And the winner is….

You won’t get that from tarot cards or looking at the stars. We look to the Son, and we trust in His mercy and kindness to us as promised in God’s word (Romans 8:31-39). We are more than conquerors, no matter what the polls say!

, --October 16, 2024

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Time is counting down – we’re so close. Everyone is anxious about the results of the upcoming election. Who will win? How will our country be changed? It’s been an onslaught of political ads and back-and-forth fighting among the different sides, each camp making their final pitches to the voters. Oh, if only we could see what would happen!

We can… sort of. The many prognosticators are here to tell us exactly what they think will be the results. How do they know? Polls, polls, polls! Each side has its forecast. Then there are the major network polls, and independent polls; with each one knowing the real story. There are even aggregators of all the polls, just so that we have a clearer idea of what actually may happen – yikes! I want to run into my bedroom and hide under the blankets until it is all over, like hiding from a bad storm with thunder and lightning. That worked when I was four years old; but it doesn’t work anymore.

There is so much information available to us that our minds are filled to capacity, and our senses gorged with the specter of current events and how things may play out. All of this has led to much anxiety about what the future may hold. There is actually a new medical term for this: Anticipatory Anxiety (Golden, 2023). While the internet and 24-7 news cycles tell us everything about the present, people seek sources outside of themselves to know about the future – sources with whom they agree, of course. When the prestigious political prognosticators disagree, everyone’s favorite prognosticator in 2016 and 2020 becomes the focus of ridicule by another combative pollster here in 2024 (Prokop, 2024; Snider, 2024).

When searching for ways to actually know the future, I stumbled upon a website as part of the Merriam-Webster language information web pages (Merriam-Webster.com, 2024). This website listed “30 Ways” by which people have sought to discern the future (Merriam-Webster.com, 2024). These included Aeromancy, which is divination from the state of the air or atmosphere substances. There is also Aleuromancy, which is divination by means of flour. Remember that one next time you bake something.

Divination tool mentioned here was the Ouija board

There are so many of them that I was intrigued by the various means. This one is a little weird - Anthropomancy, divination from the entrails of a human being. The website assures me that this was actually practiced by ancient people of the world. Yuck! [And of course everything on the internet is true, right?] How about Axinomancy, which is deciding the guilt or innocence of a person based on the movement of an ax, balanced on a post. And these are only some of the “A” words. Since the website claims “30 Ways to Tell the Future,” there are obviously a lot more ways identified. 

All of these tools are for what is called, “Divination,” or ways that people have used to link themselves with an outside force and discern their future (Kieliszkiewicz, 2023). The author of one source of Divination tools wrote that these tools are a form of human projection into an outer reality (Kieliszkiewicz, 2023). [Insert comments about CNN prognosticators here!]I want to avoid giving any credence to any such divination sources. 

God warned the Israelites against using Divination as they entered the Promised Land (Leviticus 19:26 ESV). One Christian website claimed that one characteristic of an occultic methodology is the pursuit of information unavailable to humans through normal means (White, 2024). If the information is not from God… then it comes from somewhere (or someone) else.

Another Divination tool mentioned here was the Ouija board. According to this professional Spiritual advisor cited earlier (Kieliszkiewicz, 2023), the first “enchanted” board was invented in 1892 (Kieliszkiewicz, 2023). Apparently the board allows the user(s) to communicate with spirits from the afterlife or other dimensions.

Magic 8-Ball

Not sure why those spirits would be taking a call from a bunch of freaking-out teenagers, moving a plastic piece around a cardboard mat, trying to learn the future. I never believed the board was influenced by some force from beyond. That was just how they marketed it so they could scare the daylights out of us when we played with it.

One of my favorite sources of future information not on the expert’s list is the Magic 8-Ball. That thing never failed to give us a piece of advice about what the future would look like. It was general enough to fit every situation; but it was never going to give us all the details. For that, we had to figure it out on our own. What is cool now is that you can go to their website, ask a question, and get your future told there (magic-8ball.com). I asked the Magic 8-Ball who would win the election. I will let you guess the answer.

While some of us may look with distain on many of the aforementioned means of discerning the future, and consider the Bible THE authoritative source of future events, the Merriam-Webster folks lump the Bible in equally with all the other previously identified means. They refer to this as Bibliomancy, which is divination by books, especially the Bible (Merriam-Webster.com, 2024). God did not give equal weight to all of these sources of future knowledge. It was He who created the stars (Job 9:9); and Who warned us not to give any mystical power to them (Deuteronomy 4:19).

The Bible gives prophecies about the future; and even for those of us who believe in it, there are still a dozen people out there who will take the same passage and interpret it a different way. How does that work? I want to be kind, and not call them all snake oil salesman. There are some legitimate voices seeking to give us guidance about future events as the Bible describes them. I just wish they were consistent.

The Bible says that our times are in God's hands

I would recommend that before you listen to anyone telling you about the future, whether the future of our country or future prophecy, that you keep a couple things in mind:

First, the Bible says that our times are in God's hands (Psalm 31:15). So we may wake up tomorrow, or we may not. Every one of the days that God gives us is precious, and we are to make the most of each one (Ephesians 5:16).

Jesus told us not to anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:25). We should live each day to the fullest, and not live in fear (John 14:27). Also remember that Jesus did not know when the cataclysmic events of the future judgment would start (Matthew 24:36); but He knew and trusted His Father; and did everything the Father asked of Him (John 5:19).

Another thing that we can know that brings assurance is that God is on our side (Psalm 118:6); and He never leaves us nor forsakes His children (Hebrews 13:5). God only has our good in mind (Jeremiah 29:11), to give us a secure future and a solid hope that He will deliver us in the future. We can also take solace in the fact that the patriarchs who led the way before us in faith died with a confidence in God to do exactly as He had said. They believed that although they did not see the future promises fulfilled in their time, they knew that God was in control (Hebrews 11:13). They trusted Him and they didn’t have to see all the details laid out.


You won’t get that from tarot cards or looking at the stars

We can also be confident of one more thing: Jesus promised that those who believed in Him would have eternal life (John 3:16); and that He would be preparing a place for us to spend eternity with Him (John 14:1-3). He told us not to be troubled about the events in our lifetimes. He went to prepare a place for us; and He will be coming back to get us.

Whether it is hyperbole in speech or the truth, we have been told that the upcoming election cycle is the most critical in our nation’s history. It could be the end of our democracy. This certainly brings anxiety into people’s lives. While some of these things may be closer to the truth than we might want to admit, there is an assurance in our future that God is on our side, providing for us and protecting us, no matter what happens here on earth. You won’t get that from tarot cards or looking at the stars. We look to the Son, and we trust in His mercy and kindness to us as promised in God’s word (Romans 8:31-39). We are more than conquerors, no matter what the polls say!

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Joseph J. Bucci——

Joseph J. Bucci has served as a Pastor, Author, HR Director, Director of Training, Professor and Consultant. He teaches in the College of Arts and Sciences at Regent University in Virginia Beach. He has written two books and numerous articles on the theme of integrating faith with life and our work. You can contact Dr. Bucci at: Joseph J Bucci