“Thus says the Lord … ‘[Cyrus] is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” and to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid” ’ ” (Isaiah 44:24, 28).
A broken watch is correct twice a day. That might also be said of psychics who make hundreds of predictions—and are occasion- ally right. Some call it the “Jeane Dixon effect.” Dixon was one of the best-known psychics in the United States in the twentieth century. She wrote a popular syndicated newspaper astrology column and wrote a best-selling biography.
Dixon supposedly predicted the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. She wrote in Parade Magazine in 1956 that the 1960 presidential election would be “dominated by labor and won by a Democrat” who would “be assassinated or die in office, though not necessarily in the first term.” She later admitted that she saw Richard Nixon as the winner and that JFK would lose. The “Jeane Dixon effect” is the tendency of the media to promote a few correct predictions while ignoring a large number of incorrect predictions.
If the tabloids followed the rules for Israel in dealing with false prophets, there wouldn’t be very many left. “The prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die” (Deuteronomy 18:20). So how is a true prophet identified? “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him” (verse 22).
Isaiah was a true prophet. God predicted, through Isaiah, that Cyrus would be an instrument to help restore Israel. This took place before the founder of the Persian Empire was even born! Cyrus eventually issued a proclamation that permitted the Jews to return to their own land. Wouldn’t you be surprised to know you were named 150 years before you were born?
Dear God, when it comes to predicting future events, I will stand alone on the Word of God.
