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What is the purpose of Prophecy? |
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Definition:
Prophecy is the gift and action of predicting the future.
- Sometimes it is done as a warning - if something is done, or not done, then another thing will happen. This type of prophecy is generally seen as a case of "If you don't stop doing X, then dreadful consequences will ensue.
- Other prophecy is not connected to the present - and is a genuine foretelling of the future.
--ANSWER--
Religious interpretation:
Prophecy is the future written in advance; only God can do this, because He is outside space and time, and only He controls it. In ancient Israel, if you tried to usurp God's prerogative and lead people astray through false prophecy, then you died, even if it actually occurred.
Deu 13:2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Deu 13:3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deu 13:4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
Deu 13:5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death;
because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
Deu 18:16 According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
Deu 18:17 And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
Deu 18:19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
Deu 18:20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
Deu 18:21 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
Deu 18:22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
Prophecy is God's way of authenticating His message, because only He can cause an event still future to us to occur as prophesied in the future, but to God the future has already occurred, and if God said such-and-such will happen, then it already has. Prophecy is God's validation of a true message: People have given counterfeit and half-truthful prophecies all through the ages, and are still doing it today (eg Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons), but God will deal with them.
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
First answer by David Eaglehawk. Last edit by Maxiogee. Contributor trust: 123 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 4 [recommend question]
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