"I will raise up for them a
prophet.
I will put my words in his mouth.
And he will tell them everything I
command him."
These
words, contained in the Holy Bible, in Deuteronomy 18:18 spell out in clear and precise terms the
fundamental meaning and purpose of a Prophet
and his intended role in society. It presumes a pre-existing belief in a
higher authority who provides the message. The sole aim of the prophet is to
act as a representative or an emissary whose duty is to provide the Prophesy given to him by the higher authority
without modification or interpretation. The prophesy is a statement about the future, received from another source and
passed on without change or explanation.
The
great majority of these prophecies are fundamentally religious in nature, and appear
in all the holy writings of every single religion, ancient and modern, the
world has ever seen. In addition, they are present in the world’s oldest surviving
publication, I-Ching, the ancient
Chinese book of knowledge, as well in many of the ancient Roman, Greek,
Persian, Buddhist and Hindu texts. The Holy Bible and the Koran contain a large
number of them where they relate to every aspect of life and beyond. They are
generally presented in the form of foreknowledge received from gods, visions or
other supernatural sources by a chosen prophet and intended to foretell coming
events. In all the instances, the prophet serves only to announce the
information he is given in the manner he is directed to do so. His sole
function is the provision of the information and never offers an interpretation
or explanation.
A
Prediction is not a prophecy. While
the latter is based on the word of a supernatural source, a prediction is
strictly a natural action that is the result of extrapolating existing information
by a living human and arriving at a conclusion about the future. In many ways, predictions
are self-fulfilling prophesies in that they are forecasts of the future, but
unlike prophesies, they are based on experience, knowledge and observation of
the individual, and therefore subject to being corrected as information
changes. They are always self-generated and a reflection the person’s
confidence, and not on any external sources. Because of this, the truth and
strength of each prediction depends directly on the ability and confidence of
the source. Brian Tracy the very
successful Canadian author and inspirational speaker explained this in the
following manner:
“Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own
self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Mankind has held prophesies and predictions in very high
regard from the very beginning of time. In fact, the tendency of combining information
and expectation together and then projecting them to suit future needs is
deeply embedded in the psyche of all humans and plays a very significant role in
controlling their lives on a daily basis. Much of a person’s decision-making
for example, is tinged to a greater or lesser degree, by subconscious reference
to the many pre-existing prophesies predictions, and suppositions that lay
buried in the psyche. They are the subconscious source of much of the feelings
of insecurity and suspicion which often interfere with our choices and
decisions, without our being aware of their subtle influence on us. Because of
this influence, we end up making firm decisions without even being conscious of,
or even understanding, the reasons for doing so. We are oblivious to these
undercurrents of uncertainty swirling in our minds, and totally unaware that
they interfere with our thinking. This would explain why we develop slavish tendencies
to following prophesies and prediction even after they have resulted in our
making wrong decisions and ending with great disappointments.
For as long as there has been any recorded history, people
have tried to predict the future, either in the name of divine inspiration or
from their own observation, imagination and calculations. In addition, people claiming
to have special psychic powers have existed in every society, and some of them
have demonstrated amazing abilities to foretell the future with uncanny
accuracy. Many have used them to justify their own special needs and to
persuade others to follow them. Some people have been so impressed that they
willingly believe the claim of superhuman origin, while others remain
unimpressed and skeptical.
The present catastrophe that is unfolding as a result of the
current Corona Virus Pandemic bears
this out in no uncertain manner. The whole world is presently under siege from
a pandemic caused by the corona virus Covid-19
that appears to have originated in the city of Wuhan in China.
Actually the news of another pandemic occurring is not unexpected because of
the fact that there is a long history of recurrent pandemics that have swept
across the world from time to time. But despite this fact, any such event is
always accompanied by the names of people who claim ability to predict and
prophesy. On this occasion great emphasis is being placed on the “prophetic predictions” of Dean Koontz and his 1981 publication, “The Eyes of Darkness” in which he predicted
this event. His story was supposed to have foretold a world catastrophe caused
by a virus called “Wuhan 400.” So that when it was noted
that the current outbreak started in Wuhan,
Koontz earned a “prophet” status and his book has become a “prophecy” and
quickly sold out.
But in fact, on closer investigation, his
initial name of the virus in his original publication in 1981 was “Gorki 400,” which he later updated in
2008 to “Wuhan
400” in a subsequent publication. He had chosen both those cities, in Russia and in China, simply because they were in
fact their government’s main centers of biological weapons research, and
therefore more likely to be the source of creating any such global weapon.
Still many people have insisted on calling Koontz a soothsayer and a visionary,
but the truth, he is more in favor of being a shrewd and gifted author who was able to search out and make full use
of the information to suit his purposes.
This is but one example of the countless numbers of
predictions and prophecies that regularly occur, and have been occurring since
man has been on earth. But there is no denying that some of these predictions
have been so accurate that it would be very difficult to refute the fact that
some extraordinary power directed them. And equally, many have been shown to be
so absurd and bizarre that one wonders how so many apparently normal people
were convinced of their truth. Throughout the history of mankind, there has
been an unbroken succession of people who have devoted their lives to
foretelling future events, and have all encountered a mix of believers and
detractors. This should be no surprise because of the vague and sometimes
elusive boundaries that separates prophesies and predictions.
The
ancient Chinese culture is rich with an abundance of soothsayers whose
predictions controlled the lives of the people. The oracles of ancient Rome and Greece
were held in high regard and the majority of the population believed they spoke
for the Gods. The Arab cultures, throughout its existence have given great
credence to foretelling the future and both the Holy Bible and the Holy Koran
contains a large number of predictions attributed to Jesus Christ, and to the
Prophet Mohammed, many of which have as yet to be fulfilled. In all these cases
the evidence has always been such that there are as many supporters as there
detractors.
One
of the most famous of the non-religious soothsayers is a 15th
century French physician and astrologer of Jewish descent known as Nostradamus, who published his
masterpiece “Les Prophėties” in 1555
listing over 940 predictions of future events.
Each year his followers will review his publication and prepare a list
of predictions to underline the accuracy of his prophesies. Although the majority
of them is clearly questionable in accuracy, there are always some of them that
appear to be surprisingly possible. The following are a few chosen for the
current year, 2020, that may well be possible events:
-A Plague
on the world.
-People
will cease to travel.
-Global
financial crisis
-New King
of England
-New Pope
in Rome
-Major
natural disasters: Earthquake in Vancouver,
Tsunami in the pacific, Major hurricane in the Atlantic
But for
a prophesy to be convincing, there must be strong and positive evidence that it
was not the result of cherry-picking the information or interpretation to
justify the conclusions. There must also be irrefutable evidence of some form
of supernatural influence or divine guidance that must rise above the level of
coincidence or chance. In
truth, it has never been easy to predict with real confidence any prophesy, in
the end, the final decision for accepting or rejecting any statement must
always be left to the individual. Indeed, while I am generally skeptical of the
large majority of them, there are many, particularly those contained in the
religious writings, which seem to be far more convincing than just chance or
guessing.
But irrespective of whether I endorse or reject any particular
prophesy or prediction, it is far more important to understand that there are
reasons for their existence. Perhaps this is what St. Paul was teaching us in his 1st letter to the Corinthians,
chapter 13, verse 2, when he observed:
“”If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all
the mysteries and all the knowledge, and if I have faith to move all the
mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing.”
-To my mind, therein lay the true value of any
prophesy or prediction.
It is never
the content that really matters, but rather the purpose intended, and the messages
that they convey.
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