Insight on the News
Doomsday Predictions
The latest rage all over France is another book on the doomsday predictions of Nostradamus—a new translation from 16th-century French into modern French with the assistance of a computer. By midsummer, 232,000 copies of the 565-page book were sold.
Why this sudden surge of interest? One of the predictions says that a pope would be assassinated “when the rose will flower.” This was interpreted to be fulfilled by the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II last May after the Socialist Party, symbolized by the rose, came into power in France.
“Time” magazine explains: “The predictions of Nostradamus . . . tend to be rediscovered during turbulent historical eras—such as now, when many Western Europeans are worried about faltering economies and superpower conflict.” And the French newsweekly “Le Point” said: “Fear is becoming a market. One hundred days after having brought Mitterrand to power, our citizens are paying $20 a copy to shudder in horror.”
This “fear,” however, is precisely what Jesus Christ predicted as a part of the ‘sign of the conclusion of the system of things,’ saying: “On the earth anguish of nations, not knowing the way out . . . while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.” (Matthew 24:3; Luke 21:25, 26) But he added: “As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.”—Luke 21:28.
“How to Kill,” in Six Volumes
“To the making of many books there is no end, and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh,” wrote wise King Solomon at Ecclesiastes 12:12. The ultimate of the endless list of wearisome books being published appears to be a set of six volumes entitled “How to Kill.” The volumes outline details on how to kill with clubs, hatchets, knives, poison, fire, electricity, explosives and firearms, along with precise diagrams and drawings. In the introduction, the writer says: “The object of this study is to instruct the reader in the techniques of taking another human life, up close, and doing it well. You may well find this book offensive, repulsive, brutal and vicious. It is meant to be. It is completely contemptuous of human life, and my only admonition to the would-be assassin is: Kill without joy.”
The publisher describes the books as strictly “technical. They don’t stimulate emotion. . . . It’s an intellectual exercise, a fantasy, an escape.” When asked if selling this kind of material troubles him, he replied: “Not at all. I don’t think you could prove that these books cause people to kill. . . . In our society, no one can ban the publication of these books, and that’s exactly as it should be.” So far, between 30,000 and 40,000 copies have been sold.
Seminaries Censored
The Vatican recently called for “a study or review of the current status of priestly formation in American seminaries.” Reporting on what appears to be the first such investigation in the U.S., the New York “Times” says that the plan “has already alarmed some seminary heads who believe the study could result in an attempt to root out dissent and stifle academic freedom. . . . One seminary head called the effort ‘a witch hunt.’ . . . Another educator called it an insult to the integrity of American Catholic seminary training.”
According to “Official Catholic Directory” figures, enrollment in Catholic seminaries in America has dwindled from 49,000 in 1965 to the current level of 12,000. But of greater concern to the Vatican is “the necessity for doctrinal conformity” and “too much liberalism among some theologians,” the report points out.
The opposition of the seminarians and educators to the investigation is a telltale sign that the Catholic Church, though claiming apostolic succession, has not given heed to the apostolic injunction: “That you should all speak in agreement, and that there should not be divisions among you, but that you may be fitly united in the same mind and in the same line of thought.” (1 Corinthians 1:10) The steady decline among the priestly ranks reflects what Jesus Christ said: “If a house becomes divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”—Mark 3:25.