regularly.
How God Uses War
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back regularly.
More Wars Than You Thought!
Since 3600 B.C., the world has only known around 290 years of peace. During this period it is estimated that there have been over 14,500 wars. An estimated 3,640,000,000 (3.6 billion) lives have been lost in them―which is around half of the current world population. War, so costly. War, so awful. The dying, the maiming, the losses, the scars. Those who are not scarred physically, are still likely to be scarred emotionally and mentally. War bookmarks history and lives. We divide history into pre-war and post-war eras. People are remembered as ones who fought in such-and-such war. The smoke of battle lingers long after the bodies are buried and the armistice is signed. Why does God allow it?
Why All These Wars?
There are two very general, broad and multi-faceted reasons behind wars. The first general reason is that war is a fruit of sin. The second reason―which is connected to the first―is that war is a tool of God’s justice, which He uses to punish and correct. Our Lady―in her many apparitions―has indicated the same principle.
Our Lady of La Salette said: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth! … Sins cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! … There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases … There will be a series of wars … Italy will be punished for her ambition in wanting to shake off the yoke of the Lord of Lords―and so she will be left to fight a war; blood will flow on all sides ... Pagan Rome will disappear … France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling ... Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy.”
Our Lady of Good Success said: “The cursed demon taking will achieve his victories by means of foreign and faithless people so numerous that, like a black cloud, it will obscure the pure heavens. With these people, every type of vice will enter, calling down in turn every type of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls so dear to Jesus Christ and to me. In order to dissipate this black cloud, there will be a formidable and frightful war, in which both native and foreign blood will flow, including that of secular and regular priests as well as that of other religious. This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph!”
Our Lady of Fatima added: “The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse war will break out! … God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war and famine! … Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, and various nations will be annihilated!” Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!”
St. Jacinta Marto―one of the three seers at Fatima―revealed shortly before her death: “Our Lady said that there are many wars and discords in the world. Wars are only punishments for the sins of the world. She stated that she could not hold back the arm of her Beloved Son upon the world anymore. It is necessary to do penance. If people amend themselves, Our Lord shall still come to the aid of the world. If they do not amend themselves, punishment shall come.”
God Threatens War for Sinfulness
If you read the 26th chapter of the Book of Leviticus, you will see that God prefers not to have war―but if we sin against God, then He will use war as a means of correction. Here are some extracts from that chapter―though you should read the entire chapter yourself:
“I am the Lord your God! If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, I will give you peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid … and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand―your enemies shall fall before you by the sword … I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people ... But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, then I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you ... I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! … I will bring your cities to be a wilderness, and I will make your sanctuaries desolate … I will destroy your land and I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed ... And as to them that shall remain of you I will send fear in their hearts in the countries of their enemies, the sound of a flying leaf shall terrify them, and they shall flee as it were from the sword: they shall fall, when no man pursueth them, and they shall every one fall upon their brethren as fleeing from wars, none of you shall dare to resist your enemies. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will walk them, and bring them into their enemies’ land until their minds be ashamed: then shall they pray for their sins!” (Leviticus 26:1-45).
As that masterpiece of a book ― Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence ― points out: “God controls all events, whether good or bad. Nothing happens in the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must be taken absolutely of everything―with the exception of sin. ‘Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives’ is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, ‘and God intervenes everywhere’ … ‘I am the Lord,’ He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet Isaias, ‘and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.’ … ‘It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them,’ He said to Moses ... ‘The Lord killeth and maketh alive,’ it is written in the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel … ‘He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again; the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, He humbleth and He exalteth.’ … ‘Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done?’ asks the prophet Amos ... ‘Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God,’ Solomon proclaims. And so on in numerous other passages of Scripture. We ought to conform to God’s will in all public calamities such as war, famine and pestilence, and reverence and adore His judgments with deep humility in the firm belief that, however severe they may seem, the God of infinite goodness would not send such disasters unless some great good were to result from them. Consider how many souls may be saved through tribulation which would otherwise be lost, how many persons through affliction are converted to God and die with sincere repentance for their sins. What may appear a scourge and punishment is often a sign of great grace and mercy.”
Praying Over Sin & Penance For Sin
As Our Lady of La Salette said: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth! … Sins cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance!” And Our Lady of Fatima revealed: “The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse war will break out! … God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war and famine!” While to St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima, Our Lady explained: “Wars are only punishments for the sins of the world! … It is necessary to do penance. If people amend themselves, Our Lord shall still come to the aid of the world. If they do not amend themselves, punishment shall come!” Whereas Our Lady of Good Success added: “Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils ... No one on the face of the Earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents. Oh, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!”
Monasteries and Convents Have Closed Down
Ever since the Second Vatican Council there has been a terrible decline in religious vocations. Hundreds of thousands have abandoned their religious vocation due the Liberalization of the Church and the numbers of new vocations coming in are very small in number. Added to that dilemma is the fact that most priests and most religious―monks, brothers, nuns and sisters―are very old and are dying-off in large numbers. In the USA, for example, in 1973 (8 years after the Second Vatican Council ended), there were about 58,000 priests in the United States. The average age was 35, and less than 10% were over the age of 65. Today there are approximately 37,000 priests (a drop of 21,000 priests or 37% since 1973), with an average age of 65, (an increase of 30 years over 1973) and more than 55% are over the age of 65! Half of all active priests are at the minimum retirement age of 70. Since 1985, the percentage of religious institutes with a median age of 70 or higher, has risen from 7% to 66%. By 2025 it is estimated that religious sisters, brothers and religious order priests over 70 years of age will outnumber those under age 70 by nearly 4 to 1.
To make matters even worse―there is less and less prayer and penance rising up from the monasteries and convents. They have become too modern and too liberal. An increasing number of them have long since introduced the television and more time is sometimes spent in front of that than in front of the tabernacle! With the late 1990s advent of the internet, there was a temptation to dedicate time to that also. The religious clothing (habits) were exchanged for more modern secular clothing which hides the fact that they are actually monks, brothers, nuns and sisters. Pope Paul VI’s reduction in obligatory Church penance in 1966 further weakened their life. Our Lady’s ominous words at La Salette come to mind: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence! They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish!” The spiritual shield―which the clergy and religious are meant to be―is now found to be crumbling and riddled with holes.
Since 3600 B.C., the world has only known around 290 years of peace. During this period it is estimated that there have been over 14,500 wars. An estimated 3,640,000,000 (3.6 billion) lives have been lost in them―which is around half of the current world population. War, so costly. War, so awful. The dying, the maiming, the losses, the scars. Those who are not scarred physically, are still likely to be scarred emotionally and mentally. War bookmarks history and lives. We divide history into pre-war and post-war eras. People are remembered as ones who fought in such-and-such war. The smoke of battle lingers long after the bodies are buried and the armistice is signed. Why does God allow it?
Why All These Wars?
There are two very general, broad and multi-faceted reasons behind wars. The first general reason is that war is a fruit of sin. The second reason―which is connected to the first―is that war is a tool of God’s justice, which He uses to punish and correct. Our Lady―in her many apparitions―has indicated the same principle.
Our Lady of La Salette said: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth! … Sins cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! … There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases … There will be a series of wars … Italy will be punished for her ambition in wanting to shake off the yoke of the Lord of Lords―and so she will be left to fight a war; blood will flow on all sides ... Pagan Rome will disappear … France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling ... Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy.”
Our Lady of Good Success said: “The cursed demon taking will achieve his victories by means of foreign and faithless people so numerous that, like a black cloud, it will obscure the pure heavens. With these people, every type of vice will enter, calling down in turn every type of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls so dear to Jesus Christ and to me. In order to dissipate this black cloud, there will be a formidable and frightful war, in which both native and foreign blood will flow, including that of secular and regular priests as well as that of other religious. This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph!”
Our Lady of Fatima added: “The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse war will break out! … God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war and famine! … Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, and various nations will be annihilated!” Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!”
St. Jacinta Marto―one of the three seers at Fatima―revealed shortly before her death: “Our Lady said that there are many wars and discords in the world. Wars are only punishments for the sins of the world. She stated that she could not hold back the arm of her Beloved Son upon the world anymore. It is necessary to do penance. If people amend themselves, Our Lord shall still come to the aid of the world. If they do not amend themselves, punishment shall come.”
God Threatens War for Sinfulness
If you read the 26th chapter of the Book of Leviticus, you will see that God prefers not to have war―but if we sin against God, then He will use war as a means of correction. Here are some extracts from that chapter―though you should read the entire chapter yourself:
“I am the Lord your God! If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, I will give you peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid … and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand―your enemies shall fall before you by the sword … I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people ... But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, then I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you ... I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! … I will bring your cities to be a wilderness, and I will make your sanctuaries desolate … I will destroy your land and I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed ... And as to them that shall remain of you I will send fear in their hearts in the countries of their enemies, the sound of a flying leaf shall terrify them, and they shall flee as it were from the sword: they shall fall, when no man pursueth them, and they shall every one fall upon their brethren as fleeing from wars, none of you shall dare to resist your enemies. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will walk them, and bring them into their enemies’ land until their minds be ashamed: then shall they pray for their sins!” (Leviticus 26:1-45).
As that masterpiece of a book ― Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence ― points out: “God controls all events, whether good or bad. Nothing happens in the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must be taken absolutely of everything―with the exception of sin. ‘Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives’ is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, ‘and God intervenes everywhere’ … ‘I am the Lord,’ He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet Isaias, ‘and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.’ … ‘It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them,’ He said to Moses ... ‘The Lord killeth and maketh alive,’ it is written in the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel … ‘He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again; the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, He humbleth and He exalteth.’ … ‘Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done?’ asks the prophet Amos ... ‘Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God,’ Solomon proclaims. And so on in numerous other passages of Scripture. We ought to conform to God’s will in all public calamities such as war, famine and pestilence, and reverence and adore His judgments with deep humility in the firm belief that, however severe they may seem, the God of infinite goodness would not send such disasters unless some great good were to result from them. Consider how many souls may be saved through tribulation which would otherwise be lost, how many persons through affliction are converted to God and die with sincere repentance for their sins. What may appear a scourge and punishment is often a sign of great grace and mercy.”
Praying Over Sin & Penance For Sin
As Our Lady of La Salette said: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth! … Sins cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance!” And Our Lady of Fatima revealed: “The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse war will break out! … God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war and famine!” While to St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima, Our Lady explained: “Wars are only punishments for the sins of the world! … It is necessary to do penance. If people amend themselves, Our Lord shall still come to the aid of the world. If they do not amend themselves, punishment shall come!” Whereas Our Lady of Good Success added: “Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils ... No one on the face of the Earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents. Oh, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!”
Monasteries and Convents Have Closed Down
Ever since the Second Vatican Council there has been a terrible decline in religious vocations. Hundreds of thousands have abandoned their religious vocation due the Liberalization of the Church and the numbers of new vocations coming in are very small in number. Added to that dilemma is the fact that most priests and most religious―monks, brothers, nuns and sisters―are very old and are dying-off in large numbers. In the USA, for example, in 1973 (8 years after the Second Vatican Council ended), there were about 58,000 priests in the United States. The average age was 35, and less than 10% were over the age of 65. Today there are approximately 37,000 priests (a drop of 21,000 priests or 37% since 1973), with an average age of 65, (an increase of 30 years over 1973) and more than 55% are over the age of 65! Half of all active priests are at the minimum retirement age of 70. Since 1985, the percentage of religious institutes with a median age of 70 or higher, has risen from 7% to 66%. By 2025 it is estimated that religious sisters, brothers and religious order priests over 70 years of age will outnumber those under age 70 by nearly 4 to 1.
To make matters even worse―there is less and less prayer and penance rising up from the monasteries and convents. They have become too modern and too liberal. An increasing number of them have long since introduced the television and more time is sometimes spent in front of that than in front of the tabernacle! With the late 1990s advent of the internet, there was a temptation to dedicate time to that also. The religious clothing (habits) were exchanged for more modern secular clothing which hides the fact that they are actually monks, brothers, nuns and sisters. Pope Paul VI’s reduction in obligatory Church penance in 1966 further weakened their life. Our Lady’s ominous words at La Salette come to mind: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence! They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish!” The spiritual shield―which the clergy and religious are meant to be―is now found to be crumbling and riddled with holes.
Article 3
Examples of God Crushing His Beloved People by War
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back regularly.
Examples of God Crushing His Beloved People by War
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back regularly.
Get This Clear!
Let’s be clear from the outset―God is good, God is kind, God is loving, God is compassionate, God is merciful, God is patient, God is understanding, God is all of these “nice” things and more, infinitely more! Yet, at the same time God is not mocked: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). When we eventually die and appear before God, we will be speechless in face of His incredible charity, kindness, compassion and mercy―all of which are infinitely extreme. But we will also see the other side of God―His justice and anger, which are also infinitely extreme. Our puny limited human minds cannot grasp how God can be infinitely or extremely merciful, while, at the same time, being infinitely or extremely just―for us it is inconceivable and unimaginable, just like imagining something to extremely hot and extremely cold at the same time. As God says in Holy Scripture: “My thoughts are not your thoughts! Nor your ways My ways! For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9).
Today, we imagine God as we would like Him to be and expect God to conform to our ideas. Not so! God is Who He is―and our imagination plays no part it that. God does not have to conform to our ideas and wishes―on the contrary, we have to conform to God’s ideas and wishes. If we truly love God and obey His commandments, we will encounter an unbelievably kind and merciful God. However, if we choose to merely give God “lip-service” and fail to keep His commandments, then we will encounter an unbelievably just and angry God. It is all down to you and the choice you make.
What You Do Dictates the God You Get!
The 26th chapter of the Book of Leviticus puts it all into a nutshell, whereby God Himself reveals the two sides that He has. Here is an abbreviated version of that chapter:
“If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. You shall eat the oldest of the old store, and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant, then …” (Leviticus 26:3-14) … then, for not “paying the price”, God says:
“I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you. I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass! Your labor shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins! And I will send in upon you the beasts of the held, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! I will destroy and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. I will bring your cities to be a wilderness, and I will make your sanctuaries desolate, and will receive no more your sweet odors. And I will destroy your land, and your enemies shall be astonished at it, when they shall be the inhabitants thereof. And I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will walk them, and bring them into their enemies’ land until their uncircumcised mind be ashamed: then shall they pray for their sins!” (Leviticus 26:16-41).
In the Book of Ezechiel, God further explains Himself: “They have cast off My judgments, and have not walked in My commandments. [7] Therefore―because you have surpassed [the sinfulness of] the Gentiles that are round about you, and have not walked in My commandments, and have not kept My judgments, and have not done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you―Therefore I come against thee, and I Myself will execute judgments in the midst of thee . And I will do in thee that which I have not done―and the like to which I will do no more―because of all thy abominations. I will break thee in pieces, and my eye shall not spare, and I will not have any pity. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and shall be consumed with famine in the midst of thee: and a third part of thee shall fall by the sword round about thee: and a third part of thee will I scatter into every wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. And I will accomplish My fury, and will cause My indignation to rest upon them―and I will be comforted when I shall have accomplished My indignation in them, when I shall have executed judgments in thee in anger, and in indignation, and in wrathful rebukes. I shall send upon them the grievous arrows of famine, which shall bring death, and which I will send to destroy you! And I will gather together famine against you and I will send in upon you famine, and evil beasts, unto utter destruction―and pestilence, and blood shall pass through thee, and I will bring in the sword upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it!” (Ezechiel 5:6-17).
“I will bring upon you the sword, and I will throw down your altars, and your idols shall be broken in pieces; and I will cast down your slain before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before your idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars in all your dwelling places. The cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be thrown down, and destroyed, and your altars shall be abolished, and shall be broken in pieces: and your idols shall be no more, and your temples shall be destroyed, and your works shall be defaced. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I will leave in you some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when I shall have scattered you, through the countries. And they that are saved among you, shall remember Me amongst the nations to which they are carried captives―because I have broken their heart that was faithless and which revolted from me; and their eyes that went a fornicating after their idols; and they shall be displeased with themselves because of the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. And they shall know that I the Lord have not spoken in vain―and that I would do this evil to them and they shall know that I am the Lord!” (Ezechiel 6:3-14).
Any Objections? Any Complaints?
We might be tempted to complain and mutter about all this―just as the Chosen People did in the Old Testament. Yet God’s answer to them was clear and fair: “The soul that sins, the same shall die … But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keep all My commandments, and do judgment, and justice―then living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done. In his justice―which he has done―he shall live. Is it My will that a sinner should die, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live? But if the just man turn himself away from his life of justice, and do iniquity ― shall he live? All his justices which he has done, shall not be remembered―for in his sin, which he hath committed, he shall die! And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore! Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, then he shall die therein―in the injustice that he hath done he shall die. And when the wicked turns himself away from his wickedness, which he hath done, and does judgment and justice, then he shall save his soul alive. Since he considers and turns away himself from all his iniquities, which he has done, he shall surely live and not die. And the children of Israel say: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Are not My ways right, and are not rather your ways perverse? Therefore will I judge every man according to his ways! Be converted, and do penance for all your iniquities―and iniquity shall not be your ruin! Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit―and why will you die? For I desire not the death of him that dies! Return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:20-32).
The chief reason why we might be tempted to say with the Israelites ― “The way of the Lord is not right!’ ― is that we have lost sight and sense of the fact that SIN IS THE GREATEST EVIL in the whole world. As the Catechism tells us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).
If You Forget History―You Are Doomed to Repeat It!
Many nations of antiquity are non-existent now, by having brought God’s judgment upon themselves for their sin. Edom (Jeremias 49:17–22), Assyria (Sophonias 2:13–15), Sodom (Genesis 18:20), and Babylon (Jeremias 51) were all wiped out, according to the biblical prophets, for their evil before the Lord. There remain no representatives of the Hittites (Exodus 23:23), Moabites (Sophonias 2:8–10), or Philistines (Sophonias 2:5) due to their stubborn rebellion against the Lord.
God blessed Israel in prospering them when the people honored Him. God had brought them into a land that was “flowing with milk and honey” (Numbers 14:8). When they obeyed Him, He promised to provide all they needed and to protect their lives (Exodus 23:25–26). He cared to see that they lived peacefully and happily (1 Kings 4:25; Psalm 28:10; Proverbs 19:23). He commanded them to honor His Sabbaths so that they would have rest (Leviticus 19:30). But, when Israel followed wicked kings into idolatry and harlotry, God sent famines and pestilence upon the land and people that He loved (Ezechiel 5:17).
God showed no favoritism by turning a “blind-eye” to the sins of Israel―in fact, He punishes them even more for sin than He punishes the pagan nations, because they have received more from God. Our Lord points this out: “That servant who knew the will of his lord and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will―shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:47-48). For this reason, it is said that the deepest pit of Hell is reserved for Catholics, the second deepest pit of Hell is reserved for the Jews, then others pits of Hell by differing degrees for differing creeds and nations.
God Punishes His Chosen People
We see the above principle in action in the history of the Israelites―God did not turn a “blind-eye” to their sins just because they were His Chosen People! Far from it! He chastised them severely―and war was often an instrument that God chose to inflict upon them, having His Chosen People either slaughtered or carried away as slaves by other nations. At other times He killed them by plague, pestilence, famine or other means.
In the time of Moses, we see God punish His Chosen People by sentencing them to 40 years of desert wandering, until everyone, who was an adult upon the Exodus from Egypt, had died―this was done as a punishment for their initial rejection of God’s command to invade, fight for and conquer Canaan (the Promised Land). We are not talking about a few hundred deaths, or a few thousand deaths! Scholars estimate that there must have been anywhere from 4 to 6 million people who followed Moses in the Exodus out of Egypt.
After that 40-year exile in the desert, once they eventually reached, conquered and settled in the Promised Land, we witness a gradual degeneration of the Chosen People. They fall into idolatry, harlotry and apostasy. A schism among them sees the kingdom of Israel divide into two kingdoms―the Northern Kingdom (consisting of 10 of the 12 Tribes of Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (consisting of the tribes of Juda and Benjamin). The ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom retained the title “Kingdom of Israel”, whereas the Southern Kingdom took the title of “Kingdom of Juda”. Both kingdoms progressively fell into idolatry and apostasy.
There is no question but that the nations of Assyria and Babylon were far worse than both Israel and Juda, yet the Lord employed both of these pagan powers to punish His people who gradually (and sometimes more than gradually) were drifting into apostasy.
The Assyrians came marching against the northern Kingdom of Israel under Theglath-phalasar (4 Kings 15:29; 16:7-9), and then twelve years later under Salmanasar and Sargon. The capital city of Samaria was under siege for three years. It subsequently fell, and over twenty-seven thousand Jews were taken to Assyria as captives. All of this was because “they obeyed not the voice of Jehovah their God” (4 Kings 18:9-12).
A little more than a century later, the Kingdom Juda also fell. Through the prophet Jeremias, God pledged that He would send his “servant,” Nabuchodonosor, against the Kingdom Juda, bringing desolation upon the land, and most of the people would be taken captive into Babylon. The magnificent Temple of Jerusalem―looked upon as one of the “Wonders of the Ancient World” was totally destroyed! Likewise the city of Jerusalem.
The Siege, Fall and Destruction of Jerusalem
In the New Testament era―after the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven―we see the calamitous and catastrophic fall of Jerusalem, when in 70 AD, the Romans laid siege to the city and finally entered Jerusalem, crucifying thousands outside the city walls, killing over a million people within the city, and then totally destroying both Temple and city. Our Lord had prophetically warned and foretold this event: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem―that kill the prophets, and stone them that are sent to thee! How often would I have gathered thy children―as the bird doth her brood under her wings―and thou wouldst not? Behold your house shall be left to you desolate! … If thou also had known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace―but now they are hidden from thy eyes! For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee, and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone! … The days will come in which there shall not be left a stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown down―because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation!” (Luke 13:34; 19:42-44; 21:5) “And as He was going out of the Temple, one of His disciples said to Him: ‘Master, behold what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering, said to him: ‘Seest thou all these great buildings? There shall not be left a stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown down!’” (Mark 13:1-2). “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kill the prophets, and stone them that are sent unto thee! How often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate!” (Matthew 23:37-38).
The siege of Jerusalem began on April 14th in the year 70 AD―and would last almost 5 months, ending on September 8th. The Romans encircled the city with a wall to cut off supplies to the city completely and thereby drive the Jews to starvation. In the preceding months, Titus had ordered all prisoners or defectors to be crucified. Five hundred Jews were crucified each day. The Mount of Olives and the craggy hills around the city, were so crowded with crucifixes, that there was scarcely room for any more, nor trees to make them. Titus’ soldiers amused themselves by nailing their victims splayed and spread-eagled in absurd positions. All of this was done outside the walls of Jerusalem, in order to demoralize the Jews in the city. So desperate were many Jews to escape the city that, as they left, they swallowed their coins, to conceal their treasure, which they hoped to retrieve when they were safely clear of the Romans. They emerged puffed up with famine and swelled like men with dropsy, but if they ate they burst asunder. As their bellies exploded, the soldiers discovered their reeking intestinal treasure troves, so they started to gut all prisoners, eviscerating them and searching their intestines while they were still alive. Inside the city of Jerusalem, the Jewish fighters started to run out of food, so they too probed and dissected the quick and the dead, for gold, for crumbs, for mere seeds. They ate cow dung, leather, girdles, shoes and old hay. A rich woman named Mary, having lost all her money and food, became so demented that she killed her own son and roasted him, eating half and keeping the rest for later. The ‘delicious’ aroma crept across the city. The rebels savored it, sought it and smashed into the house, but even those practiced hatchet-men, on seeing the child’s half-eaten body, went out trembling. By August, 70 AD, the Romans had breached the final defenses, destroyed the Second Temple and massacred much of the remaining population―taking away 97,000 captives who would be either sold into slavery or be forced to be gladiatorial ‘sport’ for the Roman arenas.
What Have Today’s Sins Merited from God?
If God so punished His sinful Chosen People of old, then how much more are the Catholic Chosen People of today deserving of similar or greater punishment. If God destroyed all life on Earth during the time Noe―apart from those whom God commanded to find safety in the Ark that God commanded Noe to build―then what about today? The sins are innumerably greater in both number and kind.
Already at Fatima in 1917, Our Lady warned the world about sin. Here is what she said―both directly at her apparitions and privately to either Lucia or Jacinta (she never spoke to Francisco): “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. Many souls go to Hell … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war … The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out! … Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated!”
Sister Lucia of Fatima added that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!” (Frère François [Brother Francis], Tragedy and Triumph, 1994, p. 27).
St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima, Lucia’s cousin, added what Our Lady had personally revealed to her: Our Lady said that there are many wars and discords in the world. Wars are only punishments for the sins of the world. The sins of the world are very great ... More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason … She stated that she could not hold back the arm of her Beloved Son upon the world any longer. It is essential to repent greatly! It is necessary to do penance! If people amend themselves, Our Lord will even now save the world. If they do not amend themselves, punishment shall come.”
Our Lady, in a revelation to Blessed Elena Aiello in 1956 (yes―back in 1956 and not today), said: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge! All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
Seventeen years later, in 1973, at Akita in Japan, Our Lady would basically repeat the same dire message: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord! … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind! … If sins increase in number and gravity [and they most certainly have increased], there will be no longer pardon for them! … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
Our Fate Lies in Our Hands
We truly need to wake-up and fully realize that we cannot sin without consequences: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! [Neither is Our Lady!] For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption!” (Galatians 6:7-8). Many are tempted to say with Cain (the murderous brother of Abel): “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9), like the Pharisee protesting their ‘innocence’, saying: “I am not as the rest of men! Extortioners, unjust, adulterers!” (Luke 18:11).
Catholics are meant to be the “salt of the Earth”, the custodians and disseminators of the Light of Faith, the warriors of Christ and Faith who are meant to fight the world and its prince, the devil: “You are the salt of the Earth! But if the salt lose its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more, but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men! You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, so that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men!” (Matthew 5:13-16).
“I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel (today, the Church)! And you shall hear the word out of My mouth, and shall tell it to them from Me! If, when I say to the wicked: ‘You shall surely die!’ ― and you do not declare it to him, nor speak to him, so that he might be converted from his wicked ways and live, then the same wicked man shall certainly die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you give warning to the wicked, and he does not convert from his wickedness and from his evil ways―then he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your soul! Moreover, if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity―then I will lay a stumbling-block before him and he shall die―because you have not warned him! He shall die in his sin, and all his justices which he has done beforehand, shall not be remembered―but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you warn the just man, so that the just may not sin, and he does not sin―then living he shall live, because you have warned him, and you will have saved your soul!” (Ezechiel 3:17-21).
Little Interest! Little Action!
The problem is that we see all the sin that is going on around us in the world and we do little or nothing about it! At La Salette Our Lady lamented: “The have neglected prayer and penance!” At Lourdes she demanded: “Penance! Penance! Penance!” At Fatima she commanded: “Offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners!” At Akita she stated: “I desire souls to console Him by forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!”
All that sounds like too much hard work! We prefer our comfortable activities, hobbies and socializing. Another beer, another piece of cake or candy, another TV show, another hour on worldly internet or social media sites, etc. Who the heck cares about those stupid sinners! It’s their own fault! Heck, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Christ came to seek and save that which lost! He came seek out sinners and call them to penance! He expects you to help in that work―after all, are you not a Soldier of Christ? “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). What are you doing?
As Our Lady warned―and today it has come true: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects [cf. “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth, and seduce the nations, which are over the four quarters of the Earth” (Apocalypse 20:7)] ... During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family!”
We see all this happening today, we are surrounded by this―yet what do we do? Back to the television, back to the worldly internet and social media sites, back to the entertainment and sports, back to our hobbies and socializing! St. John Chrysostom warns us that on the Day of Judgment, we shall all be judged for whatever happened in the world while we were alive! Of course, you are not God, and you cannot be present everywhere and do everything! However, by your prayers and your sacrifices, you can―in a sense―fire missiles all over the world. All you have to do is ask Our Lady to guide them to whichever enemy target she has in mind! “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus! No man, being a soldier to God, entangleth himself with secular businesses; so that he may please Him to whom He hath engaged himself” ― namely God (2 Timothy 2:3-4). “Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12).
Let’s be clear from the outset―God is good, God is kind, God is loving, God is compassionate, God is merciful, God is patient, God is understanding, God is all of these “nice” things and more, infinitely more! Yet, at the same time God is not mocked: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). When we eventually die and appear before God, we will be speechless in face of His incredible charity, kindness, compassion and mercy―all of which are infinitely extreme. But we will also see the other side of God―His justice and anger, which are also infinitely extreme. Our puny limited human minds cannot grasp how God can be infinitely or extremely merciful, while, at the same time, being infinitely or extremely just―for us it is inconceivable and unimaginable, just like imagining something to extremely hot and extremely cold at the same time. As God says in Holy Scripture: “My thoughts are not your thoughts! Nor your ways My ways! For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9).
Today, we imagine God as we would like Him to be and expect God to conform to our ideas. Not so! God is Who He is―and our imagination plays no part it that. God does not have to conform to our ideas and wishes―on the contrary, we have to conform to God’s ideas and wishes. If we truly love God and obey His commandments, we will encounter an unbelievably kind and merciful God. However, if we choose to merely give God “lip-service” and fail to keep His commandments, then we will encounter an unbelievably just and angry God. It is all down to you and the choice you make.
What You Do Dictates the God You Get!
The 26th chapter of the Book of Leviticus puts it all into a nutshell, whereby God Himself reveals the two sides that He has. Here is an abbreviated version of that chapter:
“If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. You shall eat the oldest of the old store, and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant, then …” (Leviticus 26:3-14) … then, for not “paying the price”, God says:
“I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you. I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass! Your labor shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins! And I will send in upon you the beasts of the held, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! I will destroy and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. I will bring your cities to be a wilderness, and I will make your sanctuaries desolate, and will receive no more your sweet odors. And I will destroy your land, and your enemies shall be astonished at it, when they shall be the inhabitants thereof. And I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will walk them, and bring them into their enemies’ land until their uncircumcised mind be ashamed: then shall they pray for their sins!” (Leviticus 26:16-41).
In the Book of Ezechiel, God further explains Himself: “They have cast off My judgments, and have not walked in My commandments. [7] Therefore―because you have surpassed [the sinfulness of] the Gentiles that are round about you, and have not walked in My commandments, and have not kept My judgments, and have not done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you―Therefore I come against thee, and I Myself will execute judgments in the midst of thee . And I will do in thee that which I have not done―and the like to which I will do no more―because of all thy abominations. I will break thee in pieces, and my eye shall not spare, and I will not have any pity. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and shall be consumed with famine in the midst of thee: and a third part of thee shall fall by the sword round about thee: and a third part of thee will I scatter into every wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. And I will accomplish My fury, and will cause My indignation to rest upon them―and I will be comforted when I shall have accomplished My indignation in them, when I shall have executed judgments in thee in anger, and in indignation, and in wrathful rebukes. I shall send upon them the grievous arrows of famine, which shall bring death, and which I will send to destroy you! And I will gather together famine against you and I will send in upon you famine, and evil beasts, unto utter destruction―and pestilence, and blood shall pass through thee, and I will bring in the sword upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it!” (Ezechiel 5:6-17).
“I will bring upon you the sword, and I will throw down your altars, and your idols shall be broken in pieces; and I will cast down your slain before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before your idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars in all your dwelling places. The cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be thrown down, and destroyed, and your altars shall be abolished, and shall be broken in pieces: and your idols shall be no more, and your temples shall be destroyed, and your works shall be defaced. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I will leave in you some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when I shall have scattered you, through the countries. And they that are saved among you, shall remember Me amongst the nations to which they are carried captives―because I have broken their heart that was faithless and which revolted from me; and their eyes that went a fornicating after their idols; and they shall be displeased with themselves because of the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. And they shall know that I the Lord have not spoken in vain―and that I would do this evil to them and they shall know that I am the Lord!” (Ezechiel 6:3-14).
Any Objections? Any Complaints?
We might be tempted to complain and mutter about all this―just as the Chosen People did in the Old Testament. Yet God’s answer to them was clear and fair: “The soul that sins, the same shall die … But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keep all My commandments, and do judgment, and justice―then living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done. In his justice―which he has done―he shall live. Is it My will that a sinner should die, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live? But if the just man turn himself away from his life of justice, and do iniquity ― shall he live? All his justices which he has done, shall not be remembered―for in his sin, which he hath committed, he shall die! And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore! Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, then he shall die therein―in the injustice that he hath done he shall die. And when the wicked turns himself away from his wickedness, which he hath done, and does judgment and justice, then he shall save his soul alive. Since he considers and turns away himself from all his iniquities, which he has done, he shall surely live and not die. And the children of Israel say: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Are not My ways right, and are not rather your ways perverse? Therefore will I judge every man according to his ways! Be converted, and do penance for all your iniquities―and iniquity shall not be your ruin! Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit―and why will you die? For I desire not the death of him that dies! Return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:20-32).
The chief reason why we might be tempted to say with the Israelites ― “The way of the Lord is not right!’ ― is that we have lost sight and sense of the fact that SIN IS THE GREATEST EVIL in the whole world. As the Catechism tells us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).
If You Forget History―You Are Doomed to Repeat It!
Many nations of antiquity are non-existent now, by having brought God’s judgment upon themselves for their sin. Edom (Jeremias 49:17–22), Assyria (Sophonias 2:13–15), Sodom (Genesis 18:20), and Babylon (Jeremias 51) were all wiped out, according to the biblical prophets, for their evil before the Lord. There remain no representatives of the Hittites (Exodus 23:23), Moabites (Sophonias 2:8–10), or Philistines (Sophonias 2:5) due to their stubborn rebellion against the Lord.
God blessed Israel in prospering them when the people honored Him. God had brought them into a land that was “flowing with milk and honey” (Numbers 14:8). When they obeyed Him, He promised to provide all they needed and to protect their lives (Exodus 23:25–26). He cared to see that they lived peacefully and happily (1 Kings 4:25; Psalm 28:10; Proverbs 19:23). He commanded them to honor His Sabbaths so that they would have rest (Leviticus 19:30). But, when Israel followed wicked kings into idolatry and harlotry, God sent famines and pestilence upon the land and people that He loved (Ezechiel 5:17).
God showed no favoritism by turning a “blind-eye” to the sins of Israel―in fact, He punishes them even more for sin than He punishes the pagan nations, because they have received more from God. Our Lord points this out: “That servant who knew the will of his lord and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will―shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:47-48). For this reason, it is said that the deepest pit of Hell is reserved for Catholics, the second deepest pit of Hell is reserved for the Jews, then others pits of Hell by differing degrees for differing creeds and nations.
God Punishes His Chosen People
We see the above principle in action in the history of the Israelites―God did not turn a “blind-eye” to their sins just because they were His Chosen People! Far from it! He chastised them severely―and war was often an instrument that God chose to inflict upon them, having His Chosen People either slaughtered or carried away as slaves by other nations. At other times He killed them by plague, pestilence, famine or other means.
In the time of Moses, we see God punish His Chosen People by sentencing them to 40 years of desert wandering, until everyone, who was an adult upon the Exodus from Egypt, had died―this was done as a punishment for their initial rejection of God’s command to invade, fight for and conquer Canaan (the Promised Land). We are not talking about a few hundred deaths, or a few thousand deaths! Scholars estimate that there must have been anywhere from 4 to 6 million people who followed Moses in the Exodus out of Egypt.
After that 40-year exile in the desert, once they eventually reached, conquered and settled in the Promised Land, we witness a gradual degeneration of the Chosen People. They fall into idolatry, harlotry and apostasy. A schism among them sees the kingdom of Israel divide into two kingdoms―the Northern Kingdom (consisting of 10 of the 12 Tribes of Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (consisting of the tribes of Juda and Benjamin). The ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom retained the title “Kingdom of Israel”, whereas the Southern Kingdom took the title of “Kingdom of Juda”. Both kingdoms progressively fell into idolatry and apostasy.
There is no question but that the nations of Assyria and Babylon were far worse than both Israel and Juda, yet the Lord employed both of these pagan powers to punish His people who gradually (and sometimes more than gradually) were drifting into apostasy.
The Assyrians came marching against the northern Kingdom of Israel under Theglath-phalasar (4 Kings 15:29; 16:7-9), and then twelve years later under Salmanasar and Sargon. The capital city of Samaria was under siege for three years. It subsequently fell, and over twenty-seven thousand Jews were taken to Assyria as captives. All of this was because “they obeyed not the voice of Jehovah their God” (4 Kings 18:9-12).
A little more than a century later, the Kingdom Juda also fell. Through the prophet Jeremias, God pledged that He would send his “servant,” Nabuchodonosor, against the Kingdom Juda, bringing desolation upon the land, and most of the people would be taken captive into Babylon. The magnificent Temple of Jerusalem―looked upon as one of the “Wonders of the Ancient World” was totally destroyed! Likewise the city of Jerusalem.
The Siege, Fall and Destruction of Jerusalem
In the New Testament era―after the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven―we see the calamitous and catastrophic fall of Jerusalem, when in 70 AD, the Romans laid siege to the city and finally entered Jerusalem, crucifying thousands outside the city walls, killing over a million people within the city, and then totally destroying both Temple and city. Our Lord had prophetically warned and foretold this event: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem―that kill the prophets, and stone them that are sent to thee! How often would I have gathered thy children―as the bird doth her brood under her wings―and thou wouldst not? Behold your house shall be left to you desolate! … If thou also had known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace―but now they are hidden from thy eyes! For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee, and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone! … The days will come in which there shall not be left a stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown down―because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation!” (Luke 13:34; 19:42-44; 21:5) “And as He was going out of the Temple, one of His disciples said to Him: ‘Master, behold what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering, said to him: ‘Seest thou all these great buildings? There shall not be left a stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown down!’” (Mark 13:1-2). “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kill the prophets, and stone them that are sent unto thee! How often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate!” (Matthew 23:37-38).
The siege of Jerusalem began on April 14th in the year 70 AD―and would last almost 5 months, ending on September 8th. The Romans encircled the city with a wall to cut off supplies to the city completely and thereby drive the Jews to starvation. In the preceding months, Titus had ordered all prisoners or defectors to be crucified. Five hundred Jews were crucified each day. The Mount of Olives and the craggy hills around the city, were so crowded with crucifixes, that there was scarcely room for any more, nor trees to make them. Titus’ soldiers amused themselves by nailing their victims splayed and spread-eagled in absurd positions. All of this was done outside the walls of Jerusalem, in order to demoralize the Jews in the city. So desperate were many Jews to escape the city that, as they left, they swallowed their coins, to conceal their treasure, which they hoped to retrieve when they were safely clear of the Romans. They emerged puffed up with famine and swelled like men with dropsy, but if they ate they burst asunder. As their bellies exploded, the soldiers discovered their reeking intestinal treasure troves, so they started to gut all prisoners, eviscerating them and searching their intestines while they were still alive. Inside the city of Jerusalem, the Jewish fighters started to run out of food, so they too probed and dissected the quick and the dead, for gold, for crumbs, for mere seeds. They ate cow dung, leather, girdles, shoes and old hay. A rich woman named Mary, having lost all her money and food, became so demented that she killed her own son and roasted him, eating half and keeping the rest for later. The ‘delicious’ aroma crept across the city. The rebels savored it, sought it and smashed into the house, but even those practiced hatchet-men, on seeing the child’s half-eaten body, went out trembling. By August, 70 AD, the Romans had breached the final defenses, destroyed the Second Temple and massacred much of the remaining population―taking away 97,000 captives who would be either sold into slavery or be forced to be gladiatorial ‘sport’ for the Roman arenas.
What Have Today’s Sins Merited from God?
If God so punished His sinful Chosen People of old, then how much more are the Catholic Chosen People of today deserving of similar or greater punishment. If God destroyed all life on Earth during the time Noe―apart from those whom God commanded to find safety in the Ark that God commanded Noe to build―then what about today? The sins are innumerably greater in both number and kind.
Already at Fatima in 1917, Our Lady warned the world about sin. Here is what she said―both directly at her apparitions and privately to either Lucia or Jacinta (she never spoke to Francisco): “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. Many souls go to Hell … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war … The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out! … Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated!”
Sister Lucia of Fatima added that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!” (Frère François [Brother Francis], Tragedy and Triumph, 1994, p. 27).
St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima, Lucia’s cousin, added what Our Lady had personally revealed to her: Our Lady said that there are many wars and discords in the world. Wars are only punishments for the sins of the world. The sins of the world are very great ... More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason … She stated that she could not hold back the arm of her Beloved Son upon the world any longer. It is essential to repent greatly! It is necessary to do penance! If people amend themselves, Our Lord will even now save the world. If they do not amend themselves, punishment shall come.”
Our Lady, in a revelation to Blessed Elena Aiello in 1956 (yes―back in 1956 and not today), said: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge! All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
Seventeen years later, in 1973, at Akita in Japan, Our Lady would basically repeat the same dire message: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord! … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind! … If sins increase in number and gravity [and they most certainly have increased], there will be no longer pardon for them! … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
Our Fate Lies in Our Hands
We truly need to wake-up and fully realize that we cannot sin without consequences: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! [Neither is Our Lady!] For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption!” (Galatians 6:7-8). Many are tempted to say with Cain (the murderous brother of Abel): “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9), like the Pharisee protesting their ‘innocence’, saying: “I am not as the rest of men! Extortioners, unjust, adulterers!” (Luke 18:11).
Catholics are meant to be the “salt of the Earth”, the custodians and disseminators of the Light of Faith, the warriors of Christ and Faith who are meant to fight the world and its prince, the devil: “You are the salt of the Earth! But if the salt lose its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more, but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men! You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, so that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men!” (Matthew 5:13-16).
“I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel (today, the Church)! And you shall hear the word out of My mouth, and shall tell it to them from Me! If, when I say to the wicked: ‘You shall surely die!’ ― and you do not declare it to him, nor speak to him, so that he might be converted from his wicked ways and live, then the same wicked man shall certainly die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you give warning to the wicked, and he does not convert from his wickedness and from his evil ways―then he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your soul! Moreover, if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity―then I will lay a stumbling-block before him and he shall die―because you have not warned him! He shall die in his sin, and all his justices which he has done beforehand, shall not be remembered―but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you warn the just man, so that the just may not sin, and he does not sin―then living he shall live, because you have warned him, and you will have saved your soul!” (Ezechiel 3:17-21).
Little Interest! Little Action!
The problem is that we see all the sin that is going on around us in the world and we do little or nothing about it! At La Salette Our Lady lamented: “The have neglected prayer and penance!” At Lourdes she demanded: “Penance! Penance! Penance!” At Fatima she commanded: “Offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners!” At Akita she stated: “I desire souls to console Him by forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!”
All that sounds like too much hard work! We prefer our comfortable activities, hobbies and socializing. Another beer, another piece of cake or candy, another TV show, another hour on worldly internet or social media sites, etc. Who the heck cares about those stupid sinners! It’s their own fault! Heck, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Christ came to seek and save that which lost! He came seek out sinners and call them to penance! He expects you to help in that work―after all, are you not a Soldier of Christ? “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). What are you doing?
As Our Lady warned―and today it has come true: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects [cf. “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth, and seduce the nations, which are over the four quarters of the Earth” (Apocalypse 20:7)] ... During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family!”
We see all this happening today, we are surrounded by this―yet what do we do? Back to the television, back to the worldly internet and social media sites, back to the entertainment and sports, back to our hobbies and socializing! St. John Chrysostom warns us that on the Day of Judgment, we shall all be judged for whatever happened in the world while we were alive! Of course, you are not God, and you cannot be present everywhere and do everything! However, by your prayers and your sacrifices, you can―in a sense―fire missiles all over the world. All you have to do is ask Our Lady to guide them to whichever enemy target she has in mind! “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus! No man, being a soldier to God, entangleth himself with secular businesses; so that he may please Him to whom He hath engaged himself” ― namely God (2 Timothy 2:3-4). “Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12).
Article 4
Two Centuries & Three World Wars
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back regularly.
Two Centuries & Three World Wars
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back regularly.
Two Down―One More to Come!
“You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars!” said Our Lord (Matthew 24:6). “Wars are a punishment for sin!” said Our Lady to St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima―the cousin of Sr. Lucia dos Santos of Fatima. In speaking of the First World War, Our Lady told the children at Fatima: “Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war!” (May 1917) … “Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and the end of the war!” (June 1917) … “The war is going to end―but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out! [the Second World War] … God will punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father!” (July 1917).
How much peace has the world seen over the past 3,400 years? Mankind has only seen peace for 268 years of those 3,400 years―just 8% of recorded history! What has been the human fatality in war? That is a tough question―for obvious reasons! Who goes round counting dead bodies and recording them―especially in ancient times? However, scholars have come up with their own estimates or “guesstimates” as to how many people were killed in wars throughout all of human history. Those estimates or “guesstimates” differ wildly―with some estimating as little as 150 million, while other estimating as much as 1,000 million (1 billion).
If―as Our Lady of La Salette (1846) and Fatima (1917) said ― “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth!” and “Wars are a punishment for sin!” ― then we can reasonably deduce that the 20th century (and our century also) must have been an extremely sinful century to have witnessed two World Wars and over 108 million war fatalities!
Yet is it only two World Wars that modern man has to experience and suffer? It seems not! A Third World War is prophesied―and that goes hand in hand with the world’s tendency to increase its sinfulness! The principle, laid down by Our Lady of Fatima, always applies: “If people do not cease offending God, a worse one [war] will break out! … God will punish the world for its crimes, by means of war!”
Furthermore, a Third World War fits in perfectly with the agenda of ― whatever or whoever you might want to call them, since they go by various names ― the Elites, the Globalists, the One World Governmentalists, the Great Resetters, the Cabal, Deep State, the Money Men, etc. World domination is their goal, amassing the wealth of the world is their hobby, and depopulation is their tool. A world war―just like global vaccination with the killer-jab―perfectly fits in with their plans. Wars inevitably mean many deaths and bio-warfare jabs also mean many deaths.
When Our Lady speaks of Russia provoking wars and persecutions, we must not think that Russia is some kind of independent, top-of-the-ladder power. No! In the pyramid of power, nations and governments and much lower down than you might imagine. All governments are puppets and are controlled from “above” (or “below” might be the better choice of word). Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of La Salette indicated this: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects … Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws … The evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family! … Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes … France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy ... Blood will flow on all sides ... There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. People will believe that all is lost!”
Who Calls the Shots & Who Fires the Shots
Are you so naïve to think that the public “world leaders” ― the presidents and prime ministers, heads-of-state, premiers, chancellors, chiefs-of-state, etc. ― are the ones who rule the world! Nothing could be further from the truth. Those “world leaders” are merely the “world-puppets” of higher influences and controllers. The graphic below puts the “world leaders” and the “military” in their proper “lowly” place!
“You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars!” said Our Lord (Matthew 24:6). “Wars are a punishment for sin!” said Our Lady to St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima―the cousin of Sr. Lucia dos Santos of Fatima. In speaking of the First World War, Our Lady told the children at Fatima: “Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war!” (May 1917) … “Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and the end of the war!” (June 1917) … “The war is going to end―but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out! [the Second World War] … God will punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father!” (July 1917).
How much peace has the world seen over the past 3,400 years? Mankind has only seen peace for 268 years of those 3,400 years―just 8% of recorded history! What has been the human fatality in war? That is a tough question―for obvious reasons! Who goes round counting dead bodies and recording them―especially in ancient times? However, scholars have come up with their own estimates or “guesstimates” as to how many people were killed in wars throughout all of human history. Those estimates or “guesstimates” differ wildly―with some estimating as little as 150 million, while other estimating as much as 1,000 million (1 billion).
If―as Our Lady of La Salette (1846) and Fatima (1917) said ― “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth!” and “Wars are a punishment for sin!” ― then we can reasonably deduce that the 20th century (and our century also) must have been an extremely sinful century to have witnessed two World Wars and over 108 million war fatalities!
Yet is it only two World Wars that modern man has to experience and suffer? It seems not! A Third World War is prophesied―and that goes hand in hand with the world’s tendency to increase its sinfulness! The principle, laid down by Our Lady of Fatima, always applies: “If people do not cease offending God, a worse one [war] will break out! … God will punish the world for its crimes, by means of war!”
Furthermore, a Third World War fits in perfectly with the agenda of ― whatever or whoever you might want to call them, since they go by various names ― the Elites, the Globalists, the One World Governmentalists, the Great Resetters, the Cabal, Deep State, the Money Men, etc. World domination is their goal, amassing the wealth of the world is their hobby, and depopulation is their tool. A world war―just like global vaccination with the killer-jab―perfectly fits in with their plans. Wars inevitably mean many deaths and bio-warfare jabs also mean many deaths.
When Our Lady speaks of Russia provoking wars and persecutions, we must not think that Russia is some kind of independent, top-of-the-ladder power. No! In the pyramid of power, nations and governments and much lower down than you might imagine. All governments are puppets and are controlled from “above” (or “below” might be the better choice of word). Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of La Salette indicated this: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects … Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws … The evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family! … Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes … France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy ... Blood will flow on all sides ... There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. People will believe that all is lost!”
Who Calls the Shots & Who Fires the Shots
Are you so naïve to think that the public “world leaders” ― the presidents and prime ministers, heads-of-state, premiers, chancellors, chiefs-of-state, etc. ― are the ones who rule the world! Nothing could be further from the truth. Those “world leaders” are merely the “world-puppets” of higher influences and controllers. The graphic below puts the “world leaders” and the “military” in their proper “lowly” place!
Money and Power
They say that money makes the world go around—and frankly, it’s true if you throw God out of the picture. Satan―the prince of this world―knows full well the pulling power of money and he never ceases to use that card in his temptations and enslavement. Greed is a common sin of many now and in the past. Yet money, in a sense, is not the most desirable thing for most people―even though they might not admit it, or know it. It is ultimately POWER that is the sought after commodity. Even those who are greedy for power, cannot achieve that power today without money. We all know that political campaigns succeed or fail, businesses rise and fall, and communities thrive or languish, all based on how much capital they have at their disposal.
If you want to be the president of the USA ― falsely touted as “the most powerful position in the world” ― then you need the backing of money to achieve your ambition for “power”. The 2020 presidential election was the most expensive in history. Political spending in the 2020 election totaled $14.4 billion―with over $5 billion spent on the presidential campaigns and over $8 billion spent on the congressional campaigns, more than doubling the total cost of the record-breaking 2016 presidential election cycle. Biden’s campaign raised over $1 billion from donors. Trump’s campaign raised $774 million. Some of that money (20%) came from “below”―the people who gave $200 or less. The next bracket is the $200 to $2,800 donor (around 45%).
Finally, there is the “loophole” of forming joint fundraising committees, for which limits are “looser”. These committees have been reported to lavish dinners for wealthy donors as have raised as much as $10 million in one single night. Also, since 2010, it is also possible for “independent” groups to raise unlimited sums from corporations, companies and individuals to finance political activities. These “independent” groups―known as “Super PACs” (Political Action Committees)―are not allowed to directly coordinate with the candidates. The total contributions from Super PACs have more than doubled since the 2016 election. Hence a lot of the money came from “above”―the wealthy people.
Just 12 megadonors, from both sides of the aisle ― at least eight of whom are billionaires ― made up a combined $3.4 billion in contributions of the $45 billion donated to federal political causes between January 2009 and December 2020. Roughly $1.4 billion of that $3.4 billion came from the self-funding of the unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaigns of Bloomberg L.P. founder Michael Bloomberg and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer ―both of Jewish descent ― with Bloomberg alone dropping more than $1 billion of his own money into his historically expensive presidential bid. The single biggest Republican donor on the Republican side was Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who, with his wife Miriam Adelson ― both of Jewish descent ― gave more than $218 million to Republican campaigns and outside groups during the 2020 cycle.
St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “He who prays most receives most.” You can confidently also say that “He who contributes the most money to a presidential candidate (or any candidate), gets the most from that candidate!”
St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “He who prays most receives most.” You can confidently also say that “He who contributes the most money to a presidential candidate (or any candidate), gets the most from that candidate!” A lesser-known truth is that big money pulls strings that extend across oceans and international borders, shaping the globalized consumer experience in surprising ways we would never imagine.
Who Profits from Wars?
The mainstream media―the propaganda tool of the Eiltes who own and control it―is repeatedly stoking up the fires of fear by hinting and speaking of a world war. One of the less-discussed aspects of the current crisis in Eastern Europe is its huge financial sales potential. Who profits from wars? Certainly not governments―they pay for wars! It is private businesses that profit from wars by supplying weapons and a whole host of other things that are needed to fight a war. The United States is home to five of the world’s 10 largest defense contractors. American contractors account for 57% of total arms sales by the world’s 100 largest defense contractors. In 2019, 61% of all global arms sales came from the United States. In the last 20 years, since the infamous 9/11 demolition collapse of the Twin Towers in New York, the United States has spent almost $7 trillion (one trillion is the same as one million times one million―therefore $7 trillion is 7 million millions) on post-9/11 wars and conflicts in more than 80 countries―most of which was transferred to the top 5 military and weapons contractors in the United States. Almost $2.5 trillion was spent on the Afghanistan War of which 87% or $2 trillion went into the bank accounts of those top 5 military and weapons contractors in the United States. Between them, NATO and Russia are responsible for well over half of the world’s annual military budget of $2 trillion (i.e. $2 million millions).
In less than two decades, the price of shares of the top five defense contractors mentioned before has increased between 3 and 12 times. From 2001 to 2021, the stocks of those top 5 contractors outperformed the rest of the stock market by 58%. If you had invested $10,000 in those top 5 defense contractors ($2,000 on each), then your return would now be worth $100,000. If you invested that $10,000 only in the biggest of those 5 contractors―Lockheed Martin―then your return would be $133,000. Western weapons manufacturers are reaping huge profits from the war in Ukraine. Their share prices have increased manifold since the Russian build-up in November. At total of 51 members of Congress and their spouses own between $2.3 and $5.8 million worth of stocks in the companies that are among the top 30 defense contractors in the world. While nearly 33% or one-in-three Senate members of the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, own stocks in the top defense contractors. Who ultimately owns these and most other important companies? Watch this video and find out: [https://www.stopworldcontrol.com/monopoly].
The US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost American taxpayers $6.4 trillion since they began in 2001, according to the report by the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University published in November 2019. Taxpayers in the US were exploited financially by the government's immense military expenses. From 2001 to 2021, the US annual defense budget has kept rocketing. According to the latest study by the Cost of War Project of Brown University, the war in Afghanistan has cost $2.3 trillion. That is an expense of $300 million per day for 20 years.
Funding Both Sides in a War
Ten years ago (June 1st, 2011), the Business Insider ran an article on the Rothschilds in which it stated: “The Rothschilds are the most famous banking family in history. In the 19th century they lent money to Kings and governments and funded both sides in the Napoleonic wars … From their five European bases, the Rothschilds became masters of the political universe. They lent money to Kings, including England’s George IV, dined with Prime Ministers like Disraeli and Gladstone, funded the creation of a pan-European rail network and financed wars, including both sides in the Napoleonic Wars. Their status was put most eloquently by the contemporary newspaper Nile’s Weekly Register in 1835: ‘The Rothschilds are the wonders of modern banking...peering above kings, rising higher than emperors, and holding a whole continent in the hollow of their hands....not a cabinet moves without their advice.’ Of Baron Nathan Rosthchild, the head of the English branch, the newspaper said: ‘He holds the keys to peace or war. They are the brokers and counselors of the Kings of Europe and of the Republican chiefs of America. What more can they desire?’”
Douglas Wissing, author of Funding the Enemy: How U.S. Taxpayers Bankroll the Taliban, wrote about his impression of the Afghanistan War after spending time on the ground with US troops in Afghanistan. He writes: “When I was embedded with U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, the soldiers started telling me that the U.S. government is wasting tens of billions of American taxpayer dollars on scandalously mismanaged aid and logistics contracts that end up financing the Taliban. We’d be trundling through Taliban-controlled areas in armored vehicles, dodging ambushes and hitting IEDs, and the soldiers would be saying: ‘We’re funding both sides of this war!’ It seemed preposterous at first. But as I dug into the story, officers, diplomats, and aid officials confirmed the rough outlines of the pernicious system. One sardonic US intelligence officer told me: ‘It’s the perfect war! Everyone is making money!’”
Who’s Behind the Profiteering Companies?
Over the past decade, numerous US industries, from aviation to banking, from car manufacturers to weapons manufacturers, have become dominated by only a handful of companies. The “Big Three” investment companies ― BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street ― taken together, are virtually always the largest shareholder in the few competitors that remain in these business and industry sectors. Together, the “Big Three” have nearly US$11 trillion in assets under management. That’s more than all sovereign wealth funds combined and over three times the global hedge fund industry. The “Big Three”, taken together, have become the largest shareholder in 40% of all publicly listed firms in the United States. This is the case for American Airlines, Delta, and United Continental, as it is for the banks JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup. Their CEOs are likely well aware that the “Big Three” are their firm’s dominant shareholder and would take that into account when making decisions. In this way, the “Big Three” may be exerting a kind of emergent “structural power” over much of corporate America. Whether or not they sought to, the “Big Three” have accumulated extraordinary shareholder power, and they continue to do so― for the “Big Three”, are their common owners. All of these corporations are part of the S&P 500, the index in which most people invest. In the S&P 500 – the benchmark index of America’s largest corporations – the situation is even more extreme. Together, the “Big Three” are the largest single shareholder in almost 90% of S&P 500 firms, including Apple, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, General Electric and Coca-Cola. The “Big Three” exert the voting rights attached to these shares. Hence, just three companies wield an enormous potential power over corporate America―and corporate America wields an enormous power over politicians and governments.
The Top Ten Defense Contractors
#1 ― Lockheed Martin Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#2 ― Raytheon Technologies Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#3 ― General Dynamics Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#4 ― Boeing Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock and Vanguard
#5 ― Northrop Grumman Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#6 ― Analytic Services Incorporated (ANSER Inc)―is non-profit and so is not beholden to shareholders
#7 ― Huntington Ingalls Industries Incorporated―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#8 ― Humana Incorporated―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#9 ― BAE Systems―a chief shareholders is BlackRock
#10 ―L3Harris Technologies Incorporated― the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
They say that money makes the world go around—and frankly, it’s true if you throw God out of the picture. Satan―the prince of this world―knows full well the pulling power of money and he never ceases to use that card in his temptations and enslavement. Greed is a common sin of many now and in the past. Yet money, in a sense, is not the most desirable thing for most people―even though they might not admit it, or know it. It is ultimately POWER that is the sought after commodity. Even those who are greedy for power, cannot achieve that power today without money. We all know that political campaigns succeed or fail, businesses rise and fall, and communities thrive or languish, all based on how much capital they have at their disposal.
If you want to be the president of the USA ― falsely touted as “the most powerful position in the world” ― then you need the backing of money to achieve your ambition for “power”. The 2020 presidential election was the most expensive in history. Political spending in the 2020 election totaled $14.4 billion―with over $5 billion spent on the presidential campaigns and over $8 billion spent on the congressional campaigns, more than doubling the total cost of the record-breaking 2016 presidential election cycle. Biden’s campaign raised over $1 billion from donors. Trump’s campaign raised $774 million. Some of that money (20%) came from “below”―the people who gave $200 or less. The next bracket is the $200 to $2,800 donor (around 45%).
Finally, there is the “loophole” of forming joint fundraising committees, for which limits are “looser”. These committees have been reported to lavish dinners for wealthy donors as have raised as much as $10 million in one single night. Also, since 2010, it is also possible for “independent” groups to raise unlimited sums from corporations, companies and individuals to finance political activities. These “independent” groups―known as “Super PACs” (Political Action Committees)―are not allowed to directly coordinate with the candidates. The total contributions from Super PACs have more than doubled since the 2016 election. Hence a lot of the money came from “above”―the wealthy people.
Just 12 megadonors, from both sides of the aisle ― at least eight of whom are billionaires ― made up a combined $3.4 billion in contributions of the $45 billion donated to federal political causes between January 2009 and December 2020. Roughly $1.4 billion of that $3.4 billion came from the self-funding of the unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaigns of Bloomberg L.P. founder Michael Bloomberg and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer ―both of Jewish descent ― with Bloomberg alone dropping more than $1 billion of his own money into his historically expensive presidential bid. The single biggest Republican donor on the Republican side was Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who, with his wife Miriam Adelson ― both of Jewish descent ― gave more than $218 million to Republican campaigns and outside groups during the 2020 cycle.
St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “He who prays most receives most.” You can confidently also say that “He who contributes the most money to a presidential candidate (or any candidate), gets the most from that candidate!”
St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “He who prays most receives most.” You can confidently also say that “He who contributes the most money to a presidential candidate (or any candidate), gets the most from that candidate!” A lesser-known truth is that big money pulls strings that extend across oceans and international borders, shaping the globalized consumer experience in surprising ways we would never imagine.
Who Profits from Wars?
The mainstream media―the propaganda tool of the Eiltes who own and control it―is repeatedly stoking up the fires of fear by hinting and speaking of a world war. One of the less-discussed aspects of the current crisis in Eastern Europe is its huge financial sales potential. Who profits from wars? Certainly not governments―they pay for wars! It is private businesses that profit from wars by supplying weapons and a whole host of other things that are needed to fight a war. The United States is home to five of the world’s 10 largest defense contractors. American contractors account for 57% of total arms sales by the world’s 100 largest defense contractors. In 2019, 61% of all global arms sales came from the United States. In the last 20 years, since the infamous 9/11 demolition collapse of the Twin Towers in New York, the United States has spent almost $7 trillion (one trillion is the same as one million times one million―therefore $7 trillion is 7 million millions) on post-9/11 wars and conflicts in more than 80 countries―most of which was transferred to the top 5 military and weapons contractors in the United States. Almost $2.5 trillion was spent on the Afghanistan War of which 87% or $2 trillion went into the bank accounts of those top 5 military and weapons contractors in the United States. Between them, NATO and Russia are responsible for well over half of the world’s annual military budget of $2 trillion (i.e. $2 million millions).
In less than two decades, the price of shares of the top five defense contractors mentioned before has increased between 3 and 12 times. From 2001 to 2021, the stocks of those top 5 contractors outperformed the rest of the stock market by 58%. If you had invested $10,000 in those top 5 defense contractors ($2,000 on each), then your return would now be worth $100,000. If you invested that $10,000 only in the biggest of those 5 contractors―Lockheed Martin―then your return would be $133,000. Western weapons manufacturers are reaping huge profits from the war in Ukraine. Their share prices have increased manifold since the Russian build-up in November. At total of 51 members of Congress and their spouses own between $2.3 and $5.8 million worth of stocks in the companies that are among the top 30 defense contractors in the world. While nearly 33% or one-in-three Senate members of the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, own stocks in the top defense contractors. Who ultimately owns these and most other important companies? Watch this video and find out: [https://www.stopworldcontrol.com/monopoly].
The US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost American taxpayers $6.4 trillion since they began in 2001, according to the report by the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University published in November 2019. Taxpayers in the US were exploited financially by the government's immense military expenses. From 2001 to 2021, the US annual defense budget has kept rocketing. According to the latest study by the Cost of War Project of Brown University, the war in Afghanistan has cost $2.3 trillion. That is an expense of $300 million per day for 20 years.
Funding Both Sides in a War
Ten years ago (June 1st, 2011), the Business Insider ran an article on the Rothschilds in which it stated: “The Rothschilds are the most famous banking family in history. In the 19th century they lent money to Kings and governments and funded both sides in the Napoleonic wars … From their five European bases, the Rothschilds became masters of the political universe. They lent money to Kings, including England’s George IV, dined with Prime Ministers like Disraeli and Gladstone, funded the creation of a pan-European rail network and financed wars, including both sides in the Napoleonic Wars. Their status was put most eloquently by the contemporary newspaper Nile’s Weekly Register in 1835: ‘The Rothschilds are the wonders of modern banking...peering above kings, rising higher than emperors, and holding a whole continent in the hollow of their hands....not a cabinet moves without their advice.’ Of Baron Nathan Rosthchild, the head of the English branch, the newspaper said: ‘He holds the keys to peace or war. They are the brokers and counselors of the Kings of Europe and of the Republican chiefs of America. What more can they desire?’”
Douglas Wissing, author of Funding the Enemy: How U.S. Taxpayers Bankroll the Taliban, wrote about his impression of the Afghanistan War after spending time on the ground with US troops in Afghanistan. He writes: “When I was embedded with U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, the soldiers started telling me that the U.S. government is wasting tens of billions of American taxpayer dollars on scandalously mismanaged aid and logistics contracts that end up financing the Taliban. We’d be trundling through Taliban-controlled areas in armored vehicles, dodging ambushes and hitting IEDs, and the soldiers would be saying: ‘We’re funding both sides of this war!’ It seemed preposterous at first. But as I dug into the story, officers, diplomats, and aid officials confirmed the rough outlines of the pernicious system. One sardonic US intelligence officer told me: ‘It’s the perfect war! Everyone is making money!’”
Who’s Behind the Profiteering Companies?
Over the past decade, numerous US industries, from aviation to banking, from car manufacturers to weapons manufacturers, have become dominated by only a handful of companies. The “Big Three” investment companies ― BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street ― taken together, are virtually always the largest shareholder in the few competitors that remain in these business and industry sectors. Together, the “Big Three” have nearly US$11 trillion in assets under management. That’s more than all sovereign wealth funds combined and over three times the global hedge fund industry. The “Big Three”, taken together, have become the largest shareholder in 40% of all publicly listed firms in the United States. This is the case for American Airlines, Delta, and United Continental, as it is for the banks JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup. Their CEOs are likely well aware that the “Big Three” are their firm’s dominant shareholder and would take that into account when making decisions. In this way, the “Big Three” may be exerting a kind of emergent “structural power” over much of corporate America. Whether or not they sought to, the “Big Three” have accumulated extraordinary shareholder power, and they continue to do so― for the “Big Three”, are their common owners. All of these corporations are part of the S&P 500, the index in which most people invest. In the S&P 500 – the benchmark index of America’s largest corporations – the situation is even more extreme. Together, the “Big Three” are the largest single shareholder in almost 90% of S&P 500 firms, including Apple, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, General Electric and Coca-Cola. The “Big Three” exert the voting rights attached to these shares. Hence, just three companies wield an enormous potential power over corporate America―and corporate America wields an enormous power over politicians and governments.
The Top Ten Defense Contractors
#1 ― Lockheed Martin Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#2 ― Raytheon Technologies Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#3 ― General Dynamics Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#4 ― Boeing Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock and Vanguard
#5 ― Northrop Grumman Corporation―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#6 ― Analytic Services Incorporated (ANSER Inc)―is non-profit and so is not beholden to shareholders
#7 ― Huntington Ingalls Industries Incorporated―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#8 ― Humana Incorporated―the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street
#9 ― BAE Systems―a chief shareholders is BlackRock
#10 ―L3Harris Technologies Incorporated― the chief shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street