An infallible way to determine whether God inspires a prophetic message doesn't take a degree in rocket science. Look at the results. A prophet tells people something will happen. Does it? Plenty of "visionaries" predict outcomes that fail to occur. Obviously their failures identify them as false prophets and their visions as either illusions or frauds. They may not necessarily be liars; they could be exhibiting an overactive imagination or even be misled by evil spirits. Or perhaps they simply love attention and their claims give them fifteen minutes of fame. But if their prophecies don't occur, they definitely aren't prophets!
I bring this up because a Medjugorje "visionary" is at it again. Mirjana, who at one point said her visions would last only three more days, (They have continued for over three more decades.) is predicting devastating earthquakes "before Christmas". These disasters will leave millions dead and millions of others homeless refugees fleeing to find a safe haven. That means within the next five days God will either confirm Mirjana as a prophet of Medjugorje or unequivocally out her as a false prophet and Medjugorje as the hoax and falsehood I believe it to be. Apparently the Blessed Mother keeps changing her mind. Mirjana said in 2020 that Mary would no longer appear to her. And now she's posting this? Really, you just have to laugh.
Mirjana's apocalyptic message, posted on YouTube about ten days ago, has garnered a little over a thousand views. Is she giving the world another message from Our Lady? We'll know within the next few days. Certainly much of what's said in these types of videos from the Medjugorje cult urge people to pray. Encouraging prayer is good, no question. Does it prove the apparitions are authentic? Not at all. Isn't it the same thing TV preachers do before they pass the collection basket? It's also important to remember that the devil can appear as an angel of light which is why St. John always said, "Test the spirits."
We certainly deserve chastisement and I have no doubt we'll get it and, in fact, are getting it already. The Bible predicts natural disasters as well as wars before Jesus returns. We're seeing that all over the world and have been ever since revelation ended with the death of St. John. Even before that endless wars fill the pages of the Old Testament.
But this particular prediction by Mirjana makes me shrug. I think a more likely immediate chastisement will come to us in the form of an economic collapse. Many make money their god. What would be more fitting than to send us into a downward spiral financially and into another depression?
I'll keep on doing what I always do: pray, sacrifice, do the duties of my state in life, and continue to make preparations for Christmas joy. I won't be running out to stock up on toilet paper for apocalypse now.
Want to know more about Medjugorje? I've read and reviewed several of Donal Foley's books on the alleged apparitions and have also written a number of other articles. Some have shocking information, e.g., a battle among some of the Medjugorje families serving pilgrims that resulted in violence that killed over 140 people. And then there is the on-going battle with the local bishop and the disobedience of the Franciscans promoting the apparitions. Here are a few of my posts here and here. And please, don't comment that you know it's true because you went there. I did too back in the early 1990s. The fact that people pray the rosary or go to Confession or have religious experiences doesn't prove it's true any more than those who have spiritual experiences at Protestant tent revival meetings.
Medjugorje is the apparition that keeps on giving -- over four decades in fact. The street where some of the visionaries live is called "Millionaires' Row." All of the visionaries have done quite well financially, rather unusual (to say the least) among those chosen by God for special attention. Most receive nothing but the cross as the children of Fatima and Lourdes experienced.
The pilgrimages continue and tourism is the basic economy of Medjugorje. Are the apparitions authentic? Is Mary really appearing there, not to mention other places announced by the "seers?" I seriously doubt it, but whether I believe it or not really doesn't matter to my faith. I just hate to see the Blessed Mother used as the barker for a circus. Really...she never stops talking!
Read more on Medjugorje if you feel so inclined.
Bishop claims Marian apparitions in Medjugorje are FALSE - but what is the truth?
Will Rome fall for the Medjugorje hoax?
Did the Medjugorje Seers Get Rich With the Apparitions?
In the meantime, if you believe in Medjugorje get ready for the earthquakes.
Anyone past 70 AD claiming to be a prophet is false.
ReplyDeleteThere certainly is no new revelation, but that's not the case with prophetic voices. As St. Paul says in Ephesians 4:
ReplyDelete"And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,* for building up the body of Christ, 13until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,* to the extent of the full stature of Christ." There are still prophetic voices and we hear some of them in the approved apparitions of the Church. The children of Fatima spoke prophetically when they told the world there would be a miracle of the sun because the Blessed Mother told them so. Authentic prophets never speak on their own, but say only what God wants them to say.
Paul is only talking about until the canon is completed. This was known when the Montanists were rejected out of hand for their claims to being prophets. But sadly Rome fell to Monatnism later, and has remained in Montanist captivity.
DeleteI'm not sure what you mean when you say "until the canon is completed." Can you clarify? If you mean the canon of the religious texts, that didn't take place until around the 4th century. Paul had no bible, just the Jewish Torah and loose writings. They weren't gathered into a canon for several centuries. None of the visionaries God has used to speak prophetically are offering new revelation. For example, St. Margaret Mary emphasized devotion to the Sacred Heart, but it already was a practice in the Church. She simply emphasized it and acted on God's command to spread the devotion. I don't think that has anything to do with Montanism. Although I think the current pope and his curia could be accused of that as they try to initiate novel doctrines that conflict with the gospel and sacred tradition.
DeleteThe text that says "where there are tongues they shall cease" etc. says "until that which is perfect has come." "Perfect" in the KJV language is translating a Greek word that means "mature, complete" so that which is "complete" comes. I.e. it says "we know in part, we prophecy in part, but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial is done away." Cessationists believe it means when the canon is complete; crazy Montanists believe it means the second coming. Hence why the Montanists believe in Binny Hinn and Fatima and all the rest. And why Rome like Pentecostals is always making up some new doctrine based on some prophetess (who Paul would not even allow to speak in the church, ladies gotta be in silence) and so we end up with piles of false doctrine that women made up and claimed to have received as "prophecies."
DeleteThe KJV, published in 1611, is an incomplete bible (66 books vs. 73 in the Catholic bible) although much of its origin comes from the Catholic Church. I haven't really studied the issue, but I expect the writers omitted the books that Martin Luther removed in the 16th century. That certainly affected the approach to doctrine, for example Purgatory which is alluded to in Maccabees by discussing praying for the dead. I find it strange for you to be criticizing the Catholic Church by claiming Rome is creating new doctrine. She isn't of course. That's a hallmark of Protestantism and it isn't just Pentecostal Protestants who do that but all denominations. Look at the Protestant churches (Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran, etc.) that approve of contraception and abortion -- unheard of before the Lambeth Conference of 1930. Active homosexuality too with homosexuals made bishops. The Catholic Church is the only Church to maintain doctrine which is why she is always under such attack. To what denomination do you belong? Does it have female clergy? As for Fatima, the miracle of the sun was seen by 70,000 people and was reported on even in anti-Catholic journals by atheists. Some who came to ridicule converted.
DeleteI read the Apocrypha. I don't see what it has to do with this. I guess its just the go-to Catholic copium on losing an argument. As to Anglicans, but especially Methodists, they rejected cessatioonism due to Wesley's influence, and ended ip like Pope Francis embracing gay. This confirms my original point actually.
DeleteLOL! I'm not worrying about losing an argument because it isn't my argument. No matter how badly I defend the truth, the truth is still the truth and when we meet the Master of the debate, He will give us all the answers. One of those is that the Catholic Church is the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ in the first century. He gave us His body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist and I can never leave that holy food. "Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you," John 6
DeleteI don't understand why the shocking behavior and ongoing disobedience doesn't give these pilgrims pause. It's as if they WANT it to be true.
ReplyDeleteWhat wrong with the old standbys? Like Fatima and Lourdes?
One need only compare the visionaries of Medjugorie with St Bernadette or the children of Fatima to know it's fake .
ReplyDeleteMichael Davies and Rick Salbato had some good articles on it as being false, as well.
ReplyDeleteThis message was written to me by a friend:
ReplyDelete…….The principal message of Medjugorje is that all religions are essentially valid in God's estimation. This is the old lie that 'all roads lead to heaven' - the sin of religious indifferentism that has been around since the early days of the post-Ascension Apostles.
Many well-intentioned people have been deceived by the whole Medjugorje deceit. I believe this is because they have not discerned the old satanic technique by which the Serpent wraps a deadly lie with layers and layers of established truth. In the case of Medjugorje, Satan has chosen to promote the truth of the Rosary wrapped in the lies that all religions are valid, the promotion of the Novus Ordo ritual vs the Tridentine Mass, and the denial of the true Virgin Mary's role as Co-Redemptrix.
“……there are con men in this world, and con men in the other world – this is con man from the other world – a devil.”
Mirjana probably just watched "La Palma" on Netflex the night before.
ReplyDeleteYea, back in the 90s, I found myself falling away from the church. And I became interested in an unapproved apparition.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Rick Sabalto, and his Unity Publishing website, and alot of discernment I found my way back into the church.
Amen