Saint Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419) was a Dominican missionary whose following was once said to number more than ten thousand. He lived an austere, disciplined life of self- sacrifice, ministering to countless children, healing countless troubled souls and plague-infested bodies, and was ultimately canonized by Pope Calixtus III. According to his prophecy:
In the days of peace that are to come after the desolation of revolutions and wars, before the end of the world the Christians will become so lax in their religion that they will refuse to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, saying, “It is an unnecessary Sacrament.”
Pope Pius X (1835-1914) first declined the papal nomination because he felt unworthy of the honor. It speaks volumes about how wrong he was that he was ultimately canonized in 1951 by Pius XII.
One day in 1909, during an audience for an order of Franciscans, Pius seemed to go into a trance. After several moments, during which everyone around him watched in silent alarm, the Pope opened his eyes, stood, and called out, “What I have seen is terrifying! Will I be the one, or will it be a successor? What is certain is that the Pope will leave Rome and, in leaving the Vatican, he will have to pass over the dead bodies of his priests!” He then asked that everyone in the room keep the whole incident secret until after he died.
His vision seemed to clarify itself shortly before his death, through a second vision, which he described:
I have seen one of my successors, of the same name, who was fleeing over the bodies of his brethren. He will take refuge in some hiding place; but after a brief respite, he will die a cruel death. Respect for God has disappeared from human hearts. They wish to efface even God’s memory. This perversity is nothing less than the beginning of the last days of the world.
CHAPTER FOUR
Other Great Religions and the End of the World
Please don’t let it enter your mind that the “other” in the title of this chapter even remotely implies “less important.” As most of you may already know, I was born into a Catholic/Jewish/Lutheran /Episcopalian family, and I’ve studied world religions throughout my life. All of them are fascinating, all of them include aspects that are utterly beautiful, and all of them, whether or not you agree with each and every detail of their beliefs, warrant our awareness and respect.
Islam
Muslims, as followers of the Islamic faith are called, believe that in AD 570, God, or Allah, sent the last of His prophets to Earth to deliver His message among humankind. That prophet was Muhammad, who was born in Makkah (Mecca), in what is now Saudi Arabia. Muslims consider Muhammad to have been human, not a part of divinity, and they never refer to him as Allah. Allah is the one God, our Creator, all-powerful, all- knowing, all-merciful, supreme and sovereign, the only entity in the universe worthy of worship.
Muhammad was orphaned at a very young age and raised by his uncle, Abu Talib. Early in his life he was already being recognized for his wisdom, honesty, generosity, and sincerity. He was forty years old, on one of the meditative retreats he often took to the cave of Hira, close to Mecca, when the angel Gabriel appeared to him and delivered the first of what would evolve into twenty-three years of revelations. And those twenty-three years of revelations, given to Muhammad from God through the angel Gabriel, became the Qur’an (Koran), the Holy Book of the Islam faith.
Muhammad was sixty-three when he died. Within a hundred years of his death, Islam had spread throughout Europe and across Asia as far east as China. Muslims cherish Muhammad as God’s final messenger and prophet. Again, though, their worship is devoted strictly to Allah.
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