Have current world events now unfolding already be been predicted by Nostradamus and astrology or the bible? Is it possible to predict the future using astrological or other "New Age," methods or has it already been predicted by Nostradamus or the bible? How accurate have the predictions of Nostradamus been? Some say that Nostradamus has already predicted many major events like Hitler's rise to power and World War II in "Centuries". Was this man Nostradamus an enlightened diviner or "false prophet," with demonic and occult influences? How does the bible relate to all of this and how accurate has it been in predicting events past and future? |
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. Behold, I have told you before.(Mt. 24:24-25). |
8~2 Predictions of Nostradamus,
Astrology, and the Bible
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Astrology
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Interestingly enough there are about 10,000 people who work fulltime in astrology in the United States and 200,000 working part time (from the book “Psychic Forces” by John Weldon and Clifford Wilson). The Babylonians took astrology seriously in 3000 B.C. The ancients believed that the power of the constellations affected the lives of humans. Early Greek Zodiacs had thirteen signs including the Pleiades.
Contemporary astrology uses twelve constellations, which are known as the Zodiac. They are Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Gemini the Twins, Cancer the Crab, Leo the Lion, Virgo the Virgin, Libra the Balance, Scorpio the Scorpion, Sagittarius the Archer, Capricorn the Goat, Aquarius the Water Bearer and Pisces the Fish.
There are two major schools in astrology. “Siderial” astrology deals with the constellation in which the sun is located at the moment of birth and “Tropical” astrology handles a thirty degree slice of the zodiac or a sector. The latter “Tropical” sector astrology was developed for convenience because, “constellations such as Virgo, which bulges beyond the confines of that allotted 30 degrees, and Libra, which occupies only half the allotted area, created a situation in which mythical figures were hanging over everywhere, and so someone had to ‘draw the line’ Some constellations are barely within the traditional 16-degree-wide-band of the zodiac, while the Man-Killing-a-Snake-or Dragon” is on the zodiac, but not used” (Quoting the book “Flim-Flam” by James Randi, Chapter 4 “Into the Air, Junior Birdmen”).
Some of the principal arguments arguing against the validity of astrology include the following:
- Within the
profession of astrology “Siderial” and “Tropical” astrology are
at odds with one another.
- There are two hundred and fifty billion stars in our own galaxy and over
one hundred billion galaxies twirling about in space. Therefore
the are 25,000,000,000,000,0000,0000,0000 stars in space which
could mold a person’s personality, affect his or her likes and
dislikes, and predetermine his or her personality, direction
in life … That’s what astrology would have you believe!
- Because of their distance in light years we are seeing the light of some
stars which no longer exist. They may have imploded or exploded
thousands if not millions of years ago. Is it fair to say one
of these stars determine one’s personality at birth?
- Pursuant to astrology each person is influenced by a wide array of signs,
but primarily by one’s birth sign and one’s ascendant, the sign
that was rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth.
There are also one’s moon sign, career sign, and various house
sings. In other words a human being is an amalgam of all the
signs of the zodiac!
- Different astrological magazines show totally different horoscopes for the
same sign on the same day. There is no consistency in the field
of astrology.
- Why should the sign at the moment at birth prevail? Why shouldn’t the sign
at the moment of conception?
- It would seem that the physician’s body as he assists at childbirth exerts
a greater gravitational influence on a baby being born than the
entire gravitational field of the planet Mars (James Randi op.cit.).
- Astronomers tell us the constellations have shifted from where they were
2,000 years ago. Each sign in relation to the earth has moved
thirty degrees to the west. Instead of being an Aquarian you
may find you are a Capricorn!
The Bible warns us in Deuteronomy 4:29, “Beware, lest you lift your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.” In Deuteronomy 17:2-3 doing “evil in the sight of the Lord your God” is identified as worshiping other gods “or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host.”
Worshiping the sun or the moon is the same as making oneself dependent on them and turning to them for direction and guidance, after all if you believe in astrology you also believe that the heavenly bodies direct your life.
This author knows of an Eastern guru who has his followers, for a hefty fee, obtain astrological charts from his resident astrologers. If the astrological charts are not favorable, you can pay additional money to the guru for a “karmic adjustment.” The guru has done very well for himself and has found no shortage of devotees willing to part with their money.
The bottom line with astrology is that it fails to stand reasoned analysis. Why create needless worries and apprehension from a belief system that fails to meet the test of common sense? Why create false expectations?
As this website clearly proves there is an Intelligent Designer outside time and space. Why put yourself in bondage to an aspect of the Creation when one can worship the Creator of the Universe? Why honor the pot when one can honor the potter? Why give glory to the software when one can honor its Designer? |
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Astrology,
Nostradamus, and the Bible ~ Predictions of Michel de Nostredame,
Bible Prophecy & Astrological Predictions
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“So
why are you trying to find out the future by consulting witches
and mediums? Don’t listen to their whisperings and mutterings.
Can the living find out the future from the dead? Why not ask your
God?” (Isaiah 8:19).
Nostradamus was an occult prophet who lived from 1503 to 1566. Michel de Nostredame
(or Notredame) was born in St. Remy, France to a family of Jews
who became Catholics. Although it is reported in several prominent
publications he took a medical degree at the University of Montpelier,
Peter Lemesurier in his excellent book “The Unknown Nostradamus”
documents that while Nostradamus applied for entrance at the University
of Montepelier in 1529, Guillaume Rondelet, the student registrar,
denied him enrolment in the student body for being a “quack.” There
is absolutely no record of his re-admission.
Having been denied admission he set to wander
the highways and byways of Europe as a apothecary in search of
medical knowledge. When the plague struck Aix en Provence in 1546
the local doctors undoubtedly fled in panic. The celebrated Toulouse
doctor Augier Ferrier, a Montpellier alumnus, counseled his fellow
doctors, “Get out fast, stay well away, come back late.”
According to Lemsurier, “And since the only reputable
doctor who could be relied upon to stay and fight the pestilence
was still engaged in Marseille, and either couldn’t or wouldn’t
come, the only thing left to do was to invite his second-in-command.
If the organ-grinder refused to perform, there was nothing for
it but to settle for the monkey.”
Aix in June 1546 hired “Micheou de Nostredame”
to fight the plague. Nostradamus concocted some rose-pills for
repelling the plague. He later admitted that none of his methods
worked and that even his rose-pills were only a prophylactic. His
wife and son tragically died of the plague.
The prophet Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes,
“That which has been is that which will be, and that which has
been done is that which will be done, so there is nothing new under
the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). As with most of human history the
15th and first part of the 16th century were rife with climatic,
economic, political and religious events. Europe’s “Little Ice
Age,” was in full swing in the 1520’s and crops were devastated,
the plague ravaged towns and cities, the rulers of Europe were
continually waging war with one another, Soleiman the Magnificent
with his superbly trained Janissary armies were sweeping into southeast
Europe from Ottoman Turkey up to the very gates of Vienna.
Darkly viewing the future, the public developed
an unsatiable appetite for books on prophecies. One of the most
successful was the “Mirabilis liber” of 1522 which was undoubtedly
read by and inspired Nostradamus and which in many ways is a paraphrase
of Biblical prophecy (John’s Book of Revelation: the two prophets
confronting AntiChrist, Ezekiel 38-39:Gog of the land of Magog
and Gog’s allies attack Israel, Joel 2: the perfectly trained northern
army): Here is a sample quote:
“In the very midst of this calm there shall suddenly
emerge from the north with Gog and Magog, a nation that shall make
the whole world tremble. Horrified, all men shall hide themselves
in the mountains and among the rocks in order to flee their presence.
They are not of the race of Japheth. The plague of the North, they
shall devour human flesh and snakes, women and little children.”
By contrast the Bible in Ezekiel 38: 2-9(NASB),
which is possibly a an Armageddon or pre-Armageddon end time scenario
(some speculate seven or even three and a half years prior to the
Battle of Armageddon) reads:
“Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land
of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy
against him, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am againt
you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. And I will turn
you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out,
and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly
attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding
swords; Persia, Ethiopia, and Put with them, and all of them with
shield and helmet; Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from
the remote parts of the north with all its troops – many peoples
with you. Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your companies
that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. After many
days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into
the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have
been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which
had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them. And
you will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a
cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples
with you.’”
The prophet Ezekiel is prophesying an invasion
of Israel, whose people had been scattered to the nations and regathered
in the “latter days”. The confederation is headed by Gog who comes
from the “remotest parts of the north” (Ezekiel 39:2). Many of
the countries named are recognizable. In brief God divinely intervenes
through a great earthquake, pestilence, torrential rain, fire,
brimstone and by sowing internal discord in the ranks of the invaders.
The invading army is annihilated (Ezekiel 3-6, NASB):
“And I shall strike your bow from your left hand,
and dash down your arrows from your right hand. You shall fall
on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops, and the peoples
who are with you; I shall give you as food to every kind of predatory
bird and beast of the field. You will fall on the open field; for
it is I who have spoken, declares the Lord God. And I shall send
fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety
(possibly a worldwide nuclear exchange); and they will know that
I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel 39:14-15 informs us men will be appointed
to pass through the land for seven months to search the land and
put markers by the bones. Special buriers, perhaps a radioactive
“decontamination team”, will then bury the dead in the valley of
Hamon-gog.
Undoubtedly Nostradamus, being of Jewish heritage,
was familiar with the prophecies of the Old Testament. Because
people were willing to pay good money to know the future, especially
to know next year’s weather, two or three dozen almanacs were being
published each year in Europe, many of them Biblically based.
Nostradamus entered into this lucrative profession
and published his first almanac.
For Nostradamus, the approach in prophesying was:
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- Do
not be specific enough to be proved wrong. Be vague and cryptic.
- Write in such a way as the reader will believe you know something, even if
it’s nothing, and are hinting darkly at something you will
not say. This increases the “aura of mystery” and makes your
prophecies “portentous”.
- Predict on subjects with a high likelihood of occurring: war, pestilence,
weather events, political intrigue, death of high profile
individuals, accidents … and of course prophesy them in a
cryptic manner.
- If you make enough prophecies, a few will come true per the law of averages
or “if you throw enough mud on the wall, some of it will
stick.” In his “Prognostication” for 1554 Nostradamus had
149 new prophecies. He would later have over 300 prophecies
a year.
- For credibility purposes throw in a few “ex-post-facto” prophecies. With time
the gullible will forget that you weren’t prophesying but
retelling history. The ignorant won’t know the difference.
- Resurrect some of your failed prophecies. History tends to repeat itself and
you might “get lucky.”
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Forty
years after Nostradamus published his first “Almanac” his faithful
latter-day secretary, Chavigny, was unable to identify any prophecy
as having been specifically fulfilled. He offered the lame excuse,
“he really meant some other year.” In 1553 Nostradamus published
two “Almanachs” which were significantly different (perhaps like
reading your horoscope for the same day in two different astrological
magazines). It was not uncommon for Nostradamus to recycle some
of his prophecies in later publications.
It is interesting to note that in Old Testament times a prophet of God was one
who was one hundred percent correct. The penalty for not being
100% right was stoning. In New Testament times prophecy is a “gift
of the spirit.” The true spirit of prophecy is inspired and quickened
by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. God, being outside the time
dimension (See the discussion of “Time is a physical property with
a beginning” on this website in Section 9 “Creation vs. Evolution”
under the “Cosmological Argument For God’s Existence” subsection),
does not lie and sees the beginning and end of human history from
an extra dimensional perspective.
Only true prophets of God, who are given supernatural
insights into the future by God Himself, are infallible. In light
of this absolute standard, Nostradamus’s prophesies are presumption
(Deuteronomy 18:22).
Nostradamus based his predictions on astrology
and admitted consulting the planetary charts. Planetary charts
are written in the belief that heaveny bodies influence human affairs,
a wild improbability per the previous analysis of astrology. Therefore
Nostradamus’s works are individual speculation (intuitive forecasting)
and being astrologically based also occultic. Nostradamus was engaged
in speculation, charlatanism (see below), and occultism.
The speculation rests on the irrational assumption
that similar events in human history will reoccur in the future,
as far as hundreds of years from now, when the same planetary alignment
(the planets would again be in the same signs) reoccurs. Something
very similar to Hannibal’s invasion of Spain and Mediterranean
coastal Europe would reoccur, per Nostradamus, when the same planetary
alignment was again in evidence in the future.
All Nostradamus had to do is look up the positions
of the planets at the time of the former historical events and
then use a readily available published book of planetary tables,
such as the “Alphonsine Tables” of Jean de Murs available to the
public since the fourteenth century or the ninth century “De Magnis
Coniunctibus”, frequently quoted by him, and then with the aid
of planetary tables determine when similar patterns would happen
again in the future. More often however Nostradamus simply stated
what the planetary positions had been and let the reader figure
out the future timings (of the reoccurring events) because these
situations involved significant positions of harder to chart inner
planets.
No great divinatory skills were needed for this.
The “Astronomicum Caesareum” came with a set of “disc-type paper
computers” to make the job easier for putative astrologers. We
often picture Nostradamus as wearing a conical hat adorned with
new moons staring in the late night into the swirling mists of
a crystal ball. But this does not appear to be the case. Professional
astrologers in his day assailed his obvious astrological incompetence.
The reality was that Nostradamus was not much
of an astrologer. Nearly every one of the horoscopes he cast for
wealthy individuals contained per Peter Lemesurier (op.cit.) one
significant error and “about half would contain whole rafts of
them”. Because of this Nostradamus expected his clients to have
their astrological charts already drawn by expert astrologers prior
to seeing him. One may wonder why anyone bothered to see Nostradamus
in the first place! Maybe this is similar to getting a “second
opinion” after having seen your own doctor, just in case. The problem
here is your own doctor is more skilled than the “second opinion”.
Regardless, Nostradamus had hit upon the winning
formula of projecting into the future past events. If events reoccur
then you can have a plethora of prophecies, recycled historical
events: comets, famines, plagues, locusts, persecution of the Church,
fires, court intrigue, wars, victories, defeats, treason, naval
battles, monsters appearing, earthquakes, rapes, Popes fleeing,
rapes, serpents rising out of North Africa etc… In one year he
generated over 300 prophecies! Nostradamus became to prophecy what
Henry Ford was to the automobile. He published three “Almanachs”
in 1557 and another two in 1558. .
Immediately foreseeable events also qualified
as prophecies. For example for February 1554 Nostradamus predicted
two popes would die. That did not happen until the following year.
If the popes are old and in poor health their death, sooner or
later, is foreseeable. This is similar to prophesying today “There
will be terrors in the Middle East (Proche Orient) this year.”
It doesn’t take a prophet to conclude this is inevitable. Historically
the Middle East has always been a bed of turmoil, but for that
matter so has the entire planet.
In 1955 Nostradamus started claiming he was divinely
inspired, thereby giving his prophecies unimpeachable authority.
Nostradamus covered his bases by saying the “Dieu
est sur tous les asters” (“God is above all the stars”). Therefore
if his predictions didn’t come true, the inference is God has simply
changed his mind. The burden for the realization of a prophecy
was not on Nostradamus but on God. Naturally one can conclude that
Nostradamus might have believed he had a private line to God, which
nobody else did (the representation of every quack prophet and
some “charismatic” evangelists).
The Bible in Deuteronomy clearly cautions, “There
shall not be found among you anyone … who uses divination, one
who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,
or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who
calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable
to the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). Undoubtedly even a mass production
prophet such as Nostradamus falls under this Biblical ban.
The “Chronique Lyonnaise” attributed in summer
1955 Nostradamus with the ability to practice “chiromancy (palmistry),
mathematics, and astrology”. It is interesting to note that Laurent
Videl in his 1558 writing criticizing Nostradamus accused him of
swindling 10 crowns (approximately $900 today) on the way to the
King’s Court from a woman in Lyon by giving her a worthless prescription
which didn’t work. Subsequently when the woman cried out “Give
me back my ten crowns, for your prescription is no good” Nostradamus
“like a shameless charlatan …. said ‘It’s all right’”and refused
to give her back her ten crowns.
As a result of his prophecies he was consulted
by Catherine de Medicis, queen of Henry II of France (in a similar
fashion as the gullible Queen Alexandra of All the Russias fell
prey to Rasputin), and became physician to King Charles IX in 1560.
He also became a member of the intellectual circle of Julius Caesar
Scaliger. The latter bitterly broke the relationship accusing Nostradamus
of being an “inane,vile scoundrel”, a disseminator of “falsities”,
and a “criminal beggar”.
Folklore says that Queen Catherine de Medicis
asked Nostradamus to conduct a séance for her in her beautiful
castle of Chaumont. Her husband, Henry II, had just died and she
wanted to know the fate of her sons, the Valois royal line. Nostradamus
directed the séance. By staring into a “magic mirror” the “angel”
(from a Christian perspective a demonic entity impersonating an
angel) Anael (nonexistent in the Bible) was invoked.
In the magic mirror she saw her sons. Francis
II, recently crowned, appeared and walked around once in an imaginary
room seen in the mirror. Then Charles appeared, who succeeded Francis
as king, and he walked around fourteen times and disappeared. Finally
Henry III of France appeared in the mirror and circled the room
fifteen times. Each tour around the room represented a year of
power. Francis II did not live long and was succeeded by his brothers
for fourteen and fifteen year reigns respectively..
In view of Nostradamus’s track record of cryptic
and convoluted prophecies and the precision and accuracy of the
“magic mirror” prophecies it is doubtful the séance occurred. Nostradamus
denied consulting “familiar spirits” (demons who impersonate the
dead; the dead cannot communicate with the living. See Section
3 of www.earthharvest.org “Detractors From The Simplicity of Salvation”
subsection “Witches, Witchcraft, and the Occult”) which is the
whole purpose of a séance. He complained of his critics who:
“are quick to blame and to speak ill of me and
say that such pronouncements come from a familiar demon… Which
is a thing assuredly as alien as the truth as they themselves are
for certain far from reason or good judgment, having their minds
deranged by envy and ignorance.”
Perhaps the most famous of the Renaissance astrological
treatises are the “centuries”of Nostradamus, first published in
1555. Each “centuries” was a group of 100 rhymed prophetic quatrains.
Nostradamus won lasting fame in 1559 when King Henry II of France
died in a manner supposedly predicted in the “Centuries” as follows:
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THE DEATH OF HENRY II
Le lyon jeune le vieux surmontera,
En champ bellique par singulier duelle:
Dans caige d’or les yeux luy creuera,
Deux classes vne, puis mourir, mort cruelle.
“The young lion will overcome the
old one,
On the field of battle in single combat:
He will burst his eyes in a cage of gold,
Two fleets one, then to die, a cruel death.”
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In
the summer of 1559 the daughter of Henry II married Philip II of
Spain and Marguerite, the sister of Henry II, married the Duke of
Savoy. Part of the “double wedding” celebrations included jousting.
Henry rode against Gabriel de Lorges, Comte de Montgomery, but failed
to unseat him and tried again. Montgomery’s lance shattered as the
two jousters collided and a splinter entered Henry’s helmet, pierced
his skull above his right eye, and penetrated his brain. Henry collapsed
and ten days later died..
Does the above quatrain prophesy the death of
Henry, as many claim? In his introduction to the second section
of the Centuries on March 14, 1557 Nostradamus drafted a lengthy
and fawning epistle to Henry II which runs as follows: “Ever since
my long-clouded face first presented itself before the infinite
deity of your majesty, O most Christian and most victorious king,
I have remained perpetually dazzled by that sight, not ceasing
to honor and worship appropriately that date when I presented myself…
I was seized with this singular desire to be transported suddenly
from my long-beclouded obscurity to the illuminating presence of
the first Monarch of the Universe….” (source “The Mask of Nostradamus
by James Randi).
There is no evidence in this Epistle written two
years before Henry II’s death that Nostradamus foresaw the imminent
death of his “most Christian and most victorious king”. Had the
epistle been prophesying the death of Henry II, one would believe
that Nostradamus would have warned Henry.
Montgomery was younger than Henry but only a few
years so “The young lion will overcome the old one” is not significant.
James Randi in his expositive book “The Mask of
Nostradamus” points out that the French have never used the lion
as a symbol of monarchy. Their animal symbol was the fighting cock.
With respect to the second line of the quatrain,
“On the field of battle in single combat,” a joust is not a “field
of battle” but more of a contest. Serious injuries were not expected
to occur. Furthermore if one insists that a joust is a battle,
Henry’s death was not the result of a “single” combat. Henry failed
to unseat Montgomery in the first sally, Henry asked for another
try. Montgomery deferred to his king’s request. There was, therefore,
a “second” combat.
“He will burst his eyes in a cage of gold” does
not reflect Henry’s fate as neither of his eyes was burst. Montgomery’s
lance pierced Henry’s skull above the king’s right eye.
Gold is soft and does not afford protection. Jousting
helmets were not made of gold except for decorative overlays or
attached emblems.
The last verse “Two fleets one, then to die, a
cruel death” aren’t really relevant to the demise of Henry II,
except that his death was cruel or perhaps more accurately “tragic”
as cruelty implies that intent from a perpetrator, which was not
the case here. Montgomery’s injury was the result of accident not
intent.
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ADOLF HITLER 2-24
Bestes farouches de faim fleuues tranner,
Plus part du champ encontre Hister sera.
En caige de fer le grand sera treisner,
Quand rien enfant de Germain obseruera.
Beasts mad with hunger will swim across
rivers,
Most of the army will be against the Lower Danube.
The great one will be dragged in an iron cage,
When the child brother will observe nothing.
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This
is another one of Nostradamus’s cryptic prophecies which can be
applied to a variety of situations. Henry C. Roberts in “The Complete
Prophecies of Nostradamus” believes this quatrain is a prediction
of the fate of Adolf Hitler. He interprets the “iron cage” as the
bunker in Berlin where Hitler died. A concrete bunker is more a
“concrete cage” with rebars than an “iron cage”.
Classically trained commentators on Nostradamus are fully aware that in Roman
times the lower portion of the Danube River is known as “Ister”
or “Hister,” and is referred to as such on Roman maps.
Many writers have interpreted the last line of
the quatrain to read “Quand Rin enfant Germain observera,” or “When
the German Child will see the Rhine,” however “rien” in French
means nothing, not “Rhine” and “enfant de Germain” from the 12th
to the 16th century meant “brother” or “near relative” (James Randi,
op.cit.)
Hitler and Goebbles attempted to make capital
of this possible prophecy. Hitler was aware that “Hister” was Latin
for the lower Danube but also believed the quatrain had a double
meaning and applied to him.
One can only wonder why, as its context is not
very flattering. The next line talks about the “great one” being
dragged in an iron cage.
All this speculation however over what Nostradamus
meant by the word Hister is a moot issue. The “greatest” seer of
the Renaissance lays the matter to rest himself in his prediction
for November 1554 which reads:
“A very learned man in the last quarter (of the
moon), while walking along the river Hister, also called Danube,
the ground subsiding, in the said river shall be lost” (Source:
“The Unknown Nostradamus” op.cit. Page 68).
He did not mean “Hitler”. He meant “Danube”!
WORLD WAR III
QUATRAINS
Many have interpreted the following
verses as applicable to the advent of the Third World War,
an attack upon New York City.
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Cinq et quarante degres ciel bruslera
Feu approcher de la grand cite neufve
Instand grand flame esparse sautera VI.97 The sky will burn at 45 degrees.
Fire approaches the great new city.
Immediately huge, scattered flame leaps up ….
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Thousands of Americans were killed by the vicious crashing of two airliners into
the World Trade Center in September 2001 killing innocent civilians
including women and children. At the time many said, “Nostradamus
predicted this”.The verses above however do not apply to “911” as
New York is at 40.6 or 40.7 degrees latitude, the sky did not explode
on fire, and huge flames did not immediately leap up. Nostradamus
only mentioned America once, if that was his intent, in quatrain
X.66, which has nothing to do with VI.97.
There is a town at 45 degrees north latitude named
Villeneuve-sur-Lot in southwestern France which better fits the bill.
Ville neuve in French literally means “new city”. Some have argued
that Nostradamus meant 40.5 degrees when he stated “cinq et quarante”,
however this argument fails as the decimal system did not exist in
Nostradamus’s day.
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L’an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois,
Du ciel viendra un grand Roi deffraieur
Rescusciter le grand Roi de’Angolmois
Avant que Mars regner par bonhneur X.72
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In
the book “Norstradamus, 1985 and Beyond” Erika Cheetham offers
the translation of this quatrain as:
“In the year 1999 and seven months from the sky will come the Great King of Terror.
He will bring back the Great King of the Mongols. But before and
this war reigns unrestrained.”
In the book “The Secrets of Nostradamus: A Radical
New Interpretation of the Master’s Prophecies” David Ovason offers
the following translation:
“The year one thousand nine hundreds ninety nine seven
months
From the sky will come a King of alarm
To bring back to life the great King of Angoulmois,
Before after Mars to reign by good fortune.”
Maintaining that Nostradamus was “an initiate, working
on behalf of a sixteenth century arcane school,” Ovason analyzes
the verse in terms of the Green Language which “has been used widely
in occult literature.”
Ovason informs us that Angoulmois comes straight from
the arcane Green Language and concludes: “It is evident, therefore,
that Nostradamus is disguising the name of the planetary archangel
Michael in the pseudo-epigraphic Roy d’Angoulmois.”
With respect to the verse “Du ciel viendra un grand
Roy d’effrayeur” or “From the sky will come a great King of alarm”
Ovason points out that while “effrayeur” means alarmist or frightener,
“defrayer” means to amuse or entertain.
The quatrain’s “1999” per occultic analysis, according
to Ovason, “could very be related to A.D. 2087.”
As with everything else concerning Nostradamus, things
are very likely not what they seem. Furthermore, the variance of
opinion in the interpretation of this quatrain represents a great
dilemma with everything Nostradamus wrote. The quatrains are so cryptic
that different writers interpret them differently. There are nearly
as many interpretations as they are interpreters. People are trying
to see something in them that is not there.
The
quatrain XXV has been interpreted as the commencement of jihad:
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Le prince Arabe Mars, Sol, Venus, Lyon,
Regne d’Eglife par mer fuccombera;
Devers la Perfe bi en pres d’un million,
Bifance, Egptee, ver. ferp. inuadera
The Arab Price Mars, Sun, Venus, Leo.
The Rule of the Church will succumb by sea:
Towards Persia very nearly a million men,
The true serpent will invade Byzantium and Egypt
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The
planetary alignment we are told represents August 1998. The language
has nothing to do with “jihad” but appears to concern an Arab ruler
who fields an army of a million men and attacks Persia or present
day Iran. He then apparently attacks Byzantium and Egypt. “Byzantium”
does not exist anymore but is Moslem Turkey. If this were jihad there
would be no reason to attack Turkey or Egypt, which are already Moslem.
During the Iraqi Iran war in the late 1980’s in which Saddam Hussein used chemical
weapons against the human wave attacks of the Ayatollah’s Iranians
there were about a million casualties and a million men were involved
in combat on both sides but this has nothing to do with a planetary
alignment in 1998 or an invasion of Byzantium and Egypt.
With respect to the Church succumbing by sea, the
Church, which is the body of the people of Christ, is no longer a
political power to succumb by military action. The Church is severely
weakened by moral compromise in these latter days where good is called
evil and evil is called good, but there is no apparent danger from
the sea. Nostradamus may have been projecting into the far future
danger from the Pirates of Tartary which terrorized the Mediterranean
during his time.
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BIBLE
PROPHECY VS. NOSTRODAMUS
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The
Bible, unlike Nostradamus’s vague speculations, is very specific
and depicts a much more detailed World War III type of scenario.
The “day of the Lord”, possibly World War III, in Isaiah 13 is
associated with the oracle concerning Babylon, which was situated
in present day Iraq. According to Isaiah the Lord of hosts will
muster an army for battle from a far country, from the “farthest
horizons” as “His instruments of indignation, to destroy the whole
land”.
The present political factionalism and instability in Iraq with its proximity
to the world’s largest oil reserves may eventually lead to a world
war, a nuclear exchange, where “every man’s heart will melt”, and
“they will look at one another in astonishment, their faces aflame”.
What is described in Isaiah 13 is of cataclysmic proportions as
“the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth
their light”, perhaps a “nuclear winter”, and mortal man will be
“scarcer than pure gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir”. Isaiah
prophesies that God, “shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth
will be shaken from its place.” The men assembled in the land of
Babylon will “each turn to his own people, and each flee to his
own land”.
This latter day scenario ends with Isaiah 13:16.
In Isaiah 13:17 Isaiah, who prophesied from approximately 739 B.C.
to 681 B.C., gives a prophecy which was fulfilled at least one
hundred and forty years after Isaiah made it, the destruction of
Babylon by the Medes. This occurred in 539 B.C. when Cyrus, king
of the Medo Persians, captured Babylon. Babylon was believed to
be impregnable because of its huge walls. The city was so vast
that food could be produced in the agricultural land contained
within its walls. The Euphrates River flowed through the city.
Cyrus is said to have stationed his army where the river entered
the city and where it left. He then diverted the upstream flow
of the river temporarily by deepening the canals into the Euphrates
Valley.. Cyrus’s troops under the leadership of Gobryas entered
Babylon by way of the drained riverbed unopposed. The inhabitants
of Babylon, dissatisfied with the reign of Nabonidus and Belshazzar,
sued for peace and were granted it.
The prophet Jeremiah also prophesied the destruction
of Babylon by the “kings of the Medes” (Jeremiah 51: 27-32). Jeremiah
was called to his prophetic office in 626 B.C. and prophesied for
forty two years.
Compare the cryptic and hard to interpret prophecies
of Nostradamus with those of the Bible. The Bible has over three
hundred prophecies concerning the Messiah, which Jesus fulfilled,
many of which were completely beyond His control such as: His place
of birth (Micah 5:2), the time of His birth (Daniel 9:25; Genesis
49:10), the manner of His birth (Isaiah 7:14), His betrayal (Psalms
41:9, Zechariah 11:12, 11:13b), the manner of his death (Psalms
22:16), people’s reactions (mocking, spitting, staring, etc...)
(Isaiah 50:6, Micah 5:1, Psalms 22:7,8, Isaiah 53:3, Psalms 69:8,
Psalms 118:22, Psalms 69:4, Isaiah 49:7, Psalms 38:11, Psalms 22:7,
Psalms 109:25, Psalms 22:17), piercing (Zechariah 12:10, Psalms
22:16) and burial (Isaiah 53:9). These were prophecies made hundreds
of years before his birth. For example the prophecies regarding
his crucifixion (Psalm 22:16, Zechariah 12:10, Isaiah 53:5-6) were
made several hundred years before the Romans introduced this form
of punishment into the Middle East. Stoning was the preferred form of punishment prior to the Roman presence in the Middle
East.
Rather than repeating other sections of www.earthharvest.org
concerning Bible prophecies please refer to Section 5 of this website
entitled “Powerful Evidence ForThe Deity of Christ” and read the
subsections “Prophecy Fulfilled” and the “Prophetic Odds”. Also
refer to Section 7 of this website entitled “Other Landscapes”
and refer to the subsection “The Testimony of Fulfilled Prophecy”. |
The
Antichrist
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One
of the benefits of living in the twenty first century is to look
back at the popular Nostradamus books of the late twentieth century
and laugh at their unrealized doomsday prophecies. The King of
the Mongols who was supposed to appear in 1999 never appeared.
Similarly we never heard of Jeane Dixon’s “Child
of the East,” who she saw as the “actual person of the AntiChrist.”
He was supposed to have been born around 1962 and we should have
heard from him when he was twenty-nine or thirty years old. So when it comes to prophecy are we in a predicament
where the blind lead the blind? The Bible offers us the only answer.
“Why not ask your God?” (Isaiah 8:19). Why consult the mediums
and the wizards who whisper and mutter? Why consult “prophets”
who when it comes to accuracy have a nonexistent track record and
in case of Nostradamus do not offer a single clear, fulfilled prophecy.
He is said to have predicted his own death. In
this prediction he was right, except he said he would die in November1567
and he died July 1566. At the time of his prediction he was severely
suffering from edema (fluid accumulation in the connecting tissue),
gout, and arthritis so prophesying his own end may not be such
a feat.
Authors have claimed finding prophecies in Nostradamus
regarding “AntiChirst” types and applied them both to Napoleon
and Adolf Hitler. He also had “AntiChrist” types from North Africa
including the “mighty Camel” from Fez (VI.80, V.68 and VII.34)
who would invade Europe and be repulsed. Under careful scrutiny
these prophecies are so vague that they tell us little, or, as
already discussed, they may be future projections of past historical
events.
The frightening thing about Adolf Hitler, who
some have called the “Anti-man”, was that he was very normal, per
his personal secretary. The Anti-Man loved children and small animals
who did not pose a threat and who he could control. He railed at
phantom enemies, stirring the German masses into rampaging frenzy
against neighboring countries and defenseless minorities, yet at
the same time he ate plain vegetarian food and loved to watch Hollywood
movies. It is reported that further east Stalin would take an intermission
break, go to a courtyard, watch a firing squad mow down a line
of his supposed “enemies”, and return in good humor to watch the
second half of a movie.
How despicable can man be … as despicable as he
can visualize with his mind. The guillotine operators in the French
revolution, dripping with their victims’ blood, in high spirits,
would take a break to eat bread and cheese and drink wine. The
Gestapo troopers in some of the Baltic States marveled at how savagely
the local populations massacred the Jews. When the Twin Towers
in New York were still burning, incinerating innocent civilians,
many cheered around the world. As with Cain, humans are evil, bloody,
and sinful.
Despite our condition God loves us. Two thousand
years ago the God of the Universe incarnated as a man to die on
a cross that whoever believes in Him and on Him is washed clean
by the blood He shed on Calvary, thereby providing a sacrifice
for our sins. In modern language the Judge Himself leaves his bench,
goes to the clerk, and pays for your speeding ticket.
If you accept Christ by asking Him into your
heart (just ask “Come in Jesus, take charge of my life. Forgive
me for all the bad things which I have done and lead me and guide
me from this day on”) you are transformed into a new creature,
or at least a creature that is “saved by the skin of your teeth,”
as all Christians are, including Billy Graham and the Pope. Only
God is without sin.
That is why God Himself had to incarnate as a
man to take away man’s sin. But for the death of Jesus Christ we
cannot have a personal relationship with the God of the Universe
and God’s great blessings, including the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, spiritual peace, God’s personal direction in our lives,
joy, abundant life, eternal life, blessings in health and business,
bringing the light of God into a dark world.
What does all this have to do with the AntiChrist?
The AntiChrist will merely be a man without the ennobling characteristics
of God. He could even be a Christian who has forsaken his God for
a “mess of potage”, for worldly power and ambition (see the Section
on this Website “Once Saved, Always Saved?). He could be a New
Ager who believes “he” is God, or a worshiper of another “god”.
He will certainly be a ruthless politician, a wolf in sheep’s clothes.
The reality is any man without God is potentially an AntiChrist.
The Bible gives us abundant information on the
AntiChrist. Here are just a few of the verses many agree concern
this unsavory and eternally damned individual (items in parentheses
are author’s interpretations):
“The king (AntiChrist) will do as he pleases.
He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say
unheard of things against the God of gods. He will be successful
until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined
must take place. He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers
or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but
will exalt himself above them all. Instead of them, he will honor
a god of fortresses (military force ?), a god unknown to his fathers
he will honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly
gifts.
“He will attack the mightiest fortresses (making
him a world conqueror) with the help of a foreign god and will
greatly honor those who acknowledge him (he will reward those who
fawn over him). He will make them rulers over many people and will
distribute the land at a price” (New International, Daniel 11:36-39).
Unlike the prophecies of Nostradamus who throws
us a bone with little gristle on it, the prophecies of Daniel,
inspired by the Spirit of God, are extensive and well fleshed out.
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon
Daniel saw a dream and visions which included a fourth beast, “dreadful
and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth.
It devoured and crushed, and trampled down the remainder (the lion
with the wings of an eagle, generally interpreted by Bible scholars
as the Babylonian Empire), the bear with three ribs in its mouth
(Medo-Persian Empire) and the leopard with four wings and four
heads (Grecian Empire)) with its feet; and it was different from
all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.”
“While I was contemplating the horns, behold,
another horn, a little one (the AntiChrist), came up among them,
and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before
it (AntiChrist attacking three of his neighbors); and behold, this
horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering
great boasts (a loudmouth like Adolf Hitler compared to whom Napoleon
was mild mannered)” (Daniel 7:7-8). In Daniel 7:20 we are told
the “little horn” had grown into a horn which “was larger in appearance
that its associates.”
A horn in ancient times was a symbol of strength
and power. Here the little horn or power has attacked three other
horns (“three of them fell”) and grown larger.
“I kept looking, and that horn was waging war
with the saints (followers of Christ) and overpowering them until
the Ancient of Days (the Return of the King, Jesus the Christ)
came, and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest
One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the
kingdom” (Daniel 7:22).
The followers of Christ are saved by direct divine intervention.
We see in Revelation that AntiChrist and his false prophet are
thrown into the Lake of Fire by God’s angels (Revelation 19:20).
“I kept looking until thrones were set up and
the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow,
and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze
with flames, its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was
flowing and coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands
were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before
Him. The court sat, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7: 9-10).
The Ancient of Days is further described in Revelation
(NASB,1:13-18):
“And in the middle of the lampstands one like
a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded
across His breast with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair
were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a
flame of fire; and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it
has been caused to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the
sound of many waters. And in His right hand He held seven stars;
and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face
was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I (John the
Apostle) saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man (so would you).
And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid;
I am the first and the last’” (the Alpha and the Omega and also
the “son of man”).
Returning to Daniel’s vision, Daniel’s spirit
was distressed and he approached one of those who was standing
by and asked him the meaning of the vision.
“Thus he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth
kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other
kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth (a world Empire) and
tread it down and crush it.
As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten
kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and will be
different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.
And he will speak out against the Most High and
wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to
make alterations in times and in law (contravening God’s law with
what is “politically correct”); and they will be given into his
hand for a time, times, and half a time (generally interpreted
as 3.5 years).
But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion
will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. Then the
sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms
under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints
of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom,
and all the dominions will serve and obey Him’” (Daniel 7:23-27).
The Apostle Paul in his Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians counsels first century Christians that prior to the
second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the apostasy comes first,
followed by the “man of lawlessness” or the “son of destruction”(2
Thessalonians 2:3). He is described as one who exalts himself above
every so-called god or object of worship and that he seats himself
in the temple of God displaying himself as being God.
The AntiChrist will believe he is God and act
accordingly. He will be endowed with supernatural power, “coming
in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs
and false wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9). He will be a type of miracle
working godless politician in control of the whole world:
“And all who dwell on the earth will worship him,
evrey one, whose name has not been written from the foundation
of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain”
(Revelation 13:8).
The AntiChrist is also referred to in revelation
as the “beast.” We are told in Revelation 13 of a beast which comes
out of the sea whose power comes from the dragon, Satan. The beast
has ten horns and seven heads (three were destroyed, see above).
One of the heads, the little horn who becomes the Big Horn (Daniel
above), is slain and the fatal wound “from the sword” (Revelation
13:14) is miraculously healed.
In Revelation 17:7 the angel tells the Apostle
John this same beast was alive but is not now, but he will return
from the bottomless pit and then go to eternal destruction. The
angel may be referring to a reconstituted Roman Empire or a reconstituted
Third Reich ruled by a modern day Nero or Adolf Hitler.
The AntiChrist may very well be possessed by the
same demonic principality as one of these historical butchers.
He will suffer a fatal head wound and then suddenly revive. Perhaps
at that point the demonic spirit occupies the lifeless body and
animates it once again.
The whole earth is amazed and follows the beast.
For 42 months the beast is given power and authority. The beast
blasphemes God and makes war with the saints, who he overcomes.
The Beast gains authority over every “tribe and
people and tongue and nation”.
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The
Mark of the Beast
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The
beast has a companion, also empowered by the dragon, a second beast which
has two horns like a lamb, speaks like a dragon. He may come as a lamb,
soft spoken and silky, yet really be a wolf in disguise.
He is also referred to as the “false prophet” and makes fire fall down from heaven
to earth. He makes an image of the first beast that was healed, which
speaks. This second beast makes all the inhabitants of the earth worship
the first beast and his image and “causes all, the small and the great,
and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given
a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead and he provides that
no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark,
either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom.
Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for
the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six”
(Revelation 13:16-18).
In view of computers, microchip implants, GPS, an agenda toward
national databanks on individuals precipitated by the “war on terror”,
a real or fabricated scarcity of natural resources such as energy, socialized
health programs, a trend away from the nation state and toward regional
trading and political blocks which can be subsequently agglomerated,
a global dictatorship could very easily be in the offing.
This will be a much more pervasive dictatorship than any in
history, whose technology of control already exists. If you were forced
to have a chip implanted in your hand or forehead on which were recorded
all your personal history, financial information, medical drugs you require
and through GPS your every movement could be tracked, you would be living
in a high tech Auschwitz. In those days the Nazis used tattoos.
Unfortunately this is what the Bible prophesies prior to the
return of Jesus Christ.. If you are diabetic and you don’t toe the line
you don’t get your insulin, you go into a diabetic coma, and you die.
For those who like to go with the “path of least resistance”
and take the mark (the chip) God does not give you an easy way out. One
of the bowls of judgment is “a loathsome and malignant sore upon the
men who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image” (Revelation
16:2).
There will be plenty of advance warning to the entire human
race about the consequences of accepting the “mark”:
God will send one of his angels to proclaim to the entire
planet, “If any one worships the beast and his image, and receives a
mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he also will drink of the wine
of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His
anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and
they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his
image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” If the choice is being
able to shop in a supermarket and/or filling your tank with gas by scanning
your mark or fleeing in the hinterland unmarked, you better choose the
latter.
In World War II in Poland the Jews who fled into the forests,
many joining the resistance to the Nazi occupiers, had a much higher
survival rate than those who went peacefully to concentration camps.
With respect to the mark there is no middle ground, no straddling
the line, no room for opportunists. You are damned if you accept the
mark and blessed if you don’t.
Accepting the mark will somehow be tied to the worship of
the AntiChrist who is also called the beast and in the Old Testament
is referred to as the “Assyrian.”
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The
King of Kings
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With respect
to the AntiChrist’s end the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament tells us,
“The Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of man will
devour him. So he will not escape the sword” (Isaiah 31:8).
In the New Testament the Book of Revelation tells us Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God, returns with the armies of heaven, “and from His mouth comes a sharp
sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them
with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath
of God, the Almighty, and on His robe and on His thigh He has a name
written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:15-16).
The beast and the false prophet are seized and are thrown
in the lake of fire, a fitting end for the most evil tyrants in human
history. Christ will then judge the nations and rule them with a rod
of iron and with Ultimate Fairness. This will usher the yearned for Millenium.
“The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, and the lion
shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food” (Isaiah
65:25).
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