Woman and the Dragon, The: Apparitions of Mary

Preface

Devotion to Our Lady comes naturally for me. I was born on Mary’s true birthday (August 5) and was named after my mother’s favorite teacher, Sister Mary David. As a youngster I attended the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary parochial school in Independence, Missouri, which was built the same year I was born (1955). I attend Mass at St. Mary’s church, I wear Mary’s Miraculous Medal, I have a life-size statue of Our Lady in my backyard, and on two occasions I’ve received the scent of Mary’s roses at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Kansas City. Mary is my advocate and protectress; that’s why I wrote this book. I want the world to know her and love her as I do, and to know at least some of the history surrounding her major battles with the devil, especially the battles she’s fought within the last one hundred years.

Knowing the approximate time he would be chained up in hell for all eternity, the devil chose the twentieth century to attack the Church with all his might. According to Mary in Medjugorje, Satan appeared before God’s throne one day and asked for an extended period of time to challenge the Church with all his power. God, who is just and fair, agreed to Satan’s request and granted him one century, so the devil chose the twentieth—the last century before the third millennium in which he will be cast down to hell forever.

As history proves, the twentieth century has witnessed more death and destruction than any other century: hundreds of millions of lives have been lost in wars and famines, and millions more to deadly communicable diseases such as AIDS, which will soon be the number-one disease in the world. No other century in the history of the world has known as much suffering and death as the twentieth century.

Alarmed at the horrible increase in evil in the world, people everywhere are wondering what on earth is going on. What’s going on is a tremendous battle between the spiritual forces of light and dark; a real war being fought over the ownership of human souls.

Humanity must now make a choice between good and evil, between God and Satan. On the souls of the minority who are choosing God—including those who through no fault of their own don’t know Jesus Christ—the sign of the Cross is being sealed, while upon the souls of the rebellious and unrepentant majority, the mark of the beast, 666, is being put.¹

Ever since the 1960s, that rebellious decade containing the devil’s number 6, Satan has become much more open and aggressive in his work because his time is growing short. No longer remaining in the dark shadows so as not to be seen, Satan has come out of hiding and is proudly operating in the open. For those with the spiritual eyes to see, the signs of his presence are everywhere. Unfortunately, most people prefer to live in the dark: whether they believe in the devil or not, these people are consciously following after him.²

This present generation is the evil generation that Jesus warned about in the Gospels, the generation of the end times when signs and wonders proceeding his Second Coming would abound.³ Just take a look at the weather. Everywhere you look weather records are being shattered. It’s as though the earth is trying to warn us that its Creator is about to punish the human race for its innumerable transgressions. According to several visionaries mentioned in this book, if it wasn’t for the Blessed Virgin Mary, who restrains God’s heavy arm, the world would have been severely punished a long time ago.

You’d think that with all the warning signs coming from God we’d repent our evil ways and turn back to him before it’s too late, but we don’t. Just look at the evils that are running rampant: school massacres, ethnic cleansings, civil and religious wars, terrorist bombings, racial hatred, broken families, child abuse, youth gangs, illegal drugs, pornography, legalized gambling, abortion, homosexuality, corporate downsizing, robberies, murder. Our love for God and our neighbor has grown cold, just as Jesus said would happen in the last days.⁴

Although the majority of people at the beginning of this millennium are choosing Satan over God, the Blessed Mother still stands—as she has throughout history—beside the One True Church, the Roman Catholic Church, as its advocate and protectress. When the Great Apostasy against the Catholic Church began in the sixteenth century, Our Lady of Guadalupe came to Mexico to replenish God’s flock from the decimation of Protestantism. Then, when the twin Antichristian demons named Rationalism and Revolution were born in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, provoking intellectuals to declare Nature and Science their new gods, Mary came to Paris to give us the Miraculous Medal as testimony to the one true God. When famine ravaged Europe in 1846 and whole-scale revolution was about to break out on that continent, Mary came to La Salette, France, to warn the world of the imminent wars and disasters to come. In the spring of 1917, just before communism took over in Russia, Our Lady of Fátima appeared in Portugal to warn the world of its rise and spread. And two decades later, when Adolph Hitler ascended to power in Germany, approximately nineteen centuries after the death of Christ, Mary appeared in neighboring Belgium on two separate occasions, begging for the world’s prayers and sacrifices. Most recently, in Rwanda and Bosnia, Mary appeared at least a decade before their civil wars started, pleading with the world to turn back to God before it’s too late.

Time and time again, God has sent the Blessed Virgin Mary to earth to warn us that he is about to punish the world. If he could, Christ would gladly come back down from heaven and die on the cross again. But the Eternal Father won’t let him, so he sends us his mother instead. Mary is the world’s last warning. We must listen to her messages and warnings from God or face the imminent chastisement as his enemy. Very soon, there will be no more warnings and no more time left to repent because, according to the visionaries in Medjugorje, these are Mary’s last appearances on earth. According to the visionaries mentioned in this book, Mary’s prophecies concerning the very near future are extremely grave. All of them say the same thing: our time is running out and the world is about to be punished. God, through Mary, is telling us that we must convert while there’s still time to do so, while mercy still exists. Afterwards, it will be a time of judgment, not mercy. Remember, God does not kid around; he makes no idle threats. He wants all men of all religions to convert and be saved. When he sends us his mother, he means for her to be taken seriously, not mocked and disbelieved. Please believe in what Mary has to say. Like it or not, your eternal destiny rests entirely on what you believe.

Within the last several decades there have been a glut of authors who have put out scads of books predicting a monumental event that will happen by Y2K, such as Christ’s Second Coming, or the end of the world, or global financial anarchy and a third world war. When these false prophecies fail to materialize they will do tremendous damage to Christianity’s believability. Many Christians will lose their faith because of them, and cynics and scoffers in the media will have a heyday. Be wary of people who claim something big will happen by a certain date, or of those who claim to have inside information from the Holy Spirit regarding the interpretation of Scripture, especially the Book of Revelation, which is very hard to decipher. There are many false prophets out there, who are all too eager to get rich by preying upon people’s fears, ignorance, and gullibility.

The majority of false prophets, of course, are just making things up, but some may have received information from deceiving spirits. Be extremely careful of them, too. Also, there are many well-intentioned people who truly believe that what they say or write about the future comes from God and is the truth. Remember, only God the Father knows the exact hour and day of Christ’s return and the end of the world, so live each day as if you will live to be a hundred, but be ready to die at any moment.

With all the lies being spread today about what is the truth, don’t be discouraged if you no longer know who to believe. Time has a merciless way of proving false prophets wrong, and, sooner or later, they will all be found out. My advice is this: if you want to be sure of the truth, look to Mary for guidance.

The Woman and the Dragon is not a book about Marian apparitions per se—there have been enough of those written already—but an historical analysis of the Dragon’s personal fight against Mary and the Roman Catholic Church, in relation to Mary’s appearances on earth as symbolized in chapter twelve of the Book of Revelation. As a conservative Catholic, I hold to the traditional Catholic beliefs that Satan is a real, super-intelligent, preternatural being, who’s the Prime Mover of all evil and disorder in the world, and not just a personification of our shadowy selves. I believe that he plans and evokes persecutions, heresies, schisms, apostasies, scandals, lies, and violence against the Catholic Church—both from within the Church and from without. This would only make sense on Satan’s part if, indeed, the Roman Catholic Church is the One True Faith established by Jesus Christ two millennia ago. Contriving his diabolic schemes in his kingdom, hell, the Dragon holds a form of court that mimics that of heaven; in its hierarchy of authority from top down. As the Monkey of God, Satan strives to imitate what he sees the Trinity doing, but in an evil, mocking, perverse way. Therefore, a better name for the devil might be Spite or Revenge or Negation. There is abundant evidence of this throughout history. For instance, God sent the Blessed Mother repeatedly to earth in the 1980s and 90s to preach repentance, conversion, holiness and sacrifice, while the devil sent his own anti-Madonna to the world to extol the six vices of materialism, greed, lust, envy, pride, and anger. Just two decades earlier, it was no mere coincidence that a bearded, long-haired, evil-eyed, psycho-babbling guru named Manson (Man’s Son, or Son of Man) appeared in the City of Angels with his cadre of brainwashed disciples to wreak havoc on Hollywood by killing the wife and baby of the producer of Rosemary’s Baby,⁵ then killing the LaBiancas (whose name in Italian means The Whites) to start a race war between blacks and whites. You see, Satan loves to choreograph his evil with sick parodies of Jesus Christ and Mary. That’s the only satisfaction he has left. If you take the scales off your eyes and start looking at history spiritually, you’ll soon discover many more examples of what I mean.

As mentioned, the premise of The Woman and the Dragon is about the interpretation of chapter twelve of the Book of Revelation as related to history, and contains controversial corollaries based on documented historical facts and apparitions of Jesus and Mary by credible visionaries, in conjunction with my own personal insights, and the prophecies and visions of numerous well-known Catholics throughout the last two millennia. The identities of the Dragon, the First and Second Beasts, the Antichrist, and the Whore of Babylon, who are revealed in the ninth chapter of this book, are based upon the revelations of a bed-ridden Italian invalid named Maria Valtorta during the Second World War, and are contained in her best-selling book The End Times, a book I highly recommend for students of prophecy

Let me warn you before reading The Woman and the Dragon: if you are looking for a feel-good book about a non-confrontational, New-Age Mary who doesn’t exist, this book is not for you. I didn’t write this book to tickle anyone’s ears. This book contains admonitions and warnings from the true Mary of the Catholic Church, as they relate to my own personal opinions about evil. If you feel that you have to criticize me for expressing my Catholic beliefs you have that right, but remember, this country was founded upon the democratic principles of freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Publicly-funded artists have the right to display images of the Blessed Virgin Mary desecrated with elephant dung, and Hollywood has the right to produce movies and television shows that attack the teachings of Catholics. So I, as a Catholic apologist and member of the Catholic League, which fights for the rights of Catholics, should have the right to express my own beliefs from an orthodox Catholic perspective.

Finally, to those who may think that this book is too negative towards other people’s religions and beliefs and is anti-ecumenical in subject matter, let me say that although I do criticize certain key historical figures who have done great harm to the Roman Catholic Church, I, like Mary, do not refrain from severely criticizing those within the Catholic Church who have brought scandal and apostasy to the Body of Christ. Quite frankly, I think that hell is well represented with the souls of unscrupulous priests, bishops, cardinals and, yes, even popes. Be that as it may, there are good and bad people in every religion, and members of other religions are no less children of God than Catholics and are destined to join their Creator someday in heaven if they have good will, love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and obey the dictates of their consciences. It is only when you truly know Jesus Christ and consciously reject him that you risk judgment for rejecting the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God alone in his infinite wisdom decides upon the degree of responsibility that each individual must bear. To those who have been given much, much is expected. To those who have been given little, little is expected. Certainly all religions can’t be equally true, but all men are created equal and salvation is open to everyone.

That said, here’s a little interpretive history about Mary’s epic battle against the Dragon, the Father of All Lies and Author of All Discord.

David Michael Lindsey

Introduction: The Doctrine of Mary

My mouth shall speak wisdom, my heart shall offer insight.

Psalm 49:4

When Lucifer and his proud minions were cast down to earth for rebelling against God, the peace and harmony of heaven was totally disrupted. The remaining angels in heaven were left in a state of bewilderment, fearing that since they were spiritual creatures, like Lucifer, a vapor of pride might arise in them, too. Only when God the Father, the Eternal Thought, revealed to the good angels the full knowledge of his divine plan to create the purest, most humble of all his creatures—the Blessed Virgin Mary—did peace and consolation return to the heavenly hosts.¹

The Blessed Virgin Mary, whom the archangel Gabriel greeted two thousand years ago as God’s "Highly Favored Daughter² is truly the most blessed creature God has ever made; second only to him in perfection and beauty.³ She had to be, for her womb, the New Ark of the New Covenant, could not be tainted with the slightest stain of sin, original or personal. Otherwise, Jesus, the God-Man, would have inherited from his mother a sinful human nature. By a special grace from the Eternal Father, the Blessed Virgin Mary was created free from the impure nature we acquired from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Thus, Mary became God’s New Eve, restoring with her ever-virginal purity what Eve had lustfully lost when she, metaphorically speaking, ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden; thereupon, bringing Death upon the human race.

The doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, which is to be believed by all the Christian faithful, was dogmatically proclaimed by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854, in Ineffabilis Deus. In this bull, Pope Pius decreed that Mary was conceived without any sin:

… by a singular privilege and grace from Almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, [Mary] was preserved free from all stain of original sin.⁴

Belief in this dogma dates back to at least the eighth century, when an observance of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception was first recorded.⁵ The Virgin Mary herself confirmed the Church’s doctrine of the Immaculate Conception four years after Pius IX’s bull, when she appeared to a young girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in Lourdes, France, on March 25, 1858 (March 25 is the Solemnity of the Annunciation). After repeated pleas from Bernadette to identify herself, Mary announced to her, and thus to the whole world,

"Que soy era Immaculado Councepciou! (I am the Immaculate Conception.")

For a long time, this truth of Mary’s Immaculate Conception has been a heated point of contention between Catholics and Protestants. Some try refuting Mary’s Immaculate Conception by quoting the Bible out of context: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,⁶ or, There is none good but one, that is God.⁷ Protestants contend that since Mary proclaimed that her spirit rejoiced in God my savior⁸ then she must have been a sinner, and, therefore, could not be Immaculate. But, again, this contention is taking Scripture out of context. Mary rejoiced in God, her savior, not because she was sinful, but because of her humility, meekness, and subordination to her son, Jesus Christ, without whom no one, no matter how good they are, can enter heaven—not Abraham, not Isaac, not Jacob, not John the Baptist, not even Mary.⁹

Furthermore, in the Bible’s Canticle of Mary,¹⁰ the Blessed Mother presupposed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by affirming to the whole world her fullness of grace and divine election. In this canticle, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit, Mary proclaimed:

"All ages to come shall call me blessed. God who is mighty has done great things for me."

Indeed, God has done great things for Mary. She is the only creature to receive a fullness of grace from God, so she deserves our highest veneration. By right, by election, by descent, and by her suffering,¹¹ Mary is seated in heaven at the right hand of Jesus Christ as the Queen of Heaven,¹² the Co-Redeemer¹³ and Co-Mediatrix¹⁴ of the world. (For those of you who are scandalized by this, the prefix co- means with, not equal to.) While, as we know from the Bible,¹⁵ only Jesus Christ mediates between God and man, Mary, our heavenly intercessor, mediates between Jesus and man.¹⁶ Now I ask you: what son, if he is truly good, can deny the requests of his mother, especially if that son happens to be the Son of God? Remember what Jesus did for Mary at the wedding of Cana, when she asked him to perform a miracle before his time had come to perform miracles—he obeyed her request.¹⁷

All too often, non-Catholics unfairly accuse Roman Catholics of worshiping Mary as a goddess because they bestow on her the honorific titles of Queen of Heaven, Co-Mediatrix, and Co-Redemptrix. Nothing could be further from the truth. Catholics worship only God, and are not afraid of venerating Mary or making Jesus Christ jealous of his mother. Jealousy of Mary, the Woman of Revelation 12, is not a sin to be found in Jesus Christ but in Satan, the Red Dragon! Mary’s Do whatever he tells you¹⁸ leads us to Jesus, and Jesus leads us to God. She prepares; he fulfills. Without Mary there would be no Jesus. Without Jesus there would be no redemption. For this reason alone, Mary is worthy of our highest honor and devotion. Catholic invocations and supplications to Mary, the Perpetual Virgin, do not in the least bit lessen our faith in Jesus Christ. Instead, they magnify it!

The Catholic Church has recognized Mary’s perpetual virginity¹⁹ as far back as the 2nd Council of Constantinople, in 553. Even before that, most of the early church fathers, such as St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine, believed in Mary’s perpetual virginity. And, as far as that goes, so did the early Protestant fathers, Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. It’s easy to understand why the early church doctors and early Protestant leaders believed in Mary’s perpetual virginity: the doctrine can be understood from the Gospel of John, wherein Jesus gave his beloved apostle, John of Zebedee, custody of his mother before he died on the cross: "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother.’ And from that hour on the disciple took her into his home."²⁰

Now if Mary had other sons and daughters, it wouldn’t have made sense for Jesus to give his mother away to a young man who wasn’t even her relative. The fact is, Mary had no other sons or daughters. Those who claim that the Bible proves Mary had other sons and daughters because it mentions Jesus as having brothers, are taking the word brother out of context. The Bible uses the words brother or brothers 750 times: 430 times in the Old Testament and 320 in the New. The word brother in the Bible often imputes kinsmen and followers, members of the same tribe or race, nephews and cousins, or relatives in general. In the common language that Jesus spoke, Aramaic, as well as in Hebrew, cousins were always called brothers because those languages had no separate word for cousin. That’s why Jesus’ cousins—James, Joseph, Simon, Judas, the sons of Alphaeus (Jesus’ uncle on St. Joseph’s side)—are often mistaken by Protestants as the other sons of Mary.²¹

Similarly, the scriptural passage, Joseph knew her not until Christ was born,²² is frequently misinterpreted by Protestants as meaning that Mary and Joseph had sexual relations following Jesus’ birth. But that’s not what the passage means. It simply means that Jesus was born of a virgin—nothing more, nothing less. Likewise, the reference to Jesus as Mary’s firstborn son²³ does not infer that Mary had a second- or third-born son. The designation of firstborn was customarily given by the Hebrews for purposes of inheritance and consecration, regardless of how many children came afterwards—even if couples did not have any more children (as were the cases with Abraham and Sarah, and Zechariah and Elizabeth). All firstborn Hebrew sons were required by Jewish law to be consecrated to the Lord on the eighth day after birth, at the time of their presentation and circumcision.²⁴

In addition to Mary’s perpetual virginity, Roman Catholic doctrine maintains that Mary was assumed into heaven at the time of her dormition, or falling asleep. Since about the sixth century, a feast day honoring the apostolic tradition of Mary’s bodily assumption into heaven has been celebrated by the Catholic Church.²⁵ To affirm that long-held tradition, on November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII officially proclaimed in the apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, the Catholic Church’s infallible teaching of the Assumption of Mary. Besides the pope’s proclamation, there is ample reason for Christians to believe in the Assumption of Mary, even though inference is not made to it in the Bible. Aside from the Old Testament precedents of Enoch and Elijah being assumed directly into heaven before death, Mary’s assumption into heaven makes perfect sense. Jesus wanted to spare the virginal body of his mother, God’s New Ark of the New Covenant, which was untouched by any man,²⁶ the indignity of being undressed and prepared for burial, and from having it suffer putrefaction in the grave. Corruption of the flesh after death is a fate reserved for the inheritors of original sin, which excludes the Blessed Virgin Mary. Archaeologically, even to this day none of Mary’s relics have ever been found in any tomb or grave, lending further credibility to the Catholic dogma of the Assumption.

Regarding another controversial Catholic doctrine of Mary as the Mother of God, this title didn’t originate with Catholics but with the Jews. Even before Jesus was born, Mary was hailed by her cousin, Elizabeth, as the Mother of my Lord.²⁷ Of course, God, who has no beginning or end, is in and of himself, and has no parents. It is the incarnate Jesus Christ, fully God yet fully man, who is referred to by the early church fathers as born of a woman. In the year 431, the Catholic Council of Ephesus affirmed this by naming Mary the Theotokos, or god-bearer—the Mother of God made Man.

In addition to being the Mother of God, Mary is also our Mother of Perpetual Help. As Mary visited Elizabeth in her time of need, so, too, she visits us in our time of need. Whenever she sees that we are lacking in things that are important, Mary implores her Son Jesus to help us out. Even though his hour to perform miracles had not yet come, Jesus couldn’t refuse his mother’s charity at the wedding of Cana and changed the water into wine. So it remains with us today. Appealing to the most merciful heart of her son, Mary has the natural motherly influence to move her son to act on our behalf, especially against the never-ending wiles and cunning of the Dragon.

Chapter One

The Woman and the Dragon

I will put enmity between you [serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.

Gen. 3:15

"A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. Because she was with child, she wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky: it was a huge dragon, flaming red, with seven heads and ten horns: on his heads were seven crowns. His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, ready to devour her child when it should be born. She gave birth to a son—a boy destined to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne. The woman herself fled into the desert, where a special place had been prepared for her by God; there she was taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.

"Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. Although the dragon and his angels fought back, they were overpowered and lost their place in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent known as the devil or Satan, the seducer of the world, was driven out; he was hurled down to earth and his minions with him.

"Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have salvation and power come, the reign of our God and the authority of his Anointed One. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who night and day accused them before God. They defeated them by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death. So rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, earth and sea, for the devil has come down upon you! His fury knows no limits, for he knows his time is short.’

When the dragon saw that he had been cast down to the earth, he pursued the woman about to give birth to the boy. But the woman was given the wings of a gigantic eagle so that she could fly off to her place in the desert, where, far from the serpent, she could be taken care of for two and half years more. The serpent, however, spewed a torrent of water out of his mouth to search out the woman and sweep her away. The earth then came to the woman’s rescue by opening its mouth and swallowing the flood which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. Enraged at her escape, the dragon went off to wage war with her offspring, on those who keep God’s commandments and give witness to Jesus. He took up position at the shore of the sea.

Rev. 12:1-17

As the Holy Mother of Jesus’ pastoral flock, the New Israel, God foreordained the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Woman referred to in Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 12:1-17, to be the Queen of Heaven and Protectress of the One True Church of Jesus Christ—the Roman Catholic Church.¹ Therefore, from the above passages in Revelation 12:1-17 that allude to this, we can reasonably assume that’s why Satan hates Mary so much: he became tremendously enraged when he learned that a lowly woman would receive from God power and authority over him, Lucifer, the brightest and most powerful seraphim in heaven.

Eons ago, after God created the earth, he revealed to the heavenly angels his future plans to create a woman who would give birth to an extraordinary male child, a holy son who would receive from the Father absolute dominion over heaven and earth. This child, the Father announced, would be crowned the King of Heaven and Earth, the Son of God, and would inherit from the Father all that he had. This startling revelation caused quite a stir in heaven: many angels felt it beneath their dignity to worship a human being made out of mud. Envious of God’s decision to beget Jesus the God-Man, Lucifer, the head of the angels, tried to dethrone God and put himself in God’s place, but he was overpowered by Michael the Archangel and cast down to earth, where, now as Satan,² he and his demons are condemned to everlasting hellfire for their unforgivable treason against Almighty God.

The Bible recounts the story of Lucifer’s lightning fall from grace in the Book of Isaiah:

How you have fallen from the heavens, O morning star, son of the dawn! How are you cut down to the ground, you who mowed down the nations! You said in your heart: ‘I will scale the heavens; above the stars of God I will set my throne; I will take my seat on the Mount of Assembly, in the recesses of the North. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will be like the Most High!’ Yet down to the nether world you go to the recesses of the pit.³

In Revelation 12, the chapter on the Woman and the Dragon, the seven heads of the Dragon metaphorically depict the seven deadly sins of Lucifer that caused him and a third of the angels (stars) to lose their place in heaven: pride, envy, anger, greed, indolence, excess, and lust (which, in the case of Lucifer and his cohorts, was a lust for power and glory rather than a lust for flesh). Satan, the red dragon, has all seven deadly sins within himself, but in his new kingdom, hell, he has put in charge a different devil for each of the seven sins and has given them his full power and authority (symbolized by the ten horns on the seven heads). Therein lies the clue to the mysterious identities of the first and second Beasts of Revelation 13 (more on them in chapter 9).

After he realized he had fallen from heaven for all eternity, Satan’s only recourse was to cause the downfall of mankind, so he seduced Eve, in the Garden of Eden, into disobeying God. Eve’s refusal to obey God’s wishes, which caused the introduction of evil into the world and the barring of man from heaven, was, centuries later, counteracted by Mary’s unselfish, I will serve. Two millennia ago, when the archangel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and informed her of God’s wishes for her to conceive the long-awaited Messiah, the Redeemer of Mankind, Mary’s immediate reply to God’s request was—unlike Eve’s—obedient and humble:

"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."⁴

Because of Mary’s humble Yes, salvation was granted to the fallen world. Thus, Mary played a vital role in the redemption of the human race. That’s why she can rightly be called the Co-Redeemer and Co-Mediatrix of man, and that’s why she has been assigned by God to assume the highly exalted role of Queen of Heaven and Protectress of the Catholic Church.

As God’s Protectress of the Roman Catholic Church, Mary has faithfully stood by and defended the church against the schemes of the devil ever since its inception on Pentecost day, seven Sundays after Easter. Whenever any grave danger threatens the lives of the faithful or the survival of the Catholic Church, Mary appears on earth with prophetic warnings, messages, and pleas for repentance. To help lead her children back onto the road of salvation, Mary has worked many miracles as a testimony to God’s favor for the church and a sign of his presence with her. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that besides her son, Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother is the single greatest advocate of the One True Church.

Judith and Esther: Archetypes of Mary

Mary’s vital role as defender of the Catholic Church was foreshadowed in the Old Testament books of Judith and Esther.⁵ In these two inspirational and exemplary biblical narratives that presage the future coming of a victorious, holy woman like Mary, God delivers his people through courageous, God-fearing, and beautiful young Jewish women. In the Book of Judith, which chronicles the period of time around the sixth century B.C., the heroine, Judith, the pious young widow of Manasseh, saves Israel from complete annihilation by the Assyrian army when she single-handedly slays the evil Assyrian general, Holofernes, as he lay in a drunken stupor inside his tent. Dressed in her finest attire, Judith, whose Hebrew name means Jewess, gallantly walked into the Assyrian camp pretending to hand her people over to Holofernes. Fascinated by her striking beauty and words of wisdom, Holofernes planned to ravish Judith in the privacy of his bedchamber after a night of sumptuous eating and drinking. On the night of the banquet, after dismissing all of his servants and guests except for Judith, the inebriated Holofernes passed out on his bed. Seizing the moment given to her by God, Judith drew Holofernes’s sword, and with two mighty blows, cut off his head and slipped away from the Assyrian camp, with Holofernes’s head stuffed in her maid’s food pouch. The next morning, when the Assyrians discovered that their invincible commander-in-chief had been slain by a mere woman, they fled in terror and were routed by the Israeli army in hot pursuit.

The Book of Esther is another inspirational prefigurement of the coming of the victorious Blessed Virgin Mary. In this time-honored classic, Esther, the beautiful young Jewish niece and adopted daughter of Mordecai, faithful Jewish servant to King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) of Persia (486-465 B.C.), is chosen out of all the young virgins of Persia to become the king’s new bride. Esther’s selection by the Persian king proved to be providential because it occurred at the same time Haman the Agagite,⁶ the evil vizier of King Xerxes, concocted a nefarious plot to exterminate the entire Jewish race.

As the chronicler of Esther recounts, Haman was insulted that the king’s servant, Mordecai, would not bow down to Haman, so he coerced the king into ordering a decree of extermination against all the Jewish people in Persia. When Mordecai learned of the king’s decree, he tore his clothes and pleaded with his niece Esther to intercede to the king on their behalf, knowing that if she failed, the entire Jewish race would be annihilated. So at the risk of her own life, Esther approached King Xerxes without being summoned (an act that carried a penalty of death). But instead of being angered, the king was delighted with the unexpected appearance of his favorite wife. Granting her anything her heart desired, Esther requested that King Xerxes and Haman attend a banquet she was hosting the following day. At the banquet, King Xerxes was so taken by Esther’s beauty that he again vowed to grant her anything she desired, up to half his kingdom. Esther merely requested that the king and Haman attend a second banquet of hers, the following day. On the night before the second banquet, King Xerxes couldn’t sleep, so he reviewed his court records and discovered that the condemned Mordecai had once informed him about a plot to assassinate the king, which the king had already suspected probably involved Haman. Remembering the loyalty of Mordecai and the devious ambitiousness of Haman, King Xerxes resolved to honor Mordecai and shame Haman. The next day, just prior to the banquet and before Haman was about to ask the king to hang Mordecai on a gibbet he had just built, King Xerxes asked Haman how the king should honor his most faithful servant (which Haman thought, of course, was him). Haman replied to the king that he should be given the highest public honor; whereupon, King Xerxes immediately announced that Mordecai should be so honored. Shamed and red-faced, Haman was stunned. That night, during the second banquet, which was again attended by Haman and the king, Xerxes once more promised Esther anything she desired, up to half of his kingdom. This time Esther requested that she and the Jewish people be spared from the king’s decree of extermination. Shocked to find out that his favorite queen was Jewish and therefore was included in the decree of extermination suggested to him by Haman, King Xerxes immediately hanged Haman on the same gibbet Haman had just erected for Mordecai. Since a royal decree was irrevocable, the king’s only recourse to save the Jews was to allow them to defend themselves against their attackers—which they did. In the end, all those who conspired to kill the Jews were themselves killed, including Haman’s ten sons, who were hanged on the same gibbet as their wicked father. Mordecai then took over Haman’s position as the king’s second in command.

The Jewish people can thank Esther for their salvation because if it wasn’t for her courage and intercession with the Persian king, they would have perished as a people; exactly what Satan wanted because he knew that the future Savior had to be a Jew. Esther’s salvation of the Jews is celebrated annually on the Feast of Purim, on the single day that Haman planned to eradicate the Jews, a date for which he had cast lots (the pur).

As you’ve probably figured out by now, the biblical characters of Holofernes and Haman are allegorical representations of Satan, and Judith and Esther’s struggles against the two foreshadow Mary’s future battle with the devil. Analyzing these two biblical stories more closely, you can see that Esther’s intercession with the powerful king of the Persians is analogous to the special, intercessory relationship Mary has with Almighty God, and Judith’s striking at the head of Holofernes symbolizes Mary striking at the head of the serpent, who has been battling against the church for the last two thousand years.

Although it may not seem like it now, in the end, Satan is destined to lose the war he is currently waging against Mary’s offspring, the Catholic Church. The beginning of the end for Satan started with the birth of Christ, which Satan tried so hard to prevent. Knowing the approximate time that God would come down from heaven and take on human flesh, Satan, through King Herod the Great, tried to search out and destroy Christ by murdering all male children two years and under who were living in Bethlehem and its vicinity.⁷ Herod’s demonic scheme to murder Christ, however, was thwarted by the angel Gabriel, who warned Joseph in a dream to flee Bethlehem with Jesus and Mary for the deserts of Egypt.⁸

Several years later, when King Herod finally died, the Holy Family was told by Gabriel to return to Palestine and to live in the small village of Nazareth in Galilee, where Jesus grew up and completed his mission as the savior of the world. Enraged at Christ’s escape, Satan, the Dragon, went off to wage war on the offspring of Mary.⁹

Now, as the end-times draw nearer, a tremendous battle is being fought between the spiritual forces of light, headed by Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Michael the Archangel, and the evil forces of darkness, led by Satan and his two demonic beasts. As Christ’s special emissary to earth, Mary is playing the pivotal role in this decisive battle for the hearts and souls of countless multitudes. Within the last few centuries, Mary, The Prophetess of Our Times, has appeared on earth many times, imploring humanity to turn back to God before it’s too late. Knowing Mary’s powerful intercessory role with God, faithful Catholics pray for God’s special protection in the old prayer, the Memorare:

Remember, O gracious Virgin Mary

That never was it known

That anyone who fled to thy protection,

Implored thy help,

Or sought thy intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence I fly unto thee,

O Virgin of Virgins My Mother.

To thee I come,

Before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.

O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petition

But in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

And why shouldn’t Christians pray to Mary for help? As Mother of the Word Incarnate, Mary is The Sign for Our Times, The Great Sign Appearing in the Sky, The Woman Clothed with the Sun [Son],¹⁰ with the moon under her feet, and crowned with twelve stars. Unquestionably, the Woman of Revelation chapter 12 is Mary, not Israel or the church (although the metaphor of the church is not totally absent from this passage). As Queen of the Apostles, Mary’s crown of twelve stars symbolizes the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of the church. The moon under her feet represents Mary’s Queenship over heaven and earth, over angels and men—a Catholic doctrine proclaimed by Pope Pius XII on October 11, 1954, in the encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam, which is celebrated each year on August 22.

Understandably, many people confuse the Woman of Revelation 12 with the nation Israel, but Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical Signum Magnum, put an end to this mistake when he correctly identified the Woman Clothed with the Sun as Mary. Pope Paul was right: an entire nation like Israel did not flee into the desert after giving birth to a son. It was the Virgin Mary who fled into the desert with Joseph and baby Jesus, because Israel was trying to kill Jesus—and eventually it did, as John the Apostle recorded in his gospel:

He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.¹¹

The gentiles, however, accepted Christ, and for a thousand years the church flourished. The triumph of the Catholic Church wouldn’t last forever: the end of the first millennium marked the ascendancy of anti-Christianity and the beginning of the decline of the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. First came the violent rise of Islam in Asia Minor in the seventh century; then the 1054 schism of the Catholic Church into the Western Church at Rome and the Eastern Church at Constantinople, then the decline of the Roman papacy from the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Western Schism in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, then Luther’s Protestant rebellion against the church in 1517, followed by the rise of rationalism and anti-Catholic freemasonry in 1717, and the rise of Russian communism in 1917, Nazi fascism in 1933, and anti-Christian materialism in the last half of the twentieth century.

By far, the most destructive satanic attack leveled against the Catholic Church in the last two millennia has been the evil and cunning spirit of rationalism. Born in the eighteenth century out of man’s pride in his scientific discoveries, rationalism is a philosophical rejection of the divine revelation of Jesus Christ in favor of human reason and experience alone, and was fathered by the ideologies of humanism, classicism, freemasonry, republicanism (anti-monarchism), and scientism (science worship).

The many evil offspring of rationalism have been ruinous on mankind: the French Revolution in 1789, Darwin’s theory of evolution in 1859, Bolshevism in 1917, Naziism in 1933, immoral rebellion and sexual liberation in the 1960s, materialism and greed in the 1970s and 1980s, and post-modernism, feminism, liberalism, and homosexuality within the church in the 1990s.

Although the church has been devastated by the terrible satanic onslaughts wrought by rationalism, the Blessed Virgin Mary has faithfully stood by the Mystical Body of Christ, as she did at the foot of the cross on Golgotha Hill two millennia ago. Mary’s first major documented appearance in defense of the Roman Catholic Church occurred in Mexico in 1531. The following chapter explains the history of the events that led up to the Marian apparitions of Guadalupe.

Chapter Two

The Dragon Attacks the Church

They shall go out and see the corpses of the men who rebelled against me; Their worm shall not die, nor their fire be extinguished; and they shall be abhorrent to all mankind.

Isa. 66:24

The One True Church

The True Church of Jesus Christ—the Catholic Church—was born on Pentecost day, seven Sundays after the first Easter with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the apostles gathered together in Jerusalem.¹ Established in the year A.D. 33, this fledgling Christian sect began to be known as the Catholic Church early in the second century, as historians have documented from the writings of St. John’s disciple, St. Ignatius of Antioch, to the Smyrnaeans (c. 107):

Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church.²

The term Catholic comes from the Greek word katholikos, which means universal, and is a name which suitably describes the Catholic Church because its one billion members come from every nation, language, and tribe on earth, making it one of the largest religions in the world (one in every six people are Catholic). Around the middle of the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church began to be called the Roman Catholic Church to distinguish itself from members of the Anglican Church in England which broke away from Rome in 1534, yet still considered itself to be catholic.

The Roman Catholic Church is the One True Church which God intended to be his repository of divine truth, under which the community of believers would unite in one faith, profess one doctrine, share seven sacraments, and be governed by one head, the vicar of Christ on earth. The following facts prove that the Roman Catholic Church is the One True Church:

•Christianity is the only faith, besides Judaism, that was instituted directly by God: all the rest (Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Shintoism, etc.) were initiated by man. Any religion founded by a mere man, or an angel, does not come from God. Only God himself can establish the true faith and only Roman Catholicism can trace its roots directly back to its founder, Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, who made a new covenant with Jew and gentile alike.

•Catholicism is one of the largest religions in the world, if not the largest, and you would expect that from an omnipotent, loving God who wants to save all the children he created. God is not a minimalist; he wants all people of all beliefs to come to know him and be saved.

•No other religion has gained as many converts through missionary activity as the Roman Catholic Church. It was no coincidence that Catholic Spain and Portugal were at the heights of their maritime powers when the New World was discovered,