Pontiff invokes the Apocalypse, discusses ultimate defeat of evil

WND , January 13, 2005

In comments before 7,000 people attending the General Papal Audience yesterday at the Vatican, Pope John Paul II commented on the Apocalypse, saying that the increase in violence and injustice in the world is the work of a furious Satan who doesn't have "much time left" and ultimately will be defeated.

According to a report in the Italian website AGI online, the pope said, "God and the Lamb, Christ, surrounded by the 'Council of the Crown,' are judging human history in good and evil, but showing us however the ultimate end in salvation and glory. The songs which are found in the Apocalypse and which serve to illustrate the issue of divine glory which regulates the flux, often disconcerting, of the tide of human events."

The pope then predicts Satan's downfall:

"Satan, the original adversary, who accused our brothers in the heavenly court, has now been cast down from heaven and therefore no longer has great power. He knows he has not much time left because history is about to see a radical turning point in freedom from evil and therefore he is reacting full of great fury.

"And then the resurrected Christ will rise up, whose blood is the principle of salvation and who received from the Father royal power over the entire universe; in Him are centered salvation, strength and the kingdom of our God. In his victory are associated the Christian martyrs who chose the path of the cross, not yielding to evil and it virulence, but delivering themselves to the Father and uniting themselves to the death of Christ by means of a testimony of donation and courage which brought them to give up life in order to die."

Concluded the pope: "The words of the Apocalypse regarding those who have vanquished Satan and evil through the blood of the Lamb, echo also in the splendid prayer attributed to the Christian martyr Simeon, from Seleucia-Ctesifonte in Persia: 'I will receive life without pain, worry, anguish, persecutor, persecuted, oppressor, oppressed, tyrant or victim, there I will see no threat of king, or terror of prefects, no one will quote me in court or terrorize me and no one will drag me or scare me.'"