Posted on 05/10/2010 12:52:32 PM PDT by NYer
Get ready for conspiracy season, opening day is almost here.
Prepare thyself for an onslaught of information, speculation, and defamation over the next few weeks as the Pope prepares to visit Fatima this month.
Speculation about the contents of the famous third secret of Fatima had become such a cottage industry among among some Catholics that they were determined not to let a little thing like the secret being revealed in the year 2000 get in their way. If you have a successful business model, you stick with it I suppose.
It is fair to say that the Pope’s visit to Fatima will, of course, make the famous secret once again a hot topic as it is intensely interesting. However, Antonio Socci’s book “The Fourth Secret” being recently translated into English will only add fuel to the fire.
Socci alleges that there were two third secrets of Fatima. One, the released description of the vision of the Bishop in white and another that followed after the phrase “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.”
I am obviously in the camp that believes the Pope and Sr. Lucia when they said that all was released. With that said, I think some observers have raised reasonable questions about some apparent discrepancies surrounding previous statements about the secret.
But the Vatican is in a catch-22 here. In order to quiet the conspiracy theorists, they could address some of the alleged discrepancies and put them to rest once and for all. But, and this is a big but, they simply cannot do that. To even address the questions would turn the conspiracy cottage industry into a huge growth sector overnight.
Every word or clarification issued would be dissected and dissected again opening up even more inconsistencies and discrepancies resulting in the world’s first perpetual motion conspiracy machine. So the Vatican continues to do what it must, it stays silent.
So understanding all this, a reasonable man is left to decide. Did the Pope lie? Did Sr. Lucia lie?
You know where I stand. What say you?
A prophet is commanded by God ... and in fact several of the OT Prophets ran away from Him.
A fortune teller tries to force God’s hand, or goes off consulting with demons.
The Prophet acknowledges that God is in charge. He knows that God is God, and he is not.
The fortune teller wants to be in charge. He wants to be God.
Likely amongst other things, I'd venture to say.
The Blessed Virgin made mention of "sins of the flesh" and stated that many souls went to hell because of them. She also stated that wars are a punishment for sin. So it's reasonable to infer that lack of chastity has consequences beyond our own persons. Sodom and Gomorrah found that out.
Other apparitions have also mentioned the seriousness of sins against the sixth commandment which deals with the wider issue of sexual continence.
You keep posting this over and over, as though repetition conferred sanity.
Do you believe what Iranian television has to say about Catholics? Do you believe what Iranian television has to say about Jews? Do you believe them on any topic?
Salvation is our girl. Ping
For those interested in Marian apparitions;
http://www.zeitun-eg.org/stmaridx.htm
http://www.garabandal.us/home.html
>>Do you believe them on any topic? <<
That’s what I thought.
Hey, they believe Earthquakes are caused by promiscuous women too.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2909956/earthquakes_caused_by_loose_woman_and.html?cat=9
Should we believe that?
LOL Cute about your dogs...they know though I think :)
Do you think that I would believe it? More importantly, do you believe that Iranian television said it?
See post 23
My Grandfather could put down a bowl of dog food and if he pointed at it and told the dog that it was Friday, the dog wouldn’t eat it.
It helped that the pup got sweets that day, but he always said the dog was Catholic at Heart.
Wow..I believe it! :)
My opinions about what you believe are pretty worthless, since I can't get inside your mind. You, however, are supposed to be inside your own mind, but you answer a question about what you believe with another question, instead of an answer.
More importantly, do you believe that Iranian television said it?
Yeah, actually I do. However, I also think they (Iranian TV and the people who run it) are nuttier than a fruitcake. Crazy people say lots of strange stuff.
When I feed the line “On an highly emotional spiritual level there has been a great common-ground meeting place between Rome and Mecca in the town of Fatima in” to Bing, these are the first two sites I come up with....
http://www.tidenstecken.se/kkpapacy.htm
And this...
http://www.the-highway.com/Islam_Bennett.html
(an original of the first)
Then posts by Alex Murphy on FR. After that, not a single reference.
Google is the same with a few more links, none to Iranian tv
I don’t see any actual reference to Iranian tv. I see a broken link to zenit which could have said anything. Got a real link Alex?
A Prophet is a man who is used by God to speak to His people. He simply speaks the Word of God.
A Priest speaks to God for the people.
Both were formal positions within the nation of Israel in OT times. The King of Israel, as a client nation of God, could not be placed in office unless chosen by God. The Prophet was the formal position through which the King was revealed to the people of Israel from God.
The obvious question would arise, how do we tell a true Prophet from a false prophet? A number of solutions were provided by God. One of which was to test the Prophet, since God is omniscient and always true, any Prophecy given by the Prophet could be tested against the Prophecies of Moses. If they conflicted, one could easily conclude the new prophecy was a fabrication from somebody other than God.
After the completion of the canon of Scripture, there are doctrinal arguments which assert the gift of Prophecy in the Church Age has ceased. (off top of my head they relate to some passages in Galatians and Ephesians, wherein Paul swears that by the Scripture itself, it was sufficient for every good work for every believer.) Run a google search for topics such as cessation of prophecy or cessationism.
Meanwhile in the Church Age, all believers receive a spiritual gift at the moment of salvation, not always the same gifts for different believers. Some might have a spiritual gift of pastor-teacher and other the gift of interpretation of tongues, others might have other spiritual gifts.
When faced with a spiritual message, a dilemma would occur for the Prophet, in that if he failed to deliver the message, the blood of a warning would fall on his head if he failed to warn the people of a calamity. Conversely, if the prophecy failed to occur, then he was guilty of false prophecy, which carried the same penalty as adultery, namely stoning to death. The work of the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son.
Thanks for a decent answer...
It would have been easy to kick me down the road, so to speak. I appreciate you all taking to time to give me some things to work on.
Excellent suggestions, mlizzy! For the cubicle bound, like myself, I use the time driving to work to pray the rosary - for those undergoing surgery, for an increase in vocations, for my pastor and our soon to be pastor and the others in our eparchy who are being transferred right now - and that gets me to the office. During the day, I pray while walking the halls and during my lunchtime walk - for women planning an abortion that they will turn around and go home and save the lives of their children, for the victims of abortion, for the dying who are alone with no one to pray for them ... and the list goes on and on. Each week our parish features the name of a parish family and asks that we pray for them and their intentions. EVERY DAY, I offer up a decade of the rosary for the souls in purgatory and then there are my permanent lists - my family and friends (living and deceased), for those who have asked for my prayers and those unsolicited which I have added as well. BTW - I have asked my guardian angel to keep track of these names because the lists have grown so large that I can no longer remember all of them :-)
As for a specific time of day, I again go along with mlizzy. Our Lord asked through St. Faustina that the 3 o'clock hour be set aside to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet. Why not tack on the rosary at 3:30pm!
3:30 is a good time for me. Can you gather all the catholics here you know and see if they can also join in at that time too? Maybe start a new thread?
Freeper Salvation does prayer threads. I have pinged her.
Ok..good.
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