Many people today consider Nostradamus (Michel de Nostradame – 1503-1566) to have been a true prophet who accurately predicted future events, although he himself didn’t claim that he was a prophet. However, if you believe Nostradamus to have been either a charlatan or an astrologer possessed by a fortune-telling spirit (Acts 16:16–18), you may wonder why I’m taking the time to discuss him. The reason is simple: according to popular thinking, Nostradamus made many prophecies and predictions about the Antichrist and the Time of the End, and I wish to address those claims.

Nostradamus wrote in rhyming quatrains (in French) and though they were often very vague and have been applied to any number of events, some were said to be amazingly fulfilled. For example, in Century 9, Quatrain 16, he mentions Spanish dictator Franco and his predecessor, Rivera by name, stating that they come from Castille (Spain). Also chilling are four quatrains about an “unjust man” from Germany named Hister who would commit “the world’s lowest crime”—and the resemblance to Hitler cannot be mistaken. (See C.2–Q.2, C.4–Q.68, and C.5–Q.29.)

Nostradamus was a Catholic and was familiar with the book of Revelation, for he also wrote about the Antichrist, the End Time plagues and the Millennium. In Century 10, Quatrain 74, for example, he wrote:

The year the great seventh number is fulfilled,
Appearing at the time of the games of slaughter,
Not far from the age of the great millennium,
When the dead will come out of their graves.
Here he is simply repeating well-known Bible prophecies without saying anything new: when the Last Seven Years are fulfilled, Jesus will return, the dead rise to life, then the slaughter of Armageddon happens, followed by the Millennium. Nostradamus also repeats well-known Bible facts in Century 8, Quatrain 77 when he writes:

The Antichrist very soon annihilates the three,
The blood of his war will last twenty-seven years.
The unbelievers are dead, captives, and exiled;
With blood, human bodies, water and red hail covering the earth.
Dan. 7:24 states that the Antichrist subdues three kings; the book of Revelation describes plagues of hail and blood with large numbers of unbelievers dying. The only thing new Nostradamus mentions is that “the blood of his war will last twenty-seven years”—which does not agree with any Bible passage or timetable of End Time events. The period of the Antichrist’s reign—during which he fights several wars—is only seven years (Dan. 9:27).

Another of Nostradamus’ prophecies, Century 10, Quatrain 72, caused quite a stir in the years leading up to 1999, because it says:

In the year 1999, in the seventh month
From the sky the Great King of Terror will come,
To bring the great king of the Mongols back to life.
Before and after, Mars reigns happily.
The “great king of the Mongols” was Genghis Khan—a type of the final Antichrist. But Nostradamus lost quite a bit of credibility when no new “King of Terror” arose in 1999 and the buzz about Doomsday quickly died down.

Despite the claims of many Nostradamus enthusiasts, I have to conclude that he tells us nothing new about the Antichrist or the End Time. I don’t find anything Nostradamus has written enhancing my understanding of coming apocalyptic events. To truly understand what will happen in the Last Days, we must read what the Bible says—particularly Matthew 24 and the books of Daniel and Revelation.