Which Are The Authentic Ones?
Some years ago, Mary (1) a visitor to this Web Site, submitted a question deemed so universally appropriate that this document was prepared based on the response given to her. This document has been greatly updated and reissued on 2008.
The Question As Submitted
What are your thoughts and feeling concerning all of the visionaries and 'seers' that seem so prevalent in our country. How can I know if a visionary is authentic - I realize that Rome is reluctant to approve many apparitions of our day but on the same token aren't the prophecies meant for our times? Mary (1)
The Response- Edited and expanded.First let us review what is the Official Position of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the Second Coming of Christ and the events preceding it. For this we refer to the current Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church (2).
Paragraph 675: 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 (3) and of his Messiah come in the flesh.
Paragraph 676: The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the escathological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism. (4)
Next, let us
meditate on 1 Kings 22:1-28. (6) Dwell carefully on verses
20-23.
23 Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee.
We frequently forget that nothing occurs in this universe unless God allows it. Even lucifer, who rebelled and fell because he refused to serve, has to serve God by default, i.e. when God allows pain to be inflicted on His children for our own good (7). Remember Job? We assure you, the Divine mechanism shown to us in the Book of Job is very, very real and continues to be used by God as we journey through Time. (8)
Last, with the question posed and the teachings found in the Catechism as backdrop, reread and meditate on the contents of the following documents: (a) Not All Alleged Heavenly Apparitions Are True - Learn to Tell Them Apart (9); (b) Mysteries of God That Allow Us To Better Understand Heavenly Messages (10); and (c) The Jews Did Nor Crucify Jesus , The Fanatics Did! (11)
Scriptures teach us that God will give satan a free hand in the world just prior the End of These Times [Revelations 13:5]. He showed us through 1Kings 22:1-28 (6) how He would do it and thus, in effect, separate the wheat from the chaff. Thus the multiplication of prophets and visionaries is a logical syndrome for the End of These Times. Obviously, many of them are not from God but allowed by Him.
Similar Biblical warnings/examples may be found in the relatories of: (a) Simon the Magician [Acts 8:9-13]; and (b) the "praised-be-Jesus-type" slave-girl with an oracular spirit [Acts 16:16-18] who kept following Paul and his companions while in Philippi.
To make things even more confusing, many apparitions and locutions that may have started legitimately, man's greed and egocentricity caused them to sour, so to speak. That is, the information that continued to flow through said events were no longer from God. (12)
But should we be surprised?
St. John, in the Book of Revelations, warned us about this. The
question is understanding the warning. He stated:
The solution, which is part of the Eternal Plan, is rather simple.
Have you noticed that miguel de Portugal does not tell people what to think and what to do?
That all documents that you may have read (and also hundreds more which have not been published in this site but have been issued to the appropriate Ecclesiastical and Political Authorities) only entice and encourage the readers to coherent (9) thinking and meditation so that the truth may be discerned?
Why? Because God is the only Master and God is the only Teacher - what any soul Graced by God can only do is Instruct based on what He Taught. If we succeed in helping one and all in establishing a solid connection with the Holy Spirit of God then, the Faithful, will be able to discern what is truth and what is not, regardless of the "credentials" of the visionary or locutionist in vogue.
To carry out this work, and purposely unbeknownst to most, God has bestowed upon miguel de Portugal many Graces which allow us to speak as we do. Such Graces allow us, among other things, to easily discern what is true and what is false - whether is accidental (error in translation from ancient texts) or deliberate (disinformation campaign) (14).
We could easily answer your question by publicly evaluating this or that visionary and showing irrefutably the errors or the validity of the alleged messages, prayers, novenas, etc. However, that is not our function.
Why? Because the faithful must be truly
dependent on God, the only Fountain of all Wisdom, and not on the words
spoken by us or anyone claiming to be speaking on His behalf. 'Very Attentive', Yes!;
'Dependent', No! (15).
Unfortunately, humans slip very easily from 'attentiveness' to
'dependence'... and then, to outright 'idolatry' which the false
prophets and visionaries love to bask in.
I.
Think of us as a telephone operator
assisting individuals to discern the right "toll free numbers" to the
Holy
Spirit of God, how to "dial those numbers", how to keep the
"communications"
established, how to keep the "interference" from disturbing the
"connection" and assist in the "interpretation" of the
"conversation", through our Feedback System, (16) to safeguard the
Faithful from the snares of satan.
II. That the Roman Church approves or disapproves a manifestation should carry the same weight as the opinion of TV pundits. Although their allegation should be reviewed, their conclusions are not necessarily right. Would you trust the political ruling of an organization who is singly responsible for World War II? (17) And that is just one example of why the Faithful needs to turn the tables around on Rome and view their cafeteria style rulings and biblical interpretations with great prudence.
What to do then? We have carefully outlined the answers to that question in two documents (18) which we highly recommend.NOTES________________________________
Originally
issued on
August
12, 1998. Texas, U.S.A.
Expanded and Reissued in honor
of Our
Lady of Lourdes - February
11th, 2008
Copyright 2000 - 2016 by The M+G+R Foundation. All rights reserved. However, you may freely reproduce and distribute this document as long as: (1) Appropriate credit is given as to its source; (2) No changes are made in the text without prior written consent; and (3) No charge is made for it.
The Achievement of New World Order and Its Demise
The Achievement of a Universal Religion How it Will Be Utilized for the Manifestation of the False Christ.