The Great Earthquake

 

IT was Servant of God, Maria Esperanza (1928-2004), who said of our present generation:

The consciences of this beloved people must be violently shaken so that they may “put their house in order”… A great moment is approaching, a great day of light… it is the hour of decision for mankind. —The Antichrist and the End Times, Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, cf. P. 37 (Volumne 15-n.2, Featured Article from www.sign.org)

This “shaking” may in fact be both spiritual and physical. If you have not yet, I recommend watching or re-watching Great Shaking, Great Awakening, as I will not repeat some of the important information there that provides a backdrop for this writing…

 

THE PROPHETIC PSALMS

Music and prophecy often go hand in hand in Scripture. The Psalms are more than just songs, the songs of David, but often prophetic utterances that foretold the coming of the Messiah, His sufferings, and victory over His enemies. The Church Fathers would often point out that a particular Psalm applied to Jesus, such as Psalm 22:

…they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots. (v. 19)

Even Jesus quoted the Psalms to point to their fulfillment in His incarnation.

For David himself in the Book of Psalms says: ‘The Lord said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.'” (Luke 20:42-43)

The prophet Ezekiel wrote:

My people come to you, gathering as a crowd and sitting in front of you to hear your words, but they will not act on them… For them you are only a singer of love songs, with a pleasant voice and a clever touch. They listen to your words, but they do not obey them. But when it comes—and it is surely coming!—they shall know that there was a prophet among them. (Ezekiel 33:31-33)

Even our Blessed Mother prophetically sang a great canticle that predicted the present and coming triumph of her Son. ^[1]Luke 1:46-55 In fact, prophecy is always directly linked in some way to Christ:

Witness to Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Rev 19:10)

This is no more evident than in the great hymns sung in Heaven, often described as a “new” song which, in themselves, are a fulfillment of Scripture:

They sang a new hymn: “Worthy are you to receive the scroll and to break open its seals, for you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation.” (Rev 5:9)

Sing a new song to the LORD, for he has done marvelous deeds. His right hand and holy arm have won the victory. (Psalm 98:1)

The reason I am pointing all this out is that the Psalms, while fulfilled on one level in Christ’s first coming, have not been fulfilled completely, and won’t be, until His definitive coming in glory at the end of time.

For the mysteries of Jesus are not yet completely perfected and fulfilled. They are complete, indeed, in the person of Jesus, but not in us, who are his members, nor in the Church, which is his mystical body. —St. John Eudes, treatise On the Kingdom of Jesus, Liturgy of the Hours, Vol IV, p 559

So while Christ endured in His flesh the birth pains of His first coming, His Mystical Body now being born through Baptism and the Heart of Mary are enduring the birth pangs of the “latter ages.”

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun… She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth… there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place. All these are the beginning of the labor pains. (Rev 12:1-2; Matt 24:7-8)

Thus, it is proper to look at the Psalms and other prophetic biblical books within an eschatological ^[2]relating to the parousia or Second Coming of Jesus in glory perspective.

 

THE GREAT SHAKING

I have written already how the Sixth Seal of Revelation opened by the Lamb may in fact be the so-called “Illumination of Conscience” when all on earth will see the state of their souls as if they were standing in their own particular judgement. It is the definitive moment in the latter times when the door of Mercy will be opened wide to all earth’s inhabitants before the planet is cleansed—the door of Justice. It will indeed be “…the hour of decision for mankind.”

Then I watched while he broke open the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake…

Keeping in mind that St. John seems to speak in symbolic terms, it would also be a mistake to absolutely limit his vision to allegory since Christ himself spoke literally of signs in the earth, moon, sun and stars.

…the sun turned as black as dark sackcloth and the whole moon became like blood. The stars in the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs shaken loose from the tree in a strong wind. Then the sky was divided like a torn scroll curling up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. The kings of the earth, the nobles, the military officers, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and free person hid themselves in caves and among mountain crags. They cried out to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come and who can withstand it?” (Rev 6:12-17)

The earth splits open while the sky is divided, and a vision of the Lamb takes place that shakes everyone, small and great, to the core. The prophet Isaiah also spoke of such a dual event: ^[3]Isaiah places this earthquake before the Era of Peace when Satan and his minions will be chained for a “thousand years” until he is released for a short time and then punished at the Final Judgement. cf. Rev 20:3; 20:7

For the windows on high are open and the foundations of the earth shake. The earth will burst asunder, the earth will be shaken apart, the earth will be convulsed. The earth will reel like a drunkard, sway like a hut; its rebellion will weigh it down; it will fall, never to rise again. (Isaiah 24:18-20)

The prophet equates the visitation of the Lord with such an event:

…you shall be visited by the LORD of hosts, with thunder, earthquake, and great noise, whirlwind, storm, and the flame of consuming fire. (Isaiah 29:6)

Whenever I have read the following passage from the Psalms since this writing apostolate began, I have sensed the Lord saying that this refers also to the Illumination that is coming, to a visitation by God that will set many captives free. It is the breaking of Satan’s power spoken of in Revelation 12:7-9 that is the result of this singular grace. It is brought about by the Rider upon the white horse of Revelation 6:2 whose bow releases the arrows of truth into souls who feel at once, both the mercy and justice of God, presenting them with a choice to either be rescued by Him, or to be released into the army of Antichrist.

The earth rocked and shook; the foundations of the mountains trembled; they shook as his wrath flared up. Smoke rose from his nostrils, a devouring fire from his mouth; it kindled coals into flame. He parted the heavens and came down, a dark cloud under his feet. Mounted on a cherub he flew, borne along on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his cloak around him; his canopy, water-darkened stormclouds. From the gleam before him, his clouds passed, hail and coals of fire. The LORD thundered from heaven; the Most High made his voice resound. He let fly his arrows and scattered them; shot his lightning bolts and dispersed them. Then the bed of the sea appeared; the world’s foundations lay bare, at your rebuke, O LORD, at the storming breath of your nostrils. He reached down from on high and seized me; drew me out of the deep waters. He rescued me from my mighty enemy, from foes too powerful for me. (Psalm 18:8-18)

While obviously filled with much symbolism, this Scripture does not exclude a phyiscal shaking that will wake many souls up. Keeping in mind too that the Illumination is also a “warning,” it is possible that this earthquake, while devastating, is only a warning as well. In St. John’s chronology of events, there is another earthquake that seems to come at the pinnacle of the Church’s persecution, her own passion and death—just as there was an earthquake when Jesus died on the Cross. ^[4]Matt 27:51-54 The Apostle hears the words from Heaven “It is done,” and a massive earthquake—perhaps a great aftershock of the aforementioned earthquake—follows, leaving St. John saying that there has “never been one like it since the human race began on earth.” ^[5]Rev 16:18 It is accompanied also by hailstones (meteors?), preparing the ground for the eventual destruction of the Antichrist’s empire. ^[6]cf. Rev 16:15-21

 

SPECULATIONS & MORE PROPHECIES

What could cause such an earthquake to shake the entire world? In the video Great Shaking, Great Awakening, I shared some prophecies in the Church relating to a massive global shaking. To this I will add another couple voices to discern. Vassula Ryden is a controversial figure whose writings, allegedly from the Holy Trinity, came under serious reservation from the Vatican. That stance has softened somewhat after a dialogue between the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Vassula ensued between 2000-2007. ^[7]see http://www.cdf-tlig.org/ for an accurate account of that dialogue In a message dated September 11th, 1991, Vassula allegedly received a message that encapsulates all of the above Scriptures:

The earth will shiver and shake and every evil built into Towers [like the towers of Babel] will collapse into a heap of rubble and be buried in the dust of sin! Above the heavens will shake and the foundations of the earth will rock! …the islands, the sea and the continents will be visited by Me unexpectedly, with thunder and by Flame; listen closely to My last words of warning, listen now that there is still time… soon, very soon now, the Heavens will open and I shall make you see the Judge. —September 11, 1991, True Life in God

In a public letter, published June 29th, 2011, Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, a renowned Vatican expert on private revelation, reaffirmed the Church’s “imprimatur” for the late Fr. Steffano Gobbi’s messages from Mary. What was curious, however, was an additional comment he added:

Time is short… The great chastisement awaits the planet that will be knocked off of its axis and send us into a moment of global darkness and the awakening of consciences. —republished in Garabandal International, p. 21, Oct-Dec 2011

You might recall that the recent tsunami in Japan not only moved the coastline there by 8 feet, but also shifted the earth’s axis, ^[8]http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-12/world/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth_1_tsunami-usgs-geophysicist-quake?_s=PM:WORLD as did the Asian tsunami in 2005 that shortened our days by 6.8 microseconds. ^[9]http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-13/india/28685416_1_160-km-wide-andaman-islands-nicobar But what could cause such a great shift in the earth’s axis such that the planet, in Isaiah’s words, would “reel like a drunkard, sway like a hut“?

One speculation is that there will be an internal explosion in the earth. It is true that global volcanic activity is on the rise, ^[10]http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/29486 perhaps a harbinger of a greater event.

Others speculate that a comet or large asteroid could impact the earth. Such an event, while rare, is not unheard of. In 2009, it was seen from earth an impact of an asteroid on the surface of Jupiter. ^[11]http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100604-science-space-jupiter-impact-flash-asteroid/  It was a completely unexpected event that, if it were possible to live on Jupiter, would have come to its inhabitants “like a thief in the night.”

Before the Comet comes, many nations, the good excepted, will be scoured with want and famine [consequences]. The great nation in the ocean that is inhabited by people of different tribes and descent: by an earthquake, storm, and tidal waves will be devastated. It will be divided, and in great part submerged. That nation will also have many misfortunes at sea, and lose its colonies in the east through a Tiger and a Lion. The Comet by its tremendous pressure, will force much out of the ocean and flood many countries, causing much want and many plagues [cleansing]. —St. Hildegard, Catholic Prophecy, p. 79 (1098-1179 A.D.)

A somewhat more implausible scenario is that a solar object could emerge from behind the sun, a planetary body with enough gravity to affect the earth. There is much said about this planet “Niburu,” or “Wormwood” or “Planet X”—most of it disavowed by science as wild hypotheses abound.

Lastly, it is possible that such an earthquake is man-made. While such an evil is unfathomable, we live in a day and age when countries are going to war over oil, where technological weapons are growing in number and severity, ^[12]cf. the “Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator” and the will to use them in a “culture of death” where human life is devalued, is increasing. In the vision of the three seers of Fatima, they saw an angel standing over the earth with a flaming sword. In his commentary on this vision, Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) said,

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, from the Vatican’s website

There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least… some scientists in their laboratories [are] trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves. —Secretary of Defense, William S. Cohen, April 28, 1997, 8:45 AM EDT, Department of Defense; seewww.defense.gov

 

LISTEN TO THE PROPHETS!

I would rather not expand on these speculations since the purpose of this writing is not to determine a timeline or the nature of such an event. Rather, it is to point out that the prophets, from biblical times to our present day, have warned of a Great Earthquake that will come as the result of a world that has gone astray, whose “rebellion will weigh it down” (Is 24:20). However, the disastrous effects of such an event can be mitigated through prayer and repentance. In fact, the purpose of this event will be to awaken souls to the presence of God, to choose His path, and repent from sin.

Some might say that to even broach this subject is simply just too “doom and gloomy.” That, of course, makes no sense since such events are recorded in the Scriptures themselves, and I am not aware of any injunction forbidding us to read and meditate on these passages. Rather than “despise prophecy,” ^[13]1 Thesss 5:20 we should heed what the prophets are saying! And that is to return to God. A priest said to me recently, “The false prophets are those who promise to a sinful people all kinds of good things that never happen. True prophets are those who say, unless you repent, these bad things will happen, that eventually do.” The point being that if we simply listened to the prophets, heeded their words, and turned back to the Lord, such chastisements would not come.

…if then my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and heal their land. (2 Chron 7:14)

God is love. And if such a divine correction is coming, we can be certain that it springs also from His mercy.

…for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. (Heb 12:6)

And even if many lives are lost, we need also be aware that His mercy extends even, if not particularly, at the moment of one’s last breath (read Mercy in Chaos). If you are prepared, if you are in a state of grace, then you have absolutely nothing to fear. None of us knows the day or the hour when we will be called Home, and hence, you should always be prepared, living faithfully in the present moment, loving God and neighbor.

And the “thief in the night” will not take your soul by surprise…