222    The Bible and the Future of the World 

    The phrase  bloody wars  includes wars against the Church. For this is 

the time revealed by the book of Revelation:  Also it was allowed to make 

war on the saints and to conquer them.  (Rev 13:7). It is the beast, meaning 

the Antichrist and his kingdom, which is allowed to make war against the 

Church and the people of God. 

    The expression  on another side  (French:  d'un autre cote ) means  on 

the other hand  or  in another way.  Here death is described as both 

something that people call upon to end their suffering, and something which 

is causing people to suffer, since  blood will flow on all sides.  Death  will 

be their torture  because it is all around them. 

    The lightning of that time will be so great that the sound it produces, its 

thunder, will be capable of damaging buildings, people, and entire cities. 

Lightning produces an explosive effect on the air it travels through. The 

blast wave from a large enough explosion can do damage to objects nearby. 

Thus, a severe enough lightning storm could send shock waves through the 

air which could damage a city by the thunder itself as well as by the 

lightning. 

    The Virgin Mary gives the reason that God allows evil to have such power 

on earth. It is because  they have not adored the true Christ living among 

them.  Jesus Christ dwells among us in the true Holy Eucharist, which is 

the full and Real Presence of Jesus Christ, Body and Blood, Soul and 

Divinity. Many Christians of that time will reject the true Holy Eucharist 

and refuse to believe that the Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ. They will 

instead embrace the abomination. 

    The Virgin Mary echoes what her Divine Son Jesus Christ said:  And if 

those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for 

the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.  (Mt 24:22). She is 

describing the same time of suffering which Jesus Himself described (Mt 24). 

    After Mary says that God will let Himself be swayed by the prayers of the 

just, there are more sufferings described. These are now not the sufferings of 

the Church's Crucifixion; these are the subsequent punishments sent by God 

against the wicked. Fire from Heaven will destroy three cities. Rome will 

likely be one of those three cities because it will be at that time the seat of 

Antichrist. This will occur during the late A.D. 2430's. 

    A foreshadowing of this destruction of three great cities occurs centuries 

earlier, during the Forty Years. At that earlier time, during the war of the 

Arab nations against Europe, three great cities shall be destroyed: Vatican 

City, Rome, New York City.  Rome and Vatican City will be destroyed in 

July of 2013. New York City will be destroyed at an earlier date, I think in 

the year 2010.