Martin Luther believed in the REAL PRESENCE of Jesus in the Eucharist. Martin Luther believed in the great dignity of Most Holy Mary as mother of God. What Martin Luther, and all of the Protestant "reformers" used --to gain followers: was supposedly the wonderful "Gospel of Jesus Christ" ... just as the Apostles had done!

But Luther, and the other Protestant reformers, abandoned the critical role of the living Church. Though they DID adopt a "Gospel of Jesus", similar the Gospel of the Apostles, they divorced their religion from obedience to the living Church! Christ can not reign in the world if the Church itself is divided. One of devil's main objectives is to to divide the Body of Christ by injecting controversies into the Church. Divided, we can NOT stand! When Satan is able to divide Catholics within the church by infecting it with hostility and resentment,  it's as if he is hacking into the very hands and arms of the Body of Christ. His cuts weaken the body; his divisions disable the Church.

This is very important! The Apostle, St. John tells us exactly HOW to recognize the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood: He says: "as for them, they are of the world - and the world listens to them because they speak the language of the world. But we are children of God, and those who know God: LISTEN TO US. Those who are not of God REFUSE TO LISTEN TO US. That is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood."  (1 John 4:6)

John is referring to the APOSTLES, and to their successors, the BISHOPS!  The "children of God" listen to the Apostles!  They listen to the living Church! The "US" to whom St. John is referring are the Bishops!  "Those who are not of God REFUSE TO LISTEN TO "US". That is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood."

In the modern world, in the midst of devout believers, the devil is successfully dividing Catholics using exactly the same strategy that he used to deceive the Protestants. This time, it's not the Gospel of Jesus, which the Protestants KNEW to be so important to salvation. Today, through false apparitions, the devil brings other "important" Gospel's, like: the Gospel of Devotion Jesus in the Tabernacle", or the "Gospel of Praying the Rosary".  But, as he injects his versions of these "Gospels", he explicitly incites and encourages people to reject "US". He incites people to reject the teaching authority of the Bishops. "That is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood."

So, because the Bishop of Lourdes, and the Bishop of Fatima, and the Bishop of Blessed Faustina, and the Bishop at Akita blessed and approved those messages, we know that they are true and that they are from God. They do not divide the church, nor do they cause bickering, contention, rancor and infighting. When the messages are approved by the Bishop, they bear good fruit. They are truly instructional and edifying.

Regarding false apparitions, at LaSallette our Lady predicted: "In the last days, false visionaries will arise like a swarm of flies from hell to try to obscure the true apparitions with false ones." Six different Bishops in succession CONDEMNED Garabandal and forbid the messages from being published or disseminated; they forbid all pilgrimages giving homage to the "apparitions". Three different Bishops in succession CONDEMNED Bayside; they forbid the messages from being published or disseminated, and they forbid pilgrimage to be made in homage to the "apparitions". Two different Bishops in succession CONDEMNED Medjugorje, and forbade the messages from being published or disseminated; again they forbid pilgrimages to be be made in homage to these "apparitions". But people REFUSE TO "LISTEN" TO THEM, THEY CHOOSE TO DISOBEY! These people, thinking they know "better" than the Bishop are doing exactly the same thing as the original disobedient Protestants!  They keep the "message", (back then it was the "Gospel of the Apostles", now, it's the "Gospel of the Rosary of Our Lady") but they refuse to LISTEN to the Bishop, the appointed apostolic successor! "They refuse to listen to 'US'. This is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood."

Those who promote these condemned apparitions seriously divide the church! They "claim" to be faithful to the teaching church, just as the schismatic Archbishop Marcell LaFavbre and his Tridentine's claimed to be faithful to the Church. In reality they disobeyed the very Church they "claimed" to be faithful to. They "say" they are "loyal" to the true church, but the reality is that they are publicly disobedient. They cast slurs upon the competence of the Bishops, the successors of the Apostles, and they will not listen to them. "This is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood."

Now, as they pick and choose which apparitions are of God, they claim that they must listen to God and NOT to men! What they really mean, is that they choose to listen to the "Visionaries" and to NOT listen to the Bishops! They set themselves up as the judges of the decisions of the Bishops. As if they believe that they too share in the Apostolic "discernment of the Holy Spirit". That is the Protestant heresy! Unknowingly, they set themselves up as judges of the Apostles! Do they really believe that they share, with their fellows who follow their own particular "visionaries" that they are appointed by God with the "true wisdom" of discernment? They choose which visionary's THEY think are appointed by God, and which ones are not. However, they refuse to listen to the clear and explicit directives of the Bishops in the most critical situations. Have they been duped by that old Protestant heresy, which teaches that the Holy Spirit alone directs each to correctly discern what is the truth? No matter how faithful they SAY they are, they ACT in complete disobedience to which ever Bishop they choose to ignore. "This is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood."

Among today's Catholic's, one of the devil's primary works is to make people feel that THEY are the "special" messengers of Our Lady. Now, THEY become  messengers of a new Gospel. The "Gospel" of whatever is the message the condemned apparition. By infecting Catholics with this poison of disobedience, Satan has very effectively divided the Church. These internal schisms are the nothing but the result of error and heresy: pure and simple! Those who promote these messages are themselves deceived, and they go about deceiving others! They may actually believe that it is the "Church" who is under the influence of the Devil ... just as the Protestants believed!  They set themselves up as sects which openly challenge the church, while they publicly disobey the Bishops. They offer many reasons about why they do not need to "listen to us". They question, minimize, and discount what is clearly the command of the local Bishop at the particular "apparition". "This is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood."

They list the "fruits" of the apparitions, while they encamp en masse in the tens of thousands, at forbidden apparition sites: all of them doing so in complete disobedience to the explicit orders of the local Bishop.  (Are their "fruits" any more significant than every conversion, or miracle the Protestants obtain through the precious blood of Christ? Though the Protestants openly the reject the Pope and the Blessed Sacrament, cast slurs upon the Church, and blaspheme our Lady? Even Scientology, and New Age Channeling Hypnotherapy have wonderful "fruits".) They argue that the Bishops are themselves deceived by errors of modernism. To disobey specific commands to avoid "pilgrimages", they publicly announce that they must "re-name" their pilgrimages "spiritual journeys." As if by calling a pilgrimage by a different name they will not be guilty of direct disobedience! (Professing themselves to be "wise", they become fools!)

Mostly, they are blinded by a false assumption that they themselves, protected by the Blessed Virgin, could not possibly be deceived. They just know that they are special. They are hooked by the delight of the heresy of Gnosticism. These heretics just know that they possess hidden knowledge. They know something that the Church does not. When really, they are just hooked on what has become an addictive experience. They're hooked in a click, but they deny that it's a cult! It's a shared addiction to excitement. It is an addiction to smug camaraderie which they share with their disobedient fellows. They may be addicted to thrilling thoughts of impending danger, or they may be addicted to puffed up self-imagination of their own "distinction". Worse, they may be addicted to their own self righteous stand in the controversy itself. They go so far as to deceive themselves that their disobedience to the Bishop IS A CROSS that they must bear! And they bear it with pride!  By refusing to accept the possibility that what they are doing is wrong, they begin to cross over onto the ground which Pope John Paul II calls: "unforgivable sin", the sin which denies that one stands in any NEED of forgiveness.

If we want to advance the true Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we must at least try to bring back these souls: who are in many cases the cream of the Catholic crop! If they would return as true warriors into the bosom of the church, the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary could proceed with leaps and bounds! But, as it is, these deep divisions have resulted in a modern church in total disarray. Satan has ravaged us both from the left (the modernists), and from the right (the disobedient conservatives). Disobedient conservatives are just as much heretics as are modernists: both deny the teaching authority of the church!

"as for them, they are of the world - and the world listens to them because they speak the language of the world. But we are children of God, and those who know God: LISTEN TO US. Those who are not of God REFUSE TO LISTEN TO US. That is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood."  (1 John 4:6)