Heaven’s Warnings Are Not New; We Need to Pay Attention

[Author’s Note:  This article was inspired by the Scripture Readings for the First Sunday of Advent and therefore I humbly and gratefully acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s assistance in writing this.]

Heaven’s warnings are not new.  From time immemorial, God has sent warnings to humanity about its conduct and the consequences thereof. 

God first warned humanity about its conduct in the Garden of Eden.  As the Book of Genesis reported, “The LORD God gave the man this order: You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die” (2:16-7).  But Adam and Eve did not heed God’s warning and were deceived by the Devil into eating from the tree and disobeying God.  As a result, sin and death entered the world and God expelled our first parents from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). 

Heaven’s warnings come to us as individuals and as a group.  Through Moses, God warned Pharoah about his conduct regarding the Jewish people being held captive in Egypt.  When Pharoah repeatedly ignored God’s warnings, God sent destructive plagues upon Egypt and Pharoah personally.  (See Exodus Chapters 4-14).

God repeatedly sent prophets to warn the Israelites about their conduct and to call them to repentance.  Sometimes they listened to the prophets and reformed their lives.  Other times, they did not and suffered dire consequences.  To the people of Israel, God spoke through his prophet Isaiah: 

"Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD:   Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they may become white as wool.  If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land; But if you refuse and resist, you shall be eaten by the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken!" (Isaiah 1:18-20)

God sent the prophet Jeremiah with warnings for the Kingdom of Judah.  Instead of reforming their lives and trusting in God, the people and their leaders ignored God’s warnings and persecuted his prophet.  As a result, God permitted the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem,and carry the Jews off into a prolonged period of captivity in Babylon.  (See the Book of Jeremiah).

Through Jonah, God warned the people of Nineveh about their conduct. Fortunately for Ninevites, they heeded this warning and changed their ways and so were spared destruction.  There is an important lesson for us all here.  (See the Book of Jonah). 

In New Testament times, God sent St. John the Baptist through Judea with a message of repentance and preparation for the Messiah.  The Gospel of St. Luke recorded the following episode in the ministry of St. John the Baptist: 

"He said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance; and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”" (Luke 3:7-9).

In the fullness of time, God sent His Only Son into the world to redeem humanity of its sins and to call humanity to repentance and conversion.  “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him,” Jesus told his disciples (John 3:36).

 Jesus’s mission did not end when he ascended into Heaven because he shall return in glory to complete his work of salvation. 

 In this past Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus warns us to be ready to receive him when he returns.  As it is written in St. Mark’s Gospel:

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Be watchful! Be alert!  You do not know when the time will come.  It is like a man traveling abroad.  He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore;  you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.  May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”  (Mark 13:33-37)

God’s warnings to humanity did not end with Jesus’s Ascension into Heaven.  During these End Times, God has sent Jesus, the Blessed Mary Mother of God and various saints to convey messages of warning and repentance.   Especially in the last two centuries, Our Blessed Mother has appeared periodically, calling for repentance and renewal of faith.   On 13 July 1917, Our Blessed Mother appeared to three shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal and gave humanity this warning:

"You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. It is to save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.  This war will end, but if men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light [this occurred on January 28, 1938], you will know it is the sign God gives you that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.   To prevent this, I shall come to the world to ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that on the First Saturday of every month Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins-of the world. If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and the world will enjoy a period of peace. In Portugal the faith will always be preserved..."

(see https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/third-apparition-of-our-lady-23365  )

At Kibeho, Africa, in the 1980s, Our Mother appeared calling for repentance but the people there did not heed her warnings.  As a result, Rwanda suffered genocide in 1994 comparable to the Jewish Holocaust of World War Two.  (See Chapter 13 of Michael H. Brown’s The Day Will Come:  Answers to Your Questions about Mystics, Prophecies & Miracles.  Ann Arbor, MI:  Servant Publications, 1996.)  

At Heaven’s direction, Our Blessed Mother has repeatedly appeared with messages of repentance, conversion and faith in such places as Akita, Japan; Garabandal, Spain; and Medjugorge, Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Mary continues to appear with these messages in Medjugorge and other places around the world.

Jesus, too, has appeared with warnings and calls for repentance.  To St. Faustina Kowalska, Jesus said, “Speak to the world about My mercy; let all mankind recognize My unfathomable mercy. It is a sign for the end times; after it will come the day of justice” (848).  On another occasion, he told her:  “Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the doors of My mercy.  He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice” (1146).   (See St. Maria Faustina Kowalska Diary:  Divine Mercy in My Soul.  Stockbridge, MA:  Marians of the Immaculate Conception, 2001). 

God has repeatedly and periodically sent warnings to humanity about its conduct.  God has done this because He is a loving and merciful God who wants what is best for us.  He did not create humanity to arbitrarily and capriciously destroy it.  As it is written in St. John’s Gospel,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”  (John 3:16-7)

God sends these warnings because He knows that humanity has great capacity for love and goodness but humanity also has free will and a tendency to commit sin and evil.  Humanity has enormous capacities for destruction, and I am not just talking about nuclear weapons.  I am not just talking about biological weapons and lethal microbes engineered in laboratories.  Humanity has proven to be quite adept at developing and using highly destructive weapons and technologies.  Humanity has developed and used numerous ways of destroying the human soul:  illicit drugs, pornography, LGBTQ+ ideology and behavior, abortion, euthanasia, racism, corporate greed, social media, trans-gender medical procedures, Communism, idolatry, human trafficking, environmental destruction, pedophilia, slavery...just to name a few. 

Ever since the Garden of Eden, God has repeatedly sent warnings to humanity about its conduct and the consequences of its conduct.  He even sent His Son to personally convey those warnings and to redeem humanity from its sins.  God wants to save us from ourselves; we need to listen to those warnings and act accordingly.   Heaven’s warnings are not new; we need to pay attention.