The “miracle” ar Garabandal is interesting because the claims of what allegedly took place there have been backed by a fairly empirical measure.
Conchita Gonzales claims that she knows the exact date in which a major miracle will take place, and she will give the world 8 days notice prior to this happening.
I am just wondering if there are any other “miracles” that the world is currently ‘waiting on’ with these kinds of empirical measures to back them? Have there been any (recent times) miracles that were just as or more popular than this one, but events that were supposedly going to unfold on certain dates, never did?
The signal-to-noise ratio seems quite poor on ‘Garabandal’ as a google parameter; any chance you could sort the wheat from the chaff and provide an informative link as to what is actually being claimed to have happened?
I’ve read that link. It’s subjective blather. Some women claimed some vague thing would happen on a particular date, then a few years later claimed to have been told some vague things by some presence no one else saw.
While the girls were receiving these messages, they entered trance-like states in which they were pricked with needles and had bright lights shone in their eyes - to which they did not respond.
They were told that the next Pope would only serve a short reign, which is exactly what happened.
Conchita Gonzales claims she was told the exact date the miracle will happen, and she will warn the world 8 days beforehand. If she dies before this happens, obviously the ‘miracle’ will get exposed. That was over 40 years ago. She’s still alive.
I’m not saying I believe in this “miracle”, nor am I trying to convince others. The point is, this is a quite a famous case amongst miracle believers, due to the circumstances attached to it.
I am trying to find out if there are any other such cases that gained similar or greater notoriety, that had some kind of emperical test attached to it, but was exposed and amounted to nothing.
As far as I can tell, in every single year for as far back as we can possibly determine, some individual or group has stated publicly that the world was about to come to an end. Many of these groups sold all their possessions and gathered at a designated place to wait for the end to arrive. Some more than once.
Needless to say, the world spins merrily onward. But there are hundreds of these documented if you care to search for them.
Somehow, the miracle believers manage to let these events slip right past them. Probably through the large holes in their heads.
So they entered what appears to be a genuine trance of some sort; that doesn’t necessarily mean anything they say when they come out of it is worth listening to.
I assume we’re talking about John Paul I? That’s a fairly safe bet; most popes are bordering on elderly when they are elected; ‘short’ is incredibly vague; it would still have been considered ‘short’ if it had been five years(that’s the sort of vague prognostication used by cold readers); they got pretty lucky with that prediction though.
Fair enough; The Watchtower (the Jehovah’s Witness’ publication) predicted the end of the world, then tried to recover from the failed prediction by offering a revised date. (more than once, if I recall correctly).
No, what Conchita Gonzales actually claimed was that they had been told the rather vaguer information that one of the three popes after John XXIII would reign for only a short time. Not so impressive, is it? Moreover, she claimed this in the context of her prediction that there would be only three popes after John XXIII…
In the video “Garabandal - The Eyewitnesses”, which was made before the recent passing of John Paul II, it is clearly stated that there will be three more Popes before the End Days, but “not the end of times”.
Another prophecy revealled to the girls was that blind man Joey Lomangino (http://www.tldm.org/news6/lomangino.htm), who visited Garabandal in the 60s, would have his eyesight restored by a miracle during his lifetime. He was born in 1928. He’s still alive, too, at 77.
So, suffice to say, this is not some “here we go again” claim of a miracle. There are interesting facts associated with this case, it must be conceded.
That looks like three more popes. Not three popes and then a fourth who will see the end-times, but three more popes. Period. Based on what you’re saying another site is saying, I’d say the goalposts are already being moved, which is not atypical for future prediction type miracles.
The site in his link goes on to say:
Hence my “Oops” above.
What do you think they’ll tell us when Benedictus XVI bites the dust before the miracle happens? I’m guessing it will be something like “Well, the end times did begin during his reign, but they take time, and are still in process. You just haven’t noticed them yet” or something similar.
If Joey Lomangino dies blind, this discussion becomes mute. He’s had over 40 years to die and make this discussion mute.
As for the “how many more Popes?” line of questioning, if you read enough sources, you will see many (in fact, most) that explictly state that there will not be just three more Popes “period”, and they are sources that were established before the passing of John Paul II.
Getting back to the actual question of the OP, sure, there are tons of predictions (I think they hardly deserve being coined as miracles when they haven’t even come true) that are currently set in the future, and thus can not yet be falsified. Pick any “psychic”, such as Sylvia Brown and read their yearly predictions. As for ones that have been highly popular (I read that as widely known, as I don’t know how else you’d assign popularity) and didn’t unfold, Benny Hinn probably deserves an entire thread of his own.
There are thousands and thousands of predictions that have been made and never came to pass. I’m not aware of a single, precisely detailed prediction that has come true in my lifetime. Does that answer the question?
He’s also had over 40 years to regain his vision, which would have made this discussion (at least that one particular part of it) moot. Not only does the Lord move in mysterious ways, he also takes his time, apparently.
If multiple sources, who all want the Garabandal predictions to be true, can’t even agree on how to parse the predictions, we have a problem There are many sources, such as this, which are quite obvious in their attempt to redefine exactly what the prophecy meant once JP II passed away.
By the way, I’m starting to get the impression that you’re simply using this forum as an attempt to “witness”, which, while allowed on the boards, is supposed to be in Great Debates. Was that your intent, or did you really want a debunking of similar past predictions?
