Another Lesson or Two From that Lightning Strike

Encouragement in the midst of apostasy

Last week, I contended that a certain lightning strike in Argentina was an act of God with a message about the current Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church along with other apostatizing church authorities.

Upon reflection, I think there are also more encouraging lessons from that lightning strike, and I do not want to omit those during a time when encouragement is needed.

But first I want to pull back to a big picture observation.  Acts of God and other interventions from the Almighty tend to occur in the midst of profound difficulties.  The Exodus through the Red Sea is a classic example.  The prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah and of St. John contain great encouraging visions of the future of God’s people and of the coming Messiah.  We quote them often during the Advent and Christmas seasons and, yes, during the current Epiphany season as well, e. g. “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” (Isaiah 60:3) Yet Isaiah, Jeremiah, St. John among others prophesied during trying times and endured much personally.  Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet.”  St. John received the Revelation while in exile on Patmos.

Although not anywhere near the same moment or drama as the Red Sea or the prophecies of Scripture or that lightning strike, I’m convinced I’ve experienced two acts of God.  I don’t talk much about them for a number of reasons.  (One reason: people would pretty much have to take my word for them.  It would be understandable if some thought I was making stuff up to inflate myself or my opinions or was trying to Lord it over others as many do when they assert, “The Lord told me . . . .”  I’d rather avoid the appearance of that.)  So I’m not going to get into any detail here.  But they were coincidences that were too much coincidences to be mere coincidences.

One was to get my attention to make an important life decision that I am very glad I made.  That one did not come in the midst of any great difficulty I recall.  But an earlier and more sudden coincidence of God, if you will, most definitely came during a difficult time in my life.  And the encouragement that came from it — and it was a very encouraging and immediate answer to prayer — turned out to be much needed as I went through additional difficulty.

I think it could be said that if you want to see God act in a tangible ways, be careful what you wish for!  For often he acts when his people are in need, weakness, and difficulties as I was.  That said, I would not at all give up the aforementioned difficulties in my life if that meant I would also have to give up those episodes of God intervening to guide and encourage me.  “When I am weak, He is strong.” (2 Corinth. 12:10)  I still find those interventions encouraging to this day.

That December 17th lightning strike comes during a time of great difficulty for the faithful in the Roman Catholic Church as well as in the Church of England and much of the institutional church.  It is not easy to be faithful when one’s authorities are not.

And when one is surrounded by deceivers in the world and in the church who attack your faithfulness as bigoted and divisive, it can be hard to stand firm.

But God has intervened to emphasize that the supposed Pope Francis and other apostate church authorities are indeed in the wrong.  Moreover, their authority is repealed and rejected by Christ as indicated by the destruction of the keys on that statue of St. Peter.  Scripture and the tradition of the Church should suffice to make that clear.  But we are weak and assailed, so God has intervened again today to encourage and guide us and, yes, to make His truth that much more evident.

So know all the more that if you are remaining faithful to Scripture and to The Faith in the midst of increasing infidelity, God is on your side and opposes the wolves surrounding you.

That does not at all mean remaining faithful will become easy.  It will likely become even harder.  But know that God is with you.  Yes, I think the lightning strike punctuates that with an exclamation point.

But in case a skeptical reader thinks I am engaging in pious nonsense, I ask, what is your explanation for that lightning strike?  Do you really think a strike that removed the keys and the blessing hand from a statue of St. Peter in Argentina, on Francis’ birthday, the day before the approval of same-sex blessings, is just a happenstance?

If so, well, you have more faith of a sort than I.