“A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.” – Matthew 16:4

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” – 1 John 4:1

^“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” – John 14:6

Please check out the following film by the late Jim Tetlow called “Messages from Heaven”.

 

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Addendum

A Biblical Protestant Case Against the Fatima Apparitions

Appeals to the 1917 Fatima events seem to have been getting more attention in Catholic apologetics. What’s the story? Three young shepherd children reported appearances of a luminous figure identified as Mary, along with earlier visits from an “Angel of Peace.” The messages called for prayer, sacrifice, the daily Rosary, devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, and reparation for sin. A large crowd later reported the “Miracle of the Sun.”

Britannica reads:

May 13 marks the anniversary of the first of six apparitions of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children of Fátima, Portugal. Lucia dos Santos (aged 9) and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto (aged 8 and 6, respectively) were tending sheep in central Portugal in 1917 when they had a vision of a woman surrounded by light who identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary. She exhorted them to pray the rosary for world peace and, over the course of her six apparitions, gave the children three “secrets.” She promised a miracle in October, and on the 13th of that month a crowd of perhaps 70,000 people witnessed a “miraculous solar phenomenon,” in which the Sun appeared to fall toward Earth. After initially questioning the authenticity of the children’s visions, the Vatican accepted them as appearances of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Fátima), and Fátima became the location of one of the greatest Marian shrines in the world, visited by thousands of pilgrims each year.

Although Lucia dos Santos would later become a Carmelite nun and live to the age of 97, Francisco and Jacinta Marto died as children as a result of the influenza pandemic of 1918–19. The pious siblings were beatified in 2000 by Pope John Paul II, making them the youngest non-martyred children to be beatified in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. They were canonized as saints by Pope Francis in 2017 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of their visions.

I have some doubts that they were authentic supernatural events, but even granting a supernatural element, the content fails biblical tests of discernment (1 John 4:1; Deuteronomy 13:1–3; Matthew 24:24; 2 Corinthians 11:14; Galatians 1:8). The messages do not match the biblical portrait of Mary or the teaching of Scripture.

A Miracle Does Not Automatically Authenticate a Message

Deuteronomy 13:1–3 establishes the principle:

“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

A sign is not self-authenticating. Even if the predicted wonder occurs, the message must still be measured against previously revealed truth.

Other texts reinforce this broader biblical principle of testing supernatural and prophetic claims against God’s revealed truth:

• “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1).
• “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).
• “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13–14).
• “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24).

The biblical question, therefore, is not merely whether an extraordinary or even supernatural event took place. It is whether the accompanying message agrees with the revelation God has already given.

Key Messages Versus Scripture

1. Claims about Mary’s unique holiness and Immaculate Heart
The messages and later explanations speak of the “Most Holy Virgin” and “Most Holy Mother” whose “Immaculate Heart” is “terribly outraged and offended by the sins of humanity.” Devotees are urged to console her.

Scripture never teaches that Mary was conceived without original sin or that she lived without personal sin. It never assigns her an “Immaculate Heart.” Mary herself says, “And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:47). She presents God as her Saviour rather than portraying herself as an exception to humanity’s need for salvation. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is a later development without positive biblical support.

2. The Rosary and devotion to Mary’s heart as the last remedies
Our Lady is reported to have stressed the Rosary in every apparition, asking that it be prayed every day for peace. In a 1957 interview, Sister Lúcia stated that God is giving “two last remedies to the world. They are the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others.” She further claimed that “there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is… that cannot be solved by the Rosary” and that “with the Holy Rosary we will… obtain the salvation of many souls.”

The 1917 messages themselves link the salvation of souls directly to this devotion: “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.” Mary is also quoted as saying, “My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” Later reports describe this devotion as “the sure door of entering Heaven.”

The issue is not merely that the Rosary is absent from Scripture. Many Christian practices are not explicitly commanded. The problem is that Fatima assigns a particular Marian devotional system extraordinary efficacy and salvific importance—calling it one of the “last two remedies” and a primary means of saving souls—without apostolic warrant.

3. The call for reparation
The Angel instructed the children: “Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication, for the conversion of sinners.” Our Lady urged the same, showing her heart pierced by thorns that represented sins against it, and pleading, “Do not offend the Lord our God any more, for He is already too much offended!”

Scripture never teaches Christians to perform acts of reparation to Mary or to offer sacrifices as an additional satisfaction for sins that contributes to forgiveness or salvation. Christ’s atoning work is complete: “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12); “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Believers offer themselves as living sacrifices of gratitude (Romans 12:1), not as atoning or reparative payments for sin.

4. The religious role assigned to Mary
Fatima presents Mary’s Immaculate Heart as a refuge, a means by which souls are saved, and the way that leads believers to God. Whatever terminology is used, this assigns her a religious function Scripture never gives her.

When people in Scripture bow before angels or men, they are corrected (Acts 10:25–26; Revelation 19:10). More decisively, Scripture never portrays Mary’s heart—or any creature—as the pathway or refuge through which salvation and access to God are obtained.

5. Absence of the apostolic gospel
Some defenders argue that because the apparition spoke of praying to Jesus and of repentance, it must have been from God. Yet Scripture warns that deception often mixes truth with error. Satan can present himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) and promote a message that appears religious while shifting attention away from the sufficiency of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3–4).

The Fatima messages never clearly proclaim the apostolic gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Instead, they attach extraordinary salvific significance to the Rosary, devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, reparation, and sacrifice—practices presented as primary means of saving souls and obtaining peace.

By contrast, the New Testament declares:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

Even an angel from heaven is under a curse if he brings a different gospel (Galatians 1:8). The overall emphasis of Fatima produces a syncretism that competes with the unique glory and finished work of Christ.

Documentary Considerations

The surviving written records of the secrets are retrospective. Lúcia recorded the first two secrets in 1941 and the third in 1944—many years after the 1917 apparitions and after some of the relevant historical events had already occurred. These later documents therefore cannot function as straightforward contemporaneous records of what was originally said.

The children claimed to have received three “secrets” from the apparition in July 1917. However, no contemporary written record from 1917 contains the specific details later associated with those secrets—particularly the references to Russia and a future war.

From a historical and documentary standpoint, the timeline shows a clear gap:

• 1917 Apparitions: The children said they received the secrets in July 1917 but did not write them down at the time. They kept the contents private, as they said the apparition instructed, although Lúcia occasionally indicated that a major secret existed. No public statement in 1917 spelled out details about Russia or a second world war.
• Bolshevik Revolution (November 1917): This took place only a few months after the July apparition and fundamentally changed Russia before any formal written version of the secrets existed.
• World War II (1939–1945): This began more than twenty years after the apparitions.

When were the secrets first written down?
Sister Lúcia first put the first two secrets into writing in 1941 (in her third and fourth memoirs, requested by her bishop). These included the mention of Russia and the prediction of a coming war. The Catholic Church made the first two secrets public in 1942, during World War II. The third secret was written in 1944 and published only in 2000.

What the “errors of Russia” referred to
In the second secret, the apparition warned that if people did not convert, Russia would “spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.” In the historical context of Fatima and later Catholic interpretation, these “errors” were understood as atheistic communism and the revolutionary ideology that emerged from the Bolshevik Revolution.

Reason for caution
Because the detailed written accounts of the secrets were produced many years after the 1917 apparitions—and after the Bolshevik Revolution and the outbreak of World War II—historians note that the texts are retrospective rather than contemporaneous. This creates an evidentiary gap: the later documents cannot serve as straightforward, independent proof of exactly what was said in 1917, and they remain open to later clarification, emphasis, or refinement.

Doctrinal Fruit

The lasting doctrinal fruit of Fatima has been the strengthening and widespread promotion of certain Marian doctrines and devotional practices that, judged by Scripture, lack clear apostolic warrant and risk obscuring the unique mediatorial and salvific role that the New Testament assigns to Christ alone.

Fatima’s messages and the subsequent devotional movement have notably advanced:

• Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as an object of reparation and consecration;
• The practice of offering sacrifices and prayers specifically to console or make reparation to Mary’s heart for sins against her;
• Language and piety that, in popular form, can present Mary as a necessary or quasi-mediatorial figure in the distribution of graces and in the work of salvation.

Scripture, by contrast, presents Christ as the sole mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5), the one High Priest whose once-for-all sacrifice is sufficient (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12, 26–28; 10:10–14), and the exclusive way to the Father (John 14:6). While Mary is rightly honored as the mother of the Lord and as a model of faith (Luke 1:38, 46–55), the New Testament never directs believers to offer reparation to her heart, to consecrate themselves to her, or to view her as a channel whose intercession is required for the application of Christ’s merits.

All teaching and practice must be tested against the written Word of God (Proverbs 30:5–6; John 17:17; Matthew 4:4, 7, 10; Acts 17:11). When measured by that standard, the distinctive doctrinal emphasis that Fatima has fostered does not rest on apostolic foundation and tends to shift attention from the finished work of Christ to additional acts of reparation directed toward Mary. That outcome itself constitutes a serious warning about the apparition’s fruit.

Strange Mortification for Children

Inspired by the visions—particularly after seeing a terrifying vision of hell—the children independently chose to practice rigorous physical mortifications. They wore rough cords tightly around their waists, gave their food to the poor or to sheep, and went without water on hot days:

“SUFFERING THIRST

On one occasion, Lucia and the other two children, while suffering from severe thirst, decided to forego drinking from a jar of water that Lucia fetched from a nearby house and poured it instead into a hollow in a stone for the sheep to drink.

SELF-INFLICTED PAIN

On other occasions, they would hit their own legs with nettles, “so as to offer to God yet another sacrifice.”

Such were the edifying examples of mortification the child seers practiced because of their deep understanding of the urgent necessity of acts of reparation and sacrifices to appease Divine Justice and to mitigate the injuries perpetrated against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Let us take all these to heart and apply them to our own situation keeping in mind the widespread decadence corroding the moral well-being of our contemporary times. It is undeniable that much penance and prayers are needed to atone for all these transgressions. One needs just to open the newspaper or watch the nightly news to find proofs.” (Source)

A later devotional account from American Needs Fatima presents these practices as edifying examples of mortification and interprets them as acts of reparation and sacrifice intended to “appease Divine Justice” and “mitigate the injuries perpetrated against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” It further encourages readers to imitate this spirit of penance and reparation.

The issue is not fasting or ordinary Christian self-denial, which Scripture clearly recognizes. What raises the red flags is the combination of children deliberately inflicting pain or severe deprivation upon themselves as religious acts of reparation, reportedly in response to an alleged supernatural apparition.

The practice of deliberately striking themselves with nettles is especially difficult to justify from Scripture. Whatever one thinks of ordinary fasting or self-denial, deliberately inflicting physical pain as a religious sacrifice is a different matter. Where does Scripture give Christians any precedent or command to do this?

The question becomes even more serious when the supposed authority behind these practices is an alleged apparition. Where does Scripture teach that God would authorize children to deliberately inflict pain or severe deprivation upon themselves as acts of religious reparation because of a supernatural revelation?

The biblical issue is therefore not whether Christians may ever fast, suffer, sacrifice, or practice self-denial. They certainly may. The issue is whether an alleged apparition has the authority to introduce particular forms of religious mortification that Scripture itself does not command.

Closing

If Fatima was merely a natural phenomenon, it would provide no divine authentication. If it was genuinely supernatural, its supernatural character still does not authenticate its message, because Scripture explicitly warns that supernatural signs can accompany religious deception. Once the message itself is tested against Scripture—especially the principles of Deuteronomy 13, Galatians 1, 1 John 4, and the wider apostolic gospel—the Marian claims associated with Fatima fail the biblical standard.

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).