Prophecy: History Written in Advance
By W. H. Blaisdell
“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. What is prophecy? It is history written in advance. If a person by the direction of the Holy Spirit could have written out twenty years ago the history of our own nation from that time till the present, those events not then transpired would have been matters of prediction, or prophecy; but a record of the same facts written now, after the events have occurred, becomes history. And thus it is. History is a record of events already consummated, while prophecy lifts the dark curtain of futurity, penetrates the regions beyond, and points out what will take place in time to come. Any person of ordinary ability may become a recorder of historical facts to a greater or less degree; but none except God's chosen instruments, who are especially moved by the Holy Ghost, can foretell with accuracy (astronomical and scientific calculations excepted) the events of a single day. Can the prophetic Scriptures be understood? and are they not among the secrets of the Almighty that we ought not to pry into? Many persons can say of a truth that they do not understand them, for the reason that they have never tried to do so; but to say that they cannot be understood is to teach an infidel principle. To say that the Bible, as a whole, is not a revelation from God to man is infidelity. To say that it was given by God, but cannot be understood, is not the slightest modification of the same principle of infidelity, inasmuch as God has not revealed anything to us through his word if we cannot understand it. Therefore, if we teach that even one page of the Bible was never designed to be understood, just so far we inculcate the principles of infidelity. We are informed by the sacred word that “the secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever;” Deut. 29:29; and that “no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.” 2 Pet. 1:20. Therefore, we may rightly conclude that the prophecies are neither secret nor private, and that they are designed to be understood. Should we give any attention to the study of the prophecies? and does it not bring darkness upon our Christian pathway to do so? The text at the head of this article is an answer to this question. Peter says we do well to take heed unto the sure word of prophecy; and, instead of its bringing darkness upon us, he says it is as a light that shineth in a dark place. A light is often of the greatest importance to a person who is in a dark place. Just so is the sure word of prophecy to God's people while journeying through this world of moral darkness. Among the important facts which may be learned from the sure word of prophecy are the following:— 1. That the prophets must have written under the direct influence of the Spirit of God, else they could not have foretold, with such unerring exactness, events which would transpire so far in the future. 2. That the Bible, of which the subject of prophecy forms an important part, is a revelation from God to man, and that it is given to us in language that can be understood by us. 3. That God has directly, and by the mouth of the prophets, foretold many important events which would transpire in the history of certain individuals, countries, cities, nations, the church, and the world at large; and that, if we trace the history of these different parties, as they have successively arisen and acted their part in the world's grand drama, we shall see that they have thus far fulfilled the specifications of prophecy relating to them. 4. That the nations whose deeds and acts God has pointed out beforehand have generally been those that have had some important connection with his people. 5. That God has by the prophets pointed out, in consecutive order, the history of certain nations, extending from the days of Daniel the prophet and the Babylonian Empire to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 6. That very many events in the history of the true and the apostate churches, and also mankind at large, have been foretold in different lines of prophecy, many of them extending from before the commencement of the Christian Era to the closing-up scene of this world's history. 7. That the world, in its history, has now reached the last link in the great prophetic chain, and the events now taking place in the world, and among the people of God, and especially in our own country, are but the fulfillment of the specifications of prophecy which foretell the scenes to transpire just prior to the close of human probation and the second coming of Christ. 8. That now, while we are amid the perils of the last days, 2 Tim. 3, when evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived, and iniquity and crime of the most horrible forms is flooding the land, and when men's hearts are turned away from the truth and turned unto fables, and professed followers of Christ evince a greater love of pleasure than of God, the light of the sure word of prophecy, as it emanates from the sacred page, is shining on every hand, and its piercing rays penetrate the cloud of moral darkness and corruption that is now settling down upon the world; and with glorious beauty and brilliancy it falls upon the pathway of the humble student of God's word, who would take heed to the sure word of prophecy, and walk in the light of present truth.