PROPHECY AND THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE

Note: Even though the following focuses on Christian prophecy, it applies
to all religions. I simply used Christianity as an example because these are the
prophesies with which I have the most familiarity.

Many Christians have spent countless hours trying to decipher the many
prophesies in the Bible. The Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation
are the focus of much discussion regarding the future of the world. Much
emphasis is placed on the 100% accuracy of the Book of Daniel without
paying attention to the historical scholars who point out that the book was
written in 632 b.c.e. The reason that this date is known is because all the
predictions regarding events prior to that year are 100% accurate and the
predictions regarding events after that year are not.

As for as the Book of Revelation, it is known that the book was written on
the Island of Patmos. The real author is in question. This island was
famous for its visions. In fact, ancient people would go to Patmos and smoke
the sacred mushroom in order to experience a vision of one kind or
another. Peoples all over the world from the most ancient of times have
sought visions through the use of drugs. There is no way to prove that this
is the way that the Book of Revelation came into being but we do have to
wonder about the fact that it was written on an island devoted to drug
induced visions; not to mention the heavy symbolism it contains.

The truth is that no one can tell the future. Many people put forth their
predictions regarding the future and some of those predictions do in fact
come true. But if one looks closely, one sees that a lot of predictions are
made but few materialize. There are no doubt people who are quite good
at these things but it is impossible to tell which of the many predictions that
a seer or prophet makes will actually materialize.

Ancient writings are always suspect because it is so difficult to verify
authors and dates; making prophecy based on these writing a useless
endeavor. Of all the 6 billion people who presently live on the earth, no
one has ever emerged who can consistently and accurately predict the future.

Probably the most renown of all seers was Nostradamus but if one looks at
all 1000 of his quatrains regarding the future, we quickly see that only a
small percentage actually materialized. So if we lived at the time of
Nostradamus how would we use these 1000 predictions. How could we know
which ones were nonsense? The answer is that we could not know.

So what good is prophecy? The answer is not much. Calamitous events
occur almost daily in the world and yet not one of the 6 billion humans
presently residing on the earth has emerged who could consistently predict
them.

We tend to believe in intuition because we have all experienced times when
our sixth sense kept us out of harms way. Yet there were times when we
ignored our intuition without any noticeable negative effects.

Intuition and prophecy must be therefore put into their proper perspective as
something to consider. If we are about to make a major decision in our lives,
we should listen to our sixth sense and balance our logic with these feelings.

In regards to Biblical prophecy, Jesus said that no one knows when the end
times will come. Jesus said that even he did not know. So why are we
wasting so much time concerning ourselves with these things. There is no
doubt that the world is going to end one day. Nothing in this reality lasts
forever. But will our planet be struck by a comet or asteroid or by a rogue
planet from space or will the earth die when the sun burns out? Who
knows?

As regards to our own future, the only thing that is certain is that our
bodies will wear out; they will die. Every single one of us will die. So what
difference does another 10 years make. Concerning ourselves about the
day of our death is totally unproductive. To find peace, we have to live in
the present. Certainly we should plan for the future that we desire to live but
all we are given is the present moment. There are no guarantees about the
future.

Lastly, consider how much of Christian prophecy is focused on doom and
gloom: the apocalypse, pestilence, disease, war, hunger.  Even the
horrors of World War II were not great enough to satisfy the Christian
definition of apocalypse.  The Christian prophecy ends the world the
same way that Christianity began it: in violence. Christ died a violent
death and untold amounts of violence have been committed in the name of Jesus:
and we are to told to believe that this age will end in violence.

Consider the level of fear and apprehension that Christian prophecy has
manifested and continues to manifest on the earth. Consider how the level
of peace on earth will increase when we discard emphasizing a fearful doom and
gloom end-of-the-world philosophy and simply live our lives as if today
were our last day in this reality.

Let us approach the Third Millennium with a world resolve to make this
century as peaceful as the twentieth century was violent; and a world resolve
that the next thousand years will be one permeated with peace and harmony and
the uplifting of all of humanity.

The truth is that we will manifest a future that is a product of our daily
actions regardless of what the prophets of doom promote and the ancient texts
allegedly foretell.

John WorldPeace