Bible Prophecy

I'll admit that although I read my Bible regularly, I'm not an expert about the subject of Bible prophecy. Let me tell you why I decided to blog about this topic today.

On Sunday night, I was watching the History Channel, and they had a special on about the Mayans and their calendar. Supposedly, the Mayans predicted that the year 2012 would be the end of time and that is when their calendar stopped? This is going from my sketchy memory, and I didn't even watch the entire show because I got tired and went to bed.

Anyway, seeing that show made me think about the subject of Bible prophecy (Just wanted to point out that the Mayan prediction had nothing to do with the Bible). I do recall reading that the Apostle Paul told the early Christians that prophecy was an important spiritual gift.

Another reason I felt like blogging about this is because I wanted to tell about my limited experience with Biblical prophets/prophecy (or those claiming to be so). I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness until I was twelve. At that age, my dad stopped me from going to the Kingdom Hall (that's what JW's call their church). Since the JW teaching was all that I really knew, I thought what they said was "The Truth." (That's what JWs call their teaching.)

Fast forward six years, I'm in college, and I decide to hook up with JWs again since I thought they told "The Truth." While studying with them, my eyes started getting glassy and my head started spinning when they taught me that the generation of 1914 would not pass away before the real return of Christ (or the end of times), also, Christ came invisibly/spiritually to earth in 1914....

That's around the time they started "losing" me, also, the fact that they used these years to predict things didn't seem right to me. When a JW came to my door last winter, I asked about their prediction of the generation of 1914 not passing away before the end of times. He said they didn't believe that anymore, and I thought to myself..."Hmmm, false prophets."

I feel uneasy when someone predicts something in the name of God and then changes their mind or it turns out it's not true.

My other experience with prophecy happened back in 2002, back when my first book, Promises To Keep, was released via Crossings and Black Expressions book clubs. I'd received an email from a Washington D.C. librarian, stating that she was having a
50th birthday party for her sister, and they wanted an author to attend this event. Eager to promote my novel, I agreed to come.

I went to the party located in an upscale neighborhood in Maryland. While I spoke, people asked me questions. Somebody asked me about sending my book to Oprah. I replied that I'd sent the novel to Oprah, but got no response. The birthday woman/guest of honor, touched her head quickly and looked at me and said, "You're going to be on Oprah one day." Then she turned and resumed her conversation with the person she'd been talking to.

Later, one of the guests said to me, "Did you hear what she said about your being on Oprah? She's an ordained prophet, so you should listen to her."

I thought. "Hmm. She's an ordained prophet. What, exactly, makes someone an ordained prophet?"

What's the point of this post? I'm not sure! I'd be interested in hearing if any of you have had any experience with Bible prophecy. Has a prophet ever told you something that became true later?

I'd think if a person is prophesying something in the name of Jesus, then, ultimately, it will come true. I don't think they would change their mind later and say, "I didn't prophecy that right. This is what God's telling me now!"

~Cecelia Dowdy~