In the Calabrian abbot's vision, he saw that in the Coming of the Holy Spirit, the deeper meaning of the scriptures would be revealed. A spiritual, as opposed to literal, interpretation of the Scriptures would result from a new relationship between the Holy Spirit and humanity. This new relationship was to begin with the bestowal of a special gift of the Holy Spirit that Joachim called intelligentia spiritualis. Professor McGinn states that, "The predominant characteristic of the third status of history, the fundamental dynamic behind all its manifestations, is the fullness of the intelligentia spiritualis (spiritual intelligence) that will be given by the Holy Spirit." According to Professor McGinn, Joachim interpreted the miracle in which Jesus changes water into wine as an analogy of the manner in which the gospel as interpreted by the spiritual intelligence sent by the Holy Spirit would be changed into the intoxicating wine of spiritual understanding and Divine contemplation.
Joachim openly criticized those who were guilty of what McGinn describes as "the intellectual error of the persistence of the literal interpretations of the Scriptures." In his writings Joachim says, "And if the preachers of the Gospel according to the letter were preferred to the Jewish doctors who preached Moses' law, they are still far below those who have spiritual knowledge of that Gospel and who walk in no way according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." The abbot prophesied that as the third dispensation approached, the conflict between spirit-directed and literalist Christian theologians and churches would become more intense and, ultimately, the "pagans and heretics will outlaw the dissemination of the spiritual understanding."
Reading between the lines, the inferences of the abbot suggests that a conspiracy based on the intentional misinterpretation of the Scriptures originated early in the history of the Church. The abbot describes the nature of the conspiracy by saying, "The external evil they did was a sign of the greater evil they conceived within, that is, to snuff out the spiritual understanding and bury it in the belly of the letter so that its voice might be heard no more in their streets nor have any further place in their possessions."
Theologians, past and present, have accused Abbot Joachim of abandoning the centrality of Jesus in salvation history. Joachim believed Jesus to be central to the progressive revelation of the will of God. But the abbot's revelatory experiences had brought him to an understanding of Jesus' role in history that was unique. For Joachim, the Christ-centered interpretation of the bible fails to take into account Jesus' extensive references to the Holy Spirit. When Jesus articulates the coming of the Holy Spirit as an extension of his own work, the inference is that the Holy Spirit is to complete what he began. Joachim was the first in history to assign to Jesus five great works, where other theologians saw only four. In addition to the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, Joachim added the Sending of the Holy Spirit.
This fifth great work of Jesus, the Sending of the Holy Spirit was thought of as having two separate phases in history. The first was the Pentecost, and the second would take place at the beginning of the third dispensation/status. The second outpouring of the Holy Spirit would culminate in the perfect spiritualization of the saved. Professor McGinn says that, "Joachim had no intention of creating a new theology of history: such a notion would have been abhorrent to him. He was convinced that everything he had to say was clearly revealed in the Scriptures to those who had been granted the intelligentia spiritualis and that he was doing nothing more than pointing to something already under our noses." Those who failed to grasp the message, failed simply because they lacked the spirit-directed understanding that revealed the inner significance of the letter.
In placing the coming age of the Holy Spirit at the center of his theology, Joachim reversed the conventional wisdom that all perfection was found in the past, in some golden age such as the time of the primitive Church, which later ages could only hope to revive in imperfect fashion. The Holy Spirit revealed that the age of perfection lay ahead. Joachim prophesied the coming of a new stage of history, established by a group of powerful spiritual beings, in which human beings would consciously participate in the revelation of the Divine numen described as "that which leaves the flesh completely behind and passes over into the spirit."
In this revelation of the Holy Spirit's interpretation of the Scriptures, Joachim inferred that fresh, even contemporary meaning would be imparted through texts whose meaning, theologians insisted, were already complete. By placing the magnet of reform in the future rather than the past, the abbot broke with previous theologies of history in a manner that has continued to be a source of inspiration for many, and a bone of contention for others. In the third status, or dispensation, Joachim describes a future event in which a full understanding of the Scriptures will introduce true peace and ecstatic prayer on earth. An event which will usher in an age in which harmony and spiritual insight will bring to completion all that is spiritual in human history...the Age of the Holy Spirit.
Joachim's visionary revelation, however, contradicted Augustine's theology. In 1215 A.D., the fourth Lateran Council of the Catholic Church repudiated Joachim's view of the Trinity. Joachim's theology, however, generated great interest in the religious order founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. The Franciscan Order was deeply inspired by the revelation of the age of the Spirit. One branch of the Order even named themselves the Spiritual Franciscans. Many of the Franciscans saw Francis as the Messiah of the Age of the Spirit. They believed its dawning to be imminent, and took liberties in assigning their own interpretations to Joachim's prophesies. The Spiritual Franciscans adherence to the vow of poverty ordered in the Testament of Saint Francis, brought them into direct opposition with the Church and members of the Franciscan Order that didn't share their beliefs.
The Spiritual Franciscans were pronounced heretics and were executed for rebelling against the Pope who ruled that Saint Francis' Testament not be binding. In the revelations of Joachim of Fiore, those who criticized the papacy, the corrupt clergy, and the conspicuous rich found their voice. Widely circulated throughout late medieval Europe and England, Joachim's texts articulated the opposition to the abuses of organized religion, and provided the terminology necessary to indict the notoriously corrupt bureaucracy of the medieval Catholic Church. The spiritually revealed dispensational system of Joachim of Fiore is the grandfather of modern dispensationalism.
With my discovery of the vision and prophesies of Joachim of Fiore, I found the historical precedent of Christian Spiritist dispensational theory. I was astounded at the exact parallels between the Coming of the Holy Spirit, as foretold by Joachim of Fiore, and the Coming of the Holy Spirit described by Juan Alvear. While Joachim describes the Coming of the Holy Spirit as a future event, Juan Alvear announced its arrival, how they acquired the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Spirit, and the means imparted to them by the Holy Spirit to proceed with the establishment of the third status/dispensation. I have found no reason to doubt that the Spiritual Messengers of Christ and the intelligentia spiritualis described by Joachim, are one.
The boxes of transcribed bible classes, revealed by the Blessed Spirit to the Filipinos, prove conclusively that the Christian Spiritists have incorporated the intelligentia spiritualis that Joachim prophesied. Though the Filipino Christian Spiritists clearly possessed the spiritual understanding that Joachim foretold, and applied that revelatory understanding to the study of the scriptures, they were completely unaware of Joachim's prophesies. Having access to the inner teachings and religious practices of the Christian Spiritists, as well as the prophesies of Joachim of Fiore, I began to compare the two in depth.
The beliefs and practices of the Christian Spiritists fulfilled the prophesies of the Calabrian abbot almost to the letter. After reviewing the material, I felt it was reasonable to assume that the Union Espiritista, which had developed under the direct governance of the Spiritual Messengers of Christ, could well be the first dawning of the Ordo Novus (New People of God) that had been revealed to Joachim of Fiore in a vision 800 years earlier. The convergence of the prophesies of Joachim of Fiore and the advent of Christian Spiritism added yet another date to the historical chronology of The Coming of the Holy Spirit.
BACK Copyright 2001 - All Rights Reserved - Revelator Harvey Martin