The
Relationship Between "Time" and "Eternity"
Predestination or Free Will
Actually... It Is Both!
INTRODUCTION
By means of this document, information will be conveyed to you that may
clear up many questions in your mind regarding miracles, alleged
heavenly communications, etc.
There are many hidden Eternal Truths which once understood, make total
sense and become quite logical. Different religions give them different
names: Laws, Maxims, Proverbs, Philosophies, Principles, etc.. They all
provide some form of laws to live by.
There are several concrete and very specific reasons for attempting to
adhere to those truths. They are all interrelated to our spiritual,
psychological and physical natures.
If these reasons were better understood, many of those Divine Truths
would appear totally coherent, individually and collectively, thus,
they would be easily accepted and its compliance, joyfully sought.
Since many mysteries cannot be explained, and those which may be, are
understood only by a precious few, the concept of qualified
obedience
is to be embraced in many instances. If God gives us a directive, it is
for a reason and, whether we understand it or not, it must be heeded
for "optimum results" as we live through "Time" in our journey to
"Eternity".
We do not explain to a child why he should not drop a crystal ornament
to the floor. The concepts of gravity, brittleness of the crystal,
danger of cuts and lacerations, the uniqueness of the crystal piece,
etc. are beyond the child's intellectual grasp. Therefore he is told
not to drop it and, for "optimum results" is best if he obeys.
Unfortunately the concept of qualified obedience has been dreadfully
abused thus mostly abandoned with the ensuing negative consequences.
May the Holy Spirit illuminate your soul as you meditate on this
limited rendition of such magnificent Mysteries.
BACKGROUND
Modern theologians have emphasized human logic and reasoning, and
de-emphasized mysticism. Not accepting the reality of the supernatural
domain, many Heavenly Manifestations and Communications are denied or,
worse, misunderstood and/or misapplied.
For example, let us examine the limitation of human reason when
deprived of the mystical component: "Artificial Intelligence", created
by programming computers is designed to replace man in many facets of
industry and science.
This great technical concept has a major limitation in its application:
The supernatural component of a human being is missing. (Examples of
that intangible component: Love, Loyalty, Complex Fear, etc.).
The imprint of the Holy Spirit of God in the soul cannot be integrated
into the computer programs. Thus, "artificial intelligence" is not
really "intelligent" since human intelligence is the result of the
integration of the natural and supernatural components.
"Artificial Intelligence" is to "Natural Intelligence" what a two
dimensional photograph of a landscape is to the actual vision of the
landscape.
For a parallel reason: Those who discount mysticism cannot and will not
understand the ways of Heaven. Would you believe the evaluation, of
say, the Portuguese language, from someone who cannot speak, read or
understand it? Even if the individual can read it, speak it and
understand it, if he/she has not lived in Portugal long enough to
understand the culture, his/her evaluation would still be lacking.
The main purpose of this document is to discuss, and perhaps clarify,
certain mysteries that will give us a better grasp of the messages from
Divine sources, whether from Holy texts or supernatural manifestations,
and how to understand and apply them correctly.
DETAILS
Time and Eternity
Time and Eternity are two completely different frames of reference,
yet, they are connected by a continuum (1).
Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ exists in Eternity, yet, when She
visits us, She functions in the Time frame. Allow me to try to
illustrate its harmonious difference in physical terms.
A videotape [or a digital recording of a video, in more modern terms]
has a complete movie recorded on it. When placed in a
video player you will see what is recorded on the tape at that
particular point. You may advance the tape and see what you would have
normally viewed fifteen minutes later. You may reverse it to the
beginning and you will view again what you did, perhaps, one hour
earlier.
That is, the whole movie is in the videocassette but you can only see
(can only live) one instant of it at a time. This represents "Time".
There is a past, present and future.
For God there is no "past" and no "future"... it is all "present". That
is "Eternity". Using the videocassette symbolism: God is like a
videocassette player which can play the entire video simultaneously.
That is, the entire movie is actively manifest before Him at all times.
Predestination??
At this point these questions may arise: "Isn't that predestination?
What about our free will?"
Allow me to use yet another symbolism to answer those valid and much
asked questions which are not fully answered by some religions and
philosophies. We shall use the reported, and officially accepted by the
Roman Catholic Church, apparition of the Virgin Mary in Fatima,
Portugal. If you cannot believe in it, please accept the event only as
a a frame of reference.
For example, when the Virgin Mary appeared in Fatima She clearly
advised us that we had to stop offending God and make reparation
because, otherwise, a worse war than World War I would take place
(which indeed manifested itself as World War II). (2)
Since She lives in Eternity, She has "seen the complete movie", yet,
Divine Mercy demands
that we are amply forewarned so that if (when)
calamitous events befall us, it is the result of our free will.
Therefore, at the time of Divine Justice we have no claims against God.
Another example: Mary's Divine Motherhood (3),
known to God for all Eternity, became a fact as an act of Her free
will. God prepared Her beforehand (Immaculate Conception) but She
allowed Her becoming pregnant by the Holy Spirit of God by responding
to the Divine movement by saying "Yes".
Therefore, when we hear Mary speaking of a certain possible
chastisement conditioned to this or that action from our part (4),
She knows if it will take place, and it may have already been announced
in the Scriptures. However, God in His infinite Mercy, will do
everything possible to help us make the right decisions (exercise our
free will) and temper its
severity.
"Then, what is the use to keep on trying?" some will say. We must keep
on trying! Why? Because the Times of Tribulations and Chastisement, the
Apocalypse, are foretold in the Scriptures but the length and the
severity is variable and depends on our response to the warnings
from
Heaven. Even if two thirds of the population must perish: There are
many ways of dying, some are less painful than others.
For example. If the Scriptures would state that a "Storm will chastise
the coast of Northern England", the "Storm" may be a Tropical Storm, a
low level Hurricane, a maximum level Hurricane or a direct hit Tornado.
Thus, Biblical Prophecy would be fulfilled, yet the severity could
range from an "inconvenience" to a "massacre".
Our Journey in "Time"
As you may know, there is a Book of Life [Rev. 21:12] (5)
wherein the names of all who are to go to Heaven appear. Why does this
Book exist? Because in "Eternity" all is completed and if a soul is
going to be in Heaven, even if that soul is in a body and alive on the
Earth, in "Time", that soul with its glorified body is simultaneously
in Heaven in "Eternity", thus, its name has to be in the Book of Life.
This is also confirmed by Paul in Acts 13:48 : And the Gentiles hearing
it, were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were
ordained to life everlasting, believed.
Therefore, when that soul is born into "Time", that soul is marked to
go to Heaven. The question is: "How hard or how easy will that journey
be?" That will entirely depend on the manner in which that soul
exercises its free will.
God has a plan for our journey in "Time". If we follow that particular
and highly individual plan from birth to death our passage through
"Time" will be in the easiest possible manner. However, exercising our
free will, we may deviate from that "perfect plan".
The additional suffering that we may add to our journey is proportional
to how far we may deviate. Suffering springs from Divine Mercy and not
from Divine Justice because God wants us to be in the path of "the
perfect plan" for our own good.
When Jesus Christ said: "Take up your cross and follow me" (6) He was
not necessarily telling us that to be Christians we had to fight the
lions every day at the Roman Coliseum. What He was talking about was:
(a) "Take up your cross... ": We are
all born with an original sin.
This is a "born with cross" which gives us a propensity to sin while,
simultaneously, affords us the opportunity to exercise our free will
and choose good over evil.
(b) "...and follow Me": If we live as close as we are able to in
accordance to His teachings then, we will make it through "Time" with
that "born with cross", and all the other crosses that we may pick up
along the way, with the minimum possible amount of discomfort.
We will be chastised "...as silver is refined...", yet, the severity,
that is, the amount of suffering , still is in our hands and depends on
the acts of our free will. We have a difficult time realizing that God
has given us more real control over our lives and deaths than we could
possible ever have had over anything in this world by any other means.
However, to exercise that control we must "follow Him".
And this, brethren, is the real reason why the world has received many
true Heavenly Messages since the first half of the 19th century. Heaven
keeps trying to help us. So many of the poor members of the clergy who
think themselves illuminated through science say: "The last revelations
from Heaven ceased when St. John (the Evangelist) died. We do not need
messages from Heaven".
What these poor souls fail to see is that we have miserably failed to
apply the teachings of Jesus Christ (7), thus,
in His infinite Mercy, He is reaching out one last time to lead us
step
by step back to Himself and help us minimize our suffering (8)
as we approach the End of These Times.
The legitimate Divine messages do not tell us anything new, they only
incite and encourage us to live as He Himself instructed us in person
almost 2000 years ago... and we have not heard because we have been too
busy with the affairs of Mammon.
The confusion about the (Biblically
announced) Chastisement
Confusion continues to reign regarding Tribulations, Chastisements, End
Times, Three Days of Darkness, etc.. If one carefully studies the
Scriptural references given with the "Sequence of Events Leading....", (9)
confusion will come to an end or, at least, be minimized.
Nonetheless, in this document we are pointing out the most persistent
error: The intermingling of Chastisements, the much prophesied Three
Days of Darkness and the End of These Times.
Using the Holy Scriptures as a point of reference and demanding, within
that frame, internal coherence:
Let us think: When Our Lord returns in Glory to select and take His
elect, it will be to "set them aside" while creation is renewed. Then,
He will return these elect who, together with the group of the First
Resurrection, will reign with Jesus Christ in the renewed creation.
Therefore, this scene which is strictly out of St. John's Apocalypse,
does not coincide with the understanding of many reliable prophecies
regarding the period after Three Days of Darkness. For example: "...the
earth will be changed into an immense cemetery; the corpses of the
wicked and the just will cover the face of the earth. The famine that
will follow will be great." (10)
Does this aftermath resemble the New Creation? "Following famine will
be great..." Famine in the 1,000 year Reign of Christ on Earth? It does
not make any sense whatsoever because the reasoning is wrong.
Obviously, the Three Days of Darkness will be sometime before His
Glorious Return and the End of These Times.
Remember: We are
talking about the End of These Times
and not End of
The World.
CONCLUSION
Harmony and Coherence
We have many Heavenly Message Seekers and Calamity Prophets who are not
praying, nor meditating on the Sacred Scriptures. They are not even
obeying the same messages that they so assiduously seek and promote.
Harmony among Messages and the Scriptures must exist. Nothing
apocalyptic will happen of which we have not been forewarned for at
least 1,900 years. Yet, the degree of
severity remains in our hands as
we correct and make retribution for our misdeeds.
NOTES
(1) I am not as yet able
to describe the little
that has been revealed to me about this "continuum". The movie CONTACT
(1997) gives a rudimentary glimpse of it.
(5) If you do not believe
in the Holy Scriptures,
once again, we encourage you to view this as an example and notice the
demands for internal/external coherence needed when discussing
supernatural events and/or prophecies.
En Español: Misterios de Dios que nos permiten entender
mejor los mensajes divinos
Em Português: Mistérios de Deus que nos
permitem compreender melhor as mensagens de Deus
Originally issued only for
Worldwide Ecclesiastical Distribution on February 8, 1995. Nazare,
Portugal
Format updated on August 19,
2022
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