Transcript Can we know the future? - Dovecot Evangelical Church

Can we know the future?
Food for Thought
Dovecot Evangelical Church
January 2017
Clairvoyance
• ‘The supposed faculty of perceiving things or events in
the future or beyond normal sensory contact’
Online dictionary
Clairvoyance…
• Mansfield Town cancel clairvoyant due to 'unforeseen
circumstances' and the internet finds it hilarious
• The Stags were due to host 'Trisha' in the Kevin Bird
suite at their Field Mill stadium, but she apparently
didn't foresee what might happen…
• Daily Mirror 14/9/2016
Astrology and Horoscopes…
• ‘A forecast of a person's future, typically including a
delineation of character and circumstances, based on the
relative positions of the stars and planets at the time of
that person's birth’
Online dictionary
• R.H. Naylor did the first horoscope in the Sunday Express
in August 1930. Since then it has grown into a multimillion
dollar industry
Astrology and Horoscopes…
• Approximately 90% of the countries newspapers
carry horoscopes and over 20% of the population
consult them every day (70m of the USA alone)
• In 1988 Americans spent $35M to have astrology
readings…
Astrology and horoscopes
- scientific evidence lacking...
• There’s very little scientific proof that astrology is an accurate
predictor of personality traits, future destinies, love lives, or
anything else that mass-market astrology claims to know.
• In 1985 study published in the journal Nature, Dr. Shawn
Carlson of University of California, Physics department found
that astrologers were unable to match individual’s star chart
with the results of a personality test any better than random
chance;
• in a second test, individuals were unable to choose their own
star charts, detailing their astrologically divined personality
and character traits, any better than chance.
• http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-are-horoscopes-still-thing180957701/#gGW1ItZpL6MMRMr7.99
Can we know the future?
-what does the Bible say
‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God
but those things which are revealed belong to us
and to our children for ever, that we may do all
the words of this law’
Deuteronomy 29:29
•There are secret (hidden) things
•There are revealed (uncovered) things
•We should obey God’s word
‘The secret things belong to the
Lord…’
• God does not tell us everything
– Does a parent tell the child everything?
• Some knowledge is not good for us and forbidden
– Tree of knowledge (Genesis 3)
– The occult
‘ There shall not be found among you anyone who …
practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who
interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures
spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up
the dead. For all who do these things are an
abomination to the LORD…” Deuteronomy 18:9-12
‘The secret things belong to the
Lord…’
• Only God knows why ..
• Only God knows the future ...
• He tells us what will happen in His Word
– ‘For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the Archangel and with the
trumpet of God ... I Thessalonians 4:17
‘… those things which are revealed
belong to us’
• God’s word (the Bible) tells us how we got here…
– ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth’ Genesis 1:1
• God’s word tells us what has gone wrong...
– ‘Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded
you that you should not eat?’ Genesis 3:11
• God’s word tells us what is man’s destiny...
– ‘And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but
the righteous into life eternal’ Matthew 25:46
‘… that we may do all the words of this law’
• God commands all to turn from our sins
– ‘ Repent and believe the Gospel…’ Mark 1:15
• God forgives all who trust in Jesus Christ
– ‘…through this man (Jesus Christ) is preached to you the
forgiveness of sins’ Acts 13:38
• Jesus receives all who come to Him
– Jesus said: ‘He who comes to me I will by no means cast
out’ John 6:37
• God justifies (makes righteous) all who believe
– ‘Being justified by faith we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ’ Romans 5:1