Section 10: "I Promise Salvation"
The Word Of God Vs. The Lady Of Fatima's Words
Section 10: "I Promise Salvation"
The Word Of God Vs. The Lady Of Fatima's Words
During her June appearance, the Lady of Fatima told the children,
"He [her Son] wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. I promise salvation to those who embrace it."(1).
Let's examine the idea of the Lady making a promise concerning salvation. Because God created man, and it's God's holiness which is offended by man's sin, God alone is able to make a valid promise to save. Scripture tells us that He has indeed promised salvation, and that He sent Jesus to fulfill that promise:
"He [Jesus] carries out and fulfills all of God's promises, no matter how many of them there are; and we have told everyone how faithful He is, giving glory to His name" (2 Corinthians 1:20, LNT).
God gave to Abraham the promise of salvation, and this promise was to be received by faith. Later He gave to Moses the law which, when obeyed, promised blessings to the Jews. God's covenants with men were sealed by the blood of animals, and transgression of the covenants were forgiven through the blood offering for sins. But even during this time of the law, there were those who understood that it was faith in Yahweh which would save them (Hebrews 11). And then God sent Jesus, and made a New Covenant of salvation with Him, sealed in His own blood. This covenant is eternal because Jesus is not only man, but God. Nothing can nullify it and no other promise of salvation can add to it. In this New Covenant, Jesus could be seen as the object of faith and the fulfillment of the law. Here was the promised One, the descendent of Abraham. St. Paul wrote,
"There were promises spoken to Abraham and to his 'descendent.' Scripture does not say 'and to your descendent,' as if it applied to many [e.g., Jesus and Mary], but as if it applied to only one [Jesus], 'and to your descendent;' that is, to Christ. My point is this: a covenant formally ratified by God is not set aside as invalid by any law that came into being four hundred and thirty years later, nor is its promise nullified" (Galatians 3:16-17, NAB).
The law could not invalidate the promise: Jesus' fulfillment of the promise superseded the law of works. Now all of God's promises were accomplished.
But new promises from the Lady of Fatima take the Christian back to the works of the law: do this, don't do that, say this, establish that, etc. These promises would make God's finished salvation in Christ invalid, something the law given to Moses never did.
The apostle John assures us: Jesus "is an offering for our sins, and not our sins only, but for those of the whole world" (1 John 2:2, NAB). And speaking in the synagogue at Antioch, Paul explained that we are acquitted of sin because God has done for us, in Christ, what we can't do for ourselves by works of a law: "we ourselves announce to you the good news that what God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, in raising up Jesus, according to what is written. . . . In him, every believer is acquitted" (Acts 13:32-33,39,NAB). That's salvation.
In contrast, the Lady of Fatima promised salvation to those who embrace devotion to her Immaculate Heart, and implied that Jesus backs her promise. But Jesus made promises of salvation only according to what the Father said, and God's one promise of salvation has already been made and fulfilled on the cross. There is no room in God's plan for more promises, and because of the unity of God, we can be sure that Jesus hasn't sent His mother to make any.
Jesus shed His blood in atonement for all, and continually offers salvation to men so that each will have the opportunity to accept Him (John 3:16-19; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21).
Because it's only through personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior that man can be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13-14), our responsibility to the world lies here, not in the effort to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart. Paul urges us to pray for all men:
"First of all, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for all men. . . . Prayer of this kind is good, and God our savior is pleased with it, for he wants all men to be saved and come to know the truth. And the truth is this: 'God is one. One also is the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:1,3-6,NAB).
Our first responsibility to the world, as we have noted, is prayer. The second is to spread the good news, to hold up salvation in Jesus as the only hope for mankind. Jesus Himself commissioned this work:
"Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation. The man who believes in it and accepts baptism will be saved; the man who refuses to believe in it will be condemned" (Mark 16:15-16, NAB).
If we the Church want to effectively share in God's work, we must work in accord with His one plan for salvation. His message is, simply, this:
Yet the Lady who claimed to be sent from God contradicts His word by her requests. In June of 1917, she told little Lucia that
"Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved"(2).
Then in July, she directed the children to sacrifice themselves for sinners, and gave them a prayer to say each time they sacrificed:
"O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary"(3).
On February 18, 1926, a spirit appearing as the Child Jesus asked the now grown-up Lucia:
"What is being done to promote devotion to the Immaculate Heart of My Mother?"(4)
But the Scriptures urge us to spread devotion to Jesus:
"Thanks be to God! For through what Christ has done, He has triumphed over us so that now wherever we go He uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Gospel like a sweet perfume" (2 Corinthians 2:14, LNT).
Paul makes no reference to Mary. In fact, he warned against devotion to anyone other than Christ:
"You see, the jealousy that I feel for you is God's own jealousy; I arranged for you to marry Christ so that I might give you away as a chaste virgin to this one husband. But the serpent, with his cunning, seduced Eve, and I am afraid that in the same way your ideas may get corrupted and turned away from simple devotion to Christ. Because any newcomer has only to proclaim a new Jesus, different from the one that we preached, or you have only to receive a new spirit, different from the one you have already received, or a new gospel, different from the one you have already accepted - and you welcome it with open arms" (2 Corinthians 11:2-4, JB)
Rather than knowing the Lady of Fatima, the world must know the gospel for salvation because Jesus is coming again for all who have believed! (Hebrews 9:28). And when He comes, He will take all believers to be with Him forever.
(1) Kondor, Appendix 1, p. 191.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Kondor, p. 165.
(4) "Like A Voice From Heaven: Msgr. Connell's Message," Soul, September-October 1977, p. 9, citing his talk given at the blessing of ground for a new Shrine, October 13, 1976.
