Since I became
conscious about many events, I witnessed how the world evolves through words of
mouth, news and stories of elderly; the wars between two nations, the
retrenchment of many employees because of companies that have folded up, the
unstoppable communism and terrorism, the activists who rally to antagonize
every president who's in his/her present term, the corrupt leaders who are
interrogated on the hot seat, poverty, drug addiction, human trafficking,
prostitution, pornography, poverty, labor malpractice, etc.
These
uncertainties are the same issues that my parents had talked about when we were
kids, the same stories that they had been going through and we have been still
enduring until now. The grandparents whom I chanced to be with for years had
also the same version of this oddness.
In the Old and New
Testament, the same scenario can be found: the fall of kingdoms because of
infidelity that have caused famine, justice and immorality.
In this time of
seemingly unstoppable tribulation, many religious denominations are like
mushrooms that have been germinating every now and then claiming that end of
times is near.
Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of
many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will
unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception
offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy
from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a
pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his
Messiah come in the flesh.
Matthew 24:12 And because of the increase of
evildoing, the love of many will grow cold.
Luke 21:12 Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute
you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will
have you led before kings and governors because of my name.
John 15:19-20 If you belonged to the world, the world would love
its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out
of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to
you, 'No slave is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me,
they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
2 Thessalonians 2:4-12 Let no one deceive you in any way. For
unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the
one doomed to perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called
god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of
God, claiming that he is a god - do you not recall that while I was
still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is
restraining, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of
lawlessness is already at work. But the one who restrains is to do so only for
the present, until he is removed from the scene. And then the lawless one will
be revealed, whom the Lord (Jesus) will kill with the breath of his mouth and
render powerless by the manifestation of his coming, the one whose coming
springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in signs and wonders
that lie, and in every wicked deceit for those who are perishing because they
have not accepted the love of truth so that they may be saved. Therefore, God
is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie, that all
who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned.
2 John 7 Many deceivers have gone out into
the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh;
such is the deceitful one and the antichrist.
John 2:18 At this the Jews answered and said
to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?"
John 2:22 Therefore, when he was raised from
the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to
believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.
The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is
made to realize within history that monessianic hope which can only be realized
beyond history through the eschatological judgement. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name
of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political
form of a secular messianism.
The Church will
enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will
follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection . The kingdom will be fulfilled,
then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy,
but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause
his Bride to come down from heaven. God's triumph over the revolt of evil will
take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this
passing world.
Revelations 19:1-9 After this I heard what sounded like the loud voice
of a great multitude in heaven, saying: "Alleluia! Salvation, glory, and might belong to
our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great harlot
who corrupted the earth with her harlotry. He has avenged on her the blood of
his servants." They said a second time: "Alleluia! Smoke will rise
from her forever and ever." The twenty-four elders and the four living
creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, "Amen.
Alleluia." A voice coming from the throne said: "Praise our God, all
you his servants, (and) you who revere him, small and great." Then I heard
something like the sound of a great multitude or the sound of rushing water or
mighty peals of thunder, as they said: "Alleluia! The Lord has established
his reign, (our) God, the almighty.Let us rejoice and be glad and give him
glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made
herself ready.She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment." (The
linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones.) Then the angel
said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to
the wedding feast of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These words are
true; they come from God."
Revelations 13:8 All the inhabitants of the earth
will worship it, all whose names were not written from the foundation of the
world in the book of life, which belongs to the Lamb who was slain.
Revelations 20:7-10 When the thousand years are completed,
Satan will be released from his prison. He will go out to deceive the nations
at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for
battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. They invaded the breadth of
the earth and surrounded the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city.
But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. The Devil who had led them
astray was thrown into the pool of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the
false prophet were. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelations 21:2-4 I also saw the holy city, a new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold,
God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be
his people and God himself will always be with them (as their God). He
will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or
mourning, wailing or pain, (for) the old order has passed away."
Revelations 20:12 I saw the dead, the great and the
lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll
was opened, the book of life. The dead were judged
according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls.
2 Peter 3:12-13 Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons
ought (you) to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion waiting for
and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will
be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire. But according to his
promised we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
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