It's happening all over again.  The end of the world is upon us -- or at least the end of the Catholic Church. With the Mayan apocalypse left in the dust, something new is in the air and it's not good news for 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide. February 28, 2013, marked the first resignation of a pope in 600 years, a shocking event that astonished the world and focused the eyes of the media on St. Malachy's Prophecy of the Popes and its fascinating prediction: the end of the Papacy. This, in turn, unleashed all kinds of prophecy-related speculation from the timing of the Rapture to the arrival of the "Man of Lawlessness" -- for if Francis I is truly the final Pope, can Antichrist be far behind?

But who exactly is St. Malachy and what is the Prophecy of the Popes?  

Born in Armagh, Ireland, in 1094 A.D., he rose to power with the reputation of an honorable man who had the gift of prophecy, eventually becoming the Archbishop of Armagh. Four hundred years later the Prophecy of the Popes, a list of cryptic clues, was attributed to him. But it soon became clear that a big problem came attached to this medieval mystery: the names of the popes after 1595 (when the prophecy was first published) were not given and there was little detail provided about their lives, almost as if someone did not know who would be pope. Before 1595, both names and details were noted in the prophecy and it read like a history of the Catholic Church.

This suspicious pattern, along with the fact that not a word about Malachy's prophecy was ever mentioned between its date of authorship in 1139 and its discovery in 1590, has caused many scholars -- including those within the Catholic Church -- to label it a forgery written sometime in the late 1500s.

So if the forgery is obvious, why all the fuss?

Throughout history, human beings have been fascinated with future events, and anyone who maintained even a one percent record of successfully predicting them usually drew a following. But God warns us not to go looking for future knowledge! He warns us that those who search for it cannot possibly find it. Why? Because the people they ask don't know and the fallen angels who often supply the answers don't know...only God knows the future.  

"Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from what shall come upon you. Behold, they shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame." (Isaiah 47:13) Strong words from a loving heavenly Father warning us away from pain and suffering for if we knew the future, we might not want to go on living. He will listen to our requests for future details, but there is no promise he will tell us anything.

St. Malachy hit the headlines in a society obsessed by, "the end of the world as we know it," and the speculation began: Could Francis I be the final pope? Is he Petrus Romanus -- Peter the Roman -- the last of the popes? It seemed as if Benedict XVI fit the prophecy's vague description of the next to the last pope, so this could be the end.

It is here where so many went astray; here where the hunt for future knowledge bypassed God. People all over the world began to speculate and look to St. Malachy for knowledge of the future -- they began writing articles and producing media shows announcing the arrival of Petrus Romanus, all built upon the single thread of a flawed medieval prophecy. In a nutshell, what Jesus said about the end of the world in Matthew 24:36 became lost in the novelty of St. Malachy. "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

Even a surface look at the Prophecy of the Popes indicates something not quite right -- like the missing names of all the popes after 1595 -- and God will never mislead us; He is never wrong. The children of God know this along with the warnings, and we must stand as a light in the darkness teaching others to "Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good." (I Thessalonians 5:21)

The arrival of the Man of Lawlessness can never be predicted, and the only end in sight is the credibility of the Prophecy of the Popes.