Our Lady of Guadalupe & the Kingship of Christ (plus a FREE CD)
Dear Friend:
As you know, October 12 was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Empress of the Americas.
I urge you to learn all you can about the Virgin Mary's momentous apparitions and announcements that occurred, by the outworking in history of God's eternal plan, at that precise point in time (December 9-12, 1531, nearly half a millennium ago) and at that precise point in space (the exact epicenter of the Western Hemisphere's land masses).
For we have God's own word for it that the fate of our nation, and ultimately of the world, utterly depends upon our whole-hearted reception of this heaven-sent message.
Mary's maternal empire consists precisely in the public acknowledgement -- by both individuals and nations -- of her divine Son's Kingship. (See Psalm 2, especially verses 10-11.) If you pay attention to the Gospel readings the Church has traditionally assigned for this introspective, anticipatory season of Advent, it's all about the Kingship of Christ -- as is the ensuing season of Christmastide.
This kingdom was the subject of thousands of years of Old Testament prophecies. (See, for example, Daniel 2:44; 7:13-14, as well numerous psalms.)
In fulfillment of these prophecies, the kingship of Christ is the theme of the Gospels, from start to finish, beginning with the archangel Gabriel's annunciation to a young maiden in Nazareth that God the Father would give to His (and her) Son "the throne of His ancestor David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:32-33).
Similarly, when the wise men who had journeyed from the distant Gentile lands to the east arrived in Jerusalem, the crucial question with which they politely pestered every inhabitant of Israel's capital whom they encountered was, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?" (Matthew 2:2).
As at His birth, so at His death. Because the wise men's question was -- and is -- a crucial question, bringing each individual to the very crux of the matter of one's existence and meaning, Pilate providentially placed a statement of this same truth and title as a superscription over Christ's cross: "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."
All four gospels record this fact. St. Luke (23:38, at least in some manuscripts) and St. John (19:19,20) add the further detail that this information was inscribed in triune form in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin -- at least one of which every passerby who could read would have been familiar with at that time, and all three of which (now sacred) languages every Scripture scholar has subsequently been obliged to learn.
(Speaking of which, would you like to learn Biblical Hebrew, Greek, or Latin from me over the phone or by computer video conferencing in 2013? I've taught these languages for well over 30 years now, and would be delighted to add you to my students. It might make a great New Year's resolution for you, educationally speaking. Please consider it, and feel free to contact me.)
Nor is this announcement that Christ is King confined simply to the aforementioned "bookends" at the beginning and the end of His earthly ministry. (Regarding the appearance of this theme at the end of Our Lord's life, see also Luke 23:42.)
What even His forerunner John the Baptist preached -- "Do penance" (some translations read, "Repent"), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2) -- is exactly, word for word, what Jesus himself preached (see Matthew 4:17). From the very inception of and throughout His public ministry Christ was continually "preaching the gospel of the kingdom" (Matthew 4:23).
All of Christ's parables are "parables of the kingdom," in which He concretely compares "the kingdom of God" or "the kingdom of heaven" to this or that earthly analogue: a field, a fishnet, etc. (See, for example, Matthew 13.)
Our Lord was announced only as "King of the Jews" during His earthly ministry. (See Matthew 10:5-6 and 15:24.) But after -- and by virtue of -- His resurrection, which constituted Him the Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:21,22,45) -- and thus the father of a new, supernatural and supranational human community -- Christ's kingship over the Jews was extended to now encompass all nations (Matthew 28:18-20) and bring them into His kingdom as well (Acts 1:3,8).
The apostles whom Jesus thus sent forth as His ambassadors to the nations, through their inspired preaching and writing continued to proclaim to the world -- to Jew and Gentile alike -- this divine-human King and His kingdom. (See, for example, Acts 8:12; 14:21; 17:7; 19:8; 20:25; 28: 23,31; Galatians 5:21; Colossians 1:13; 4:11; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:5; 2 Timothy 4:1,18; Apocalypse 17:14; 19:16.)
I cited above Matthew 4:23, which refers to Christ preaching "the gospel of the kingdom." In the original text of the New Testament, euangelion -- the Greek word anglicized as "evangel" and translated as "gospel" (literally, "good news") -- is a technical term of political proclamation and political journalism. It is this "political message" that God commands all Christians to joyously share as "good news" with family, friends, neighbors, and ultimately the entire world.
This exciting announcement, this life-changing message, is, firstly, that by virtue of His incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension Jesus Christ is King -- truly, really, literally king -- all appearances in this age of illusions to the contrary notwithstanding. And secondly, that before His Second Coming -- at which time the reality of that kingship will no longer be in question and the opportunity to voluntarily submit to it will be over -- Christ is graciously calling all men, women, and children to diligently discover and then freely submit to Him as King.
This, and nothing else, is the Biblical gospel. And sharing and defending that gospel, as every lay follower of Christ is called to do, is what we're all about here at Biblical Foundations International.
And that brings me to the special, one-time offer I'd like to make in honor of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe as Empress of the Americas, whose divine Son is appointed King of All Nations.
I have regretfully decided, largely for financial reasons (lack of adequate cash flow), that we can no longer sell books here at Biblical Foundations International; henceforth we will only carry the CDs we produce. Therefore, once my existing stock of the 14 different titles of books we currently carry has sold out, I will not be re-ordering them, and will remove them from my online store.
One of those titles we have enthusiastically carried is the very best book serving as an introduction to the thought of the great Holy Ghost Father of the pre-Vatican II era, Fr. Denis Fahey: his masterpiece, The Kingship of Christ and Organized Naturalism, which sells for $11.95. I happen to have exactly 70 copies left in stock of this incredibly illuminating and life-changing book.
I find the coincidence interesting, as 70 is one of the most symbolically significant numbers in Sacred Scripture, in both Old and New Testaments. To give but one of many examples, God warned His people under the Old Covenant, through Jeremiah the prophet (Jeremiah 25:11; compare Daniel 9:2), that they would be deprived of their temple and its daily sacrifices for 70 years during their Babylonian captivity, a period of divine chastisement inaugurated by the desecration and destruction of their Temple in 586 BC.
The Church Fathers teach that this 70-year Babylonian captivity is also a prophetic type (i.e., a foreshadow) of a similar period of punishment and privation that will afflict God's people during the end times of the New Covenant era, the "latter days" immediately preceding the glorious Second Coming of Christ.
For this reason "recusant Catholics" suspect that the Church's present "Babylonian captivity," in which we find ourselves largely deprived of the holy sacrifice of the Mass and the ministrations of authorized priests -- with the sanctuaries of the formerly Catholic churches of the world having been desecrated by the "abomination of desolation" of the New "Mass," standing where it ought not, as Our Lord warned us in Matthew 24:15 -- might similarly last 70 years, precisely as punishment for the failure of professing Catholics -- like their Old Testament counterparts, the Israelites -- to live in faithfulness to God's covenant and according to Biblical law, including the obligation to publicly champion the social kingship of Christ, a doctrine that was in fact specifically betrayed and repudiated in the Vatican II revolution.
70 is also the numbers of elders God appointed in the Old Testament to be Moses's assistants (see Numbers 11:16-17, 24-25). And that's why it's the number of auxiliary helpers whom Christ, the New Moses of the New Covenant, appointed and sent forth to assist His apostles (Luke 10:1). It would be wonderful if a band of 70 of you could read Fr. Fahey's book and thereafter serve God (in your everyday activities according to your station in life) as ambassadors for Christ the King and articulators of His kingship to our wicked (but God-beloved) world.
(For more on the number 70, as well as other significant Biblical number patterns -- 2, 3, 4, 7, 12, 40, and many more -- see my forthcoming CD, "Decoding the Mysterious Numbers in Sacred Scripture," to be released next month, God willing.)
But back to Fr. Fahey. Once these 70 copies of his Kingship of Christ and Organized Naturalism are gone, I won't be re-ordering any. So here's my one-time offer: if you will purchase a copy of this book, you can with your order select any one of the single CDs we sell (normally selling for $9.95), and I will send you a FREE copy of the CD you select along with Fr. Fahey's book. Consider it my Christmas present to you. This offer is only good for the next 70 orders for Fr. Fahey's book, for the reason already mentioned.
What's more, this offer is NOT limited to "one CD per customer." Feel free to order 2 or more copies of Fr. Fahey's book (it makes a great Christmas gift for those who need to understand the sinfully-suppressed but all-important doctrine of the social Kingship of Christ), and I'll send you that same number of free CDs. Order, for example, 10 copies of the book, and you'll receive 10 different free CDs, of whatever titles you select.
All orders will be filled the same day they are received, to ensure you get your book(s) and CD(s) in time for Christmas.
A) The fastest and simplest way to take advantage of this special offer and get your FREE CD (worth $9.99) is to go straight to our online store, www.gerrymatatics.org/shop. Don't select the CD you want as part of your order, the way you would if you were normally ordering and paying for it; instead, in the "notes" section provided in the online order form, just indicate which CD(s) you want a free copy of, and I'll include it with your order. Again, please choose from one of the CDs that normally sells for $9.99; our 2-CD (e.g., "Every King Has a Queen Mother"), 3-CD ("Bonding with Benedict") and 6-CD ("Counterfeit Catholicism") titles and 8-CD "Plot Against the Church" sets are not included in this special offer.
B) If for whatever reason you prefer not to purchase from our online store, a second option is to call me at (570) 969-1724. Please leave on my voicemail your MasterCard, Visa, or Discover Card's 16-digit number, expiration date, 3-digit security code from the back of the card, your name exactly as it appears on the card (including any middle initial), your credit card's billing address (I'm not allowed to charge your card without confirming all the above information to your card's issuing bank), your shipping address (if it differs from your card's billing address), and the free CD(s) you want. Please leave a phone number where I can reach you if any part of your message is unclear or unintentionally incomplete. I'll take care of the rest.
C) A third option (the slowest) is to mail a check or money order for $16.95 (assuming you're purchasing one copy of the book, at $11.95 plus $5 shipping and handling) to: Gerry Matatics, PO Box 569, Dunmore PA 18512. Please make the check payable to either "Gerry Matatics" or "Biblical Foundations International."
Thanks for your order! I look forward to sending you a FREE single CD of your choosing along with each copy of Fr. Fahey's Kingship of Christ and Organized Naturalism that you order. May Almighty God abundantly shower you with many rich blessings during this introspective and expectant season of Advent, and throughout the following glorious Christmastide!
Yearning for the advent of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Gerry Matatics
PS. Some of you may have ordered our new 12-CD "Victory Through Virtue" set, and might be wondering why you haven't yet received it. We are still committed to getting it to you before Christmas, but earlier this month we hit a massive and unexpected "road bump" in our progress toward that goal, which I'll tell you more about in a new letter I'll be posting here on the website this coming Monday (December 17). Thanks for your patience, and please keep us in your prayers!