PREDICTING THE FUTURE

By pilgrim 1 September, 2019 PILGRIMAGE, SERVANT LEADERSHIP 1 Comment

While man lives in the present, he has an innate nature to set his foot in the future. However, while the future interests man, his physical limitations prevent him from discerning the future. And so there is a great deal of intrigue when someone claims to predict the future. There is no dearth of Christian pastors/leaders as well who claim to know what is going to happen to the world and to you. What does the Bible say about predicting the future?

First, Bible makes it clear that the prophecies contained in the Word of God are true and God has the power to make them come true. ‘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’ (2Peter 1:21). The prophecies in the Bible are very different from the predictions men like Nostradamus made, which have a great deal of publicity. Nostradamus made vague general statements and people retrospectively equate one vague statement of his to one event in history. That is not hard to do. On the contrary, the Bible makes numerous prophecies about one event and for all of them to come true is almost impossible. That is what happened with the birth of Jesus and will happen with the second coming.

The Bible discourages man from having an unhealthy interest in predicting the future. ‘Let no one be found among you how sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Any one who does these things is detestable to the Lord—–’(Deuteronomy 18:12,13). The Lord condemns those who practice these as these have strong demonic origins and takes man away from the truth. Man’s design is one of being created with physical limitations but with eternal longings, and these eternal longings are fulfilled by the attributes of faith and hope that he is called to exert through Christ.

A Christian will do well to begin with the attitude of humility exhorted by James, ‘Not many of you should presume to be teachers..’(James 3:1). It is good to also remember that while God does speak through prophets, He issues a warning to the nation of Israel against being a false prophet, ‘But 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’ (Deuteronomy 18:20). But in Amos we do read, ‘Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plans to his servants the prophets’(Amos 3:7). So it is certainly possible that God might choose to reveal his plan through a person, but it is more likely that would happen only if that person closely walks with God and God exceptionally chooses to do so.

So being wary of being a prophet or being guided by a self-proclaimed prophet is healthy. Living a daily life of faith in Christ and hope in the eternity to come is all we need to live a Christian life here on earth. And if God overwhelmingly speaks through you, be a humble servant to do his bidding.