Many Christians are unaware of the meaning and significance that St. Michael’s name bears. Throughout the entire history of the Church, St. Michael has been viewed as a protector and guardian. Our current prayer to St. Michael, penned by Pope Leo XIII, states specifically, “Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.” But what about his name itself?
The name “Michael” is a question, and it bears a great deal of significance for us, and is perhaps most understood in our current age of debauchery and death. “Michael” means, “Who is like God?” It may seem rather odd that St. Michael’s name would be a question, but the meaning of this question will become evident after a few brief readings from the Scriptures.
St. John, in the Book of Revelation, describes the rebellion in Heaven:
“Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.” (Revelation 12:7-9)
As we know from Tradition, and also from St. John, it was Michael the Archangel who cast Satan out of Heaven. But what was the nature of the Rebellion itself? The prophet Isaiah says that Lucifer said in his heart, “I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:14) The choice of words “like the most High” are very interesting, especially considering who it was that cast Lucifer out of Heaven. If Lucifer said, “I will be like the most High,” then Michael’s name is a question directly aimed at Lucifer’s declaration. In effect, he is asking Lucifer, “Who is like God?”
But this isn’t a question without an answer.
In the book of Genesis, Holy Moses explains, “Then God said: Let us make man to our image and likeness.” So, when Michael announced his own name by asking the question, “Who is like God?” he is pointing to man, because man was made in the image and likeness of God.
The fact that we are made in the image of God is clear. Our Blessed Lord is the Word through whom all of creation came into existence. When Adam was created, in the image of God, he was made in the physical reflection of God. But what about the “likeness?” The image refers to visual similarity, but likeness has more to do with the nature of the thing. There is only one way by which man is like God, and that is our participation in creation. The one power man possesses which NO angelic being possesses is the ability to participate in creation. In other words, people can make more people, but angels cannot make more angels.
This places an interesting perspective on the rebellion in Heaven. Lucifer’s desire to be “like the most High” is a sign of his rejection of God’s plan for Creation. And since man is created in the image and likeness of God, it stands to reason that the strongest attacks of the devil would be focused on the one thing that man can do, which the devil cannot. In short, the devil wishes to destroy us through our likeness of God.
Today, and more specifically throughout the 20th century, we have seen a steady 
and unwavering assault on man’s participation in creation. The first wave of attacks came in the form of the birth control movement of the early 1900’s. Through this movement, the devil deceived men by convincing them to rebel against God’s gift of the power of co-creating more people. This rebellion was a direct assault on the power God gave to man by creating us in His likeness. The second wave came through the rise of no-fault divorce. It was through a series of legislative decrees in early 1918, under the revolutionary government of Russia, that no-fault divorce was introduced to the world. Lenin’s revolutionary government in Russia produced . The code introduced “mutual consent of both spouses as well as the wish of one of them” as grounds for divorce. It is no coincidence that Our Lady of Fatima warned that “Russia will spread her errors throughout the world” just a few months before no-fault divorce was legislated into existence by the Russians. Through birth control and no-fault divorce, the devil attacked both the structure and the power of man’s participation in creation. Then came war and abortion. There is not a single year since World War I where there has not been a state of war or rebellion around the globe. And with the introduction of abortion, the devil has launched a third assault on the likeness of God by attacking the very fruits born out of this likeness.
But what we face today is the very crown of the devil’s assault on the likeness of God. The Book of Genesis says, “male and female He created them.” Through this complimentary likeness, the human race is able to participate in the creation of new people. But through the deception of the devil, man’s concept of the masculine and the feminine has become twisted. The very concept of a homosexual “person” is an assault on the likeness of God. While all of mankind was cursed with concupiscence, struggling against the temptations of the flesh, in truth, there is no such thing as a “gay man” or “lesbian woman,” because the dignity provided to ALL human beings includes the image and likeness of God. But homosexual acts (by which self-proclaimed gay men and lesbian women identify themselves) are a full and complete rejection of man’s likeness to God. In its very essence, the idea of homosexuality is the complete rebellion of man’s own nature because in rejecting man’s likeness to God it attempts to remold man into the likeness of the devil; barren, twisted, and seeking to be something other than what he was created to be.
Now, society and the courts are fighting to entrench sodomy under the guise of a sacrament. This satanic revolt will be the devil’s most ferocious assault against humanity, but as Satan was cast out of Heaven by St. Michael, the prophet Daniel tells us that St. Michael holds a particular significance in our time today.
“But at that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people: and a time shall come such as never was from the time that nations began even until that time. And at that time shall thy people be saved, every one that shall be found written in the book.” (Daniel 12:1)
There can be no doubt to the satanic nature of so-called same-sex ‘marriage,” but just as St. Michael cast the dragon out of Heaven, we join Pope Leo XIII in his prayer, “Do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, cast into Hell, Satan, and all the evil spirits who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.”
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Brilliant analysis.
“…But behold, that enemy of mankind and a muderer from the beginning has regained his confidence. Transforming himself into an angel of light, he goes about with the whole multitude of wicked spirits, to invade the earth, to blot out the name of God and His Christ, to plunder and consign to eternal damnation the souls that have been destined for everlasting life. This wicked serpent pours into men of depraved minds and corrupt hearts the poison of his malice, the spirit of lying godlessness and blasphemy, the deadly breath of impurity, and every form of vice and iniquity.
These crafty enemies of mankind have filled with gall and wormwood the Church, which is the bride of the Lamb without spot, they have laid profane hands upon her most sacred treasures. Even in the most holy sanctuary of blessed Peter the Apostle they have setup the throne of their iniquity, in the hope that the chief shepherd may be stricken and the flock scattered..” – Leo XIII, prayer to St. Michael composed after a vision
It’s very simple, the Rothschild family and their inbred cousins have the world in the grip of terror, they have murdered hundreds of millions, stolen trillions, have enslaved the entire planet in their tax schemes and government control, are sewing perversion and utter destruction in formerly Catholic countries and are Hell bent on murdering the majority of humanity. They are Satan’s children and only when the real Catholic wealthy and nobles with influence decide to take the world back from these vermin will the world be saved. The time for endlessly yacking is over, the time for real action is now. The first thing that needs to happen is Francis the talking mule needs to be ejected face first into the cobblestones in St. Peter’s square.
Great job, Michael! Please send this to every Catholic priest in the diocese, especially St. Michael Catholic Church in Glen Allen.
Saint Charles Lwanga pray for us.
Thank you for this excellent explanation of our world’s demise. My father taught us the Prayer to St. Michael early on and I pray it daily with fervor now more than ever. Being married to a Michael it also has an added significance to me. We heard George Weigel speak the other day and he mentioned an excellent point that he had read about in a book written in the early 1900s: the anti-Christ will not come as a war-raging, violent ruler, but rather disguised as a compassionate being preaching tolerance and acceptance (yet of all the wrong things). In this way, he will trick humanity into following him and his evil ways. It seems the devil has crept into society and done just that. St. Michael, pray for us!
Meg, where did you hear George speak? Is there a transcript or youtube of his talk somewhere?
This could not have been more accurately written! Praise God for the inspiration to write and share this grand explanation of the trials of our days! St, Michael pray for us!
The Truth of Michael the ArchAngel is full of Truth. God’s truth. Gods Will be done.
All those against Christ will suffer.
Wow! Michael, this is brilliant. So many connections that I’d never considered. I’ve put this on my Facebook so more will see and (hopefully) learn. Thank you for this work.
Did not know that Russia introduced no fault divorce a few months after the Fatima message. Wow, that makes so many things clear. Always interpreted the warning about Russia in regards to USSR aggression, but the break up of the family and the sexual revolution have been far more devastating for society. Totally blown away by this.
Years ago it was reported that Communist leaders in the former Soviet Union had a plan of how to conquer the West by introducing Rock and Roll music to corrupt kids’ minds and then it would be no problem for them to conquer us. Here is an interesting link to an article about Fidel Castro of Cuba and his relationship to drug traffickers .
Fidel Castro Ruz, STATEMENT ON DRUG TRAFFI…
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1999/ing/n260799i…
Jul 26, 1999 … This was precisely the way the drug traffickers’ aircraft operated. … held by the House Working Group on International Drug Control and the Senate … “Castro’s program has so impressed US law enforcement officials that they…
“Years ago it was reported that Communist leaders in the former Soviet Union had a plan of how to conquer the West by introducing Rock and Roll music to corrupt kids’ minds and then it would be no problem for them to conquer us.” Whoever has done this report was either confused or not exactly truthful. Soviet Union has had no relation to Rock&Roll, and in fact it was widely restricted there, including Beatles, as a part of “unhealthy’ western/american culture and emblem of hostile capitalism. In fact, since then and to these days it is believed there that it is the opposite – it is the West has had a long term plan of how to conquer Russia by introducing Rock and Roll music, and drugs, in order to corrupt their kids’ and young people minds. In terms of homosexuality – it has been unlawful back there until fairly recently, or at least, until the collapse of the Soviet Union. A homosexual person would have to serve a time if caught. It has changed a bit by now, however, propaganda of such lifestyle and gay parades are still unlawful there.
But Rock and Roll is perfectly fine for the rest of the world since it corrupts young minds. That is what I was trying to say and the communists would have used about anything to conquer the world, even something unacceptable for their own country. Wouldn’t you agree?
Read “The Devils Pleasure Palace” to see how cultural Marxism was infected into the West by the Frankfurt School by what they called Critical Theory. There are many good talks on this in YouTube as well
Great article! St. Michael played a very important part of my conversion from active homosexuality. The attack on the “likeness of God” is real and Satan is only getting more aggressive and cunning in his deceit. I thank God everyday for lifting the veil from my eyes and sending his holy angels to protect us from harm.
I hear ya! Practically the same with me!
Very well said! Only wish your words could be heard from every pulpit in the nation.
I had no idea what the actual issue was about what homosexuality was really about and why it is so disagreeable to God. It is about satan being jealous of man’s ability to procreate and the fact that angels (and demons) can not create more of their own kind, and that makes satan unable to be like God. Homosexuality makes man unable to procreate, thus unable to be like God,so reduces man to something less than God created him to be. I only knew that homosexuality was a repugnant concept to me and has been all my life even when I had no idea why.
Why doesn’t the church hierarchy spell it out as clearly?
In fact, there are those in the church who would be
very annoyed with this forthright condemnation of
sodomite marriage. Can you clarify what is happening
and where the actual church hierarchy stand? It seems
to me that you unfortunately are in a minority.
I don’t get why so many are so ambiguous about this stuff to not be clear and concise. What are they afraid of?
Dear child of God, maybe you couldn’t really hear what he was saying, maybe something is interfering with your reception?! Please!? read on ???? I come in peace, with lots of love n chocolate!
I’ve buried my only son, I know sorrow.do hear me dear girl!
This man is NOT, in any way junkin on you or any whom are stricken thusly. (My deepest condolences! I know you must want babys! I hope God heals you in your heart, if HE wills in body and you get a slew of babies!) ! No, this guy is only talking about men on men and women on women. Homosexual, lesbian, gay, however you wanna put it. That is whom this is addressing. Only these. Not a woman who married a man and she cannot medically have children! No way. Does God not say HE made the Eunuch? And they should not say “I am a dry tree ” for God made them thusly for His sake and purpose? (I think Isaiah! But Google will help you! My bad! )
I know if I read something, or hear something, and I think it’s agiant me or says something offensive that I think is aimed at me, it fogs up my glasses, so to speak. So, I’m learning to slow down!
I will reiterate. For I feel you got hurt by this and I know he didn’t aim at you. I hope I understood what you said! Married woman some kind of no reproduction medical problem.
All he’s sayin is we are like unto God thru our ability to participate in creation, even you! I do not believe at all our likeness to God is limited soley to pushing out a baby! Lolz. Surly ypi could participate in other ways? Maybe help young mothers who’d abort their babies in ignorance and desperation? Or adopt somem how many babies out thete ain’t got no mama, daddy, granny, and dont know no God but hunger, sorrw, lonliness and rejectioion?
Ah. Well. I hope this helped, not hurt some more. It’s hard to communicate all you mean when folks aren’t face to face.,
I agree very much with BJ. We just don’t hear this from the pulpit. This article is so clear and informative. Everything you write makes complete sense. It seems every part of our humanity is under serious attack. Now we are at the point where these gross insults to God are becoming law, and we who protest are treated as criminal.
After reading this article, it’s very easy to see how clever the evil one is, insinuating himself in to every arena of our human life. How he must hate us.
I’m going to make it my mission to get the prayer to Saint Michael reinstated at the end of our Sunday Mass.
Thank you for making clear the evils of our day…now we need to pray, fast, do penance, and spread the good news of Jesus.
Profound, insightful, and to the point!
Our lady of Fatima, pray for us!
St. Michael, defend us!
Fantastic article. I will be sharing this with family and friends.
Absolute and complete nonsense
Brother,
What is nonsense are the lies spread by the devil, which have deceived MANY into believing that evil is good, and good is evil.
Profound insight! Thank you.
Second that!
I’m sorry everything you have just said regarding same sex marriage and gay people is wrong. I am a married women with PCOS. A condition that just happens in some woman. Some of us can not have children so does this mean we are no longer in the likeness of God. I am a women of faith but something that happened to me that I had no control over should not make me no longer in the likeness of God. I am still his child. You are using the word of God to promote your own belief. And should be ashamed of yourselves.
I agree with you. Poorly thought out and not Christian.
Theresa,
What was written about same-sex “marriage” is completely accurate. Physical conditions in men or women, which render them sterile, do not diminish the likeness of God within them, only sin does that. A war veteran who has suffered amputations or paralysis is no less a man than prior to his injuries. In fact, his valor in combat and acts of heroism make him even more of a man, despite the physical defects he suffered. Similarly, those who valorously combat the lies and temptations of the devil, refusing to give in to the Siren’s call of its temptations, grow in virtue and grace, while those who give in die. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “Only live bodies can swim upstream, while corpses are carried away by the current.”
Don’t be ridiculous! Many of us for some reason only God knows in His creating us, have non-functioning parts. Does this negate all that Michael Hichborn wrote regarding God’s plans and the intentions of the devil? When people like ourselves, those of us who experience challenges in our life regarding our ability to reproduce strive to get close to God, He answers in His ways for our best interest! Focus calling upon the Holy Spirit who convicts us all of the Truth, the realities;…. and you will see!
Until a strictly über dogma follower is faced with loving their child, who is, (huge gasp), LGBTQ, and wishing them a happy and loving life, nothing will change. When I read these comments about Russia and rock n roll, I feel like I’m reading a script from Saturday Nite Live. Our Lord taught the Gospels, not the scripture of conspiracy theories and homophobia. Of course, you are free to immigrate to Mr. Putin’s gay free country where you will never again have to look upon anyone that is not straight. Unreal……..
“Until a strictly über dogma follower is faced with loving their child, who is, (huge gasp), LGBTQ, and wishing them a happy and loving life, nothing will change.”
Excuse me? I personally HAVE a daughter who is in a same sex relationship. I do wish her a happy life, but we have crosses to bear in this life and ways in which we all need to die to self. If I am given the choice between wanting only a happy earthly life or only a happy eternal life for myself and others, I’ll take the latter. How ironically hateful of you to judge those of us who don’t endorse every one of our children’s actions as hateful or phobic. The latter is also offensive, as I have loved ones who have REAL phobias as well, and your deliberate misuse of that label mocks their suffering as phobics.
Yes, Our Lord taught the Gospels, and that Gospel was one of repentance, not complacency or hedonism. Was Our Lord hateful or homophobic when He reaffirmed marriage as one man, one woman in the Gospels? Were Sts. Peter and Paul hateful when they condemned immoral sexual acts? Your message is one that equates pleasure with happiness, and as Pope Francis recently told youths in Paraguay, the two are not synonymous.
You are a child of God and your marriage gives life to your community in other ways. You have not choosen to reject your sexuality. God bless you.
I am a married woman with PCOS, and I fully support Mr. Hichborn’s defense, because it is also God’s defense on the matter.
Someone who is unable to have children is not willingly preventing procreation. However, someone who has sex with the same gender is willfully participating in an act that cannot procreate, therefore not participating in God’s creation as He intended. They are not the same scenario. God knows what’s best for me and my family better than I ever will, so if he gives me this cross to bear, who am I to not trust in His plan for my life, and the lives of those around me?
Actually all the support for same-sex “marriage” is what was poorly thought out and unChristian.
The article is strong and well written, however, there are notable inconsistencies, which (I hope) may be unintentional, but on the other hand they appear to indicate particular prejudices. For example, by fact, the WWI had started on July 28, 1914 (by the Austro-Hungarians that declared war on Serbia and subsequently invaded it ) which had happened 3 years before Russian revolution, and 4 years earlier than Russian Family Code of 1918 was produced – while the article conveys a different order of things, practically condemning Russians for the start of all the world problems, including wars and and rebellion around the globe. Considering date of the article and currently developing geo-political conflicts near Russian borders, the motivations of the author of the article appear to be questionable.
What everyone else said. Utter nonsense. Quote from canon scripture, get your actual information together and really, get thee to confession and confess to spreading misinformation. This is honestly terrible.
I will be withdrawing my support of the Lepanto institute.
There is only one way by which man is like God, and that is our participation in creation.
There is more than one way by which man is like God: Man has a free will as does God. Man also has an intellect.
John – that’s exactly what came to my mind when I read the article! That we are created in the “likeness of God” does not – or not only – include our ability to procreate in the physical world. This is itself only one reflection of that “likeness of God” on the physical level – animals have that property too. The original “likeness of God” is a property of our soul – but still it is true that it has to do with the ability to create. We can create ideas out of our mind – that’s another reflection of the “likeness of God”, and we have the free will to decide between different options – creating a certain act not by a cause, but by an un-caused, free decision. All these are different manifestations of that likeness – in different spheres of our being.
This deep connectedness of physical procreation and our ability to create ideas and to make free decisions is supported by the fact that the Bible uses the word “know” for the act of procreation like in Gen 4,1 “Now Adam *knew* Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain” (and Mary asks who could I get a child, I never *knew* a man). Let’s not forget the harsh saying of Paul that marriage is only for avoiding fornication: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” (1 Kor 7.2) Clearly, it’s a sacrament in the Church, and we have to think great of it. But it is only in a mirror what is really meant by “likeness of God”, it is only a symbol of our souls’ marriage with Christ. In the resurrection, when our likeness of God will be fully restituted, we will “neither marry, nor given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Mt 22:30)
Do not be detered, u are not d sower.Jesus is and knows how to water His Garden. Preach d good news; dats d mandate of Christ
In searching for a Bible verse, I innocently went to: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) http://www.usccb.org/bible/approved-translations/index.cfm
Under Approved translations, the fifth entry on list, you will find an “approved inclusive version”. What?!?! Of all places to find the Princes of the Church advocating an inclusive version? I was blown away. Do we know of any human/Church organization we can trust?
Regarding my previous comment, below please find what I have just sent the USCCB:
With all due respect to the USCCB as the Princes of Christ’s Flock, I am bewildered that, under “Approved Bible Translations” the list consists of The Grail Psalter (Inclusive Language Version), G.I.A. Publications. I know we now are questioning Our Lord’s own words on the Sacrament of Marriage and this inclusivity is one of the roots of why we are where we, regrettably, find ourselves as the Holy Roman Catholic Church. How can so many, not all, of our Bishops continue to deceive and guide us down a path where Our Redeemer’s teaching and our Dogmas are swept under the rug with such ease and lack of conscience.
I never thought I would be writing such a comment.
May God have mercy on us! May Our Holy Mother’s powerful intercession save us!
Well thought-out. Thanks.
People don’t have a female body and a male soul, or a male soul and a female body. The current propaganda coming out of the secularists is that you can be a female in your brain and a male in your body, or a male in your brain and a female in your body. But this is impossible because the difference between man and woman are soul-deep and the soul is just one thing, not made of parts like sexual organs or the brain.
We’re not bodies with souls, but souls with bodies. Man’s soul is made in the image and likeness of God; made of spirit, immortal spirit. You can’t change your soul’s essence any more than you can change your maleness or your femaleness.
Very interesting perspective. I also agree that there is no such thing as a ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ or even a ‘bi’ or ‘straight’ person. These are just strange and unnecessary labels that have divided and confused society.
And that is exactly what satan wants for people to be confused and divided.
We are dead and barren twisted before God gives us spiritual life.
Does Generosity and fecundity of spirit and imagination make us more like God than anything else? Is earthly physical procreation is a type of the spiritual not the other way round? I wonder if that is why In heaven we are to be like angels not given in marraige?
Oh, if only the Catholic Church were to condemn/excommunicate those of its pedophile priests who have been responsible for ruining so many, many young lives with the same robust vigor as this article condemns the gay community. Love is not an unnatural act. When so many good and decent and loving people on this planet who happen to be gay are targeted as being “an assault on the likeness of God”, and the corrupt and pedophile homosexuality of many within in the Catholic priesthood is quietly brushed under the carpet, then the true enemies of the Catholic Church are seen to be those who attempt to defend it.
Would be interesting to know if this was the reason Patton wished to continue his march right through Russia.
Me parece extraordinario. Muy claro. Lo felicito. Dios lo bendiga. Un abrazo.
Lucifer is NOT Satan’s name. That is from an incorrect translation in the KJV of the Hebrew word helel in Isaiah 14. The word lucifer is not in the Hebrew bible, is mentioned only once and that, originally, only in the Latin Vulgate in reference to the planet Venus. The KJV translators mis-applied the word lucifer as the proper name of Satan, which makes the whole passage in Isaiah 14 about Satan and Eden and trying to usurp God, when it and the passage beginning in Isaiah 14:4 (“take up this parable against the king of Babylon”) explains that it is meant to be an ironic (prophetical) taunt aimed at the egotistical king of Babylon. In that passage he is referred to as wanting to “ascend to Heaven” and as a man headed to the grave. Also as “the man who shook the earth…” That doesn’t fit an angelic being. Other translations either do not capitalize Lucifer there or they replace it with its proper meaning, “Morning Star” — which is also applied to Jesus in 2 Peter and Revelation.
Actually, it’s a rhetorical statement praising the Nature of God! “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.” “Fear” meaning awe and respect. St. Michael had such fear in large measure–hence his exclamation! “Who is like unto God!”