Prophecy

“ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
18 And this voice we heard brought from heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount.
19 And we have the more firm prophetical word: whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
20 Understanding this first, that no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation.
21 For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost. ”

“ How consoling it is to turn from the sordid things of earth—to be carried away with the sublime words that lead us to the throne of God—to the company of the Angels and Saints to the new Jerusalem with streets of gold—to the river and tree of life—to hear the voice of God Himself saying "Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book." ”

“ A spirit of prophecy pervading all time—characterizing one person, of the highest dignity—and proclaiming the accomplishment of one purpose, the most beneficent, the most divine, that imagination itself can project—Such is the scriptural delineation, whether we will receive it or no, of that œconomy, which we call Prophetic! ”

“ But now, as my private day begins to fade, as the wind in the desert gathers in intensity, smoothing out the patterns in the sand, I shall attempt to evoke the true image of one who assumed with plausibility in an age of science the long-discarded robes of prophecy, prevailing at last through ritual death and becoming, to those who see the universe in man, that solemn idea which is yet called by its resonant and antique name, god. ”

“ Prophecy throws its gleam into those dark regions, yet unexplored, and marks out the path of human history centuries and ages before it has echoed to the footsteps of mankind. When at last we pass along the pathway, we may, if we will, recognize the waymarks set up here and there, every one of which [pg 072] is a monument to the wisdom and knowledge of God, and the faithfulness of his word. Those who have no eyes to discern these things, no ears to hear, nor hearts to understand their significance, will pass on, and the final event will come upon them unawares. ”

“ Is the prophecy of your people so feeble a thing that I, a stupid stranger, a yellow northling in the Roman harness, can give the lie to prophecy and compel to be unfulfilled—the very thing willed by the gods and foretold by the wise men? ”

“ The fulfilment of the word of prophecy in history is a fascinating story. To the Lord, the future is an open book, even as the present. The word is spoken, telling of the event to come; it is written on the parchment scroll by the prophet's pen. Time passes; centuries come and go. Then, when the hour of the prophecy arrives, lo, there appears the fulfilment. ”

“ Here the question of the actual fulfilment of Scripture prophecy is involved; and it is no argument against the unequivocal fulfilment of several prophecies, that many have doubted or denied what the believers in revelation have on this subject so strenuously contended for. How few of mankind have read the Scriptures with serious attention, or been at the pains to compare their prophecies with the statements in history. ”

“ But since our sects in prophecy grow higher,
The text inspires not them, but they the text inspire. ”

“ Can the student of prophecy contemplate all these preparations, clearly predicted thousands of years ago, and now bursting upon the world with seemingly preconcerted connexion and exactness, revolutionizing all things in a single age, and not be struck with the reflection, that the hand of God must be in all this, and that moral energy and spiritual light must be forthcoming from the heavens commensurate with the physical and political preparations for a new Era? ”

“ I endeavoured in the last lecture to bring before you the blessed hope of our Lord’s return, and to show, from the great outlines of prophecy, that there is enough to justify the expectations of those who humbly trust that we shall not have much longer to wait. I purposely avoided any reference to what are called the ‘signs of the times,’ and confined your attention exclusively to what may be called the great backbone of prophecy, i.e., to the prophetic history of the four mighty kingdoms which were foretold as holding the empire of the world. ”

“ Now, no interpretation of prophecy is worth anything which is not sustained by facts; for prophecy is not a prediction of opinions, principles, or feelings, but of tangible and stubborn facts. What, then, are the facts in the case before us? ”

“ And to those who are given this power in its truest sense, is also added the gift of prophecy—the quick prescience of things To Be—the spiritual hearing which catches the first sound of the approaching time. And beyond the things of time this spiritual sense projects itself, and hears, and almost sees, all that shall be found most glorious after death! ”

“ It is upon the sure word of prophecy, and no other evidence, that we rely. This is our main support, as even our opposers will, and do, admit; or why do they, in their attacks upon us, first try to show that prophecy [324] is not to be understood, or if it is, that it is couched in such mystical and ambiguous language, that the ignorant and unlearned (as they are pleased to call us poor Bible students, in their mighty elemency) cannot comprehend its true import? ”

“ This and that man was born in her!—and the Most High shall stablish her. The Eternal shall count, when he writeth up the people: This man was born there!' [6] That prophecy is at the present day abundantly fulfilled. ”

“ And this great belly first of deities, whereas we sacrifice and pray to get our oracles; and why do we do it, if souls carry within themselves a power of prophecy, which power is stirred up by temperature of some sort in air or breeze? ”

“ As Mystery and Miracle took charge of the past and the present, Prophecy took charge of the future, and rounded the tenses of faith. ”

“ Such is the true method of prophecy in all religions, for a prophet who utters his forecast of the future in such a manner as to render his meaning unmistakable, exposes himself to the hazardous possibility that the event in history may turn out altogether unlike the event foretold. ”

“ The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. This angelic information presents, at first sight, an idea stupendous indeed, but, on such a subject, suitable enough to our expectations. It offers no violence to the natural sense of the human mind ”

“ It rests on a more general mode of apprehending a relation between the extraordinary indications of the period we live in, and the substantial purport of the divine predictions. There unquestionably gleams forth, through the plainer lines, and through the mystical imagery of prophecy, the vision of a better age, in which the application of the truths of religion to men's minds will be irresistible. ”

“ Every single human being should be the fulfilment of a prophecy: for every human being should be the realisation of some ideal, either in the mind of God or in the mind of man. ”

“ Yet this is what those [heretics] declare, who are altogether ignorant of the nature of prophecy. For prophecy is a prediction of things future, that is, a setting forth beforehand of those things which shall be afterwards. The prophets, then, indicated beforehand that God should be seen by men; as the Lord also says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." ”

“ The argument from prophecy, in support of the Christian revelation, would be thought more conclusive, at least would be more distinctly apprehended, if men could be kept from mixing their own prejudices and preconceptions with it. ”

“ Fulfilled prophecy is a proof of inspiration because the Scripture predictions of future events were uttered so long before the events transpired that no merely human sagacity or foresight could have anticipated them, and these predictions are so detailed, minute, and specific, as to exclude the possibility that they were mere fortunate guesses. ”

“ I thank God from the bottom of my heart for the evidence given of the p. 15inspiration of Scripture, for no such prophecy could have had its origin with man; and, while I thank God for such a confirmation of the faith, I cannot resist the conclusion that we have nearly reached the end of the series, that we are living in the last part of the last period of the last kingdom, and that the next great event of this prophecy is nothing else than the sitting of the Ancient of Days, the glorious kingdom of the Son of Man.
But do we all desire it? ”

“ Once granted that prophecy is supernatural in its essence, and that there is nothing improbable in the fact that one speaking from the mouth of God could definitely foretell things to come, and speak of things and persons which as yet were not, as though they were and most of the arguments in favour of a later date and different author for these chapters fall to the ground. ”

“ After many a weary round of births and deaths or long sojourns in Purgatory, after many a climb up the dark ladder of life, every being at last will reach the desired goal, and see the fulfilment of prophecy when God will be all and in all. ”

“ The use, we should make both of that faculty, and of these preliminary considerations on the subject, the end, and the dispensation of prophecy is, briefly, this, To inquire, whether any prophecies have been given—in what sense they are reasonably to be interpreted—and how far, and whether in any proper sense, they have been fulfilled: to examine them, in a word, by their own claims, and on the footing of their own pretensions; that is, to argue on the supposition that they may be divine, till they can be evidently shewn to be otherwise. ”

“ By the order given to leave the book of the prophecy open, to be perused by all, that they might labour to understand it, that they might make their objections against it, and compare the prophecy with the events. God here deals freely and openly with all ”

“ So the Christian student, by studying prophecy, Providence, and history, and comparing them, can know much of what is coining. On the Divine side all prophecy is certain, but on the human it can only be approximated. Prophecy furnishes the strongest kind of evidence in favour of the existence of God—inspiration of the Scriptures and Providence. The Lord Himself calls our attention to this kind of evidence frequently in the Bible. “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, said the King of Jacob. ”

“ And though the events foretold did not occur until many ages afterwards, no one can suppose that the prophecy related to any other place; for all time is short in respect of the deity, who exists through all ages. ”

“ Whoever of posterity should read and compare the prophecy and event together, must they not, by such an illustrious instance, be thoroughly convinced of the providence of God, and of the truth of his prophet, and be ready to acknowledge, 'Verily, this is the word which the Lord hath spoken; verily, there is a God who judgeth the earth?"' - See Bp. ”

“ The spiritual deliverance, the dejection of Satan, the renewed persecution, the protection, the flood, its absorption by the friendly earth, and the persevering rage of the dragon, will all be crushed into the space of two or three years. Surely nothing but the most distinct revelation could make us receive such an exposition of the true reference of so glorious a prophecy.”51 It is difficult, indeed, to conceive that a prophecy of this nature should find its fulfilment in any three and a half years of the church’s history ”

“ The prophecy then becomes a remarkable instance of the manner in which an elevated spiritual faith, free from all the contaminating and blinding influences of selfish motives and desires, may rise superior to universal superstition, and boldly contradict the suggestions of what is accounted the highest wisdom of the time, anticipating the results though not the methods nor the evidence of science, at an epoch when science is as yet in the mythological stage. ”

“ Prophecy, in the ideas of scripture, was not ultimately given for the private use of this or that nation, nor yet for the nobler and more general purpose of proclaiming the superintending providence of the Deity (an awful truth, which men might collect for themselves from the established constitution of nature) but simply to evidence the truth of the Christian revelation. ”

“ The end of prophecy is its fulfilment. הבאות "the coming, or future," are the events of the more distant Future. As the Prophet demands from the idols and their servants that only which the true God has already performed by His servants, we have here, on the one hand, a reference to the whole cycle of prophecies formerly fulfilled, as e.g., that of the overthrow of the kingdoms of Damascus and Ephraim, and the defeat of Asshur,--and, on the other hand, to the prophecy of the conqueror from the East, &c., contained in the second part. ”

“ The message, however, viewed in its entirety, while it contains a sympathetic element of encouragement for the saints, and a monitory element of exhortation and warning for all men, is yet fundamentally a philosophic interpretation of the divine method in history for all who would see God in the story of man's life on the earth—a theodicy based upon prophecy. ”

“ This reasoning is plausible, but not conclusive, unless it be taken for granted that a prophecy must, in all its parts, be equally clear and precise: whereas, on the supposition of real inspiration, it may be fit, I mean it may suit with the views of the Inspirer, to predict some things with more perspicuity, and in terms more obviously and directly applicable to the events in which they are fulfilled, than others. ”