Football, Faith & Dating Mark's Gospel

The NFL Playoffs are in full swing and news articles are starting to post, building up hype with predictions, as they always do. That makes it a good time to revisit what I said in November about Repeating Predictions Beforehand.

Three nights ago, the Florida Gators (S-E-C) fulfilled a lot of predictions in beating the Oklahoma Sooners. There were predictions in Gainesville all season, mostly below-the-radar of national press. There were growing predictions thru December, all over the country, alongside competing predictions that the Sooners would win.

The failed predictions will not be republished, but they were published previously. The winning predictions will be immortalized in celebratory print media. The write-ups in Florida will invariably include some detail about how the team kept the faith all year.

The fact that it's being published widely, openly and visibly tells you it already happened. But it was in fact being published much earlier, before it came true - but quietly, for a smaller audience. Months ago, for the Gator faithful. Today for the world.

This is merely an illustration of my point. But I think it's a good one. The Gospel of Mark was published and circulated from whatever time he wrote it [around 50 AD]. When Jesus' predictions in Mark's Gospel came true, the publication surely gained momentum and increased its 'circulation'. But it had been around already. Since the resurrection fulfilled predictions made by Jesus himself, Mark and the early christians had every reason to repeat the rest of their risen Lord's predictions AND publish them within their own circles, long before they actually came true.