Welcome to Armageddon

By Charlie Johnston

Libertyville, Illinois – I’ve been in the Chicago area this week, my old stomping grounds. It is nice to revisit the place where you grew up and spent the bulk of your early life in. You know it with an intimacy you’ll never have with any other place. As a boy, I used to explore the woods and back roads on my bike. I have been visited, at some time or another, almost every place in my home county of Lake – the third largest in the state with 750,000 people. The nostalgia tingles when you don’t have to use GPS or a map to get anywhere.

Tuesday morning, I went to Chicago for Mass at Our Lady Queen of Angels at 7 am. My dear old friend, Fr. Babyface was sent there recently as its new pastor. Now he teams up with another dear old friend, who I will call Fr. Jersey Pete. After Mass we had breakfast at a favorite local diner. We’ve been compadres for nigh on 30 years. When we sat down to breakfast, I looked at them and said, “When we first got to know each other, we were happening, young, and beautiful – but we’re not young anymore.” They both chuckled.

The hosts for my talk Wednesday night included a fellow, Rick Scardino, I went to high school with. His wife, Terri, put everything together.  His parents were sort of surrogate parents of mine after my folks moved back down south when I was 23. I went over Thursday night to watch the Bears game at their home. Rick’s Dad, Tony, told me this was the first time he had heard me do a talk and that he really enjoyed it, especially the comments, question and answers session I always do.

I visited the house I was a boy in in the ‘60s. Man, both it and the yard are much smaller than I remember. I drove around the little neighborhood of Deep Lake, where we lived. I used to visit old folks every week – not out of any sense of charity: I just loved their stories. I suppose my two favorites were Mrs. Thompson, a very old lady who lived in a small house and always had elevator music playing – which she called “classical.” She told me amazing stories about how she and her parents came to Illinois from the east in a covered wagon. I tried to imagine the journey…and she helped me along. All with elevator music playing in the background. Mr. and Mrs. Luckel were my other favorites. We would talk and carry on, and they ALWAYS had a variety of little soft Brach’s candies for me. I liked all my old folks and they all liked me. But I Had no idea I was doing them as big a favor by stopping by regularly as they were in having me. At the time, old folks had fascinating stories, and you could learn a lot from them

I visited my paternal grandparents’ graves, which are just across the street from where I went to elementary school.

I’m planning to go to the gala for WSFI, the EWTN radio affiliate in Chicago on Nov. 14. (Not to worry folks on the East Coast. My trip there is still on. I’m flying in and out from wherever I am on the coast for this event.) It is being held at the hotel that, when I was in my early 20s, I was the GM of. Cool. I asked Jane Manarik (Scurto), my friend since junior high school, if she would be my date. Alas, the former high school hot girl is getting knee surgery and won’t be able to. She asked another mutual friend, Laurie (who was homecoming queen one year) if she wanted to go, but Laurie has a family wedding to go to in Indianapolis that weekend. Laurie did chuckle and tell Jane that she had been dissatisfied with a particular Republican candidate this year, but was not about to vote for a Democrat, so she wrote in “Charlie Johnston.” Ha! I can get their votes, but even after they’re widowed and we’re all on the downhill side of the mountain, I still can’t get a date with my high school hot girls. (Okay, I’m joking. We spend plenty of time together when I’m in town and, obviously, had many good times together when we were young. I only note that because I would not offend, for the world, two of my favorite ladies). I do very much want to get an old school friend to go with me to this event, though. There is something so dear about spending a little time at such events with someone who knew you when you were both, young, goofy, and gawky. And it’s funny, but with dear old friends, no matter how time takes its toll, the young, vibrant, beautiful people they were when we were all young is still right there before you. It’s kind of like your kids: no matter how mature and impressive they get, the little kid they were is always before you. I think some folks we cherish dearly, we see both with our natural eyes and the eyes of our soul. I am fortunate to be surrounded by so many vibrant, beautiful, marvelous people!

Contrary to what Thomas Wolfe says, you can go home again. But you will find they have completely remodeled the place.

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I have been asked by many people about the one-year media fast Denver Abp. James Golka asked exorcist Priest, Fr. Chad Ripperger, to take. Fr. Ripperger agreed to do so – and asked people not to attack the Archbishop over it. Sadly, some sites have jumped in with both feet attacking Abp. Golka.

I think, if you ask five years from now, Fr. Ripperger will say this is one of the best things that ever happened to him. I think he is a good man. I also think he gets ahead of his skis on certain things.  His reported conversations with demons troubled me a lot.

The thing is, if you are a public exorcist (or mystic, for that matter) you become subject to a lot of temptations. People in pain seek supernatural comfort from you…and every instinct in you wants to reach out to them. You are perfectly fine giving them natural comfort, but if you give them purported supernatural comfort that has not been given you, you err badly and even sin. I know. I have lived this. There is much more I won’t go into. The point is that once you achieve some prominence, it complicates what is already a complicated situation. It is often a great blessing to be able to step back and quietly refocus.

I, too, am under discipline to the Archbishop of Denver. Though I live mostly in Texas now, the Diocese of original jurisdiction in cases like mine retains permanent jurisdiction unless the Vatican gets directly involved. Most of my dealings were with Abp. Golka’s predecessor, Abp. Emeritus Samuel Aquila. He gave me formal direction on several occasions and I had a good, solid relationship with his top staff. I had said that there would be no peaceful transfer of power after the 2016 presidential election. At the time, I stepped back after Donald Trump was sworn in, though I said I would be back if there was any attempted coup. From January to May of 2017, Beckita ran this site exclusively. In May, I had come to the conclusion that the Russian Collusion hoax was an attempted legal and bureaucratic hoax and so said on my return. (Sheesh! I was right but did not know the half of it then). In this case, I stepped back before the Archdiocese directed me to, but I think they would have had I not honored my stated commitment. When I came back on the terms I said I would come back under, they made no objection (though in the early months of my return Abp. Aquila did give me some formal guidance.)

It was pleasing to God that I stepped back as I said I would. And He justified me by proving me right, but in a way I had not  interpreted properly, that had never happened before, and that no one expected. We now know that the attempted bureaucratic coup against Trump began months before he was first sworn in. There was NO peaceful transfer of power – and it was his predecessor and his opponent who were the earliest collaborators in that coup attempt. Obedience to lawful Church authority when lawfully exercised is not an oppression, but a gift, the guardrails the person who deals publicly with supernatural things can rely on to keep him on God’s path. Even if it is objectively errant it is still a gift. God reveals whether you are obedient to the rules He set up – and that plays a huge role in determining if you are fit to continue in His service. Obedience is a sweet incense to Him. How many the fools are who think God is so impotent that the only way His will can be accomplished is by disobeying the rules that He, Himself, laid out for us. When I see someone prominently claiming that they are defying lawful orders lawfully given in order that God’s will may prevail, I do not admire them. I think it a shameful revelation of how hollow their faith in God’s omnipotence actually is.

Most people do not understand how tricky any public dealing with the supernatural is. They think if someone was ever authentic, they must always be authentic. The truth is some people start well and then go off the rails. Some get back on the right path; others never do. The further truth is that even the greatest saints are sometimes objectively wrong. Our salvation must be worked out with “fear and trembling,” (Philippians 2:12) even if we have a special mission that becomes public.

I was deeply impressed by the docility with which Fr. Ripperger agreed to the guidance of Abp. Golka. It gives me great hope that his latter days will be more abundantly fruitful than his early days – both for him and for we, the faithful. (Job 8:7). I think when he returns to the scene, he will be the great treasure for the faithful that some already think he is.

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Many are in great concern about the state of the Church in modern times. I am very optimistic. We have gone through great trials, are still going through many, and have many yet to come. But already God’s plan of renewal is making itself manifest to those who will see it.

You may not have heard about it, but the Church (at least in America) is being flooded with new conversions, especially among young people.  Priests and OCIA Coordinators from around the country are telling me, unanimously, that it has burst in ways they have never seen nefore. It’s breaking records. Of course you don’t hear about it because the establishment media hates Christianity. They think, along with the other cultural elites, that God is a rival to their dreams of supremacy, not their sovereign and their hope. They try to suppress it as much as they can, but it is like trying to hold a beach ball beneath the water’s surface as it is being inflated. Hidden now, soon enough it will burst forth gloriously and obviously from the waters that are now concealing it.

I also continue to have great hope and affection for Pope Leo XIV. Though some appointments and things he has done I strongly disagree with, I think he is a very canny man who is carefully working to set things to right, without triggering a revolt from those who tried to remake the Church in the world’s own image instead of God’s. I am in contact with several religious orders – and most have told me that Pope Leo has counseled patience, quietly promising them he will not hurt them. The siege many were under is over, if not yet lifted. I know a few of the dissidents as well – and most all of them are acting with the gloom of people who know that their sun is setting – as the Eternal Son is rising. In fact, I know of only one who acts with robust confidence – and he is flatly delusional.

Please don’t bombard me with the things you think Pope Leo is on the wrong side of. I probably agree with most of you on most of them. But a few dandelions do not a spring make. I always pay most attention to the larger trajectory…not where we are but where we are tending. The trajectory is changing. More slowly than most would like, but changing nonetheless. Change is not a light switch. Several generations of abuses are not safely changed as quickly as most of us would like. But the dissidents are fading and the orthodox are rising. Frankly, I think the biggest threat to the triumph of orthodoxy is the group of people who claim to be orthodox but are ever in search of things they can condemn. They are blind to how things actually are changing. Not all, but many things are not as they appear to be – both in and out of the Church.

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And now, for the corollary to my last post which had such a contrarian take on how the midterms are going to go. No, I haven’t changed my mind about how things are going to go. But the battle becomes fully engaged shortly after the election, however it turns out.

One of the things I noted in last week’s piece was that I expected this to be the election that almost destroys the polling industry as its credibility get completely shot. I didn’t expect the industry to start collapsing until AFTER the election, though. In the past week it has been revealed that at least three polliing companies that were included in aggregates completely made up their numbers. After they were caught, they said it was a “social experiment.” Much more likely is that, as I have been saying all along, these polls (which all pretended Democrats have big leads) were designed to create a narrative of Democrat invulnerabilty in hopes of depressing Republican turnout.

Prominent Democrats are getting more open in saying candidly that if they return to power they intend to make up crimes with which to throw people and companies who support Trump in jail. That, actually, is the practice of fascists…and every totalitarian and authoritarian system in history. Don’t argue with your opponents, toss them in jail or take their livelihoods away from them. As Lavrenty Beria told Josef Stalin, “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.” He was boasting that he could justify arresting anyone. 

Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) says they will target anyone who works for Trump, in hopes of discouraging young people from working for him.  Former Obama advisor Susan Rice says they will target companies and organizations that worked with the Trump administration.

The biggest news of the week is that  DataRepublican, a brilliant account on X by a woman who is one of the most gifted researchers I have ever seen, uncovered proof Democrats are planning an actual insurrection after the election. The group is led by retired Admiral Michael Smith and includes many former ex-USAID officials, former CIA officers (just like Sen. Slotkin) and 10 blue state governors who will take over governing the US after the current government is deposed. This is NOT a joke. It is very real. If you never read a link, you really need to read this one.

I had planned to write this week that, even if we win as big as I wrote we would last week, it is not the end of troubles, but the beginning of the final confrontation – which could (and probably will) be very prolonged. If the Dems win, the left thinks their mistake during the Biden years was not to go hard and fast enough to imprison opponents and their supporters – and they are determined they will not make that mistake this time. If they lose badly, as I expect, they will shortly after begin extensive rioting and violence to destabilize the country, discredit the government, and have an alternative plan waiting in the wings. It is a hideous plan, a plan that would make the United States more brutal and repressive than the old Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Cambodia and Red China.

Leftist fools always think they can control everything, including the chaos they unleash. Experience shows that EVERY major such disruption takes on a life of its own. We will have an ongoing civil war – soft or hard – within the next year or two unless we decisively stop it after the election. No more tolerance for fiery, violent “peaceful protests” unless we want years, even decades of strife to get our heads together and stiffen our spines.

People tend to conflate Armageddon and the Apocalypse with each other.  They are not the same thing. Armageddon is the decisive battle between good and evil. It precedes the devil being chained for a thousand years, the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart, and the opening of the great Era of Peace. The Apocalypse is the actual end.

We have been getting deeper into Armageddon for some time. The brutal attack on Israeli citizens took place just a hundred miles from the Plain of  Esdraelon, part of the Plains of Megiddo. It happened on the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, in which the rampaging Muslim Army suffered its first defeat at the hands of Christians – which most people considered miraculous. Shortly after the election, we will enter the heart of the Battle of Armageddon. It is, as firemen say, fully engaged. And though it is played out right here and now on earth, this IS a battle of supernatural principalities and powers. I sometimes think, in the improbable coincidences I describe, God is asking, sternly, “Can you hear me now?” Only if we have eyes to see and ears to hear – both of which have dimmed badly in the last century. We were never going to escape it. We must make our stand according to our station in life.

Right now, many prominent Democrats are claiming that voting machines are changing their blue votes to red. They are almost all lying. So why are they doing it? Because they, too,  know the polls are dummied up. They are laying the groundwork to justify their nationwide rioting and violence – because they are going to claim the election was stolen from them, rather than that normal people were repulsed by their violent fanaticism.

In the second chapter of Luke, Jesus tells the parable of a man who has a devil cast out. But instead of serving God, the man sticks to simply natural order. After a while, the demon that afflicted him comes back and finds his soul clean and well-swept. So the demon gathers up seven of his buddies and the last state of the man is worse than the first. Many otherwise decent people have rejected faith, either overtly or implicitly. In fact, that is the case with almost all of the political left. They have determined that they are gods, and they will have no actual God before them. Such people are prime targets for satanic influence and, eventually, full possession. This is why they get crazier and more violent all the time.

There will be no compromise here. When you are arguing about how to build a water system, you are just arguing details – because both sides agree you need a good water system. Common goals with differing opinions on how best to attain them. Now we are in a stark battle in which one side is determined to go west and the other, determined to go east. There is no compromise possible here. One side must win and the other lose. I’ll write more about the nature of this battle which we are on the border of. It comes regardless of whether or not we win the election.

Donald Trump has set an incredible number of things in motion to set things right temporally. I laugh contemptuously at those who are furious that he has not yet righted three generations of deep abuse in less than two years. But regardless, he will prevail on that. Do you understand what is going on yet? Trump is in the process of giving us a clean, well-swept country. But it is entirely up to us whether we are going to fill it with God or leave it open for business with those supernatural powers and principalities.

John Adams said that our system of government was “made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” He was entirely right. Now we are met to decide whether we will, once again, become religious and moral people.

I will have more, but for now, my advice is that of Jesus to the man with the withered hand: To be healed, “stretch out your hand.” It is painful, but Jesus will respond to the little effort we make by healing us.

Stretch out your hand.

If communication goes out for any length of time, meet outside your local Church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Tell friends at Church now in case you can’t then. CORAC teams will be out looking for people to gather in and work with.

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