God has told him will come to pass. Why blame the prophet for speaking as he does? Why shun what he says merely because he has predicted peril before p e a c e and p o v e r t y before plenty? It is God who has spoken! When we study the prophets we are studying the movements of God. The prophet must obey God no matter how the people react to his message. All of the prophets prophesied because they were compelled by Divine con straint to do so. “ God . . . spake . . . by the proph ets.” The New Testament writer sets his seal upon the Divine inspiration of that which the prophets have re corded in the Old Testament. God con trolled their hearts, possessed their minds, guided their hands, and or dered their tongues so that they spoke, and wrote, not their own words, but His words. The word “ prophet” here means “mouthpiece” as in Genesis 20:7; Exodus 4:6; and Exodus 7:1. The Old Testament prophet was sim ply the voice' of God to the people. Many gladly accept the statement, “ God . . . hath in t h e s e l a s t da y s spoken unto us by His Son,” who com pletely ignore what He said to and through the Old Testament prophets. But divine authorship and authority are claimed for both the Old and the New Testaments. In fact, each comple ments the other, for both are necessary to an understanding of the whole. There is an incompleteness about the Old Testament alone, nevertheless it embodies a Divine progressive revela tion without which the New would be incomplete. All could not be revealed or understood at once, but when God did speak He spoke e x c l u s i v e l y through the prophets and through no Dr. Strauss is pastor of the Highland Park Baptist Church, Highland Park, Michigan. His previous service included 18 years as pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church, Bris tol, Penn., and 10 years as instructor of the Philadelphia Bible College.
one else until Christ came. Some of God’s secrets which they foretold have not yet come to pass; therefore how foolish one is who neglects the proph et’s message. While the message of the prophet was not confined to foretell ing the future, nevertheless the pre dictive element stands out clearly in much of the prophetic writing. If one would be clearly informed about things to come, he should hear and heed the prophetic teaching of Scrip ture. The prophecies of the Bible are essential to an understanding of that part of God’s mind which God Him self has been pleased to reveal. This is the very thing that Christ taught after His resurrection, “ Then He said unto them, 0 fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the proph ets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He ex pounded unto them in all the Scrip tures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:25-27). I have emphasized the word “ all” in order to show how necessary it is to study the whole of God’s revelation in order to compre hend His whole program. Our Lord issued a stem reprimand to the two disciples for their neglect of the Old Testament prophecies. Because they were slow to believe all that the prophets had written, He called them foolish. Generally speaking, they be lieved all the Scriptures, but there were some “ things” they just did not want to believe, one of them being the absolute necessity of Christ’s suffer ings before His reign. By neglecting the message of the prophets they had only partial knowledge of the plan of God. Little wonder they were disillu sioned and defeated! Our Lord’s first word to them was a rebuke, not mere ly because their knowledge was weak and imperfect, but because it needed not to be so. May God save each of us from such slow-heartedness. May we not be guilty of neglecting pro phetic truth to suit our prejudices and tastes, for in so doing we injure our selves and others by limiting our minds to a mere partial knowledge of what God would have us know. II. FOR LIGHT IN A DARK PLACE Ever since the development and use of the atomic bomb, men in all walks of life, statesmen, scientists, historians, politicians, and industrialists, are ask ing, in effect, “Where are we going? What next? When will the end come?” Many books written since the first explosion of an atomic bomb, in cluding Time for Decision, Persuade or Perish, The Annihilation of Man, and No Place to Hide, indicate man’s uncertainty and concern about the future.
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"A ll scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness / 1 ..— 'll Timothy 3:16 The New Testament tells us clearly that the prophetic Scriptures are es sential if man is to have light on the pathway of the future. Look at the following statement from the inspired pen of Saint Peter: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; where- unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). The Apostle had just related what he had seen and heard while on the Mount of Transfiguration (w . 16- 18). There were both a Vision and a Voice from Heaven, testifying of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now Peter says that we have the prophetic Word as a surer confirmation of God’s plans than what we ourselves saw and heard on the Mount. The Old Testa ment prophecies are more stable, more firm, more trustworthy; that is, the written Word of the prophets can be relied upon more than those things men see and hear about them. Our age is distressed, exhausted and fear ful of what the future holds. The one bright and cheering lamp for the world’s darkness is the prophetic Word. How foolish we are when we neglect the only ray of light that can afford some knowledge relative to God’s plans for the future! In view of man’s uncertainty of the future, Peter says that we will do well if we take heed in our hearts to the trustworthy message of the prophets. Dr. E. Schuyler English suggests that the last three words of the verse, “ in your h e a r t s belong after “ take heed” rather than after “ day star arise,” where they are placed in the Author ized Version. If this is correct, then we are not to give the prophecies of the Bible a mere passing glance, nor to be satisfied with the hearing of them, but rather to “take heed in
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