A prophecy is a message, claimed by a prophet to have been communicated to them by a deity. Such messages involve inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of divine will concerning the prophet's social world and events to come. All known ancient cultures had prophets; the English noun "prophecy", in the sense of "function of a prophet" appeared from about 1225, from Old French profecie, from prophetia, Greek propheteia "gift of interpreting the will of God", from Greek prophetes. The related meaning, "thing spoken or written by a prophet", dates from c. 1300, while the verb "to prophesy" is recorded by 1377. Maimonides suggested that "prophecy is, in truth and reality, an emanation sent forth by Divine Being through the medium of the Active Intellect, in the first instance to man's rational faculty, to his imaginative faculty"; the views of Maimonides relate to the definition by Al-Fârâbî, who developed the theory of prophecy in Islam. Much of the activity of Old Testament prophets involved conditional warnings rather than immutable futures.

A summary of a standard Old Testament prophetic formula might run: Repent of sin X and turn to righteousness, otherwise consequence Y will occur. Saint Paul emphasizes edification and comfort in a definition of prophesying; the Catholic Encyclopedia defines a Christian conception of prophecy as "understood in its strict sense, it means the foreknowledge of future events, though it may sometimes apply to past events of which there is no memory, to present hidden things which cannot be known by the natural light of reason". According to Western esotericist Rosemary Guiley, clairvoyance has been used as an adjunct to "divination and magic". From a skeptical point of view, a Latin maxim exists: "prophecy written after the fact"; the Jewish Torah deals with the topic of the false prophet. In 1863, Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, claimed to have been the promised messianic figure of all previous religions, a Manifestation of God, a type of prophet in the Bahá'í writings that serves as intermediary between the divine and humanity and who speaks with the voice of a god.

Bahá'u'lláh claimed that, while being imprisoned in the Siyah-Chal in Iran, he underwent a series of mystical experiences including having a vision of the Maid of Heaven who told him of his divine mission, the promise of divine assistance. The Haedong Kosung-jon records that King Beopheung of Silla had desired to promulgate Buddhism as the state religion. However, officials in his court opposed him. In the fourteenth year of his reign, Beopheung's "Grand Secretary", devised a strategy to overcome court opposition. Ichadon schemed with the king, convincing him to make a proclamation granting Buddhism official state sanction using the royal seal. Ichadon told the king to deny having made such a proclamation when the opposing officials received it and demanded an explanation. Instead, Ichadon would confess and accept the punishment of execution, for what would be seen as a forgery. Ichadon prophesied to the king that at his execution a wonderful miracle would convince the opposing court faction of Buddhism's power.

Ichadon's scheme went as planned, the opposing officials took the bait. When Ichadon was executed on the 15th day of the 9th month in 527, his prophecy was fulfilled; the omen was accepted by the opposing court officials as a manifestation of heaven's approval, Buddhism was made the state religion in 527. In ancient Chinese, prophetic texts are known as Chen; the most famous Chinese prophecy is the Tui bei tu. The New Testament refers to prophecy as one of the spiritual gifts given by the indwelling Holy Spirit. From this, many Christians believe that the gift of prophecy is the supernatural ability to receive and convey a message from God; the purpose of the message may be to "edify and comfort" the members of the Church. In this context, not all prophecies contain predictions about the future; the Apostle Paul teaches in First Corinthians that prophecy is for the benefit of the whole Church and not just of the individual exercising the gift. According to Walter Brueggemann, the task of prophetic ministry is to nurture and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture.

A recognized form of Christian prophecy is the "prophetic drama" which Frederick Dillistone describes as a "metaphorical conjunction between present situations and future events". In his Dialogue with Trypho, Justin Martyr argued that prophets were no longer among Israel but were in the Church; the Shepherd of Hermas, written around the mid-2nd century, describes the way prophecy was being used within the church of that time. Irenaeus confirms the existence of such spiritual gifts in his Against Heresies. Although some modern commentators claim that Montanus was rejected because he claimed to be a prophet, a careful examination of history shows that the gift of prophecy was still acknowledged during the time of Montanus, that he was controversial because of the manner in which he prophesied and the doctrines he propagated. Prophecy and other spiritual gifts were somewhat acknowledged throughout church history and there are few examples of the prophetic and certain other gifts until the Scottish Covenanters like Prophet Peden

A chirograph is a medieval document, written in duplicate, triplicate or occasionally quadruplicate on a single piece of parchment, with the Latin word chirographum written across the middle, cut through to separate the parts. The term refers to a papal decree whose circulation is limited to the Roman curia; the Latin word chirographum spelled cirographum or cyrographum in the medieval period, is derived from the Greek χειρόγραφον, means "handwritten". The intention of the chirograph was to produce two identical written copies of a legal agreement, that could be retained by each party to the transaction, if necessary verified at a date through comparison with one another; the cut itself would be made with a wavy or serrated edge, running through the word chirographum, to allow the copies to be matched physically as a safeguard against forgery. The earliest surviving portion of a chirograph in England dates from the middle of the ninth century; the practice of separating the copies with an irregular cut gave rise to the description of the documents as "indentures", since the edges would be said to be "indented".

In the post-medieval period, as legal documents grew in length and complexity, it became impractical to fit two duplicate texts onto a single sheet of parchment. It therefore became more usual to make the two copies on two or more separate sheets, the top edges of which were still cut with a symbolic or matching wavy line. A more restricted use of the term is to describe a papal decree whose circulation—unlike an encyclical—is limited to the Roman curia. Pope Francis on June 26, 2013 used a chirograph to set up a Commission to investigate the decisions and underlying investments of the Institute for the Works of Religion; the document was "an instrument under canon law giving the commission legal force, expressing its broad aim to help ensure that'the principles of the Gospel permeate activities of an economic and financial nature.'" Indenture, a similar document recording an important agreement including slavery and apprenticeships, latterly in relation to certain major land dealings or certain debts of money, retained in a few and dwindling number of jurisdictions Fine of lands, or final concord, a type of property conveyance in chirograph form common in medieval and post-medieval England Tally stick, or split tally, a comparable system of creating matching copies of simple accounting records on a split stick Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte.

"Cutting Edge: The Economy of Mediality in Twelfth-Century Chirographic Writing.” In Das Mittelalter 15: 134-161. Lowe, Kathryn A.. "Lay Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England: the Development of the Chirograph". In Pulsiano, P.. Anglo Saxon Manuscripts and their Heritage. Aldershot: Ashgate. Pp. 161–204. Pollard, John F.. Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850–1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521812046. Chirographs and Final Concords Medieval Writing. Retrieved on August 7, 2008. Vatican page on Chirographs

Live is a live album by Australian soul and funk band Dynamic Hepnotics, released in 1984. The album charted at number 66 on the ARIA Charts; the album was recorded live at Billboard in Melbourne on 10 October 1984. Robert'Continental' Susz – vocals, harp Andrew Silver – guitar, vocals Alan Britton – bass, vocals Robert Souter – drums Bruce Allen – saxophone, vocals Mike Gubb – keyboards Guest artist: Jason McDermid – trumpetProduction Producer – Mark Sydow, The Dynamic Hepnotics Recorded and mixed by Ross Cockle Photography by John Brash