Prophetic Blizzard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I had students reading some of the Hebrew prophets recently. I pointed out to them that they never threaten people with punishment in an afterlife.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/01\/prophetic-blizzard.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prophetic Blizzard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had students reading some of the Hebrew prophets recently. 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{"id":28397,"date":"2015-01-27T13:20:38","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T18:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=28397"},"modified":"2015-01-27T13:20:38","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T18:20:38","slug":"prophetic-blizzard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/01\/prophetic-blizzard.html","title":{"rendered":"Prophetic Blizzard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Do you know what else the\u00a0Israelite prophets\u00a0never threaten their nations with? Blizzards. Freak snowstorms.<\/p>\n

That is worth reflecting on. The prophets are not predicting things that will happen, which otherwise would not have happened \u2013 God miraculously bringing an ice storm to their Eastern Mediterranean setting. They are not so much \u201cpredicting\u201d as interpreting<\/em> things which happen regularly, and will inevitably happen again.<\/p>\n

Let me say that again. They are not predicting that God will do something miraculous. They are interpreting the kinds of things which happen, based on the assumption that God is behind them.<\/p>\n

Is that how you have understood the prophetic writings in the Bible in the past? If not, why not? Do you think this is how they ought to be read and interpreted?<\/p>\n

Of related interest,\u00a0The Onion<\/em> shared this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

$\"Onion$ <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"