Thursday, February 4, 2010

What is the difference between a wrong expectation and a false prophecy?

All false prophecies must start out as wrong expectations, but when does it cross the line into a false prophecy?What is the difference between a wrong expectation and a false prophecy?
Wrong expectation: reading, researching and deducting something that is not factual. Discussing it with friends, family, and others.





False prophecies: reading, researching and deducting something that is not factual THEN preaching it or having your organization preach it with the understanding that your organization is the mouthpiece of God, or inspired of Him to make declarations and doctrines, or setting yourself or organization up in the eyes of your followers or outsiders as the only source of true information and truth of God and the Bible.





So, the line crossing starts when you tell people that God speaks through you or your organization and what you say is untrue.





poor atchung:





';Jehovah's Witnesses have never pretended that they are infallible or inspired. Jehovah's Witnesses have never pretended that they experience miraculous messages from God or Christ. For more than a century, Jehovah's Witnesses have always presented their suppositions as the result of sincere bible research, rather than as ';predictions'; or ';prophesying';.';





Yes, they pretend to be inspired. ';We are the ONLY organization with God's Holy Spirit'; ';We're the only source of truth and light'; (these are paraphrases of course) .


They can call it bible research all they want, but their publications state differently, they say, ';we researched and THIS is the truth, or THAT is the truth, based on that research.'; Then they add THEIR interpretations to scriptural revelations, times, and prophecies.





';What group is working harder than Jehovah's Witnesses to preach God's message globally (as Noah did before the Deluge)?';





Work as hard as you want, Satanist work hard too, but they DON';T have the truth either. Works alone do not make what is performed truthful. Spend millions of hours going door to door, making return visits, have bible studies, if you are not teaching the truth, it is of NO USE! It is folly.





There is also a BIG difference is incorrect teaching and false prophecy. JW's have been guilty of both.What is the difference between a wrong expectation and a false prophecy?
A false prophet is one who calls themselves God's Voice.....When you speak for God, You had better be right %100 of the time...otherwise God condemns you to death.....False prophecy is the main way Christians can determine if a religion is blessed by God or condemned by God...It is an absolute.





There are many false prophets out there 2 come to mind...both have claimed to be to prophesy in gods words..





Benny Hinn.....His prophecies almost never come true.





The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society....Jehovah's Witness...They have falsely prophesied in print claiming to be Gods voice more that any other religion in history.





Heiss...Claims that the WBTS never claims to be the voice of God...Either he is lying or he has not looked at the articles that the WBTS have published over and over...They ABSOLUTELY call themselves the Voice or Spokesman for almighty God..It is Easy to find examples over and over again in their publications.
A false prophecy is where you're vocal about a false expectation and get others to expect it as well.
';Prophecy'; claims to involve divine inspiration.





Jehovah's Witnesses have never pretended that they are infallible or inspired. Jehovah's Witnesses have never pretended that they experience miraculous messages from God or Christ. For more than a century, Jehovah's Witnesses have always presented their suppositions as the result of sincere bible research, rather than as ';predictions'; or ';prophesying';.





Interestingly, however, even those Christians who did enjoy direct communication from heaven at times came to wrong conclusions; these wrong conclusions were even communicated ';out among the brothers';!





For example, the apostle Peter enjoyed remarkable privileges in the early congregation, but it seems that he was the source of an incorrect teaching about the apostle John that was not formally corrected until several DECADES had passed, and John himself finally wrote his gospel about 98 C.E.





(John 21:21-23) Peter said to Jesus: “Lord, what will this man do [that is, the apostle John]?” Jesus said to him: “If it is my will for him to remain until I come, of what concern is that to you? You continue following me.” In consequence, this saying went out among the brothers, that [the apostle John] would not die. However, Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but: “If it is my will for him to remain until I come, of what concern is that to you?”








Jehovah's Witnesses apply the term ';prophet'; only in a very limited sense to themselves as a religion, not to individuals. The Scriptures indicate that whenever Jehovah purposes to execute judgment upon a people, he always makes arrangement for a 'prophet's work' as a warning. Their self-description as a ';prophet'; (in this limited sense) does not indicate special inspired knowledge or foreknowledge, but their willingness to perform Christ's assigned warning work in our day leading up to Armageddon.





What group is working harder than Jehovah's Witnesses to preach God's message globally (as Noah did before the Deluge)?





(Amos 3:7) For the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will not do a thing unless he has revealed his confidential matter to his servants the prophets.





(2 Peter 2:5) Noah, a preacher of righteousness...





(Matthew 24:14) And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.








Learn more:


http://watchtower.org/e/20000622/


http://watchtower.org/e/19990715/article…
That is an interesting point you bring up. I'd use logic to try to separate them: all false prophecies must be recognized as prophecies to begin with, and this requires:





1) Divine inspiration


2) Written before the fact


3) Communicated to the people who are supposed to understand the prophecy or be affected by it





An expectation, in my mind, would be something a little different. It does not necessarily fit the definition of a prophecy. Perhaps it is the erroneous interpretation or understanding of a prophecy. An example of this would be the so-called ';Great Disappointment'; in 1844, where multitudes of Millerites gathered to welcome Jesus at His Second Coming. Now Scripture prophecies the Second Coming, but the misunderstanding here is of a day and hour. The Millerite Heresy (a heresy because it ignores the Scriptural precept ';You shall not know the hour nor the day';) is thus a false interpretation of true prophecy.





I would say then that the line between wrong expectation and false prophecy is clear-cut. Wrong expectation is based on prophetic teaching, but is an incorrect interpretation thereof. False prophecy claims to be prophetic but in fact never had the authority to be.
If we think of earliest Christianity, then the predictions found in the Gospels that all the things Jesus predicted (second coming, final judgment etc.) would happen within the lifetime of at least some who heard him would presumably be ';false prophecy';, since it makes specific predictions with a specific timeframe.





Paul's statement in 1 Thessalonians that assumed he would still be alive when the end occurred (';we who are alive [thus including himself] will be caught up in the air';) would, on the other hand, be a wrong expectation. He may have the wrong expectation because he has heard prophecies, though, which complicates things somewhat.





In short, it is claiming supernatural knowledge and then making a specific prediction that can be falsified that defines a 'false prophecy'.
A Biblical prophet is right everytime they claim to be speaking for God. They are God's voice to the people so if the prophet is wrong then they are not with God. As a validity test they had to predict some things in their lifetimes so that it could be verified and against all odds it was true.





By this measure a prophet who is wrong one time is a false prophet and their prophesy removed from scripture and if they are still alive theyare killed.
We have another word for ';prophecy'; in English. We also call it a ';guess';.





Your guess becomes a wrong guess or a bad guess when what you guessed would happen... doesn't happen.
Dear Steervase,





That is an interesting question!





I've answered many questions using Deuteronomy 18:20-22 as my guide. If somebody says they are speaking on God's behalf (';Thus saith the LORD';) but it does not happen then God is saying we don't need to listen to that person. This is definitely not talking about giving a weather forecast!





When I was a child my mother repeatedly told me that if I did not become a JW by February 3, 1962 then I would not be saved because Armageddon was to take place on that date. Well the date came and went without incident. When I bring that up with JWs they tell me that was my mom's wishful thinking but it wasn't from the Watchtower society.





But when I ask JWs about specific dates that have been published by the Watchtower (they can rattle the dates off) they assure me that mistakes were made. ';Everybody makes mistakes.';





God does NOT make mistakes. EVER!





In the Bible we see God accepting Abel's sacrifice, not Cain's. We hear God saying the Messianic line would go through Jacob, not Essau the older brother. We see God accepting Elijah's sacrifice on Mount Carmel not that of the 450 + 400.





God is able, more than able to make it plain just who is speaking His Word and who is not.








Edit: Thank you very much for the invitation. I had seen your answer to another question so I found this question when I checked your profile. I definitely want to go to the other questions but a cold front is moving in and I'll have to turn my computer off shortly.





My mom does not remember ever telling me about February 3, 1962. But in my diary I had written ';Today is the day Mom had said the world would end'; and the Holy Spirit brought that to my attention decades later when I was praying for guidance about accepting the NWT from a JW cousin. When I read Deuteronomy 18:20-22 in all of the Bible translations I have it was like seeing those words in 10 foot neon letters!





You are right that was my mom's expectation. I was trying to make the point between her wrong expectation and the Watchtower's published FALSE prophecies. My eyes were opened starting on the Micro level with Mom's wrong expectation which made me conscious on the Macro level.





For His glory,


JOYfilled
A false prophecy is when someone invokes the name of God as the source of a prediction that turns out to be wrong.





This claim can be implied in certain contexts without being stated directly. For example, in pentecostal and charismatic churches, when a person spontaneously speaks in a church service and makes predictions or talks about things about which he shouldn't have any personal knowledge, the congregation will assume he's claiming to speak prophetically unless he specifically says otherwise.





Actual prophecies, true or false, are rare in today's churches. In those churches that have ';prophecies'; in the service, most are really just generic statements that can't be proven because they lack any specific content to test. Genuine claims of prophecy with actual content are usually only found in the prophetic movement, and most Christians have doubts about their authenticity.
seems that would happen when God isn't the one giving the p the ';thus sayeth the Lord';... I've heard more from people speaking what they said was God in my life time, and lots of folks have been hurt and confused.%26lt;%26gt;%26lt;
A prophecy would be somebody predicting some event in the name of God, or some Diety. An expectation would be what some normal person expects from his/her mind.
intent...

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