Monday, March 12, 2012

This guy doesn't understand prophecy (or, maybe I don't)

If a prophecy is made, and you respond to it by fulfilling the prophecy, I don't know if that should be called prophecy.  Doing so would remove the divinity of a prophecy, because instead of foretelling what Providence dictates, it merely provides one option for humans who wish to become part of the divine.  The future then becomes the product of secular, human choices.  One could override the will of Providence by choosing to fulfill an alternative prophecy.
From a sociological perspective, however, that might be the true essence of prophecy.
One of the volunteers, Mike Clayton, a former preacher from Seminole, Okla., reads out of the Bible from Isaiah 61:5: "The son of the foreigner will come and tend your vines."
Then he adds: "Well, a few days ago, myself and my son got off a plane ... and I got to watch as I handed my son ... a pair of pruners, and I took a picture as he walked out there. He fulfilled scripture. ... Is the Bible true? Is all this happening? I saw it with my own eyes."
—Lourdes Garcia-Navarro .  March 7, 2012.  “Christians Provide Free Labor On Jewish Settlements.”  All Things Considered.  NPR.

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