#884

When Prophets Outperform The Weather Channel

I Can See Clearly Now

I really like to put songs in your head for the rest of your day because, reasons. And that title should do the trick. Regardless of whether it’s raining now or not, I do have a point here. You see, there are some people who make a living telling the future and they are called meteorologists. They do their level best to forecast what the weather will be like for us and for the most part they do a good job all things considered. Granted, the way we predict weather today is far more sophisticated than when it first started because we have so much more information at our disposal, but it really comes down to math. Yes, that dreadful thing I avoid and for good reason. If you want to become a meteorologist you had better be good with numbers. Here is how an article from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of NOAA explains it:

Dutifully processing 2.8 quadrillion mathematical calculations per second around the clock, these computers — each about the size of a school bus — are the nucleus of weather and climate forecasting in the United States and the calculations they make are the foundation of NOAA’s life-saving weather predictions.

Every day, the supercomputers collect and organize billions of earth observations, such as temperature, air pressure, moisture, wind speed and water levels, which are critical to initialize all numerical weather prediction models. All these observations are represented by numbers.

Fortunately the advent of the computer took weather predictions to whole new level. Accuracy is still not perfect:

NOAA runs numerical weather models operationally to predict global weather, seasonal climate, hurricanes, ocean waves, storm surge, flooding and air quality. As gains are made in supercomputing capacity and power, models are upgraded to take advantage of the growing volume of earth observations. Although no single model is accurate 100 percent of the time and observations are imperfect, access to a wide range of models with different abilities, strengths, and characteristics allow scientists to run ensemble forecasts with perturbed initial conditions or physics, helping increase certainty in the prediction. Model agreement leads to higher certainty in forecasts. If the models are not in agreement, forecasters can present that uncertainty to the public.

There are still a lot of uncertainty with those forecasts and I never trust ones that extend beyond 48 hours, but these folks try. But what about Bible prophecy?

I Trust It More

When it comes to Bible prophecy, I have learned from experience that it is accurate although there are those who would tend to disagree with me on that. They trust weather forecasts like they are the gospel truth when the Bible is, well the gospel truth. Just looking at the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ should tell you that. The skeptics will just say that Jesus didn’t exist so they can dismiss any evidence of the amazing prophecies about Him that were fulfilled. But there is ample historical evidence that a man named Jesus did exist whether you believe He was the Son of God or not. And according to some, He fulfilled a lot of prophecies from the Old Testament as we read in an article from gotquestions.org:

The story of Jesus saturates the metanarrative of the Bible, and prophecies of His first advent are found throughout the Old Testament. Allusions to Him also come up in micro ways, as many people and events hint at the work He would accomplish. One scholar, J. Barton Payne, has found as many as 574 verses in the Old Testament that somehow point to or describe or reference the coming Messiah. Alfred Edersheim found 456 Old Testament verses referring to the Messiah or His times. Conservatively, Jesus fulfilled at least 300 prophecies in His earthly ministry.

So even if you take the conservative amount, the mathematic probabilities of fulfilling 300 of them is astronomical. Literally. One article from Christ in Prophecy tells us just how amazing it is that Jesus fulfilled just 8 prophecies let alone 300:

The third and most famous section of Stoner’s book concerns Messianic prophecy. His theme verse for this section is John 5:39 — “Search the Scriptures because… it is these that bear witness of Me.”

Stoner proceeds to select eight of the best known prophecies about the Messiah and calculates the odds of their accidental fulfillment in one person as being 1 in 1017.

The author referred to is Peter Stoner who was chairman of the mathematics and astronomy departments at Pasadena City College until 1953 when he moved to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. There he served as chairman of the science division. At the time he wrote this book, he was professor emeritus of science at Westmont. He is the man who gave this example for how impossible it would be for any one person to fulfill just 8 of those prophecies:

I love the way Stoner illustrated the meaning of this number. He asked the reader to imagine filling the State of Texas knee deep in silver dollars. Include in this huge number one silver dollar with a black check mark on it. Then, turn a blindfolded person loose in this sea of silver dollars. The odds that the first coin he would pick up would be the one with the black check mark are the same as 8 prophecies being fulfilled accidentally in the life of Jesus.

Stoner then took things further:

The point, of course, is that when people say that the fulfillment of prophecy in the life of Jesus was accidental, they do not know what they are talking about. Keep in mind that Jesus did not just fulfill 8 prophecies, He fulfilled 108. The chances of fulfilling 16 is 1 in 1045. When you get to a total of 48, the odds increase to 1 in 10157. Accidental fulfillment of these prophecies is simply beyond the realm of possibility.

Being A Prophet Is Hard

Meteorologists are criticized for their lack of accuracy but when you see how difficult their jobs are you can cut them some slack. However, the current criticisms of prophecy today are brutal compared to the people who forecast the weather. Anyone who would want to put their reputations on the line to give prophetic words at all is taking a big risk. I listen to many of these people daily and I know from past experience they are accurate, but their denigrators are just mean. It is part and parcel with the atmosphere of discourse these days and it extends to all areas of life really. As I’ve explained in other teachings it is a sign of the last days, but the point is that we need to pause before we go into the area of giving prophecies. The good news is that God does offer us the ability if we trust Him. We see in 1 Corinthians 12:10 this:

… to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. (NKJV)

In Romans 12:6 we see it again:

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith… (NKJV)

And we also know that in the last days God will pour out His spirit on everyone:

‘In the last days,’ God said, ‘I will pour out my Holy Spirit upon all mankind, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men dream dreams. (Acts 2:17, TLB)

If we are living in the “last days” and I believe we are in the last of the last days then this explosion of prophetic words is expected and I think should be encouraged. With all of those verses and trust me I could use more to make my point, I’m not afraid of these men and women using social media to tell us what they’ve heard from God. Quite to the contrary I like how Moses handled things when people complained about people prophesying:

And the Lord came down in the Cloud and talked with Moses, and the Lord took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon the seventy elders; and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied for some time. 26 But two of the seventy—Eldad and Medad—were still in the camp, and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied there. 27 Some young men ran and told Moses what was happening, 28 and Joshua (the son of Nun), one of Moses’ personally chosen assistants, protested, “Sir, make them stop!” 29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I only wish that all of the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!” (Num 11:25-29, TLB)

However, we do need to exercise caution.

The Bible Is Our Guard

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1, ESV)

While many of the detractors of this new wave of prophetic voices are taking to social media and just using human wisdom or intelligence to decry these prophetic voices, those of us who are Christians have the job and ability to test every one of these words. And the Apostle John, way back in the early years of Christianity saw the need to tell these believers to make sure that they examined those who said they were speaking for God. The Greek word for test is dokimazo (do-kee-MAD-zo) and it means to test, to prove, to examine, to approve. It is done to demonstrate what is good, i.e. passes the necessary test. 1381 (dokimázō) does not focus on disproving something (i.e. to show it is bad). That last part is important since there are some believers who make it their job to denigrate and spew accusations at these people who are moving in the prophetic. And it is first and foremost to be done as self-examination:

The use of δοκιμάζω encourages believers to engage in self-examination and discernment. It calls for a proactive approach to faith, where individuals are urged to test their beliefs, actions, and the teachings they encounter against the truth of Scripture.

And that is something that may not be happening all the time now which sometimes leads to errant words or incomplete utterances. We can and do let our human feelings and personal beliefs influence and shade the words we hear from God. And that is where another verse can helps us:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom 12:1, NIV)

Overall I still support these prophetic voices and encourage anyone to listen to Jesus and reveal what He wants to say to His children. In a world that is overwhelming us with false voices, loud and pernicious ones at that, we need His voice more than ever. We need more not less of these prophetic words to offset the massive amount of the antichrist spirit that wants to drown out His true intentions for us and the world. Yes, we need to test them, but we certainly don’t need to quench the Spirit in them:

Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, NKJV)

Be on the loving correction side and not the critical spirit side. And also dive into the prophetic waters yourself.