just curious... in biblical times someone that had "visions" was considered HOLY, now-a-days...?

Question

now-a-days a person that has visions is considered to have "psychic" powers and people are afraid of them and think they are UNHOLY, BAD, SATANIC... what is the difference?????????????????????????

Answer 1

I just so happened that the HOLY men that had visions and wrote about them were murdered because people thought just the way you described there judgement.
These murdered ones are now considered our Old Testament prophets. So you see things haven't changed much !!! Wake up and smell the blood of matryrs

Answer 2

Not everyone that has visions today is holy. Not everyone who had visions those days was holy either. Astrologers are not holy, even though they claim to have visions. Prophets are holy because they are invisioned by God.
Daniel 4:6-7 (advisable to read the whole chapter 4). "So I commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be brought before me to interpret the dream for me. When the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners came, I told them the dream, but they coul not interpret it for me." King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream/vision about the future. All the people that "see" the future could not interpret the dream.

Please read Daniel the whole of chapter 2 as well.

Daniel 2:18, He (Daniel) urged them (his friends) to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed....19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven.....

A psychic is a psychic. Those people get their visions from the Devil and not God. They existed those days and they exist now. And psychics are never ever 100% correct/accurate/right

Answer 3

Actually the Source of the visions is the difference, and that was the thing which mattered back then, as it should now.

Most people, if they are having visions, and obviously have nothing to do with God or His Word, are obviously not getting their visions from God. Logically they would therefore be getting their visions from "not God" which, in general, would fall into the classification of Satanic, or evil...but it could be just a psychotic episode or simply deceit of some kind (either they are lying, or someone is fooling them, or both). Injuries, physical aliments, too much stress, too much TV, etc could be the other reasons.

Answer 4

In Biblical times, they are called Prophets. And I think there are probably a few modern day prophets, but they are different from psychics in the following ways:
1. A prophet will claim God as their source of information.
2. A prophet from God will always be right, 100% of the time
3. A prophet will not go against the Word of God
4. Since Christ's death & resurrection, prophets are not sought out for guidance, because once the Holy Spirit dwells in Christians, it is the Spirit that is the mediator. Modern day prophets only offer encouragement to believers.

Answer 5

Some were considered Holy, but not all. It depends on which powers they were using to call on such visions.

Most people today do not understand the religious backgrounds of the time. Many, many people of ancient times were involved in what religious scholors now call 'mystery cults.' Each of these cults had their own semi-powerful dieties or powers that they called on. People that used these beings as the source of their power were considered unclean by the jewish faith, as they relied on the powers of God's enemies, and not on God.

When a 'prophet' received a vision, it was supposedly of God's power, and was then considered a divine and holy message.

This same paradigm continues today. Christians claim 'visions' from God all the time. It's actually quite common. But the lynch-pin is that they believe them to be from God.
If ... say ... a wiccian recieves a vision, it's usually not thought of as being a vision from God, but from one of the powers that the cultists called on millinia ago, and thus 'evil.' as you put it.

For some basic information on the 'Mystery Cults' or 'Mystery Religions' go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_cult



I hope this was a little informative and of some help to you.

Answer 6

In Biblical times some were also called prophets.
You can thank the people that put the new testament together for this idea that they are unholy, bad, Satanic, Witches, Pagans,etc.
The powers of the soul that was made by the Creator are neither good nor bad in themselves .It is the purpose in which they are used that makes them such by mortal standards.

Answer 7

The difference is the source. Visions from Prophets in Bible times were holy, close to God, intimate in God's Will and used for God's purpose. The Bible uses the word "seer" and condemns it - today we have "seers" but call them "psychics." The source of the "visions" is not God - it is a deception of satan to entice, tantalize and direct the attention away from God and to "spirit energy" "psychic ability" "cosmic forces" etc. For the Prophet the vision resides in God, not himself and God always gets the glory, attention, direction of focus etc. It is totally based in what God is revealing for His specific purposes. Not for any personal "insight" or personal "gain" or "telling the future so I know what to wear tomorrow" nonsense (intentionally exaggerated). The point is - God's visions given to His Prophets are rare and holy and precious and not to be imitated as a common everyday "lets go see whats next" attitude. The source of revelation is not the same source.

Answer 8

Spirituality is born from a personal occurrence with a divine, psychic or mystical experience of one form or another which inevitably connects a person to All that Is/God/Goddess/Allah/Great Spirit /whatever you want to call it.

Religion is second hand opinion of someone else’s divine experience. I think you will find that religions, and especially fanatical religions, tend to separate and divide people, while spirituality brings people together.

Thank God that Spirituality is on the increase!

For those who are ready, no explanation is necessary and for those who are not, no explanation is possible! http://www.psychic-junkie.com

Answer 9

God spoke to the prophets of old in visions and in dreams. After mankind continued to rebel from God, God cut himself off from that type of communication and said he would give us His Holy Spirit to communicate with him now.

So visions now a days would be considered "not of God"

Answer 10

Back in the day, the contemporaries of those prophets also said things like: "It's of the devil!" (They even said it of Jesus when he cast out demons). Nobody listened to Noah. They just laughed and continued on as if nothing was going to happen. "Yeah, right," they probably thought, and they made fun of him and drove him out of town. "What a hick." Stuff like that.

These days, if you hear the voice of God, people don't think you're "psychic", they think you're psychotic.