Please note that this is a repeat from my January 7, 2010 blog post.
Has a prophet ever told you something that became true later?
I’ll admit that although I read my Bible regularly, I’m not an expert about the subject of Bible prophecy. Let me tell you why I decided to blog about this topic today.
On Sunday night, I was watching the History Channel, and they had a special on about the Mayans and their calendar. Supposedly, the Mayans predicted that the year 2012 (December 21st) would be the end of time and that is when their calendar stopped? This is going from my sketchy memory, and I didn’t even watch the entire show because I got tired and went to bed.
Anyway, seeing that show made me think about the subject of Bible prophecy (Just wanted to point out that the Mayan prediction had nothing to do with the Bible). I do recall reading that the Apostle Paul told the early Christians that prophecy was an important spiritual gift.
Another reason I felt like blogging about this is because I wanted to tell about my limited experience with Biblical prophets/prophecy (or those claiming to be so). I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness until I was twelve. At that age, my dad stopped me from going to the Kingdom Hall (that’s what JW’s call their church). Since the JW teaching was all that I really knew, I thought what they said was “The Truth.” (That’s what JWs call their teaching.)
Fast forward six years, I’m in college, and I decide to hook up with JWs again since I thought they told “The Truth.” While studying with them, my eyes started getting glassy and my head started spinning when they taught me that the generation of 1914 would not pass away before the real return of Christ (or the end of times), also, Christ came invisibly/spiritually to earth in 1914….
That’s around the time they started “losing” me, also, the fact that they used these years to predict things didn’t seem right to me. When a JW came to my door last winter, I asked about their prediction of the generation of 1914 not passing away before the end of times. He said they didn’t believe that anymore, and I thought to myself…”Hmmm, false prophets.”
I feel uneasy when someone predicts something in the name of God and then changes their mind or it turns out it’s not true.
My other experience with prophecy happened back in 2002, back when my first book, Promises To Keep, was released via Crossings and Black Expressions book clubs. I’d received an email from a Washington D.C. librarian, stating that she was having a 50th birthday party for her sister, and they wanted an author to attend this event. Eager to promote my novel, I agreed to come.
I went to the party located in an upscale neighborhood in Maryland. While I spoke, people asked me questions. Somebody asked me about sending my book to Oprah. I replied that I’d sent the novel to Oprah, but got no response. The birthday woman/guest of honor, touched her head quickly and looked at me and said, “You’re going to be on Oprah one day.” Then she turned and resumed her conversation with the person she’d been talking to.
Later, one of the guests said to me, “Did you hear what she said about your being on Oprah? She’s an ordained prophet, so you should listen to her.”
I thought. “Hmm. She’s an ordained prophet. What, exactly, makes someone an ordained prophet?”
What’s the point of this post? I’m not sure! I’d be interested in hearing if any of you have had any experience with Bible prophecy. Has a prophet ever told you something that became true later?
I’d think if a person is prophesying something in the name of Jesus, then, ultimately, it will come true. I don’t think they would change their mind later and say, “I didn’t prophecy that right. This is what God’s telling me now!”
I just read a really plausible novel called The Prophesy Gene. In the story the author makes a compelling argument that the biblical prophets weren’t people anointed by God, but they were simply people with a rare gene that allowed them to share the memories of everyone whoever lived and also shared the gene. He didn’t come right out and say that there’s no such thing as God, but he suggested that the collection of all of these memories might be what God really is. The book is by Stuart Schooler. His website is http://www.stuartschooler.com and there is a link to a blog and a YouTube video
.
Hi Annie
Thanks for telling me about this book. I do believe in God and I believe the Biblical prophets were inspired by God, though. I don’t think that God is really a rare gene that allows people with these memories.
I have recently released a book “Understanding Bible Prophecy,” which is a short overview of this complex subject. It is based on a class I have taught for over 35 years which helps the reader understand why prophecy is in the Bible at all and which demonstrates the authenticity and accuracy of the Bible. It is available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com.
[Hi Cecelia. Here’s an unusual web piece I came by. Any reactions?]
PRETRIB RAPTURE STEALTH !
Many evangelicals believe that Christ will “rapture” them to heaven years before the second coming and (most importantly) well BEFORE Antichrist and his “tribulation.” But Acts 2:34, 35 reveal that Jesus is at the Father’s right hand in heaven until He leaves to destroy His earthly foes at the second coming. And Acts 3:21 says that Jesus “must” stay in heaven with the Father “until the times of restitution of all things” which includes, says Scofield, “the restoration of the theocracy under David’s Son” which obviously can’t begin before or during Antichrist’s reign. (“The Rapture Question,” by the long time No. 1 pretrib authority John Walvoord, didn’t dare to even list, in its scripture index, the above verses! They were also too hot for John Darby – the so-called “father of dispensationalism” – to list in the scripture index in his “Letters”!)
Paul explains the “times and the seasons” (I Thess. 5:1) of the catching up (I Thess. 4:17) as the “day of the Lord” (5:2) which FOLLOWS the posttrib sun/moon darkening (Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20) WHEN “sudden destruction” (5:3) of the wicked occurs! The “rest” for “all them that believe” is also tied to such destruction in II Thess. 1:6-10! (If the wicked are destroyed before or during the trib, who’d be left alive to serve the Antichrist?) Paul also ties the change-into-immortality “rapture” (I Cor. 15:52) to the end of trib “death” (15:54). (Will death be ended before or during the trib? Of course not! And vs. 54 is also tied to Isa. 25:8 which Scofield views as Israel’s posttrib resurrection!) It’s amazing that the Olivet Discourse contains the “great commission” for the church but not even a hint of a pretrib rapture for the church!
Many don’t know that before 1830 all Christians had always viewed I Thess. 4’s “catching up” as an integral part of the final second coming to earth. In 1830 this “rapture” was stretched forward and turned into an idolized separate coming of Christ. To further strengthen their novel view, which evangelical scholars overwhelmingly rejected throughout the 1800s, pretrib teachers in the early 1900s began to stretch forward the “day of the Lord” (what Darby and Scofield never dared to do) and hook it up with their already-stretched-forward “rapture.” Many leading evangelical scholars still weren’t convinced of pretrib, so pretrib teachers then began teaching that the “falling away” of II Thess. 2:3 is really a pretrib rapture (the same as saying that the “rapture” in 2:3 must happen before the “rapture” [“gathering”] in 2:1 can happen – the height of desperation!). Google “Walvoord Melts Ice” for more on this, and also Google “Pretrib Rapture Pride.”
Other Google articles on the 183-year-old pretrib rapture view include “X-Raying Margaret,” “Margaret Macdonald’s Rapture Chart,” “Pretrib Rapture’s Missing Lines,” “Edward Irving is Unnerving,” “The Unoriginal John Darby,” “Catholics Did NOT Invent the Rapture,” “The Real Manuel Lacunza,” “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “Wily Jeffrey,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” “Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism,” “Scholars Weigh My Research,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” “Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Pretrib Rapture Secrecy,” “Deceiving and Being Deceived,” “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty,” “Famous Rapture Watchers,” and “Morgan Edwards’ Rapture View” – most by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot” (the most accurate and documented book on pretrib rapture history which is obtainable by calling 800.643.4645).
PS – For some final shocks Google “The Background Obama Can’t Cover Up.”
Hi, Melodee
Thanks for commenting. You’ve offered much food for thought.