The Seven Apocalypse Letters Revisited: a Renewed View of the Ages of the Church

Summary

We have come a long way. We started by gazing at the sacred hand of Our Lord, holding the mystical seven stars. We asked ourselves, can this be merely seven literal early church Christian communities in Asia Minor? For, what can we say: does the meaning of God’s Divine Plan for the Church merely hinge of the very beginning of its history? Or the very end? Christ holds the totality of His Father’s Plan within His crucified hands, from the beginning to the end and everything in between. Therefore, we argued that since apocalypse has all four layers—past, future, ideal, and entire trajectory—the most meaningful way to look at the seven letters, by noting its varied structure, is spiritual historicism.

Then, we noted that without rigor, any attempt would be futile eisegesis and the woeful speculation that in the end is usual fodder for the critical.

Consequently , we established that rigor is possible, especially based on the model that I have developed in previous portions of my forth-coming book. There, when we assume that the entire Divine Plan should have a rigorous structure, we applied the theory that just as the saints overall follow the spiritual ways—the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive—so there should likewise be a similar pattern for the People of God on a macro scale. Why? Well, is not the Church the Woman of Apocalypse? Is not the Body of Christ the Church? Therefore, if the Church is like a woman in maturing pilgrimage, what saint is not also on a pilgrimage to heaven? Therefore, why should not the Jews and the Church, in order to reach apocalyptic maturity, themselves also journey this way?

Hence, already, the beginning rigor of the ages of the Church was the threefold way. But the letters, or ages, are seven. Well, we saw that history has a refinement. By the days of creation, history alternates between sunset and sunrise, between spiritual darkness and spiritual light. This, then, refined the way of the Church to five phases: three darknesses and two lights, interspersed.

Five. Now the gap was two ages. Next, we found that darknesses are the pure fall, and so are not refinable. So we could only work with lights. There were two lights, the illuminative way, and the untive way. One or more of them would need to be partitioned. The unitive way was totally pure, the age of peace, so no partitioning was really possible. So we were left with the illuminative way. There we saw it could be broken into three parts, much like modern academia:

The Dark Ages
The Middle Ages
Protestantism and Enlightenment, etc.

The Mysterious ages of the Church, by clear rigor, were then:

Pagan Rome
Dark ages, Heresies against God as Triune and Incarnate.
The Middle Ages
Protestantism and Worldly Age of Solo-Ratio:
The Modern Minor Secular Apostasy
The Age of Peace and Reunion of Christianity
The Great Apostasy

Now, before we commenced the analysis of the seven letters, we recalled three mystical aspects to the text that needed inspection:

Fornication
Meat sacrificed to idols
The Nicolaites

What could fornication mean spiritually? Well, the ultimate fulfillment of sexuality is in the wedding Feast of the Lamb, where the Christ shall marry His Bride, the Church. This mystical sexuality lives itself out not only in literal marriage but in the spiritual marriage of holy orders. Yes! Priests and bishops MARRY their churches, their parishes, their dioceses, their communities.

Therefore, when a seeming spiritual marriage exists, but there are no valid holy orders, it is like a pseudo marriage, and in the end, hyperbolically and spiritually, fornication. This is effectively what happens in Protestant spiritual leadership. They do all things like valid men of God, but it is pseudo. Therefore, fornication, present in two letters, can image Protestant or Protestant-like communities.

Moreover, in the same letters, sacrificing meat to idols is present. In short, we saw that the true meat and worship for Christians is to sacrifice God’s very Body and Blood to Him in the Mass. When holy orders are lost, as in, once again, Protestantism or its early kin in the Middle Ages, a valid Eucharist is lost, so that there is no Body and Blood and there is no true form of worship desired by God. Hyperbolically, then, this could be meat sacrificed to idols.

Moving on, we saw that the Nicolaites appear in pagan Rome and the Middle Ages. I determined that the most fitting heresy here is dualsim, seeing as dualism is the most prominent kind of heresy that appeared in pagan Rome [Gnosticism, Manichaeism, Marcionism, and so forth] and later the Middle Ages [Albigensians and Cathars].

We determined that there were four mystical personages in the letters—Nicolaites, Jews, Antipas, and Jezebel. Who could they possibly be? Well, if the ages are classified as spiritual in nature, they would need to image, most likely, the four primary categories of spiritual assault on the Church. This worked out perfectly when we desscended to the analysis:

Nicolaites of the Seat of Satan: Dualistic Heresies
Jews of the Synagogue of Satan: Trinitarian and Christological Heresies
Antipas:, where Satan dwelleth, the Great Schism
Jezebel, of the depths of Satan,Protestantism

When we finally analyzed the letters, all fit so very well:

Ephesus, or Pagan Rome

The Nicolaites, again, the dualistic heresies

Thou hast lost thy first love; the Pharisaical heresies: Donatism, Novatianism, Montanism

Smyrna: Trinitarian and Christological Heresies

Attacking God in His ultimate essence is supreme blasphemy, and to do so is to regress to the same degree to the Old Testament, or Judaism, since God’s special mystery as Triune and Incarnate is the central foundation of the New Covenant. “And thou art blasphemed by those who say they are Jews are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.”

Ten days tribulation. In the Joyful Mysteries analysis, history alternates between darkness and light, and each month in the series of months of pregnancy from St John’s conception to Mary’s giving birth symbolizes a phase of either darkness or light. Toward that end, the illuminative way of light was month number 12. A Jewish month has 30 days, and we just saw that that phase of light is divided into three sub-phases referenced above. But then, 30 / 3 = 10 days!

Pergamus: The Middle Ages

Antipas, the faithful witness, was martyred. We saw that the ultimate witness to the truths of Christ on earth is Peter. Therefore, spiritually, the East murdered Peter by rejecting his spiritual office.

Fornication and meat to idols emerges. Too, in the Middle Ages, precursor to Protestant activity arose in sects like the Waldenses, Wycliffe, and Hus. These sects lacked Apostolic Succession, so that, consequently, they had no valid holy orders (“seeming men of God, but really, spiritually, fornicators”), and no valid Eucharist or Mass (meat sacrificed to idols).

Again, also, were the Nicolaties: dualism made a comeback in the Middle Ages with Albigensiansim and the Cathars.

Thyatira: Protestantism followed by Solo-Ratio Age

Jezebel most fully images the preceding mention of fornication and meat sacrificed to idols. Too, the division of North and South in the OT as image of Christian NT Division was shown to insinuate that Jezebel of the later development in the North imaged Protestantism. Protestantism did style itself a prophetess and teacher, seducing good Christians away from Jesus’ Church toward heresy.

She was given space to repent at Trent, which reformed the Church of Rome and answered the plethora of Protestant heresies. She did not repent, and so was to bring forth wrath for those who will mingle with her.

Her children are killed by death: scathing hyperbole. The apocalyptic Christian division unleashed by Protestantism caused a forth-consequence of apocalyptic disillusionment with the Gospel, where all supernatural components of religion are denied, in favor of merely reason and a natural conception of life and things. This was a supernatural death.

Sardis: Modern Minor Secular Apostasy

The modern Church is dead, with its pathetic liberal, modernist, dissenting, and proportionalist saturation in the West. But it has a reputation of being alive by, first, the liberals themselves, who proclaim the “Spirit of Vatican II”, and secondly, by the secular world that reeks of socialism and liberalism, who must therefore find great camaraderie with persons who are of “faith” but reduce itto merely the corporal works of mercy, which is all that the self-same secular world cares about

There are, however, a remnant of Catholics who are faithful, who listen to their Mother, the t.rue Church, in all facets, corporal AND spiritual, and who love Our Lady and heed Her messages of love and concern for humanity.

Philadelphia: Age of Peace of Our Lady, Reunion of Christians

Nothing but praises here, as the Age of Peace is pure light. The Jews who had slandered are made to come and adore at the Church’s feet. The Reunion of Christians. For all of Church history, every teaching of the Church has been questioned and attacked, in one way or another. With Philadelphia, it is vindication time. The Chastisement that is imminent in our time, will show the true colors of error, all of them. Consequently, all the non-Catholics will come home [sparing Jews], realizing that the Church was right. “And they shall know that I have loved thee.”

There will be no tribulation for the Church at this time. Indeed, in the Age of Peace, the Church is effectively completely free of persecution or difficulties, that is, until the Great Apostasy, the final letter.

Laodicae: the Great Apostasy

The Church becomes complacent and lukewarm in the final time of history. It has enjoyed unparalleled spiritual and material prosperity for perhaps many centuries. It grows tired of such dual success, and falls into laxity. Parents’ failure to confirm their children is leading to loss of faith. Christ leaves before them a path: choose the fullness of supernatural life, and be saved, or spurn my graces and enter perdition.

In conclusion, while this analysis remains speculative, I would argue that it is very much rigorous and quite possibly the best spiritual historicist view that I am aware of.

The Seven Apocalypse Letters Revisited: a Renewed View of the Ages of the Church

The Mystical Christ holds the seven stars in His Divine hand just prior to the Seven Letters discourse. Can all this be merely seven literal Christian communities in the first century? Really? Perhaps, yes, in an immediate sense, for the Scriptures usually have a proximate audience. Yet, simply that? Can it really be that the whole mystery of the Church’s historical trajectory is random and aimless and has no theological rigor, especially not here? Indeed, simple common sense, coupled with the Catholic default mystical approach to allegory, leaves us no choice but to hope that, most certainly, some sense of the mystery of the same historical trajectory of the Church ages is found here. It must. Justice to the Catholic aura demands it. Too, a mere idealism, though clearly warranted in one layer as well, in addition to the early church communities, cannot complete sufficiency, for the simple reason that we cannot have persistent schizophrenia in every age of the Church, as in, in one sense, and at any point in history, the ‘false Jews” are slandering the holy ones in the “synagogue of Satan” and leading many to ten days tribulation, and then at the same time at any point in history, the same false Jews are coming to kneel at the holy ones’ feet, bringing escape from tribulation. Hence, we could even say that the best layer of meaning that Christ intends here is the layer of the ages of the Church.

Where, then, would we even begin to work this out? Well, here, firstly, one will object and say that those Christians who argue historicism aim the book at the Church, as if she were Jezebel, or some other negative component of the section. Admittedly, the historicist view is many times an anti-Catholic, Protestant construct. In response, we can say that we do not need to have a Protestant version of historicism. We can, rather, interpret the text from a Catholic theological framework.

Now, secondly, the objection is made, how will we have a Catholic view of Church history that is rigorous, else we are executing nothing more than subjective eisegesis? Well, let us address this.

The first hurdle is, how do we even know what remains for church history? This is definitely an essential issue. If we have no idea what remains, spiritually, for the Church from here to the end, it is futile to try and correlate ages. As it stands, EWTN scholarship helps give us the most probable road map:

Approved Catholic mystics (Venerables, Blessed and Saints, approved apparitions) throw considerable light on this order, by prophesying a minor apostasy and tribulation toward the end of the world, after which will occur the reunion of Christians. Only later will the entire world fall away from Christ (the great apostasy) and the personal Antichrist arise and the Tribulation of the End occur.

Although this is not Catholic doctrine, arising as it does from private revelation, it conforms to what is occurring in our time, especially in light of Our Lady of Fátima's promise of an "Era of Peace." This "Triumph of the Immaculate Heart" (other saints have spoken of a social reign of Jesus Christ when Jesus will reign in the hearts of men) would seem to occur prior to the rise of the Antichrist. The optimism of the Pope for the "New Evangelization" and a "Civilization of Love" in the Third Millennium of Christianity fits here, as well. This would place us, therefore, in the period just before the events spoken of in the Catechism, that is, on the verge of the evangelization of the entire world. Other interpretations are possible, but none seem to fit the facts as well, especially when approved mystics are studied, instead of merely alleged ones.

Hence, per the mystics, most likely, from here on out, two ages remain: a glorious renewal in an age of peace, and then the great apostasy and tribulation. So that takes care of the remainder of Church history not being known, or at least we will go with this estimate, which also, as it were, will fit perfectly with the theologically rigorous analysis of Church history that we will present momentarily.

The next objection is that history cannot be made rigorous. Well, through my many articles, I have tried to show that God’s Plan truly can be rigorously classified. The first great argument was that the Peoples of God, both Old and New, appropriately walk the way of the saint in a historical sense. Such interpretation of the Divine Plan perfectly matches Old Testament history as well as the presumed NT history. For reference:

Here, then, are the necessary greater ages of a fallen world that receives an Incarnation, synchronized with the Tradition on the creation days and beast kings, according to our theories.

The Ages of a Fallen World that is to Receive an Incarnation

Early Fall of Man, Two Greater Ages of the Fall Digested:

Anti-Baptism

Darkness: The Fall and Wickedness of Noah's day
Light: The Flood, an Apocalyptic Baptism

Anti-Marriage

Darkness: Tower of Babel
Light: Confounding tongues, Marriage to Prefiguring People (Abraham and Hebrews)

The Three Greater Ages of the Prefiguring Covenant:

The Purgative Way:

Darkness: Dark Night of the Senses: Oppression by glory-seeking pagan power (Egypt)

The Illuminative Way

Light: Exodus and Preaching of Prophets, development of OT doctrine on the Law
Darkness: Dark night of soul, intermediate Jewish apostasy from Old Law

The Unitive Way

Light: Exile, Vindication of Prophets, Repentance of Jews, Restoration to Holy Land, Rebuilding of Temple
Darkness: Martyrdom: The Crisis of OT Antichrist and final Jewish apostasy (Maccabbees)

*******Light: First Coming of Incarnate One***************

The Three Greater Ages of New Covenant:

VI. The Purgative Way:

i. Darkness: Dark Night of the Senses: Persecution by glory-seeking pagan power (Pagan Rome)

VII. The Illuminative Way:

I. Light: The Development of Church Doctrine

ii. Darkness: Dark night of soul: intermediate apostasy from New Law [present time, the Minor Apostasy]

VIII. Unitive Way

I. Light: Restoration of Christian Unity and Catholic Christendom, Age of Peace

ii. Darkness: Martyrdom: Great Apostasy, NT Antichrist, Great Persecution and Tribulation

******* Light: Second Coming of Incarnate One ***************

So we see that the Church has three greater ages, according to the way of the saint: the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive. Now, note that our model of history is like the days of creation, in that the ages alternate between darkness and light. That is, first a great age of sin arises, and then God redeems the sin by a great redemption, or light. Then another age of sin arises, and God redeems that with light and so forth, on and on. This is like the days of creation, which also symbolize the ages per some ECFs: “Evening came and morning followed, the first day. Evening came and morning followed, the second day, and so forth.” In light of this, the three ages of the saint we just mentioned actually splinter into five lesser parts when we break down their ways into the parts that are either light or darkness. It turns out that the process is more or less simple, with each way having two lesser parts, a light followed by a darkness, EXCEPT the purgative way, which only has darkness, the dark night of the senses.

Darkness: Purgative Way of Darkness, Dark Night of Senses
Light: lluminative Way of Light
Darkness: Illuminative Way of Darkness, Dark Night of Soul
Light: Unitive Way of Light
Darkness: Unitive Way of Darkness, Martyrdom

So now, we have that the ages of the Church, when refined so far, are five. Obviously, this is insufficient as we need seven, not five. Clearly, then, a partial refinement or refinements are necessary, at least somewhere within our current model. Toward that end, let us make a first observation:

Darkness is really pure when it exists, bringing with it, all-around, the complete purity of the fall. Hence, we should not view the phases of darkness as refinable. They are simple and absolute.

This only leaves room open for the refinement of light. This does seem probable as follows: light need not mean total and pure light. Rather, clouds and obscurities could exist, obscurities that could then introduce complexities, if it were possible, that could enable the main phase of ilght to break down into sub-ages.

This, in fact, Is what what we shall do. Now the issue is, which lights? As it stands, there are only two to choose from:

The Illuminative Way of Light
The Unitive Way of Light

Well, as we have just seen, if a light above is to be refinable, it needs notable complexities. Toward that end, the second light, the unitive way of light, does not have complexities because it is really pure. More specifically, the unitive way of light in our starting list of ages is the age of peace: Christians have reunited, and humanity lives in the love and peace of the Catholic Covenant as a near whole. This is really pure and simple. There aren’t any complexities, hence, we cannot partition this.

The Illuminative Way of Light: How do We Partition It?

This leaves the Illuminative way of light as the only alternative. As it turns out, it will work well. The illuminative way of light is complex and can be refined. It has Christian division, (Arianism, Islam, the Eastern Schism, Protestantism), doctrinal development, and gray. The Two Witnesses’ first great period. The trumpets, the phases of the laborers.

Now, we must ask, how many partitions do we need? Well, remember that we currently have five and need seven. So, obviously, we need two additional parts to add to what we have what we have. That means, effectively, that this illuminative way of light needs to be broken into three parts (one part, we already have, then two more). Ok, so how do we break up the illuminative way of light into three rigorous parts?

The phases of the sources of truth? This was discussed here, amongst other places: The Sources of Truth. In this regard, one can make a powerful, common-sense case that the history of the Church’s doctrinal development follows what can be considered to be the five sources of Catholic truth, from top to bottom, that is, from highest degree of truth to lowest, and, at the same time, from least evident as legitimate to most evident:

The Trinity and Incarnation
The Supreme Apostolic See [the Pope]
The General Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition
The Written Tradition [Scripture]
Reason

Here, the sources were attacked in the order just described, and this, in a manner in which one can still stay In the light of the illuminative way for all sources EXCEPT Reason, meaning, when you attack Reason [the Secular Apostasy of modern times], you no longer have any light because no sources are left. This leaves the first four sources as ones that can be attacked and still remain in light. But that is four, one too many, as we need three. Moreover, in deepening the theology on the five sources, they actually boil down to seven sub-ages total, six of which are in the light. That is even worse. See this.

Ok, so here is the rescue I see that can largely use what we just went over. Above, in the list of sources, use I and II as the first two sub-ages, and then merge III and IV to make the third partition. As it stands, this ends up simply being the secular and Church delineation in academia, almost:

Dark Ages (Trinitarian and Christological hereisies)
Middle Ages (Schism, Dualistic Heresies)
Protestantism and Age of Solo-Ratio [Enlightenment, Free Masonry, French Revolution, and so forth]

One objection could be made here by a theologian of history: the Church does not divide the very end of this list quite like that. In this view, rather than joining Protestantism and Solo-Ratio into one age and have the other age be the Secular Apostasy, they do Protestantism as one age, followed by what they call the “Modern Age,” which is Solo-Ratio andAnti-Ratio fused.

Well, in response, we say that we have to stick to the model of darkness and light. We can never have an age that is part light and part darkness, or vice versa. Either it is primarily light, or primarily darkness.

The Enlightenment and Solo-Ratio are not completely dark, since they retain the natural light of Reason, but the last century, or Secular Apostasy, which largely denies reason in atheism and relativism, is. Too, theologically, it will fit in our way, as we will see.

This now gives us seven ages: three darknesses, with two greater lights. The latter light is simple and one age. The first light is complex with three ages:

Pagan Rome
Dark ages, Heresies against God as Triune and Incarnate
The Middle Ages
Protestantism and Worldly Age of Solo-Ratio
The Modern Minor Secular Apostasy
The Age of Peace and Reunion of Christianity
The Great Apostasy

The Dragon Scenes: Support for Our Model

Now, we can ask, is there any Scriptural support for this? Yes, in the dragon scenes! I made this correlation in the last article for the Seven Letters. From that article, we saw that, when we assume that the collection of all dragon scenes of apocalypse image all of human history with main focus on Church history, we can partition them into seven parts that shew the seven ages of the letters forth:

War in heaven: Pagan Rome; the dragon is fighting to destroy the Christians with the Empire, to prevent the world’s conversion through brutal persecution.
Dragon pursues woman: Dark Ages; the dragon pursues the woman with heresies against God as Triune and Incarnate.
Woman flies to rest from serpent with two wings: the Middle Ages; the Church rests relatively from the serpent. The Church borrows Philosophy and Art, two wings, from four wings of Greece, the leopard in Daniel 7.
Dragon spews flood after woman, earth saves her: the hurricane of heresies from Protestantism and worldly age of solo-ratio. The Magisterium opens its mouth and swallows the lies by her infallible teaching; the Magisterium is the pillar and GROUND of truth, which in every age saves the Church from being carried away by every wave of doctrine.
Beast and false prophet: The apostasy, the deception, the persecution.
Dragon chained, reign of resurrected saints: the Age of Peace, the resurrection of faith.
Dragon released at end of millennium: the Great Apostasy and Tribulation.

Ok, we are ready to rock! Let us summarize all the Letters now and then resolve to revisit what I did a couple years ago but with the new meditations. In this regard, I will number the churches by name. Here we go!

Ephesus, Pagan Rome
Smyrna, Trinitarian and Christological Heresies
Pergamus, the Middle Ages
Thyatira, Protestantism and Age of Solo-Ratio
Sardis, the Modern Minor Secular Apostasy
Philadelphia, Our Lady’s Age of Peace
Laodicae, the Great Apostasy

Holes from Before

Before we commence our analysis, recall that in my previous analysis, there were some holes. Let us now commence to fill in the holes.

To begin, we can see there were three weird things we didn’t solve:

Fornication;
Idol worship;
Nicolaites;

I wasn't really sure what that stuff meant. Then it occurred to me to use the woman at the well theology; here goes.

Fornication as Invalid Holy Orders in Heresy

The woman at the well showed that human sexuality is intimately tied to holy orders, in the sense that every person ordained to holy orders is a true husband to his community. See here:

The Woman at the Well as Ecclesiological Type: Fornication and Idol Worship as Hyperbole of Protestantism

More specifically, every priest is himself standing in the place of Jesus and is marrying his parish or his diocese.

What we found in the woman at the well is that there are epically five great husbands in the history of the Church: the five highest Bishops in the world, the five Great Patriarchs, the five Great Apostolic Sees. The woman had had five husbands and was now with a fornicator.

Now, astonishingly, Christendom started out with one great husband, Peter; they were all united. When the Great Schism came, the Unfaithful Woman, who can symbolize Christian disunity in her marital digression, or Unorthodox Woman [the Samaritans were unorthodox to the Jews], divorced herself from Peter and took upon herself four husbands, the other four See's of the East. Later, when Protestantism came, the woman effectively divorced herself from all Apostolic succession and started taking on pseudo husbands.

Now, what do we mean by pseudo-husbands? Well, when we finally have Protestantism, the final phase of Christian division, we must note that no Protestant minister is a true man of God; no Protestant Minister really has holy orders. No, they do NOT! Why? Because of the following: Protestantism divorced itself from all Apostolic Succession, and not just Peter, as with the those in schism. And without Apostolic Succession, the community has no legitimate Bishop to ordain other Bishops or priests. Hence, Protestant ceremonies of “ordination” are not valid or fruitful, no matter how holy or good the men in question are, whether the ones ordaining, or the ones being ordained.

But Protestant ministers do do all sorts of things like valid-holy-orders men. They act like true men of God, even in subjective sincerity. They preach to their congregations; they baptize; they marry; they sometimes anoint; they make wafers and grape juice that are like Holy Communion; they lay hands on elders, as they call them.

So they do a lot of things that are like priests, just as fornicating live-in husbands act like real husbands. Many domestic partners today are a man who works for his woman, does the dishes for her, plays with the kids, changes their diapers, has sex with her, has kids with her, and so forth. But she is not really his wife; they're only domestic partners. He's a pseudo husband, and in the end, he is a fornicator.

Hence, after the five husbands divorced, “And the man you are now with is not your husband.”

This means that after all Apostolic succession is left behind, that is, the five Great Apostolic Sees [five husbands?], all that are left is pseudo husbands—fornicators.

This can be the first application to the Book of Revelation where it cites fornication twice in the letters, the 3rd and the 4^th.

Meat Sacrificed to Idols: Worship without the Mass and Eucharist

Let us move on to the next weird thing, unlawful meat and idol worship.

Now, with regard to sacrifice and worship, all true Christians are called to sacrifice a certain meat to God; what is that meat? Note, it is a certain kind of Flesh. That is right; it is the FLESH OF GOD HIMSELF!!! THE EUCHARIST!

THE TRUE MEAT THAT GOD WANTS US TO SACRIFICE IS THE BODY, BLOOD, SOUL, AND DIVINITY OF OUR MAKER AND SAVIOR, JESUS! Crackers and grape juice are NOT what God wants! it is unlawful meat!

And what is the ultimate form of worship within which God desires us to worship Him on earth? The Holy Mass! So then, clearly, Christians that do not do their ultimate Worship in the Mass are not worshiping God in the right way, and if the worship is not right, then it is not what God wants, so that it can be like IDOL worship hyperbolically. Because the Holy Mass is the ultimate, nothing else can compare to any service. Hence, if it were possible when the apocalypse mentions fornication and meat sacrificed to Idols in a historicist context, it would have actively to be talking about Protestantism or Proto-Protestantism.

Now, we are not condemning those persons to Hell. Many of the pastors and followers are good people and can be saved; rather we are saying that, objectively and hyperbolically, we can conceive of these analogies.

Moving on, where, we ask, are these analogies found in the seven letters? Specifically, these expressions of fornication and meat to idols occur in letters three and four.. In terms of ages of the Churches, which ages were letters three and four? Let us review: again, the seven letters were as follows according to the seven phases of the dragon

The first letter: Pagan Rome
The second letter: the Christological in Trinitarian heresies up until the schism
The third letter: the Middle Ages
The fourth letter: Protestantism and Enlightenment until the Modern Age
The fifth letter: the minor apostasy, which is our age
The six-letter: the age of Peace when Christians are reunited and the church is vindicated
The final or seventh letter: the great apostasy

So the third and fourth letters deal with the Middle Ages and Protestantism+.

Letter III:

And to the angel of the church of Pergamus write: These things, saith he, that hath the sharp two edged sword: [13] I know where thou dwellest, where the seat of Satan is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith. Even in those days when Antipas was my faithful witness, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. [14] But I have against thee a few things: because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat, and to commit fornication:

Letter IV:

And to the angel of the church of Thyatira write: These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like to a flame of fire, and his feet like to fine brass. [19] I know thy works, and thy faith, and thy charity, and thy ministry, and thy patience, and thy last works which are more than the former. [20] But I have against thee a few things: because thou sufferest the woman Jezabel, who calleth herself a prophetess, to teach, and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication, and to eat of things sacrificed to idols.

[21] And I gave her a time that she might do penance, and she will not repent of her fornication. [22] Behold, I will cast her into a bed: and they that commit adultery with her shall be in very great tribulation, except they do penance from their deeds. [23] And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give to every one of you according to your works. But to you I say, [24] And to the rest who are at Thyatira: Whosoever have not this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will not put upon you any other burthen. [25] Yet that, which you have, hold fast till I come.

Bingo. It was precisely in these ages that Proto-Protestantism and Protestantism arose. In the Middle Ages, precursors to Protestantism begin: effectively, non-Apostolic forms of Christianity that call out corruption in the Catholic Church hierarchy: the Waldenses, Wycliffe, Hus. Because such persons rejected the Apostolic Succession, they are not true men of God, and therefore are fornicators spiritually. Their worship is foreign without Apostolic succession; it has no Mass and hence no true sacrifice; it is, therefore, in our forth-proceeding hyperbole, meat and idols.

Protestantism and the North/South Schism

And, of course, the fourth letter is full Protestantism, which is self explanatory!

And while we are here in the fourth letter, we can easily notice that there is a supreme apocalyptic character present in all this: Jezebel! Yes. Now, I have already seen Jezebel as Protestantism in my first rendition of this theology a year ago, but I didn't even realize how profound it is when we go back to the Old Testament's schism. Toward that end, we can quickly go over the developed OT theology I have with regard to the North and the South.

To start, I went to a men’s conference where the beloved Father Bill Casey was. I have great respect for Father Bill’s great sincerity and orthodoxy, so I mean no disrespect here, and even wish to thank him for perhaps unknowingly leading me to refine my “division of the People of God” theology.

Anyway, Father Bill Casey disturbed my theology but then soon it made it deeper. You might remember this.

So here we go. The North and South broke up in the Old Testament. The North is the one that tore away, and they took 10 of the 12 tribes with them. The remnant two tribes in the South were the true Kingdom. In the New Testament, the East and the West broke up. The East was the one that left and took four of the five Apostolic Sees. The 12 apostles fulfill the 12 tribes. Therefore, there is no question that at least at face value, the East fulfills the North and the West, or Catholic Church, fulfills the South, at least in this dimension. Not to mention that after almost a couple hundred years the North was chastised first for godlessness by Assyria. The South had over 100 years to repent to escape her sister's fate but they did not and so they went into Babylon.

L et us fast forward in the New Testament. The great chastisement on the East came first in the form of atheistic materialism, or communism. We, the West, have largely been spared from this horror of Communism and have had 100 years or so to repent, but we have not. Now we are going into a different beast, relativistic hedonistic materialism, and it is persecuting us in the way of religious freedom through situations like gay cakes and abortion contraception in insurance policies Etc

Assyria, Babylon; atheism, relativism; North, South; East Wes

All seems well, but where is Protestantism. Father Bill Casey pointed out then that the North eventually fell into far greater errors than did Eastern Christianity. And that is true and something I had overlooked. In fact, evidently, Dr. Scott Hahn has cited an author from the 60s [is that right?] who saw the North as Protestantism.

Clearly, however, in order that all may be fulfilled, if there is an Old Testament type or anti-type of something, we would expect it to be whole, not leaving out essential components. Toward that end, whereas the North/South is just one split, Christianity has two forms of rift, each with supreme presence in the Divine Plan: schism, and heresy. Hence, we should try to formulate a type from the singular North that can account for both types in the New. What I discovered is, with some research, a very easy and profound way exists. Let us probe it.

We need to look deeper into the history of the schism of the Old Testament. More specifically, there we will see that there are two dimensions in the Northern schism, each with two segments that can give us the two great forms of New separation.

The first dimension that has two segments is geographical. The second dimension is chronological.

Let us take the geographical first because it is self-evident. Remember first that the true place of worship is in the South in Jerusalem, obviously. Well, here is something mind-blowing. As soon as the North split, or thereabouts, it established not one but two places of worship, and, lo and behold, at extreme positions in the North. The first was at Bethel in the very south of the northern kingdom—so close to the North/South border, that it was like less than 12 miles from Jerusalem. The other place of worship was in the far Northern extremities of the North, Dan. Hence, Bethel is very close to the true place of worship, and obviously Dan is very far away, about as far as ways you can get.

Well, lo and behold, just as there are these two locations of worship, there are two primary forms of Christianity separated from the Catholic Church. One is very close to her theologically and grace-wise [schism, or the East] and one is very far away [Protestantism, which is in heresy, is substantially separated from Rome]. Schism and heresy, Orthodoxy and Protestantism. Isn't that unbelievable?

Moving on, the second dimension is chronological. Here, what happens is that when the North breaks up, from what I could gather from my research, there is an initial period of worship that is partly faithful to God, and then finally there is a second phase of worship that is utterly diabolical.

In the first phase that lasted some 60 plus years, idolatry was commingled with Yahweh. There were idolatrous bulls, or calves, at the entrances to their temples but they still tended to have some Yahweh worship. It was corrupted but not on entirely diabolical.

But after some 60 years, King Ahab married a wicked Phoenician pagan woman named Jezebel. Jezebel persuaded him to completely corrupt Jewish worship to make worship of Balaam and Balac. It was total idolatry.

Hence, in a similar vein, the first great division of Christianity was corrupted in a lesser degree, in the sense that some some substantial salvific elements were still retained, as in Apostolic Succession, the Sacraments and Tradition; however, Protestantism was much worse, losing Apostolic Succession and Tradition altogether, and consequently also 5 of the 7 sacraments, retaining only Scripture and a hopeless task of attempting to understand it without the Church. Hence, Jezebel is a perfect theological type of Protestantism and she most perfectly fits in the book Revelation, where she appears in letter IV, which is, wow, the Protestantism and Enlightenment, solo-Ratio. Rock on!

The Nicolaites

This has already been treated in my recent article here. Pentecostalism, Donatism, and the Apocalypse Letters: "You Have Left Your First Love"

But for the sake of reference, allow me to elaborate:

The Nicolaites appear in letters one and three. Once again, these are pagan Rome and the Middle Ages. Therefore, the Nicolaites should be a kind of heresy that appeared in primary forms in pagan Rome and the Middle Ages. We concluded this was the dualiistic heresies. How? Well, the only other rebuke for the age of pagan Rome was losing the first love. We found these to be the Pharisaical heresies that have lost charity, either because of emphasis on a charism or charisms in place of charity (Montanism or other sects that claimed to be true Christianity because they still had signs and wonders, in contrast to the Catholic Church, within which they were fading), or lack of charity via way of lack of mercy (as in the Donatists, the Novatianists, or the Meleitists., who did not want to forgive apostates and such, or who did not believe clerics retain valid sacramental powers after apostasy or serious sin.) After this, the only other really major heresies that the Church is facing in pagan Rome is the dualistic heresies: Gnosticism, Manichaeism, Marcionism, and so forth.

This added up well in Middle Ages: we already had Antipas as the Papacy, mystically martyred by the East who murdered his authority as Peter, and the proto-Protestantism that we just saw above in fornication and idol-worship. This left really only two great heretical movements in Europe in that age, the Albigensians and Cathars heresies, which were, sure enough, dualistic.

Well, this wraps up our WEIRDNESS.

Now we can just re-crank out this whole machine and see how it all fits together. For this, we will move through the outline previously set up in this dissertation. Note, this has been honed now such that everything fits, from beginning to end, and in using analogies that are Scriptural and appropriate. So it should be really fun, and about as rigorous as we can get given this layer of meaning that is admittedly very speculative.

The Mystical, Apocalyptic Personages

One more thing: there are four apocalyptic names mentioned in the text: Nicolaites, who might be implied to exist in the Seat of Satan, Jews of the Synagogue of Satan, Antipas, where Satan dwells, and Jezebel, the depths of Satan. We can ask ourselves, from common-sense mystical intuition, what might they be symbols of? I think straightforward meditation would dictate they image four primary ways that communities have separated themselves from the Catholic religion. After all, we have seen that the meaning of human history must be based on spiritual conditions or characteristics of the ages. Toward that end, this thesis fits well. The preview is as follows:

Nicolaites of the Seat of Satan: Dualistic Heresies
Jews of the Synagogue of Satan: Trinitarian and Christological Heresies
Antipas:, where Satan dwelleth, the Great Schism
Jezebel, of the depths of Satan,Protestantism

It can be noted here that, other than the total darkness of godlessness, as in pagan Rome, or our modern atheism and relativism, these four groups encompass the vast majority of the important heresies of Church history. (One can object, the Enlightenment is not here. Toward that end, the aftermath of Protestantism is solo-Ratio, or a disillusioned rejection of all truth but Reason, since that is the default response to mega-Christian division. We will see that this reality is already contained in the Jezebel letter.)

The Letters

All these things being said, let us dig in!

Ephesus: Pagan Rome

Praises

works, labor, patience, endurance
hate Nicolatians

Rebukes

lost they first love

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write: These things saith he, who holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks: [2] I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them that are evil, and thou hast tried them, who say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: [3] And thou hast patience, and hast endured for my name, and hast not fainted. [4] But I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first charity. [5] Be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen: and do penance, and do the first works. Or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou do penance.

[6] But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaites, which I also hate.[7] He, that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him, that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God.

The Pagan Rome Church is pure, persecuted from top to bottom. And so, there are mostly praises from Jesus in this age. Too, Christ commends the church for condemning the Nicolaites, that is, in our view, the dualistic heresies. Indeed, the dualistic heresies arise in the era of pagan Rome or its aftermath AD: Gnosticism, first century; Marcionism, ~144 AD; Manichaeism, latter 200s AD; Docetism, first century, and so forth.

“You have lost your first love.” We have already seen this in a previous essay, linked above, but for the sake or reference, we can recall the main essence. To lose the first love, should really build on the reality that the greatest love is charity. St Paul beautifully and poetically chastises the Corinthian community for clinging to mere charisms in place of love. There, we saw that the Montanists clung to their presumed special New Prophecy, which they believe surpassed the Apostolic Witness, prided themselves on hyper-righteousness with more rigorous fasts and stricter ethical code, and even believed that a Christian who falls into serious sin cannot be redeemed. These are the spirit of the Pharisees, who pride themselves on being set apart for their rigor and knowledge, and who were merciless toward sinners and the downtrodden, all this at the expense of true heart.

The other way that charity is lost in the pagan Rome era was the unmerciful sects, namely, those that would not forgive apostates [Donatism, Novatianism], that even most mortal sins are unforgivable [Novatianism], or that apostate clerics lost their sacramental faculties through their sin [Donatism].

All these have hardened the human heart against charity. “You have lost your first love.”

Smyrna: Trinitarian and Christological Heresies

Praises

are rich
blasphemed by false Jews of the synagogue of Satan
ten days tribulation

And to the angel of the church of Smyrna write: These things saith the First and the Last, who was dead, and is alive: [9] I know thy tribulation and thy poverty, but thou art rich: and thou art blasphemed by them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. [10] Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil will cast some of you into prison that you may be tried: and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful until death: and I will give thee the crown of life.

[11] He, that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: He that shall overcome, shall not be hurt by the second death.

After Pagan Rome fell, the Church truly entered a great period that largely persisted until the Middle Ages: the age of the Trinitarian and Christological heresies. By this, we mean that the clear majority of the greater heresies post-Constantine were assaults in one way of degree or another on the special Nature of God as Trinity and/or Incarnation.

Arianism
Apollinarism
Pneumatomachians
Melchisedechians
Monarhcianism
Modalism
Monophysitism
Monothelitism
Nestorianism
Patrapassianism
Psilanthropism
Tritheism
Islam

The Church at Smyrna is encouraged and praised for enduring blasphemy from “false Jews” of the “synagogue of Satan.” What mystical meaning to blaspheme be ascribed here? Well, what I like to note here is that this is the only place that blasphemy is mentioned in the seven letters. What is further interesting is, blasphemy is greatest when it is aimed at God directly, and, clearly, to attack one or more attributes or dogmas of God as Triune and/or Incarnate is clearly attacking God directly. So this blasphemy can indeed be appropriate as the age of these assaults directly on God’s special Mystery. Too, they are called false Jews. Interestingly enough, when the attacks on God here become supreme, we get Islam, a total refutation of the Trinity and Incarnation and the suggestion of a surpassing revelation to Christ [the Quran], and it is noteworthy that once the Trinity and Incarnation are fully removed, Islam regresses into many Old Testament types, and so is like “Judaism”. Indeed, since the doctrines on the Trinity and Incarnation are the supreme, central, and foundational mysteries of the entire New Covenant religion, any assault on God in His special Mystery as Trinity and Incarnation must be seen as a step down toward the Old Covenant, and hence, “Judaism”. For this reason, the praise of this letter to Smyrna, that “thou art blasphemed by them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.” becomes an apt symbol of the Trinity and Incarnation heresies.

Finally, there is mention of ten days tribulation. Obviously, for the purposes of the mystery of ages, literal time periods are of no avail, as the Christ has said “it is not for you to know times or seasons”. Hence, any attempt for spiritual ages’ purposes to see ten days as literal days, or months, or years, or centuries, or any other literal time period, is not the subject of Divine Revelation. What shall we say then? Clearly a mystical time. I have covered this before, but I will condense it.

Ten days are exactly one third of 30 days, the length of a Jewish month. Sooo, if we had a Jewish month somewhere in my writings that symbolized a certain kind of epoch, and if one such epoch could also be divided into three sub-epochs, then each sub-epoch would be symbolized by “ten days”.

THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE! In the Joyful Mysteries Discourse, one month symbolized either an age of darkness or of light [but not both!] in the Divine Plan. This worked wonderfully, as the creation days analogy from some ECFs already argued the eight days of creation are a metaphor of the ages of the recreation of the world, or its redemption. In this view, each day is an age, so that human history has eight total ages, like the eight days of creation. However, each day has two parts, an evening and a morning, or darkness and light. Hence, with these lesser parts, there are really 8*2 or 16 total parts in the Divine Plan, from the Fall to the New Creation inclusive, where each part is either a darkness or light, but not both. This matched well, since Mary gives birth to Jesus almost 6 months after St Elizabeth (“Thy cousin Elizabeth is now in her sixth month with child...”). Obviously, St Elizabeth gives birth after 9 months. So Mary gives birth almost 6 months later, or 9+6 = 15. Remember, by Liturgical Tradition, the birth of Jesus symbolizes His Second Coming. So we have 15 versus 16, one off. Hold tight. Yes, there were 16 parts above with the days, and the 16^th part is the Second Coming, not the 15th. BUT! Technically, Jesus comes early, to spare the elect, “else no flesh should be saved”, so He really returns somewhere in 15^th part, the Great Apostasy. Long story short, all the other details of the Joyful Mysteries events perfectly image the events of history in the Divine Plan.

But the point that we need is just this: each month is either a full phase of light, or a full phase of darkness. And we have already seen in our argumentation that the illuminative way of the Church is one great light between the darkness of pagan Rome and the darkness of our modern age, the Minor Secular Apostasy. Moreover, in our model of Church history for these seven letters ,we divide this illuminative way of the Church into three parts:

Dark ages: Assault on God as Triune and Incarnate
The Middle Ages
The Age of Protestantism and Age of supernatural death, or Solo-Ratio (2 great phase descent away from Catholiic Christendom)

and one third of one month is ten days!

“and you shall have tribulation for ten days.”

Pergamus: The Middle Ages

Praises

dwelling in Satan’s Seat
holding fast name and faith
Antipas martyred, where Satan dwells

Rebukes

Balaam, Balac, eat and fornicate
Nicolatians

And to the angel of the church of Pergamus write: These things, saith he, that hath the sharp two edged sword: [13] I know where thou dwellest, where the seat of Satan is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith. Even in those days when Antipas was my faithful witness, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.[14] But I have against thee a few things: because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat, and to commit fornication: [15] So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaites.

[16] In like manner do penance: if not, I will come to thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. [17] He, that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him that overcometh, I will give the hidden manna, and will give him a white counter, and in the counter, a new name written, which no man knoweth, but he that receiveth it

The Middle Ages: Antipas should be a spiritual entity, because this mystical. He is a good character, a faithful witness. His martyrdom seems to be spoken of in the past. Well, the greatest witness to God is the Pope, who brings the fullness of truth to man. His martyrdom should be spiritual, which could only mean the murder of his office by the rejection thereof. Bingo, the Great Schism, which was, appropriately, on the left edge of the Middle Ages, or practically in the past if Jesus stands in the midst of the Middle Ages. This saw the East’s spiritual murder of Peter by denying his office.

Also, in the Middle Ages, we see the rise of proto-Protestantism, as in Wycliffe, Hus, and the Waldenses. We saw that that is the meaning of fornication and meat sacrificed to idols: heretical ministers have no true spousehood to God’s People, and so they are fornicators. Too, they do not sacrifice the true flesh of God in the Mass, so they “sacrifice meat to idols.”

Finally the Nicolaites were the dualastic heretics. Bingo, dualism made a big comeback in the Middle Ages with the Albigensians and the Catharists.

Thyatira: Protestantism followed by solo-Ratio Age

Praises

works, faith, ministry, charity, patience
greater works than before

Rebukes

Jezebel
prophetess, who claims to teacher
seduces servants to fornication
meat to idols
space to repent
tribulation for those who commit adultery with heresies
children killed with death

[21] And I gave her a time that she might do penance, and she will not repent of her fornication. [22] Behold, I will cast her into a bed: and they that commit adultery with her shall be in very great tribulation, except they do penance from their deeds.[23] And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give to every one of you according to your works. But to you I say, [24] And to the rest who are at Thyatira: Whosoever have not this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will not put upon you any other burthen. [25] Yet that, which you have, hold fast till I come.

[26] And he that shall overcome, and keep my works unto the end, I will give him power over the nations. [27] And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and as the vessel of a potter they shall be broken, [28] As I also have received of my Father: and I will give him the morning star. [29] He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.

Now, we come to the mother age, Protestantism and solo-Ratio [Enlightenment, and so forth]. Jezebel is a supreme personage here, and many disturbing things are said. This is entirely apropos. Protestantism and Enlightenment were ages that changed the course of Church history forever. In Protestantism, heresies untold were unleashed like never before, much the parallel expression of this being in the dragon scenes, the dragon’s spewing of the flood after the woman to carry her away. Indeed, the dragon spewed a flood of heresies after the woman in order that the faithful of the Church might be carried away into error.

Protestantism does call itself a prophetess, as if she could teach. She does seduce the servants of Jesus, or Christians, to turn away from the Catholic Church and go with them into heresy, the loss of the Mass. Again, fornication means invalid holy orders, men who seem to be veritable spouses of their communities but are not. And their worship is not the Mass; and their meat is not God’s Body and Blood, and so is meat sacrificed to idols, in metaphorical hyperbole.

It is interesting here, that Jesus gives Jezebel time to repent. What might that mean? BINGO! Trent and the Counter-Reformation. The Catholic Church realized she needed reform in many ways. She cleaned up her act morally, and with Trent, she gave one of the greatest councils in all Church history, answering so masterfully and wonderfully the innumerable heresies and errors of Protestantism.

Protestantism was given the answer she needed. Jesus gave Jezebel space to repent. Did she? NO! She just continued going, sparing minor recaptures. Today, Evangelical Protestantism is as strong as ever. Obviously, those who commit adultery with Protestantism means those who partake of her errors. The punishments they incur will be brought upon themselves, for spiritual, moral error, and deficiencies bring with them their own intrinsic consequences. “And if any man will harm them, in this manner must he be harmed.” Apoc. 11

And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give to every one of you according to your works.

This is clearly one of the most profound statements in all apocalypse, and quite veritably, a difficult passage. “And I will kill her children with death!” These are not the words of the beast or false prophet. These are not the words of scary creatures otherwise. They are not even the words of our Sacred Author, St John. These are the words of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, HIMSELF!!! How could Our Lord say that He will kill CHILDREN, and at that, either PHYSICALLY or SPIRITUALLY! Timeout! Catholics know that Scripture sometimes uses HYPERBOLE, or great exaggeration to get a point across. Jesus obviously would not be in the business of killing, either literally or spiritually, and certainly not children, “for such as these are of the Kingdom of God!” What, then, can be assuaged from this? The answer lies in the reality of God allowing evil to run its course because it has become too hardened to respond to grace.

We see this, for example, with the infamous verse “And God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” God would never directly cause someone to sin. Yet, God can withhold grace from a sinner because they are already so hardened that they wouldn’t respond anyway. It is in this sense that God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Through the progress of the plagues upon the Egyptian People, Pharaoh became so enraged at God and determined to resist Him, that God had no choice but to withhold further grace from Pharaoh in order that he might allow him to slide into ultimate rigidity, holding out the remote possibility that Pharaoh might repent if things got bad enough for him that he had nowhere to turn.

Returning to our difficult Scripture, then, we must assume that when Jesus says he will kill the children of Jezebel with death, it means that the adverse historical effect that the apocalyptic Jezebel is leaving upon humanity will be so bad, that a subsequent “afterbirth” evil will follow of its own course because of the resistance of grace in the self-same historical sense. More specifically, we can surmise that this afterbirth will veritably be a “spiritual death” of one kind or another.

This is exactly what happened; let us elaborate. The rejection of all supernatural religion and retention of only Reason in the ages of Enlightenment, Masonry, the French Revolution, the Renaissance, and so forth, was clearly the natural reaction to Protestantism. More specifically, Protestantism unleashed a fury storm of self-styled "teachers" tossing innocent heretics to and fro with their hard-hearted and frightening doctrines.

But then, in light of the great apocalyptic division of Christians--the confounding, the hatred, the betrayal, the mass, mutual excommunication—the natural result is loss of faith in Christ. Indeed, as the Christ prayed Eucharistically, "Father, I pray that they may be One as you and I are One, in order that the world may be believe that You sent Me," this clearly implies that if they are "not one", the world will NOT be able to believe. And if the world has not believed, they will reject the SUPERNATURAL dimension of faith and repentance. Hence, the resulting condition is at best merely naturally good. ("And because iniquity will abound, the charity of the many will grow cold!", Matthew 24 [charity is supernatural goodness, or sanctifying grace]). This can be the theological meaning of the assertion in the Second Great Woe, appropriately the Enlightenment and subsequent ages of solo-Ratio, or reason alone, "And by these three plagues was slain the third part of men," That is, the death is not literal but spiritual, a supernatural death, the rejection of all things supernatural: Divine Revelation, or supernatural knowledge, and of all Divine Intervention, or supernatural help.

Hence, “and her children I will kill with death!” The consequences of apocalyptic Christian division lead to supernatural death in the world.

Finally, all the churches shall know that Jesus is a searcher of hearts. This seems to imply that eventually, Christ’s Church will be vindicated by this derailment of Christian history, as if a great multitude of souls will see that Protestantism cannot come from God because of its historical consequences. I think this Is very telling of many young people now, and on the Journey Home, that continue to say that one great reason they came home to Rome was because they were so disillusioned or disturbed with the divisions in Protestantism that they saw there needed to be a central authority. Indeed, I think many Protestants right now don’t take seriously finding the truth but rather just go to an entertaining church that emphasizes emotion and relationship to the detriment of doctrine. As more become desirous of a deeper truth, they may soon find Christianity in all its fullness.

Sardis: Modern Minor Secular Apostasy

Praises

a few names have not defiled their garments
shall walk in white
worthy

Rebukes

bad works
have name of being alive, but are dead
strengthen the things which are ready to die

And to the angel of the church of Sardis, write: These things saith he, that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast the name of being alive: and thou art dead. [2] Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain, which are ready to die. For I find not thy works full before my God. [3]Have in mind therefore in what manner thou hast received and heard: and observe, and do penance. If then thou shalt not watch, I will come to thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know at what hour I will come to thee. [4] But thou hast a few names in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments: and they shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy. [5] He that shall overcome, shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

[6] He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.

The modern, minor secular apostasy! Need we say more that the Church is in ruins from liberalism, dissent, and modernism? Yet, from the world’s standpoint, it is rich: nominal, liberal Catholics are saturated across government positions in the European civilizations and their derivatives. And they are hailed because of their “brave and compassionate concern for the poor.” See, Liberal Catholicism divulges to Communism. The secular world has given itself over to secular messianism, whose chief end is to bring worldly happiness to all persons. Hence, socialists or practical socialists are hailed as heroes, and since liberal Catholicism reduces itself to the mere corporal works of mercy, the world is wedded to it, in bed with it. This is the reputation of being rich. Yet, because it has cast off the whole other dimension of the Church, the spiritual dimension, the current Church is wretched and poor. Most seminaries, RCIA and catechesis, and preaching is fluff, reduced to “kindness, caring and sharing.” Dissent is also prevalent. Wretched and depraved it is. The dark night of the soul.

Nevertheless, mention is made of a remnant of faithful ones, who have not been stained. Let us think of the good Cardinals Burke, Athanasius Schneider, Muller, and many others. And the remnant of faithful Catholics, faithful to the whole dimensions of the Church, physical and spiritual, and children of Our Lady. We are that remnant that has not been stained. Let us press on to Our Lady’s coming victory in the Age of Peace, the Triumph of Her Immaculate Heart! Push next!

Philadelphia: Age of Peace of Our Lady, Reunion of Christians

Praises

works
open door which no one can shut
little strength
kept word
no denial of name
false Jews of synagogue of Satan, make them come and worship before thy feet
they shall know that I have loved thee
because of your patience, will be kept from tribulation

And to the angel of the church of Philadelphia, write: These things saith the Holy One and the true one, he that hath the key of David; he that openeth, and no man shutteth; shutteth, and no man openeth: [8] I know thy works. Behold, I have given before thee a door opened, which no man can shut: because thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. [9] Behold, I will bring of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and adore before thy feet. And they shall know that I have loved thee. [10] Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of the temptation, which shall come upon the whole world to try them that dwell upon the earth.

[11] Behold, I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. [12] He that shall overcome, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go out no more; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and my new name. [13] He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.

The Triumph of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart and the Era of Peace! Here, there are no rebukes, and they are kept from tribulation that is coming. Too, in the Age of Peace, which is the next age of human history after our modern godless age—the age in which Our Lady’s Heart will reign in all of humanity for perhaps several centuries—the Church will have reached the unitive way with God, the Gentiles nearly totally renewed in a loving, voluntary Catholic Christendom. a civilization of love where nearly all men are faithful Catholics, in word and deed, with the Church’s age old wisdom vindicated by the forthcoming chastisement before it. In this age, there is no tribulation for the Church, which is coming in the great apostasy, the next, final age (I will keep you from that time of trial which is coming to test all those on earth). Also, the “Jews of the synagogue of Satan, or liars,” who are brought before the Church, are shown their errors, vindicating the Philadelphia community.

This, folks, is, by all estimates, nothing short of a prophecy of one thing most dear to Our Savior’s Sacred Heart, but that has taken over 2000 years to attain (we are almost there!) after the Minor Tribulation that we await imminently in our time, the catastrophes and suffering therein will show the true effects and deficiencies of all errors against our Church, culminating, as the mystics testify, in the Reunion of Christians. In this way, the Tribulation vindicates the Church’s wisdom in all facets—faith and morals—showing the ultimate consequences of not listening to the Catholic Church’s dogmas and morals. This will lead to the radical conversion of all non-Catholics, those that had hitherto rejected some or all of the Church’s witness: Orthodox, Protestants, deists, rationalists, atheists, relativists, materialists, and pagans. Hence, Christ expresses this mystically with harsh and hyperbolic language, Behold, I will bring of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and adore before thy feet. And they shall know that I have loved thee.

Addendum: “And they shall know that I have loved thee.” This the spitting image of the language of the Eucharistic discourse of Our Lord at the Last Supper where He prays insistently for the unity of His disciples:

And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. [20] And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; [21] That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. [22] And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: [23] I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me. [24] Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me; that they may see my glory which thou hast given me, because thou hast loved me before the creation of the world. [25] Just Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee: and these have known that thou hast sent me. [26] And I have made known thy name to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them.

Remember, Jesus’ Church is the Body of Christ. Hence, mystically, the Father’s love of the Son is intimately tied to His love the Church, and, secondly, since, again mystically, the Father and the Son are “One”, the Father’s love of the Church is also intimately tied to the Son’s love of the Church. Moreover, precisely because the entire discourse here in John 17 binds this mystical love to the mystery of the unity or lack thereof of the disciples, it becomes almost inescapable that when Jesus states in the letter to Philadelphia, “And they shall know that I have loved thee.”, He is invoking this allegorical text to the apocalyptic phase of the reunion of Christians.

Laodicae: the Great Apostasy

Rebukes

lukewarm
blind, naked
knocking door

And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God: [15] I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot.

[16] But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. [17] Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. [18] I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. [19] Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance. [20] Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

[21] To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne. [22] He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.

The Great Apostasy, the Church of Laodicaea: some mystics indicate that as the age of peace nears its end, parents will become complacent from spiritual and material prosperity and begin to not confirm their children because it is not necessary. This lukewarm disposition will pave the way for the great apostasy, in which only a remnant of Gentiles will remain faithful under Antichrist.

The Devil Wears Only Light

Finally, note that Satan actually only appears in the light phases. He is conspicuously absent from the darknesses of letters one, five, and seven. He is also mentioned one exact time for every mystical personage above, while noting that he is not mentioned directly for the Nicolaites but is mentioned by himself without any reference to a personage above, in the last letter that Nicolaites appear [the third]. He does, to note, appear a fifth time in the final light, letter six, but in the context of his defeat.

Why might this be? Well, the devil is the dragon, and in Apocalypse 13, the dragon assumes a default position on the shore, that is, part foundation and part water., as opposed to the earth or the sea only. This is highly apropos from our analysis: in the investigation of that text, I have seen the earth as the fullness of truth, the foundation of truth, and the sea, the chaos of lies. So part sea and part earth is like half truths. But where there is half truth—some truth and some lies—there is still some truth, and therefore still some light. This can explain why the devil only appears in the light ages of the seven churches. Where there is total darkness, the dragon needn’t work, for he has already won. But in the light, he is working.

Conclusion

Then, we noted that without rigor, any attempt would be futile eisegesis and the woeful speculation that in the end is usual fodder for the critical.

Consequently, we established that rigor is possible, especially based on the model that I have developed in previous portions of my forth-coming book. There, when we assume that the entire Divine Plan should have a rigorous structure, we applied the theory that just as the saints overall follow the spiritual ways—the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive—so there should likewise be a similar pattern for the People of God on a macro scale. Why? Well, is not the Church the Woman of Apocalypse? Is not the Body of Christ the Church? Therefore, if the Church is like a woman in maturing pilgrimage, what saint is not also on a pilgrimage to heaven? Therefore, why should not the Jews and the Church, in order to reach apocalyptic maturity, themselves also journey this way?

The Dark Ages
The Middle Ages
Protestantism and Enlightenment, etc.

The Mysterious ages of the Church, by clear rigor, were then:

Pagan Rome
Dark ages, Heresies against God as Triune and Incarnate.
The Middle Ages
Protestantism and Worldly Age of Solo-Ratio:
The Modern Minor Secular Apostasy
The Age of Peace and Reunion of Christianity
The Great Apostasy

Now, before we commenced the analysis of the seven letters, we recalled three mystical aspects to the text that needed inspection:

Fornication
Meat sacrificed to idols
The Nicolaites

Nicolaites of the Seat of Satan: Dualistic Heresies
Jews of the Synagogue of Satan: Trinitarian and Christological Heresies
Antipas:, where Satan dwelleth, the Great Schism
Jezebel, of the depths of Satan,Protestantism

When we finally analyzed the letters, all fit so very well:

Ephesus, or Pagan Rome

The Nicolaites, again, the dualistic heresies

Thou hast lost thy first love; the Pharisaical heresies: Donatism, Novatianism, Montanism

Smyrna: Trinitarian and Christological Heresies

Pergamus: The Middle Ages

Again, also, were the Nicolaties: dualism made a comeback in the Middle Ages with Albigensiansim and the Cathars.

Thyatira: Protestantism followed by Solo-Ratio Age

Sardis: Modern Minor Secular Apostasy

There are, however, a remnant of Catholics who are faithful, who listen to their Mother, the true Church, in all facets, corporal AND spiritual, and who love Our Lady and heed Her messages of love and concern for humanity.

Philadelphia: Age of Peace of Our Lady, Reunion of Christians

Laodicae: the Great Apostasy

In conclusion, while this analysis remains speculative, I would argue that it is very much rigorous and quite possibly the best spiritual historicist view that I am aware of.

Thank you, and God bless you.

The Seven Apocalypse Letters Revisited: a Renewed View of the Ages of the Church

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