the exact means of its destruction (2:6, 3:13), and the fact that it was to be hidden from the eyes of men were all predicted with the greatest of accuracy. The twenty- second Psalm affords detail after detail in the scene of the crucifixion of our Lord, describing Christ’s death with the thoroughness of an eye-witness, a millennium before it took place. There can be no question that proph ecy provides abundant confirmatory evidence of the in fallibility and divine authority of the Bible. IV. The Study of Prophecy Confirms the Literal Method of Interpretation. Naturally arising from the previous observation res pecting fulfilled prophecy, is the fact that the study of prophecy proves the accuracy of the literal method of Bible interpretation. When we read a book of history, or science, or home economics, we do not fancy that there lies hidden under the text some second significance not apparent to the ordinary reader. We take the every day language of the book to mean what it says, and to say just what it means. This is, the normal approach to interpretation. The Bible, while it is no ordinary book, was yet written for ordinary readers, and was meant to be readily understood. Its language is normal and literal. When figures of speech are being used, it is apparent from the context; nor do such figures destroy the over all literal intent of a passage. One of the most important proofs that the Bible is meant to be taken literally is the fact that scores of prophecies have been fulfilled in an exact and literal manner. When it was predicted in Zechariah 9:9 that the Messiah would ride upon a donkey, the prophecy was fulfilled literally during the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, a week before His crucifixion. Again, when it was predicted that Christ was to rise from the tomb in three days, this is precisely what took place. The stone was dislodged, and the literal, physical body of Jesus emerged victoriously. The doctrine of the resurrec tion of Jesus Christ is not an ethereal assertion that the Christ-spirit was triumphant in the world; it is the fact that a physical body which Thomas could handle, and which food could nourish, had come to life again. Final ly, since Amos predicted (1:10) that a fire would devour Tyre, we should not be surprised when we discover in our own day the charred stones of the ruined city along the coast of the glimmering Mediterranean. The city was literal; so was the fire which burned it. Since so many prophecies have been literally ful filled, it is only right that we should expect other prophe cies, which will be consummated in the future, to be ful filled in the same manner. If prophecy is to be interpreted literally, the entire Bible should also be understood in a literal fashion. For even those given to the allegorizing of prophecy advocate the literal method of interpretation for the non-predictive portions of God’s Word. V. The Study of Prophecy Provides a Divine Perspective of History. Perspective, so Webster tells us, is the “ capacity to view things in their true relations or relative import ance.” In order to view history in its true relations, it is essential to acquire the habit of peering through the lens of Biblical prophecy. The teleological view of his tory, that view which sees a purpose and a plan in the past events of the world, is the only conception which adequately explains the facts. All other viewpoints are out of focus, and to a greater or lesser extent, distorted. When one studies the prophecies that have already been fulfilled, he realizes that there is a divine Engineer who is throwing the switches in the universe. True, many THE KING'S BUSINESS
R E A SO N S FOR S T U D Y IN G P R O PH E C Y (Cont.) and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Tim. 3:16). II. The Study of Prophecy is a Divine Command. In John 5:39 we are commanded to “ search the scrip tures, . . . for they are they which testify of me.” Jesus had the prophetic Scriptures particularly in view, since prophecy is the portion of the Word which testifies of Christ, whether openly, or in typology, which is itself a variety of prophecy. Paul commanded Timothy in II Timothy 3:14-15 to continue in the Holy Scriptures, and a portion of those Scriptures is prophetic. A similar re ference in Joshua 1:8 commands Israel’s new leader, Joshua, to meditate in the law, i.e., the Pentateuch, day and night, and we could well apply this to ourselves today. That the Pentateuch spoke prophetically is clear ly pointed out by Jesus in John 5:46, when He affirms that Moses wrote of Him. Jesus gave us an excellent example by studying prophecy Himself. He must have studied Messianic prophecy, for He was able, “ beginning at Moses and all the prophets,” to expound “unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). He must have meditated much upon prophecies concerning the events yet future to us today, since He made frequent allusions to such prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Zechariah, and Malachi. Not only is the study of prophecy a divine command, but divine blessings are promised in its perusal. In Re velation 1:3 we are assured: “ Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy . . .” Peter’s bold declaration is also for our admonition: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed . . .” We cannot neglect the study of prophecy without breaking the commands of the Bible, and losing the promised blessing as well. III. The Study of Prophecy Helps to Confirm Our Faith in the Word of God. The test of the genuineness of a prophet in ancient Israel was simple indeed, but most effective. The pro fessed prophet was obliged to foretell, not only remotely future events, but also some one or more developments which were to materialize within a short time. This divinely ordained method of trying the prophets is set forth in Deuteronomy 18:21-22: “ And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” The very same rule can and ought to be applied to the question of the divine author ity of the Scriptures as a whole. Study the predictions of prophecy minutely. Then marvel with others at the amazing number of Biblical prophecies that have been fulfilled to the very jot and tittle. No merely human book could predict with such amazing accuracy! For example, Hosea, a prophet of the northern kingdom, declared that “the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim” (3:4). For many centuries Israel has had no king of her own, and, since A.D. 70, she has had no animal sacrifices. Perhaps even more remarkable, Israel has been free from idolatry since the Babylonian cap tivity. One of the most amazing fulfilled prophecies is to be found in the Book of Nahum. The drunken condition of the city of Nineveh at the time of its overthrow (1:10), 22
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