Saint Bede on the Catholic Church and the Apocalypse

The recent events in the Catholic Church have sparked a lot controversy around the world. From the apocalyptic recent resignation of Pope Benedict, to the revelations of wide spread pedophilia and homosexual acts committed by the priests under the knowing eye of the Vatican.

These events were predicted in the 8th century by the Father of English History and Doctor of the Catholic Church, Saint Bede (Beda Venerabilis) who had said in his book where he explained the hidden meanings of the Book of Revelation titled, Explanatio Apocalypsis;

The black horse is the band of false brethren who have the balance of a right profession, but hurt their fellows through works of darkness. For when it is said in the midst of the living creatures, “hurt not,” it is shewn that one is there who hurts. Of the running forward of this horse, the Apostle says , “Without were fightings, within were fears.”

These words apply to the Universal Church, against which the devil is always exercising an enmity from which there is no escape.

Reveal to all the things which thou alone hast seen, that is, the various labours of the Church, and that the evil are to be mingled in it with the good unto the end of the world.

Because “he who says  that he knows God, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar,” for the hypocrite tastes not how sweet the Lord is.

Seeing that the seals are first loosed, and the book is then opened, he has purposely changed the accustomed order. For in that He suffered and rose again, the Lord taught the Church that He was the end of the law; and in that He ascended into heaven, by the mission of the Holy Spirit, He strengthened the Church with the gift of a more hidden mystery. So He then opened the book, and now He looses the seals of it. In the first seal, accordingly, he beholds the glory of the primitive Church, in the following three the threefold war against it, in the fifth the glory of those who triumph in this war, in the sixth the things which are to come in the time of Antichrist, and that with a brief recapitulation of former events, in the seventh the beginning of eternal rest.

By the “fiery feet” he means the Church of the last time, which is to be searched and proved by severe afflictions. For orichalcum is brass, which by much fire and various ingredients, is brought to the colour of gold. Another translation , which renders it, “like orichalcum of Lebanon,” signifies that in Judæa, of which Lebanon is a mountain, the Church will be persecuted, and especially at the last. The temple also frequently received the name of Lebanon, as there is said to it , “Open, O Lebanon, thy gates, and let the fire devour thy cedars.”

He has fitly mentioned first His judicial power, for He was to assign rewards to the victors, and punishment to the transgressors.

Heretics who assume the garb of Catholics, are worthy to have death abide in their midst, and they draw after them the army of the lost. For the devil and his servants are, by a metonymy, called death and hell. It may also be taken simply, that there eternal punishment follows those, who here are spiritually dead.

When they see Him as a Judge with power, in the same form in which they pierced Him as the least of all, they will mourn for themselves with a repentance that is too late.

By interposing an Amen, he confirms that without doubt that will happen, which, by the revelation of God, he knows most surely is to come to pass.

AMEN!

NOTE: Translation By Rev. Edward Marshall’s book The Explanation of the Apocalypse by Venerable Beda