A More Sure Word of Prophecy.
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto 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 Pet. 1, 19. ON this passage, Bishop Sherlock, Prophecy, Disc. 1, comments as follows:— “We have a far more sure word of prophecy, namely, in evidence of the future coming of Christ in power, which was the doctrine that the apostle was desirous of proving. To prove this, he had just told them that he had been himself an eye-witness of Christ’s majesty or glory. To this it might be objected, that although his testimony showed that Christ himself had been glorified, it was no proof that he would ever again return in glory and power. The apostle may be supposed to reply, “It is true that all future events can be learned only from God. All other arguments can amount to no more than probabilities and presumptions; and a great presumption it is that Christ shall come in glory, forasmuch as we have already seen him glorified; and it is a further evidence of his power to deliver his servants, since God has openly declared him to be his well-beloved Son. But to assure us that he will indeed so come, and so use his power, ‘we have a more sure word of prophecy;’ that is, we have the very word of God, speaking by his Prophets, to assure us of the certainty of this future event. No comparison is here intended between miracles, and prophecy, as arguments for the truth of the Gospel; for St. Peter speaks only of the coming of Christ in power. And by the ‘more sure word of prophecy’ are to be understood, not merely the prophecies of the Old Testament, but probably also of the New.” The above is confirmed by the profound researches of Bp. Horsely, in four masterly Sermons on vv. 20, 21. He understands “the Prophetic word” of the entire volume of the prophetic writings, whether of the Old or New Test., then extant, or hereafter to be promulgated, i. e. the prophecies of the Christian church, together with the prophetical writings of the O. T.—Bloomfield on 2 Pet. i, 19.