Of China

 

In 2008, I sensed the Lord begin to speak about “China.” That culminated in this writing from 2011. As I read the headlines today, it seems timely to republish it tonight. It also seems to me that many of the “chess” pieces that I’ve been writing about for years are now moving into place. While the purpose of this apostolate is mainly helping readers to keep their feet on the ground, our Lord also said to “watch and pray.” And so, we continue to prayerfully watch…

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

Since this writing apostolate began some five years ago, I have had a constant “word” on my heart, and that is “China.” If I may, I want to summarize some of the various thoughts I’ve posted on this in the past, while adding others, including a poignant prophecy from one of the Church Fathers.

Several years ago, I drove past a Chinese businessman walking down the sidewalk. I looked into his eyes. They were dark and empty, and yet there was an aggression about him that disturbed me. In that moment (and it’s hard to explain), I was given an understanding, it seemed, that China was going to “invade” the West. That is, this man seemed to represent the ideology or spirit behind China (not the Chinese people themselves, many who are faithful Christians in the underground Church there). I was shocked, to say the least. But most everything I write here, the Lord will eventually give a confirmation of what He’s said, most often through the Popes and Church Fathers.

Up to that time, I had several dreams, which I usually don’t put much stock in. But one particular dream was reoccurring. I saw…

…stars in the sky begin to spin into the shape of a circle. Then the stars began to fall… turning suddenly into strange military aircraft.

Sitting at the edge of the bed one morning, pondering this image, I asked the Lord what this dream meant. I heard in my heart:  “Look at the flag of China.” So I looked it up on the web… and there it was, a flag with stars in a circle.

 

CHINA RISING

Look over the nations and see, and be utterly amazed! For a work is being done in your days that you would not have believed, were it told. For see, I am raising up Chaldea, that bitter and unruly people, that marches the breadth of the land to take dwellings not his own. Terrible and dreadful is he, from himself derive his law and his majesty. Swifter than leopards are his horses, and keener than wolves at evening. His horses prance, his horsemen come from afar: they fly like the eagle hastening to devour;  each comes for the rapine, their combined onset is that of a stormwind that heaps up captives like sand. (Habakkuk 1:5)

In doing some research on another subject, I was studying the writings of 4th century ecclesiastical writer and Church Father, Lactantius. In his writings, The Divine Institutes, he draws upon the Tradition of the Church to refute error and explain the last ages of the Church. Before the “era of peace“—what he and other Fathers referred to as the “seventh day” or “thousand year” period—Lactantius speaks of the tribulations leading up to that time. One of them is the collapse of power in the West.

Then the sword will traverse the world, mowing down everything, and laying low all things as a crop. And— my mind dreads to relate it, but I will relate it, because it is about to happen— the cause of this desolation and confusion will be this; because the Roman name, by which the world is now ruled, will be taken away from the earth, and the government return to Asia; and the East will again bear rule, and the West be reduced to servitude. —Lactantius, Fathers of the Church: The Divine Institutes, Book VII, Chapter 15, Catholic Encyclopedia; www.newadvent.org

While he felt this change was imminent in his day—and certainly the Roman Empire in its former form did finally collapse, though not completely—Lactantius was clearly speaking of events that would come at the end of this present age.

I do not grant that the Roman empire is gone. Far from it: the Roman empire remains even to this day.  —Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), Advent Sermons on Antichrist, Sermon I

Lactantius’ words take on new weight and meaning in light of what was spoken by Our Lady at Fatima.

 

COMMUNISM WILL SPREAD

China exists under the rule of the Communist Party of China—a single party state that centrally controls all aspects of the state, military, and media. While China has been relatively conservative in its affairs, the Marxist ideology underlying its Communist roots remains a dominant force in its national direction. This is evident as persecution of Christians and their symbols, whether churches, crosses or otherwise, are presently being destroyed. 

In the approved apparition of 1917 to the three little children of Portugal, Our Lady echoed the warnings of the popes at the beginning of that century: the world was heading down a dangerous path. She said,

When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.  —The Message of Fatima, www.vatican.va

Later that very year, Lenin took power in Moscow and Marxist Communism took its foothold. The rest is written in blood. Our Blessed Mother appeared to warn that the “errors” of Communism would spread “throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church” unless Heaven’s conditions were met. It wouldn’t be until decades later that the Consecration she implored took place, which some still dispute. Worse yet, the world had not turned from its path of destruction.

Since we did not heed this appeal of the Message, we see that it has been fulfilled, Russia has invaded the world with her errors. And if we have not yet seen the complete fulfillment of the final part of this prophecy, we are going towards it little by little with great strides. If we do not reject the path of sin, hatred, revenge, injustice, violations of the rights of the human person, immorality and violence, etc. —Fatima visionary Sr. Lucia in a letter to Pope John Paul II, May 12th, 1982; www.vatican.va

The Holy Father confirmed Sr. Lucia’s insights:

The evangelical call to repentance and conversion, uttered in the Mother’s message, remains ever relevant. It is still more relevant than it was sixty-five years ago. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Homily at Fatima Shrine, L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition, May 17th, 1982.

 

COMMUNISM IN MODERN TIMES

Where have Russia’s error spread? While both Russia and China’s economies have become more free-market oriented over the past two decades, there remains disturbing signs that the Marxist desire to control and dominate remains lurking… like a dragon in its lair.

[China] is on the road to fascism, or maybe is heading towards a dictatorial regime with strong nationalist tendencies. —Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, Catholic News Agency, May 28, 2008

This is most evident in China’s domination over the Catholic Church, permitting only a state-controlled “version” of Catholicism. That, and its one-child policy, sometimes brutally enforced, leaves an ominous cloud hanging over China’s understanding of both religious freedom and the dignity of human life. This is a critical observation given its rise as a global superpower.

Pope Pius XI further emphasized the fundamental opposition between Communism and Christianity, and made it clear that no Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism. The reason is that Socialism is founded on a doctrine of human society which is bounded by time and takes no account of any objective other than that of material well-being. Since, therefore, it proposes a form of social organization which aims solely at production, it places too severe a restraint on human liberty, at the same time flouting the true notion of social authority. —POPE JOHN XXIII, (1958-1963), Encyclical Mater et Magistra, May 15, 1961, n. 34

North Korea, Venezuela, and other countries are also following patterns of dictatorial Marxist ideology. Most shockingly, the United States, under the current government, has increasingly tended toward socialist policies. Ironically, it has drawn the rebuke of the editors of Pravda—the Soviet Union’s once powerful propaganda machine:

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people. —Editorial, Pravda, April 27th, 2009; http://english.pravda.ru/

At the heart of Our Lady’s warning that Russia would “spread her errors” is the false hope that man can create a world without God, a utopian order where everyone is equal based on an even distribution of goods, property, etc. controlled, of course, by the leader(s). The Catechism has condemned this “secular messianism,” tying this dangerous political ideology ultimately to the Antichrist:

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 eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 676

The Marian Movement of Priests is a worldwide movement that includes thousands of priests, bishops, and cardinals. It is based on the messages allegedly given to Fr. Stefano Gobbi by the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the “blue book” of these messages, which have received an Imprimatur, Our Lady ties “atheistic marxism” to the “dragon” in Revelation. Here she appears to indicate just how successful the spread of Russia’s errors has been since her apparition in 1917:

The huge Red Dragon has succeeded during these years in conquering humanity with the error of theoretical and practical atheism, which has now seduced all the nations of the earth. It has thus succeeded in building up for itself a new civilization without God, materialistic, egoistic, hedonistic, arid and cold, which carries within itself the seeds of corruption and of death. —To the Priests Our Lady’s Beloved Sons, Message n. 404, May 14th, 1989, p. 598, 18th English Edition

Pope Benedict has likewise drawn upon similar imagery to describe this force:

We see this power, the force of the red dragon… in new and different ways. It exists in the form of materialistic ideologies that tell us it is absurd to think of God; it is absurd to observe God’s commandments: they are a leftover from a time past. Life is only worth living for its own sake. Take everything we can get in this brief moment of life. Consumerism, selfishness, and entertainment alone are worthwhile. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Homily, August 15th, 2007, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The question here is, does China—also known coincidentally in the West as the “red dragon”—have a role to play in the global spread and enforcement of these ideologies?

Update: In what is a rather disturbing development, Associated Press reports: 

Xi Jinping, already China’s most powerful leader in more than a generation, received a vastly expanded mandate as lawmakers Sunday abolished presidential term limits that had been in place for more than 35 years and wrote his political philosophy into the country’s constitution… The move upends a system enacted by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982 to prevent a return to the bloody excesses of a lifelong dictatorship typified by [Mao Zedong’s] chaotic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. —Associated Press, March 12th, 2018

 

CHINA, IN OTHER PRIVATE REVELATION?

Stan Rutherford was dead for several hours after an industrial accident tore through his body. He died while on the operating table and was taken to the morgue. While lying on a gurney, Stan told me that “a little nun” in a blue and white dress tapped him on the face and said, “‘Wake up. We have work to do.'” The former Pentecostal realized later that it was the Blessed Virgin Mary who appeared to him. His “recovery” was inexplicable to his doctors. Stan claimed he was “infused” with the Catholic faith since he knew nothing of Catholic teaching prior to his accident. He began a preaching ministry until his death in September of 2009. There were often healings where Stan went, and most notably, statues or images of the Blessed Virgin began to ooze oil. I witnessed this personally on one occasion.

When I met Stan about five years ago, this “word” about China was heavy on my heart. I boldly asked him if Our Lady, who allegedly was still appearing to him, had said anything to him about “China.” Stan replied that he was given a very clear vision of “boatloads of Asians” landing on American shores. Was this an invasion, or the mass migration of Chinese to North American shores through real estate investments?

In the apparitions to Ida Peerdeman, Our Lady allegedly said:

“I will set my foot down in the midst of the world and show you: that is America, ” and then, [Our Lady] immediately points to another part, saying, “Manchuria—there will be tremendous insurrections.” I see Chinese marching, and a line which they are crossing. —Twenty Fifth Apparition, 10th December, 1950; The Messages of The Lady of All Nations, pg. 35. (Devotion to Our Lady of All Nations has been ecclesiastically approved.)

In a more controversial apparition in Garabandal, Spain, Our Lady allegedly gave an approximate indication of when future events, most notably the so-called “warning” or “Illumination,” would take place. In an interview, the seer Conchita said:

“When Communism comes again everything will happen.”

The author responded: “What do you mean by comes again?”

“Yes, when it newly comes again,” she replied.

“Does that mean that Communism will go away before that?”

“I don’t know,” she said in reply, “the Blessed Virgin simply said ‘when Communism comes again’.” —Garabandal – Der Zeigefinger Gottes (Garabandal – The Finger of God), Albrecht Weber, n. 2; excerpt from www.motherofallpeoples.com

Controversial seer Maria Valtorta’s writings received papal approval from both Pius XII and Paul VI (though Poem of the Man God remains controversial having been on the list of “forbidden books” for a time). However, there has been no Church pronouncement on her other writings compiled in The End Times—locutions Valtorta said came from the Lord. In one of them, Jesus indicates that the embrace of evil and the culture of death will lead to the rise of an evil power: 

You will go on falling. You will go on with your coalitions of evil, paving the way for the ‘Kings of the East,’ in other words the helpers of the Son of Evil. —Jesus to Maria Valtorta, The End Times, p. 50, Édition Paulines, 1994

Update: This from an American seer, Jennifer, whose alleged messages from Jesus were handed to St. John Paul II. Monsignor Pawel Ptasznik, a close friend and collaborator of the Pope and the Polish Secretariat of State for the Vatican, then encouraged her to “spread the messages to the world any way you can.”

Before mankind is able to change the calendar of this time you will have witnessed the financial collapse. It is only those who heed to My warnings that will be prepared. The North will attack the South as the two Koreas become at war with each other. Jerusalem will shake, America will fall and Russia will unite with China to become Dictators of the new world. I plead in warnings of love and mercy for I am Jesus and the hand of justice is soon to prevail. —Jesus allegedly to Jennifer, May 22nd, 2012; wordsfromjesus.com 

 

CHINA’S MUSCLE

One can only speculate on what China’s role may or may not be in the future, just as the private revelations above—including my own thoughts—are subject to testing and discernment.

What is clear is that China has an immense foothold, particularly in resource-rich North America. A high percentage of goods purchased here are increasingly “Made in China.” The relationship with America is summed up in this way:

The Chinese buy up dollar bills in the form of Treasuries. This helps inflate the value of the dollar. In return, American consumers get cheap Chinese products and incoming investment capital. The average American is made better off by foreigners providing cheap services and only demanding pieces of paper in return. —Investopedia, April 6th, 2018

Were relations with China to sour, and the ruling party flex its “exportation muscles,” the shelves of Walmarts could be mostly emptied and the goods most North Americans take for granted vanish in a hurry. But more than that, China holds the greatest portion of America’s debt out of foreign nations. Should they choose to sell that debt off, it could further weaken an already fragile dollar throwing the American economy into a deeper depression.

Furthermore, China has also gone on a global buying spree of resources, land, real estate and companies, leading one publication to title an article: “China Buys the World.” In essence, like a banker poised to repossess property from a faulty client, China sits in very advantageous economic position over nations that are teetering on the brink of economic collapse.

 

HIDDEN TEETH

Sadly, Western corporations and governments have chosen to overlook Bejing’s horrible human rights record in favor of profits. But Steve Mosher of the Population Research Institute says Western leaders are fooling themselves if they think China’s more open markets are leading to a freer, more democratic China:

The reality is that as the Beijing regime grows wealthier, it is becoming ever more despotic at home and aggressive abroad. Dissidents who once would have been released following Western appeals for clemency remain in prison. Fragile democracies in Africa, Asia and Latin America are increasingly corrupted by China’s moneybags foreign policy. China’s leaders reject what they now publicly deride as “Western” values. Instead, they continue to promote their own conception of man as subservient to the state and possessing no inalienable rights. They are obviously convinced that China can be rich and powerful, while remaining a one-party dictatorship… China remains bound to a uniquely totalitarian view of the state. Hu and his colleagues remain determined not only to remain in power indefinitely, but to have the People’s Republic of China replace the U.S. as the reigning hegemon. All they need to do, as Deng Xiaoping once remarked, is “hide their capabilities and bide their time.” —Stephen Mosher, Population Research Institute, “We are Losing the Cold War with China — by Pretending It Doesn’t Exist”, Weekly Briefing, January 19th, 2011

As one American war veteran said, “China will invade America, and they will do it without firing a single bullet.” Is it not a strange irony that in the same week that the American president hosted a banquet in honor of the Chinese President, it was announced that John Paul II would be beatified—this very same pontiff who was responsible in part for the collapse of Communism in the U.S.S.R.! 

Russian dictator, Vladimir Lenin allegedly said:

That may in fact be a twist on words that Lenin himself wrote:

The [capitalists] will furnish credits which will serve us for the support of the Communist Party in their countries and, by supplying us materials and technical equipment which we lack, will restore our military industry necessary for our furore attacks against our suppliers. —BNET, www.findarticles.com

In some ways, this is precisely what has happened. The West has fed the economic machine of China enabling her, in turn, to rise in unprecedented power. China’s military might is now a growing concern in the Western world as billions are spent every year secretly building up the People’s Liberation Army (and it’s believed many billions of dollars aren’t accounted for).

 

WHY INVADE?

There are a number of reasons why China may eventually “invade” the West (in particular, North America). From the resource rich provinces of Canada with plentitudes of oil, water, and space (overpopulation has taxed China’s resources), to the conquest and subordination of the American military juggernaut. There are many other reasons why the Western world will likely fall into foreign hands completely. I will give one:

Abortion.

I have heard over and over again in my heart…

Your land will be given to another’s if there is not repentance for the sin of abortion.  

That resulted in a dramatic warning for Canada back in 2006 (see 3 Cities… and a Warning for Canada). We are living in a pipe dream if we believe we can continue to literally butcher and chemically burn children in the womb and not lose God’s protection over our once Christian nations. That abortion continues today despite the overwhelming scientific, photographic, and medical knowledge we possess of the unborn from the moment of their conception, is a grotesque and wicked testament to our generation that equals if not surpasses any murderous culture before us. One study shows that abortion in the United States is now on the rise.

Suddenly there shall come upon you ruin which you will not expect. (Isa 47:11)

But wait a minute! From a reader…

I was just wondering why the USA is always being mentioned as the wrong doers? China—of all places—not only aborts but kills children as infants to control the population. So many other countries forbid basic human needs. The USA feeds the world; it sends American’s hard earned money to countries that don’t even appreciate us, and yet, we are going to suffer?

When I read this, the words immediately came to me:

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more. (Luke 12:48)

I believe Canada and America have been protected and spared from many disasters precisely because of their generosity and openness to many peoples and the faithfulness of many Christians living there.

I had the opportunity to pay homage to that great country (USA), which from its beginnings was built on the foundation of a harmonious union between religious, ethical and political principles…. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Meeting with President George Bush, April 2008

However, that harmony is increasingly discordant as both countries rapidly depart from their Christian origins, forging a deeper and deeper gulf between Church and State, “right” and “left”, “conservative” and “liberal.” The further we move away from our foundations, the further we move away from God’s protection… just as the prodigal son lost protection when he refused to remain under his father’s roof.

Christ had strong words for those Pharisees who thought outward works merited them eternal life when, in reality, they were oppressing others.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. These you should have done, without neglecting the others. (Matt 23:23)

 

GOD’S JUDGMENT

Indeed, judgment begins with the household of God (1 Pt 4:17). Scripture teaches that we will reap what we sow (Gal 6:7). In the past, God has often used the “sword”—war—as a means to chastise His people. Our Lady warned at Fatima that “[God] is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions.”

When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, lo, it shall come down in judgment. (Isaiah 34:5)

This isn’t fear-mongering. It is a painful reality for the unrepentant generation. But it is also mercy, for a nation that tears apart its children tears apart its soul. A nation that teaches its children an anti-Gospel darkens the future. The Father loves us too much to let us drag an entire generation or more into total spiritual darkness.

When he assumed Peter’s chair, Pope Benedict sounded this warning:

The threat of judgment also concerns us, the Church in Europe, Europe and the West in general… the Lord is also crying out to our ears the words that in the Book of Revelation he addresses to the Church of Ephesus: “If you do not repent I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Light can also be taken away from us and we do well to let this warning ring out with its full seriousness in our hearts, while crying to the Lord: “Help us to repent! Give all of us the grace of true renewal! Do not allow your light in our midst to blow out! Strengthen our faith, our hope and our love, so that we can bear good fruit!” —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Opening Homily, Synod of Bishops, October 2nd, 2005, Rome.

Benedict has pointed out that the vision the Fatima children had of an angel about to strike the earth with a flaming sword is not a specter of the past.

The angel with the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the threat of judgment which looms over the world. Today the prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his inventions, has forged the flaming sword. —The Message of Fatima, www.vatican.va

In this regard, China may become an instrument of purification, among others, during the labor pains in our times—especially given China’s troubling secretive massive military buildup. The Second Seal in Revelation speaks of a ‘red horse’ whose rider bears a sword.

When he broke open the second seal, I heard the second living creature cry out, “Come forward.” Another horse came out, a red one. Its rider was given power to take peace away from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another. And he was given a huge sword. (Rev 6:3-4)

Not that China is necessarily the “rider” in this vision. St. John seems to indicate that the sword will cause division and war among and between many nations. Lactantius mentions this as well, echoing Jesus’s words, not about the end of the world, but the “labor pains”—wars and rumours of wars—that precede and accompany the many events of the “end times.”

For all the earth will be in a state of tumult; wars will everywhere rage; all nations will be in arms, and will oppose one another; neighbouring states will carry on conflicts with each other… Then the sword will traverse the world, mowing down everything, and laying low all things as a crop. —Lactantius, Fathers of the Church: The Divine Institutes, Book VII, Chapter 15, Catholic Encyclopedia; www.newadvent.org

But recall what he said earlier, that “the cause of this desolation” will be due to a shift in power from the West to Asia and the East.

Events foretold by Our Lady are not, and likely will not happen overnight. Hence, guessing dates and making timelines is futile. What our Mother calls the Church to prepare for are the dramatic changes that are coming when the Seals of Revelation are definitively broken. It is a preparation of prayer, fasting, frequenting the Sacraments, and meditation on God’s Word as we increasingly seem to be entering The Hour of the Sword. That, and to intercede with all our hearts for those who are struggling and lost in our time.

The people of China as a whole are loved by God. The underground Church there is large, strong, and courageous. We must never look at the Chinese population, an often humble and hard-working people, with suspicion or derision. They are God’s children too. Rather, we should pray for their leaders, and ours, as St. Paul urged us. Pray that they will lead their nations into peace rather than war, into friendship and co-operation, rather than greed, hatred, and division.

But even this night in the world shows clear signs of a dawn that will come, of a new day receiving the kiss of a new and more resplendent sun… A new resurrection of Jesus is necessary: a true resurrection, which admits no more lordship of death… In individuals, Christ must destroy the night of mortal sin with the dawn of grace regained. In families, the night of indifference and coolness must give way to the sun of love. In factories, in cities, in nations, in lands of misunderstanding and hatred the night must grow bright as the day, nox sicut dies illuminabitur, and strife will cease and there will be peace. —POPE PIUX XII, Urbi et Orbi address,March 2nd, 1957; vatican.va

 

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