Tags: futurism | millennialism | prophecy

"When pictures look alive, with movement free, When ships like fish swim beneath the sea, When man outstripping birds can soar the sky, Then half the world deep drenched in blood shall die." -Tombstone Inscription, Kirby Cemetery in Essex, England, Seventeenth Century

What look at predictions and prophecies of days past would be complete without a peek at what the men in robes had to say? Many of these visionaries and soothsayers seemed to be right on the money, while some just make you go "huh?" But it's the first group that sends chills down my spine. And while I don't yet advocate stockpiling canned cabbage and meat products, you'll just have to decide for yourself what to do in reaction to these ancient prophecies.

"You will hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place. All these things are the beginnings of the labor pains." Matthew 24: 6-7

Since before the time of the prophet Daniel there have been warnings about the nature of the final days of the earth. Perhaps the best known of these is from the New Testament:

"When you see the desolating abomination spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, a person on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house, a person in the field must not return to get his cloak. Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days. Pray that your flight not be in winter or on the Sabbath, for at that time there will be great tribulation, such has not been seen since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be." Matthew 24: 15-21

There have been numerous veiled prophecies about the end of time in the Book of Revelation. Since the first century there have been prophets who have described the times in which we presently now live as the last times. Messages similar to those have been received throughout history and some claim, are still being received today.

A FEW OF THOSE PROPHECIES

"Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if they had lived in our day, faith would be simple and easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and made meaningful to the day's problems. When the Church and the world are one, then those days are at hand" - St. Antony the Abbot, Fourth Century

"Falsehood will characterize that class of men who will sit in judgment to pass sentence according to law: between the father and his son, litigations will subsist. The clergy of the holy church will be addicted to pride and injustice. Women will abandon feelings of delicacy, and cohabit with men out of wedlock" - St. Senanus, Sixth Century

"The time is coming when princes and peoples will reject the authority of the Pope. Some countries will prefer their own Church rulers to the Pope. The German Empire will be divided." - Saint Hildegard, Twelfth Century

"In the 20th century there will be wars and fury that will last a long time; whole provinces shall be emptied of their inhabitants, and kingdoms shall be thrown into confusion. In many places the land shall be left untilled, and there shall be great slaughters of the upper class. The right hand of the world shall fear the left, and the north shall prevail over the south." - Bishop Christianos Ageda, Twelfth Century

"Before the comet comes, many nations, the good excepted, will be scourged by want and famine." - Saint Hildegard, Twelfth Century

"The pope will change his residence and the Church will not be defended for twenty-five months or more because, during all that time there will be no Pope in Rome... After many tribulations, a Pope shall be elected out of those who survived the persecutions" - John of Vitiguerro, Thirteenth Century

"In the days of peace that are to come after the desolation of revolutions and wars, before the end of the world, the Christians will become so lax in their religion that they will refuse to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, saying 'it is an unnecessary Sacrament'" - St. Vincent Ferrer, Fourteenth Century

"The great chastisement will come when carriages go without horses and many accidents fill the world with woe. It will come when thoughts are flying around the earth in the twinkling of an eye, when long tunnels are made for horseless machines, when men can fly in the air and ride under the sea, when ships are wholly made of metal, when fire and water great marvels do, when even the poor can read books, and when many taxes are levied for war." - Mother Shipton, Sixteenth Century