The Time Is Short

'A time will come when the enemies of Christ will boast: "We have subjected the earth and all its inhabitants, and the Christians cannot escape our hands." Then a Roman Emperor will arise in great fury against them... Drawing his sword, he will fall upon the foes of Christianity and crush them. Then peace will reign on earth, and priests will be relieved of all their anxieties.' -- St. Methodius of Olympus, 311 AD

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT:  Some time ago I created the above timeline chart, which is based simply on my limited and flawed understanding of the Catholic prophecies leading up to the time of Antichrist.  Based on the most reliable sources I can find, and carefully compiling the chronological order of the events described, this is the best I can come up with.  Where are we now?  Well, if the chart is accurate, and to the best of my knowledge I think it is, we are now on the dotted line between the bar marked 'present' and the bar marked 'riots and war.'  I think perhaps we are getting dangerously close to the bar marked 'riots and war.'  I created this chart in 2009, which explains why the first bar is marked 'present.'  The dotted line indicates an unknown period of time and events.  The solid line indicates a known period of time and events based on prophecy.

As we look at the world around us now, it is becoming painfully clear what the plans of the enemies of Christ are.  The prophecy of St. Methodius states the enemies of Christ will say among themselves: "We have subjected the earth and all its inhabitants, and the Christians cannot escape our hands."  Signs of this are now all around us.

In the East...

(kath.net/KAP) The Egyptian Parliament has, according to reports by the human rights organization IGFM, a fact finding committee is prepared to expel Coptic Christians. AS the International Community for Human Rights explained on Thursday, the Parliamentary Committee has proposed the explusion of eight Coptic families from their home village Sharbat near Alexandria. The families have received the notice that they will be forced to leave their homes by the police and the village elders, since their safety can longer be guaranteed anymore. 

For months encroachments against the Christian minority have increased in this Muslim land. According to IGMF, the proposed investigation has particular importance, because it anticipates also the future Parliament's conduct in its orientation regarding conflicts between religions. 

read full story here

And in the West...

(RNS) - A coalition of nearly 40 religious leaders has published an open letter that seeks to recast the battle against same-sex marriage as a fight on behalf of religious freedom. 

The religious leaders, predominantly from conservative Christian churches and Orthodox Judaism, say their concern is not that legalizing gay marriage will force their ministers to perform same-sex weddings; they say they doubt that will happen. 

Rather, they wrote Thursday (Jan. 12), allowing same-sex couples to marry would wind up "forcing or pressuring both individuals and religious organizations -- throughout their operations, well beyond religious ceremonies -- to treat same-sex sexual conduct as the moral equivalent of marital sexual conduct." 

read full story here

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(Times Colonist) -- Catholic parents in Quebec cannot keep their children out of an ethics course at school that teaches them about other religions, the country's top court has ruled. 

The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday rendered its decision in a controversial case that was cast by some observers as a matter of religious freedom versus a bid by the province to increase tolerance. 

The case pitted a set of Catholic parents against the school board and the province of Quebec. 

Quebec's Ethics and Religious Culture program became mandatory for schools in May 2008.

In the course, students learn about the Catholic and Protestant Christian traditions in Quebec culture. The program is meant to expose students- who are also taught about the contributions of Judaism, aboriginal spirituality and other religious traditions- to a variety of religions. 

read full story here

When we look at what is currently going on in the United States with the Obama administration's HHS contraception/sterilisation/abortion mandate, it is not difficult to see which way things are going.  We may not have yet reached the point where the enemies of Christ can truly say: "We have subjected the earth and all its inhabitants, and the Christians cannot escape our hands."  However, we are getting close.

Of militant Secularism, we can honestly say we have seen the future -- and it is both sterile and gay.  The agenda of the Secularists is to separate religious worship from religious conscience.  Of religious worship, the state will allow us to do whatever we please.  Of religious conscience, the state will set limits.  No longer will Christians be able to act in accordance with their beliefs against abortion, birth-control and gay-marriage.  The purpose of this is to neuter the influence of the Church in society, and to make Christianity nothing more than an academic exercise, even in that, certain forms of speech will likely be limited at some point.  In other words, the state is saying go ahead and worship your crucified 'god' but in practical application, you will bow your conscience to the higher authority of the state.  Do what you like on Sundays, but be sure to throw a pinch of incense on the altar of Caesar throughout the rest of the week.

In the East it's a different story.  There the Muslims seek a more direct and absolute control of their region, and the Secularists in the West are perfectly content to let this happen.  That the American CIA is helping the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is no secret.  That European and American NATO allies helped radical Muslims in Libya was demonstrated for all the world to see.  That CIA operatives are now working among radical Muslims in Syria is again a well known expectation.  The end result in all of these cases will be the same -- the persecution and expulsion of Christians in the region.  Where will these persecuted Christians go?  Why to the West of course!  Where they can deal with a different kind of persecution in the form of militant Secularism.  We may not be there yet, but soon, very soon, the enemies of Christ will honestly be able to say among themselves: "We have subjected the earth and all its inhabitants, and the Christians cannot escape our hands."  Yes, the militant Secularists and the militant Islamists have allied with each other, and their mutual target of oppression is us -- the followers of Jesus Christ.

The New World Order is a vision of the West.  It is the creation of the Globalists in North America and Europe.  It is marked by their attempted to reorganise the whole world into economic trading blocks.  Now with the looming implosion of Europe and economic instability of the United States, that pipe-dream is falling apart.  So the Western New World Order is becoming increasingly more aggressive, allying with radical Sunni Muslims in the Middle East to corner the Shiites and thus gain control of the Middle East.  Meanwhile the Shiites, particularly in Iran, have a different plan.  Theirs is one of opposition to the Western New World Order, and a willingness to martyr their whole nation in the process.  They have a strange theology about a coming messianic figure, called the 'Mahdi,' who will come to their aid in their great time of conflict against the West.  This is a Shiite Muslim teaching not shared by the Sunnis.  Iran is a great obstacle to Western control of the Middle East, at least as far as the West understands the Middle East.

However, it is likely a mistake that Sunnis can be as easily controlled as the West thinks.  Visions of a regional, and ultimately worldwide, Islamic caliphate are intoxicating to the radical Sunnis, who are simply using the West to accomplish their goals of eliminating their Shiite enemies.  With any luck, they presume, their Zionist enemies will likely be eliminated in the process as Iran and Israel duke it out in an apocalyptic conflict.  This will clear the way for their eventual vision of a worldwide Islamic caliphate.

Meanwhile Russia looks at the whole situation with sober eyes, understanding what is at stake, and seeking to secure for itself a prominent place in the emerging global paradigm.  Russia stands in opposition to the Western New World Order as well as an Islamic caliphate.  It will be interesting to watch this matter unfold, and where Russia will eventually line up.  From inside Russia we have this report from our Christian brethren...

(Interfax) - The current global contradictions could deteriorate into a global war sooner or later, the Moscow Patriarchate said.

"There are many processes ongoing in the world in which Russia should play a much more active role, since the economic and social contradictions that have cropped up in the world are so strong that they are sure to blow up into serious military operations," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said in an interview with the Svobodnaya Pressa (Free Press) Publishing House.

""In order to ensure that these military operations not unfold in our territory or in the vicinity of our borders, we need to keep our armed forces combat ready and to participate in settling all situations that may lead to a war, be it the Middle East or Central Asia where the situation is also tense," he said.

"By all accounts, we will not manage to escape a big war," he said...

read full story here

So it looks likely that Russia will begin taking a much more 'proactive' approach to foreign policy, perhaps mirroring the strategies of the United States, but in ways that serve its own interests of course.  There are those in high places that are saying all this will unfold within this year. I don't know if that's true, but it certainly seems plausible.

Then of course there is China, which is a wild card. There is only one thing we can be sure about when it comes to China. The Chinese are in this for themselves. Some indicators show that China is in the early stages of a total economic collapse, but then so is the rest of the world. 2012 is already proving to be a very dangerous year, and we haven't even cleared the second month yet.

To be quite honest with you, I don't know exactly what the future holds. How can I? What I do know is what we all should know. We must repent of our materialism and our sexual impurity. These are the things that are the greatest threats to us. Then we must pray. Pray the rosary and make Eucharistic reparation. We should not abdicate our civil responsibilities either. Yes, we should vote, in accord with the Church's teachings on Life, Family and Subsidiarity. Yes, we should prepare our heart's for the coming of the Great Monarch as well. Likewise, we can even try to undo the power of the New World Order by joining peaceful secession/independence groups insofar as they are consistent with a Catholic way of life. Beyond that, there really is nothing more we can do. That is, unless you are somebody of great power reading this.