First of two parts
DOOMSDAY predictions are exploding across the planet, stirred by burgeoning global crises and fed by revered, reputed or self-styled visionaries and expert thinkers — all divining where current conflicts, economic dislocation, and social and natural disruptions may lead. Are these Cassandras right?
To avoid unfounded alarm, this writer checks prophecies and forecasts against actual events and trends. And indeed, certain portents are seemingly being fulfilled, as this article contends. But more than matching predictions with reality, one argues that the paramount factor determining what happens are not claimed prophecies, but God’s goal: salvation for us all.
Constantly keep His redeeming plan in mind even as world developments, geopolitical analyzes, and even prophetic messages and biblical interpretations tend to highlight the clash, ebb and flow of worldly powers and trends. And what may well be happening is a spiritual battle between heaven and hell for our minds, hearts and souls long prophesied in biblical passages and prophetic visions and apparitions.
So, is this God-vs-evil contest what we’re seeing between two world leaders from the United States — US President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV of the Catholic Church? Not so fast. We’ll get there after laying out some basic keys to figuring out where God may want our world to go.
Earthly empires and heaven’s plan
While historians of antiquity dwell on the succession of empires from Egypt and Assyria to Greece and Rome, salvation history follows how God advanced His redemption plan with imperial rulers serving His will while pursuing their conquests.
Thus, Israel’s escape from slavery in Egypt provided the impetus for God’s covenant with his Chosen People through Moses. Assyria and Babylon not only chastised Israel for its idolatry and transgressions, but also brought forth a succession of prophets pointing to the coming Messiah.
Persia under Cyrus returned the Jews to Jerusalem, where the salvation drama climaxed in Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. And Greece and Rome provided languages, cities and transportation, communication and Roman imperial rule through which Christianity spread.
Thus did the Prophet Daniel prophecy in interpreting Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue of gold, silver, brass, iron and clay — pointing to ancient empires from Babylon to Rome, followed by disparate kingdoms — and the stone from heaven crumbling the imperial symbol, predicting the Kingdom of God established by Christ (Book of Daniel, 2:31-45).
Fast-forward to our era: What do God’s saving plan and His prophetic messages say about world events today and where we’re headed? Plenty — just keep our eye on the salvation ball.
Now, Jesus preached God’s saving plan at the very start of his ministry, recounted by Saint Mark in the earliest of the four Gospels: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” or good news (Mk 1:14-15). Jesus also commanded repentance in the Gospel of St. Matthew (Mt 4:17).
And the Gospel of St. John — read at the April 15 Mass — declares: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life... that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:16-17).
So, before ascending to heaven 40 days after his rising, Jesus commanded: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20).
The Divine vs the devil
That’s God’s plan. Of course, the devil (yes, he exists) opposes it, seeking to hurt heaven by dragging souls — you and me included — to hell (yup, that exists, too).
And that spiritual battle between the Divine and the diabolical is the eternal drama playing out not only in our individual lives, but also in global events.
Of course, non-Christians don’t believe in Christ, Satan and their battle for souls. Neither do many Christians, since modern religious authorities, including the Catholic Church, have lessened or stopped preaching about devils and damnation. When was the last time you heard a Mass homily mentioning Satan or hell?
Yet believe it or not, Christ is at war with the devil for our souls, as then-Pope Leo XIII, whose name the present Holy Father adopted, saw in a vision that collapsed him at Mass on Oct. 13, 1884. As many recounted, Leo XIII saw Satan asking for 100 years and more power over people to destroy the Church, which Jesus granted.
Leo XIII then composed and decreed the Leonine prayers right after every Mass until the 1960s Second Vatican Council ended the practice. First to go was the St. Michael Prayer, calling on the archangel to “cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.” Also removed were three Hail Marys, the Hail Holy Queen and a plea to God for “the conversion of sinners and the liberty and exaltation of our Holy Mother the Church.”
Did the Church lose ground and the devil gain power since Leo XIII’s vision? You bet.
Two decades later, Pope St. Pius X lamented in his October 1903 encyclical E Supremi “that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady... apostasy from God.” He further decried “every effort and every artifice... to destroy utterly the memory and the knowledge of God.”
That was 1903. Humanity has since careened further away from God. And with two world wars and grave conflicts until our time, we suffered the consequence of apostasy St. Pius X predicted — loss of peace — for “to want peace without God is an absurdity, seeing that where God is absent thence too justice flies, and when justice is taken away it is vain to cherish the hope of peace.”
So, is the demonic still winning? Not so fast. Let’s see next week.
To be concluded on April 23, 2026