Methodists believe that God knows and loves us completely and the future is held in this knowledge and love, rather than being determined by luck, fate, or anything else.
Alongside this, we also believe that humans have real freedom and responsibility over our lives (‘free will’) so our lives are affected by both our, and other people’s, choices.
Some Methodists may enjoy horoscopes, seeing them as light entertainment, whereas others may avoid them, seeing them as not relying on God but something else.
Ideas, such as karma, manifesting, and destiny have different origins, but they all touch on the same theme: seeking meaning and understanding the consequences of our actions.
Karma, for example, is a concept found in many Indian religions, such as Hinduism. It is about cause and effect, believing that someone’s intentions and actions (cause) will affect their future (effect).
A question we may ask ourselves is, “What are we relying on to guide our lives?”. For Christians, the best guidance is always found in Jesus.
Christians have faith that following God’s desire for us and the world will lead to a better future. However, we don’t believe that bad things happen because someone has been ‘bad’ or good things happen because they have been ‘good’. We are all in need of God’s love and God offers it to us all. Free will means that we have the choice to do good or bad.
While some Christians talk about ‘prophecy’, this must be treated careful. It could be that some people are very good at noticing patterns and can work things out intuitively, having a strong instinct or ‘premonition’ that something is wrong. The Bible does record accounts of future events being revealed to people and some Methodists testify to similar experiences. It’s important to discern what is being thought and felt, and what the ‘premonitions’ are about.
Methodists often see prophecy being less about the future and more about speaking truth to power. We are part of the Joint Public Issues Team, who do this through advocacy work. Prophetic words might encourage people, promote justice, or present warnings, but they always bring people closer to God’s love.
Our focus should be discerning what God is doing in the world and how we can join in with that.
Question with others
On the Way is a course run by churches for small groups of people to explore questions about faith together.
