It is easy to pass off Christ’s ability to foretell the future as a byproduct of his divine nature. However, Jesus tells his disciples that he only does what he sees his Father do (Jn. 5:19). In the first century, the Jews had a very clear picture of the the nature of Yahweh through the many interventions, acts of wonder, prophetic words and deeds revealed to them. This would have given Jesus, as well as all other Jews, a clear understanding of behavior from the example of Yahweh.
When Jesus foretells the events (Mt. 24:1-3) that are clear from a current modern perspective (destruction of the temple and fall of the Jerusalem in 70 A.D.), it is a byproduct of his relationship with the Father rather than his divine nature overriding his human nature (Brand, Draper, & England, 2003). Futurists would be wise to take notes from Jesus Christ on how to gain future insight. Scripture is clear that Jesus had constant communication with the Father (Mk. 1:35, 6:45-46, Lk. 4:42, 5:16), and was given direction by the Holy Spirit (Isa. 11:2-3, Lk. 4:1a). Scripture also reveals Yahweh is timeless (Psa. 90:4, 2 Pet. 3:8) and foreknows all that will ever be and occur (1 Pet. 1:20).
It would stand to reason that if an individual wants to be an effective futurist, it would be advantageous to be in a loving and active relationship with the Lord in order to gain access to his infinite knowledge and timeless perspective of events. Secular futurists are able to read trends of current events (Cornish, 2005) and access tools such as horizon scanning (Gary, 2012) in order to make highly educated predictions about the future. However, as the prophets of the Old Testament show, nothing can replace the first hand perspective of Yahweh.
References
Brand, C., Draper, C., & England, A. (2003). Holman illustrated Bible dictionary. Nashville, Tenn.: Holman Bible Publishers.
Cornish, E. (2005). Futuring: the exploration of the future (1. paperback printing). Bethesda, Md: World Future Society.
Gary, J. (2012, September). Strategic Foresight Scanning Report – Minor Project 1. Regent University.
