The Last Good Pope?

let's pray not

Published on February 24, 2005 By Gene Nash In Religion

"Among all forms of mistake, prophecy is the most gratuitous."
-- George Eliot

As Pope John Paul II is again rushed to the hospital and required to undergo surgery, I can't help but pause and consider the many predictions (many from before anyone heard of him) that predict he will be "the last good pope."

Many in the Evangelical Community even consider Pope John Paul II's passing as a sign of the rise of Antichrist and his "false prophet."

Usually this evangelical panic turns out to be nothing but blather. Still, it's something to think about.

I hope, like Nostradamus's dire prediction concerning the turning of the Millennium, these "prophecies" aren't true.

"The prophet who fails to present a bearable alternative and yet preaches doom is part of the trap that he postulates. Not only does he picture us caught in a tremendous man-made or God-made trap from which there is no escape, but we must also listen to him day in, day out, describe how the trap is inexorably closing. To such prophecies the human race, as presently bred and educated and situated, is incapable of listening."
-- Margaret Mead

Comments

Myrrander

on Feb 24, 2005

Alexander VI was the last good pope, I think.

Gene Nash

on Feb 26, 2005

I think we're labouring under different definitions of "good" here.

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