Prophets and Prophecy

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Why have you all forsaken me?

i think prophets actually believed what they were doing they just didnt have any knowelege, of what exactley they were dealing with, remember everyone there was no video cameras or tv's in the past

for instance, when elijah was swept up in the whirlwind seperating him from elisha of fire im shure what really happend.. (brace yourself, aliens are about to get involved ) is the mother ship shot the beam of light out of the craft like in that movie fire in the sky, lifting him, and ultimatley taking him into heaven wich is outer space

One Christian ministry that specializes in Bible prophecy and End Times events is Zola Levitt Ministries (www.levitt.com).
They offer several books on the subject, plus streaming video of their Bible teaching television show, Zola Levitt Presents. Their focus is Israel, but they also talk about events all around the world.

For instance, did you know that fully one-third of the Bible consists of prophecy? And it's specific stuff, too.
The Bible prophets and writers were pretty confident in their writings for people taking random shots in the dark.
Makes you wonder if they did have devine guidance.

So, that 1/3 prophecy ratio shows that the Bible is not just another "be good" book; its writers specifically wanted its readers to be informed about future events, so that they could prepare themselves.

Prophesying is easy and you can be really specific too that won't matter so long as you don't give specific dates or time frames.

You can claim basically anything and no one can prove that it will never happen.

In my view, a certain amount of history is difficult to make sense of unless either one believes in both God and Satan, or the Erik van Danigen/Doctor Who/Stargate/Richard Benson account of history is substantially true, or Carl Jung's Collective Consciousness theory is true. Take your pick. Either way, it should keep life fairly exciting, if a trifle frightening.

Prophets like Isaiah (prophetic ministry c. 740-701 BC) and Jeremiah (c. 608-588 BC) as well as having great courage, honesty and integrity, convey a real sense of pathos, hardly surprising given both the nature of their task and of their visions. It cannot have been easy seeing the destruction of what one loved, even if seeing beyond it to a time of redemption.

It's also very easy (or used to be, back when most people were illiterate, and alternative texts were rare and therefore easy to destroy) to rewrite 'history' to make it agree with earlier prophecies.

Or, indeed, to write prophecy and backdate it so it's guaranteed to 'come true'. The most famous example of this is Dante Alighieri's dating of the action in his Commedia. He was able to make his characters 'foretell' a lot of later events, including his own political exile, which he couldn't have known about in 1300 when the poem is set...but he was actually writing between 1308 and 1321, when a lot of the 'prophesied' events had already happened. Dante, of course, was writing allegorical fiction and just used this as a narrative device, but there's absolutely no reason why other people wouldn't have used it in a more serious context.

Why have people stopped posting. This thread must continue!

Or another way of looking at it:

Why must this thread continue. People have stopped posting!

Consult your prophets ... they know everything ...

Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes may be classed as Wisdom literature rather than a prophetic book, but the two genres share many themes. Daniel is sometimes actually classed as the former, and while only twelve chapters to the great Isaiah's sixty six, is one of the most far-seeing of the prophecies, though the narrative part like the apocryphal book of Judith, has deliberately obscured. The emphasis is on the visions

"There is no end to the writing..."

Ecclesiastes 12:

Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes may be classed as Wisdom literature rather than a prophetic book, but the two genres share many themes. Daniel is sometimes actually classed as the former, and while only twelve chapters to the great Isaiah's sixty six, is one of the most far-seeing of the prophecies, though the narrative part like the apocryphal book of Judith, has deliberately obscured. The emphasis is on the visions

"Of the making of many books there is no end."

Ecclesiastes 12:12

I don’t know much about history.. it isn’t something that interests me.. however I find prophecies interesting.

My take on this is.. prophecy addresses itself to the imagination.. which is looking forwards into the future.

Prophecy speaks of what some of us want to happen in the world..

It speaks of changes.. a better world for everyone to live in..

It speaks of the restoration of the human condition.. from slavery to our own.. and others egos.. to discovering what Buddha called.. “The True Self”....... the god within.

The prophecies that I am familiar with are mainly concerned with a healing of the divisions.. peace.. harmony.. freedom.

When prophecy speaks of destruction.. this is the destruction of the old ways.. meaning.. the old ways of thinking.. which is the apocalypse.

Tearing down the old system.. and rebuilding it anew.

This is the apocatastasis....... the restoration.. to make the old new again.


In one sense.. I see prophecies as being self-fulfilling.

They nudge the reader in the right direction..

The most perfect transformation is when the reader becomes the idea.. which is what seems to have happened in the case of Jesus.

The more readers there are.. the more probable that the prophecy gets fulfilled..

When there are enough possible candidates.. one is sure to be successful.

In another sense.. the events prophesized could be seen as being inevitable.. but only if wisdom prevails.

Also.. I also get the impression.. that prophecies are more concerned with spiritual events.. than with physical ones.

Changes that occur in the hearts and minds.

The millennium prophecies are very interesting..

I have a collection of them..

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"And behold, the Christ come quickly, for a millennium will pass and near another and there will be made a sign in the heavens. And you will know this star that called the wise and all-knowing to Bethlehem. Seek there the star at the appointed time, and all spirit will rejoice in the reward, even unto those who come out of the body, that every man according as his work shall be".

And there was great light and there stood before me Jesus the Christ. And He spake thus, that I may know the authority of the angel. And bade "Watch for the star that was foretold by the prophet Jacob, that you will know the time of the second coming, when I will enter all hearts".

"He which testifieth these things saith, "Surely I come quickly. Even as night follows day, so shall century follow century, until the second millennium is nigh".

Amen. Even so, come, Christ light."

Extracts from the - Third Book of the Apocalypse

http://www.apocatastasis.net/Prophecy/A ... phecy.html

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Thank you, Acccelerator, for all your thoughts, and for those quotations.

I believe you are correct in stating that destruction is the end of the old ways, leading into a fresh beginning. Both Isaiah and Revelations speak of "a new Heavens and a new Earth."

Jesus as fulfilment of prophecy: "I came not to destroy the Law and theProphets but to fulfill them."

"Have you not heard? From remote times it is what I will do. From bygone days I have even formed it. Now I will bring it in.

Do not remember the first things, and to the former things do not turn your consideration.

Look! I am doing something new. Now it will spring up. You people will know it, will you not?"


“If you send forth your Spirit, they are Created;
And you make the face of the Earth new.”

Isaiah 43:18 + Psalm 104:30




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What is your take on the difference between a Prophet and a Messenger?
http://www.bci.org/islam-bahai/Nabi.htm
I'm just now researching this and I thank you for the thread.

To be a Messenger or a Prophet, one must be very strong in Faith. This brings up a question about destiny. If a Prophet or Messenger is destined to perform a spiritual mission, is it possible to fail during the Dark Night of the Soul? http://www.drpokea.com/darknightsoul.html

Maybe those Prophetic failures choose to enter into the world in order to teach us as well.

magnus said:

One can not choose to be a true prophet.
The true prophets were chosen by God himself,
and the ones who chose to become prophets by their own "faith" and power are the false ones. I strongly hypothesize, nearly absolutely, that Charismatics are false prophets based on this criteria.

For example of God choosing a Prophet:
When God called Moses, Moses said something like
"How can I possibly do it? I can not speak well!"

Can the true prophet fail? The will of God for him and God's power can NOT fail!