This bonsai tree has little to do with this post but I know this image is not copyrighted.
Prophecy has gotten a bad rap lately and it could be a number of reasons why this is the case. First the people who tell us that the world is going to end on some date and then the world does not end on that date gives us reason to question anyone who "prophesies" about the future. Another reason is that we live as products of the scientific revolution and we are convinced that looking into crystal balls is a gimmick and a scam.
The unfortunate thing is that we have all misunderstood prophecy and relegated it to the realms of reading tea leaves, Ouija boards, and hucksters.
At the core prophecy is about truth telling. Go back and read the Bible and those who are prophesying. They are talking about their current realities and if those current realities do not change what the obvious conclusion will be. Prophets also are ones who speak the truth that there is always hope, regardless of the situation. There is always a dawn coming, even in the darkest places. Prophets are truth tellers and the thing that science prides' itself on is truth telling.
Science is doing prophecy.
Science told the truth about smoking increases lung cancer.
Science told the truth about germs causing disease and not curses.
Science told the truth about the world being round and the sun at the center of our orbit.
I could go on and on, but you get the point. The great irony is that for all the scientists who do not "believe" in prophecy, they are actually the ones who are doing a darn good job at being prophetic.
And just like there are people today who debate how the prophecies in the Bible should be interpreted, so to there are people today who debate how the prophecies of science should be interpreted:
Is "fracking" safe? Where do subatomic particles go when they disappear? Is there another "human-like" animal "out there"? How did the dinosaurs die out?
When we are truth telling we are in the realm of prophecy. The next post will address why all this prophecy is a problem.