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MILLENARIANISM AND PROPHECY
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INTRODUCTION The origin of this all too brief look at the problem outlined in the title arose from many personal conversations and almost eight years of study of the writings of a now well-known personality in the world of ecumenism, Vassula Ryden. I was the first priest to oppose strenuously the writings of Vassula, now published as True Life in God. I saw them in their unpublished form when she presented them to me in 1986 as "messages from Jesus". Chief among the things that brought me to realize my error in rejecting her yet unpublished writing in 1986, besides the grace of God, was my gradual recognition of their profound fidelity to the apostolic teaching. By that I mean that the contents correspond to what I already knew at the time to be the teaching of the Church. As time went on, however, I began to discover that often things in her writings which were fresh insights for me, were in fact reminders of things that are found in the early writings of the Church. More and more, in examining her writings, I recognized for the first time certain classical teachings of the Fathers of the Church or the Scriptures themselves, that had escaped my attention till then. One of the most impressive examples of this for me has been her teaching on the imminent "reign" of Christ. The more I research the Fathers of the Church, the more I realize that an important doctrine has not just been gathering dust, for most of us it has been completely buried, and it is Vassula's messages and those of other recent mystics that are now bringing it once again to light. My research on what the Fathers had to say about the coming reign of Christ was brought about by a criticism of Vassula, which accused her of the "heresy" of millenarianism. In trying to formulate a response, I discovered how little contemporary writers have seriously studied the patristic teaching in this area. It is through Vassula that I discovered what the Fathers had said. Moreover, Vassula's writings are also an important clarification and elucidation of the true nature of this event which is coming "soon". Reflecting on my own experience, I can now say that like almost everyone else, priest or layman, I grew up with an overly simplified notion of eschatology. Like most other people, I thought that after Pentecost Sunday, we were simply to struggle and wait till the end of the world; at which time Jesus would come and bring all to an end with the Last Judgement. Fatima I suppose that the promises of Our Lady at Fatima should have made me realize that something quite extraordinary must await us in the future before the Last Judgement. In fact, at Fatima in 1917, Our Lady promised that after the conversion of Russia, the world would be granted a certain "period of peace" and the "triumph of Her Immaculate Heart". I should have reflected more on what Our Lady's promise implied. Anyone who takes seriously the promises at Fatima, and the Church certainly does, should today ask the question: how can there be peace unless the very hearts of people change? How can the hearts of people change without a most special grace of God? This question becomes all the more urgent in the light of the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the catastrophic decline in public and private morals that we are witnessing today. It was my studies of Vassula's writings that produced in me an effect similar to the disciples on the road to Emmaus as Jesus explained the meaning of the Scriptures to them. It wasn't that I had never heard these Scriptures; I had never really understood them. This is also the situation of contemporary Catholic biblical scholarship which is often totally out of touch with contemporary mystical developments and the supernatural messages that are being received by people like Vassula: we need someone to remove the veil that has darkened our understanding of these very earth shaking teachings of the Apostles. Providentially, God is helping us just now when all of these predictions take on a new urgency and are beginning to come true. The Reign of Christ Probably the best way to start the section is with a rather long quote from the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation (19: 11 - 20 : 14) contains a narrative that perplexed the early Church Fathers and has been glossed over in more recent times. Ask almost any clergyman what the Fathers of the Church had to say about this passage, and you will immediately find that the whole topic has been undeservedly put to one side, and yet in fact we are speaking of a major moment in salvation history. In this passage one immediately notes, among
other things, that there clearly is a reference to a "first resurrection"
which occurs before a reign of one thousand years by Christ. What
are we to think of such a thing? In fact, the Book of Revelation
is so full of mysterious passages, that by the time a student or even a
scholar comes to this point, he has already had to scratch his head and
wonder about much that he has read in the preceding pages.
Though various authors
The reason for puzzlement here is that we tend mistakenly to think that we already know all the major events of salvation history that are yet to come. We mistakenly believe that the only thing that remains is the Last Judgement, which will take place at the end of the world. That is why we try to "squeeze" all these events into that perspective. However, this view seems to be mistaken, and a careful reading of the Bible points to something wonderful that many in the early Church were already aware of but that we contemporary Christians have been ignoring: a coming reign of grace and truth which the Apocalypse called the reign of Jesus, and Our Lady of Fatima called an era of peace and the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart. The First Resurrection The stumbling block, as I mentioned above, has always been the problem of the mysterious resurrection (the "first resurrection") indicated in Revelation 20: 5. Vassula's writings remove this stumbling block by clearly stressing that a "resurrection" can also be spoken of in a spiritual way rather than a physical one. To cite just one example, Jesus says to Vassula on 19 Dec. 1990: "I have raised her from her grave and have taken her by the hand and formed her," and then speaking to the listeners, he adds, "Have I not done the same to you too?" The approach Jesus uses here of a symbolic use of the word "resurrection" finds full confirmation in parts of the Scripture such as: Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ... If we have been united with him through likeness to his death, so shall we be through a like resurrection ... you must consider yourselves dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6: 3 - 11). Thus the resurrection that is spoken of in the Apocalypse need not be of a physical body. Likewise, we can see from Romans that the "beheading" or martyrdom need not be a physical one; it can refer to the faithful "witnessing" rendered by those who follow Christ: the faithful Church. In fact, in the original Greek language of the New Testament, the words for "witness" and "martyr" are the same since the martyrs then witnessed with their own blood. Once the stumbling block of a physical resurrection and death has been removed from this passage, then the difficulties that this passage creates for the contemporary Church and certain ancient writers are eliminated. Moreover, other passages emerge with a dramatically new perspective. The Parousia Of course the idea that Jesus and the ancient Church saw the Messianic era or "parousia" as imminent is not a new one. Any dictionary of theology or theological encyclopedia will not fail to discuss the problem. For example, a standard English reference book, The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, states: In general the New Testament writers expected an imminent, dramatic, visible return of Christ to usher in the New Age. The work begun in his ministry, death, and resurrection was to culminate in His triumphant parousia. This may be documented by a survey of the major divisions of New Testament literature. (vol.3 p 659) Of course, there are those who deny that the
early Church expected an early "coming" of Jesus, but it seems clear that
this denial arises from the error we noted earlier in the article: if there
is only one great divine intervention or "coming" of Jesus, then those
places that seem to imply an intermediate or imminent "coming" have to
be interpreted to harmonize with those that seem to indicate a "coming"
after a longer period (e.g. after the proclamation of the Gospel to the
whole world, cf. Mat 24: 14). How then to reconcile that with
various passages that
Then men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. He will dispatch his angels and assemble his chosen ... I assure you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place (Mk 13: 26 - 30). The solution that many in the ancient Church held gives us also the correct solution to the problem today: there is not one, but two great interventions in the time that separates Pentecost and the end of history. In other words, the Messianic area, lived in its full intensity lies in our future and before the end of the world. Moreover, contemporary prophecy confirms that it is quite imminent. Although I have spoken of two great "comings" here in the context of parousia, it would no doubt be better to speak of two "manifestations" of Christ in history after Pentecost. In fact the general sense of the word "parousia" is actually "presence" and then it is also an "arrival" or "coming". Since Christ is in fact always present, it is really a question of his being present in a new way, or "manifesting" himself to us. In fact, this is the way that the term is used in 2 Peter: It was not by way of cleverly concocted myths that we taught you about the coming ("parousia") in power of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for we were witnesses of his sovereign majesty. He received glory and praise from God the Father when the unique declaration came to him out of the majestic splendour: "This is my beloved Son on whom my favour rests." (2 Peter 1: 16 - 17). Peter almost certainly is referring to the experience of the Transfiguration, which is the very event that follows immediately after Jesus promises: "I assure you, among those standing here there are some who will not experience death before they see the Son of Man come in his kingship" (Mat 16: 28). The reference is clearly to an event that involved no new physical arrival of Jesus; it dealt with a new manifestation of his "presence". Once we accept this view, many passages in the Scriptures are open to a new interpretation. For example, in 1 Cor 7: 25 - 31, Paul exhorts the first Christians to voluntary celibacy and detachment in general. His concluding motivation was "the world as we know it is passing away". He does not simply say "the world is passing away", but the phrase, "as we know it" seems to imply that what is referred to is a new stage of history, rather than the end of the world. In a similar way, he speaks to Timothy in a way that seems to indicate an imminent hope of transformation (rather than the absolute end of the world): "I charge you to keep God's command without blame or reproach until Our Lord Jesus Christ shall appear. This appearance God will bring to pass at his chosen time" (1 Tim 6: 14 - 15). In this light, a re-reading of Romans 8 is also of great interest. Note, for example, when St Paul says: I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us. Indeed, the whole created world eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God ... the world itself will be freed from its slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God, (Rom 8: 18 - 21). The Reign of Christ in Tradition St Justin, who was born less than one hundred years after the death of Jesus, in his famous work, Dialogue with Trypho, the Jew, quotes a Jew who is asking him: Do you really profess that this place Jerusalem will be rebuilt? and do you expect that your people will be gathered together and that they will rejoice with Christ...? St Justin gives this response: I and many others are of this opinion, and we believe absolutely that this will happen, but ... there are many Christians of pure and pious faith who do not share this belief ... But I and such other Christians as judge rightly everything, believe that there will be ... a thousand years in which Jerusalem will be built up, adorned and enlarged, as the prophets Ezechiel and Isaiah and others declare (Chapter 80). There are a few points that are noteworthy here. On the one hand, St Justin admits that not all Christians accept the doctrine, but he feels that it is most certain. Moreover, he brings out something quite important, namely, that the idea of an earthly kingdom is something that goes all the way back to the Jewish beliefs before the coming of Christ. The restored Jerusalem of Justin (which would seem to be the restored Church) is no doubt a literal interpretation of the Old Testament prophets and the Apocalypse. Again, Vassula's writings point to a spiritual fulfilment of this prophecy in the restoration and renewal of the Church under the leadership of the Pope. In any event, it is clear that the apostolic teaching looked to this (whether literal or symbolic) as a "future" event that had not yet taken place. All of this accepts the Jewish hopes of an earthly triumph of God's rule in history as authentically Christian. Christ's Own Teaching on His Reign Just before Ascension, Jesus is asked: "Lord, are you going to restore the rule to Israel now?" to which he answers, "The exact time is not yours to know. The Father has reserved that to himself" (Acts 1: 6 - 7). We are clearly dealing here with the Messianic hopes of the Jewish people for something visible and concrete here on earth. Instead of telling them that they had not rightly understood or even denying that there would be some sort of earthly reign, Jesus simply tells them that the time for it is a mystery. The fact that Jesus seems to accept this Jewish hope for some sort of reign of God on earth is significant. On more than one occasion Jesus had separated Himself from current Jewish attitudes, as in the Sermon on the Mount. But nowhere in the whole New Testament do we find any sort of effort to eliminate the deeply rooted idea that the coming of the Messiah would be connected with some sort of earthly kingdom. The phrase "My kingdom does not belong to this world," (Jn 18: 36) might seem at first glance to contradict the idea oa an earthly kingdom, but the word "world" here is rightly interpreted to be referring to the kind of "world" that stands opposed to the reign of God (Jn 17: 16). There are certain passages in the Scriptures, which actually encourage the idea that Jesus intends to establish some sort of earthly rule, though it is evident that the rule of Christ is fundamentally in the hearts of mankind "in Spirit and truth" (Jn 4: 24). In St Luke Jesus is clearly comparing himself to an earthly ruler: A man of noble birth went to a faraway country to become its king, and then return .... But his fellow citizens despised him, and they immediately sent a deputation after him with instructions to say, "We will not have this man rule over us." He returned, however, crowned as king (Lk 19: 12 - 15). We see here the idea of an interim period between the departure of Christ and His return. Nowadays we would be tempted to say that this return marks the end of the world. However, the other elements do not point to the end of the world but rather to a purification followed by a glorious reign. In fact, when the prince leaves, he gives tasks to his servants to perform. On his return he rewards them with renewed responsibilities: "You showed yourself capable in a small matter. For that you can take over ten villages" (Lk 19: 17). The unfaithful are then punished. Vassula on the Reign of Christ For some modern Catholics the idea that there could be any sort of interim period of peace or "triumph of good over evil" seems utterly fantastic, and yet not only does there seem to be conclusive evidence for this triumph in the Scriptures and tradition, this is also what our Blessed Mother promised at Fatima. Moreover, Vassula as well as other current mystics of our time insists that it is precisely about this glorious return and a renewed world that heaven is speaking in these days and for our own times. In the messages of 19 Dec 1990, Jesus gives a deeper understanding of the true significance of the Lord's prayer: I shall save you, I shall unite you to your other brothers and Wisdom shall be your Holy Companion to instruct you without ceasing. I shall soon lift the ban and your great apostasy will come to its end and the prayer I have given you shall be accomplished. My Will shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven, and under My Hallowed Name many nations shall come from far away, from all the ends of the earth to dwell close to My Holy Name, extolling My greatness by the divinity I would give you back. And My Kingdon shall come, because My throne shall descend from above into My Holy City and I shall reign among the remnant left, who will see Me face to face. Love shall return as Love and My Will shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven because you will be one, worshipping Me around one Tabernacle with love in your heart and a fire burning inside you. I shall accomplish My priestly prayer on earth as in Heaven. Your souls shall be rooted in Me, in Love, in Unity, and filled up with the utter fullness of My Spirit. Yes, My beloved ones, I shall not only give you your daily bread but also a hidden Treasure out of My Heart, The Celestial Manna (the Holy Spirit) that transfigures, uplifts your spirit into a copy of My Spirit. You shall be transfigured with the outpouring of My Spirit to know how to forgive fully those who trespassed against you. I shall put inside you a Spirit of Understanding and Mercy to make you understand what "fear of the Lord means". Yes, beloved ones, and once you do, I shall give you Wisdom to be your travelling Companion and guide, to lead you into sanctity, this sanctity which will paralyse satan, obstructing him from coming between us and between My Love. So when you see the sky dissolve into flames and the elements melt in the heat, know that this is the sign of the beginning of My promise, and of the New Heavens and the New earth, the Renewal of My Church, the Revival of My Church, the Revival of your hearts ... I have kept for Myself a remnant, chosen and transformed by My Grace to remain faithful to Me. This remnant I am raising up to rebuild the altars that once were and reconstruct My Sanctuary, they are the builders of My New Church ... I have spoken to you today in plain words. The Old Testament and the Messianic Reign The spiritual interpretation that Vassula brings out about the reign of Christ and the first resurrection confirms completely the ancient teaching of the Fathers of the Church about an earthly reign of Christ just as it confirms the same teaching as the Fathers understood it in the Bible itself. But how did this thoroughly Catholic teaching disappear from popular awareness and scholarly interest? It was an overly materialistic rather than a spiritual interpretation of this first resurrection and the coming kingdom that led to a gradual disregard for this important teaching. It is common knowledge that the Jewish world
in which Christ appeared had an extremely concrete view of the coming reign
of the Messiah. It certainly was not perceived as primarily
an interior reality. The quickest way of getting an idea of the Jewish
hopes for an era of
See the days are coming ... it is the Lord who speaks ... when I will raise a virtuous Branch of David, who will reign as true and be wise, practising honesty and integrity in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel dwell in confidence. And this is the name he will be called: The Lord - our - Integrity (Jer 23: 5 - 8). And in Isaiah: In the days to come, the mountain of the Temple of the Lord shall tower above the mountains and be lifted higher than the hills. All the nations will stream to it, peoples without number will come to it... He will wield authority over the nations and adjudicate between many peoples; these will hammer their swords into ploughshare,and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, there will be no more training for war (Is 2: 1 - 5). It seems clear that we have good reasons to hope for a world order that is different from the one that we are presently facing. We have a well-founded hope to look forward to a Church that draws all humanity to the Father through Christ in a world of Peace. It also seems clear that what Our Lady promised in Fatima about an "era of peace" sounded very much like what the prophets promised as the age of the Messianic reign. The arguments from Scripture and Tradition are strongly in favour of Vassula and our other modern prophets. I see no reason in Scripture or Tradition to maintain that the only major remaining event in salvation history is the end of the world. I can find absolutely no grounds for denying that the reign of Christ is going to come before the end of the world, though this reign will always be primarily in the heart. Rev. James M. Fannan, PIME
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