Future Forecasting
From Computer Models?
Q. How can the bible use prophecy itself if it’s against using forune tellers? Isn’t it violating its own rules? Then, what about futurists who use trends and computer models to predict future events? Is that against the Bible, too?
Answer:
Fortune Tellers vs. Computer Theorists
I would start by distinguishing between fortune tellers and those who use computer models to analyze data and make futurist calculations based on available data.
Fortune tellers are clearly frauds. A passage in Deuteronomy 18 warns…“do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD” (v. 10-12, NLT).
On the other hand, computer theorists comprise a relatively new field. Computer theorists give us models and ideas of what the future might look like. They don’t pretend to supernaturally predict the future.
Supernatural Revelation
There is no question that the biblical pattern of prophecy is the most accurate system of all. To date it is without error and is totally reliant upon a supernatural source – the God of the Bible. That distinguishes it from fortune tellers and computer theorists.
Violation of Newtonian Physics
It’s interesting that physicists tell us time travel into the future or predicting future events is impossible because it violates Newtonian physics (Kaku 2008, 283). It is especially relevant because the Bible makes the claim that only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is capable of predicting the future.
Hmmm…just how did the God of the Bible know that only the miracle of foretelling the future isn’t possible according to modern physics?
Scripture Reveals Fakes
While the Old Testament prophets could have pointed to miracles of healing and other signs, foretelling the future was the one sign proving Yahweh is the true Lord. It isn’t that the God of the Bible is violating his own rules. It’s that anything or anyone else who says they can do this is a fake! Fraudulent. Or even worse…demonic.
The Lord challenges idols to declare the future:
“Declare the things that
are going to come
afterward,
That we may know that
you are gods…” (Isa 41:23).
The God of Abraham declares His absolute uniqueness:
…”I am the first and I am
the last,
And there is no God
besides Me.
Who is like Me? Let him
proclaim and declare it.
Yes, let him recount it to
Me in order,
From the time that I
Established the ancient
nation.
And let them declare to
Them the things that are
coming
And the events that are
going to take place.”
(Isaiah 44:6-8).
Finally, Yahweh declares His sole ability to tell the future:
“I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the
beginning,
And from ancient times
things which have not
been done” (Isa 46:8-10, NASB).
Here God Himself says that his ability to predict the future is unique – no one else has this ability.
Miraculous Predictive Specificity
In the end it’s God who “makes the rules and calls the shots.” He predicts the future of nations and world events in ways that far surpass anything we humans can do.
He reveals things in incredible specificity such as a future numbering/marketing system for all humans – similar to I.D. computer chips we use for farm animals and pets (Rev. 13:16-17).
He predicts China’s 200 million man army (Rev. 10:16), Russia’s defiance of God and her alliance with Islamic nations against Israel – yet to come (Ezekiel 38).
He foretells the rise of the European Union (Daniel 2 & 7) and other incredible prophecies that we now see will come true soon.
God foretold Israel’s rise as a nation which occurred in 1948(Isa 66:7-8). Furthermore, He foretold the exact date of the Messiah’s visit to our planet (Daniel 9:25-26). Propheices such as these reveal no less than miraculous predictive specificity!
To God be the glory…
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References:
Kaku, Michio. 2008. Physics of the impossible. New York: Doubleday.
Ross, Hugh. 1996. Beyond the cosmos. (Colorado Springs: NavPress.
Tipler, Frank J. 2007. The physics of Christianity. New York: Doubleday.