The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A War in the Heaven
The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter
Blog to discuss the book "The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation" and current events that point to the events described therein.
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, that there they should feed her a thousand two hundred sixty days. 7 And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: 8 And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 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. [Apoc. 12:6-9]
According to Steven Paul in his book, The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter, the above passage from Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation describes a conflict in the Church between those on the side of Christ and those who have apostatized and follow the False Prophet, and by extension Satan, the dragon.
While Michael and his angels may well be real angels, the term "angel" is used throughout the Apocalypse to indicate bishops. This passage tells of a battle inside the Church that results in those bishops who follow Satan finally being cast out "unto the earth". That is to say they no longer have the grace of being members in the visible organization.
In today's news, linked above, the Vatican has warned that passage of the so-called Freedom of Choice Act, removing all laws protecting the unborn, is a direct attack on the Church, an act of war. As is often the case in today's Church, such pronouncements are made by high Vatican officials, bishops, and usually contradicted, modified or ignored by many other bishops. The lines for the battle inside the Church are being drawn.
If FOCA is passed, what will the response of the US bishops be? They have made their warning but what is their history of backing up warnings in the past? In each of the last several election cycles, the prospect of excommunication for pro-abortion Catholic politicians has come up and in each cycle, prominent Catholic politicians have continued to receive communion even from prominent bishops. Now, a pro-abortion Catholic is Vice President and another is HHS Secretary. What will the hierarchy do? It depends on what time we're in in regard to the Apocalypse.
All the New Testament writings on the end times agree, before the cumulative battle between good and evil, the apostasy must come first. In the past election cycle a higher percentage of Catholics voted for the pro-abortion, pro-homosexual candidate than the population at large. This is a reflection on the efficacy of the teaching of the catechism by the current crop of US bishops, many of whom will be swept up in the war and "fall to earth" which means lose their spiritual position in the Church.
