hello brothers and sisters last week I recorded a video on the antichrist which I felt like contained a lot of important insight that we need to take into account right now I hope you had a chance to view it if you haven't you can find it easily on our Renewal Ministries YouTube channel today I’d like to talk about after the election what now on October 7th last year 2020 about a month before the November American elections I did a video that was titled the American election its global consequences the reason why I did it is because a number of people in different countries were saying as America goes so goes the world including Cardinal Mueller but also there were other people on the other side like George Soros and people who are really working to implement a Marxist socialist agenda throughout the world saying as America goes so goes the world and some of them said that the current American administration at that time was the only thing holding back a global reset where the elites of the world could take control well we know that there's a new administration now we know the new administration is committed to lots of things that are going to ratchet up the pressure on Christians we know the new administration is committed to expanding access and funding and removing limitations on aborting little babies cutting them up into little pieces killing them crushing their brains injecting poison into them up until the moment of birth and there's even a number of people now are saying no we don't want to we don't want to save the lives of babies that are born alive from failed attempts to kill them what kind of what kind of country are we going to live in if that's the case but it's not just that it's the whole Christian vision of marriage and sexuality marriage between a man and a woman open to life is under aggressive attack you know it's already crumbling it's been crumbling for years in the United States and in many countries around the world and it's just going to crumble some more not only that uh religious freedom is going to be reduced in its priority and it's going to become something subordinate to the sexual revolution reaching its insane conclusion where no longer is there anything as biological reality no longer does it mean anything whether you're a biological man or woman but you can you can pretend to be whoever you want to be and the rest of us have to burn incense to it the rest of us have to honor it pretend like it's real when it's just not real so I’d like to talk now actually at the end of that video I did in October before the election I reflected a little bit about different outcomes I said if the uh pro-life pro-religious freedom of pro-marriage and family uh candidates win we'll have another four years or another two years or whatever length of time it would be where we're able to hold back the evil and not be forced to burn incense to Caesar and not be forced to violate our consciences and maybe not be discriminated against as badly as we would be if those candidates lose then I said if those pro-life pro-religious freedom candidates lose uh the spiritual battle is still going on even if they win the spiritual battle's still going on because even if we're able to hold back evil for another four years uh evil is not going to give up because it's not just a matter of human beings and political parties tremendously powerful forces are at work just like saint Paul says in Ephesians chapter 6 are battles not just against flesh and blood it's not just a matter of elections it's a matter of really powerful spiritual forces that are trying to insinuate deception lies fear into people's lives so that they uh cower before the powers of this world and no longer have the courage or boldness or confidence or certainty of faith to be a faithful witness to Christ well we know that those candidates lost and we also know that the current candidates who are in office are really dedicated to some pretty evil things and it's going to put tremendous pressure on us I talked all about this in the video last October if you haven't had a chance to watch it I think you'll find it illuminating many of the things I talked about there are now unfolding but again what I said at the end of the video is we don't have a lasting city here below our salvation isn't in political candidates or political parties our salvations in Jesus Christ who really need to look to him as a source of wisdom guidance and leadership in the days ahead so what's been happening since the election here in the United States and I know that this is also relevant to other countries around the world like Cardinal Mueller said as America goes so goes the world I think that's very unfortunate I think that's extremely unfortunate one country shouldn't have that influence and hopefully it won't but this country has been in the past extremely aggressive in trying to convey these uh this rebellion against God's plan into other countries as well through foreign aid through political pressure and there's lots of fifth columns and a lot of other countries that want to cooperate with this and it's happening in a country close to you okay what's been happening since the election we've seen a much more sudden and much more aggression much more aggressive attempt to stifle dissent and free speech than I thought would happen it's happening a lot more quickly it's happening a lot more radically it's happening with a lot more totalitarian power and force against it there's an aggressive purge and shaming and proposed prosecution of all those who in any way dare to a question election procedures or election results even when there was pretty significant evidence that there were irregularities in the elections in certain states anybody now who dares to question that is considered treasonous an enemy of the state and then people are being fired from their jobs uh people are being uh thrown off boards of directors of major corporations a distinguished Harvard University graduate who expressed concerns about some of the election procedures and some of the things that are happening there's a petition now amongst Harvard students graduates and administrators to take away her degree because of her political views so it's really getting pretty aggressive pretty ugly pretty painful and it's proceeding with remarkable ruthlessness and boldness and God help anybody who engages in peaceful protest because now because of the very unfortunate violence at the capitol a couple weeks ago anybody now who protests is going to be labeled an insurrectionist I do think there were a very small number of people who invaded the capital who were insurrectionists like trying to overthrow the government a lot of people were there because they were misled because they wanted to make a statement they went too far they should be prosecuted but we can't have a double standard on prosecution for months and months and months cities were burning businesses were burning federal buildings were under siege riots were happening all over the country and local authorities refused to prosecute those who were throwing Molotov cocktails uh smashing windows looting stealing rioting taking over uh jurisdiction of cities declaring them independent free zones of people who are rioting and now people are being prosecuted for uh trespassing or worse you know at the capitol and they should be prosecuted but it's such a double standard it's just unbelievable there's such hypocrisy for all the looting burning rioting killing uh shootings that were happening all summer and into the fall now what's happening is that almost every powerful segment of our society has somehow coalesced together and I don't think this can be explained without supernatural power it's censoring cancelling and intimidating alternative viewpoints huge corporations whose products we buy all the major social media companies who are now canceling accounts for political reasons all much of professional sports the dominant entertainment industry all the major social media outlets like traditional newspapers and television and cable news with a few exceptions much of professional sports virtually all the major universities and now all the governmental agencies both the United States and this is true also in Canada are coalescing to uh try to remove try to shame try to distance try to exclude those parts of the population that aren't going along with the new agenda which contains so many things that are directly contradictory to the Lord so this is a time and this is a situation where we're going to need more boldness more courage more humility more prayer than ever people are being fired from their jobs if there's any hint of using freedom of speech or freedom of association that those in power are now deeming treasonous it's hard to believe that all this is happening but it is I knew we were moving this direction I knew this was what at stake what was at stake in the last election but quite honestly I didn't expect a catalyzing event like the uh demonstrations and incursions at the capitol to be so ruthlessly and aggressively taking advantage of to try to shut down all opposition there are even people in the government now in Congress and in the House of Representatives in the senate saying any legislator who questioned the election results who wanted to do audits who wanted to look into charges of election fraud should be expelled from the senator house of representatives uh 80 percent of the major corporations that supported these candidates these senators and these representatives have now taken away their financial support there's a concerted attempt to make it impossible for opposition leaders who've shown any gumption at all to ever again win re-election now there could be a significant blow back against this maybe people are overplaying their hands maybe they're going too far there are a few liberals here and there who are saying wait a second this is violating our values but a lot of people are saying this is now not only a post-Christian society this is the now post-liberal society where freedom of speech and freedom of thought is no longer valued but rather imposing the correct view that the technological and political and educational elites think everybody should have to live to it's a new gospel it's a new belief system it's a new morality that ignores the killing of babies that ignores euthanasia that ignores compelling people to violate their conscience in the name of in a new enlightened society which has basically declared as independence from God it goes right back to the garden that goes right back to that fundamental deception that fundamental lie of the devil tempting our first parents to say you know what you don't have to obey God and you're a fool if you do you can declare independence you can be like Gods what a horrible lie what an incredible deception and what horrible misery came from and there's nothing but misery that's going to come from that lie as it's being implemented today I’ve said this before I’ll say it again those who are trying to accommodate to the culture those who are trying to be on the right side of history those who are violating their consciences in order to go along and get along are going to find themselves going over a cliff and they're going to find themselves if they persist in their foolishness if they persist in their rebellion on the last day the door will have closed and they will have not entered the kingdom they will have not repented they're going to be excluded from the Father's house forever if they don't repent in time that's the truth that's the gospel truth now I didn't expect it to happen so suddenly so comprehensively it's almost like totalitarian controls being imposed overnight the aggressive support of killing babies in the womb suffocating religious freedom denying conscious exceptions for catholic medical providers and once again trying to force the little sisters of the poor and other entities like them to provide contraceptive insurance coverages which is against their conscience it's going on its going to happen they're doubling down free speech and freedom of religion are under grave and powerful attack and the wickedness and foolishness of it all is ignored by those who don't want to be confused by the facts the party from God's way will be the end of civil society as we know it and possibly the end of this country those of you who listen to my videos and Father Michael Scanlan’s prophecies from 1976 and 1980 know that there's a terrible warning there about son of man do you see this country which you love are you prepared to live with no country are you prepared to depend only on me son of man are you prepared to see lawlessness in the streets and to live with no protection except the protection I give you son of man are you prepared to see all these structures that you're trying so hard to preserve parishes and schools fall apart and have nothing except me are you prepared to see it all shut down and when it's all shut down and you've learned to depend only on me then you will know what I am about that's the note of hope all of this is happening under the providence of God nothing's happening right now including the election's results that God hasn't permitted we don't fully understand why he's permitting evil to gain the ascendancy in such a radical and sudden almost overnight way but he's doing it for a purpose what could that purpose be maybe he wants wickedness to ripen maybe he wants all those who have their hearts turned away from the Lord to manifest their commitment to another gospel maybe he wants those who know him to double down on their commitment to him to choose more clearly to get their feet out of the world and into the kingdom you know in in my book a church in crisis pathways forward I have a whole chapter devoted to stop straddling the issue I think it's chapter five and it talks about how the Lord wants us to stop straddling the issue to really commit ourselves to the person of Jesus but also to commit ourselves to his actual objective teaching that we find in scripture and tradition and in the catechism of the catholic church those who magically invoke the phrase follow the science only follow the science and sometimes it's manufactured science when it suits their ideological goals we're seeing remarkable reversals now on following the science for a long time the science supposedly said schools are a dangerous place where the virus can be spread now more and more people who said that are saying actually as a matter of fact science shows that the virus isn't being you know spread in schools and we need to reopen the schools and reopen the economy some perhaps cynically perhaps wisely are saying now that there's a new administration we don't have to make people so afraid anymore we don't have to keep people suffering somewhere I don't know we'll have to see now if you haven't seen my commentary on Father Michael Scanlan’s prophecies I’d encourage you to uh put in your search box YouTube Ralph Martin Father Michael Scanlan’s prophecies or go to our Renewal Ministries YouTube channel put in Renewal Ministries YouTube channel and in the search box you can just say Father Michael Scanlan’s 1976 prophecy and then there's also one from 1980 it's tremendously relevant to this time I was just giving a retreat for 143 priests in Texas a few weeks ago with Scott Hahn and I spoke on these prophecies and I’d say it really connected I think it really helped a lot of priests get really clear about what we're facing and make some decisions in their personal life as well in their ministry life that's going to help people this has all happened with such suddenness and with such viciousness I don't think it can be explained without acknowledging that demonic powers and principalities are involved and one of the psalms says the nations are arraying they're marshaling against God but God sitting in his heaven is laughing the foolishness of the human race thinking that a rebellion against God can hurt God in any way God only permits people to rebel so that they either are given a chance to repent and be saved by Jesus Christ you see this icon back here behind me I’ve been meditating on every day it is so amazing that the all-holy almighty infinite God who dwells in inaccessible light and is from age eternal and immortal and immensely transcendently beautiful transcendentally good that the word became flesh and dwelt among us and now in the person of Jesus we can see God we can see what he's like we can see his love but we can also see his justice we can see his holiness but we also and we can see his compassion but we also can see his solemn serious warnings that if we don't believe his word if we don't say yes to our need for the forgiveness of sins if we don't accept his mercy by repenting and believing we will not be saved the son of God has entered the world he's asking us to take his hand he's asking us to recognize that he's the vine and we need to be grafted into him we need to be his branches we need to live by his grace and live in his friendship and live in his love through faith through the sacraments by eating his body drinking his blood by meditating on the word of God and every time when I read my little Magnificat over here and I meditate on the face of Jesus I’m saying wow God is loving us so much he's showing so much kind to us he's showing us a way of our hard hearts being transformed by staying connected to Jesus and allowing the heart of Jesus and the immaculate heart of Mary to be a source of purity for us a source of power for us a source of transformation now many of us are fighting discouragement depression sadness anger frustration and even doubt the continuing suffocating covet 19 virus and its escalating variants put a pall over everything and many are discouraged that our intense prayer and intercession didn't block all this from happening many are distressed that many of our bishops didn't and don't speak clearly or give real leadership or even sometimes sympathetic to the powers that are oppressing us I must admit it is very distressing to see the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington DC almost fawning over the new administration and glad to be in dialogue with them and unabashedly giving communion to politicians who are committed to doubling down on the killing of babies and all the other things it was so distressing before the election to have the official bishop statements coming out of the bishops conference in Washington dc saying well you know what abortion is our primary concern killing babies is our primary concern but there's so many other considerations like immigration and climate change and you know a catholic could actually vote for a pro-abortion candidate uh an anti-religious freedom candidate uh if there were other issues that he felt like were you know very important or more important uh you know in the big scheme of things balancing everything out as long as he wasn't voting for that candidate for the reasons of immorality uh even though the candidate was going to divorce you know advance these immoral positions okay confusing for the average catholic not a clear sound for the trumpet can't we say that voting for these candidates is voting for the persecution of the church and the killing of babies and the mockery of marriage and family life can't we say that clearly there's nothing that really outweighs that that these other issues are important but they don't outweigh these issues we couldn't say that the bishops didn't say that before the election then when the election happened the president of bishops conference said we want to congratulate and offer our support to the second catholic president well I can't say that our two catholic presidents have set a very good example of what it means to be a catholic and it almost seems like the bishops were like affirming the legitimate authentic Catholicism of people who openly flaunt the teaching of the church on really serious matters and insist on receiving communion even though they really aren't supposed to thank God we had Archbishop Chaput who recently retired as Archbishop of Philadelphia say Cardinal Gregory you shouldn't be doing this we have a committee working on this issue and we don't think that this is what we should do you know we don't think we should affirm people who are posing the most important moral issues uh to be given communion you know and uh we got to start making that clear and so this is the division of the church that I’ve been talking about this is the attack from the culture I’ve been talking about in this book a church in crisis it's so good to hear Archbishop Chaput speak out but it's so distressing to see these pictures now of the Archbishop of Washington giving communion to the most aggressive catholic in in name politicians who are just so opposed and want to really suffocate religious freedom and continue killing babies so many are tempted to doubt the efficacy of prayer or the goodness of God or just are tempted to profound discouragement anger frustration and doubt here's one of my main messages today don't give in to this spirit of sadness of discouragement of doubt of anger or frustration resist it say the Ignatius of Loyola says discouragement is never from the Lord it's a human emotion that the devil uses to cut us off from the power and joy of faith scripture says our faith overcomes the world and the power that's at work in us is greater than the power that's at work in the world and if you're in Jesus Christ you don't have to be afraid of the world you don't have to be afraid of the devil you only have to be afraid of offending the Lord Jesus said you know don't be afraid of those who kill the body be afraid of those who can kill the body and the soul and condemn you to hell like Jesus said if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off if your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out better to enter the kingdom missing a hand or an arm or an eye then they go down to hell with an intact body so brothers and sisters we are called to a level of courage a level of clarity a level of resolve not to deny Christ before men not to please men more than God not to give into cultural pressure that may require us to burn incense to the new emperor we can't burn incense to the new emperor we can't burn incense to lies we can't burn incense to rebellion against God but we need courage from above we need power from on high we need the power of Christ dwelling in us to be capable of that Lord Jesus says he says when they bring you up before kings and rulers and authorities and courts don't worry about what you're going to say because I will let you know in that moment what you would need to say so we need to learn a new level of living and daily trust in the Lord you know in the Lord's prayer every day we say give us this day our daily bread we don't get the manna that came to the Israelites in the in the uh desert didn't last for more than a day except it would last over the sabbath we can't get the grace we need for the situations we'll face in the future now we need to prepare ourselves for ever deepening our relationship with the Lord we need to look every day for the help of the Lord to do what we need to do that day uh going to work in the morning making the beds washing the dishes taking care of children going to the doctors offering our suffering and union with Jesus for the reparation of sins and the conversion of sinners and for mercy on our country so say nation so Loyola says don't ever give in to discouragement it always should be resisted and the Lord uses our natural tendency to human discouragement uh to give us an invitation to draw our strength from him the devil wants to use our human discouragement to cut us off from faith to cut us off from hope there's no hope everything's lost no everything isn't lost nothing that's happening is happening with except with the permission of God and he's got a plan to bring good out of it that last line of Father Michael prophecy when you've learned to depend only on me and not all these other things even your country even your police departments even your church structures even when the church doors are closed when you've learned to depend only on me then you'll see what I’m about brothers and sisters it's absolutely true that God heard all our prayers and valued all our sacrifices and will answer them in a way we weren't anticipating but in a way that will be fully satisfied when we see it unfold his thoughts are far above our thoughts his ways are far above our ways but he is so wise he's so powerful he's so good one day we will see what his plan was in allowing the election result that just happened but now we have to make a choice are we going to give into discouragement or are we going to resist discouragement resistant discouragement is very much like resisting the devil it says in scripture resist the devil and he'll flee from you so brothers and sisters resist the devil resist discouragement keep making acts of faith and acts of hope and acts of love in the Lord because they're well warranted they're well justified they're going to bring us into contact and reality with them Cardinal Ratzinger prophesied this many years ago when he was just a German priest and in our march newsletter we're going to publish his uh prophetic sense again years ago way back in late 1960s early 70s he said you know what a tremendous trial awaits the church the church is going to lose much of its power much of its influence many of its buildings many of its structures many of its members is going to go through a tremendous trial but out of that trial is going to come a purified church out of which an immense explosion of light and love will come and people who have been unspeakably lonely in a soulless technological culture will once again be able to find a home that they've always been looking for where real love and real life and real humanity can be so uh sign up for our newsletter it's gonna be in our march newsletter uh and also i want to tell you that you know everything that's happening you know websites are being shut down social media is being shut down if for some reason we're not expecting this but it could happen if for some reason we have to move to another vehicle to bring these videos to you the only way we'll be able to communicate with you is if we have your email address so go to our website renewalministries.net and i think right there in the home page should be an opportunity to sign up for our newsletter uh it will come to you it's free no obligation never have to contribute if you don't like it will stop coming to you automatically after six months you never have to contribute to keep getting it if you want to keep getting it and at least we'll be able to communicate with you if for some reason we can't keep getting these videos to you the way we are now uh peter Herbeck and i are trying each week most weeks to give you a new video that will hopefully encourage you to strengthen you give you clarity and perspective and give you the support you need from brothers in the Lord sisters in the Lord to navigate the time we're living in false optimism has been exposed to what remains now is true and real hope is not wishful thinking hope is that certain knowledge that Christ has in will triumph looking back at this icon i just think for a thousand or more for thousands of years the world lived in hopelessness all it had was promises from the prophets which most people didn't believe and didn't pay attention to that a day was coming when a suffering servant would appear in the face of the earth and that he would speak he would speak mildly and humbly and uh he would suffer greatly and he would be not esteemed by us and people wouldn't even want to look at him so marred was his face but out of that suffering servant would come blessing and salvation not only for Israel but for the whole world i am so glad that we are living in the time of the messiah that we no longer have to wander in darkness we don't have to no we no longer have to kind of ponder over how these prophecies could possibly put together of the triumph of the messiah and the suffering of the messiah we know now how they come together and they come together in the person of Christ i am so glad that God has appeared on the earth in the person of Jesus and when we look at Jesus we see God and he's spoken to us clearly in sacred scripture now we now know the clear path forward we know now what God's plan is for the human race we know now how we can be saved how every bit of goodness and love and tenderness and truth and kindness that we've ever encountered in this world and become eternal can never end can be fulfilled Jesus is with us and he's so kind and he's so good and we need to know that he's with us right now in this post-election time and he's not only here with us in the United States of Canada but he's with us wherever we are in the world whatever is happening in our country our faith is what overcomes the world and Jesus will give us the strength to be his witnesses his joyful witnesses in a time of tremendous challenge thank God we live in the age of the church thank God we live in the age of messiah and as certainly as Jesus came the first time and is with us now he's going to return in glory to judge the living and the dead and those of us who have become his friend on earth before we die are going to be welcomed into the Father's house with his tremendous words well done good and faithful servants enter into the joy of your master may we all hear those words may we all draw ever closer to Jesus i might also tell you that we're going to do a Lenten mission uh starting in lent uh we'll have some information on our website renewalnersies.net we're going to continue what we did in our advent mission we're going to continue talking about the wisdom of the saints that we find in the book the fulfillment of all desire that I’ve written but it's not my words it's the words of the saints we're going to continue to talk about how to make progress on the spiritual journey so we're gonna do that for four Sundays in lent and uh gonna be on Sunday evening at eight o'clock uh you can register on our website and uh it doesn't quest anything but that way we can communicate with you and it's going to be live so you can interact with me you can ask questions you can make comments you can greet people that you know around the world and you can know live and in person that you're part of a worldwide brotherhood and sisterhood of others who are undergoing the same sufferings but also know the same Lord and are living in faith and hope and enjoy God bless you
2021-01-31