2023 A.D.: A Statue of Apostle Peter In Argentina, Pope Francis' Home Country, Struck By Lightning On Dec 17th, Pope Francis' Birthday, With Chilling Results, One Day Before the Pope Calls For Very Controversial Blessing of God-Forbidden Same Sex Type Unions?
Before and After the Lightning Strike. Peter's Halo is Gone. Peter's Keys to the Kingdom Are Gone.
Lightning struck a statue of Saint Peter the Apostle located on the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas, a town north of Buenos Aires, in Argentina. It is presumptuous to pretend to say with absolute certainty that God sent a lightning bolt to strike this statue, and if He even did, it is terribly presumptuous pretending to know with certainty what was in the mind of God when He did it. Nor do I know what God thinks of the current Pope, Francis. But this statue is from Argentina, and so is Pope Francis. This statue was reportedly struck by lightning on December 17th, 2023. Pope Francis was reportedly born on December 17th, 1936, so the statue was struck on the Pope's birthday. One of the titles given to Popes is Vicarius Petri (successor of Peter the Apostle) and this is a statue of Peter. This lightning strike removed the halo (the halo is a sign of holiness) from the head of the statue, and the metal keys from the statue's hand, one day before the Pope made a very liberal and strange seeming change in church policy which a person might surmise that God might be very unhappy with.
The reason that a statue of Peter the Apostle might be shown holding keys is this passage from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16:
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
End quote.
So the keys that a statue of Peter will sometimes be shown holding are the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, granted to Peter by Jesus. And so, it would presumably be a bad sign if a lightning bolt from heaven removed both the halo and the keys from a statue depicting Peter. It could be interpreted as a bad sign. But it is only for God the Father, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit to know with certainty. But for Pope Francis...well, it may seem to be hitting a little close to home for Pope Francis, who made an announcement called the Fiducia Supplicans which approved giving a limited type of Catholic Church blessings to some non-traditional marriages, even gay marriages, essentially, the very next day after this lightning strike of the statue of Peter.
There are not so many places in the Bible where God's word specifically speaks of homosexuality. There might be a dozen or so. But, where it does speak of it, it has nothing positive to say about it, and in fact it does identify it as a bad thing, a serious sin. Sins can cost you your salvation! God cannot look upon sin, scripture tells us. So for any Christian religious leader to give the thumbs up to what God our Maker has specifically condemned is bold defiance indeed.
I don't know what this event means, if anything. But if I was to guess, I would guess that Pope Francis needs to retract this change in Catholic Church policy and probably ask God's forgiveness, since the signs seem to have ominous connotations if indeed they are signs. At the very least, it might mean that he should pray for an answer concerning whether he made an error in judgement. It is one of the stranger occurrences that has come to light in many years.