Question: With the pope’s suddenly stepping down, what’s Mr. Hunt’s view on the St. Malachy ...

Question: With the pope’s suddenly stepping down, what’s Mr. Hunt’s view on the St. Malachy prophecy as it relates to Bible prophecy and Revelation 13, 17, and the false prophet being the pope?

Response: Dave has stated in the past that he believes the St. Malachy prophecies are a distraction from the truth. St. Malachy was a medieval Irish priest and Kabbalist. Consequently, giving credence to the man is a step in the direction of much of the metaphysical nonsense afflicting too many today. Malachy’s prophecies allegedly came in a vision and have no connection to Scripture. That is sufficient reason to reject them.

With the excitement of a true believer in St. Malachy, a Catholic writer for the Cleveland Leader wrote: “In 1139, Malachy was Archbishop and traveled to Rome from Ireland to give an account of his affairs. While in Rome, Malachy received a vision about the future, which included the name of every pope, 112 in total, from his time until the end of time” (http://www.clevelandleader.com /node/20116).

In truth, and in stark contrast to the detailed prophecy of Scripture, Malachy didn’t specifically name all the popes. Instead, he gave a phrase supposedly describing each pontificate. Much like the quatrains of Nostradamus, these little phrases are open to speculation and can mean almost anything to anyone. Therefore, one can always find an “amazingly accurate” point of agreement with whichever pope is in the line of succession.

The Catholic apologist group Catholic Answers dashed the hopes of Malachy’s followers further when they wrote, “There have been many more misses, though. Describing the popes to follow John XXIII are the phrases ‘flower of flowers’ (Paul VI), ‘from a half-moon’ (John Paul I), and ‘from the toil of the sun’ (John Paul II), none of which is an obvious connection. After our current pope, there are only two left in Malachy’s prophecy, ‘the glory of the olive’ and ‘Peter the Roman.’ The latter will supposedly lead the Church through many tribulations, concluding with the last judgment” (http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/do-the-prophecies-of-st-malachy-suggest-we-are-living-in-the-end-times).

In short, these prophecies may be exciting and interesting to some but in the end simply lead us away from the sure word of Scripture.