Recently, I placed focus on what I call “children’s church” education, where leaders of Christian churches (all denominations) have no ‘higher education’ as to the meaning of Scripture. The meaning of Scripture is not part of the core curriculum at any seminary school, although they might have courses designed to lead upper class students to prepare papers on what some famous person wrote about some portion of Scripture, as his or her interpretation. The “children’s church” mentality is really no different, as it is the same as being told to remember this story [with a picture book of Bible stories easier to read and remember than some dissertation by a scholarly theologian – a “scribe”]. If the source of meaning is outside of oneself, then one will always bow down before and worship a “scribe,” rather than Yahweh and/or Jesus.
Everything taught becomes hearsay, without the ability to truly know what someone else had rolling around in his or her brain. So, the “children’s church” minister (when pressed for answers about the meaning of Scripture) will have been trained to sweep those questions away by saying, “That is the holy mystery of Scripture that requires faith, without knowing the truth.”
In support of my argument, I refer everyone to Matthew 11:25. There, Jesus was remembered to have said: “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” [King James Version] Jesus said this as part of a rebuke of places where sinners had not repented. The reason was then because the scribes [the seminary professors who taught the Pharisees and Sadducees, kinda] could not explain anything of Scripture, which would motivate a sinner to forever stop sinning.
As for the “babes,” or “little children” or “infants” (“nēpiois”), which can also translate as “a simple-minded or immature person,” implying in usage “unlearned, unenlightened,” those translations can make a “children’s church” pastor or priest think that seems to be Yahweh’s intent (based on what Jesus was quoted to say); but it is not. A “babe” or “infant” has no brain to get in its way of learning. It thirsts to be taught; and the “Father” doing the teaching is who Jesus thanked, because the soul of Jesus would be the inner voice teaching that wiped clean brain the meaning of Scripture … spiritually. Of course, those “baby” brains would be in adult bodies, those called Saints.
With that disclaimer about “children’s church teachers” said, I want to say that my mother raised me in a church denomination considered to be “Pentecostal.” Because I refused to return to the church that I was taken to four times each week (Tuesday night, Friday night and twice on Sunday) when I turned sixteen, I had only learned the Bible stories taught in what they called “Sunday School,” but others now prefer to say “children’s church.” I learned all those stories; and, I learned to have a deep faith in God and Jesus. I even was taught how to make noises that were nonsensical (their idea of "speaking in tongues") and tell others that was God speaking through my guttural clucks and stammers, even if I had no clue what God was saying through me. Supposedly (I learned many years later), it takes someone else - one allowed to "interpret in tongues" - to explain what God meant, through my nonsense noises. I never witnessed any such 'explanations.'
Because I personally put two and two together and figured out “Pentecostal” meant “speaking in tongues” (the noises produced that were meaningless), I stopped going to church with the “child’s education” having made me clueless as to the truth of Scripture.
From the age of sixteen, until the age of fifty-three, I had rarely read anything in the Holy Bible. Because I was the only male youth at a Unitarian church (where my girlfriend attended, but me never) who had ‘longish hair’ (I stopped getting haircuts when I graduated from high school, about a year before and without any beard to speak of), I was chosen to play the role of Jesus in their lip-synch production of Jesus Christ Superstar. I read the lyrics of those songs more than I had ever read the Holy Bible.
I mention this because there was no sudden urge in my life to start reading the Bible and try to figure out what the meaning of Scripture was. It was after the events of September 11, 2001 (around September 14 or 15) that I was led spiritually to take out my one book about The Prophecies of Nostradamus that I owned (purchased in 1976) and go through that and see if there were any quatrains that seemed (to my weak brain) to be about those events. I was so astonished by what I had revealed to me that my life completely changed.
At first, I was completely unaware that others had written books about The Prophecies of Nostradamus. The one book I owned had nothing in it that referred to letters written by Nostradamus, which generally spoke of what his verses would reveal. Because I had no fluency in French (not even a realizing that beacoup was French, thinking it was Vietnamese, as ‘boo-koo’), I never thought to challenge the vast number of verses that the author had ventured a guess about, relating them to historical events having been vaguely predicted (mostly involving European royalty, long since dead and gone). I saw two hundred quatrains that the author (in 1976) guessed, “these must be about a future that has not happened yet.” I was led to see how those two hundred (based on the author’s translations into English) were telling about a future holy war, between Muslims and Christians, with 9-1-1 being near the beginning of that long story.
That was my “children’s church” understanding of The Prophecies of Nostradamus. Yahweh watched my devotion (a madness that overtook me, which I could not stop and I did not want to stop), as I feverishly wrote a book that explained that 200-quatrain story of the future. He watched me face rejection (from friends and book publishers) and still not be deterred. Yahweh led me to find a discounted copy of John Hogue’s big, thick book, which had not only the two letters written by Nostradamus, but also some verses he published in his Almanachs. I was led to buy others copies of books that interpreted The Prophecies of Nostradamus. I was led to see the variations of English translations, which was always the reason to get a different book on the same topic published. When Yahweh saw I was totally committed, His voice spoke to me, saying “Do your own translations into English.”
This was a project that I did not feel I was even remotely qualified to do. I hemmed and hawed for a while; but then I began the slow process that was taking a French-to-English dictionary and looking up every word written by Nostradamus, using the French written by the various source authors I then had. I even resorted to using an English dictionary (from my college days), looking at the etymology of similar words of French that are used in English. This was made more difficult by my own failure to take the time to learn the rules of the English language and not having a firm grasp on verb types and conjugations. My first translations were often wild guesses that were totally wrong.
After a year or so of closely examining the text of Nostradamus, I was led to see and confirm a divine syntax was being used. That divine syntax was the reason the true meaning was “hidden from the wise and intelligent.” Instead of reading in a divine manner, reading only as normal French-English syntax directed, the whole truth was blinded from the eyes of the fluent. It explained why the Old French never solved the meaning of The Prophecies of Nostradamus, who wrote in Old French. Also, it put me in the “babe” category that knew so little about the rules of the French language (with only a weak understanding of those applying to English) that the truth was revealed to me. The voice of Yahweh spoke the truth to me; and, I had no Big Brain to get in the way and keep me from seeing the truth being revealed – clearly. The truth was always there, just ignored. It was (and is still) always ‘in your face.’
Now, I began writing a phone book size interpretation of what the quatrains said, when placed in a new order. I added an explanation of the letter of preface that Nostradamus wrote. My first book owned on Nostradamus’ Prophecies had not included this letter; so, I had done my own translations into English. Everything was explained, based on the divine syntax I had been led to see. The book was cut short (listed as the first volume), because I wrote over seven hundred pages (8.5 X 11) based only on interpreting one hundred eleven quatrains and the letter of preface. Future volumes would have to be written, which would address the rest left unaddressed.
To avoid facing publisher rejections (again), I found I could publish this book as a print-on-demand (P.O.D) entity. That meant paying such a publisher their fees charged for that service; and, during this time of devotion to writing about The Prophecies of Nostradamus I had become destitute, unemployed, and totally dependent on Yahweh’s Will to survive. I was a fifty-year old man living in my old room at my elderly mother’s house. I was barely looking for work (the rejection of being 'over qualified' for part-time employment); and, I had few friends that came to my side to help me. I felt so alone that I prayed earnestly for Yahweh to send me another human voice who was interested in hearing what I was being led to see.
I found a job advertised that was perfect for me. Yahweh led that company to hear my plea for work and I was hired – part-time, working only on weekends, leaving me the rest of the week to write and complete my manuscript. That job allowed me to begin saving money, to pay to a lawyer to file for bankruptcy and clear all my debt amassed over the past three years. Because I had to pay for bankruptcy protection before I could pay a P.O.D publisher to put my work in print, I was still doing my own English translations (double checking what I had already done and making changes accordingly), working weekends and using AOL chatrooms to talk to the outside world. Still, I wanted to hear a real voice talking back to me; so, my prayers continued for that miracle to happen.
Those prayers were answered when I signed up for a free account on an online dating service. I listed my preference was to talk (not necessarily meet physically) to women that lived within ten miles of my mother’s house. I stated I had sworn a vow of poverty and was not capable of any committed relationship, simply because I could not afford one financially (including expensive coffee at Starbucks, just to get checked out). My future wife (a second marriage for both of us) contacted me (due to my cute picture posted – taken six years prior). She lived five hundred miles away; and, I thought, “How much safer could this be?” I responded. We talked electronically at first; and, then for hours on the cell phone. I would write-speak a paragraph for every word she said back. She listened. She did not run away.
My wife had her own desire to serve Yahweh and she supported me in my ministry, which was letting the world know that Michel de Nostredame was a Saint who serve Yahweh as a soul-body that received the soul of Yahweh’s Son and entered divine ministry. He was a “babe” among a sea of disbelieving “wise and intelligent” self-worshippers, who could never discern the whole truth of Scripture. Nostradamus was a divine prophet of Yahweh (therefore he could truthfully name his written work The Prophecies), and to reveal the truth of a divine prophecy requires another divine prophet, all in the name of Jesus, as a new Christ anointed by Yahweh, to explain what the first prophet said (shade of the Pentecostal concept that I never experienced).
My wife saw me as that; and, she also wanted to serve Yahweh as the soul of His Son reborn into submissive flesh (a “babe” whose brain stepped aside to serve others, not self). My wife served Yahweh by taking me in and supporting my ministry, until Yahweh opened the door for her to become a priest for the Episcopal Church. I supported her education and then ministry, just as she continued to support mine, once she embarked upon that path in life.
To enter that path, my wife found it came with sacrifices that could not be avoided. Just as I took a 'vow of poverty,' my wife left behind a very well-paying career position. With me still not working for much monetary gain, we both were totally placing our faith that Yahweh would not allow either of us to fail. We would lose all attachments of the material world, before we would find a comfort zone with what Yahweh provided us to live on.
It was from beginning a married relationship with my wife that I was placed face-to-face with Scripture (from the Holy Bible). My wife was raised an Episcopalian; and, when we joined as one, I willingly became a regular attendee at an Episcopalian church, alongside her. I went through their process of registration, to become officially Episcopalian. No longer a child that could ignore the sermons that bored me, I was handed a church bulletin each Sunday when I arrived at church, with that containing the texts that would be read aloud that day. I began reading those prior to the service beginning. Immediately, I saw meaning coming from those English translations, which I awaited the priest to speak of in his sermon.
That revelation of truth never happened. It became something my wife and I would discuss after church, with me telling her what I saw coming from those words. Those visions were based on my having trained myself to read the texts of Nostradamus as written in a divine syntax. The same rules I had been led to discover applied to the divine texts of the Holy Bible. My wife had never been taught any of the lessons that I discussed with her each Sunday.
In addition to my writing new books explaining The Prophecies of Nostradamus, I began making notes about what I saw in the upcoming Sunday’s planned readings, which came from a set lectionary schedule. This work involved looking up the original text (the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament), just as I had been taught by my spiritual insights to do my own translations into English for The Prophecies of Nostradamus. Every week, I would tell my wife the new revelations of truth I had been shown in Biblical Scripture. She (again) had never been taught this depth of meaning coming from Scripture; and, she had not heard sermons teaching congregations how to see these things only revealed unto “babes.” My revelations to my wife had the effect of igniting a burning desire within her to become a priest who did that – lead congregations to the truth.