Pope....End of Times?

 I write this before pope francis' funeral, which will be tomorrow, Saturday, April 26th, 10AM Vatican time, 3AM CDT.

So, as I promised I would talk a little about Catholic Prophecy and what they are saying. 

Of course, there are people who base their entire doctrinal beliefs on the 'End of Times.' 

In 1844, a Protestant denomination still in existence today, predicted that Jesus was about to return. In Upstate New York, the leader of the denomination, William Miller said that Jesus was going to return October 22, 1844. People sold their homes, the farm, whatever they had and waited on Jesus. This became know as the " Great Disappointment."

In more recent times a radio Bible teacher by the name of Harold Camping predicted the date of Jesus' return. 

Camping through donations to his 'ministry' became a millionaire, and bought 150 radio station throughout the U.S. One was in Beaumont. An FM station. 

His radio show in the evenings, was a call in show about Bible verses, and more times than not, he told the caller why they were going to Hell for their question, or what they had been taught in Sunday School. 

Again, you can't make this stuff. 

Camping had a Civil Engineering degree from Cal-Berkley and  his math background, he claimed allowed him to figure out the date of the rapture, and Jesus' return. 

He claimed the rapture would be in 1994. Even wrote a best-selling book on the topic.....Of course, nothing happened in 1994.

Camping then claimed that he made a math mistake and Jesus would be coming in May 21, 2011. And millions of people would die every day for the next 5 months. When nothing happened in May, he changed the date to October 2011. ( Just what I want, an engineer who's trained to bridges who can't get his math right.)

Camping died before October. 

So, this leads us to Catholic prophecy.  

We of course are talking about the "Prophecy of the Popes" by St. Malachy a Archbishop in Ireland ( Armagh, in Northern Ireland, I've traveled through, nothing to write home about.) 1094-1148. 

Malachy wrote a set of prophecies concerning the next 112 popes. Each pope had , written in Latin, a short description of what they were going to be like. 

Many of the descriptions were 'dead on' others, well, you had to push it a bit for it to work. and for many they were close enough. 

These prophecies were found in a vault by a Benedictine monk in 1590, and were published. 

Malachy said there would be 112 popes from his time until the end of time. 

Trouble is Francis was Pope number 112......And so called Catholic prophecy experts are saying 112 before the last pope...

Which would mean the coming pope would be the last pope....And the last pope would be 'Peter the Roman' ( Petrus Romanus) whose reign would end in 2027.  

And three of the front-runners who might be pope are names 'Peter.' 

According to the final entry by Malachy, surrounding Peter the Roman, the 'last pope' will preside over the Church during a time of great turmoil, culminating in the destruction of Rome and the end of the papacy.

There are also people who think that the person won't be named "Peter" but in will take the name of "Peter"......There has not been anyone called Peter who was a Pope according to the Catholic Church other than Peter who walked with Jesus. So, if he calls himself Peter, or if his birth name was Peter, it might give cause for pause. 

Now, remember, Matt 24:36 said- "No one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows."

Take any end times prophecy for what it is worth....

That said, if we have a Peter named as a Pope, well, might be worth keeping an eye on Rome....If anything, to see who loses their minds, and really might need to keep an eye on them...