Funny. To American Evaneglical/ Charismatic/ Fundamentalist, etc… Protestant Christians who believe in the End Times theory as described in the books and made-for-TV movies “Left Behind,” and who believe in the “NWO” that the Antichrist will allegedly use to rule the world (the “bit wierd” “last days stuff” of “American origin”), it will be the UN or EU that would be the renewed Roman Empire, a world dictatorship, and that would enforce it (using their own forces, UN “peacekeepers,” or NATO), and America will be one of the few opposing it and left on the side of God at the battle of Armegeddon… Isn’t it interesting how our nationality can sometimes inform our eschatology and theology? That is why I believe in the End Tmes prophecy and in the parameters for an End Time prophecy as espoused by official Catholic teaching.
-Chris
Well, seeing you’ve quoted my paragraph, I thought I might give some indications of other predictions that the old pastor made and that came true. Bear in mind he died in 1992, and I think a lot of these predictions were made in the last year or so of his life -
- He warned a young bloke in his congregation that if he didn’t ride his motorbike more carefully, he “wouldn’t last two weeks!”. He buried him precisely two weeks later. He told me he felt guilty about that one, as he wished he’d used other wording, since he said he oftne found that things he said came true.
- He said I’d become Catholic. I joined the church in 1996 or 97.
- He said he didn’t think my sister would live long, and I think he mentioned leukemia. She died of leukemia in 2005, aged 45.
- He said he thought his eldest surviving son would have a major health issue. In 1995 or 1996 his eldest son had a serious stroke, hasn’t worked since and has other ongoing health issues.
- Just after the First Gulf War, he commented, “I think there’ll be a second Gulf war. The Americans will have had enough of Saddam Hussein and they’ll get rid of him. But they’ll lose a few men the next time.” The word “few” was said in a way that clearly implied more than a few. 2003 - Gulf War II. 2006 - Saddam Hussein executed. Nearly 5000 American service deaths.
- He told me there’d be a bit of a conspiracy against me. He said when I was about 40, all this anger I’d been bottling up would start to come out and I’d lose my temper at work. He also said I’d make a “silly mistake” and that “they’d” use that to get rid of me.
When I was about 40, I lost my temper at work a couple of times, and my “silly mistake” was to write a humorous (?) piece with another bloke’s name on it. But he didn’t see the funny side of it, and to cut a long story short, I ended up with a “Transfer” and “redundancy”. He also thought another pastor would be involved. I can’t prove it, but I think I know how it happened.
- He predicted of the same pastor mentioned above that “I think he’ll get hold of this (Presbyterian) church when I’m gone and wreck it! But he can’t touch the people!” I found out later that my old pastor died around 3am (I still remember the sense of peace that descended on me at around that time on that day, and which lasted for a good half an hour or so, even though I wasn’t told of his death till early the next morning. But at 6am, the other pastor called a meeting of the Assembly and had himself placed in that particular parish. He wrecked it all right. But “he couldn’t touch the people”. Most of them were so disgusted with him, they left the Presbyterian Church altogether.
Incidentally I happenf to go to a certain Catholic psychiatrist. Not long after I started seeing him, I mentioned this other pastor’s name, and he replied, “That’s interesting. I’ve treated about eight Presbyterian pastors for stress related breakdown, and in every case, this bloke’s name comes up.” But that’s an aside.
- The prediction that go to me though was “I think you’ll be doing cleaning work for a short time. You won’t be doing it for long, and you won’t like it much, but I think the Lord will just want you to hear about a ghost.”
I thought that one was a bit silly, even though I knew how accurate he was. But in 2006 I did a cleaning job for a short time, didn’t like it much, and heard about a ghost, a managerial suicide dating back to the 1960’s in one of the stores I was cleaning. I ended up getting a mass said for him, but to finish it off,
I had to chance upon an Australian priest via this very forum who just happened to be located at the closest Catholic Church no further than a few hundred metres from the store in question!
Would you sit behind a desk and say to somebody
“I think you’ll be doing cleaning work for a short time. You won’t be doing it for long, and you won’t like it much, but I think the Lord will just want you to hear about a ghost”, and expect it to happen? I wouldn’t, but my wise old pastor did.
So when he said about the anti-Christ possibly being American, and that this event could happen within the next 7 years going by age of the the potential Australian “king” (politician) in question, then I tend to take notice. And it’s based on personal experience, because I know just how accurate he was.
Just an additional comment, to illustrate why I thought the pastor’s viewpoint was relevant.