I've just watched the old 'Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat' on DVD and I'm a bit confused.
Basically, what is the societies viewpoint, and more importantly, the scriptural viewpoint, on interpreting dreams - or using them to predict future events?
I'm sure the society would look down on anyone saying he had dreams that came true. Yet the bible is full of such instances. ie, this extract from the Insight book, under dreams:
'Some dreams from God gave his servants assurance of divine favor or helped them to understand how Jehovah was aiding them. When God was about to conclude a covenant with Abram (Abraham), a deep sleep and great darkness fell upon the patriarch, and Jehovah then apparently spoke to him in a dream. (Ge 15:12-16) At Luz (Bethel) God caused Jacob to have a dream in which he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, thus denoting communication with heaven. Angels ascended and descended on it, a representation of Jehovah was stationed above it, and God pronounced a blessing on Jacob. (Ge 28:10-19; compare Joh 1:51.) It was also by means of a dream that God, years later, showed his approval of Jacob and gave him angelic instruction to return to his homeland.—Ge 31:11-13.'
BUT!
Surely, using dreams in this way is a form of divination?
Again, from the Insight book, under Divination:
'Divination embraces generally the whole scope of gaining secret knowledge, especially about future events, through the aid of spiritistic occult powers...Certain fields of divination have been given specific names. For example, augury, popular with the Romans, is a study of omens, portents, or chance phenomena; palmistry predicts the future from lines on the inside of the hand; hepatoscopy inspects the liver; haruspication inspects entrails; belomancy with arrows; rhabdomancy uses the divining rod; oneiromancy is divination by dreams; necromancy is a purported inquiring of the dead. Crystal gazing and oracular divination are still other forms.'
What baffles me is how can you tell if a dream is from God or is a false dream?
Also, it states quite clearly in the insight book that ALL forms of divination is wrong!! :
Nowhere in the Bible is any form of divination given a good connotation. Many times in the same condemnatory texts spiritistic practices of divination are spoken of together with adultery and fornication. (2Ki 9:22; Na 3:4; Mal 3:5; Ga 5:19, 20; Re 9:21; 21:8; 22:15) In God’s eyes divination is comparable to the sin of rebellion. (1Sa 15:23) It is, therefore, unscriptural to speak of Jehovah’s communication with his servants as a manifestation of "good" divination.
Is using dreams to tell the future divination or not? I'm confused!