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Another Perspective
Apocalypse Friday
End-of-the-week ruminations on the end of the world.
Pope Benedict XVI, a man of energetic intellect who worked to unite the Church’s theological sects and keep at bay the forces of relativism, was a true servant of God and will be sorely missed by Catholics.
But let me ding the Holy Father on one thing: his timing. And not just because the Church is adrift and needs his leadership.
The end of Benedict’s papacy was always going to mean another round of tittering over the end of the world. Now not only do we have to start worrying again, we have to do it just as we were starting to unpack the Poland Spring pallets from our Mayan survival bunkers. Shouldn’t we be granted at least a few years to unwind between apocalyptic prophecies?
The prophecy in question is the aptly named Prophecy of the Popes, allegedly written by St. Malachy in 1139. His predictions come in the form of 112 short Latin phrases, each of which is supposed to foretell a single pope, starting with Celestine II in 1143.
All of this seems pretty innocuous; pope predicting is a neat trick, if nothing else. But Malachy ends his list after “Glory of the Olive,” which corresponds with the soon-to-abdicate Benedict XVI. Following this is a postscript: “Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of the seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people.” Malachy adds rather glibly, “The end.”
Before we proceed any further, let me add the pile of hedges required when discussing prophecy. The Church has discounted the Prophecy of the Popes. Many theologians believe it’s a forgery. The prophecies weren’t published until 1595. The descriptions of popes before 1595 are generally more specific than afterwards. Even granting their accuracy, there could be additional popes between Benedict and Peter the Roman.
In his book When Time Shall Be No More, Paul Boyer draws three concentric circles of prophecy believers. The first is a core group obsessed with the apocalypse and trying to determine its exact sequence. The second contains those who aren’t obsessed but still believe the Bible contains clues. The third encircles Christians who think of the future in secular terms, but are still subconsciously shaped by belief in prophecy.
I fall into the third group, and I’d wager most other Catholics do too. My people tend to be skeptical about apocalyptic ruminations, partially because certain Protestants keep coming to the conclusion that our pope is the Antichrist, and partially because we usually interpret parts of the Bible as symbolic rather than literal. Throw a stone over the Vatican walls, and chances are you’ll hit someone who thinks the Book of Revelation was merely an allegory for Nero’s persecution of the Christians.
Yet my stomach tightened when I learned Benedict was abdicating, and I Googled the Prophecy of the Popes a few minutes later. I’m hardly alone; many Catholics have started murmuring about Malachy.
There’s even a book, published last year, called Petrus Romanus, or “Peter the Roman.” “For more than 800 years scholars have pointed to the dark augury having to do with ‘the last Pope,’” begins its Amazon description, before devolving into conspiratorial warnings of “inevitable danger rising from within the ranks of Catholicism as a result of secret satanic ‘Illuminati-Masonic’ influences.” Petrus Romanus is currently the 23rd most popular book on Amazon.com, ahead of the 50 Shades of Grey boxed trilogy and Jillian Michaels’ latest paginated shoutings.
So when my stomach tightens, it doesn’t tighten alone. Apocalyptic predictions are dreary things, yet clearly they strike a chord, drawing in my fellow third-circlers when times seem bad.
And they always have. Only a year before the Mayan misfire, there was Harold Camping, the Family Radio oracle who predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011. When the world refused to cooperate, he recalculated to October 16, 2011. Camping quickly became a punch line in the media, but for his followers, estimated to number between 50,000 and 1 million, his prophecies were very real, and yielded very serious consequences when they didn’t pan out.
Camping’s flock supported him with $80 million in donations between 2005 and 2009. Money is a common theme among some apocalyptic writers, who build media empires by destroying the world. Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth was the biggest non-fiction bestseller of the 1970s, selling 35 million copies. Lindsey wrote two sequels, one of which declared, “The decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it.” Instead we got Ronald Reagan and Billy Idol.
It’s hard to mention apocalyptic prophecy anymore without hearing the scoffs of secularists. But end-times theology isn’t limited to the religious. Consider that right now much of our federal government is in the grips of a deranged cult that believes in an impending climate apocalypse. This doomsday can only be prevented by repentance for our polluting ways and the purchase of alternative-energy and offset indulgences. Harold Camping was a lousy prophet, but at least he never tried to pass an international treaty forcing his beliefs on others.
And that’s an important distinction to make. Prophecy, like most things, becomes destructive when it’s adopted as policy by governments. Such was the case of the German city of Munster, which was taken over by an apocalyptic Anabaptist cult in 1534. Its leader, Jan Matthys, proclaimed it the New Jerusalem. To prepare for the end times, he confiscated all property and declared war on Munster’s former bishop. Within a year, Munster’s citizens were reduced to poverty and starvation. The world went on.
About the Author
Matt Purple is The American Spectator’s assistant managing editor.
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spike59| 2.15.13 @ 6:12AM
...okayyyy.......step away from the keyboard, matt, nobody has to get hurt
stop telling lies| 2.15.13 @ 7:12AM
The Bible makes it plain that no one knows when the end of time will come. More importantly, it says plainly that the job of Christians is to be a light in a dark world. End of time prophecy is waste of time prophecy.
Joellen| 2.15.13 @ 7:21AM
And actually its not the end - No, its the start of eternity for those who chose to be with GOD The father/GOD the Son/ GOD the HOLY SPIRIT!
If you believe - it should be bringing you PEACE.
Jack in Wi| 2.15.13 @ 7:39AM
Good comment Joellen. We should all be ready for our own final end and leave the final judgement up to God. Praise the Lord and love your neighbor. Bendict worked for the Prince of Peace and the Truth, so should we all.
Egil| 2.15.13 @ 8:43AM
You're exactly right, Joellen. I would welcome the end of this world if it is in my lifetime. I've seen a good amount of this "vale of tears," and I look forward to being with God.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 2.15.13 @ 8:18AM
I expect that when the time comes for God’s Judgment, the only preparation of significance will be the life that I have lived in accordance with His Teachings.
On the other hand, the reason I try to maintain stores of ammunition, food, water and other necessities has less to do with fearing God’s Judgment than man’s lack of judgment, particularly with the current crew at the helm of our ship of state steering straight for the rocks. Similarly, I don’t just see the Planet as a nurturing mother, but as a heartless landlord whose unit contains many hazards (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.) that our lease says is our responsibility to deal with when encountered.
Hardcard| 2.15.13 @ 8:25AM
The space stuff is starting to fall in Russia, I hope they have hardhats on. I think Tim has been ex-communicated again. Hey !! he didn't build that.
c. j. acworth| 2.15.13 @ 10:46AM
I wondered if anyone would bring that up. How many mile-wide asteroids are floating around our general neighborhood in the solar system. Forget global warming, lets build a few more big telescopes and try to locate them.
Alan| 2.15.13 @ 11:23AM
Some nutjob lamebrain CNN non-male personality blamed the meteorites on global warming.
Al Adab| 2.15.13 @ 8:29AM
No need to speculate about the end times. Whatever men may think it will come in Gods' good time.
Nonetheless one of the papabili is Peter Cardinal Turkson
Louis Jenkins| 2.15.13 @ 9:02AM
Well, it's raining metorites in East Russia. Sounds to me like the end of the world has arrived. Next up, it will be raining cats and dogs.
Skippy| 2.15.13 @ 4:38PM
Damn! I just stepped in a poodle.
C. Vernon Crisler | 2.15.13 @ 9:31AM
Despite what prophecy-mongers may say, the Book of Revelation -- or at least most of it -- concerns the destruction of Jerusalem and Nero's persecution of Christians. The last part is about what happens after that. It's about the reign of the martyrs in heaven, and then a new worldwide pogrom against Christians, followed by the end of the world. We haven't seen that worldwide Neronic-style persecution of Christians yet, though we can see harbingers of it, even in America.
g wayne| 2.15.13 @ 11:00AM
Vern, not true. This is popular teaching among Calvinists but Calvin didn't live to see Israel become a nation again. This was a direct fulfillment of Ezekials dry bones vision. When you take into consideration the prophecy contained in Revelation, Ezek.,Daniel,Joel,Isaiah,etc you get a better understanding that there is no single event left before the rapture of the church. (read Thes.) Sure, we do not know the date and time, but these are like the days of Noah. Wickedness has increased and scoffers abound. (read Peter) The fact that Israel exists today as a nation should be a big sign to every Christian that God is involved in the affairs of men. How else to explain a people keeping their writings, traditions, language, etc for almost 1900 years then reentering their land? Plus that land once again becoming fruitful. This was all prophesied in advance. Maranatha, Lord come quickly...
C. Vernon Crisler | 2.15.13 @ 2:14PM
I just don't accept the Hal Lindsey view that today's Israel is of any prophetic significance. The concern in the New Testament is not really for those who can trace their ancestry back to Abraham, but for those who are of the FAITH of Abraham. IOW, ethnicity no longer has any redemptive-historical significance since Christ removed the grounds for division. Any view that still looks on Israelis as being a "chosen nation" is just perpetuating ethnic snobbery. Israel has a right to exist, but only as one of the nations of the world, not as a unique nation of the world.
I know that goes against the Hal Lindsey view, but I think it's based on a much more serious exegesis of the Bible than can be found in dispensationalism.
Al Adab| 2.15.13 @ 2:51PM
It all depends on whether one is a premillenialist, a post-millenialist or an amillenialist. That's where the debate comes in. Best thing to do is make certain one is living in His will, then the debate becomes solely academic.
Job| 2.15.13 @ 4:40PM
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning
Parker| 2.17.13 @ 7:19AM
I think you really need to read the parable of the wheat and the tares. The meek inherit the earth; not the wicked. The tares (weeds) are gathered first; not the wheat.
There may be a rapture, but it will be (removing) of the wicked, "just as in the days of Noah." Noah and his family didn't get taken away; the wicked were removed. The righteous man inherited the new earth.
Scripture interprets scripture. God does not need to remove (rapture) the Church (for protection) which He built upon a rock and declared the gates of hell will never prevail against.
Why on earth would God rapture today's group of mostly cowardly pastors, priests and congregants when He didn't remove men and women whom Paul the apostle said he wasn't worthy to be counted among? This rapture theory of dispensationalists is nothing but bad exegesis promising an escape from defending the faith and the duty to follow Christ even unto death. God has a habit of testing His own with trials tribulations and we see it from Genesis through Revelation.
On the other hand...
God also has a consistent habit of obliterating His enemies and removing (rapturing) wicked men as opposed to removing the righteous. As for the 'famous' proof text of Thessalonians, why does God need to remove the dead first? Clearly, in the full context, this is addressing the resurrection. If scripture interprets scripture as is proper, I think the consistent and correct answer would the, "weeds are removed first and thrown into the fire."
Quartermaster| 2.15.13 @ 12:17PM
Preterism has been completely debunked. There are so many holes in the system that it was easily debunked as a pseudo-scholars fantasy. There are still a few hangers on, one of the most prominent being Gary North, but few accept the system.
Moe Blotz| 2.15.13 @ 9:55AM
The title of Matt Purple's article today gave me an idea for lunch. This noon I shall go to my local tavern and dine on some spicy Mexican fare, with the addition of some Habanero pepper sauce. Perhaps then I will have Taco lips on Friday.
fmm| 2.15.13 @ 10:12AM
Actually it is a good time for another apocalypse scare as the people who built the Mayan survival bunkers canstill feel good about that miscalculation.
Bandido| 2.15.13 @ 10:43AM
A silly article dripping with superstitious nonsense. Proves Christians are as backward and as guillible as any atheists. Malachy=Nostradamus=End Times? Prehistoric thinking.
Michele San Pietro| 2.15.13 @ 11:06AM
Prophecies are a load of nonsense.
Gary B| 2.15.13 @ 1:48PM
"So are we all doomed?" Only as long as dumb ass, low-information, useful idiots keep voting for Democrats and RINOs. Until that stops, yea, we're doomed.
Petronius| 2.15.13 @ 11:13AM
The world may not end.
But civilization is already far enough gone that catastrophe is unavoidable. Our state is redolent of a kindergarten where "teacher has left the room and everybody is peeing in the sand box," as Dr. Price wrote in his last book. There is no search for the wise and mature among us to put things right, only savage desire to plunder the wealth of others from life's losers, and gloating of the triumphant strutting the red carpets encouraging the envy of those who can't in their blind wishes for sexual fulfillment and fame. Rome is fallen again. And today, Rome is everywhere. If there is another Peter, and he is tendered the question, "acceptanse electsionem?" he'd be the greatest fool ever to reply, "volo."
Al Adab| 2.15.13 @ 11:45AM
Peter Cardinal Turkson. Makes all the speculation rather interesting. Also of course Daniel speaks of the seven seventies and 2018 is the 70th anniversary of modern Israel. As an amillenial however, while interesting, it really has no import on my plans. Better to be concerned about living in His will.
CrackerHound| 2.15.13 @ 12:11PM
That's what I have been thinking Petronius....Regardless of ancient predictions, the evidence for a really terrible ending very, very soon is all around us. If apocolypse can be translated to mean the end of the world, that might be a better outcome than what may actually come to be. Throughout history there have been some pretty desperate times but there has never been what could be considered world wide collapse and chaos on the level that I foresee coming...based on the evidence at hand, not a prophecy. IMO, we are are only a couple of global catastophes (war or natural disasters) away from our fragile state becoming collapse.
I agree with Al Adab though, live you life like normal and don't worry about what you cannot control.
Bill8472| 2.15.13 @ 11:29AM
I don't think Pope Benedict resigning is an apocalyptic event.
As a Protestant, I for one don't believe that 1. the pope is the Antichrist, and 2. that the Bible is always literally true. In those two things, I'm certainly like the huge majority of Protestants.
gene| 2.15.13 @ 11:53AM
No one knows the end, tis true. The problem with Catholicsm is that ALL Prophecies in the past were fulfilled down to the last (jot and tittle) as Jesus proclaimed. But in today's world? All symbollism and allagory. Not real. Not going to happen. World is different now. VERY inconsistent.
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. The Incarnation of God. A leaf does not touch the ground without Him knowing about it and knowing the reason why. IF He says that EVERYTHING will be fulfilled, then Catholics better rethink all of their ideas about Prophecies that they call "symbollism" and "imagery". Jesus says something completely different. And he will not be mocked. (On purpose or by accident by sincere but misguided folks).
Egil| 2.15.13 @ 1:14PM
I have to admit, if we're really nearing the end, its going to be pretty daggone awesome to see a Bosch or Bruegel painting come to life!
Petronius| 2.15.13 @ 2:38PM
More like the paintings of Baldung
Job| 2.15.13 @ 4:46PM
Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore in 1966 stated that computers will get smaller by half every 2 years. He deduced this by observation of the increasing rate of the amount of integrated circuits (transistors) being squeezed on circuit boards due to their miniaturization from 1958-1965. "Moore's law" has been uncannily accurate for over 50 years.
"Moore's law" is applicable to any technology and we can use the technology of explosives to test out this theory:
Gunpowder was invented by the Chinese somewhere between 400 and 900 AD.
TNT in the 1860's a thousand year later Alfred Nobel (Nobel Peace Prize founder).
Atom Bomb 80 years after that Oppenheimer et.al
H-bomb ten years after A-bomb.
So the litmus test for Moore's law's applicability is meaningful and we're back to warning that KNOWLEDGE (of Good and Evil) will bring death.
What book was it that accurately foresaw problematic knowledge explosion leading to annihilation 6 millennium ago and reiterated war to end all war (Armageddon) 2 millennium ago? All these millennium numbers remind me that unless we can hitch a ride on the Millenium falcon and get the eff off this planet or there is some kinda divine intervention we are toast.
Job| 2.15.13 @ 4:47PM
Stephen Hawking the Cambridge physicist, seems to think, it's not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when we commit planetcide and that the only hope we have is to see if we can propagate the stars. So, I guess, if men are successful at evacuating earth we'll blow the planet up behind our asses and not around our asses. This seems to me to be just a really advanced version of slash and burn farming.
Strange enough Adam could have eaten from the Tree of Life instead of the Tree of Knowledge but that would have been like faith trumping knowledge. Faith that God knew what he was doing and didn't need his help. Put another way blue pill or red pill?
Moe Blotz| 2.16.13 @ 8:39AM
Right in, Job, and Armageddon outa here.
gene| 2.15.13 @ 5:51PM
As stated by others, "The End" is only the end of an age not the world. As for arguments about when? Pre or Post-millenial? Etc.? People have been suffering Tribulation and violent death for thousands of years. It will continue. IF you do not live for Christ today, you will not die for Him tomorrow (Like Fr. Kolbe in the concentration camps.) There will always be people who will run the camps, kill people and then later state they were just following orders and it was not their fault.
I would not bet eternity on that defense.
mjfin| 2.15.13 @ 8:04PM
Ok, just for fun, my prophecy. End of the world (as we know it). Based on existing technology.
1) Costs to go to space drop from $3000 to $100/lb (1st class RT airfare Tokyo) in next 20 years. This is no nerd pipe dream. Reusable spaceships are now funded by the cream of world-class entrepreneurs: Musk (PayPal) SpaceX; Bezos (Amazon) Blue Origin; Allen (Microsoft) Stratolaunch; Branson (Virgin) Virgin Galactic.
2) Dropping costs by 30 x creates a space business boom. Workers will be needed in orbit to build things. Good building material comes from moon dirt, 80% of which is oxygen, iron, aluminum, and magnesium. Shipping moon dirt to lunar orbit will be cheap using bucket tethers or mass drivers. Energy (solar) is abundant, uninterrupted and real ~1KW per square meter.
3) Workers need places to live. These will be small spinning habitats, initially supporting maybe 100 people. Habitat construction and support becomes a growing fraction of space business.
4) Once people can:
A) Make an unsubsidized living in space
B) Manufacture low cost habitats
C) Live and raise children in space, then
5) Game over. Exponential growth fills the Solar System for the next thousand years. Doesn't matter if YOU think living in space is a good idea. It is only necessary that people THERE think so.
6) Orbital habitats will grow to become island city-states. Rich space entrepreneurs buy up best earth land and carve it into sparsely populated estates.
7) End of prophecy. Q.E.D.
Dave Williams| 2.15.13 @ 8:48PM
Anybody who believes ANY prophecy is a blithering idiot (and yes, that goes for Nostradamus, Revelations, and fortune cookies). The future, by definition, DOES NOT EXIST, and so no one can say anything about it with the remotest intellectual warrant whatsoever.
gene| 2.16.13 @ 1:35PM
For mortals you are correct. But the "One" who created this Universe (First Cause) has to exist OUTSIDE of Space, Matter, and Time. All three, according to Science had a Beginning. So whatever started that "Beginning" exists outside of all three. Being outside of Space/Matter/Time, this "One" would indeed know the End and the Beginning simultaneously and He says He does throughout the Bible, even 5000 years ago, He stated this.
Now you are free to accept or reject this as you please. You may think you cease to exist when your heart stops beating. We will both find out in a short space of time. Less than a hundred years I would think. I myself am not going to bet eternity on your opinion. No I do not think so.
BTW When Daniel predicted the arrival of the Messiah on Palm Sunday in 32A.D.? He did it over 450 years before the event. Non-Believers and Liberal Christians have tried for centuries to prove that this was written AFTER Jesus and not before. However documentation exists that show it dates back at least 100 YEARS before the actual event. It is there in black and white. No fraud.
Yes, I would not bet eternity on your opinion. Peace.
gene| 2.16.13 @ 1:37PM
P.S. He not only predicted it, but to the actual day. He had no special powers and was just a human being. The "One" that told him to write this stuff down? A different story.
Mnestheus| 2.16.13 @ 6:46AM
Just to be on the safe side of Mesoamerican Exceptionalism, , Matt should hop the next plane to Cancun, climb the nearest Maya pyramid, and open up his heart and let the sun shine in.
Petronius| 2.16.13 @ 2:22PM
I left a call for Zaphod Beeblebrox. He has the inside skinny.
desertrataz247| 2.16.13 @ 5:22PM
for a good read on endtime prophecy, go to www.
wordservice.org. read it, support it, pass it!
God bless!
Rich D| 2.18.13 @ 12:04PM
Created by God or nature? So, since when is "nature" an active agent able to self create?