Religious Prophecy (Religion)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Sunday, September 12, 2010, 14:13 (5184 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

I grew up studying the bible, and was always intensely curious about the book of revelations, and some of the earlier prophecies. Recently, I have noticed a startling trend towards fullfilling some of them. (I promise I am not insane... welll.... ok.. maybe just a little.) After discussing it with people from other faiths, I have found that they have noticed the same from their own relgious texts. I would be interested to know your take on things. (NOTE: I am only referring to religious TEXTS, not doctrine and dogma, which is often completely FUBAR'd-You won't like my response. -I've been a student of religions for a long time. I've read the Bhagavad Gita, Torah, Bible, and the Koran. I've studied Zoroastrianism. I've also read the Sybilline Oracles. I'm also very familiar with as many of the ancient stories of my Nordic ancestors. I am not at all uneducated in the realm of prophetic revelation. -First, The Revelation of John was largely meant to describe the state of Rome. Early Christianity didn't fare too well under Rome, and most early Christians thought that Christ was coming back to save them from Rome. Part of the reason it took 30 some years after his death to write anything down, was that the early fathers thought that his return was very imminent. The same prophecies you're claiming to be true now, were thought to be true then. Here's an exercise on why.-The book of Daniel is considered to have one of the strongest prophecies for Christ. Why? What about Daniel's visions communicates to you "Christ, son of God, saviour of all?" In my early career as doubter, this was the first combination that threw up a red flag. Clearly, prophecy requires correct interpretation. At a bare minimum we know we're dealing with metaphor. However, returning to one of the apostolic fathers:-2 Peter 1:20 "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation."-So not only is there a correct interpretation, we are also to believe that we are not to innovate on the interpretation. Starting from that point, start searching online, and you see rather quickly that there's alot of exactly this thing going on. -Let us not also forget that Revelation was written during 2nd Temple Jerusalem, which was a highly apocalyptic and pessimistic lot. -So in short; though I used one example in the Book of Daniel, I find no reason to trust prophecy. Ever. Hell, Read Ezekiel and you'll even watch of of God's prophecies NOT come true. (In regards to giving the city of Tyre to Nebuchadnezzar.)-[EDIT]
I forgot to mention, that the book of Revelation was only voted into the Bible by a single vote. It was for exactly the reason that the prophecy was intended to be for Rome as John had interpreted it, and by the time the bible was canonized--Rome WAS the church.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"