On this page
American Heritage Dictionary:
proph·e·cy |
[Middle English prophecie, from Old French, from Latin prophētīa, from Greek prophēteia, from prophētēs, prophet. See prophet.]
|
Featured Videos:
|
Roget's Thesaurus:
prophecy |
noun
Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore:
prophecies |
For English popular ‘prophetic’ writings, see Merlin, Nixon, Mother Shipton. Foreign texts, notably the verses of Nostradamus, have also been frequently translated and reinterpreted to fit the pre-occupations of each generation.
See also DOOMSDAY, NUMBER 666.
Gale Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World:
Prophecy |
Early modern Europeans inherited from their ancient and medieval forebears a vast and complex range of ideas and practices to which the term "prophecy" was, and still is, loosely applied. While prophecy often denotes simply the prediction of future events, the Greek prophetes referred more broadly to one who delivered divine messages. The Old Testament prophets warned and consoled through visions that encompassed past, present, and future. Christian prophecy had inherent (if often latent) apocalyptic tendencies, which surfaced when perceptions of crisis evoked urgent efforts to glimpse God's universal blueprint. Medieval and early modern prophecy also incorporated various forms of natural divination and the mantic, or prophetic arts. This entry highlights biblical and spiritual strains and the varied functions of prophecy.
Comprising both divine messages and their interpretation, prophecy was both an inspiration and an art. Prophetic forecasts did not need to be fulfilled in order to be regarded as true, nor did the failure of a particular prophecy make it false, for the prophetic spirit, by foreseeing events, also worked to influence and change them. As Jonah told the Ninevites, true repentance could sway God's will and hence turn away disaster (Jonah 3: 7–9). Here the outward failure of a prophetic expectation was proof of its deeper truth. The most significant and influential messages were at least implicitly connected with divine judgment and the "last things"; such associations allowed prophecy to function as both a weapon of dissent and a shield for the powerful throughout the early modern era.
Sources of Prophetic Authority
The issue of prophetic authority was central to the establishment and maintenance of power well into the early modern period. The central fount of authority lay in Scripture, the interpretation of which could be seen as a prophetic act. In the late Middle Ages the main prophetic texts of the Bible became crucial battlegrounds on which established powers, both sacred and secular, were contested and defended. But the same was true of venerable ancient sources such as the sibylline oracles, numerous pseudonymous texts, and legends such as the predictions of Merlin. Nature presented another key source of prophecy. The reading of wonders, both celestial and terrestrial, became a major obsession by the sixteenth century; almost anything unusual could be taken to herald war, rebellion, natural disaster, the death of a great prince, or even the Last Judgment. Attention to wonders overlapped closely the various arts of divination, the most pervasive of which was astrology. Moreover, the spirit could communicate to individuals through direct revelation, angels, dreams, or visions.
Prophetic History
The prophetic understanding of history was manifest in several competing schemes, such as the Augustinian six ages corresponding to the ages of man, and the Four Empires of the Book of Daniel. The triadic "Prophecy of Elias," derived from the Talmud, posited three 2000-year periods before, under, and after the Law. More radical was the Trinitarian vision of Joachim of Fiore (c. 1130–c. 1202), in which the world-historical stages of the Father and Son would be followed by that of the Holy Spirit, a time of spiritual fulfillment before the Judgment. Through at least the seventeenth century, thinkers debated these schemes and their application with great intensity. Not only the outlines but also the details of prophetic world-chronology took on immense importance in efforts to legitimize governments, religious movements, and programs of reform.
Reformation Prophecy
The late fifteenth century saw a surging confluence of older currents, evident for instance in the 1488 Pronosticatio of Johann Lichtenberger, a grab bag of biblical, astrological, Joachimist, and other ideas. Hopes and fears regarding the fate of the church, the empire, or Christendom fed on one another. Governments worked hard to control the spread of popular prophecies, volatile and dangerous as they often were. Nonetheless, growing lay involvement in all realms of culture brought a proliferation of competing claims to prophetic insight.
The religious explosion of the Reformation saw a dramatic escalation in this contest; the evangelical movement itself was interpreted by Martin Luther as a fulfillment of scriptural as well as extrascriptural prophecies. The reformers placed new emphasis on the prophetic dimensions of preaching and faith. At Zurich, Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) introduced a form of public biblical teaching, based on learned discussion, known as "the prophecy." But did the Spirit speak only through Scripture? The prophet Joel spoke of a general spiritual outpouring in the last days, and many souls felt the flow of a mystical spiritualism that challenged all limits on prophetic inspiration.
The emergence of confessional orthodoxies was partly a reaction to the threatening anarchy of prophetic voices; confessional identities reflected shared prophetic understandings. Protestants almost universally assumed that the Antichrist had been revealed in the Roman papacy. Among Lutherans, apocalyptic expectancy became virtually a mark of true gospel teaching; Luther himself, who denounced many of his enemies as false prophets, became widely viewed as a "last Elijah." Calvinists, though often dispersed and embattled, took a more confident and aggressive stance, buoyed by a sense of God's plan for the elect. Catholic orders such as the Franciscans found missionary inspiration in powerful traditions such as Joachimism.
Early modern concepts of rulership and nationhood had major prophetic dimensions. Well known is the image of Queen Elizabeth as Deborah, prophetess and savior of her people. Conflicts such as the Thirty Years' War and the English Civil War evoked countless prophecies, both political and religious; in fact, the early and mid-seventeenth century appears to mark a peak of stridency in efforts to sanction political goals through Biblical prophecy. Calvinist millenarianism was among the most fertile breeding grounds for a variety of radical political programs.
The Slow Retreat
During this same period, however, a reaction against prophecy set in, moderating this surfeit of the spirit. The slow demise of prophetic history had already begun in the 1560s when Jean Bodin (1530–1596) attacked the traditional scheme of world empires; the dismantling of this framework accelerated in the following century. By 1700 the traditional prophetic worldview was in rapid retreat, at least among intellectuals, along with belief in miracles and most aspects of medieval cosmology. Yet the break between that worldview and a more enlightened outlook was by no means complete. Millenarian hopes, for example, have been convincingly linked to modern conceptions of historical progress as well as to positive attitudes toward the investigation of nature. Similarly, the transition from such prophetic notions as the Quaker "inner light" to the idea of natural reason was subtle, especially in an age when the distinction between nature and spirit was a matter of intense speculation.
While biblical prophecy was broadly attacked and ridiculed in the Enlightenment era, its retreat was both slow and stubborn. Isaac Newton was among the learned figures who worked to pare away the non-biblical accretions to prophecy in order to establish a purer science while preserving true prophecy. Major religious movements of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including Pietism and Methodism, seethed with prophetic conviction. Eighteenth-century rulers and churchmen still had to reckon with perceptions based on long-standing prophetic traditions. The new age of reason was frequently understood in terms of prophetic fulfillment, even if the framework was often no longer biblical. The French Revolution was accompanied by a groundswell of prophetic interpretation and debate, much of which drew directly on the traditional biblical imagery. Certain prophecies had the potential to be self-fulfilling by creating a shared psychological readiness for the predicted outcomes.
Among European elites, however, spiritual prophecy was increasingly relegated to the subjective sphere, in which its public, political role was radically limited. In the eighteenth century spiritual inspiration was already frequently conceived in terms of artistic and literary genius. As biblical and supernatural imagery lost potency, Europeans encountered a world in which the realms of personal and political experience had lost their common prophetic ground.
Bibliography
Barnes, Robin Bruce. Prophecy and Gnosis: Apocalypticism in the Wake of the Lutheran Reformation. Stanford, 1988.
Froom, Le Roy Edwin. The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers. 4 vols. Washington, D.C., 1946–1954. An older but still useful survey by a Seventh Day Adventist. Volume two addresses the early modern era.
Lerner, Robert. The Powers of Prophecy: The Cedar of Lebanon Vision from the Mongol Onslaught to the Dawn of the Enlightenment. Berkeley, 1983. Fine survey of a single prophetic tradition.
Niccoli, Ottavia. Prophecy and People in Renaissance Italy. Princeton, 1990.
Petersen, Rodney L. Preaching in the Last Days: The Theme of "Two Witnesses" in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. New York, 1993.
Reeves, Marjorie. The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: A Study in Joachimism. Oxford, 1969.
——. Joachim of Fiore and the Prophetic Future. New York, 1977. Studies aspects of Joachimism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Schwartz, Hillel. The French Prophets: The History of a Millenarian Group in Eighteenth-Century England. Berkeley, 1980.
Taithe, Bertrand, and Tim Thornton, eds. Prophecy: The Power of Inspired Language in History, 1300–2000. Gloucestershire, U.K., 1997. Includes several helpful articles on the early modern scene.
Wilks, Michael, ed. Prophecy and Eschatology. Oxford, 1994.
—ROBIN B. BARNES
Gale Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology:
Prophecy |
In premodern society, prophets appeared both informally as gifted individuals with a sudden prophetic insight or as functionaries identical with what Western scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth century called witchdoctors, priests or shaman. For an example of the prophet/seer/judge functionary, see the biblical book of I Samuel which traces the history of the last judge to rule the Hebrew tribe. Samuel was, as a child, dedicated to God and placed in the care of Eli, the corrupt judge/seer of Israel. His career includes a number of clairvoyant and prophetic (precognitive) utterances, but the most illustrative of his daily functions is pictured in I Sam. 9 in which Samuel helps locate the lost donkeys of the future king Saul.
In many instances prophetic utterances were made in what appeared to be a normal state (see the references to prophecy in the biblical book of Acts) but often occurred in an altered or ecstatic state of consciousness (see the opening verse of the book of Ezekiel, or the sixth chapter of Isaiah). In general the Hebrew prophets went through a period in which "the word of the Lord" spoke to them and then they in turn went among the populace and spoke what they had been told. We know that the pythonesses attached to the oracles of ancient Greece uttered prophetic words under the influences of natural gases or drugs, and when the magical practitioners in tribal cultures attempt to peer into the future they often attain a condition of ecstasy by taking some drug, the action of which is well known to them. But this was not always the case; the shaman often summoned a spirit to his aid to discover what portents and truths lie in the future.
Most often divination is not prophecy in the true sense of the term, as artificial aids are employed. Those aids can stimulate the psychic attunement, but most of the time appear merely as a pretended prediction of future events by the chance appearance of certain objects that the augur supposedly understands. We often find prophecy disassociated from the ecstatic condition, as among the priests of the Maya Indians of Central America, known as Chilan Balam, who, at stated intervals in the year, made certain statements regarding the period which lay immediately before them.
Prophecy may be regarded as a direct utterance of the deity, taking a human being as mouthpiece, or the statement of one who seeks inspiration from the fountain of wisdom. In the biblical writings, Yahweh desired to communicate with human beings and chose certain persons as mouthpieces. Again individuals (often the same as those chosen by God) applied to the deity for inspiration in critical moments. Prophecy then may be the utterances of the deity(ies) through the instrument of an entranced shaman or seer, or the inspired utterance of a seer who later repeats what has been learned while in an altered state (hearing the word of the Lord).
In ancient Assyria the prophetic class were called nabu, meaning "to call" or "announce"—a name probably adopted from that of the god Na-bi-u, the speaker or proclaimer of destiny, the tablets of which he inscribed.
Among the ancient Hebrews the prophet was called nabhia, a borrowed title probably adopted from the Canaanites. They differed little in function from similar functionaries in the surroundings cultures, but differed greatly in the particular deity to which they were attached. Prophets were important functionaries in the ancient Near East. Four hundred prophets of Baal reportedly sat at Queen Jezebel's table (I Kings 18:19). The fact that they were prophets of this deity would almost go to prove that they were also priests. We find that the most celebrated prophets of Israel belonged to the northern portion of that country, which was more subject to the influence of the Canaanites.
Association of prophets appeared in Israel quite early (see I Sam. 10:5) and records of such appear periodically through Israel's history. In the era after the death of Ahab and Jezebel they appear to have had some formal organization (see II Kings 2) with chapters in various towns (II Kings 2-5). They served to consolidate Elijah's victories over the prophets of the hated deity Baal. They seem to have died out by the time of the exile.
The general idea in Hebrew Palestine was that Yahweh, or God, was in the closest possible touch with the prophets, and that he would do nothing without revealing it to them. While often ignored or persecuted during their lifetime, their preserved written words were later given greatest veneration and still later canonized.
In ancient Greece, the prophetic class were generally found attached to the oracles and in Rome were represented by the augurs. In Egypt, the priests of Ra at Memphis acted as prophets as, perhaps, did those of Hekt. Among the ancient Celts and Teutons prophecy was frequent, the prophetic agent usually placing him or herself in the ecstatic condition. The Druids were famous practitioners of the prophetic art, and some hint of their utterances may be still extant in the so-called "Prophecies of Merlin."
In America, as has been stated, prophetic utterance took practically the same forms as in Europe and Asia. Captain Jonathan Carver, an early traveler in North America, cited a peculiar instance where the seers of a certain tribe stated that a famine would be ended by assistance being sent from another tribe at a certain hour on the following day. At the very moment mentioned by them, a canoe rounded a headland, bringing news of relief.
A story was told in the Atlantic Monthly many years ago by a traveler among the Plains tribes, who stated that an Indian medicine-man had prophesied the coming of himself and his companions to his tribe two days before their arrival among them.
In recent years, channeling and contactees contributed more to American prophecy than any other sources. Hundreds of channeling books have been published in the past few decades, but the majority contain unspecified prophetic content. More often than not, the predictions are about millennial earth changes and a new era of spiritual transformation and peace. Prophetic channeling by Edgar Cayce, Kryon and Elizabeth Clare Prophet are considered the most prominent. More traditional psychic seers such as Jeanne Dixon, Ruth Montgomery, Gordon Scallion, Dannion Brinkley and Lori Toye are in the forefront due to the lack of more particulars from channeled sources. Today, mass market prophecy paperbacks are just a number of hodge-podge collections of bits and pieces from Cayce, Nostradamus, Native American lore, etc. Much analysis on prophecy is rare, but works by John White and Tom Kay are considered noteworthy in their field.
Sources:
Alschuler, Alfred S. "When prophecy succeeds: Planetary visions near death and collective psychokinesis." Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 90 no. 4 (October 1996).
Ascension, Soul Ways and Its Meaning.http://www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/ascension.html. April 10, 2000.
Cannon, Dolores. Conversations with Nostradamus, vol 1. Huntsville: Ozark Mountain Publishing, 1997.
Cayce, Hugh Lynn. Earth Changes Update. Virginia Beach: ARE Press, 1980.
Center for Millennial Studies.http://www.mille.org. April 10, 2000.
Ellis, Keith. Prediction and Prophecy. London: Wayland, 1973.
Garrison, Omar V. Encyclopedia of Prophecy. New York: Citadel, 1979.
Geertz, Armin W. The Invention of Prophecy : Continuity and meaning in Hopi Indian religion. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Kirkwood, Annie. Mary's Message to the World. Nevada City: Blue Dolphin Publishing, 1994.
Kay, Tom. When The Comet Runs. Norfolk, Va.: Hampton Roads Publishing, 1997.
Millennial Prophecy Links.http://www.wholeagain.com/millennial.html. April 10, 2000.
The Millennium Matters. http://www.mm2000.nu. April 10, 2000.
Morgana's Observatory.http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana. April 10, 2000.
Montgomery, Ruth. The World To Come. New York: Random House, Harmony Books, 1999.
Prophet, Elizabeth Clare. Saint Germain on Prophecy II. Livingston: Summit University Press, 1986.
Rowley, Harold H. Prophecy and Religion in Ancient China and Israel. New York: Harper, 1956.
Shellhorn, G. Cope. Surviving Catastrophic Earth Changes. Madison: Horus House, 1994.
Stanford, Ray. Fatima Prophecy, New York: Random House, Ballantine Books, 1990.
Timms, Moira. Prophecies and Predictions: Everyone's Guide to the Coming Changes. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Unity Press, 1981.
Vaughan, Alan. Patterns of Prophecy. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973. Reprint, London: Turnstone, 1974.
White, John. Pole Shift. Virginia Beach: ARE Press, 1980.
Devil's Dictionary:
prophecy |
n.
The art and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery.
Quotes About:
Prophecy |
Quotes:
"The are and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery."
- Ambrose Bierce
"Don't ever prophesy; for if you prophesy wrong, nobody will forget it; and if you prophesy right, nobody will remember it."
- Josh Billings
"The people who were honored in the Bible were the false prophets. It was the ones we call the prophets who were jailed and driven into the desert, and so on."
- Noam Chomsky
"Man has an incurable habit of not fulfilling the prophecies of his fellow men."
- Alistair Cooke
"Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them."
- Umberto Eco
"Prophecy is the most gratuitous form of error."
- George Eliot
See more famous quotes about Prophecy
Random House Word Menu:
categories related to 'prophecy' |
Rhymes:
prophecy |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Prophecy |
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet[1] are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come (cf. divine knowledge) as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the world is divine.[citation needed] The process of prophecy especially involves reciprocal communication of the prophet with the (divine) source of the messages.
Various concepts of prophecy are found throughout all of the world's religions and cults. To a certain degree prophecy can be an integral concept within any religion or cult. The term has found deep usage in two of the world's largest religious groups, Christianity and Islam, along with many others.[2]
|
Contents
|
From a skeptical point of view, there is a Latin maxim: prophecy written after the fact vaticinium ex eventu.[6]
The English word "prophecy" (noun) in the sense of "function of a prophet" appeared in Europe from about 1225, from Old French profecie (12th century), and from Late Latin prophetia, Greek prophetia "gift of interpreting the will of the gods", from Greek prophetes (see prophet). The related meaning "thing spoken or written by a prophet" is from circa 1300, while the verb "to prophesy" is recorded by 1377.[7]
The word prophecy comes from the Greek verb, προφημι (prophemi), which means “to say beforehand, foretell”; it is a combination of the Greek words, προ and φημι.
Prophecy is by no means new or limited to any one culture. It is a common property to all known ancient societies around the world, some more than others. Many systems and rules about prophecy have been proposed over several millennia.
In 1863, Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, claimed to have been the promised messianic figure of all previous religions, and a Manifestation of God,[8] a type of prophet in the Bahá'í writings that serves as intermediary between the divine and humanity and who speak with the voice of a god.[9] Bahá'u'lláh claimed that, while being imprisoned in the Siyah-Chal in Iran, he underwent a series of mystical experiences including having a vision of the Maid of Heaven who told him of his divine mission, and the promise of divine assistance;[10] In Bahá'í belief, the Maid of Heaven is a representation of the divine.[11]
The Haedong Kosung-jon(Biographies of High Monks) records that King Beopheung of Silla had desired to promulgate Buddhism as the state religion. However, officials in his court opposed him. In the fourteenth year of his reign, Beopheung's "Grand Secretary", Ichadon, devised a strategy to overcome court opposition. Ichadon schemed with the king, convincing him to make a proclamation granting Buddhism official state sanction using the royal seal. Ichadon told the king to deny having made such a proclamation when the opposing officials received it and demanded an explanation. Instead, Ichadon would confess and accept the punishment of execution, for what would quickly be seen as a forgery. Ichadon prophesied to the king that at his execution a wonderful miracle would convince the opposing court faction of Buddhism's power. Ichadon's scheme went as planned, and the opposing officials took the bait. When Ichadon was executed on the 15th day of the 9th month in 527, his prophecy was fulfilled; the earth shook, the sun was darkened, beautiful flowers rained from the sky, his severed head flew to the sacred Geumgang mountains, and milk instead of blood sprayed 100 feet in the air from his beheaded corpse. The omen was accepted by the opposing court officials as a manifestation of heaven's approval, and Buddhism was made the state religion in 527 CE. [12]
In ancient Chinese, prophetic texts are known as Chen(谶).
In the New Testament, prophecy is referred to as one of the Spiritual gifts given by the indwelling Holy Spirit. From this, many Christians believe that the gift of prophecy is the supernatural ability to receive and convey a message from God. The purpose of the message may be to "edify, exhort and comfort" the members of the Church. In this context, not all prophecies contain predictions about the future. The Apostle Paul also teaches in First Corinthians that prophecy is for the benefit of the whole Church and not just the individual exercising the gift.[1 Cor. 14:22]
According to Walter Brueggemann, the task of prophetic (Christian) ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture.[13] A recognized form of Christian prophecy is the "prophetic drama" which Frederick Dillistone describes as a "metaphorical conjunction between present situations and future events".[14]
There are instances in the Gospels where individuals are described as being prophets or are prophesying. Some examples include Simeon, Anna, and John the Baptist.[Matt. 21:26] The Gospels shows several instances where Jesus prophesied. An example of this is the Gospel of John which shows that while passing through Samaria, Jesus encountered a woman who had been married five times. In the story, Jesus relates to her details of her personal life. The woman states that "I can see you are a prophet."[John 4:19] Additionally, Jesus prophesied about his pending death, [Matt. 16:27–28] and about the end times.[Matt. 10:5–7] [10:23] [28:64]
Throughout the Acts of the Apostles, there are numerous references to 1st century individuals prophesying in different ways and contexts. Examples include where the Church in Antioch is described as having both prophets and teachers.[Acts 13:1]
In the Pauline Epistles, the prophet is referred to as one of the fivefold ministries; Apostles; Prophets; Evangelists; Pastors and Teachers.[Eph. 4:11]
The Epistle of Jude contains a verifiable citation from the Book of Enoch,[15] which is not a part of the canon for most Christian churches, which has "Enoch the Seventh from Adam" having "prophesied to" false teachers.[16][17]
The gift of prophecy was acknowledged in the Church after the death of the apostles. In his Dialogue with Trypho, Justin Martyr argued that prophets were no longer among Israel but were in the Church. The Shepherd of Hermas, written around the mid 2nd century, describes the way prophecy was being used within the church of that time. Ireneaus confirms the existence of such spiritual gifts in his Against Heresies. Although some modern commentators claim that Montanus was rejected because he claimed to be a prophet, a careful examination of history shows that the gift of prophecy was still acknowledged during the time of Montanus, and that he was controversial because of the manner in which he prophesied, and for appointing rival bishops.
Subsequently there are few examples of the prophetic and certain other gifts (until the Scottish Covenanters like Prophet Peden and John Wishart). Prophecy and certain other spiritual gifts were somewhat rarely acknowledged throughout church history. From 1904 to 1906, the Azusa Street Revival occurred in Los Angeles, California and is sometimes considered the birthplace of the Pentecostal movement. This revival is well-known for the "speaking in tongues" that occurred there. Some participants of the Azusa Street Revival are claimed to have prophesied. Pentecostals believe prophecy and certain other gifts are once again being given to Christians. The Charismatic Movement, which began to move into mainline denominations, also accepts spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy.
In 1994, "The Prophetic Movement" came on the scene, largely due to the influence of the Toronto, Brownsville and Kansas City revivals. Along with the Charismatic Movement's speaking in tongues and prophecy, "The Prophetic Movement" distinguished itself from past movements with physical twitching, moaning, sightings of gold dust, "glory clouds" and gems that (allegedly) fell from heaven. (Maxwell, 1994 p1)
With this movement arose famous prophets like Bob Jones, Paul Cain, Rick Joyner, Jill Austin and Todd Bentley.
The Prophetic Movement, and the prophets it produced, were not without controversy. In March 2011, former Elijah List web master, Kevin Kleint, released his account of events behind the scenes of the Elijah List (a main online distributor of prophecy) in his blog series, "My 7 Years Working for the Elijah List".
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintains that its first prophet, Joseph Smith, was visited by God and Jesus Christ in 1820. The Church further claims that God communicated directly with Joseph Smith on many subsequent occasions, and that following the death of Joseph Smith God has continued to speak through subsequent prophets. Joseph Smith claims to have been led by an angel to a large hill in upstate New York, where he was shown an ancient manuscript engraved on plates of gold metal. Joseph Smith claimed to have translated this manuscript into modern English under divine inspiration by the gift and power of God, and the publication of this translation is known as the Book of Mormon.
Further revelations claimed to have been given through Joseph Smith are published in the Doctrine and Covenants, one of four sacred LDS texts.
Muslims maintain that Prophet Muhammad experienced prophetic phenomena equated with interpretation of dreams, visions and remote viewing, which identify him as a prophet. Prophecies could be seen in the poem of 15th Century Kurdish poet El-Begi Jaff. Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 87, Number 112: Narrated Anas bin Malik: Allah's Apostle Muhammad said, "A good dream (that comes true) of a righteous man is one of forty-six parts of prophetism."
In the Torah, prophecy often consisted of a conditioned warning by God of the consequences should the society, specific communities, or their leaders not adhere to Torah's instructions in the time contemporary with the prophet's life. Prophecies sometimes included conditioned promises of blessing for obeying God, and returning to behaviors and laws as written in the Torah. Conditioned warning prophecies feature in all Jewish works of the Tanakh.
The rabbinic teachings, notably Maimonides (Rambam), suggest there were many levels of prophecy, from the highest such as those experienced by Moses, to the lowest where the individuals were able to apprehend the Divine Will, but not respond or even describe this experience to others, mistakenly citing Noah.
Maimonides' theory of prophecy contains two elements (1) an explanation of what prophecy is, and (2) a ranking of the various types of prophecy and prophecy-like phenomena. I think we can use the ranking of prophecy implicate in Maimonides to substantiate our thesis that the rationalism of Maimonides is essentially a moral rationalism.[18]
Maimonides, in his The Guide for the Perplexed, outlines twelve modes of prophecy[19] from lesser to greater degree of clarity:
Of the twelfth mode, Maimonides focuses his attention on its "implicit superiority to the penultimate stage in the above series", and therefore above all other prophetic and semi-prophetic modes.[18]
Experience of prophecy in the Torah and the rest of Tanakh do not restrict it to Jews. Nor is the prophetic experience restricted to the Hebrew language.
The Tanakh contains prophecies from various Hebrew prophets (55 in total) who communicated messages from God to the nation of Israel, and later the population of Judea and elsewhere. In Jewish tradition Daniel is not counted in the list of prophets.
Malachi, whose full name was Ezra Ha'Sofer (the scribe), is acknowledged to have been the last prophet of Israel if one accepts the opinion that Nechemyah died in Babylon before 9th Tevet 3448 (313 BCE).[20]
Numerous cases of prophecy exist among the Native American populations. The Onandaga and Hopi, among others, have prophecies that appear to relate to the times we are entering now.[citation needed] For example, the Onandaga talk of a time when the water will not be fit to drink from the streams. This, they say, will signify the beginning of a period they call the great purification, where the peoples will go through immense trials to purify themselves of the corrupting influences that have beset them. This, they say, will be seen as a period of joy for those who understand what is happening and engage this period as a time of purification, but will be a period of immense suffering for those who cling to their corrupted worldview and lifestyles. The Book of the Hopi can be seen as a work of prophecy — it discusses both the ancient history of the ages that came before, the current age, and the times to come.[citation needed]
There exists a problem in verifying most Native American prophecy, in that they remain primarily an oral tradition, and thus there is no way to cite references of where writings have been committed to paper. In their system, the best reference is an Elder, who acts as a repository of the accumulated wisdom of their tradition.
In another type of example, it is recorded that there are three Dogrib prophets who had claimed to have been divinely inspired to bring the message of Christianity's God to their people.[21] This prophecy among the Dogrib involves elements such as dances and trance-like states.[22]
Esoteric prophecy has been claimed for, but not by, Michel de Nostredame popularly referred to as Nostradamus who claimed to be a converted Christian. It is known that he had suffered several tragedies in his life, and had been persecuted to some degree for his cryptic esoteric writings about the future, reportedly derived through a use of a crystal ball. Nostradamus was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of foreknowledge of future events. He is best known for his book Les Propheties ("The Prophecies"), the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, Nostradamus has attracted an esoteric following that, along with the popularistic press, credits him with foreseeing world events. His esoteric cryptic foreseeings have in some cases been assimilated to the results of applying the alleged Bible code, as well as to other purported pseudo-prophetic works.
Most reliable academic sources maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are largely the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render them useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power. Moreover, none of the sources listed offers any evidence that anyone has ever interpreted any of Nostradamus's pseudo-prophetic works specifically enough to allow a clear identification of any event in advance.[23]
According to skeptics, many apparently fulfilled prophecies can be explained as coincidences (possibly aided by the prophecy's own vagueness), or that some prophecies were actually invented after the fact to match the circumstances of a past event ("postdiction"). Whitcomb in The Magician's Companion observes,
One point to remember is that the probability of an event changes as soon as a prophecy (or divination) exists. . . . The accuracy or outcome of any prophecy is altered by the desires and attachments of the seer and those who hear the prophecy.[24]
The phenomenon of prophecy is not well understood in psychology research literature. Psychiatrist and neurologist Arthur Deikman describes the phenomenon as an "intuitive knowing, a type of perception that bypasses the usual sensory channels and rational intellect."[25]
“(P)rophecy can be likened to a bridge between the individual ‘mystical self’ and the communal ‘mystical body’,” writes religious sociologist Margaret Poloma.[26] Prophecy seems to involve “the free association that occurred through the workings of the right brain.”[27]
Psychologist Julian Jaynes proposed that this is a temporary accessing of the bicameral mind; that is, a temporary separating of functions, such that the authoritarian part of the mind seems to literally be speaking to the person as if a separate (and external) voice. Jaynes posits that the gods heard as voices in the head were and are organizations of the central nervous system. God speaking through man, according to Jaynes, is a more recent vestige of God speaking to man; the product of a more integrated higher self. When the bicameral mind speaks, there is no introspection. We simply experience the Lord telling us what to do. In earlier times, posits Jaynes, there was additionally a visual component, now lost.[28]
Child development and consciousness author Joseph Chilton Pearce remarked that revelation typically appears in symbolic form and “in a single flash of insight.”[29] He used the metaphor of lightning striking and suggests that the revelation is “a result of a buildup of resonant potential.” [30] Pearce compared it to the earth asking a question and the sky answering it. Focus, he said, feeds into “a unified field of like resonance (and becomes) capable of attracting and receiving the field’s answer when it does form."[31]
Some cite aspects of cognitive psychology such as pattern forming and attention to the formation of prophecy in modern day society as well as the declining influence of religion in daily life.www.thebeginner.eu/curious/481-the-fallacy-of-prophecy
]. 2008. Prophecy Today – A further word from God? Does God-given prophecy continue in today's Church, or doesn't it?. (Evangelical Press), ISBN 978-0-85234-673-0 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Prophecy |
"Prophecy". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
Prophecy |
Nederlands (Dutch)
voorspelling, profetie
Français (French)
n. - prophétie
Deutsch (German)
n. - Prophezeiung, Vorhersage
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ., μτφ.) προφητεία
Português (Portuguese)
n. - profecia (f)
Español (Spanish)
n. - profecía
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - profetia, förutsägelse, spådom
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
预言, 预言能力
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 預言, 預言能力
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 予言能力, 予言, 預言
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) تنبؤ, نبوة, تكهن
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - נבואה, התנבאות
If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.
To select your translation preferences click here.
 | vaticination |
| vaticinal |
| Goath |
 | What was nostradamus\'s prophecies? Read answer... |
| What did isaiah prophecy about? Read answer... |
| What was the prophecy of Elijah? Read answer... |
 | What was the prophecy of Timothy? |
| What is the Prophecy of Denae? |
| What is the mayans prophecies? |
Copyrights:
 |
 | American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore. A Dictionary of English Folklore. Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Gale Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
|
| Gale Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Copyright © 2001 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911 Read more |
 |
| Quotes About. Copyright © 2005 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
|
Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved. Read more | |
 |
| Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Prophecy. Read more |
 |
| Misspellings. © 1999-present by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
Mentioned in
