NO NEAR MISS FOR NOSTRADAMUS

The 16th century prophet, Michel de Nostredame, more commonly known as Nostradamus, has now unquestionably confirmed what critics have known for a long time: His claimed calling as a visionary of future events was not ordained of God. Yet there are some Christian doomsday-watchers, like Jack Van Impe, who give credence to this false prophet.

Most of the purported success of Nostradamus’ predictions lies in the mind of the interpreter, as his revelations were written in ambiguous four-line verse forms known as quatrains. With his broad and sweeping statements, devoid of specifics, it is easy for the Nostradamus enthusiast to assign any number of successful meanings to his prophecies. This can be clearly seen in the way one of his predictions is now asserted to have foretold the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers. Prior to the murders of John and Robert Kennedy in the 1960s, this same exact prophecy was said to be a fulfillment of World War II events, including the “taking over of Czechoslovakia by [Adolph] Hitler.”

Other of his predictions, said to be telling of coming events, are circumvented by being pushed further into the future when they do not come to pass as expected. Nearly all of Nostradamus’ prophecies contain no specific month and date — and those with a timeframe are done so with astrological configurations. When the oracle does not come to fruition, it can be pushed to the next such astrological configuration, which may be centuries into the future.

However, July 1999 was for Nostradamus (and his modern-day devotees) a month and year with no equal. In a prediction known as Quatrain X:72, the prophet makes his only prediction that includes an exact date. The passage reads: “In the year 1999, and seven months, From the skies shall come an alarmingly powerful king, To raise again the great King of the Jacquerie, Before and after, Mars shall reign at will.”

The quatrain was, in recent years, one of his most widely discussed prophecies and generated extensive speculation and enthusiasm among his followers. One interpreter defined the revelation as: “In this gloomy prediction, Nostradamus seems to foresee the end of the world at the Millennium, the year 2000.” Another claims that, “A tremendous world revolution is foretold to take place in the year 1999, ... Nostradamus shows his mystic knowledge of the great secret of the book of revelations and solves for us the identify of the ‘Beast of the Apocalypse’ and the time of his arrival which John of Patmos (Rev. XIII:18) records.”

Despite variation in the exact details of what was to occur as provided by his interpreter, one element was firm — the cataclysmic events would take place in July 1999. One writer even added to the mystique by noting that when one inverts the last three digits of the year (1999) it is “the number of the beast” (666) found in Revelation (13:18).

As is now known, July 1999 came and passed without the fulfillment of Nostradamus’ prophecy. What did come to pass, however, was once again confirmation that his gift of prophecy was not from the Lord. “If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18:22). July was not the crowning moment for Nostradamus, but yet another reason for Christians to avoid him and his prophecies and get back to the safe and sure Word of God.

—MKG

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