[net.religion] Modern prophets

ddb@mrvax.DEC (DAVID DYER-BENNET MRO1-2/L14 DTN 231-4076) (05/23/84)

I was very pleased to see Russel Anderson's articles on modern (well, early
19th century) prophecy;  I have trouble taking prophecies contemporary with
Christ seriously -- the historical data is too thin, I don't find it convincing.
On the other hand, prophecies published in the nineteenth century that get
verified by archeological work by "real" scientists in the late twentieth
are much more interesting.

(Parenthetically, I wondered why we were using "prophesy" to refer to the
revelation of facts about the past; but apparently the word means
"1. To reveal by divine inspiration. 2. To predict." (AHD); Only meaning
2 seems to be in usage outside of religious circles, not too surprisingly.)

Of course, there's the question of how many things were prophesied by this
person, and what the overall "score" is; but still, this sounds infinitely
more like "evidence" for SOMETHING than any other religious argument I've
heard on this net.

In any case, it's more information, and thoughts from another part of the
religious community;  I welcome the increase in diversity.