A few days ago I once again revisited the idea of Catholic Prophecy. If you did not read that post before reading this one, please do, so as to put everything in appropriate context as I move on to discussing Charlie Johnston. In that post I also encourage you to read and review in Charlie’s own words what he claims to have experienced, and what his stated mission is.
I am mentioning him here because of all the current, modern-day “prophets” he has a very unique approach to it all. His approach, I believe, allows someone to follow him and listen to what he has to say, even if skeptical, and having one’s faith and approach to things edified. And I think this statement holds true regardless of whether or not you choose to believe the more remarkable claims he makes with respect to his personal experiences (visions, encounters with Angels, Mary, and Jesus, etc.).
So, allow me to explain.
One of my biggest issues I have, as I’ve already mentioned, are persons who claim to have visions or apparitions of the supernatural and proclaim messages to the world. Nearly every modern day “prophet” follows the same formula: Some supernatural or divine entity visits or speaks to them and asks them to share a message with the world. This happens over and over and over and over again with the same or similar message over and over and over and over again. People listen to or read the messages and cling to every word. After a while, we get bored with whatever good message is communicated if that message isn’t about some remarkable event that is going to occur. I could be entirely wrong, but I think that more than one of these people, even if they started off authentically receiving (or believing they were receiving) divine messages may feel the need to sensationalize things in order to placate a widening audience. This is speculation on my part, but I’m sure it’s happened.
In many cases, I have to believe that – even if innocent – some of these people have entirely experienced a confabulation of the whole thing. They are in quietude and want to have a conversation with God – all well and good – and in that silence (which they haven’t entirely learned to control properly) they believe they are receiving some sort of message or locution. But it’s their own mind running wild, but emotionally they feel in tune with God, so it must be Him, right? What starts off as good internal thoughts from a well-formed person can become a desire to feel that and continue that, and who knows where that can take a person.
I may sound like someone who can’t accept any of this. That is not true and it’s not my intent. I am just careful. And so, it is actually with a bit of an effort against my nature that I find Charlie, overall, authentic.
For those who don’t know him and will be too lazy to fully research him or read my links, I will provide a general summary: As mentioned above, Charlie claims to have been visited by supernatural or divine entities for most of his life. He kept it to himself for a long time, and only as he matured did he embrace all of it. The purpose of the visitations was to provide him visions, insights, and messages for the future which would occur during his lifetime. However, unlike others, he has not shared every individual message with the world. He has not even provided a whole lot of details of things he claims to know about, or has known about in the past. Because the purpose of his visitors was to train him on the bigger, more important things: why this is happening, a general course of what to expect, and to build up the flock so that they can better grasp the reality of what about to happen and what is, in fact, happening around us.
The entire purpose of Charlie’s ministry is not to predict exactly how, when, where, and why all the corresponding events that make up what is called “The Storm” are (even though he is in tune to many of those things). The purpose is much more general – get people right with God and each other, and not worry about all these details. Understand the overall course of The Storm so you’re mentally and spiritually ready for it. But he also very clearly preaches that no one can effectively prepare for everything that is to come. We will utterly need to rely on God. While he welcomes the idea that people make preparations, it’s always in the context of prudence and with an eye towards preparing in such a way not so much for you, but to help others.
Charlie has a different personality than most of the other supposed seers I’ve researched. He has a sense of humor, comes from the political arena and still follows politics, and is basically just a normal guy who happens to have a remarkable attribute that the rest of us don’t have. It’s interesting to hear him talk about his visitors so casually, when all the rest of us would likely fail to sleep for a week after receiving a visit from a supernatural friend of any sort. But this shouldn’t be surprising. After all, how casually do we Catholics speak of the Eucharist? We receive it without a huge show, and sometimes in our weaker moments are distracted by other things around us as the very Son of God becomes physically manifest on the altar. The Eucharist is so remarkable as to be utterly unbelievable by non-Catholics. And yet, we stroll up and receive Christ as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. So, unlike us, Charlie has received these visitors his entire life. It should not be a surprise that over time a natural comfort level and even a sense of the unremarkable comes across in his comments about them.
Whether he’s imagining it all, or whether it’s all real, or somewhere in between, there is no sense that I get from Charlie that there is any deception. He is very clear on all of us, most of all himself, follows whatever instruction the Church gives. He is not one of these anti-Francis folks – far from it. He has called Francis the Pope of the Storm. On the other hand, this does not keep him from offering opposing opinions with respect to purely temporal matters.
I would encourage anyone to look at Charlie’s posts and start the process of discernment. To be clear, it is not substitute for Church teaching, Scripture, etc. But nothing I see opposes any of those things. Charlie is a full-throated supporter of daily mass, Catholic devotions, Adoration, Eucharistic processions, etc. He is very stout on life and family issues. He is fine if you don’t agree with him as long as all discussion on the board is well-intentioned and respectful. In the end, the very worst that can happen is you don’t buy into all the remarkable stuff, but you’ll still see a good group of people trying to do their best in a world gone mad.
The one part of my skeptical nature on all this that I can’t completely rid myself of is the idea that one needs these visitors to warn of The Storm. I have for years seen signs of ultimate disaster in our country and our world. I think to anyone paying attention, it’s not a matter of “if” it’s a matter of “when.” One does not need an angel to point out that a country that turns its back on God, holds up abortion as a blessing, makes same-sex marriage the law of the land, continues to grow in accepting euthanasia, becomes more atheistic, and so on that there will be a point where God turns us over to ourselves. Now, Charlie claims that in his private writings to his Spiritual Director, he envisioned what we are clearly seeing today long before it became as readily apparent as it is, and he is now taking up the mantle of one who is now making it clear to everyone exactly what it is that is happening and how we need to react.
Charlie is also very open about the fact that over the years he has greatly misunderstood, misinterpreted, and even challenged the wisdom of the messaged he’s received. This is one reason he doesn’t share them. He has said that this was all part of the training he needed. Whenever he went against his direction because he thought he could protect someone from something or another, he saw that worse things happened that originally envisioned. So he has better learned to not question, and to trust. And trust is a major theme here. He promotes a Prayer of Miraculous Trust – say it once for a particular intention and then leave it. Don’t repeat it again for that specific intention (sort of like Moses hitting the rock more than once).
There are a couple areas where Charlie has been more specific. I only assume there are particular reasons why these items are necessary to share with us. One is that our next stable leader will not come from the election process. It is a bit unclear exactly what that means, but it’s safe to say that if Charlie is correct, then even if elections are held and a new President elected, by the time they would otherwise take office in the normal fashion, things will have changed dramatically so that this doesn’t happen in a way that anyone expects. Second, there will be a necessary financial collapse. Third, he has given a timeline of the end of 2017 for what is called the Rescue – where God allows Mary to intervene on our behalf and, in some way, make it clear to everyone on earth what the Truth of Christ is. Because of this timeline, if Charlie is correct, then whatever is to happen will happen soon, happen swiftly, and will create a situation of such extreme confusion that without the Rescue everything would so utterly devolve so quickly that we would almost certainly destroy ourselves. Charlie’s sense (I believe this is noncommittal) is that the Rescue will actually occur before there is an incredibly severe loss of life. Not that millions of lives lost will not be horrible, but he’s not talking about half, a third, a quarter, or even a tenth of the world’s demise.
I could go on, but I believe this covers the general sense of it. We are under no obligation at all to pay attention to or adhere to private revelation. So it is not incumbent upon any of us to look into all of this. But I do think Charlie’s message is helpful and encouraging during this time, and my own personal and unofficial opinion is that it is something that is worthy of looking at.
Catholic Diatribes 