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All knowing God, thank you. For this life , thank you for this space and the people in this space. We know your spirit is everywhere. And yet is also here with us. Speak to

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us. And your son's name, Amen. The word predict derives from Latin predictus. Which literally means said before. Prediction therefore identifies a temporal position to what is said a time before. This timing of

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what is said constitutes much of the authority of prediction . For the timing before is the not yet that the predictive saying brings from the future into the present . In Marcus Tullius Cicero's first century BCE work De

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diviacion. His brother Quintus Cicero defends divination as divinely inspired prediction, predictio. In which the predictor foresees events that others regard as accidental. Here, prediction is not a preconception, as in a prolepsis,

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but rather an accurate depiction of an event before it has occurred. For Quintus, such a saying that makes a future event known in the present is a power that can only come from the gods. Marcus

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Cicero, however, is not easily persuaded and offers a counterargument on the nature of prediction. He specifies that predicting future events like a solar eclipse or lunar orbit rely not on the gods but on the mathematical

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study of the courses and movements of the heavenly bodies . In his words, quote, The unvarying laws of nature will bring their prediction predict. To pass This version of prediction is exclusively the work of human

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reasoning. As he argues, quote, because of the perfectly regular movements of the moon, the astronomers calculate when it will be opposite the the sun and in the Earth's shadow, end quote. In his

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rebuttal, Marcus Cicero reveals an economy of prediction that draws not on the authority of all knowing gods but on human calculation, observation, and the study of the natural world. In many ways, the grocery

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store checkout lane is a fitting context for this form of prediction. When I have finished my shopping, the future event, I say to myself is a fast checkout and swift exit. As I approach,

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I scan the lanes weighing the items in other people's carts and the pace of the lines before committing to my choice. There is nothing divine about this predicting process, just raw calculation and astute observation of human

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behavior. My prediction, my predictions are usually accurate , though sometimes a missing price tag leaves me stuck in the slowest lane in the store. Whether navigating traffic or watching a sporting event, prediction is very

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much a human thing. As Igor Tolchensky and Christopher Mason indicate in their book The Age of Predictions, quote, since our emergence as self-aware humanoid animals in Africa, the human brain has evolved into an instrument

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of forethought, planning and prediction, regardless of its source, divine or human, there is an intrinsic power that predictions possess. Warning signs are predictive, for they point to potential future harm. An entire

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social world can be brought into existence based on one politician's predictions. Even physical spaces make predictions about who belongs in them. Where European Gothic style architecture predicts Western bodies, a building without access ramps predicts able

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bodiedness, and restrooms designed for only a binary gender system predict heterosexual cisgender identities. Predictions imagine a future reality that once expressed is felt in our present imagination . This too is prediction's power. The stirring of

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emotions by capturing our imagination about what the future will be. Fear is a particularly powerful emotion that predictions have the power to ignite, for fear can be converted into harmful actions, inhumane political policies, and

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a tyrannical. Social order This is our present moment . An era of predictive excess or indulgence. As Tolchinsky and Mason described, quote, prediction can ascribe features and probabilities to each cell of an embryo,

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to each biochemical change and an astronaut in space, to each tendency in financial markets, to complex natural processes, and to social behavior. In scripture, prophets predict. For the early Christians, Moses stood

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as one of the earliest Hebrew prophets to predict the coming of Jesus. In Peter's speech to the Israelites in Solomon's portico, he references Deuteronomy 1815 as a confirmation of Jesus's Messiah ship Acts 3:22. Moses' prediction

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in Deuteronomy 1815 concerned God raising up a future prophet among the Israelites, quote, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you , from your brothers who is like me, Moses

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, you shall obey him. Following this prediction, Moses recounts God's instructions on how to recognize this future prophet in verse 22. It's my translation that which the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and

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the word slash prediction does not happen or does not come to pass, that is the word which the Lord has not spoken with self pride. The prophet has spoken it. Do not be in fearful awe

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of him. Here Haavar, the word spoken by the prophet pertains to a predictive word. Such a nuance is reflected in the Latin Vulgates translation using the word predierri. He will predict from the root verb

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predio. To say before. This Latin verb appears in Deuteronomy 13:2 of Vulgate, a passage addressing prophets whose omous, ominous predictions come true and in turn use their predictive currency to lead people astray to follow

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other gods. In scripture, fulfilled predictions confer authority upon the prophet and grant them a high status of influence over the people. By contrast, unfulfilled predictions delegitimize the profit and render them. Powerless. In

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John 21, Jesus appears to Simon Peter, and 6 other disciples by the sea of Tiberius slash Galilee . At this point of the gospel story, Jesus embodies the perfect fulfillment of prophetic predictions from his birth

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to his death to now his resurrection. In other words, Jesus is both the prophet and the fulfillment of the future, he predicted. And yet for many first century Jews, the idea of Jesus' resurrection

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exceeded their understanding of prophetic predictions. You can see this in John 11:23 to 27 and Luke 24:13 to 27. The exceeding of prophetic predictions opens a space I want us to consider. To turn over,

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to sit with. To unfold For in this space , certainty and uncertainty coexist. In this before time , the time said beforehand lies the fulfillment of a future event and then some. A kind of predictive

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bonus, or what I call trans prediction. The resurrected Jesus fully embodies this zone of fulfilled predictions and then some. Beyond simply redeeming Israel's earthly kingdom, Jesus would establish God's eternal kingdom. Beyond simply saving

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the Jews, Jesus would also extend salvation to the Gentiles. As such, he and his movement constitute a transp predictive zone of bonus or more specifically a way of living out the future that might not have

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seemed possible based on traditional Jewish readings of prophetic predictions . The story in John 21 vividly captures this idea of exceeding predictions. Simon Peter, along with 6 other disciples, several of them, seasoned fishermen,

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decided to go fishing. They had grown up near these waters and were experienced in navigating them. Indeed , Simon Peter likely recognized that the water conditions and nighttime weather were ideal for fishing at their usual spots

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. Their fishing expertise, equipment, manpower, and timing predicted at least at least a modest catch. And yet in verse 3 we learn that night they caught nothing. In the end, their predictive excess

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yielded no bodily nourishment. And thus no rest or well-being. As verse 4 indicates, they had been fishing all night until daybreak. Jesus acknowledges their life predicament in verse 5. Children, you have no

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fish, have you? As the prophet he is , he then speaks a predictive word to them, quote, casts the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some. Here

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Jesus calls into existence a different present reality for these exhausted fishermen, one that exceeds their predictions, quote , so they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many

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fish. Not only did they catch fish, but their catch was so large that they were unable to haul it into the boat. They were in the zone of the predictive bonus. That other place.

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On the margins of the sea is where they caught more than they could predictively imagine. This trans predictive zone of the improbable even inspired Simon Peter to strip naked and jump into the sea to help bring in

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their large hall. It is this trans predictive zone that Jesus not only called these disciples to live in but also his future church. This zone of the then some. Is the place we might predict as

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lacking. Yet God predicts. As the place of life giving nourishment and healing care. Such a zone stands in stark contrast to our current age of predictive excess. This plurality of predictions is reflected in the

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behavioral surplus that firms like Google convert into highly profitable algorithmic products designed to predict the behavior of its users . Detailed stories about our thoughts, feelings, interests can be constructed from the unstructured signals that tell every

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online action. Shoshana Suboff refers to this machine intelligent operations, these machine intelligent operations as surveillance capitalism where quote Google would no longer mine behavioral data strictly to improve service for users but rather to read users' minds

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for the purpose of matching ads to their interests. Our online clicks provide the raw material for human design learning algorithms to predict how and what we buy, thereby turning. These predictions into a mass wealth for

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the 1%. This prediction excess is inherently extracted and traps us into a hyper consumer way of being. Moreover, race is a predictive technology. Used to create a world of social inequality. This technology ranks

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people by supposedly innate traits that are claimed to predict their behavior and character. As Dorothy Roberts remind us reminds us, quote, The future predicted by today's algorithms, therefore is predetermined to correspond to past racial

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inequality. Predictive models that rely on data structured by existing racial inequality predetermine a future of mass incarceration and mass deportation of black and brown people, a reality we are living today. Unfortunately, our current age

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of predictive excess has managed to keep churches in the predictable zone of the probable. Where church architecture predicts the inclusion of some bodies over others. Church budgets predict one theological position over another. And yet Jesus

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calls us to the transp predictive zone of bonus. A kind of predicting that inspires new actions, allows for unexpected futures and supports human freedom. Prediction that expands possibilities, not restrict them. What if your

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church. Your leadership. Became this bonus zone of