Prophesy
Factual and Psychological Nature
It took a few days to absorb news of the long-awaited death.
Those who read, at some point, ought not to miss The King James Bible, whether from religiosity, from cultural curiosity or interest in etymology.
The notion of prophesy, for example.
Too much for a single sitting, there is merit and advantage to plowing through, from its opening phrase In the Beginning, to the final The Grace of Our Lord, fourteen hundred and seventy five pages later. A few dozen pages longer than Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. If any books at all were found in rudimentary ranch houses of the Old West, The Bible was inevitably one of them.
Just ask Louis L’Amour.
When Solzhynitzyn was exiled to the Gulag (1945-1953), he was allowed one book only. His experience led to significant moral content in his later writings.
In fact, most educated in English as their first language, have already heard about ten percent of the language and tropes of Biblical scripture, and not in a religious context.
Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun.
Compared with Charles Darwin or a physics text, the KJV is highly metaphorical.
One might ask why. A subsequent post will explore this linguistic feature in evolutionary context.
In looking over the Old Testament, it is not so different from contemporary news in content: unrest in the Middle East; continuing war; marital discord and the emergence of ethnic and bureaucratic elites.
The struggle for political power is not new.
A glance at modern culture, reveals that two constructs are missing from modern culture.
One is The Prophet. The other, Miracles.
Were prophets real then and if so, where are modern examples?
How valuable it would be, to routinely and accurately predict the future. It has always been the stuff of science fiction. Certain occupations such as hedge fund managers and race track handicappers, depend on making reasonable guesses.
It has been said that history doesn’t repeat itself: it merely rhymes. Catching the sometimes nebulous rhyme may appear as prophesy.
Classically, The Prophet is not merely a speculator of future events: he has the ear of those in political power, and actions are often taken by rulers based on prophecy.
On January 13, 2026, the cartoonist Scott Adams died of metastatic prostate cancer at age 68.
Was Scott Adams a modern-day prophet?