This is a fine example of low quality prophecy. It is nonspecific and predicts nothing unexpected. And, of course, it can convince nobody that its author had special knowledge of the future.
High quality prophecy is unambiguous, specific, and detailed - often specifying time and place. It predicts things not commonplace nor expected. It is all accurate, that is, not mixed with errors. The prophecy must precede that which was predicted, but cannot be self-fulfilling.
Maybe an example of high quality prophecy will help to illustrate.
There was a movie called Frequency some years back in which Dennis Quaid's character’s son contacts his father from his father's future by ham radio. To convince his father that he, the son, really is calling him from the father's future - from 1998 back to 1969 - the son discusses the outcome of game five of what is for the father the as-yet unfinished 1969 World Series, which the father is watching live in 1969 on TV in a local pub
:
"
Well, game five was the big one. It turned in the bottom of the 6th. We were down 3-0. Cleon Jones gets hit on the foot - left a scuff mark on the ball. Clendenon comes up. The count goes to 2 and 2. High fastball. He nailed it. Weis slammed a solo shot in the 7th to tie. Jones and Swoboda scored in the 8th. We won, Pop."
Then the father watches it happen on TV.
That's high quality "prophecy." That's a convincing knowledge of future events, once fraud such as a tape-delayed broadcast of an already played game is ruled out. Extremely specific and unexpected, and accompanied by no error. Biblical prophecy like the example you provided just can't compare to that. It doesn't convince.
The prophets of science also outperform biblical prophecy. Early last century, Einstein predicted that gravity bends light, something that turned out to be correct, but was not known to be true at the time, nor expected. And he provided specifics on how much it would bend. A clever experiment involving distant starlight grazing by the edge of the eclipsed sun on its way to earth demonstrated that the sun caused a deviation in the path of that distant starlight causing the star to appear to be in a position in the sky in which it was known not to be, Einstein also accurately predicted to what degree the curving of the starlight would displace the apparent position of the star, that is, how far from the star's know position its apparent position would be.
That's high quality prophecy.
The Big Bang theory predicted that because there had been a time in the early universe's past when it cooled enough to allow electrons to join protons and neutrons and form neutral atoms, we should find the ghost remnant of the decoupling of light from matter that then occurred, a faint electromagnetic radiation coming from every direction in space at a fixed intensity and wavelength ought to be present in our universe. Once again, this was unexpected. A few years later, the cosmic microwave background was found, and it was at the precise frequency (temperature) predicted.
That's also high quality prophecy. Note the specificity and the highly unlikely nature of the prediction. Compare that with what you provided - some day, people will come to me claiming to know me and I will disavow them. As I said, vague and trivial.
The recent find of the Higgs boson at precisely the energy predicted, and with the other characteristics predicted (charge, spin, parity) is the latest triumph in scientific prophecy. So great was the scientific community's and its underwriters’ confidence in science and its ability to prophecy, and incredibly large, powerful, and expensive device, the Large Hadron Collider was built to find the particle, which was right where it was predicted to be.
More high quality prophecy specifying details of something
Even so, scientist do not claim to possess superhuman knowledge, and do not offer their prophecies and their confirmations to be evidence of more than quality thinking by human beings, not divine knowledge. If believers are presenting their biblical prophecies as support for a superhuman element in the authorship of those prophecies, they shouldn't expect much success outside of their gatherings with fellow believers.
That citation from the movie Frequency would convince nearly any skeptic, or at the least leave them scratching their heads wondering how somebody could provide the details of a baseball game that hadn't been played yet. They'd be demanding answers.
Low quality prophecy like biblical prophecy simply lacks the power to persuade that high quality prophecy offers, and, as you are seeing here, piques little interest in unbelievers.
Sorry, but I don't find much truth in scripture even when it is energetically proclaimed. I've asked the following of several other posters in the past. Maybe you can help. Can you offer me any words attributed to Jesus that are original to Him and that are morally profound or excellent advice fit for a deity to deliver? If you can, please do.
Allow me to illustrate
: Consider "Blessed are the meek." As far as I know, that sentiment is original to Jesus. Nobody said it before, and those who have said it since were usually quoting scripture.
Is that an example of the kind of truth that you claim draws those yearning for it? I presume that we are being advised to be meek, and that if we are, that something good called a blessing will follow.
But why? Who does that serve? Certainly not the meek one. It's great for somebody trying exploit another person who the exploiter doesn't want to see rise up to resist him. But there's nothing good about meekness for the meek one.
Meekness is a character flaw - a failure of the spirit - a failure to assert oneself in defense of his legitimate interests. A meek person is a doormat that lets others walk over him and those he's charged to protect.
Now perhaps you are about to confuse being humble with being meek. They are not the same thing. A person can be very confident - assertive, even - and still be humble, but not meek.Meek is like the character Milton from Office Space. Please tell me what is blessed about this:
I realize that you probably consider comments like these about prophecy, biblical truth and wisdom, and the life of Jesus all being mundane blasphemous or hostile, but keep in mind, it is you claiming that biblical prophecy, biblical truth, and the life of Jesus are not just impressive, but unique, superlative, and exemplary. Sorry, but I don't see it. Maybe you can help.
