No. (Sorry for the click bait headline. Think how often I’ll do that if I actually got paid by advertisers.) But, how much more intense would the pre-game analysis be if the “experts” and former players were risking their lives with every pick. That’s must see TV. I guess they’d have an in-memoriam section from the previous years failures. That would be sad, but it would only add to the drama. It would be just as dramatic to see who would be willing to hazard a prediction. FYI. On NFL.com last year, 18 out of 20 analysts got it wrong by picking the Panthers instead of the Broncos. On ESPN, 54 of 72 got it wrong. (But Chris Berman keeps chugging along, He could… go… all… the… way! The only thing that matters anyway is what the Madden video game says will happen. Oh, and that cat that predicts the winner.)
But the Bible does say in Deuteronomy 18 that if someone claims to have a Prophecy from God, and gets it wrong that they should be killed. This is because God doesn’t get prophecies wrong, so if the prophet is wrong he’s lying. God used prophets to communicate to His people. That’s why it’s such a big deal if someone is lying. But God didn’t just expect the people to trust their fellow countrymen. God would purposefully give them predictions that would come true so that the rest of what they said could be confidently believed.
This is how it would work. Let’s say Tim Tebow comes on National TV and says God spoke to me last night. He said the Falcons would win 38-31 and that Tom Brady would turn the ball over in the end zone as the final play of the game. That’s a pretty specific prophecy. St. Timothy then says that when this happens you must repent of your sins and adopt every kid up for adoption in America before Easter. Otherwise, a great plague of rollie pollies will be unleashed upon America. Whoa. That just got extreme. (Also did you know that rollie pollies aren’t bugs but little crustaceans?)
So let’s say, good ole’ Timmy T was dead wrong. The Pats crush those little scrappy Falcons. What should we do? Should we stone Tim Tebow? (Good luck catching him, he’s still pretty fast.) No, there isn’t a command to kill in the New Testament. Just a warning to watch-out. We should definitely label him a False Prophet though. False Prophets are motivated by one thing – money. (Sometimes they want power or women, but just as Tony Montana taught us all in Scarface. It starts with the money.) We have to say the same thing even if The Big Tebowski was pretty close. Let’s say the Falcons won 38-31, but Brady didn’t throw an interception. What if it was a dropped pass and there was a turnover on downs instead. Stone him! Oh, wait, never mind. False Prophet!!! He’s either totally right or he’s wrong. Now you might decide that it’s worth adopting a few kids anyway, but there would be no fear of retaliation from God.
On the other hand, if everything happened exactly the way Timmy predicted. Then there should be a pit in your stomach. That would be crazy. What should we do? Repent and adopt all the kids! I do not want to see what a hoard of rollie pollies could do. I think they have little pincers, I’m not sure.
Now all of this was a silly example. Here’s where I drop the hammer. Within the pages of the Bible, there are over 2,500 future prophecies. Apx 2,000 have already happened leaving about 500 to go. None have been wrong. Some have been a little vague like destruction is coming, and other more specific like Bablyon will burn down Jerusalem. Some simply say that God will rescue you, and others explicitly say that King Cyrus will release the Israelites to their homeland. Some prophecies about Jesus were simply that God will send a Savior, and other stated exactly where He would be born (Bethlehem, if you were unsure.) Almost every prophecy was surrounded by some sort of statement of repentance. Turn from your wicked ways and follow God instead. Everything was culminating toward the Cross of Christ. Jesus not only foretold His death (that’s kind of an easy call), but he predicted His resurrection (that’s bold.) In fact, He specifically said it would be 3 days later. When someone drops a prophecy as specific as that, you’d better listen up to what else He had to say. Jesus says, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father in heaven except through me.” Whoever calls out sincerely to Jesus will be saved from Hell and the punishment for sin. It’s not a ridiculous thing to believe based on the prediction and fulfillment.
The problem is, people still won’t believe. Just like they wouldn’t believe Tebow. People will suspect that the prediction video was tampered with, that he filmed it after the fact. People that claimed to have seen it before the Superbowl started would be called Teboite Fascists and Blind Followers that would believe anything that Holy15 says. Prophecies about Jesus date back hundreds and even thousands of years, and Christians are “delusional” for believing the hundreds of prophecies about His birth, death, and resurrection. We’re “crazy” for believing He’s coming back again to judge the living and the dead. The assumption is that people a few thousands years ago photoshopped the Bible, even though we keep finding older and older copies all over the world. We’ve found a complete manuscript of Isaiah dated 200 years before Christ was born predicting that He would be born of a virgin, be God himself, and die on the cross for our sins. Prophecies validate the bible and they will continue to. But be aware (or beware… I’m never sure which one to use) that the next set of prophecies are pretty jacked-up. Unbelievers will face some pretty horrible stuff. (Read Isaiah 24-27, Ezekial 34-39, Daniel 9, Joel 2, and Revelation 4-19.) You could bet, that Scripture could be wrong this time, but it would be like Chris Berman accurately predicting every Superbowl for the past 50 years. Who in there right mind wouldn’t bet on whoever he picked for Superbowl 51 if He had a track record like that. Well, God has predicted over 2,000 in a row.
Place your bets.
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Joe Allotta 