The sequence of events as foretold is by no means certain. Public
prophecy. ceased with the death of St. John the Apostle. Private
prophecy, even if received from God, is not reliable because the
prophet is fallible. He can forget, misunderstand or misinterpret.
Even when he does not err those who hear him and who transmit the
message can err. So when we state here that this seems to be the
general sequence of things foretold, it is largely merely a private
opinion. 1. Before the Gospel is preached and accepted in all the
world, shall come world wars and insidious doctrines accompanied by
widespread persecution. 2. This era shall be terminated by the
direct interference of God destroying the evil system or persons
responsible for the persecution and through the leadership of a
great civil ruler and a great spiritual leader a period of peace
will came during which the nations will hear and accept the true
Faith. 3. A great apostacy will follow. 4. Antichrist will come and
reign three and one half years. He will be destroyed by the direc.t
intervention of Christ. 5. The Second Coming of Christ will follow
but by how long a time is unknown. 6. The trumpet will sound, the
dead will arise and be judged. 7. The world will be destroyed by
fire. 8. There will be new heavens and a new earth. Prophecy is a
word of many meanings but it is commonly understood to mean
knowledge of the free future, i.e. how God will act in the future,
how man will use his free will in the future, and the events
resulting from both. It is in this sense that the word is used in
this volume. The free future is known only to God and those to whom
He chooses to reveal it. Neither the angels (faithful or fallen),
the Saints, nor Our Lady herself, know future events contingent
upon God or man's use of free will-unless it is made known to them.
Because of its unique quality prophecy has always been linked with
miracles as a sign from God that a certain revelation is true. Thus
our Blessed Lord has made use of prophecy in two ways to prove His
Messianic and Divine claims: He showed that He fulfilled all the
prophecies of the Old Testament that had foretold His life in
detail, while Himself making prophecies that were fulfilled both in
His lifetime and generations later. In the centuries since the
canon of Sacred Scripture was determined many saints and mystics
have claimed the gift of prophecy. Since all such comes under the
heading of private revelation it is never binding upon the faithful
to believe. No matter how great the saint we have no guarantee that
every word found in his or her writings is infallible, and
especially when it comes to prophecy. When the cause of a proposed
saint is introduced in Rome and the steps leading to canonization
begun, the writings of the person are carefully examined to judge
their content of holiness, and to see if there is anything in them
contrary to church doctrine. If such writings are approved it
simply means that the prophecy has nothing in it contrary to faith
or morals. The extreme caution one should use in approaching all
private revelation is graphically exemplified by the classic
instances in which a Saint has been proven wrong in his
predictions. Thus St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419) went about
preaching the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world in
his own generation Then there too is the ticklish problem of one
saint contradicting another in a revelation. Benedict XIVsaid: "The
recipients of prophecy may be angels, devils, men, women, children,
heathens, or gentiles; nor is it neccssary that a man should be
gifted with any particular disposition in order to receive the
light of prophecy provided his intellect and senses be adapted for
making manifest the things which God reveals to him. Though moral
goodness is most profitable to a prophet, yet it is not necessary
in order to obtain the gift of prophecy."
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