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.