2 Cor 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
(The following is taken from science.discovery.com)
Michel de Nostredame (aka Nostradamus) was a 16th-century French “seer.” We don’t have many seers these days.
Nostradamus studied astrology and various “occult” sciences and used those to predict the future.
He’s best known for The Prophecies, a collection of French quatrains published in 1555. So are these prophecies worthy predictions of the future or merely vague observations retrofitted to match past events?
Here is a list of some of the most famous: 9-11, Atomic bomb, Louis Pasteur, JFK & RFK assassinations, Katrina, Princess Diana’s death, and the end of the world on 12-12-12.
9-11
Earthshaking fire from the center of the Earth
Will cause tremors around the New City.
Two great rocks will war for a long time,
Then Arethusa will redden a new river.
Well, two great rocks could be two towers, right? But would you say those towers were warring?
If you read this verse before Sept. 11, you might assume it referred to an earthquake or volcanic eruption. Earthshaking fire, tremors, rocks warring (in other words, continental plates colliding), but who really knows.
Back when Nostradamus wrote those lines, skyscrapers like the Twin Towers, jumbo jets like the ones that hit them and cities like modern-day New York were probably unthinkable and unimaginable, so if he foresaw these events, would he have even known what he was seeing?
Atomic Bomb
Near the gates and within two cities
There will be scourges the like of which was never seen,
Famine within plague, people put out by steel,
Crying to the great immortal God for relief.
OK, this one is hard to dispute.
Let’s face it. It’s an accurate description of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Louis Pasteur
The lost thing is discovered, hidden for many centuries.
Pasteur will be celebrated almost as a God-like figure.
This is when the moon completes her great cycle,
But by other rumors he shall be dishonored.
Like many surnames, Louis Pasteur’s probably once indicated a profession.
Pasteur, in French, could also mean pastor, so some argue that this bit of Nostradamian prose could just be about any old priest. Others call it a shout-out to the man who studied microbial decay, brought you spoilage-resistant milk and found a vaccine for rabies.
JFK & RFK Assassinations
The great man will be struck down in the day by a thunderbolt,
An evil deed foretold by the bearer of a petition.
According to the prediction, another falls at night time.
Conflict at Reims, London and a pestilence in Tuscany.
Thunderbolts and gunshots: not terribly dissimilar. And the great man was struck down in the day, as John F. Kennedy was. The other falling at nighttime would be Bobby Kennedy (five years later).
Now, it can work if you want it to, but do you really think a Secret Service agent reading that passage in November 1963 would have cause to be concerned?
Probably not.
And what of Reims, London and Tuscany?
Katrina
The cities of Tours, Orleans, Blois, Angers, Reims and Nantes
Are troubled by sudden change.
Tents will be pitched by (people) of foreign tongues;
Rivers, darts at Rennes, shaking of land and sea.
Did he really mean NEW Orleans? Hmm…The shaking of land and sea might describe the hurricane (well, the shaking of the sea would). Could the people with foreign tongues be aid workers from other parts of the world, or other parts of the country?
But what are Tours, Blois, Angers, Reims and Nantes doing there?
Pre-Katrina, this prophecy was originally thought to refer to France. Maybe it still should.
Princess Diana’s Death
The penultimate of the surname of Prophet
Will take Diana for his day and rest:
He will wander because of a frantic head,
And delivering a great people from subjection.
OK, pay careful attention here: The father of Princess Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed, was named Mohamed (“the Prophet” – it wasn’t his surname, but never mind that).
Did Diana’s death deliver “a great people from subjection”? Maybe not, but we can all agree that the British are a great people, right? The fact alone that Diana’s name is in the text speaks a lot to Nostradamus followers — specific names are, in general, a rarity in Nostradamus’ works.
The End of the World, 12-12-12
Did you know that Nostradamus 2012 predictions only started coming to light AFTER talk of the world ending in 2012 and an ancient Mayan Calendar? Why did we not hear a clear interpretation of Nostradamus 2012 doomsday BEFORE all the doomsday talk?
Did you know too that the dates 21.12.12 or 12.21.12 are NOT found in Nostradamus writings?
Did you know that Nostradamus was believed to have predicted the earth would end by a comet strike in JULY 1999. Didn’t happen!
Did you know that in a letter to his son, Nostradamus spoke of prophecies going way beyond 2012, as far into the future as 3786 (3797 according to some experts)?
(The following is taken from the article by Dr. David Reagan entitled ‘Nostradamus: Prophet or Charlatan?’)
Michel de Nostradamus (1503-1566) was born into a family of Christianized Jews in the town of St. Rémy in France. His father was a prosperous grain trader. In his mid-teens, Nostradamus began studying philosophy, grammar, and rhetoric under the supervision of Catholic priests in Avignon. In 1525 he graduated from the University of Montpillier, and in 1529 he became a physician.
His first wife and their two children died of the plague in 1537. After this tragedy, his prophetic gifts began to manifest. He married a rich widow in 1544 and settled in Salon, France, where he lived the rest of his life.
In 1555 he published a book of prophecies entitled Centuries. The book was a collection of 100 quatrains (rhyming verses with four lines each) containing predictions dating from his time to the end of the world. His total output over the next eleven years consisted of ten volumes containing nearly one thousand prophecies.
Nostradamus was catapulted to fame in 1557, two years after the publication of volume one of his prophecies. It all had to do with the accidental death of France’s king, Henry II, who was wounded in a jousting contest and died ten days later. This event was proclaimed to be a fulfillment of a prophecy contained In Century 1, Quatrain 35:
“The young lion will overcome the old one
On the battlefield in a single fight.
He will put out his eyes in a cage of gold.
Two wounds in one, then he dies a cruel death.”
The first problem with the “fulfillment” of this prophecy is that there was only seven years difference in the ages of the king and the younger man who was his opponent in the tournament. It was not a contest between a young man and an old one. Second, the accident occurred during a friendly sporting event, not on a battlefield. Third, there is no evidence that King Henry II was wearing a gold helmet. Finally, the king’s eyes were not damaged. Rather, a splinter from his opponent’s lance pierced his skull and tore through his brain.
Much of his success as a “prophet” can be attributed to the ambiguity of his writing style. He wrote in French, Latin, Greek, and Italian, and he filled his verses with anagrams, obscure images, and even words that he apparently invented. Most of his quatrains read like nonsensical gobbledygook:
“There will go forth from Mont; Gaulfier and the Aventine one
Who through a whole will give; Information to the army.”
Another key to Nostradamus’ longevity is that his quatrains are so ambiguous that they can be translated in many different ways. In all languages, context determines the meaning of many words. If the context is not understandable, the words can be translated in a great variety of ways, often depending upon the result desired by the translator.
Take, for example, one of Nostradamus’ most famous prophecies. It is contained in Century 2, Quatrain 24:
“Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross the rivers.
The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister.
Into a cage of iron will the great one be drawn
When the child of Germany observes nothing.”
Advocates of Nostradamus usually translate the second line of this stanza to read: “The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hitler.” They argue that “Hister” was just a code name for Hitler! The fact of the matter is that Hister was a geographical term for the Lower Danube River. In contrast, when a true prophet of God, Isaiah, prophesied that the children of Israel would be released from Babylonian captivity by a man named Cyrus — he meant Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28). And that prophecy was given 150 years before Cyrus came to power!
Another reason Nostradamus has received so much attention is because a number of his prophecies were very biblical in nature. He warned that in the future there would be signs in the heavens and earthquakes. He warned of a coming world dictator called the Antichrist. He spoke of the resurrection of the dead. He even prophesied that the Jews would go back to Israel and that the Middle East would be the focal point of end time events. His prophecies are, in fact, full of words and expressions taken from the Bible. All of which prove that Nostradamus secretly read the Scriptures, something forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church of his day.
Nostradamus always claimed that God was the source of his prophecies. He described his inspiration in the following terms: “Although for a long time I have been making predictions of events which have come to pass, naming the particular locality, I wish to acknowledge that all have been accomplished through Divine power and inspiration.”
But Nostradamus was either deceived or purposefully lying. In Century 1, Quatrain 1, he revealed the method he used to obtain his prophecies:
“I sit at night alone in secret study; Resting upon a brass tripod.
A thin flame comes forth from the solitude; Making successful that which should not be believed in vain.”
The second quatrain in that same volume reveals even more about the methods he used:
“The divining wand in hand is placed in the middle of the tripod’s brass legs.
With water he anoints the hem of his robe and foot.
Fear! A voice is heard. He trembles in his robes.
Divine splendor. The divine one sits nearby.”
What Nostradamus is describing here is a method of trafficking in spirits that was practiced by Branchus, an occultic Greek prophetess. A man named Iamblichus of Chalcis described her techniques in his writings in the 4th Century:
“The prophetess of Branchus either sits upon a pillar, or holds in her hand a rod bestowed by some deity, or moistens her feet or hem of her garment with water… and by these means… she prophesies.”
Likewise, Nostradamus would sit on a brass tripod with his spine erect to keep him alert and supposedly to create a force field which would sharpen his psychic powers. Another tripod was placed at his feet. It held a cauldron filled to the brim with steaming water and stimulating oils. In this atmosphere he would then do incantations. Here’s how he described what would happen:
“I emptied my soul, brain and heart of all care and attained a state of tranquility and stillness of mind which are prerequisites to predicting by means of the brass tripod… Human understanding, being intellectually created, cannot see hidden things unless aided by a voice coming from limbo by help of a thin flame…”
It is obvious that Nostradamus [received his ‘prophecies’ from devils through the use of occultic techniques]. The “divine one” who sat nearby him was none other than Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44). The man was demon possessed, and Satan continues to work through him today to divert people from the truly inspired prophecies of God that are contained in the Bible.