Does a successful prophet predict or prevent?

As we all know, most hyped prophecies never come to pass. It looks like this October 7th is only the latest.

So that makes me wonder this. Since most people who receive a doomsday prophecy feel the need to share it in order to stop it from coming true-- what is the true mark of success?

If they call the event as it hapens,

Or if they prevent if from happening?

reply to post by asmeone2

---

Certainly if they predict the event its location and time it will occur. The claim that such an event was prevented from occuring is an excuse to cover the prophets failure.

Has there ever been a prophecy that has been successful? Not retrospectivly applied from vague ramblings, but an actual case of: ABC will happen at XYZ - People record prophecy and wait for result - ABC does in fact occur at XYZ.

I dont think there ever has been.

A successful Prophet always Predicts. Now here is where I go awry as to what I assume you mean by Prophet. God says in his WORD that he told the end from the beginning, he did through Jeremiah, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Daniel, Joseph etc. But if we take the words of Daniel in telling Nebuchadnezzar of his dream about the statue that it was not he, Daniel, but GOD that gave him the answer. Here are a few things that most Real Prophets have in common, and by Real I mean 100% accuracy rate, anything less is a guess.

All Prophets get their prophecy's from GOD.
Most prophets are not listened to by those the Prophet warns.
Most are killed by those they are Prophesying too.
Most don't want the job.
Most are not recognized as a Prophet until after their death.

As for all the so called prophet posts on ATS it has all already been said, outside the ufo stuff, so they are repeating the prophecy's of others. If you would read the books of Daniel and Revelations in the proper context you can predict what is coming to this world just not when. The Statue had 5 world empires predicted... 4 have come and gone exactly as Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar they would, the 5th and last empire is all that is left. The feet of Iron and Clay with the ten toes, this would seem to indicate that the future holds some sort of revised Roman Empire. But since Iron and Clay don't mix well I don't see this coming World Order as being as successful as the other 4 were.

A successfull prophet will predict. If these were things that could be prevented there would another word for it. Destiny, fate...these are concepts ingrained into every civilization that exists and has ever existed, what you do with the information is up to you. One can prophesy that there is an iceberg in the ocean...what course you take in your boat is up to you, but it doesn't it doesn't prevent the iceberg from existing.

reply to post by asmeone2

---

That is a good question, albeit a tricky one.
In order for the prophet to prevent it, would they not have to predict it to begin with?

If it is somebody else's prediction and the prophet prevents it, then how do we know that it was prevented, or to put it another way, how do we know it was going to happen?


I guess they can be successful either way, but as somebody else pointed out, I don't think any prophecy has ever come to fruition that wasn't self fulfilled or just made to appear successful and tied in to the vague ramblings of a madman.

reply to post by blupblup

---

THis is my theory:

Many of the prophets who appear to have been "wrong" were actually right in that they saw what would have been, had they not spoken up with their vision. However they changed the future in speaking of what was to come.

reply to post by asmeone2

---

I was thinking that too...
But I'm not sure if that is actually possible, I mean... in what context could that happen?

I see what your saying but I'm not sure.

Could the 5th be the USA? Mixing of iron and clay could resemble the melting pot of America . . .

Just sayin'

I don't know how to prove or disprove that, but to me it seemed the natural extention of the people who insist that there are many possible futures.

reply to post by xxpigxx

---

I really don't like to get into Biblical prophecies, but since you asked here is my opinion.

Biblical prophecies are cyclical--that is, based on historical cycles rather than any actual insight into the future.

Sort of the way many people have looked at the fall of Rome to predict the fall of many other "empies" since then.

They are not specific prophecies, as in, there will be an earthquake in this city on this day and this many people will die. Even the prophecies that were supposed to predict Jesus being born were tangential.

They can be accurately applied to almost any period of history... rather briliant of the writers, because it appears to lend the Bible a lot of credibility.

A successful prophet is only successful in hindsight. You can't prevent what you cannot convince en mass.