05.02.03 - Prophecy and the Supernatural

(3) Prophecy and the Supernatural.

It is necessary to emphasise this fact which under lies all our views and statements respecting prophecy, because much of the objection to prediction as an element of prophecy is based on antecedent presumption against anything supernatural being admitted when dealing with historical and literary subjects. Not a few of modern Critics take it as a fixed principle that in historical discussions the supernatural is to be excluded. When dealing with the sacred Scriptures which not only imply the supernatural, but have it for the cause and ground of their existence its denial must, of necessity, prejudice the investigation and vitiate the conclusions. On the other hand we who approach the Scriptures with a conviction of the truth and advantage of belief in a supernatural revelation may be disposed to over-estimate events, coincidences, etc, as proofs of prediction and fulfilment or what seem to be such and to underestimate difficulties and objections. We are inclined to think that in some instances this has been so; and what, in some cases, Apologists have been disposed to regard as predictions and fulfilments have not been so at all. Nevertheless, the fact remains that prophecy rests upon the supernatural and implies a Divine action and revelation in dealing with man, which is inconsistent with the modern theory of natural evolution, unless Bible prophecy has been written after the event, which, as regards the Old and New Testaments, is demonstrably impossible.

We must, therefore, consider the supernatural as an essential part of prophecy, and involving a forecast impossible to the mind of the Prophet, and a foreknowledge which must be the work of Divine suggestion or communication. The very calling, and commission of the Prophet as the messenger of God, declares his relation to the supernatural; while the teachings, writings, and revelations of the Old Testament Prophets as an intimation of things that should come to pass, imply prediction and fulfilment. The Prophets, moreover, claimed to possess supernatural knowledge, and to speak as the spokesmen of God.

They not only made such claims for themselves, but they were credited by the public generally with possessing such knowledge, and were resorted to and consulted by king and subject on all kinds of questions affecting the State, war and peace, sickness and recovery, dearth and famine; while sucli things as threatned doom to individuals, families, tribes, and peoples, because of idolatry, sin, and wrong-doing; the recovery of lost cities and forfeited territory, and the Captivity and Return, are events chronicled in Scripture history as having been foretold and fulfilled. The predictive element is native to Old Testament prophecy; it enters into the very life, experiences, conflicts, and hopes of the people; but it is by no means merely personal, tribal, and national; nor is it restricted to Israel’s personal and national history.

It is the Divine, the religious and spiritual element, the relation of the Old Covenant to the New, of Judaism to Christianity, and of the national to the spiritual Israel, that reveals the predictive element and its fulfilment most clearly and fully. The predictive clement is here in largest type, in fullest measure, and most definite form. Christ Jesus in the same broad and inclusive manner claimed that the Old Testament “ bore witness of Him,” that the Law and the Prophets testified concerning Him. Christ appealed to those Scriptures as showing that He was from God, while the Apostles also appeal to them in proof that Christ must needs have come, and that this Jesus was the very Christ. The primitive Christian Church laid stress upon the evidence of Old Testament prediction as manifestly being fulfilled in the supernatural revelation that came through Christ and His Apostles. This prediction and fulfilment as set forth in Old and New Testament are the seal of God upon the reality of the Christian religion. When we speak of prediction as connected with the Old Testament Scriptures as a whole, we do so because the Lord Jesus so spake of it, and used as synonymous and interchangeable terms, “the Scriptures,” “Law,” “Moses and the Prophets,” “Law, Prophets, and Psalms,” as if they had the same meaning for Him, and as witnessing of Him. He thereby found revelation in the Law and the Prophets, and He found prediction in both; and of both he is the “ Fulfiller,” and Perfecter. To the New Testament writers Israel, her religion and her Scriptures are regarded as a unity, and are spoken of as a whole, especially so in respect of the revelation of God in redemption and salvation. This idea is involved in the conception which treats of the Old Testament Scriptures and religion as the “ Covenant,” the “Old Covenant.” The Covenant of God with the people of that time is manifested in the Law, the Prophets, and their teaching. The Old Covenant had in it an element of redemption, but it was a national redemption from foreign bondage, servitude, and oppression; it had the further element of divine grace and gifts of grace, but these gifts were in the form of legal privileges, held on legal tenure; it had also elements of righteousness, and to its provisions both contracting parties were bound by moral self determination. There was nothing of unfaithfulness, or caprice, or change, or conventionalism in it, but everything that denotes fidelity, constancy, and certainty. And so Christ, speaking of the Old Covenant or of the Law and the Prophets says, “ He came not to destroy but to fulfil “ them. This indicates that, in some particulars, in its inner side, as the revelation of righteousness, the Covenant was incomplete and inadequate, and required supplementing, fulfilling, spiritualising, and completing not abrogating or abolishing, but re-emphasising and republishing with the new privileges, blessings, and conditions that constitute the “New Covenant” of Christian redemption and the economy of grace. The Old Covenant failed to secure the righteousness it was designed to promote, and to produce the ideal righteous nation Israel was meant to be. So with the spiritual redemption and salvation, in respect of forgiveness of sins and divine renewal and restoration, by the establishment of the “New Covenant in His blood for the remission of sins,” Christ came and completed it. Both the ideal excellence and the actual failure of the Old Covenant were recognised by Moses and the Prophets. If there had been no ideal righteousness in Israel’s religion, prophetic teaching would have been without point or purpose.

What God had clone and given to Israel was the earnest of His greater purpose or design concerning them; what God had already bestowed gave them the right to believe His promises would be fulfilled. On the other hand had there been no actual failure in Israel’s religious history, there would have been no place for the outlook for a better future. Progress would have been arrested, for “ if the first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for the second.” Moses and the Prophets, who saw the righteous ideal and the happy future through the present, sought to maintain the people’s faith in the God of Israel by a present righteousness, while they pointed forward to some better thing God had prepared for them. Prophecy was not free from the conditions of the present, but viewed the future in the present, and looked onward from the standpoint of the time that then was; and so described the future in terms of the present, the ideal through the actual and the real, and the unknown in the terms of the known. The message took the form of a promise of all that was best, holiest, most peaceful and glad in the nation’s experience, only better, holier, more peaceful, joyous and prosperous than they in the present possessed. And so the golden age of prophecy became the key to the golden age of Messianic hopes and expectation as fulfilled in Jesus Christ and His Kingdom among men in much fuller and richer measure.