ELUSIYAN TOLU’ FRANCIS
INTRODUCTION
What is prophecy? Why did God reveal so much
about the future through his prophets? What are God’s reasons for wanting us to
understand the prophecies? Sometimes a child will stare out of a window for a
moment of an hour, deciphering the future from a dusky summer sky. Does he
imagine that some wisp of cloud reveals the signature of things to come? Or
that the world’s a book we learn to transfer? And sometimes a girl stands naked
by a mirror imagine beauty in a stranger’s eyes, finding a place where fear
leads to desire. For what is prophecy but the first inkling of what we
ourselves must call into being? The call need not be large, no voice in
thunder. It is not so much what spoken as what’s heard and recognized, of
course. The gift is listening and hearing what is only meant for you.
Life
has its mysteries, annunciations, and some must wear a crown of thorns. I found
my via dolorosa in your love. And sometimes we proceed by prophecy, or not at
all, even if only to know what destiny require us to renounce.
We
all our curious about the future and what’s in store for us personally! And our
loving creator doesn’t want his people to be in the dark and to be worried with
fear of the unknown. So he inspired the bible so it can be our guidebook and
map for our life’s journeys. Bible prophecy and even prophetic messages does
indeed satisfy much curiosity about the future, but God has greater purposes
than just that. They have wonderful spiritual purpose!
During
the last two or three decades we have heard more concerning the present
fulfilment of prophecy than at any time during the Christian centuries. It is
true that for certain types of mind, the prophetic word has a special
attraction. These portions of the scriptures have therefore been the happy
hunting ground of many who have desired to learn about the future, but it seems
that in last few decades, the interest in the study of prophecy has been
heightened.
By
and large our concern in this discourse is not to critically expose the nature
of prophecy but to examine the role of prophecy in general and this shall be
run open under the following thematic outline:
-WHAT IS PROPHECY
-THE ROLE OF PROPHECY
IN GENERAL
-CONCLUSION
WHAT IS PROPHECY?
This
is a statement that something will happen in the future,especially one made by
some body with religious or magic powers or the power of being able to say what
will happen in the future[1].
A
prophecy could be a prediction that directly or indirectly causes it self to
become true, by the very terms of the prophecy it self, due to positive
feedback between belief and behaviour. Although examples of such prophecies can
be found in literature as far back as ancient Greece and ancient india, it is
20th century sociologist reobert k merton who is credited with
coining the expression ‘self fulfilling prophecy’ and formalizing its structure
and consequences[2].
In his 1948 article self-fulfilling prophecy, merton defines it in the
following terms:
‘the self fulfilling
prophecy is, in the beginning a false definition of the situation evoking a new
behaviour which makes the original false conception come true. This specious
validity of prophecy pertpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite
the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning[3].’
In
other words a positive or negative prophecy, strongly held belief, or delusion,
declared as truth when it is actually false, may sufficiently influence people
so that their reactions ultimately fulfil the once-false prophecy.
Sometimes
prophecy could be effects in behavioural confirmation effect, in which
behaviour, influenced by expectations causes those expectations to come true.
According
to Thomas theorem which sate that:
‘If men define situations as real,
they are in their consequences[4]’
According
to thomas, people react not only to the situations they are in, but also, and
often primarily, to the way they perceive the situations and to the meaning
they assign to these perceptions. Therefore, their behaviour is determined in
part by their perception and the meaning they ascribe to the situations they
are in, rather than by the situations themselves. Once people convince
themselves that a situation really has a certain meaning, regardless of whether
it actually does, they will take very real actions in consequences.
THE ROLE OF PROPHECY IN
GENERAL
Haven
clarify our scepticism in the previous discourse we shall now examine
critically the role of prophecy in general which is the major concern of this
work. An interest in this portion of the
scriptures normally indicates a healthy spiritual condition, a desire to know
more perfectly what God has received. An absence of this desire to study the
predictions of the word is indicative of an abnormal growth or distorted or perverted
ideas regarding the truth. Something therefore is radically wrong with the
person who is not concerned about the prophecies.
In
certain fundamental circles, there have been found much guessing and
speculation, which have brought disrepute upon the study of prophecy and which
have caused thinking men and women, seeing what glaring errors have been made
by amateur expositors of the prophectic word, come to the conclusion that it is
impossible for anyone to interpret prophecy correctly. They therefore, wishing
to avoid errors, devote their time to those portions of the word and those
matters mentioned therein about which there need not be any guessing or
speculation. But it would interest you to know that, prophecy play alot of
roles:
Prophecy
help confirm that the Bible is God’s word. Because of the requirements noted
earlier, true prophets of God often predicted near future events so that, when
their predictions came true, people would know that the person was a true
prophet of God and that his message concerning the presnt proved accurate, we
too may have confidence that, whether
fortelling or forthelling, the words of
the biblical prophets are God’s word.[5]
Biblical
predictions encourage our belief that God is sovereign over the affairs of men.
Fulfilled predictions prove that God indeed can set up nations and take them
down, use powerful men to accomplish his purposes, and tell us in advance
exactly what is going to happen[6].
Biblical
predictions about events still in the future, motivate us to be very vigilant
and be committed to our faith. Jesus who
commanded, ‘Be on guard! Be laert! You do not know when time will come’ (mark
13:33) and also instructed, ‘now learn
this lesson from the fig tree: as soon as its twinges get tender and its leaves
come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things
happening, you know that it is near, right at the door ‘mark 28, 29.[7]
The
knowledge of the prophecy can also help us to interpret world and events and it
could help us to be courageous when hardship comes.
CONCLUSION
By
way of conclusion on the account of this discourse, one would see that prophecy
has it own role but sometimes it affect the psychology of the people such
people act towards what has been prophesied. In fact people seems not to
believe in prophetic message again because of so many fake clergy in our
society who speak out false prophetic message and who misinterpret the
scriptural prophetic messages and this is evident in WOLE SOYINKA’S novel ‘THE
TRIALS OF BRO JERO’ where prophet jero is presented to the reader as a rogue
who manipulates and keeps his gullible followers in a subservient position for
he is able to read from their minds what they long for. Thus when the play
opens, we see brother jero claiming that he is a prophet by birth and by inclination
and tries as much as possible to convince people that although there are many
prophet but that they are not the same. The prophet then uses pun to show that
‘eggs is eggs’ which means in English ‘they are all the same’. He keep people
dissatisfied; for once they are satisfied they will leave him. He believes that
as long as they are unhappy, worried and dissatisfied, they will continually
seek his service for prophesying. This is contrary to the message of freedom
and choice that Christianity spells to its followers. Brother jero’s philosophy
of keeping people dissatisfied and helpless does not conform to basic Christian
ethics. Wole Soyinka uses the protagonist to show that the attitude of some
religious leaders negate to a greater extent what they prophesy, in fact some
can change the prophetic message to suit their needs. By so doing people lose
interest in prophecy and prophecy continue to fade away like a wash hand basin.
[1] Oxford advanced learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition
[2] Wikipedia.com, retreieved 4/12/2015
[3] Merton Rober ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ Antioch review 8 1948, www.wikipedia.com,retreieved
4/12/2015
[4] Thomas W.I ‘The child in America: behaviour problems and programs’ New Yorrk, 1928.pg 572
[5] Keith hunt ‘Benefits of prophecy’ pdf pg176
[6] ibid
[7] ibid
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