Blog Post

Why So Many Modern Seers are Proven Wrong

MF writes: "Do you have any information on a supposed Catholic SEER named Charlie Johnston? His name and dire coming vision of the year 2017 was shared with me. It was very disturbing and never came true. I wanted to see if there was any reliable information form the Church and other credible individuals about Mr. Johnston and his visions.”

The prophecies of Charlie Johnston, a 68 year-old Christian fundamentalist-turned Catholic  living in the diocese of Denver, Colorado, have proven themselves to be false.

In 2016, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver conducted an investigation into Johnsont's alleged messages from Jesus, Mary, the angels, and various saints and concluded by strongly advising the faithful "to exercise prudence and caution in regards to Mr. Charlie Johnston’s alleged divine visions and messages. As has been demonstrated with other alleged apparitions, the danger exists of people placing greater faith in a prediction than in Christ’s words and promises. For these reasons, Mr. Johnston will also not be approved as a speaker in the Archdiocese of Denver.

According to the Mystics of the Church website, an excellent source of information for many of the Church’s most esteemed mystics, the messages Johnston has been receiving concern a “Great Storm” involving a series of catastrophic events which would begin to come upon the world as early as the fall of 2015.

Among these predictions was that of a  worldwide civil war that would start with Islam and then North Korea followed by China. During this "Great Storm," most of our support structures would collapse which would bring down economic systems and governments. An estimated 26 million people would die during this time and those who survive would be reduced to a much more primitive lifestyle.

This new era would come about as a result of the action of Our Lady, which Johnston referred to as “the Rescue” sometime in late 2017 which would coincide with the 100 year anniversary of her apparition at Fatima. This would be the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Obviously, none of this has come true. As the Mystics of the Church website states, "...time has clearly revealed that Mr. Johnston's numerous prophecies have ALL been shown to be completely false." Therefore, "he joins the list of recent failed visionaries whose stories have been highlighted on this site. . . and together they provide a strong cautionary warning for all of us in regards to purported visionaries and mystics of past and present, urging us to be very cautious and prudent in our discernment concerning such persons, reaffirming the statement and warning of St Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists and great mystic himself, whom once stated that 9 out of 10 purported visionaries are false."

The late great Father Benedict Groeschel, made the same claim in his book, A Still Small Voice, when he said that even the greatest saints got it wrong when it came to messages from heaven. This is because any message give to us by God will naturally be filtered through the  psyche of the individual.

For instance, St. Joan of Arc misinterpreted a message from the "voices” that she believed told her God would spare her from being burned at the stake. She apparently believed this up until the moment the fire was lit. Eyewitness later revealed that Joan claimed when she asked the voices if she would be burned, they said things like "trust in the Lord"  and that she would receive succour. But Joan was so fatigued from the harsh conditions in prison and so frightened of facing such a horrible death that she interpreted God's words to mean that He would intervene and save her.

Fr. Benedict Groeschel lists five reasons why even authentic revelations given to the most saintly seers are likely to contain errors: 1) faulty interpretation; 2) tendency to use a revelation to write history rather than use it symbolically; 3) tendency of visionary to mix subjective expectations and preconceived ideas with the action of grace; 4) a tendency to alter or amplify a message after the fact; 5) errors made in good faith by those who recorded the testimony (pg. 51).

In other words, even those who do make accurate predictions are only getting some of it right, which means if Johnston is legit, he’s likely getting at least some of it wrong, so don’t make any decisions based on prophecies without first discussing this with a spiritual director or confessor.

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