From Mark Mallett: The Time of Testing

Back To Eden?

 
Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Thomas Cole, c.1827-1828.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

SINCE mankind was barred from the Garden of Eden, he has longed for both communion with God and harmony with nature—whether man knows it or not. Through His Son, God has promised both. But through a lie, so has the ancient serpent.

THE TIME OF TESTING

The Lord had warned Adam and Eve that human nature was not capable of handling the knowledge of good and evil. Choosing to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge—that is, to disregard God’s natural and moral order—would doom mankind. But the serpent hissed:

You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:4-5)

Within this lie is found the future game plan of the prince of darkness, which is now coming to fruition. After thousands of years of grooming the dark side of humanity, Satan allegedly asked God for the past century to test mankind. So His Bride would not be left in the dark, God permitted the "rock" of the Church to overhear and witness this wicked request during a Mass in the late 1800’s.

Leo XIII truly saw, in a vision, demonic spirits who were congregating on the Eternal City (Rome). —Father Domenico Pechenino, eyewitness; Ephemerides Liturgicae, reported in 1995, p. 58-59;www.motherofallpeoples.com

After coming out of a visible stupor, the Holy Father left the sanctuary and promptly composed the "Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel," which was distributed to the bishops of the world in 1886 to be prayed after the Masses. Pope Leo also proceeded to write prayers of exorcism which are still found in today’s Roman Ritual. The Pope knew—and we know by hindsight—that the twentieth century would be an extraordinary unleashing of evil in the world, which is now reaching its zenith, as Satan tempts man to create a "new Eden." It is a diabolical plan to reverse the curse which original sin brought upon creation… something only the Cross can do.

THE "NEW EVE"
Once again, the serpent has set his sites first upon the woman. After the original fall, God said to Eve:

I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. (Gen 3:16)

The first step in reversing the curse has been the birth of the modern feminist movement. In order to eliminate the pangs of childbearing, the false solution has been to eliminate childbirth altogether. Hence abortion and birth control have been presented as the new fruit of "choice".

Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master. (Gen 3:16)

Radical feminism has emasculated the role of fatherhood and manhood, reducing the complementary differences between male and female to a mere technicality. It is a crisis which strikes at the heart of God’s plan:

The crisis of fatherhood we are living today is an element, perhaps the most important, threatening man in his humanity. The dissolution of fatherhood and motherhood is linked to the dissolution of our being sons and daughters. —POPE BENEDICT XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger), Palermo, March 15th, 2000

Indeed, through abortion and the rejection of spiritual leadership in the roles of the husband and male priesthood, radical feminism has attempted to make women the "masters" of their own bodies and destiny, but at the expense of their fundamental dignity and role as an Eve ("mother of the living.") In shutting out her gift of fertility and motherhood, the new Eve is literally to become the "mother of the dead."

THE "NEW ADAM"

To the man he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken…" (Gen 3:17-19)

Through technology, the serpent has promised that men can be freed from the consequences of original sin. Computers, smart phones, and high speed data communication continue to promise a happier, connected world; nano-technology, robotics, and microchips promise less toil; genetic manipulation of seeds, fruits, and vegetables promise weedless, bumper crops; and an old socialism rising through a New World Order promises equal opportunity and rewards for everyone. But in each of these false solutions, it is clear that the new Eden is reducing man to a new kind of slavery where government, corporations, and technology—all owned by the elite—become the new masters.

THE NEW IMAGE

God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them… God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good. (Genesis 1:27, 31)

The serpent whispered in Eve’s ear, "your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil." But the serpent’s plan all along was to invert God’s design. That which is good is now considered evil, and that which is evil is called good. And hence, the divine image in which mankind has been made—male and female—is being inverted, not only through a reversal of male/female roles, but through a redefinition of sexuality itself. The "divine image" of the Holy Trinity—the family—is the focal point of the serpent’s bite. If the family can be poisoned, so can the future of the world.

With men now striving to remake themselves in their own false image, the serpent’s plan is to convince man that he can become the "Creator" himself.

FALSE DOMINION

Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it." (Gen 1:11)

One of the emerging horrors of genetic manipulation is that seeds, particularly crop seeds, are being altered so that they no longer produce germinating seeds. These new "products"are being patented and sold to farmers, while seeds which have evolved naturally over time are being discarded for a "better crop." That is, growers will be required to purchase their seeds from corporations at whatever price and restrictions they create. God’s proven designs are being sidelined for an experiment with the food chain, one that could easily end, not in a bountiful Eden, but a famine stricken planet.

…the restoration of the lost “Paradise” is no longer expected from faith, but from the newly discovered link between science and praxis. It is not that faith is simply denied; rather it is displaced onto another level—that of purely private and other-worldly affairs—and at the same time it becomes somehow irrelevant for the world. This programmatic vision has determined the trajectory of modern times and it also shapes the present-day crisis of faith which is essentially a crisis of Christian hope. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Spe Salvi, n.17

FALSE FERTILITY

The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

Through cloning and experimentation with human embryos, arrogant men believe they have found a way to not only prolong life spans, but to breath life into new cloned humans thus attempting to sheath the death-sword which banned Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. A new eugenics is emerging—the ability through in vitro fertilization to select sex, eye, hair, skin color, and health tendencies, thus making man the engineer of his own physical future. Furthermore, combining technology with genetic "advances," the new Eden will eventually become populated with a new species, the homo evolutis, a highly engineered creation far surpassing the homo sapiens. According to modern science, this will become possible within a generation (watch this short and startling video).

It is tempting to think that today’s advanced technology can answer all our needs and save us from all the perils and dangers that beset us.  But it is not so. At every moment of our lives we depend entirely on God, in whom we live and move and have our being.  Only he can protect us from harm, only he can guide us through the storms of life, only he can bring us to a safe haven… —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Floriana, Malta April 18th, 2010, AsiaNews.it

FALSE PEACE

The LORD God gave man this order: "You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die…" So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation. (Genesis 2:9, 3)

The Lord gave mankind "this order"—an order in which there are boundaries which cannot be crossed, an order which, if observed, would have left Adam and Eve in perfect harmony between their Creator, themselves, and all of creation (though, as we know, a much greater gift has come through the fall, by the Cross cf. Rom 11:32). It is an order which—through the redemption won through Christ’s suffering—can be restored, though not perfectly within the boundaries of time.
There were two trees in the garden: the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, and they are intimately connected. The order which God established was to respect His knowledge and wisdom, His plan and designs, so that the tree of life may continue to bear life. But in the New World Order—the order of the new self-made Eden—man has been deceived into consuming from the tree of knowledge once again. The "gospel" of the new Eden is gnosticism—a secret knowledge about man’s destiny which is really a demonic lie. The forbidden fruit is the implementation of this gnosticism through technology to make man into the tree of life itself.
The "seventh day" in the new Eden, then, is an Age of Aquarius, an age of "peace and harmony." It is not a future of peace generated by a natural harmony with the Creator, but a false peace controlled and imposed by a dictatorship of relativism—indeed, a Dictator. The means to this peace is twofold: to make the seventh day "holy" according to a new religion whereby man is himself a god. The second means is through a "culture of death": to eliminate from the earth those who are a burden on the individual, the environment, or an "obstacle" to this new religion, to this "peace." Thus, population reduction is a necessary means and an end in itself. God’s final command to all of creation…

Be fertile and multiply… (Genesis 1:28)

… is reversed. And the serpent, in the end, will be exposed for who he truly is:

He was a murderer from the beginning and… is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

Verily no one of sound mind can doubt the issue of this contest between man and the Most High. Man, abusing his liberty, can violate the right and the majesty of the Creator of the Universe; but the victory will ever be with God—nay, defeat is at hand at the moment when man, under the delusion of his triumph, rises up with most audacity. —POPE ST. PIUS X, E Supremi, n. 6, Oct 4th, 1903

ON THE VERGE
As we view world events around us, listening very carefully to the Voice of Truth and the voices of falsehood, it should be evident that the designers of this new Eden—the forerunners—are here. They speak of "change" and "hope," but this is according to a "new order" that pays lip service to God without respect for life from conception to natural death, without regard for the boundaries set over the Tree of Knowledge. The only change they can ultimately bring, then, is not the dawning of hope but the night of death.

…mankind, already in grave peril, may well face, in spite of its marvelous advance in knowledge, that day of disaster when it knows no other peace than the awful peace of death. —Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Second Vatican Council, Liturgy of the Hours, Vol IV, p. 475

In this regard, the Christian message becomes imperative.

Peace is therefore the fruit also of love; love goes beyond what justice can achieve. Peace on earth, born of love for one’s neighbour, is the sign and the effect of the peace of Christ that flows from God the Father. —Ibid. p. 471

It is a message which will, in the very end, prevail, for…

…the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5)

The Garden of Eden has been lost… but a "new heavens and a new earth" awaits the children of the Father. For His plan has already been made known:

God planned in the fullness of time to restore all things in Christ. —Lenten Antiphon, Evening Prayer, Week IV, Liturgy of the Hours, p. 1530; cf. Eph 1:10

God’s plan is not to go back to Eden, but toward Paradise…

As America stands at its own dawn of hope, I want that hope to be fulfilled through us all coming together to shape the 21st century as the first century of a truly global society… kick-start lending so that families and businesses can borrow again. —U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, TimesOnline.com, March 1st, 2009

Real hope is unsentimental. It has nothing to do with the cheesy optimism of election campaigns. Hope assumes and demands a spine in believers. And that’s why—at least for a Christian— hope sustains us when the real answer to the problems or hard choices in life is “no, we can’t,” instead of “yes, we can.”—Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Rendering Unto Caesar: The Catholic Political Vocation, February 23rd, 2009, Toronto, Canada

First published March 4th, 2010

Published in: DAILY JOURNAL, SIGNS | on April 24th, 2010 | No Comments »