Something that inspires awe and faith in Christians, but consternation and excuse-making in professing atheists, is biblical prophecy. In simplest terms, a prophet is someone sent by God to proclaim his message. (There are quite a few qualifiers, however.) People think a prophet primarily foretells the future, but that is only a part of his job.
There are far too many self-appointed "prophets" who contradict Scripture. God made it clear that Scripture is God breathed, and a prophet must be right every time. These modern sidewinders are not only presumptuous in announcing, "God said to me...", but are often vague, and have a terrible record for accuracy. If they tried their shenanigans in ancient Israel, they wouldn't live long (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
God himself prophesied directly about the coming Redeemer in Genesis 3:15.
I'll allow that prophesy is a difficult subject, since some were far in the future, such as the birthplace of Christ in Micah 5:2 and other Christmas prophesies fulfilled in Jesus. There are many amazing fulfilled prophesies about Jesus that are worth a study if you're so inclined. Then we have the apocalyptic (end times) prophesies, the interpretations of which are greatly disputed. Other prophesies established the credentials of the prophets so their message would be heard.
Atheists and liberal "Christians" try to dismiss prophesies because they disbelieve that such things can happen. Accusations that people like Daniel, Isaiah, and others were writing about past events instead of telling the future are utilized. Such things are simply base assertions that have no evidence, and accusers try to use them to put Christians on the defensive.
Prophecy in the Bible is amazing, and helps establish that it is indeed God's written Word. He told us about the creation of the world, the Redeemer, many other details — and the final triumph at the fulfillment of all things.
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| Credit: Freeimages / John Harris Pe |
God himself prophesied directly about the coming Redeemer in Genesis 3:15.
I'll allow that prophesy is a difficult subject, since some were far in the future, such as the birthplace of Christ in Micah 5:2 and other Christmas prophesies fulfilled in Jesus. There are many amazing fulfilled prophesies about Jesus that are worth a study if you're so inclined. Then we have the apocalyptic (end times) prophesies, the interpretations of which are greatly disputed. Other prophesies established the credentials of the prophets so their message would be heard.
Atheists and liberal "Christians" try to dismiss prophesies because they disbelieve that such things can happen. Accusations that people like Daniel, Isaiah, and others were writing about past events instead of telling the future are utilized. Such things are simply base assertions that have no evidence, and accusers try to use them to put Christians on the defensive.
Prophecy in the Bible is amazing, and helps establish that it is indeed God's written Word. He told us about the creation of the world, the Redeemer, many other details — and the final triumph at the fulfillment of all things.
The Hebrew word for prophecy simply means inspired communication. It could be delivered by speech, by song or in writing. The Greek word has the same meaning, but includes the idea of poetry. In the Bible the word prophecy is always used to indicate divinely inspired communication. The ministry of a prophet was to deliver a message from God. A false prophet would therefore be someone who was pretending to declare divine messages. The current idea of prophecy associates it with predicting future events.To read the rest of the article, click on "Why Bible Prophecy is Genuine".
There are several reasons for prophecy. The primary reason was to deliver a message from God. This did quite often include prophecy that we would call “predictive.” It would also deal with current issues of the time the prophecy was delivered. An important reason for predictive prophecy in the Bible is to demonstrate the divine origin of the message, not only to those who first heard it, but also to those in our present time. Many times a message given would be for people who would not be born for many centuries.