Every time the year draws to a close, newspapers will run “prediction” stories for the coming year—ranging from the realistic to the hardly believable.
For example, it’s fair to predict a year of unpredictability in American politics, since Congress will be divided for the first time in eight years. With one party controlling the House and another the Senate (along with the Presidency), it’s a fair bet that things will be, well, charged during the next twelve months.
What are we to believe, however, when a newspaper runs with predictions from a previously little-known “blind mystic” who, by the way, died 22 years ago? The words “hardly believable” spring to mind.
The Curious Case of Baba VangaIn this case, London’s Daily Mail is talking up the “prophecies” of Baba Vanga, a “famous blind Bulgarian mystic.” That the woman passed to her rest in 1996 is of little concern: She apparently can tell what will happen to today’s world leaders who were barely known during her lifetime; at least, they were not known as world leaders.
Take U.S. President Donald J. Trump. Yes, in 1996 Mr. Trump was known, in New York City at least, as a real estate mogul of some importance, but eight years would pass before he gained national attention hosting The Apprentice on the NBC television network. Is it likely that the Bulgarian seer, who claimed her first vision at age 12 after being blinded in a freak accident, ever heard of him?
Yet the London newspaper reports Baba Vanga is predicting a horrible year for Mr. Trump in 2019: He will suffer “an unexplained illness that will cause him nausea, tinnitus, brain trauma, and hearing loss,” the Daily Mail claims—adding that a member of the president’s immediate family “will be involved in a car crash.”
Or consider Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. During Baba Vanga’s lifetime, Putin was known, somewhat, as a KGB officer and Russian politician. But Vanga’s death in 1996 came a full three years before Putin became Russian prime minister under then-president Boris Yeltsin; another year would pass before Putin succeeded Yeltsin in the top job.
Media reports claim Vanga has “predicted” an attempted assassination of Putin from “somebody inside his security team,” which has been increased in recent years due to perceived threats against the Russian leader.
If Baba Vanga’s predictions hold true, expect a tsunami to “wipe out large parts of Asia,” as well as economic collapse to strike Europe. The Daily Mail claims Vanga predicted both the terrorist attacks that struck the United States on September 11, 2001, as well as the 2016 vote by the United Kingdom to drop membership in the European Union—a move commonly known as “Brexit.”
Prophetic Obsessions
It’s impossible to verify these claims given Baba Vanga’s passing in 1996.
But it shows the lengths to which some are willing to go to find some “hint” about future events. Not that long ago, a “psychic” named Jeane Dixon gained celebrity for allegedly predicting the 1963 assassination of then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and millions looked to her “prophecies” to predict future events.
Long before Dixon, the four-line poetic musings of 16th-century French apothecary and physician Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus, captivated readers looking for prophetic guidance outside of the Bible. Even though he died in 1566, Nostradamus’ predictions have never been out of print.
But even author Peter Lemesurier, whose four books establish the writer as a Nostradamus expert, concedes that some of the “fulfillment” claimed for Nostradamus’ alleged predictions are the result of either ignorant or deliberate mistranslation of the poems. It would appear, then, that discerning the future based on a four-line poem might be risky at best—and certainly unreliable overall.
A Better Place to See the Future
So the question remains: Is there a source of “future news” that is reliable? After all, it would be helpful to know what is soon to transpire in this world and to prepare for those coming events.
We believe the Bible is that reliable news source. Between one-third and one-half of the Bible is prophetic in nature, and much of it has been fulfilled already. The many prophecies about the life of Jesus were fulfilled to the letter, as this audio sermon from Joe Crews explains. That’s just one example of the Bible’s prophetic accuracy.
Want more evidence? Check out our new documentary called Kingdoms in Time, which guides you through the Bible’s most jaw-dropping prophecies spanning thousands of years. It’s a fascinating study featuring Pastor Doug Batchelor.
Amazing Facts has published a number of books and booklets on Bible prophecy, and many of these are available, free of charge, at the Bible Prophecy Truth website. This FREE library of Bible prophecy resources is available to you (and everyone) 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Why not visit there right now?