Search This Blog

Friday, February 19, 2010

The Bedlam of Revelations

Matthew Chapter 4
Then the Devil took him along into the city, and he stationed him upon the battlement of the temple and said to him: "If you are a son of God, hurl yourself down; for it is written, 'He will give his angels a charge concerning you, and they will carry you on their hands, that you may at no time strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him: "Again it is written, 'You must not put Jehovah your God to the test."

The second paragraph says that we do not put God to the test.
I understand this as a direct command not to prophesy on behalf of God, setting forth our own stories of the future for that which remains within His heart alone; you must not put God to the test of your interpretation of the Book of Revelations, for you are then playing the part of the Evil One.
The original meaning of  "prophecy"  did not mean to divine the unseen future, rather it meant to speak forth and declare. Declaring the will of God has come to necessarily mean future events. However, it also applies to what has occurred in the past. The more religious and simple among believers have come to think that prophets are 100% percent correct in everything they say about things to come. However, even a cursory reading of the sacred texts will demonstrate that this is not true. Prophesy does not rely upon someone determining the logical truth of its statements; that is all part of our modern day insanity.
As I noted yesterday, until we can declare the meaning of God's work in the past - not just have some sort of theological opinion about it - we cannot declare the future.

No comments: