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The Fwndamentals which Jehov,ah alone is capable of foretelling or bringing to pass; in other wo,ds, that prescience is the proof of Jehovah's deit I y s . aiah lived in an age when prediction was neededu; cf. Amos 3 :9. Political events were kaleidoscopic and there was every incentive to predict. But Jehovah's predictions alone were trustw0rthy. That Isaiah's prophecies contain wonderful predictions is attested both by Jesus ben-Sirach in Ecclus. 48-20-25, which w tie a s s " w X r I itt , e I, n 1 a , b 2 o , ut da 1 t 8 in 0 g B f . ro C m ., a a n b d ou b t y 1 J 0 o 0 s A ep . h D us . in his "Antiqui Why should men object to prediction on so large a scale? Unless there is definiteness about any given prediction, unless it transcends ordinary prognostication there is no especial value in it. The only possible objection is that prediction of so minute a character is "abhorrent to reason". But the answer to such an objection is already at hand; it may be abhorrent to reason, but it is certainly a handmaid to faith. Faith has to do with the future even as prediction has to do with the future; and the Old Testament is pre-eminently a book which encourages faith. The one outstanding differentiating characteristic of Israel's religion is prndictive prophecy. Only the Hebrews ever predicted the coming of the Messiah of the kingdom of God. Accordingly, to predict the coming of a Cyrus as the human agent of Israel's salvation is but the reverse side of the same prnphet's picture of the Divine agent, the obedient, suffering Se,rv-a-nt of Jehovah, who would redeem Israel from their sin. a in c g te D r C e a y n n r y u d s t , u o a n I n iq s d a u i-a e th h p e e«- th p s e r p o e s p c o h t n i e v c e o y ; f e i A s m m r a o s o b c z u b e l t a d h te e o t p f h r e e i s t d s e ic e l t a s i t o s t e n e n s r t i c c a o h l n a c c p h e t rn e a r r s of Isaiah of thei,r pr-edictive feature, and they are reduced to a mere vati,inium ex eventu, and their religious value is largely lost.
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