There are many accounts of prophetic visions about the last days that have been written. I am usually skeptical when others write about visions or dreams that they have had–skeptical, but not entirely disbelieving. I read John Pontius’ very detailed Vision’s of Glory, which John ghost-wrote for someone who wanted to remain anonymous. There is also Julie Rowe and Bishop Koyle of “Dream Gold Mine” fame, who also wrote popular accounts of future events focusing on Utah or the United States. There have been others over the last twenty years or so that have written books purported to be prophesy of the last days. The thing is, none of what they wrote about has come true (yet?), and many of the accounts contradict each other on several points. So, I just filed those accounts away in my mind. I have, however, collected some prophecies that were written decades or centuries ago, that have some very uncanny resemblance to events that are taking place today, or have already taken place sometime after the prophecies were written down. I am sharing three with you in this post. One account is from over 50 years ago, the second is from over 100 years ago, and the third is over 200 years old. What makes them remarkable is how descriptive and accurate some passages are of the times we are living in. I thought maybe these might hold some interest for some of you.
I copied down this first prophetic writing several years ago (About 2005) and forgot about it until I was looking through my journals recently. It tells of a vision of an older woman had who lived in Valdres, Norway. She was interviewed by a minister whose name was E. Minos in 1968. At the time she was 90 years old, but had the vision many years before. Here is what Minos wrote about this woman and her account, which he wrote down and put it away for a few years because he thought it was just too extreme– too incredible to be true. After some years had passed he realized that the account wasn’t that extreme any more and published it. He wrote, “The woman was from Valdres, was a very alert, reliable, awake, and credible Christian, with a good reputation among all who knew her.“
I didn’t write down the source bibliography information (I could kick myself), but it seemed pretty credible to me at the time or I wouldn’t have written it down. You be the judge if this doesn’t ring true…
“I saw the time before the coming of Jesus and the outbreak of the 3rd World War. I saw the events with my natural eyes. I saw the world like a kind of a globe and saw Europe, land by land. I saw Scandinavia, I saw Norway. I saw certain things that would take place just before the return of Jesus, and just before the last calamity happens, a calamity the likes of which we have never before experienced.“
“First, before Jesus comes and before the 3rd World War breaks out there will be a détente like we have never had before. There will be peace between the super powers in the east and the west, and there will be a long peace. (The fall of the Soviet Union?) In this period of peace there will be a disarmament in many countries, also in Norway and we are not prepared when it (the war) comes.”
“The Third World War will begin in a way no one would have anticipated – and from an unexpected place. A luke-warmness without parallel will take hold of the Christians, a falling away from true living Christianity. Christians will not be open for penetrating preaching. They will not, like in earlier times, want to hear about sin and grace, law and gospel, repentance and restoration. There will come a substitute instead–happiness or prosperity Christianity. The important thing will be to have success, to be something: to have material things. Things that God never promised us in this way.”
“Churches and prayer houses will be emptier and emptier. Instead of the preaching we have been used to for generations, like, to take your cross and follow Jesus. Entertainment, art, and culture will invade the churches where there should have been gatherings for repentance and revival. This will increase markedly just before the return of Jesus.”
“There will be a moral disintegration that old Norway has never experienced the likes of. People will live together like married without being married. Much uncleanliness before marriage and much infidelity in marriage will become the natural (common) and it will be justified from every angle. It will even enter Christian circles and we let it –even sin against nature. Just before Jesus returns there will be TV programs like we have never experienced (TV was introduced to Norway in 1968) and it will be filled with violence that teaches people to murder and destroy each other. It will be unsafe on our streets. TV will be just like the radio where we have many stations.(There was only one station in Norway in 1968), and it will be filled with violence. People will use it for entertainment. We will see terrible scenes of murder and destruction one after the other, and this will spread in society.”
“Sex scenes will also be shown on the screen. The most intimate things that take place in a marriage. It will happen and we will see it. All we have had before will be broken down, and the most indecent things will pass before our eyes.”
“People from poor countries will stream to Europe. They will also come to Scandinavia and Norway. There will be so many of them that people will begin to dislike them and become hard on them. They will be treated like the Jews before World War II. Then the full measure of our sins will have been reached. Tears streamed from the old woman’s eyes down her cheeks. “I will not see it, but you will.”
“Then suddenly Jesus will come and the 3rd World War breaks out. It will be a short war. (She saw the war in the vision). All I have seen of war before is only child’s play compared to this one, and it will end with nuclear atom bombs. The air will be so polluted that one cannot draw one’s breath. It will cover several continents; America, Japan, Australia and the wealthy nations. The water will be ruined (contaminated?). We can no longer till the soil. The result will be that only a remnant will remain. The remnant in the wealthy countries will try to flee to the poor countries, but they will be as hard on us as we were with them.”
“I am so glad that I will not see it, but when the time draws near you must take courage and tell this. I have received it from God, and nothing of it goes against what the Bible tells. The one who has his sin forgiven and has Jesus as Savior and Lord, is safe.”
The second prophetic account is from over 100 years ago, and is the best of a score of prophesies by people who lived in Bavaria/Czech Republic area spanning several hundred years before World War I. Sepp Wudy was a simple farmhand who died in World War I as a soldier in the Austrian Army. He lived in what is now the Czech Republic. Someone wrote down the sayings of Sepp, who had a reputation for having some spiritual sight that had caught the attention of people in the area:
“As Sepp was called up to war [World War I] he said he wouldn’t come back because he has to die in ice and snow. As it happened, he perished during the world war in the Dolomites. This is not the last war (1st world war), Sepp said, because then soon there will be another, and only after that the last one comes. This last one is more terrible than the other one. To know what it will be like at the time, you will be able to talk to your cousin in Vienna from your own house, and if you needed him rapidly he could be with you within one hour.
“The bohemian forest will one day be burned like a straw barn. Don’t run away when the gray birds are flying. If you see this, know that the end is near and it has already begun. It will then be like one hundred years ago. So much the people are thrown back and with this they will be punished for their wantonness.
“You have the meal in front of you and are not allowed to eat it, because it brings you death; and you have the water and may not drink it, because it would also mean your death. From the Osser (mountain at the Bavarian-Bohemian boundary) there will still be a water source — there you can drink. The air corrodes into the skin like a poison. Put on all the clothing you have and don’t even let the tip of your nose remain uncovered. Place yourself into a hole and wait till it is all over. It will not last long. Or look for a cave in the mountains. When you loose your hair it has gotten you. Take a Kronwittbirl (Juniper fruit) into the mouth. This will help. And don’t drink milk for (at least) eight weeks.
“It will be bad, and the later-born ones will have to learn writing and reading anew. The cause will be that the people do not recognize the Devil anymore, because he is dressed beautifully and promises everything to them.
“When no owl cries any more and the hares come to the house and collapse, then go away from the water and don’t mow grass. In these times there will be no more border against Bavaria, but the border will be I cannot say.” [Ed. comment: Wudy lived in Bohemia, few miles away from the border to Bavaria. This border doesn’t exist anymore since the Czechs joined the European Union.)
“However, what do I say? It does not concern you but tell it to your children and grandchildren. They will have to face it and will experience the rest of the story. I also do not understand those that have no modesty at all. People will become increasingly base and godless, so things must come to a head. In the end [Europe] will be like [it was] one hundred years ago. I see even more, but I can’t understand it and can’t tell it. With the decline of faith everything goes downhill, and everything gets confused. Nobody sees clearly. The elite already believe nothing at all, the masses will be made crazy. In the church they play dance music and the parson will sing to it. Then they also dance, but outside there will be the celestial sign, which announces the beginning of great mischief. There will be a brightness in the north, like never seen before, and then the fire will rise up all around.
“Go to Bavaria, where blessed Mary protects the people; but there too all will be chaotic. Everything will come like the Stormberger has told, but he didn’t tell everything or they didn’t understand him. Because it will be worse than bad.” [Ed. comment: Stormberger is another seer who lived about 50-75 years before in almost the same region, his predictions are still known there today.]
“Farmer, tell this to your children: they shall run to the mountain when everything crashes. I’m only a farmhand and I don’t know if it’s a good or bad spirit which is showing me all these things. But I know it will happen.”
The third account is a combination of visions from two men that seem to have been merged together. Both were known as “Stormberger”. Matthias Stormberger, was a cow herder at Rabenstein, Germany. He had some remarkable visions of the future in 1830. The second man was Mathias Lang, also referred to as “Stormberger”, who was illiterate and had no education, living in Bavaria between 1753 and 1820. I have tried to separate the two, but all accounts that I have found either have confused the two or assumed it was the same person. At any rate, it doesn’t take away from the remarkable accuracy of the prophecies detailing events taking place over a hundred, and in some cases, 200 years in the future.
” Iron rods (sic) will be built and iron monsters will bark through the wilderness. Cars without horses and shaft will come…And man will fly through the air like birds. When in the outskirts of the forest the iron road will be finished, and there the iron horse will be seen, a war will begin, to last twice two years. It would be fought with iron fortresses that move without horses.”
“Right after this horrible war there will come a time when money will have no value. For 200 guilders not even a loaf of bread will be available, and yet there shall be no famine. Money will be made of iron, and gold shall become so valuable that for a few gold coins a small farm can be bought.”
“After the Great War there will be no peace. The people will rise and all will fight against each other… The rich and noble will be killed. The World War will not make people better but much worse… Tell your children that their children will live to see the time when the earth will be cleared. God will do away with people because there will be no charity among men. Religious faith will decline; priests will not be respected; people will be intent only on eating and drinking; there will be many immensely rich people and large amounts of paupers; great wealth will not endure long, for the red caps will come. People will hide in forests and many will go into exile. After this civil conflict and general clearing, people will love each other as much as previously they hated one another.”
“Two or three decades after the first war it will come one a Second War still larger. Almost all the nations of the world will be involved. Millions of men will die, without being soldiers. The fire will fall from the sky and many great cities will be destroyed.”
“The Catholic faith will almost completely disappear, the religiousness will be quite badly respected, they will not earn any respect due to their way of living. There won’t be many good Christians among the people, the Commandments of God are no longer respected by the aristocracy as well as by the smallest worker. One will not think the greatest unfairness to be a sin. When the faith disappears also the love of the next one will completely lose itself. One will not estimate the justice, often the poor one will not be given right and he will be less respected than a dog.”
“After this a mischief will arise that has to be regretted, there will be no order among the people. After the second great war, people will think that peace has arrived, but it will be an interval only. One day a third World War will start, more awful than the preceding ones.”
“After the end of the Second Great War, a third universal conflagration will come, so that it will determine everything.”
When women walk around in pants, and men have become effeminate, so that one will no longer be able to tell men from women, then the time is near. People will build houses everywhere, high houses, low houses, one after another. When everyone builds, when everywhere buildings rise, everything will be cleared away. There will be a holy Sign in the heavens, that a very severe Master will come and take off the Skin of the People. He will not rule very long, then when all that has happened as I said, then comes the great Clearing Away.”
“There will be weapons totally new. In one day, more men will die than in all the previous wars. The battles will be accomplished with artificial weapons. Gigantic catastrophes will happen. With the open eyes, the nations of the planet will go through these catastrophes. They won’t know what is happening, and those that know and tell, will be silenced. Everything will be different from before, and in many places the Earth will be a great cemetery. The third war will be the end of many nations.”
“The Bavarian land will be devastated, and the land of Bohemia (Bohemia is 2/3 of the Czech Republic) will be cleaned out as by a broom. Over all these places and over the Bohemian mountains will come the Reds… not the French, but the Reds. You, my children, won’t experience the largest mischief, you my grandchildren, won’t also experience it, but the third stock, that will easily experience it.”
“Over night it will take place –in a pub in Zwiesel (a city in Bavaria known for its glass) many people will be together, and outside the soldiers will ride over the bridge. The people will run out of the forest. Those who hide themselves at the Fuchsenriegel (a place in Austria) or at the Falkenstein (a stone castle, building with thick walls of stone?) remain spared. Who survives must have an iron heading. The people become ill, and nobody can help them . . . However it will continue, and what follows then, is the end of the world. Sky and earth burn, because it is the time when everything comes to an end. And this time will be, when the wild hunt with fire and Sulphur roars over the country.”
“After this, he said, “No humans will know anymore where Zwiesel and where Rabenstein (German towns) have been. Of all frights this will be the last. When the people fall off the bank like the flies off the wall, the last time begins. It will be horrible.
“But when however, someone at the whole Danube stream finds still another cow, then she is worth it to be attached with a silver bell by the owner. After these events it will be a miracle, if one still sees two or three rulers going together. After these events the clarity will be anew, and those who survived, will face a good time for hope.
“Then afterward a good time will come, that which is Loved by Jesus Christ, and holy men will do wonders. Once people have their faith again, a long period of peace will follow. Those who are still alive will be given housing and as much land as they need. And the more hands one has, the more you will count. Then there will be a shortened summer; winter and summer will not be distinguishable. Although everything around the Danube is wasted and dead, there will be people living in the woods and they will build houses in the woods —beautiful houses, in fact, because all bad things are over and all difficulties have been surpassed. And soon the nettles will grow out of the old buildings. And the forest will grow again without war and death.”
“Those who begin a new will build a church and praise God. Those who survive will say to each other ‘Brother, are you still living?’ and greet one another saying, ‘Jesus Christ be praised!’ This will not only be with us, but over the whole world. Right will become right again and peace will govern for many years.”
What is very striking to me in all of these accounts is the description of widespread sexual immorality, even sexual dysphoria, and the loss of Christian faith fortold that would seem quite impossible, even shocking, to the people at the time these visions occurred. They nailed it. It convinces me that their visions or dreams were prescient, and that we can and should take them seriously. There is nothing in any of these prophecies that doesn’t synch with scripturally sourced prophecies.