Church of God News

Bernadette Soubirous (Rabanus Flavus)

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The Bible prophesies that there will be signs and lying wonders:

9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,

10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,

12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)

While this is prophesied to increase in the last days, there have been various “signs and lying wonders” throughout the church age.

For example, probably millions of Roman Catholics have visited the casket of Bernadette Soubirous. She is famous for what some refer to as “incorruptibility” (limited decay of the flesh after death) as well as claims about seeing visions of a “Lady” in Lourdes, France. On 18 February of 1858, she claimed that “vision” asked her to return to a particular grotto every day for two weeks and Bernadette passed on various messages that she claimed to have received. Her shrine has long been a popular destination for certain Greco-Roman Catholics.

A Roman Catholic website posted the following:

Inside My Visit to St. Bernadette’s Incorrupt Relics: A Powerful Spiritual Experience

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always loved the amazing story of St. Bernadette.

My mother introduced my siblings and me to her story through Catholic children’s cartoons. The stories of both St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Fatima particularly resonated with me.

When I first heard that St. Bernadette’s incorrupt relics would tour the United States, I was ecstatic. It’s been a dream of mine to visit Lourdes …

We arrived shortly before noon for a pilgrimage Mass. My husband helped with the music while I sat with our son in the pew.

As soon as we walked in, a powerful heavenly presence illuminated the room. The ex-carne relics (from the flesh) sat on the main aisle just before the altar.

The completely packed church (with overflow in the foyer) indicated that so many people came searching for grace through the power of this incredible saint, my family included.

At the beginning of Mass, the priest sprinkled blessed Lourdes water on the congregation. (The relics remained in the aisle throughout Mass.) …

Finally, we venerated St. Bernadette. …

As we entered the chapel, we blessed ourselves with holy water. The water smelled of sweet roses! I wasn’t sure if they added a scent, or if it was supernatural. Either way, it was beautiful.

Our son touched the statue of Our Lady, and once again prayed for healing. …

The faithful may obtain a plenary indulgence through the veneration of the relics, along with following the three usual conditions: receiving sacramental confession, holy communion, and praying for the Holy Father, as well as detaching oneself from all sin.

St. Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us! https://www.churchpop.com/2022/07/22/inside-my-visit-to-st-bernadettes-incorrupt-relics-a-powerful-spiritual-experience/

Praying to the dead to intervene, plenary indulgences, use of ‘holy water,’ and the veneration of relics were not part of early Christianity. Nor are they part of true Christianity now.

The 19^th century Roman Catholic Cardinal Newman wrote:

The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, (Newman JH. The Protestant Idea of Antichrist. [British Critic, Oct. 1840]. Newman Reader — Works of John Henry Newman. Copyright © 2004 by The National Institute for Newman Studies, pp. 359-360)

Christians are not to use pagan practices in worship. Shrines/temples devoted to saints and the use of holy water is pagan. Notice, now, something from the Apostle Paul:

19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? 20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.  (1 Corinthians 10:19-22)

Pagan practices are demonic and are not to be utilized by Christians, even if one hopes they show a “heavenly presence.”

Probably because Bernadette Soubirous’ now waxed body has been so well preserved, her face is on the front cover of a famous Roman Catholic book by J.C. Cruz titled The Incorruptibles (Nihil Obstat: HC Bezou, November 11, 1974. Imprimatur + PM Hannan, Archbishop of New Orleans, November 19, 194. TAN Books, 1977) she remains quite a famous draw for many Roman Catholics (most other Roman Catholic “incorruptibles” have not been as well preserved).

Although on the internet it has been claimed “for each incorrupt body discovered, after research has been done to determine who the person was, it has always been determined that the person was an extremely devout Catholic,” that claim is in error. This type of “incorruptibility” has happened to others who were not Roman Catholic, as well as Roman Catholics who were not devout.

Concerning physical incorruptibility, the New Catholic Encyclopedia of 1967 stated, “Many cases could possibly have a natural explanation or be caused by diabolical power.” But many Roman Catholics tend to overlook that fact.

My experience with talking to some Roman Catholics related to Bernadette Soubirous as well as Fatima, suggests that one of the reasons that some affiliated with Rome will not see the truth about certain matters is because they rely on physical signs such as “incorruptibility” of various male and female bodies as proof that their church has God’s favor, hence they often believe that this validates their church’s positions overall.

Partially related to Lourdes, the former Roman Pontiff Benedict XVI once said:

…let us turn to her who is the Queen of all the Saints, the Virgin Mary, thinking of Lourdes, stricken by a grave overflowing of the Gave, which has also flooded the grotto of the apparitions of Our Lady. Today we would especially like to entrust missionaries to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary – priests and laity, who sow the good seed of the Gospel in every part of the world. We also pray for the Synod of Bishops, which, over the course of these weeks, is confronting the challenge of the new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith. http://www.zenit.org/article-35781?l=english

Of course, the Bible never refers to Jesus’ mother Mary as the ‘queen’ of anything–the only ‘queen of heaven’ (an expression that some also try to apply to Mary) that the Bible refers to is condemned (Jeremiah 7:18-20; 44:17-23). Also, the only ‘virgin’ ‘Lady of the Kingdoms’ (other terms sometimes improperly applied to Mary that the Bible tells of (Isaiah 47:1-5) is also condemned (Isaiah 47:5-15).

Isaiah 47:6 talks about the heavy yoke laid upon the elderly. I would contend that Roman Catholic practices related to pressuring the elderly to ‘donate’ for ‘indulgences’ related to ‘purgatory’ are such an improper heavy yoke (see also Did the Early Church Teach Purgatory?).

Isaiah 47:7-11 can be tied in with prophecies in in the Book of Revelation:

7 In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ 8 Therefore her plagues will come in one day — death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. (Revelation 18:7-8)

Isaiah 47 is thus a prophesy, not just about the ancient Chaldean/Babylonian mystery religions, but a reference to a church with such characteristics that will be destroyed in the end times.

Isaiah 47:8 says in addition to trusting in wickedness, because of ‘great abundance of your enchantments’ this will happen to that church.  Incorruptible ‘miracles’ are consistent with enchantments. Many, sadly, have trusted in the ‘great abundance’ of Rome-related enchantments.

Bernadette has prophetic ramifications. Because of her and other matters, Greco-Roman Catholics have been conditioned to accept unbiblical signs and wonders as divine.

More are coming as 1 Thessalonians 2 (previously cited) shows–and more will fall for them.

The Bible also warns that the false prophet, the beast of the earth and THE Antichrist (although there have been antichrists since the time of the Apostle John), will perform signs and be involved with a different type of financial order:

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:11-17)

People are to love the truth of God and not be swayed by enchantments and sorceries. Notice also that this mystic above will persecute those that will not follow his deceit. The Bible says that God will punish those who accept the mark of the Beast (Revelation 16:2).

It should also be noted that Isaiah 47:12-13 warns about sorceries and those who rely on astrological and similar predictions. One of the most famous Roman Catholic prognosticators, the one known as Nostradamus, certainly did so–as have some other Catholic mystics.

Isaiah 47:14 says that fire will destroy that church. The Book of Revelation says that same thing in chapter 18 verse 8. There is a real connection between Isaiah 47 and end time Babylon of Revelation 17 and 19.

Bernadette Soubirous is not one to pray to or to entrust oneself to.

Jesus is the one to be entrusted to.

There is a great tendency within the Church of Rome to rely on signs, apparitions, and wonders to support teachings that do not square with the Bible. All who profess Christ, including those who are COG, Catholic, Protestant, or anything else, should understand that Jesus is the center of the plan of salvation and that the Church of Rome intends to promote a further Marian reverence that will likely deceive nearly all (cf. Isaiah 47; Revelation 17-18–and this includes nearly all who profess Christ (cf. Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). And those who honor people such as Bernadette of Lourdes are unknowingly helping set this up.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 23rd, 2022 at 8:00 am and is filed under Prophecy, Religious News.

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