Posted on 01/13/2005 8:10:49 AM PST by Rutles4Ever
(AGI) - Vatican City, 12 Jan - The Pope commented today on the Apocalypse before the 7,000 people attending the General Papal Audience today in the Nervi Hall, indicating that the fight between good and evil, personified by Satan, is a very hard one, as shown by the manifold violence and injustice in the world today, however the outcome is certain, evil will be vanquished. Pope John Paul II explained, "God and the Lamb, Christ, surrounded by the 'Council of the Crown', are judging human history in good and evil, but showing us however the ultimate end in salvation and glory. The songs which are found in the Apocalypse and which serve to illustrate the issue of divine glory which regulates the flux, often disconcerting, of the tide of human events". Of great significance is the first part of the hymn intoned by the 24 ancients who seem to incarnate the chosen people in their two historic stages, the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of the Church. The Pope continued, Satan, the original adversary, who accused our brothers in the heavenly court, has now been cast down from heaven and therefore no longer has great power. He knows he has not much time left because history is about to see a radical turning point in freedom from evil and therefore he is reacting full of great fury. And then the resurrected Christ will rise up, whose blood is the principle of salvation and who received from the Father royal power over the entire universe, in Him are centred salvation, strength and the kingdom of our God. In his victory are associated the Christian martyrs who chose the path of the cross, not yielding to evil and it virulence, but delivering themselves to the Father and uniting themselves to the death of Christ by means of a testimony of donation and courage which brought them to give up life in order to die". He concluded, "the words of the Apocalypse regarding those who have vanquished Satan and evil through the blood of the Lamb, echo also in the splendid prayer attributed to the Christian martyr Simeon, from Seleucia-Ctesifonte in Persia, 'I will receive life without pain, worry, anguish, persecutor, persecuted, oppressor, oppressed, tyrant or victim, there I will see no threat of king, or terror of prefects, no-one will quote me in court or terrorise me and no-one will drag me or scare me". (AGI) . 121425 GEN 05
There is a great deal of correlation betweeen polocks and Kentucktians...
WEell there are Popes and then there are Popes
Too bad this Pope isn't more like Urban II and Gregory VII who recognozed the threat of Islam and tried to stop it
Starting a religious war is probably low on the Pope's list of priorities.
Agree. Thanks for the post. I'm a non-catholic, but I have a lot of respect for the Pope. I'm just now re-reading the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, always a good "check and balance" practice.
I just noticed you're in Bowling Green?? We're practically neighbors!
Cause the Pope interprets things as he sees them in his belief system which is based on the New testament
Every time some world wide situation occurs all the bible types are predicting the apocalypse
Those existing in Pauls time etc fully expected it back then
I am sure the Nostradamus believers will soon be issuing there
bulletins
Yes, but hindsight is 20/20. We don't know the outcome of the events in the Middle East. I'm not saying I disagree with the War in Iraq, but none of us know where this is going to lead. This is a measured Pope. He doesn't serve to shock and startle the world. The Church is not going to call out Islam like you're hoping. To think, as mortals, we can stamp out a world religion, is foolhardy. Only God can get that done. I think He knows how to handle it.
"This is an extraordinary theological statement made by the Pope. I don't recall the Pope ever invoking the Apocalypse so directly and with such detail."
So what did he really say?
"there I will see no threat of king, or terror of prefects, no-one will quote me in court or terrorise me and no-one will drag me or scare me". - Last line of article
I hate being dragged.
Well let's go all the way back to Golgotha, if that's the case. Wait - since the fall of Adam. There's nothing new under the sun, so I'm not sure what sticking his head in a hornets' nest is going to accomplish.
All we need to know is who wins in the end. If you can't hang your hat on that and you're waiting for the pope to issue a "call to arms" soundbyte, you're going to be waiting for a long time.
I absolutely agree with your take on it.
Bump
What's amazing is before he became Pope, or so I've read, he used to warn of just that. What happened?
Revelation was pertinent to John's time, and it is pertinent to our time as well. Without going into a full dissertation of Revelation, let me just say that the Catholic church generally teaches that the only end of the world you need to be concerned with is your own. That said, Revelation is certainly prophetic. It applied to the Christian persecution of John's time, and it applies to the appearance of the anti-Christ and the final Judgment.
Scott Hahn did a marvelous analysis of Revelation in his book "Lamb's Supper". Admittedly, it's a Catholic point of view, but Scott Hahn used to be an evangelical preacher who converted after setting out to prove the Church false...
Wow. Maybe you can ask President Bush to call out Islam while you're at it. Or are you okay with his "Religion of Peace" platitudes? He must be on their side since he goes out of his way to PRAISE Islam...
I feel sorry for your lack of faith. It's in the bag. Satan loses. Period. End of discussion.
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