The Tanakh has prophecies about the resurrection of the dead (Isaiah 26), about the date for Messiah's arrival (Daniel 9), and about his death (Isaiah 42, according to Rabbi Maimonides; Zech 11-13 according to Christians) and resurrection (Psalm 22 according to Christians). What would make these prophecies objectively reliable?
For the prophets to have this ability, it seems like this ability would have to objectively exist (at least in the case of the Biblical prophets), but that it is the Lord's guidance that makes its use by the prophets to be reliable. It was said even in the Bible that there were non-Israelites like Balaam who were legitimate prophets. It's well known, also said in the Bible, that false prophets and false prophecies exist, so in the New Testament discernment is recommended.
Oswan Craton writes that while the Chaldean magicians (Babylonians) claimed to have paranormal dream-interpreting abilities, it was only Daniel whose abilities were legitimate:
Craton is referring to Genesis 41:
Craton himself doesn't believe that fortune-telling, apart from rare instances of divine gifts, is legitimate.
Two difficulties I have with reliability of Biblical prophecy are that science is very skeptical of paranormal predictions and also because a person's status as a moral inspired activist doesn't make his predictions necessarily true. If a moral peace activist and who followed God said we will have world hunger ended in ten years, I would still be skeptical of their claim despite the fact they could be moral and have belief in God and pro-peace inspiration from God.
Time magazine makes an interesting observation about the relationship of the brain to external stimuli:
For the prophets to have this ability, it seems like this ability would have to objectively exist (at least in the case of the Biblical prophets), but that it is the Lord's guidance that makes its use by the prophets to be reliable. It was said even in the Bible that there were non-Israelites like Balaam who were legitimate prophets. It's well known, also said in the Bible, that false prophets and false prophecies exist, so in the New Testament discernment is recommended.
Oswan Craton writes that while the Chaldean magicians (Babylonians) claimed to have paranormal dream-interpreting abilities, it was only Daniel whose abilities were legitimate:
In Daniel’s case it was the Chaldeans who claimed such superior abilities for themselves, but they were unable to discern either the king’s dream or its interpretation. The ability (if we want to call it that) came directly from God...
Deuteronomy 18:21-22 offer a... criterion [ for testing legitimacy of prophecy]: “And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken, when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”
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(cf. Leviticus 20:6, 27; Deuteronomy 18:10-12; I Chronicles 10:13; Jeremiah 29:8-9). From these passages alone (and there are many others) we may conclude with Kurt Koch in Between Christ and Satan that “at no period in the history of the children of Israel were fortune-tellers recognized.
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Compare also what is said about prophecy in Genesis 41:14-15 and 25, and Daniel 2:28-29a. Here the point is twofold: (a) no “wise man” can know the unknown by himself; and (b) God alone reveals the future and only to whom and in the manner He chooses to do so.
The Christian and the Paranormal
Craton is referring to Genesis 41:
Pharaoh tells Joseph the dream, and finishes saying:15 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.
16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.
So the dream was God showing his plans to Pharaoh, and Joseph said "it is not in me" to reveal the dream, but it was something God revealed through Joseph.24 And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.
25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.
... the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.
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28 This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh.
Craton himself doesn't believe that fortune-telling, apart from rare instances of divine gifts, is legitimate.
Dixon told people things to occur, but they sometimes turned out false even though she said otherwise.Jeane Dixon who claimed to be a modern-day prophet. Some of her predictions — though relatively few — were in fact accurate, and she gained many followers during her lifetime. But she led many of her followers into astrology and occultism, violating the first sign of a true prophet.
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I believe the primary reason God does not want us involving ourselves in these things is because He doesn’t want us trusting in magic — that is, trusting in something that is false. He wants us to place our complete and total trust in Him (cf. Psalms 16:1-2; 37:3; 56:4; 31:14-15a). Jesus told us not to worry about the future (Matthew 6:34).
The Christian and the Paranormal
Two difficulties I have with reliability of Biblical prophecy are that science is very skeptical of paranormal predictions and also because a person's status as a moral inspired activist doesn't make his predictions necessarily true. If a moral peace activist and who followed God said we will have world hunger ended in ten years, I would still be skeptical of their claim despite the fact they could be moral and have belief in God and pro-peace inspiration from God.
Time magazine makes an interesting observation about the relationship of the brain to external stimuli:
Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.comThe brain is our instrument in focusing and organizing our consciousness. Just like a prism will take a white light with all these different frequencies and separate it so you can see the different colors of the spectrum. Rather than us experiencing everything that's happening all at once, our brain focuses us on the here and the now. It uses our sensory organs as guides as to what we should be focusing on. Experiments have shown that most psychic experiences occur when are sensory organs are muted, like when we're dreaming or having a near-death experience.
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There are also cases where people haven't had any psychic abilities until they've suffered head traumas. What's common is that these people who've had this head trauma, the structure and function of their brain has been changed. They're often not able to function very well in the real world because they don't know how to use the analytical side of their brain.
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If you stop thinking of time the way those in the Newtonian age thought of time as an arrow, and you start thinking of time as the way that Einstein thought of it as a space-time continuum, the future already exists. Just like the entire globe of the earth is all there even though I'm not currently seeing it all here in Southern Oregon. Our brain only allows us to experience time as a series of recurrent moments. What Einstein's saying is that when we're talking about time we're really talking about a psychological construct. Time is like any other dimension in that it isn't limited.