February 6, 1996
A friend was offered a $5000 advance just before Christmas. Amazed at this unexpected source of generosity, he wondered if God was telling him he would soon need some cash. The phone rang again. This time it was a sales pitch for a funeral plot!
This amusing story suggests we need to be careful about interpreting life’s situations as special messages from heaven. While God is involved in history, interpreting each of life’s daily events as prophetic messages can lead us astray.
Nevertheless, thousands of people want a handle on the future. Some plan their day around their horoscope. Some seek out fortune-tellers for predictions on everything from vacations to Vatican decisions. Few consider the fact that false prophets abound. Fewer realize there is a test to determine the legitimacy of prophetic claims.
In the Bible, the prophets and seers proclaimed the will of God. Sometimes their messages followed a pattern: If you do this... God will do this.... making it clear that God’s plan included conformity in the lives of those who heard it. Sometimes their utterances included accurate predictions of future events, events that always came to pass.
Not all who called themselves prophets loved and served God. Some were “false prophets.” They were in the fortune telling business but their messages were not from heaven. They claimed otherwise but God’s true prophets challenged their claims.
Jeremiah writes, “Then the LORD said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds.’”
Jeremiah explains to the people: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.”
According to God’s Word, false prophets tell those who despise God that He will give them peace (inferring that their attitude against Him is okay). False prophets also say no harm will come to those who stubbornly follow their own way instead of His. Jeremiah says none of them seek the will of God or hear His word. Instead, they tell people reckless lies that will not “benefit them in the least.”
When the people asked how they could discern true prophets from false, God gave them these answers. First: “The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity.” A false message will be inconsistent with one basic truth of the Gospel — that we are under bondage to sin unless we turn to God and His saving power.
Second: “If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams... announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, ‘Let us follow other gods’ (gods you have not known) ‘and let us worship them,’ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer.” This test acknowledges false prophets sometimes make predictions that happen but we need to test if their message will lead us toward God or away from Him. If it leads us away, then the messenger is not from God.
Third: “If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken.” This is the major test: EVERYTHING a prophet predicts must happen. Otherwise, he or she is a false prophet.
Our friend decided God was not talking to him through his unusual windfall. He didn’t buy a funeral plot. Instead, he paid his bills and purchased some special gifts for his family.
Showing posts with label prophecy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prophecy. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Monday, February 8, 2016
Making Genuine Predictions ............. Parables 390
October 5, 1990
An eighteenth Century author, Horace Walpole, quipped: “The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.” What Walpole didn’t define is exactly how a prophet can be certain his predictions will come true.
Some would be easy. I can predict the sunrise tomorrow and the sunset tonight. I can also predict winter and spring, even the change of coloring in the trees and very often whether or not it will rain.
Other predictions are not as easy. Picking future winners of football and hockey games or horse races is difficult. So is predicting where the wheel will stop or what numbers will come up when dice are rolled or cards shuffled. In fact, the difficulty is sufficient that a whole industry is built around the gamble.
Long range predictions are not any easier. Sometimes we look at trends and can safely say we are in for a recession or hard times or wars, but the specifics are yet to be seen and predicting them makes fools out of Jean Dixon and her ilk.
However, there were some seers who enjoyed outstanding success rates. These were the Old Testament prophets, men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and Ezekiel. Their remarkable predictions came true with a 100% success rate, leaving only two possible explanations of how they could be so sure of the future. The book of Daniel gives one example.
Daniel was a young Jew deported to Babylon along with many others from Israel around 586 B.C. There he claimed to have visions about a leader who would come against the Hebrew people and “abolish the daily sacrifice” and “set up the abomination that causes desolation.” This prophecy is described in such detail that few doubt it refers to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Roman ruler who abolished the sacrificial system and desecrated the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
The problem is that Antiochus lived about 160 B.C. and Daniel about 605 - 535 B.C. If Daniel wrote it, as the book says (and as Jesus later affirms), how did he know of things that would happen several hundred years later?
Some say Daniel did not write this book at all. It had to be written after the predicted events actually occurred. In that way, the “prophet made sure of his events first” just as Walpole said he should.
The other explanation is what the Bible claims about itself: “All Scripture is God-breathed.... For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
The picture is God breathing His Word into men, like the wind blows into a sail, moving them in such a way that they wrote (in their own style) what He wanted them to write. The fact of God’s knowledge of all things, including the future, explains how Daniel could describe an event he had never seen. Because these men were dedicated to God in a faith-relationship, they understood that what He revealed to them was true. They may not have understood the implications of the Revelation (Daniel even asked, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?”) but they did trust the One who revealed them. God had proven Himself faithful to them in the past; surely He would tell them truth right now, even truth about the future.
If we disregard God and dismiss any possibility of the supernatural, there is really no other way for a prophet to “make sure of his events first.”
Monday, March 2, 2015
Permutations and Prophecy ................. Parables 242
(November 14, 1990)
Remember permutations and combinations in high school mathematics? I don’t know what they call it now but it was the mathematical science of calculating the odds or the probability of something happening. For example, if you had three beans, and one was black, the odds of picking the black one out of the hat was a simple calculation.
Anything more complex than one chance in three was always beyond my comprehension. If the teacher started using numbers like 120 times 10 to the 22 power, I was lost. I knew the probability factor was a long shot but couldn’t grasp the numbers or their magnitude.
This week someone brought this science to my level. It was an explanation of probability regarding the Old Testament predictions (or prophecies) made about the coming Messiah. There are more, but this calculation was made on the basis of only 300.
It went like this: suppose you had enough American silver dollars to cover the state of Texas three feet deep. Not having been to Texas, I looked at a map and realized it is gigantic compared to the states we have driven through. That is a Scrooge McDuck-sized pile of money. Anyway, take one of the coins and paint it red. Bury that coin anywhere in the pile. Then, blindfold a volunteer, take him anywhere in that pile of money, turn him around a few times and tell him he gets one pick. The chances of him picking the red coin are the same as the likelihood of one man fitting those 300 very specific descriptions of a coming Messiah.
There isn’t room for all 300 prophecies here but look at a few:
Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Fulfilled at the birth of Christ, see Matthew 1:18.
Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey.” Fulfilled at His entry into Jerusalem, John 12:13,14.
Zechariah 11:12 “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.” Fulfilled when betrayed by Judas, Matthew 26:15.
Psalms 22:18 “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Fulfilled when Jesus was crucified, Mark 15:24.
Each of these passages referred to someone who would come. The Jews interpreted them as Messianic prophecies, to be fulfilled in a Deliverer sent from God. When Jesus came, He fulfilled not only the above four but each one related to His first coming.
What do we get out of this? For one thing, that the exact science of permutations and combinations illustrates that the Bible couldn’t have been written by mere mortals without some sort of divine revelation. How could they know a Deliverer would even come, never mind how each of the variety of authors would and could agree on many of the details of His birth, life, death, and resurrection? Most of them didn’t even live during the same era, never mind know each other.
Secondly, it shows the power of God to not only know ahead but to control history. Had Judas been paid only 29 pieces of silver, or 31, the Bible would be flawed. Yet not one detail has been proven wrong, despite all the challenges against Scripture.
From this, we can be assured that the same God who brought all of this together can also be trusted with other things, for instance... our lives.
Remember permutations and combinations in high school mathematics? I don’t know what they call it now but it was the mathematical science of calculating the odds or the probability of something happening. For example, if you had three beans, and one was black, the odds of picking the black one out of the hat was a simple calculation.
Anything more complex than one chance in three was always beyond my comprehension. If the teacher started using numbers like 120 times 10 to the 22 power, I was lost. I knew the probability factor was a long shot but couldn’t grasp the numbers or their magnitude.
This week someone brought this science to my level. It was an explanation of probability regarding the Old Testament predictions (or prophecies) made about the coming Messiah. There are more, but this calculation was made on the basis of only 300.
It went like this: suppose you had enough American silver dollars to cover the state of Texas three feet deep. Not having been to Texas, I looked at a map and realized it is gigantic compared to the states we have driven through. That is a Scrooge McDuck-sized pile of money. Anyway, take one of the coins and paint it red. Bury that coin anywhere in the pile. Then, blindfold a volunteer, take him anywhere in that pile of money, turn him around a few times and tell him he gets one pick. The chances of him picking the red coin are the same as the likelihood of one man fitting those 300 very specific descriptions of a coming Messiah.
There isn’t room for all 300 prophecies here but look at a few:
Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Fulfilled at the birth of Christ, see Matthew 1:18.
Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey.” Fulfilled at His entry into Jerusalem, John 12:13,14.
Zechariah 11:12 “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.” Fulfilled when betrayed by Judas, Matthew 26:15.
Psalms 22:18 “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Fulfilled when Jesus was crucified, Mark 15:24.
Each of these passages referred to someone who would come. The Jews interpreted them as Messianic prophecies, to be fulfilled in a Deliverer sent from God. When Jesus came, He fulfilled not only the above four but each one related to His first coming.
What do we get out of this? For one thing, that the exact science of permutations and combinations illustrates that the Bible couldn’t have been written by mere mortals without some sort of divine revelation. How could they know a Deliverer would even come, never mind how each of the variety of authors would and could agree on many of the details of His birth, life, death, and resurrection? Most of them didn’t even live during the same era, never mind know each other.
Secondly, it shows the power of God to not only know ahead but to control history. Had Judas been paid only 29 pieces of silver, or 31, the Bible would be flawed. Yet not one detail has been proven wrong, despite all the challenges against Scripture.
From this, we can be assured that the same God who brought all of this together can also be trusted with other things, for instance... our lives.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Predicting the Future ..................... Parables 172
(July 5, 1989)
Those OLD magazines in the doctor’s office are pure entertainment... or have you noticed?
Have a look at the articles that deal with “coming” events. It seems everyone is a prophet. They already knew who will win the Presidential Election; who will win the Kentucky Derby; which hockey team will trade which player; if the Oilers will make the playoffs; and who they will defeat and by how much. Fascinating reading, especially after the elections, after the races, and after the hockey season is over.
Obviously, 100% accuracy they don’t have. In fact, some of them are so far off, one wonders where they got their assurance. But then again, most nonfiction periodical writers don’t consider their prophecies will be read six months later by someone with a sore stomach or a tooth ache.
In fact, we probably all make such self-assured predictions, based more or less on our personal preferences, but since no one records them for posterity, and unless someone makes a bet on it, we soon forgot how clouded is our crystal ball.
Newspaper, “prophets” fare a little better. Their articles usually wind up recycled or in the fireplace before the actual events disprove their predictions. However some, sports columnists in particular, must have red faces now and then. They are so sure— and so wrong — so often.
Maybe I’m getting cynical but it seems to me that predictions about the future, whether sports, politics or any other news story, are a total waste of time, effort and paper.
Why bother? Maybe some writers can’t wait until the thing is done and over with before commenting on it, or today’s news is old hat (television’s fault) so let’s discuss tomorrow’s?
One thing is for sure, no matter how gifted we are perception-wise, or how observant we are trend-wise, we are not very good at foretelling tomorrow or next week. There are just too many variables.
That is why fulfilled prophecy in Scripture is so astounding. What are the odds that an assortment of men, smattered over a few hundred years, could make predictions about the future and have all of them come true? Someone once said about the same as finding a certain five-dollar bill in a pile of fives three feet deep covering the entire globe. Long odds.
Have a look at these few examples. Zechariah wrote in about 520 B.C., “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation; lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
The event happened about 33 A.D. “... When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and cried out, Hosanna: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel! Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it...” (John 12:12-14).
Here’s another from Isaiah 53:9 about the burial place of the promised Messiah. “And they made His grave with the wicked — but with the rich at His death...”
Several hundred years later, Matthew tells how Jesus was crucified between two thieves (the wicked) and buried in the tomb of a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:57-60).
Every now and then, someone says the Bible is just an ordinary book written by ordinary men. But if evaluated by prophecy alone, TIME, LIFE, McLean’s, and Sports Illustrated are the ordinary books written by ordinary men. No matter how old the waiting room copy, the events predicted in Scripture ALWAYS happen exactly as the prophets of God said they would.
Those OLD magazines in the doctor’s office are pure entertainment... or have you noticed?
Have a look at the articles that deal with “coming” events. It seems everyone is a prophet. They already knew who will win the Presidential Election; who will win the Kentucky Derby; which hockey team will trade which player; if the Oilers will make the playoffs; and who they will defeat and by how much. Fascinating reading, especially after the elections, after the races, and after the hockey season is over.
Obviously, 100% accuracy they don’t have. In fact, some of them are so far off, one wonders where they got their assurance. But then again, most nonfiction periodical writers don’t consider their prophecies will be read six months later by someone with a sore stomach or a tooth ache.
In fact, we probably all make such self-assured predictions, based more or less on our personal preferences, but since no one records them for posterity, and unless someone makes a bet on it, we soon forgot how clouded is our crystal ball.
Newspaper, “prophets” fare a little better. Their articles usually wind up recycled or in the fireplace before the actual events disprove their predictions. However some, sports columnists in particular, must have red faces now and then. They are so sure— and so wrong — so often.
Maybe I’m getting cynical but it seems to me that predictions about the future, whether sports, politics or any other news story, are a total waste of time, effort and paper.
Why bother? Maybe some writers can’t wait until the thing is done and over with before commenting on it, or today’s news is old hat (television’s fault) so let’s discuss tomorrow’s?
One thing is for sure, no matter how gifted we are perception-wise, or how observant we are trend-wise, we are not very good at foretelling tomorrow or next week. There are just too many variables.
That is why fulfilled prophecy in Scripture is so astounding. What are the odds that an assortment of men, smattered over a few hundred years, could make predictions about the future and have all of them come true? Someone once said about the same as finding a certain five-dollar bill in a pile of fives three feet deep covering the entire globe. Long odds.
Have a look at these few examples. Zechariah wrote in about 520 B.C., “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation; lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
The event happened about 33 A.D. “... When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and cried out, Hosanna: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel! Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it...” (John 12:12-14).
Here’s another from Isaiah 53:9 about the burial place of the promised Messiah. “And they made His grave with the wicked — but with the rich at His death...”
Several hundred years later, Matthew tells how Jesus was crucified between two thieves (the wicked) and buried in the tomb of a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:57-60).
Every now and then, someone says the Bible is just an ordinary book written by ordinary men. But if evaluated by prophecy alone, TIME, LIFE, McLean’s, and Sports Illustrated are the ordinary books written by ordinary men. No matter how old the waiting room copy, the events predicted in Scripture ALWAYS happen exactly as the prophets of God said they would.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Predictions ............................ Parables 084
“Top Ten Predictions for 1988"
It won’t be long before headlines like that march across magazine stands and through the racks beside grocery store checkouts. The current stable of soothsayers will be telling the readers their predictions for the coming year and those readers will hang on to every word. Some will maybe even plan their lives around such prophesies for 1988.
I suppose someone goes back to check the track-record of those who filled the same pages the year before. They would need to if they honestly wanted to publish the “top ten”, but I wonder about their evaluation system, if there is one. Would it stack up with the one God used for Old Testament prophets? Or would they even dare try God’s method for determining the “top ten” prophets for 1988?
Out of Deuteronomy 18:20-22 comes this: “You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?’”... and the response: “If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”
That doesn’t seem too difficult a test. Everyone makes mistakes. One might think that to proclaim something in the name of the LORD or just in your own name and then have it fall through would not be a big deal... but here is the kicker: “... A prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”
That is not your average test. If the prophecy came true, the one who made it was allowed to live. If not, he was stoned to death. Pretty drastic isn’t it? That is why the prophetic books of the Old Testament have such impact. They were written by God’s top men, men who were 100% accurate. They only wrote what God actually did tell them to write.
God has His reasons for insisting on such accuracy. To say something is a message from God will grab a listener’s attention. His Words are not to be taken lightly. What He says is true, accurate, and reliable. When a false prophet claims “God told me...”, thousands of undiscerning people cannot tell the difference between those lies and God’s truth. Worse yet, most of them are as unconcerned about being led astray as the people who write and publish such nonsense are about doing it. It happened in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah and it still happens today.
When I see those magazines, and anything else that is a perversion of genuine prophesy, I am angry and grieved. God has recorded events that are yet to come and these can be trusted as certainties, but He also can be trusted even when we don’t know the future. We are not to put our faith in the words of some self-proclaimed experts. God said to Jeremiah, “The prophets prophesy lies... and my people love it this way... But what will you do in the end?”
What indeed will anyone do? Christians sometimes think that because we are a minority, we are helpless, forgetting that God plus one equals a majority. Instead we often ignore the perversions, retreat into our spired buildings, and hope for the some judgmental fire from heaven.
What a sad commentary on the value systems of the people of God when the greatest measure of integrity we can muster is to look the other way rather than do something positive to counter false prophesies with truth and the good news of the gospel. Jesus Christ, the greatest prophet of all, didn’t come to give us a detailed list of what will happen in 1988 or any other year, but He did come to give us is hope for eternity. We may not know what tomorrow will bring but we ought to know what will happen to us after we die and then tell others so they can have the same assurance.
Personally, I know enough about the future to make me realize how important it is to concentrate on the right now. God has given me plenty to think about, plenty to talk about, and plenty to do - TODAY.
It won’t be long before headlines like that march across magazine stands and through the racks beside grocery store checkouts. The current stable of soothsayers will be telling the readers their predictions for the coming year and those readers will hang on to every word. Some will maybe even plan their lives around such prophesies for 1988.
I suppose someone goes back to check the track-record of those who filled the same pages the year before. They would need to if they honestly wanted to publish the “top ten”, but I wonder about their evaluation system, if there is one. Would it stack up with the one God used for Old Testament prophets? Or would they even dare try God’s method for determining the “top ten” prophets for 1988?
Out of Deuteronomy 18:20-22 comes this: “You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?’”... and the response: “If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”
That doesn’t seem too difficult a test. Everyone makes mistakes. One might think that to proclaim something in the name of the LORD or just in your own name and then have it fall through would not be a big deal... but here is the kicker: “... A prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”
That is not your average test. If the prophecy came true, the one who made it was allowed to live. If not, he was stoned to death. Pretty drastic isn’t it? That is why the prophetic books of the Old Testament have such impact. They were written by God’s top men, men who were 100% accurate. They only wrote what God actually did tell them to write.
God has His reasons for insisting on such accuracy. To say something is a message from God will grab a listener’s attention. His Words are not to be taken lightly. What He says is true, accurate, and reliable. When a false prophet claims “God told me...”, thousands of undiscerning people cannot tell the difference between those lies and God’s truth. Worse yet, most of them are as unconcerned about being led astray as the people who write and publish such nonsense are about doing it. It happened in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah and it still happens today.
When I see those magazines, and anything else that is a perversion of genuine prophesy, I am angry and grieved. God has recorded events that are yet to come and these can be trusted as certainties, but He also can be trusted even when we don’t know the future. We are not to put our faith in the words of some self-proclaimed experts. God said to Jeremiah, “The prophets prophesy lies... and my people love it this way... But what will you do in the end?”
What indeed will anyone do? Christians sometimes think that because we are a minority, we are helpless, forgetting that God plus one equals a majority. Instead we often ignore the perversions, retreat into our spired buildings, and hope for the some judgmental fire from heaven.
What a sad commentary on the value systems of the people of God when the greatest measure of integrity we can muster is to look the other way rather than do something positive to counter false prophesies with truth and the good news of the gospel. Jesus Christ, the greatest prophet of all, didn’t come to give us a detailed list of what will happen in 1988 or any other year, but He did come to give us is hope for eternity. We may not know what tomorrow will bring but we ought to know what will happen to us after we die and then tell others so they can have the same assurance.
Personally, I know enough about the future to make me realize how important it is to concentrate on the right now. God has given me plenty to think about, plenty to talk about, and plenty to do - TODAY.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)