Only One Who Can Read the Future—The Evidences of Inspiration in the Work of the Prophets
DR. KEITH, in his book entitled “The Evidence of Prophecy,” says of prophecy:
“That it is the effect of divine interposition cannot be disputed. It is equivalent to any miracle, and is of itself evidently miraculous. The foreknowledge of the actions of intelligent and moral agents is one of the most incomprehensible attributes of the Deity, and is exclusively a divine perfection. The past, the present, and the future are alike open to His view, and to His alone; and there can be no stronger proof of the interposition of the Most High than that which prophecy affords. Of all the attributes of the God of the universe, His prescience has bewildered and baffled the most, all the powers of human perception; and an evidence of the exercise of this perfection in the revelation of what the infinite mind alone could make known, is the seal of God, which can never be counterfeited, affixed to the truth which it attests. Whether that evidence has been afforded, is a matter of investigation; but if it has unquestionably been given, the effect of superhuman agency is apparent, and the proof of what it was given to prove, does not admit of a doubt.”—Pages 7, 8.
THE CHALLENGE OF PROPHECY
The great Jehovah’s challenge to all the gods of the heathen is as follows:
“Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong779reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.” Isa. 41: 21-23.
SHOWN THROUGH READING THE FUTURE
There seems to be no stronger evidence that God is speaking than the fact that what the prophet says concerning the future comes to pass. Thus when Judah had come under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and Hananiah, a false prophet, had predicted peace, saying that within two years the yoke of the king of Babylon should be broken, Jeremiah the prophet said:
“The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him.” Jer. 28: 9.
Hananiah, in the presence of all the people, reasserted his prediction concerning the deliverance of all nations from the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar within the space of two years.
“Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.” Verses 15-17.
HIS DEATH WAS REVEALED
That all the people might know that God was speaking through Jeremiah, the Lord revealed through him the death, that same year, of Hananiah, which word was fulfilled. This incident also reveals the serious character of teaching rebellion against the Lord by leading the people to trust in a false hope, instead of trusting in the word of God through His prophet.
“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.” Deut. 18: 21, 22.
It seems possible that a false prophet might show a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass. But if such did occur, it would be to establish some unscriptural doctrine, to lead away from the true God; and in that case, we are strictly charged not to hearken to the words of that prophet. Deut. 13: 1-3.
TEST OF THE PROPHETIC GIFT
The genuine prophetic gift includes the power to read the future; but the supreme test of the true gift is the fruit borne in the life, and in the teaching, oral and written. “Beware,” said Jesus, “of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.” See Matt. 7: 15-20. While, like Elijah, the prophet of God is “a man subject to like passions as we are,” yet his life will reveal that he dwells in the secret place of the Most High, that he holds continuous communion with the Holy One. The finger of the true prophet ever points heavenward.
God is omniscient. That is, He possesses unlimited, infinite knowledge of all things. This includes foreknowledge, or a knowledge of things before they take place. This knowledge is communicated to men by the Omniscient One through His prophets. In this way alone is the curtain that hides the future drawn aside.
“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 Peter 1: 19.
PROPHETIC LIGHT GROWS IN BRILLIANCY
Through all the centuries of the past, the light of prophecy has continued to shine upon the pathway of the faithful children of God; and as they near the end of their journey, this light will grow more and more brilliant, revealing the hidden snares of the enemy, and also flashing light upon the waymarks erected along the road to guide the feet of weary travelers toward the eternal city. How foolish, then, to close one’s eyes to this light!
God, in His love and mercy, has shed a flood of light upon the pathway of His people in these last days, not only through the prophecies of the Bible, but also through the prophetic gift which Seventh-day Adventists’ believe has been placed in the church, and has been manifested for a period of seventy years through Mrs. E. G. White. That this is the genuine gift is susceptible of the clearest proof, not only from the fruits borne on the tree, but also from the fact that much of that which has been spoken of the future has already been fulfilled, or is to-day being fulfilled before our eyes. One instance of the latter may be of interest to the reader.
“Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by the millions.”
A PREDICTION IN 1890
April 21, 1890, there appeared in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, then published in Oakland, California, an article from the pen of Mrs. E. G. White, from which I copy the following paragraph:
“The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We will see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by the millions. Fires will break out unexpectedly, and no human effort will be able to quench them. The palaces of the earth will be swept away in flames. Disasters by rail will become more and more frequent; confusion, collision, and death without a moment’s warning will occur on the great lines of travel. The end is near, probation is closing. Oh, let us seek God while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”
Surely no one would question the fact that we are now seeing troubles on all sides. Since the great war began, a little more than a year ago, hundreds of ships have been literally “hurled into the depths of the sea.” To hurl is “to throw with violence; to fling or send with force; as, to hurl a stone.” (Standard Dictionary.) It may be truly said that the submarines in this present war have been literally fulfilling this prediction.
THE SUBMARINE SOON FOLLOWS THE PREDICTION
After a successful trial of a submarine constructed at Toulon in 1888, the French authorities decided to have more vessels of a similar type built, and by 1901 there were some eleven completed. These were the first submarines ever built for actual warfare. In the same year, the British admiralty gave orders for the construction of five submarines. Before a single nation possessed a flotilla of submarines, or their effectiveness in war had been tested, the above forecast of their work was made.
“Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by the millions.”780
From the Literary Digest, August 14, 1915, I take the following:
“The sacrifice of life entailed by the year of slaughter, says the Evening Post, is something that the world contemplates with a sense of aghast helplessness.”
APPALLING SLAUGHTER
Then follows a table compiled by the New York Independent from official statistics and estimates from Red Cross and other relief organizations. The grand totals are as follows: killed, 2,408,000; wounded, 5,155,000; prisoners and missing, 1,802,000; total, 9,365,000. As heart-rending as this is, it tells but part of the story of human slaughter and suffering.
Writing of the situation in Europe, Oswald F. Schuette, in the Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1915, says:
“The month just past has been the bloodiest and most decisive in the history of the world. The long promised and terrible French and British offensive, which began September 21, is now ended. At the same time, the fighting on all the other fronts reached a climax. The result has been that in thirty days the loss in killed and wounded has exceeded the terrifying figure of 1,000,000. There have been thirty days of slaughter on every front, so that many of the rivers of Europe are carrying crimson tides to the sea.”
It is not necessary that I call the attention of the reader to each sentence in this wonderfully graphic prophetic picture of the events now daily taking place, and filling the columns of the press. Surely that brief paragraph reveals divine prescience. But this is only one of many predictions that are likewise being fulfilled. There can be no stronger proof of the interposition of the Most High than that which fulfilled prophecy affords.
