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\nIf the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, <\/span> <\/p>\n AT <\/b>a conference I spoke at\u00a0recently, someone said to me, “I didn’t know you were so funny. I thought you would be kind of a somber and serious person.” I share this little anecdote with you because I think it might be helpful to some readers to know that I am not some dark figure crouched over a computer screen, looking for the worst in humanity as I weave together conspiracies of dread and doom. I’m a father of eight children and a grandfather of three (with one on the way). I think about fishing and football, camping and giving concerts. Our home is a temple of laughter. We love to suck the marrow of life from the present moment.<\/p>\n And so, I find writings like this one very difficult to publish. I’d rather write about horses and honey. But I also know that the truth sets us free<\/em>, whether it is sweet to the ears or not.\u00a0I also know that the “signs of the times” are so obvious, so alarming, that to remain silent is cowardice. To pretend that it is business as usual is reckless. To kowtow to the naysayers who accuse me of scaremongering would, for me, be disobedience. As I have said time and again, it’s not Heaven’s warnings that scare me; it’s mankind’s rebellion that is truly terrifying since we, not God, are the authors of our own miseries.<\/p>\n Before beginning this article, I sensed the Lord say in prayer:<\/p>\n My child, do not be afraid for the things which must come upon the earth. My chastisements are also an expression of My love<\/em> (cf. Heb 12:5-8). Why, then, do you fear love? If Love allows these things, then why are you afraid?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And then I stumbled upon these words of Jesus to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:<\/p>\n All that has happened until now can be called a game, compared to the chastisements which are coming. I do not show all of them to you so as not to oppress you too much; and I, in seeing the obstinancy of man, remain as though hiding within you.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u2014May 10th, 1919; Volume 12 [“hiding within you”<\/em>, ie. accepting Luisa’s reparative prayers and sacrifices]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Yes, I do not dwell much on these things for the same reason: so as not to depress my readers. But it’s time for us Christians to put on our big boy pants and face these times with courage and boldness, sacrifice and intercession as…<\/p>\n …God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n For many of the things I wrote about years ago are beginning to unfold before our eyes, among them, the role of China in this present Storm<\/a>…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE RED DRAGON<\/p>\n On the Feast of the Assumption in 2007, Pope Benedict spoke about the battle in the Book of Revelation between the “woman clothed in the sun,” whom he said represents both Mary and the Church, and the “red dragon.”\u00a0<\/p>\n …there is the immensely strong, red dragon with a striking and disturbing manifestation of power without grace, without love, of absolute selfishness, terror and violence.\u00a0At the time when St John wrote the Book of Revelation, this dragon represented for him the power of the anti-Christian Roman Emperors, from Nero to Domitian. This power seemed boundless; the military, political and propagandist power of the Roman Empire was such that before it, faith, the Church, appeared as a defenseless woman with no chance of survival and even less of victory.\u00a0Who could stand up to this omnipresent force that seemed capable of achieving everything? …Thus, not only does this dragon suggest the anti-Christian power of the persecutors of the Church of that time, but also anti-Christian dictatorships of all periods<\/em>.<\/strong> \u2014POPE BENEDICT XVI, Homily, August 15th, 2007; vatican.va<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Once again, in 2020, the Church, as though in her own Gethsemane, is watching “anti-Christian dictatorships” gather against her. There are the soft totalitarian<\/a> dictators who are increasingly imposing their opinion on others while slowly suffocating freedom of speech and religion. In the West, they include anyone influencing policy-making, from educators<\/a> to Prime Ministers<\/a> to media outlets<\/a> and ideological judges<\/a>. And then there are the more overt political dictatorships, such as North Korea’s or China’s where freedom is either eradicated or tightly controlled. While most of the world rejects the kind of oppression North Korea imposes on its own people, not so with China. That’s because the world’s largest nation with a population of 1.435 billion is not financially<\/em>\u00a0“closed” to the rest of the world. Though it is governed by the Communist Party of China, it’s government is more socialist in function as it is not opposed to trade with the free markets.<\/p>\n What is Communist about China is that the economy trumps human rights; theoretical and practical atheism are<\/em> the state “religion.” To that end, the People’s Republic of China is known for its increasingly brutal campaign against religion, both Christian and Muslim, that recently has seen disturbing signs of aggression (Christian churches, crosses, bibles and shrines are being destroyed<\/a> while Muslims are being rounded up in “re-education camps<\/a>.”) Here, the words of Our Lady to the late Fr. Stefano Gobbi, in messages that bear the Church’s\u00a0Imprimatur,\u00a0<\/em>come to mind:<\/p>\n I am gazing today with eyes of mercy on this great nation of China, where my Adversary is reigning, the Red Dragon who has set up his kingdom here, enjoining all, by force, to repeat the satanic act of denial and rebellion against God.<\/strong><\/em> \u2014Our Lady, Taipei (Taiwan), October 9th, 1987;\u00a0To the Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons,<\/em>\u00a0#365<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Moreover, China’s control, surveillance, and censorship of the population and media have become utterly Orwellian<\/a>. It’s brutal enforcement of a one child per family policy (now two, since 2016) has drawn much criticism from other nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n THE DRAGON’S LAIR<\/p>\n But as it turns out, those criticisms are just empty truisms. Despite China’s human rights abuses, Western leaders and corporations, seeing an opportunity for huge profits on the backs of cheap laborers, have set aside their grievances and virtually shaken hands with the devil. As a result,\u00a0China’s gross domestic product value (GDP) grew from $150 billion in 1978 to $13.5 trillion<\/em> by 2018.[1]<\/sup><\/a>World Bank and official government statistics<\/span><\/span>
\nso that the people are not warned, <\/span>
\nand the sword comes, and takes any one of them; <\/span>
\nthat man is taken away in his iniquity, <\/span>
\nbut his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.<\/span>
\n(Ezekiel 33:6)<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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