What Is A Prophet?
By Barbara Stock (12/23/04)
The world is hearing much these days about “prophets.” Was Moses a prophet? Was Jesus a prophet? Was Mohammed a prophet?
Interestingly, Moses, the man credited with leading the children of Israel out of Egypt is considered a great prophet by followers of Islam. Moses, or Musa, is mentioned often in the Quran. Much of the Quran is based on the teachings of Moses as opposed to the teaching of Jesus.
Jesus is considered by Christians to be the Son of God. He was the Messiah all prophets before him, including Moses, had predicted changing them from mere "predictors" into true prophets.
There are very few predictions that were issued by Mohammed that were of any consequence. Indeed, his predictions were usually limited to whether his army would win an upcoming battle. No one predicted his coming and thus, his claims of being a “prophet” were largely looked upon by the Arab world at the time with great skepticism.
This leads one to ask, what constitutes a prophet? Anyone can make predictions; it’s the fact that the predictions come to pass that makes the difference.
Given the label of saint rather than prophet, a young peasant girl by the name of Bernadette Soubirous made several predictions she claimed were given to her by the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, France. The first prediction was that miracles and cures would occur at Lourdes and this has come to pass. There are a multitude of documented and verified cures and miracles by visitors who were believers and unbelievers alike.
Perhaps less known is that Bernadette also predicted that man would “harness the power of lightening.” Many years later, Thomas Edison did just that. She predicted that man would walk on the moon a full quarter century before the Wright brothers took their historic first flight. A dire warning that Germany would “rise up and stifle most of Europe” came to pass in the form of World War II.
Unlike prophets before her, Bernadette did not claim her words came from God but from Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ. Indeed, since the death of Christ, nearly all announced prophecies have come from the Virgin Mary and not God himself.
The fifth and final prediction from Saint Bernadette of Lourdes covered two major topics. She predicted there would be a “second golden age of man,” but not until man turned against the science that had run wild “combining the essence of man and the essence of a beast.” Just recently, genetic engineers have talked of combining the DNA of man and animal. Bernadette claimed that “monsters would be spawned” and this would be the catalyst that would make humankind rise up against such science and those practicing it.
Equally chilling was the prediction that the Christian countries of the world would unite to defeat the followers of Mohammed. The year she said this great battle would begin was the year 2000. This horrible and bloody battle, that would claim the lives of millions, would be ended by a nuclear attack on present day Iran. She predicted a “bomb of great power would fall on a city in Persia.” In Bernadette’s day, there was no Iran.
It is unlikely this poor and uneducated girl, who could barely read, knew anything about the “followers of Mohammed.” Why would she mention them specifically? Is it just coincidence that the world is now trying to prevent Iran, considered by many to be the heart of radical Islam, from getting its own nuclear weapons? Was it just chance that the first shot fired in this war was the taking of American hostages in Iran in the 1970’s?
Some would say the attack on America didn’t take place until 2001, so Bernadette was wrong. But was she? It was in the year 2000 that George W. Bush, the man who has openly declared war on the radical element of Islam and labeled them evil, was elected president. Up until that time, the leaders of the free world had tried to ignore terrorists, hoping they would go away.
But was this young girl a prophet? Yes, by all standards, many believe that she was. She made predictions that came to pass and she made predictions about things she could have had no prior knowledge. But perhaps the strongest indication that there was something very special about Bernadette Soubirous, who died in 1879, is the fact that to this day, her body is virtually the same as the day she died.
Buried for 30 years, her body was exhumed when the investigation for sainthood began. The investigators were startled to look at a young woman with almost no signs of decomposition. She appeared as though she had just died the day before they saw her. Also missing was the normal odor of a decaying body. After their investigation, she was once again buried, only to be exhumed again in 1919.
Again, there were no signs of normal decomposition or odor. The last examination of Saint Bernadette’s body was done in 1925 when even her liver was examined and found to be soft and in near normal condition even though she had died nearly 40 years earlier.
A crystal coffin was made and to this day the miracle that is Saint Bernadette remains in full view in the chapel in the Church of St. Gildard at the convent in Nevers, France. A light plastic mold was made of her face and hands to add color but her body remains much as did the last day of her life over 100 years ago.
Should the Christian world heed the prediction of the war to come given to the world from the Virgin Mary through this humble peasant girl over a hundred years ago? Would it not be prudent to prepare for what is to come?
Prophets come when we least expect them and they rarely announce themselves. Most did not asked for the burden of being a prophet and it is a burden as most were ridiculed and belittled. Time and time again real prophets warn us of things to come. We just need to hear them.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Barbara Stock
