Pathetic Pundits

The political pundits flunked out in predicting the outcome of the New Hampshire presidential primary. Eight polls misread the Democratic results and had Barack Obama with a comfortable lead only hours before Hillary Clinton edged ahead to win. How could that many be that wrong?

Human estimations—even predictions—rely only on suspicions, trends and indicators and guesses. But no human knows precisely what will happen in any event, not even moments in advance.

And where were the astrologers, soothsayers, tea leaf readers, crystal ball gazers and fortune tellers who claim to read character, predict coming events or forecast life’s fortunes? If any of these is a viable source of information, millions of dollars could be saved by political candidates who would otherwise be wildly spending money or expending energy. In fact, if any of these forecasting experts has a shred of accuracy, think of the accidents that could avoided, the criminals who could be apprehended, the fires that could be doused, the media headlines that could be readied prior to any event and, in politics, the campaign exhaustion that could be avoided.

The fact is that only God knows what is going to happen, but, except in matters of revealed prophecy, He wisely shields humans from that awesome prescience. If I knew that tomorrow I would inherit a million dollars or that I’d be taken with a deadly disease, it would mar my mental health today.

Proverbs 27:1 simply puts it, "Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth." James expands the thought. "Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil" (James 4:13-16).

One of God’s greatest proofs of existence is His prophetic accuracy in His taunt of prophetic "wannabes" in Isaiah 41:22-24. "Let them bring forth and show us what will happen; Let them show the former things, what they were, That we may consider them, And know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; yes, do good or do evil, That we may be dismayed and see it together. Indeed you are nothing, and your work is nothing; he who chooses you is an abomination."

We have no objection to the media’s intriguing forays into imaginative speculation. That’s how secular newscasting has its appeal and newspapers are sold. But let all thinking people, especially believers in the Lord, resist empty joys or nagging fears based on flawed human speculation.

Believers "walk by faith, not by sight," as 2 Corinthians 5:7 says. We act responsibly day by day and leave the results with Him. "My times are in Your hand…" (Psalm 31:15) and "…as thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25).

We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future. Or as a missionary wrote, "We don’t know what’s around the next bend in the river, but we do know who controls the current."

Dave Virkler