Prophesy from a JW (and others perspective). What purpose is there in trying to interpretate some of the stuff that you don't understand??

by RubaDub 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  RubaDub

  This is not a JW-bashing thing, but it always seemed odd to me that the "excuse" when things go wrong is that "we have to wait and see how the prophesy is fulfilled" or some other wording.

  My question has always been, then what is the purpose of the prophesy if you don't understand it until after the fact? Isn't that like having a weather forecast but being told that we don't really know what the weather will be until the next day?

  I'm sure some of the intelligent people here can guide me but in all honesty, I never understood that.
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  truth_b_known

  To add to the question; what of persons going out of their way to fulfill Biblical prophecy? We are told that the Old Testament contains prophecy of a coming Messiah. Christians argue that the Jesus of the New Testament is the person who fulfilled the prophecy. Practicing Jews would argue otherwise, saying that Jesus did not fulfill all of the required prophesies to be the Messiah.
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  DesirousOfChange

  LOVE your question, Rub!

  I've heard it explained that we really only understand a prophecy AFTER it's fulfillment. WTF?

  What happened to that thing about God doing nothing without "giving advance notice to His servants, the prophets"?

  Yet, "His Servants, the prophets" (aka GB?) don't seem to know Jack Schmitt about any of the prophesies and they especially don't seem to know WHY NONE OF THEM HAVE BEEN FULFILLED as was promised by their predecessors (ie, Freddie, The Judge, etc).

  2 Peter 3:4-- "They will say, 'Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.' "

  Aren't there a lot of JW's whispering that very question?
  
  
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  Longlivetherenegades

  Watchtower talk but they don't do.

  For one thing, Bible prophecies are often best understood when they are undergoing fulfillment or after they have been fulfilled. But there is another factor. To understand a prophecy correctly, we generally have to consider its context. .....watchtower April 2020 study edition.

  Over the years they have try to UNDERSTAND what has not been fulfilled or undergoing fulfillment. The reason they head into SPECULATION ASSUMPTION, PREDICTION, LIKELY, MAYBE.

  They say its best to consider context yet make modern day application of all the text in the Bible to fit there doctrine.

  
  
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  DesirousOfChange

  Yet, they cannot figure out why their "prophecy" never fits.

  
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  Anna Marina

  No man knows the day or the hour.

  Yes, correct.
  

  It'll come like a thief in the night.

  To be fulfilled.

  Oh yes and the stuff you can't understand, you can't understand. Maybe because it is written in a different way to normal just like a can get a photo and 3d picture. Maybe you can have ordinary writing and 3d writing which would require a special kind of relational database (app) to read?

  Bible written for the digital age maybe?
  
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  JeffT

  I think some parts of the Bible are there to make us think about the questions, not to provide the answers.

  For example:

  2 Peter 3:4-- "They will say, 'Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.' "

  Would people be saying this if some crazy preacher didn't plant the idea of a specific date (say 1844 or 1997 - JW's aren't the only ones that make nutjob predictions) in their minds.
  
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  eyeuse2badub

  Prophesy is a fancy way of saying 'trying to predict the future'. It's delusion at it's best! Anyone can be prophet because "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in while!"

  I'm still waiting on the 1969 wt prophecy about not growing old in this system to be fulfilled! Maybe in wt speak, 73 in not really old!

  just saying!
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  Acluetofindtheuser

  "What happened to that thing about God doing nothing without "giving advance notice to His servants, the prophets"?"

  The society can't figure out those pesky difficult prophecies, thereby usually demoting them to symbolic representations. They are locked out of understanding the deep things of the bible and it shows. Since so many of their interpretations failed then they can't be his prophet.