Prophecy

[klu...@nyc.rr.com]

When a person makes a prophetic statement, the statement is being made
about an eventual outcome known to the prophet. The prophet sees a
specific series of events that lead up to the final event in
question. The prophesied event is the only outcome that can occur if,
and only if certain events that lead up to the outcome occur in order
of, and prior to the prophesied event. If there’s any deviation in
events prior to the aforementioned prophesied event, then it won’t
occur.

It’s like a many-branching tree: with one apple way up in the tree.
The only way to get to the apple is to climb up the trunk of the tree,
then follow the main branch that comes off the trunk, then on to the
next branch, and then the next, and the next – until at last you come
to the branch with the apple – and you pluck it.

Prophecy is like that. History, with its infinite number of branches,
has an equally infinite number of possible outcomes.

So, if a prophet makes a prophecy and it DOESN’T come true, it’s not
because the person is a false-prophet, charlatan, or a crazy person,
but only because history made a left turn somewhere (somewhen?) when
it should have turned right.

The apple is still there waiting to be plucked…it just sits on a
different branch.