By David Moorcroft
“I do not give much belief to prophecies, because most, especially those that have come to me recently, do not deserve to be read.”
– Pope Pius IX. (9th Apr 1872).
The ‘warningsecondcoming’‘messages’ themselves speak of the need for discernment. MDM alleges that‘Jesus’ told her, on 15th Aug 2011:
“THEN PRAY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE GRACE TO BE ABLE TO SEE THAT THESE MESSAGES ARE OF DIVINE ORIGIN.”
(1) The Church teaches, as of faith, that Christ communicated the whole of the Father’s Revelation to his Apostles, who committed it to writing (Sacred Scripture), or handed it on in the word of preaching or instruction (Sacred Tradition).
Catholics MUST believe this Public Revelation by ‘divine and Catholic faith’.Private revelations are not part of the deposit of faith (Catechism of theCatholic Church no. 67), and only ‘human belief’ guided by reason and prudence may be given them.
Catholics MUST believe this Public Revelation by ‘divine and Catholic faith’.Private revelations are not part of the deposit of faith (Catechism of theCatholic Church no. 67), and only ‘human belief’ guided by reason and prudence may be given them.
The above‘message’ implies that a divine gift of faith is necessary to believe the‘messages’ – that they are, in fact, equal to Public Revelation. Only a falserevelation would claim this.
(2) To pray for the grace to see, not whether, but THAT the ‘messages’ are divine is to start by assuming that they are so, and to ask God to confirm that foregone assumption.
Such a prayer is presumptuous, assumes that disbelief in the ‘messages’ is a lack of discernment, and opens the soul to the danger of spiritual deception. No discerning Catholic would pray such a prayer.
(3) The charism for discerning that a private revelation is ‘worthy of pious credence’is given to the Church, specifically in the person of the local Bishop, and not to individual Catholics. (See 2 Peter 1:20-21.) It is presumptuous to claim this charism for oneself.
It is a fact that most alleged private revelations are false, and most of these,especially in modern times, are obviously so. We do not need a ‘gift of discernment’ to see the self-evident, or to reject doctrinal falsehoods already condemned by the Church. A few simple ground-rules should help.
RULE 1
The first test of holiness is OBEDIENCE. A person who receives a private revelation will always OBEY the Church.
The self-proclaimed ‘seer’ who publishes under the pseudonym ‘Maria Divine Mercy’(MDM) publishes her alleged ‘divine messages’ in many languages on the Internet, without any Episcopal consent or approval. According to Rule 1, she must be judged a false seer.
RULE 2
Any alleged private revelation which contradicts Public Revelation given through Church doctrine is false by definition.
It is elementary that God cannot contradict himself, and error cannot be attributed to the One who is Truth. Pope Benedict XVI has stressed that when the Church approves a private revelation, she affirms that the content is free of doctrinal error.
The alleged‘divine messages’ of MDM teach (dates of ‘messages’ given):
--- that they are Sacred Scripture (6th and 7th Feb 2011)
The Church has infallibly defined the Canon of Sacred Scripture. Any alleged private revelation which claims the status of Scripture is false by definition.
--- the Protestant heresy of Scripture only (13th Sept 2011)
--- the heresy of Indifferentism, e.g., ‘All paths lead to God’ (21st Nov2010)
--- that man has power of himself to ‘achieve grace’ (24th Jan 2011), and so redeem himself. Also that man must redeem himself before he is fit to enter ‘Paradise’(27th Dec 2011; 7th Jan 2013)
--- Luther’s heresy of ‘consubstantiation’, that the substances of bread and wine remain after consecration (14th Apr 2011)
--- that MDM is necessary to our salvation (7th Nov 2011; 24th Jul 2012)
--- that the Church is defectible (7th May 2012; 8th July 2012)
--- that the perpetual succession int he primacy of Peter has failed (16th Nov 2010; 7th Jun2011)
RULE 3
God has never sent a private revelation of worldwide significance without putting his signature on it. God’s signature is:
(1) A predictive prophecy which is quickly fulfilled.
(2) An irrefutable miracle which is certainly linked to the revelation.
(1) The alleged ‘divine messages’ of MDM claim that God is sending a Warning, or Illumination of Conscience, to prepare the world for the Second Coming. Here is some of the evidence for her credibility, with dates of ‘messages’:
--- the Warning would happen in 2011 (31st May 2011; 9th Aug 2011; 3rd Oct 2011)
--- the Warning would happen before the Great Persecution of Antichrist (3rd Mar 2011)
--- the Great Persecution, or Tribulation of Antichrist has commenced, in December 2012 (20th Jul 2012; 25thDec 2012)
--- the Warning would happen AFTER Pope BenedictXVI has been forced to leave the Vatican (1st Jun 2011) The death of Pope Benedict would happen within a few weeks of 28th Feb 2013..
We have twofailed prophecies of the Warning, and a third prophecy which flatly contradicts the others. Pope Benedict has not been forced to leave the Vatican. He is very much alive, in good spirits and receives visitors.
(2) It should be needless to say that MDM has not been able to point to a single miracle to confirm her claims.
RULE 4
True prophecy calls us to listen to God in the needs of a particular time; it never exalts the ‘prophet’.
According to the ‘Warning Second Coming’ messages, MDM is ‘the end-times prophet' and the ‘final messenger’ (16th Dec 2011; 16th Jan 2012), a ‘victim soul' (28th July 2012), in union with Christ (1st Aug 2011), a co-redeemer with Christ (7th Nov 2011), the Seventh Angel of Revelation (18th May 2012), the most favoured of prophets (18th Jun 2012), and the Divine Light shines forth out of her soul (7th Aug 2011)
RULE 5
Reject any alleged revelation if the ‘visionary’ seeks to make money out of the‘messages’, e.g., by selling books, asking for donations at meetings or selling unapproved sacramentals. Profiting from ‘prophecy’ is not of God.
RULE 6
Reject at once any alleged revelation which attacks the Church, e.g.,calumniates the local Bishop, or condemns the Holy Father. Such ‘messages’ are not of God; they incite to schism, and believing in them is gravely sinful.
QUESTION:“You say the ‘messages’ may be of Satan. Would Satan urge us to pray, do penance and say the Rosary?”
ANSWER: “As the Gospel shows, Satan knows Scripture. He knows, then, that the prayers of the disobedient are ‘an abomination to God’ (Proverbs 28:9). The Demon will be happy for you to pray all the devotions the Church approves if he can get you out of the Church by selling you one heresy.”
Writing an article on MDM for an Italian magazine, I found myself to deepen the doctrine of the “seventh messenger”, and I realized that it is a totally heretical doctrine.
ReplyDeleteYour blog has been very helpful to me.
So I return the favor, adding some brief remarks.
Expanding them, you could build an article on this topic, not enough explored.
I apologize for any grammatical errors. My language is Italian.
What is common to the Jehovah's Witnesses with the followers of the false messages of MDM? Apart from the symbol (identical), I'd say a lot...
MDM presents herself (not new among the millennialists), as the "seventh angel" or the "seventh messenger" of the Apocalypse.
The seventh angel of Revelation is that of verses 10,7 and 11,5. This seventh angel is one of the group of seven angels, to each of them is given a trumpet. When the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, takes place "the mystery of God" (there comes the Kingdom of God). But who are these seven angels?
According to Rev. 8,2, they are the "seven angels STANDING BEFORE GOD" who are given seven trumpets to. They are very high in order Angels, i.e., Arcangeli. The angel Gabriel appearing to Zechariah said, "I am Gabriel, who I AM IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD ..." (Luke 1, 19) They are the ones the Jewish tradition calls the angels of the face, angels of the presence, that is, a group of seven angels who are always in the presence of God, see His face, and that's why they are called "angels of the presence or of the face." The most important of these Angels are present in Holy Scripture by the names of Michael, Gabriel and Rafael. The other four names appear only in the apocryphal texts and Tradition.
MDM, therefore, is one of the seven archangels. (!)
Not only. She is also the last prophet sent by God on Earth. After her, there will not be another one, because Jesus Christ Himself will return (16/10/2012; 16/01/2012; etc.).
Who knows a bit of sects and heresies has probably already figured out where it comes from this false doctrine of the "seventh messenger" or "seventh angel". It is a Jehovaist doctrine, I mean, of Jehovah's Witnesses (but not only). This is why I said earlier that they have a lot in common, in addition to the symbol that is identical (the cross in the crown). For Jehovah's Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell, founder and president of the Watchtower Society, is the "seventh messenger" or "seventh angel" of the Church of Laodicea.
The main article of the Watchtower of November 1, 1917, published one year after Russell's death was entitled "A Tribute to the Seventh Messenger". It explained that the entire Gospel Age was divided into seven periods or ages, and God provided a special messenger to each of them.
THE SEVEN MESSENGERS would be: St. Paul, St. John, Arius, Waldo, Wycliffe, Luther, Russell. As you can see, they are all heroes of Protestantism, dearest to the Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry, which Russell was affiliated to. The Russell family was Scottish (here is the York Rite), with a line of masonic descent.
(To be continued…)
Russell, taking his cue from the seven Churches of the Apocalypse, arbitrarily divided the history of the Church in "SEVEN AGES".
ReplyDeleteThe Church of Ephesus is the first period that goes from 33 to 70, the angel is St. Paul;
the Church of Smyrna is the second epoch that goes from 70 to 313, the angel is St. John;
the Church of Pergamos is the third epoch that goes from 313 to 1157, the angel is Arius;
the Church of Thyatira is the fourth epoch that goes from 1157 to 1217, the angel is Waldo;
the Church of Sardis is the fifth period that goes from 1217 to 1517, the angel is Wycliffe;
the Church of Philadelphia is the sixth period that goes from 1517 to 1878, the angel is Luther.
THE Church of Laodicea was associated with the last age, which was clearly connected to the RETURN OF CHRIST, from 1878 to 1914. Russell's preaching was centered around the year 1914, as a certain date of the end.
http://wtarchive.svhelden.info/archive/en/others/1923_XX_The_Laodicean_Messenger.pdf
https://books.google.it/books?id=6by-0moRVgwC&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63
Here is the image of the original cover with the seven messengers.
http://truth1.org/russell-3.htm
Russell was considered (also today is considered) the seventh Messenger of Laodicea, and his congregation, the last of the Apocalypse. This means that after him, last messenger, no one else would come, but Jesus Christ (just as in messages to MDM). On Russell memorial stone can be read: "The Laodicean Messenger", the seventh messenger or angel of the Church of Laodicea. The memorial is located a few meters from the pyramid containing the symbol of the "Cross in the Crown".
http://www.infotdgeova.it/piramide.php#
https://www.olrl.org/apologetics/incredjw.shtml
Russell, as Mason, was a great expert in Egyptology and in astrology. Among his doctrines, I remember, for its bizarreness, that according to which God would dwell in the Pleiades constellation zone (Studies in the Scriptures; C.T. Russell vol. 3 p. 237). This doctrine was abandoned by J.W. in the 50s of the last century.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taze_Russell
http://masonemerson.freeyellow.com/christianwitnessescom/id134.html
http://www.revelation-today.com/Laodicea.htm
The story seems to end up here. On the contrary, this heresy of the seventh Messenger is widespread within the Protestant.
William Marrion Branham (1909-1965), American Pentecostal preacher and pastor, is considered by his followers as the "Prophet of God for the end time", the "Seventh Messenger of Laodicea." In his book "AN EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN CHURCH AGES", also Branham arbitrarily divided the history of the Church in "SEVEN AGES", making it clear to everyone that he was "THE MESSENGER OF THE SEVENTH TIME" and that Christ would come after him, around 1997.
http://endtimemessage.info/scab.htm
The rhymes are always the same.
For Adventists, the "seventh messenger" is Ellen G. White; for Mormons is Joseph Smith; for MDM followers, Mary Carberry...
Who is the SEVENTH ANGEL-MESSENGER OF THE LATTER TIMES?
WHITE ELLEN GOULD (Adventist)?
JOSEPH SMITH (MORMON)?
CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL (JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES)?
WILLIAM MARRION BRANHAM (TABERNACLE OF BRANHAM)?
MARY CARBERRY (MDM)? Or who else?
PUT YOURSELVES IN AGREEMENT, HERETICS: WHO IS THIS SEVENTH AND LAST MESSENGER?
Best regards in Xto et Maria
Dr. G.I.