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by Richard Salbato 8-24-2003
From the early 1960s to the late 1970s, I studied prophesy as related to eschatology - the study of events related to the end times - and discovered that certain prophecies that have not yet come to pass involve five happenings:
- a period of chastisement that will be world wide,
- a king who will lead us out of this period,
- a time of world wide peace on earth,
- the Antichrist, and
- the second coming of Christ and the end of the world.
It now seems probable that these last day happenings could start on April 1,200?.
I studied the end times by examining prophesy in its many forms. Of special interest were prophecies that had not yet come to pass. My investigation included researching over one hundred books and traveling to over twenty five countries. Additional consideration was given to all related Bible passages and the commentaries of the Saints throughout history. Next attention was given to the prophesies of the saints throughout the ages of the Catholic Church. Due importance was given to apparitions as related to eschatology. Two problems slowed down this research for a time. One was simply the challenge to understand true and approved prophesy as well as true and approved apparitions. In this inquiry into the end times, I realized that messages from one apparition frequently contradicted messages from another. One truth that logic and the Church teaches is that God cannot contradict God. This realization brought about a new discipline - the testing of spirits of mystics and seers.
But back to the subject at hand. Once the wheat was separated from the chaff, all approved prophesy seemed to compliment itself all the way down to Akita, Japan. Placing these prophesies in a computer and carefully comparing them to each other, a story of the future emerged in fine detail; except for the second problem that was mentioned earlier. In all these revelations, there popped up one man, who most writers call the Great Monarch, destined to save us from something called the Great Chastisement -- a time, determined by God, whereby the earth would be cleansed of sin and a single secular Kingdom under one Monarch and a single Holy Roman Catholic Church under the Pope of Rome would begin. All this would precede the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world.
But the recurring prophesies about the Great Monarch contradicted one another. While one would state he would be a descendent of St. Louis, another would affirm he was of the House of Bourbon. Still, while another would say that he was to come from the House of Caput, another would declare he would be a Habsburg. Who could come from all these blood lines, and was it even possible?
To research this question, I looked to the greatest genealogical library in the world - the Mormons. Digging through thousands of microfiche tapes and creating large graphs of family trees, I discovered there was a man living today possessing the bloodline of all of these families. He also fit other aspects of the prophesies, by being of the right age, background, profession, and would be exiled from his homeland. Some of these prophesies were over 1000 years old. The Bible seems to have referenced this man in Daniel 7:23 and in Chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel. If my calculations are precise, Apocalypse Chapter 10 is his personal history; not the elimination of sovereign countries but their conversion to Christianity in morals and laws.
Circa World War I, most of the world's Monarchs fell to republics and dictatorships sweeping across Europe, South America and Russia. Starting with France in 1870, from 1908 to 1922, over 35 Monarchies became Republics. During World War I (1916), the Monarch of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Francis Joseph, died, and Charles von Habsburg ascended the throne. A very young man who disapproved of the war, he immediately tried to end it by writing to the President of America and Prime Minister of England, but neither answered his pleas. Eventually, exiled by the Allied Forces with his wife and eight children to the Island of Madeira, his empire became a Republic in 1918. While in exile, his family rationed little food, Charles always gave his portion to his wife and children without their knowledge. At the age of 33 he died of starvation - the last of the Monarchs - on April 1, 1922, April Fools Day.
Years after researching the Great Monarch and discovering he was a descendent of the Holy Roman Emperor via the Habsburg line, a strange thing happened. I learned that Charles von Habsburg was buried in an iron coffin in a mountaintop grave in Madeira. The coffin was open-aired, surrounded by four pillars, topped by a roof, but without walls. One day, a blind woman climbed the mountain, unaware of whose grave it was, leaned against the Habsburg coffin and was instantly cured. When the news of her healing quickly spread through the local town, hundreds of sick people - the deaf, the crippled, the dying, the possessed - ascended the mountain to touch the Habsburg coffin, and hundreds were cured. The Vatican began investigations into the sanctity of Charles von Habsburg's life, but little could be found out about him. At the same time, with his children fully grown, his wife, Zita, entered a convent in Switzerland, where her fellow nuns claimed she received apparitions. When Rome exhumed Charles' coffin his body was found to be uncorrupt. Charles was Beatified and is now called Blessed. Zeta has died and is also up for Canonization.
A Dominican priest from the Sacred Congregation for the Cause of Saints, a giant of a man, led the Church's investigation. In an interview, he said that God performs miracles to bare witness to the truth. Though the miracles God performed on the body of Charles von Habsburg bore witness to some truth, this priest could not figure out what. He pushed his way through the door saying that this Habsburg had all the Vatican in an uproar.
Exactly what GOD intended lay hidden in prophesy. If the giant Dominican priest knew this, he didn't let on. What God willed for the sixth and last millennium - the age of the Catholic Church - was that the Pope and the Great Monarch, who would protect the Pope and the Church from all attacks, each be given a "sword". The Monarch became known as the Fisher King and later on as the Holy Roman Emperor. A Habsburg, he received his power from the Pope and ruled the entire Catholic World in secular matters. There have been a few great Holy Roman Emperors in the past like Constantine the Great. While in exile, Pope St. Stephen crowned King Pepin ruler of France. He was followed by Charlemagne as Emperor of the Christian World. What is interesting about all these great Monarchs is that in each case they brought peace to the entire world - the little scroll of Apocalypse 10 - but this peace only lasted 40 to 50 years (sweet in the mouth but bitter in the stomach), only to be followed by a type of Antichrist.
The seemingly final destruction of Monarchies on April 1, 1922 can be traced to two causes: one is the corrupter of the Monarchies themselves, and two is the desire of the masses to rule themselves. Self rule has produced great wealth, but also great immorality and two world wars. More people have died in wars since 1914 than in all the other wars of the world combined before that time.
April Fools Day takes on a new significance when reviewing prophesies about the Chastisement. According to the compilation of 104 approved prophesies concerning the end times, God will send a Chastisement to the world to cleanse it of sin and bring about the renewal of God's two part Kingdom on Earth, i.e. the Kingdom of the Church and its servant, the Great Monarch. These prophesies clearly predict a global economic crash that will give way to civil wars in nearly every country of the world. French will fight French, Americans will fight Americans, Italians will fight Italians, etc., etc. the world over. In the end 75% of the world will perish. Then, under the leadership of the Pope and the Great Monarch, world peace will be restored. All that will remain is the one Church ruled by a holy Catholic Pope known as "the Glory of the Olive".
This realization explains why we have seen an onslaught of false apparitions and prophets in the past forty years. Satan knows the Chastisement is upon him. Having been cast out once before by Saint Michael, he is in a frenzy to pull as many souls down to Hell with him as he can. By imitating the Virgin Mary, and teaching souls to disobey the Church before his final end, Satan prowls and lures the pious to unholy grounds, seeking only to devour their souls.
Will there be a warning as stated at Garabandal and Medjugorje?
No! No approved prophecy states this.
Will there be three days of darkness at the start of the Chastisement?
No! All true prophesy places this at the end of this period.
Will there be special places - refuges - where you can go and be safe from the Chastisement?
No! All approved prophecy says to stay where you are.For a complete and accurate understanding of prophesy of the last days, read "TRIAL, TRIBULATION and TRIUMPH" by Desmond A. Birch, Queenship Publishing Co. (800) 647-9882
Go to frequent confession. Attend Holy Mass everyday. Educate your children, spouse, family and friends to Christ. According to prophesy the good will die with the bad. God alone will decide who will be the 25%o survive to the period of peace. While I believe this era will last no longer than 50 years, other eschatological scholars trust it will endure as long as 500 years. Time will tell.
Then will come the Antichrist who will rule the world for 3-1/2 years. After that, Christ will return with the end of the world as we know it. The foretold Chastisement is not the end of the world nor is it Christ's second coming. To repeat, this Chastisement is not the second coming of Christ, for Christ Himself revealed in His "Eschatological Discourse" (Mt. 24) to the Holy Apostles:
"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor will be. And unless those days had been shortened, no living creature would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. Then if anyone say to you, 'Behold, there is the Christ,' or, 'There he is', do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise, 'and will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect."
Rick Salbato
Managing Editor and President
Unity Publishing, Inc.Back To Newsletter