Catholic Triumphalism From Protestants? [Ecumenical]

CMR ^ | September 29, 2008 | Patrick Archbold

[NYer]

There is a branch of Catholic prophecy that predicts a series of events prior to the rise of Antichrist that lead to a unified Catholic Europe. Generally speaking, the events that lead to this foretold conversion are horrendous. Economic collapse, civil war, more war, an Islamic invasion of Europe, pestilence, and natural disasters. Death on an unprecedented level. It is at the point that Europe (and the world) are forced to admit that this was all the result of the godless world of their own creation. In their desperation, they finally turn back to God. From this turmoil rises two great personages of the era that lead what remains of mankind back to the true faith. All forms of schism essentially disappear. There is a prophesied great military and civil leader who along with a Pope of incredible virtue reform the faith and eventually the world leading to a time of one flock, one shepherd.

This basic sequence of events has quite a pedigree in the world of private revelation but is frequently, perhaps unfairly, regarded as the result of hyperactive medieval imagination and nationalistic prophecy wars. After the reformation, the idea of one flock, one shepherd took on a whole new meaning. Some of the private revelation subsequent to the reformation makes direct reference to the elimination of protestantism. Much of this has been disregarded as nothing more than Catholic triumphalism.

This is why I was startled when I read about a coming unified Catholic Europe from a decidedly anti-Catholic source, theTrumpet.com.

To say in 2008 that the Anglicans will ultimately join the Catholic Church may seem a premature claim. But what about making this prediction in 1961? In the October 1961 Plain Truth, Herbert W. Armstrong made this bold forecast: “The pope will step in as the supreme unifying authority—the only one that can finally unite the differing nations of Europe. … Europe will go Roman Catholic! Protestantism will be absorbed into the ‘mother’ church—and totally abolished.”

But even that bold claim was not the first forecast of what is becoming today’s current events. That goes back to approximately 750 b.c. and the Prophet Isaiah’s words on which Mr. Armstrong based his statement. Isaiah foretold a time when a great mother church would experience a great rebellion but would ultimately bring her daughters back under her direction (Isaiah 47). Centuries later, we are seeing Bible prophecy come alive!

Of course, our brethren at the Trumpet think that a unified Catholic Europe is the Whore of Babylon and that this Catholic unity will be achieved at the point of a gun or some other future coercive mind changer. They also think that this will be the Roman Empire from which springs the Antichrist.

Remarkably, this branch of Catholic prophecy doesn't see this as too far off. While Catholics would disagree that the Church is the WoB and will usher in Antichrist. But what does it say? Well, it is from this unified Catholic Europe that gives rise to the last and final Roman Empire whose collapse presages the rise of the man of sin. These private prophecies indicate that the faith, peace, and prosperity that follows the triumph of the Church and universal preaching of the Gospel will not last long. Mankind won't allow it. This will be the great apostasy. The empire will be divided up among a number of rulers and well, you know the rest.

Now, the folks at theTrumpet are not the only ones who think that Europe will once again be Catholic, it is suspected by a number of groups, many protestant.

I hope the irony isn't lost on anyone. It seems that the only Catholic triumphalism these days comes from non-Catholics. Many Catholics today act as if we only expect the situation to get worse as Catholicism withers on the vine. It seems that certain modern protestants and Catholic prophets of yesteryear are not so pessimistic.

[NYer]

[GOP Poet]

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[rangeryder]

This Catholic doesn't really know what the "Trumpet" is, but I do know that the Church makes no claims whatsoever to fully understand what, how, where, or when the last days will occur, or what things will look like just before those times befall us. The Church, in fact, openly declares that the book of Revelation, (in pre-Protestant times called 'the Apocalypse'), is predominently a mystery, even to the Magisterium. Scripture does give us a general idea of the last days, but it remains just that, 'general', and could pertain to almost any generation where calamity seems to be all around, in other words every generation. So I take this "Trumpet" thing with a grain of sand, and with Catholic faith. It's one day at a time.

[redstateconfidential]

IVRY

by: Thomas Babbington Macaulay (1800-1859)

OW glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are!
And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre!
Now let there be the merry sound of music and of dance,
Through thy corn-fields green, and sunny vines, O pleasant land of France!
And thou, Rochelle, our own Rochelle, proud city of the waters,
Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning daughters.
As thou wert constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy,
For cold, and stiff, and still are they who wrought thy walls annoy.
Hurrah! Hurrah! a single field hath turned the chance of war,
Hurrah! Hurrah! for Ivry, and Henry of Navarre.

Oh! how our hearts were beating, when at the dawn of day
We saw the army of the League drawn out in long array;
With all its priest-led citizens, and all its rebel peers,
And Appenzel’s stout infantry, and Egmont’s Flemish spears.
There rode the brood of false Lorraine, the curses of our land;
And dark Mayenne was in the midst, a truncheon in his hand:
And, as we looked on them, we thought of Seine’s empurpled flood,
And good Coligni’s hoary hair all dabbled with his blood;
And we cried unto the living God, who rules the fate of war,
To fight for His own holy name, and Henry of Navarre.

The King is come to marshal us, in all his armor drest,
And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest.
He looked upon his people, and a tear was in his eye;
He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high.
Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing,
Down all our line, a deafening shout, “God save our Lord the King!”
“And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may,
For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray,
Press where ye see my white plume shine, amidst the ranks of war,
And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre.”

Hurrah! the foes are moving. Hark to the mingled din
Of fife, and steed, and trump, and drum, and roaring culverin.
The fiery Duke is pricking fast across Saint André’s plain,
With all the hireling chivalry of Guelders and Almayne.
Now by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France,
Charge for the golden lilies, — upon them with the lance.
A thousand spurs are striking deep, a thousand spears in rest,
A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white crest;
And in they burst, and on they rushed, while, like a guilding star,
Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre.

Now, God be praised, the day is ours. Mayenne hath turned his rein.
D’Aumale hath cried for quarter. The Flemish count is slain.
Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay gale;
The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags, and cloven mail.
And then we thought on vengeance, and, all along our van,
“Remember St. Bartholomew,” was passed from man to man.
But out spake gentle Henry, “No Frenchman is my foe:
Down, down with every foreigner, but let your brethren go.”
Oh! was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war,
As our Sovereign Lord King Henry, the soldier of Navarre?

Right well fought all the Frenchmen who fought for France to-day;
And many a lordly banner God gave them for a prey.
But we of the religion have borne us best in fight;
And the good Lord of Rosny hath ta’en the cornet white.
Our own true Maximilian the cornet white hath ta’en,
The cornet white with crosses black, the flag of false Lorraine.
Up with it high; unfurl it wide; that all the host may know
How God hath humbled the proud house which wrought His church such woe.
Then on the ground, while trumpets sound their loudest point of war,
Fling the red shreds, a footcloth neat for Henry of Navarre.

Ho! maidens of Vienna; ho! matrons of Lucerne;
Weep, weep, and rend your hair for those who never shall return.
Ho! Philip, send, for charity, thy Mexican pistoles,
That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearmen’s souls.
Ho! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be bright;
Ho! burghers of Saint Geneviève, keep watch and ward to-night.
For our God hath crushed the tyrant, our God hath raised the slave,
And mocked the counsel of the wise, and the valor of the brave.
Then glory to His holy name, from whom all glories are;
And glory to our Sovereign Lord, King Henry of Navarre.

“Ivry” is reprinted from Historic Poems and Ballads. Ed. Rupert S. Holland. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1912.

MORE POEMS BY THOMAS BABBINGTON MACAULAY

THIS splendid poem tells of the battle of Ivry, fought in 1590 between the Huguenots, or Protestants, under Henry of Navarre, and the Catholics, led by the Duke of Mayenne.

[Salvation]

Amazing read.

[Alex Murphy]

This Catholic doesn't really know what the "Trumpet" is

The Trumpet is an on-line magazine spun out of the former Worldwide Church of God, an anti-Trinitarian, Anglo-Israelism, apocalyptic personality cult:

The Trumpet has a long history of accurate forecasting of major global events based on this predictive model, tracing back to the beginnings of the Plain Truth magazine in 1934 under the direction of Herbert W. Armstrong. To explore these forecasts, read our sample issue, called “He Was Right!—Remembering five decades of accurate forecasting by Herbert W. Armstrong.”

That this article would equate such heretical beliefs with Protestantism only serves witness to the moral dishonesty and intellectual bankruptcy of the Catholic blogger who wrote it.

[ELS]

You may view The Trumpet as heretical, but Catholics view both The Trumpet and Protestantism as heretical.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“That this article would equate such heretical beliefs with Protestantism only serves witness to the moral dishonesty and intellectual bankruptcy of the Catholic blogger who wrote it.”

No, actually it only serves to point out the obvious: sects and cults spill out of Protestantism all the time. Protestantism leads to it.

[guitarplayer1953]

And many Protestants view the RCC as the WoB.

[TASMANIANRED]

LOL.

I think there is only on faith in existance currently that requires conversion or death.

[redgolum]

Yep, that is why I have heard of them. But Spirit Daily also posts similar stuff of the end times sort on occasion. No corner on the market.