+St. Michael the Archangel+
A recent post on Novus Ordo Watch has revealed that Giovanni Baptiste Montini’s (Paul 6’s) erstwhile friend, the French progressive Jean Guitton, announced in 1992 that just before the closing of the false Vatican 2 Council, Paul 6 stated the following: “I am about to sound the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse.’” As will be seen below, this announcement involves the release of Satan from the abyss and the woes that accompany the reign of Antichrist. And who would be better qualified to make such a statement than the Man of Sin himself? A brief summary of the chilling judgments announced by the angels with the seven trumpets will serve as an introduction to the comments below by different Scripture scholars on the meaning of each trumpet blast.
- First Trumpet: hail and fire, mingled with blood cast on the earth
- Second Trumpet: great fiery mountain cast into the sea
- Third Trumpet: star ‘Wormwood’ falls from heaven
- Fourth Trumpet: darkening of sun, moon, and stars
- Fifth Trumpet: bottomless pit opened, plague of locusts (first woe)
- Sixth Trumpet: four avenging angels loosed (second woe)
- Seventh Trumpet: seven angels pour out seven vials of wrath, triggering in seven last plagues (third woe)
The above account is taken from Apocalypse Ch. 8 (vs. 1-2,6-13); Chapter 9 and Chapter 11 (14-19).
Rev. George Leo Haydock, 1858 commentary on Holy Scripture
Haydock relates under Apoc. Ch. 8 That some commentators believe the vision of the trumpets is just a general allusion to the persecutions and punishments God permits to happen to His Church. Others, he says, “…are all predictions which shall not happen till a little time before the end of the world and Antichrist’s time, after which will follow the day of general judgment, the punishment of the wicked, and the reward of the just… It is a very common opinion that all these disasters shall happen in a great measure literally about Antichrist’s time, a very short time before the end of the world.”
Haydock generally classifies the woes of the seven trumpets as occurring in ages past. But as other commentators have observed, this does not mean they do not also occur at the time of Antichrist, as Haydock seems to agree above. The fourth trumpet foretells greater punishments and miseries in succeeding ages of the Church, and the eagle mentioned in Apoc. 8:13 foretells, he said, the swiftness with which these succeeding miseries shall come. In Apoc., Ch. 9, (fifth trumpet), he identifies Luther as the angel with the key to the bottomless pit, (vs. 11) which I disagree with, for reasons to be stated below. The sixth trumpet announces the release of the four angels bound in the great River Euphrates, mentioned again in Apoc. 16. This Haydock ascribes to the loosing of the devil himself when the bottomless pit is opened, “…from whence a smoke has risen, which has darkened the heavens and the stars, and locusts are coming out with stings, and numerous races of sectaries and heretics, who have renewed all the ancient heresies and invented many monstrous opinions of their own. These have filled our cities, villages, camps, houses, nay, our pulpits too, and lead the poor deluded people with them to the pit of perdition.”
As to the seventh trumpet sounding in Apoc. 11: 14-19 he wrote: “The saints and blessed spirits in heaven are represented praising God with loud voices at the approaching of the kingdom of God. Some understand at the end and consummation of the wicked world after the destruction of Antichrist, when the blessed shall reign in heaven, but others expound this of the triumph of the Christian faith and church, when the providence of God, putting an end to the persecutions against the Christian religion [in the early days of the Church], becomes the kingdom of our Lord…” The opening of the temple of God, (vs. 19), he interprets, according to Rev. Alleman, as the cross that appeared in the air to Constantine. But this could also mean the cross that appears in the sky at the approaching end of the world.
Bishop Andrew of Caesara, 7th Century (Catholic University of America Press, 2011)
First trumpet — (Hail and fire, mingled with blood): “…Not one-third is to be punished in the future out of all the people, but the majority — “for the road is wide that leads to destruction” — but that these things mean rather the plagues prior to the final consummation of the world, and hail from heaven means those afflictions that will come according to the just judgment of God, the fire mingled with blood <indicating> the destruction by fire and the daily murders taking place at the hands of barbarians. From these, as we see, not less than one-third of all the creatures living on earth will be killed in a perceptible manner, destroying by wars not only people, but also [91] all the things that the earth brings forth. And the blessed Joel (2:30) strengthens our own opinion regarding the things set forth, saying that “blood and fire and vapor of smoke” are to come “before the great day… [of the Lord].”
Second trumpet — (Great fiery mountain cast into the sea): “For those being punished are more than the saved, as was said… The abyss of the divine judgments, which on the one hand punishes quickly, but on the other hand is greatly patient for their return and repentance. We believe that the great mountain means the devil, as some of the teachers thought, burning by the fire of his anger against us, to be kept for the Gehenna, and in the time of his allowance with his cooperation one-third of the islands in the sea, and of the ships and of the things that swim in the sea are destroyed, just as he had done to Job during the former time.”
Third Trumpet — (Star ‘Wormwood’ falls from heaven): “Some say that Wormwood implies the bitter grief shown happening to the sinners being punished in Gehenna, those who because of their great number naturally are called the waters. We think that the grievous pains are what are signified through these things, according to the time being described. Either the star means these things which come upon men from the heavens, or the devil is signified by this, concerning whom Isaiah says: “How did he fall from heaven, the morning star rising at dawn?” For he, upset, agitated, and bitter, makes people drunk through pleasure and thus connives to bring chastising punishment on them here… on account of the long-suffering of God, and causes <people> not to believe in the future reward, bringing spiritual death down upon those who do not endure.”
Fourth Trumpet — (Darkening of sun, moon, and stars): “We think that these things also fit the sayings by Joel about the sun and the moon, which things were already drawn out according to the decision of the Master concerning the end. We say that by the one third of the luminaries and stars and the one third of the day and night is shown an interval <of time>, so that we might know that, even then, God does not bring unmitigated suffering, but, allowing those who have been wounded to suffer the one-third interval of time, <he> imperceptibly encourages the greater portion which remains <to repent>. For who will be able to bear the cup of the divine wrath unmixed?”
Fifth Trumpet — (Bottomless pit opened, plague of locusts, first woe): “By divine allowance he <the angel> leads up the evil demons who had been condemned in the abyss, those whom Christ bound when he became man, so that they might do their uncompleted tormenting work before the end. The smoke is the gloom which precedes the evil deeds out of their encounters; those will receive authority given to them to torment people. The darkness of the sun and air means the spiritual blindness of the people who cut off their light, or the ill-tempered attitude <shown> by them because darkness is considered light to those in pain. And the mental locusts, who sting people like scorpions, show the death which is the harm of the soul hiding at the end of evil deeds, to which <death> those are subjected who had not been sealed with the divine seal on their foreheads and <who do not> shine roundabout with the enlightenment of the life-giving Cross through the Holy Spirit, so that according to the saying of the Master, they “shine their light before men for the glory of the divine name.”
Sixth Trumpet — (Four avenging angels loosed, second woe): “I myself think… these four angels are the most cunning demons who were bound upon the coming of Christ who, by the divine command coming out of the heavenly altar, which was an image of the ancient tabernacle, were released by the divine angel so as to rouse the nations, not only against Christians, but also against one another, so that those tested might be revealed as the faithful ones and shown to be worthy of greater rewards and of the heavenly mansions… If they are bound at the Euphrates, it is nothing strange. For they have been sentenced by God…, bound to be eternally tormented after the completion of their war against human beings. And perhaps by the mention of the Euphrates it is shown that Antichrist will come out of those parts. And it is not necessary to doubt the great number of demons, for all the saints say that they fill the air.”
Seventh Trumpet — (Seven angels pour out seven vials of wrath, triggering the seven last plagues, third woe): “After being long-suffering, finally He inaugurates the judgment against the unbelieving nations, which are angry at this as if it were a recent and strange teaching… By the opening of heaven and the vision of the Ark is meant the revelation of the “good things prepared” for the saints, just as all things are “concealed” in Christ, “in whom all the fullness of divinity dwelt bodily,” according to the Apostle. At that time they will be revealed, when the awesome voices and lightning and thunder, the punishments of Gehenna, will come upon the lawless and impious, like hail raining upon them in the transposition of the present things during the earthquake.”
St. Bede, An Explanation of the Apocalypse, (b. 672, d. 735)
Chapter 9
1. star. He declares with what fuel the flame of heretics, of which he had spoken briefly, was kindled. The old enemy forsooth, whom the Lord saw “like lightning fall from heaven,” opened the heart of his own by blasphemous doctrine, and taught them to speak impiety against the Most High.
2. smoke. The madness of heresy rages to announce beforehand the great furnace, namely, the last persecution; and it labours to obscure not the weak alone, who like the air touch, as it were, the confines of earth and heaven, but the light also of the lofty, though unable to extinguish it For even the elect, if it be possible, will be led into error
3. loosed. In the same manner as prophecy, which points out to us things to come, he himself in spirit sees them come to pass. And he has four angels, because the persecution will rage in the four parts of the world. For these are they whom he saw above, standing at the four corners of the earth, and restrained from injuring the earth and the sea for the sealing of the servants of God.
4. prepared. The malignant spirits, who at every moment of the hours and times hunger for the death of man, are then permitted for the trial of the Church to rage more freely, and are to be destroyed in their time? But what, thinkest thou, will they do, when they are loosed, who now injure so much while they are bound?
Chapter 11
- seventh. The six former trumpets, corresponding with the periods of the present age, announced the various conflicts of the wars of the Church. But the seventh, heralds in the eternal sabbath, and shews alone the victory and the dominion of the true King.
- worshipped. Behold, he says, the third woe will come at the voice of the seventh angel. And when he had sounded, he only spoke of the Church as praising God and giving thanks, from which we understand that the retribution of the faithful will be nothing else than the woe of the evil ones.
- who art. “Thou hast reigned from the age, although the ungodly are rebellious against Thee. But now that Thou art Judge, their fury will be repressed, and will cease.” For, “The Lord hath reigned, let the people be angry.”
- dead. It agrees with the order, as we read in the Gospel, that first, indeed, all nations should be gathered together before the Judge, then that those on the right hand should be disposed in many mansions in the Kingdom of the Father, but that the ungodly should be driven out beyond the limits of the kingdom, to be burned in the accursed flames.
Rev. E Sylvester Berry, The Apocalypse of St. John,1921
Hail and fire — The faithful’s rejection of Christ’s merits, bringing down the punishments of God
Burning mountain or volcano — Some great nation bringing war and bloodshed upon a large portion of humanity (America?) and great persecutions against the Church.
The great star Wormwood — “A striking image of unfaithful bishops and priests who fall from the firmament of the Church where Christ has placed them to enlighten and direct the world. By false teachings and example, they poison the very sources of doctrine which alone, should flow pure as water from the mountain torrent.”
The Eagle — a powerful nation which shall be an instrument of God’s judgments upon the world. (Again, America?)
Angel opening the bottomless pit — “Society is tottering to its very foundations. The reign of Antichrist must be relatively near and will mark the culmination of evil. Instead of the keys of heaven, this apostate priest received the key of the bottomless pit. He did in very truth open the pit by turning loose against the Church all the fury of hell. By tongue and pen he instilled into the hearts of individuals and nations a diabolic hatred of the Church which still manifests itself in calumny, misrepresentation, and opposition to the Church. The dense smoke arising from the pit obscures the heavens… Catholic doctrine is obscured and lost to many peoples.” The locusts issuing from the pit “burns and poisons the soul with false doctrines… The king of these symbolic locusts is called the Destroyer, Exterminans. He is Lucifer, the angel of the abyss, the leader of the rebel angels. His minions on earth are the leaders of heresy, schism, and persecution.”
Four Angels of the Euphrates — “The captive angels are demons who will arouse new enemies and increased enmities against the Church. In a figurative sense they represent the new enemies thus aroused against the Church whether they be nations, individuals, or secret societies hostile to her. Four, the number of universality indicates how widespread will be their influence… Great numbers will be done to death in the religious wars and revolutions stirred up by these angels from the Euphrates. The prophecy may also mean that large numbers will be led into new errors and schisms.” In a previous blog, we note that some believe that with the drying up of the Euphrates River, the place where these Angels were held captive has been revealed. Several YouTube videos have speculated about this.
Second and third woes — “The reign of Antichrist is the second woe announced by the eagle. The third woe following close upon the second shall end with the destruction of Rome, the new Babylon, and the defeat of the false prophet. The seventh angel proclaims the triumph of Christ and his kingdom which shall endure until the end of time. The Church, the kingdom of Christ shall be established upon the ruins of the empire of Antichrist… Toward the end of the world a final revolt against the Church shall be punished by a deluge of fire. Shortly thereafter shall come the resurrection of the body and the general judgment in which God will reward his prophets and saints and all who fear his name, be they great or small.”
Dom Bernard Orchard, A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, 1953
The hail mixed with blood is characterized by Orchard as possibly a volcanic eruption or meteor. He interprets Wormwood as “a perversion of justice, or the fruits of idolatry or divine chastisements.” He equates the angel with the keys to the abyss as Destruction, the Destroying Spirit, the keys of death and Hades. He says the seventh trumpet will denote “the consummation of the mystery of God, the joyous news that He has given to His servants the prophets to proclaim the accomplishments of the whole of the divine plan.”
Rev. Herman Bernard Kramer, The Book of Destiny, 1958
We quote Rev. Kramer here with a caution, since it appears he believes, as many LibTrads today are taught by their pseudo-clergy to believe, that there will be a glorious restoration and spiritual revival of the Church following the death of Antichrist (although they never identify him). An explanation of why Kramer’s speculations will be given below and a link provided to gain a necessary understanding of why Catholics are forbidden to believe in this fairy tale. Nevertheless, many of his other observations are quite apropos, and we have quoted him on this site many times in the past. Below is his explanation of the seven trumpets.
First trumpet — (Hail and fire, mingled with blood): “The [hail] storm represents bloodshed… In Ezekiel, hail is an instrument of judgment. It is not real hail, but hostile, pillaging, plundering armies, …laying the crops to the ground… Famine always followed in the footsteps of the invading, marauding armies… In Ezekiel, hail came as a punishment for heresy, for the false doctrines of the false prophets.”
Second trumpet — (Great fiery mountain cast into the sea): “Blood again is the outcome of this scourge. It is produced in the sea… Fire is the element that converts the third part of the sea into blood. In other parts of the Apocalypse… here too… it evidently represents hatred or religious fanaticism. The huge mass of the burning mountain tumbled into the sea throws it into such convulsions as to sink two-thirds of the ships… In the writings of the early Fathers, the ship has been a symbol of the Church… Ships in this verse are churches and places of worship.”
Third Trumpet — (Star ‘Wormwood’ falls from heaven): “This star… Wormwood [transforms the water into] a deadly poison, and though not fatal to all people in the area upon which the star falls, it brings death to many… This metaphor… Wormwood… intimates something contradictory of God’s order or ordinance. The “star,” according to 1: 20 is a bishop or a priest. A “great” star would be an eminent bishop… [This bishop] does not fall into heresy or unbelief, but schism… In the language of the prophets … God threatens wormwood as food to the pseudo-prophets who usurped the right and authority to teach, claiming to have received visons and revelations when they knew they were deceivers and had no mission to speak for God…Wormwood is threatened by God as food for disobedience…They were self-appointed prophets who received no call or vision from God.”
Fourth Trumpet — (Darkening of sun, moon, and stars): “The lights of heaven bedimmed [mean] the beauty and productivity of earth may be changed… The standard of living may be lowererd, civilization and culture must give way… The vigorous health of people must be reduced…Barbarism must reign supreme in the world again. The scourge bedimming the lights of afflicts the spiritual order heaven… The prophets called any misfortune that dimmed the luster of the theocracy a day of darkness…The darkening of the lights of heaven would then logically mean some calamity befalling the Church and bedimming her glory, weakening her authority and ushering a rapid decline in her influence to direct the destinies of the world.”
Fifth Trumpet — (Bottomless pit opened, plague of locusts, first woe): “In the significance of the key given to the fallen star, we have the antithesis of what was promised Peter. The star is an apostate bishop or priest. The key to the shaft of the abyss is an emblem of rebellion, as the keys promised Peter are an emblem of submission to Christ. It leagues the star with the rebellious angels. The key of the pit is then also an emblem of error, as Peter’s keys are an emblem of truth. As God revealed the truth to Peter, enabling him to make a clear declaration of it before Christ and the apostles, so the king of the bottomless abyss infused his errors into the mind of this fallen star, inspiring him to teach and spread error and immorality over the world.
Sixth Trumpet — (Four avenging angels loosed, second woe): The four angels… are evil spirits, otherwise they would not be bound. They come from the region of the Euphrates, whence come the enemies of God’s people. Since the order comes indirectly from God, it is consoling to know that they can do only what God permits. The number four forbodes a woe on the whole world that will rouse hatreds and wars, and deluge the world with blood. The second woe culminates in the reign of Antichrist. The release of these four evil spirits may precede a resurgence of Mohammedanism, and may lead its religionists to unite with communists in a holy war against all nations who will not join them or submit to their domination. The four evil spirits have waited a long time for the hour in which they might begin their depredation. The hour is mentioned first in the day and month.
Seventh Trumpet — (Seven angels pour out seven vials of wrath, triggering the seven last plagues, third woe): Here is where Kramer goes off the rails. He interprets “there shall be no more delay” in verses 5-6 as: “…The speedy beginning of divine intervention in human affairs to put an end to the kind of things that are wrecking the world. Evils have grown so rapidly and to such enormities as to bring to despair the most optimistic. The time has come in which this shall be stopped. The world is not to be destroyed, but to be saved. And salvation shall be brought by the Church. The Church in men’s outlook seems doomed. The oath of the angel does not mean that evil shall be overcome at once, but that the end is in sight. It will be a continuous development and a successive growth into the accomplishment of the mystery of God when the seventh angel will begin to blow the trumpet. And this comprises the culmination of evil under the beast and his destruction. So his appearance and reign is at hand. St. Peter predicted a time when scoffers would laugh at the promise of the Parousia made by the apostles because the delay had been long and all creation followed its natural course” (2 Peter 3:3 ).
(Ed note: The full text of St. Peter on this topic shows that he was not speaking at all of the Parousia, but rather the Second Coming, with the earth destroyed by fire, (3 Peter 3: 10-12). He then speaks of “new heavens and a new earth,” (vs. 13), the new Jerusalem come down from heaven to earth as spoken of in Apocalypse 21:1. How is this the Parousia? Other commentators do not even reference it.)
The paragraph above on the seventh trumpet is a direct contradiction of the Holy Office’s condemnation of Millenarianism (DZ 2296), confirmed by Pius XII. The full import of this condemnation is explained HERE. Kramer has no excuse for teaching as he does, (unlike Berry, who wrote in 1921, and also expected an earthly triumph of the Church), as this condemnation was issued in 1944. It is interesting that Novus Ordo Watch refers their readers specifically to this work, but then we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, this teaching falls right in line with Israel’s expectation of a 1,000-year age of prosperity and the Protestant Dispensationalist’s teaching on 1,000 years of peace. Mormons also expect this era of peace. So how are LibTrads any different than Protestants?
Conclusion
As can be seen from the quotes of all the commentators above, they generally agree that the trumpets refer to the time of Antichrist, the Destroyer — Paul 6, as the apostate bishop of Milan — and the appearance of a false church and religion. The entire scenario breathes nothing but heresy, betrayal, death, war, destruction, loss of souls, and the man who says he initiated all this is not Antichrist? When the Angel blows the seventh trumpet, then this is the announcement, essentially, that the Final Judgment is near. How then can one expect a millennium, or ignore the blatant fact that Paul 6 was indeed the Destroyer, and even styled himself as such with the announcement that he was sounding these trumpets? It is ludicrous to believe, as the Novus Ordo Watch article quotes Guitton as relating, that the trumpets were somehow meant to presage the triumph of the Church (seventh trumpet). And what of the other six and their dire implications? The Church, as we know from Pope Pius XII’s Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, cannot recover from the blow dealt by Antichrist, for her jurisdictional structure has been fatally wounded.
Oddly enough, Rev. Kramer even mentions this in his commentary on Apoc., Ch. 10 (the seven thunders): “There will be special decisions made by the Church, and these will complete the work of her magisterial office before the culmination of evil is due to arrive. The decisions may be the read by which the wicked are separated from the good and expelled from the Church.” These decisions were made at the Vatican Council, and in Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis.
“The Church as it was constituted by Christ (Pope, bishops, priests) “was established forever as a hierarchico-monarchical society… to remain unchanged until the end of time… Nowhere in revelation is there any evidence of any intentions to permit exceptions to — or changes in — this constitution in future history by the use of epikeia or on any other basis.” (The History, Nature, and Use of Epikeia in Moral Theology, 1948, Rev. Lawrence Joseph Reilly, A.B., S.T.L.; p. 330-31. A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the School of Sacred Theology of the Catholic University of America). The Church’s time on earth ended with the reign of Pope Pius XII and Roncalli’s usurpation of the papacy. Roncalli was Wormwood, the Patriarch of Venice and a cardinal, and Paul 6, Montini, was the fallen star, the Archbishop of Milan, with the key to the Abyss. The Novus Ordo Watch article notes that they worked in concert, with Roncalli’s invitation to Guitton — an old friend from Paris — to attend the council.
Novus Ordo Watch ends its article with the words: “Enough already.” Enough, perhaps, when such undeniable proof confirms what has been said by this author and others for the past 36 years, that “St.” Paul 6 is undeniably the Antichrist? Enough, when one understands that there will be no period of peace following the death of Antichrist, although a brief period for penance may be given prior to the Last Judgment? Enough, but continue to leave all these Novus Ordo and LibTrad followers in ignorance regarding their participation in a false religion? Yes, enough of fraud and deceit, the very hallmark of Antichrist, perpetuated by LibTrad pseudo-clergy and the Novus Ordo usurpers. We have had MORE than enough.
