Predicting the Future

Have you ever wondered what the future will be for you and your family? Does it promise riches or ruin, love, or loneliness?  Will you live a long life, or will your life be cut short? People have speculated about such questions for thousands of years.

Today experts study global trends and make projections about the future.  While many of their forecasts have come true, others have failed, some miserably.  For example, in 1912, Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of a wireless telegraph, was quoted as predicting:  "The coming of the wireless era will make war possible."  And an agent of the Decca Record Company, who rejected the Beatles in 1962, believed that guitar-playing groups were on the way  out.

Many turn to the supernatural for clues about the future.  Some seek the advice of astrologers; horoscopes are a regular feature in many magazines and newspapers.  Other consult fortune-tellers or psychics, to claim to "read the future by interpreting patterns in tarot cards, numbers, or the lines in one's hand. 

In their effort to discern the future, some in ancient world consulted oracles-priests or priestess who passed information from the god they claimed to represent.  For instance, it is said that King Croesus of Lydia sent gifts of great value to the oracle of Delphi, Greece, with a request to learn what the outcome would be if he fought against Cyrus of Persia.  The oracles said that Croesus would destroy "a great empire" if he marched against Cyrus. Confident of his victory, Croesus sallied forth, the great empire that was destroyed was his own!

The ambiguous forecast of the oracles was worthless; it would have appeared true no matter which side won the war.  Croesus paid dearly for misinformation that  bought him disaster.  Have those who turned to today's popular method of predicting the future fared any better? 

Note: Any information from these phonies is fed to them by Satan, who knows a  lot about people as well, but not everything.  If you read the Bible, you will see/read, that Jehovah God detests any of these phonies and their false garbage.  The future information is only told by God and to see what is the future, you need only to read and want to be able to discern what Jehovah is saying in the Bible. 

Next time: Prophecies That Have Come True

From the jw.org publications