In Christianity a prophet (or seer) is one inspired by God through the Holy Spirit to deliver a message for a specific purpose. In the popular vernacular, it is often associated with predicting future events, but in Christian and biblical terms, its meaning is wider and can include those given the power to preach repentance to those who do not want to hear the message and to warn of God’s wrath for disobedience. God’s calling as a prophet is not considered to elevate an individual for their glory, but for the glory of God and to turn people to him. Some Christian denominations would limit that and exclude those who receive a personal message not intended for the body of believers, but in the Bible on a number of occasions prophets were called to deliver personal messages. The reception of a message is termed revelation and the delivery of the message is termed prophecy.
Several prophets have been mentioned in the Old Testament such as Daniel, Elijah, Job, Jonah and Isaiah. All recognised by the Catholic church, but perhaps for us living in the 21st century, Saint Malachy, the Irish Archbishop of Armagh from the 12th century, is more relevant.
Malachy obtained sainthood as several miracles have been attributed to him. However Malachy left another legacy behind, that of a vision of the identity of the last 112 Popes, also known as the Prophecy of the Popes. Although the church doesn’t put a lot of importance on the latter, one cannot ignore the fact that Saint Malachy was a prophet inspired by a vision from God. And no matter how much the church tries to diminish the importance of Saint Malachy’s prophecy, who dares to delve into details of Saint Malachy’s prophecy, wouldn’t take him or her much time before he or she realised that the prophecy is quite accuate.
False prophets also exist like anyone who claims to speak God’s words or teach in his name. One test given in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy contains a warning of those who prophecy events which do not come to pass and said they should be put to death. Elsewhere a false prophet may be someone who is purposely trying to deceive, is delusional, under the influence of Satan or is speaking from his own spirit.
And here comes the conundrum! What if a prophet, unlike Malachy inspired by a vision from God, is actually inspired by a vision from Satan? A genuine prophet indeed, not a holy one but rather a satanic prophet.
Nostradamus
NOSTRADAMUS – the 16th century French seer is the modern-day prophet who has referred to satanic powers to obtain an accurate (but not precise) vision of the future. A future were evil reigns but not necessarily win the final battle. Remember that vanity is the greatest sin. Lucifer’s vanity as the most preferred angel of god led him to the eternal fall from grace to become a demon. So the devil will never accept that at the end he’ll lose the battle.
No Christian, Jewish or Muslim, doubts the fact that Satan is the master of deception, and for such reason we humans must be prudent not to play his game either and end up making false assumptions. In the midst of all this speculation about the a possible scenario for the coming months and years, we as the Anonymous Prophets, are trying to connect all the dots with all the scientific facts available to us and all the Christian knowledge we’ve been indoctrinated with as kids. No matter how much we try to keep our feet on the ground and take in only the information that the natural world is providing us, we can never deny our Christian roots. Our curiosity shall keep us asking why this and why that!
Making sense of chaos! 