In last ‘Sundays Edition of the Edmonton Sun, I found an article about a fellow in Mexico, Professor Antonio Vazquez Alba. Vazquez that claims to be Mexico’s “Grand Warlock”. As the so-called “Grand Warlock”, he is well known for making predictions each year since 1980 by using tarot cards. His record seems to be considerably less than accurate, as a matter of fact, his record is described by most people as “Spotty”. Last year Vazquez predicted that oil prices would be stable, Hilary Clinton would become the president of the United States, Cuba's Fidel Castro and singer Britney Spears would die. Ooops... wrong on all counts. Apparently for 2009 he predicts that Spears will continue to triumph (nice recovery) and the United States will pull their troops out of Iraq in 2009 and send them to the border with Mexico in an attempt to expand it’s territory. Let’s not hold our breaths on any of these, okay! Even though what I have read on the man is quite amusing, the fact that he actually appeared in print in a large daily newspaper troubles me a great deal.
At a time when we see more and more media outlets shy away from things religious, more and more of these kinds of bits of filler news are hitting the press. It just seems strange to me that fellows like this get press coverage, but bible truths are strictly taboo. I have recently started reading a pair of books by Josh McDowell entitled “Evidence That Demands a Verdict”. The books go into great detail about the authenticity of the information and events in the Bible. One of the most astonishing parts of these books deals with the Messianic prophesies. The Messianic prophesies are the writings in the old Testament that predicted the events that would occur and lead up to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. If our hero Vazquez, the warlock had been involved in making these predictions, no one would ever have been able to figure out that Christ was coming. It’s a good thing that God Himself inspired the writing of these prophesies and not some guy from Mexico. The Old Testament of the Bible written over a one thousand year period contains several hundred references to the coming of Christ, (The Messiah, thus the name Messianic prophesies) of these, ALL have come true, not just one or two or spotty at best, but ALL!! Detractors will say, “Yes but, some of these prophesies can be applied to just about any great world figure”. That may be true for some of the prophesies, but definitely not with all. The common wisdom being that if you predict enough stuff, eventually something has to be correct. However realizing that there are mathematical equations for calculating probabilities, McDowell consulted with one Professor Peter Stoner who has written a book called “Science Speaks”. In his book Professor Stoner applies the laws of mathematical probability to the fulfillment of the Messianic Prophesies and concludes that the chances of one man fulfilling even eight of the Prophesies calculates out to be 1 chance in 1017 or 1 chance in 100,000,000,000,000,000. Given the fact that the birth of Christ fulfilled 61 major Messianic Prophesies, brings that figure to unimaginable heights. That is not even taking into account all the dozens of minor Prophesies concerning the birth of the Messiah. But fakes like Vazquez and others of like ilk, continue to be featured in our daily servings of news, while the real good news of God’s gift to mankind, the Christ child, is relegated to a dusty shelf reserved for fairy tales and other children's stories.
Go Figure. Ted Okkerse
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