Prophecy No. 3: God's Foreknowledge and Human Choice
By W. H. Blaisdell
Prophecy.—No. 3.
“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.
In foretelling events which would transpire in the history of this world, God has sometimes moved the minds of holy men by his Spirit, and they have given the prediction as directed by him; in other cases we are not informed that he made use of any human instrument through which to make the predictions known, but it appears that they were given directly by God himself or his Son Jesus Christ to one or more of the inhabitants of this world.
Every prophecy, whether given by some person under the influence of the Holy Spirit, or by the Son of God, or by God himself, either has been fulfilled in the past, or is now being fulfilled, or will yet be fulfilled in the future.
If a prophecy points out the deeds, whether good or bad, which any person or class of persons will commit, we may be assured that the deeds will be performed by the party to whom the prophecy relates.
But though it is a fact that the deeds will be performed according to the prediction, yet it does not follow that the party50referred to is compelled to perform those deeds.
God has given to all mankind the privilege of doing good or evil, and left it a matter of choice with the individuals to decide which course they will follow; and though he does not compel them either way, yet he may be able to foresee which course they will pursue, and thus cause the prediction to be given in accordance with the course they will decide to take, when left to act their own free will in the matter.
Had God foreseen that they would choose a different course, the prophecy would not have been given as it now stands. We now direct attention of the reader to certain prophecies and the events which have transpired, or are now transpiring in fulfillment thereof.
We will first refer to Gen. 3:17–19. While entering upon an examination of this prophecy, we would especially call the attention of the reader to the fact that all the specifications of this prediction have a literal fulfillment. There is nothing dark, hidden, or mystical, in its meaning. It is given in language easy to be understood; and it is very evident what the facts are that furnish the proof that it is literally fulfilled.
It here seems that God himself personally appeared to Adam, and uttered a prophetic declaration in plain, literal language which was designed to extend to mankind generally, of which Adam was the representative head.
We may learn from the past history of the human race, and from our knowledge of facts surrounding us at the present time, and from the Bible, that the specifications of this prophecy have been literally fulfilled in all generations of mankind, and in all parts of the earth, and will continue to be unto the end of the world, with a very few exceptions which God has made, and has promised to make (those who are translated without seeing death), of the reason for which he has not especially informed us.
A few of the prominent points in this prediction we will here notice: “And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” Verse 17.
God had created the earth and all things therein, and had made it a proper dwelling place for a race of sinless beings. As it came from the hand of the Creator, before the old serpent had polluted, or the stains of sin and the curse had marred, its fair domain, perfect peace and harmony prevailed here; even the animal creation were perfectly harmless and inoffensive; not a jarring note or discordant sound could be heard in all the land; and to man who was made in the image of his Creator, was given the dominion over it all.
But man, the noblest work of creation, and for whose especial benefit the earth was brought into existence, sinned against God, the very being who had created him, and thereby became a just recipient of his displeasure.
As he thus fell from the exalted position which he might have occupied, he became an improper subject to dwell on the beautiful earth as it then existed, and God, to reduce the surroundings of man to a level with the condition to which man had by sin brought himself, declared the ground to be cursed for his sake.
In fulfillment of this, the earth has been groaning under the curse through all its history from that time to the present. The thunder’s roar, the lightning’s glare, the tornado’s blast, the upheaving of the tidal wave, the deep mutterings of the mighty earthquake, the belching forth of the internal fires of earth from the volcanic crater, the triumphant reign of disease and death, the groans of the dying, and the wails of the mourning, together with innumerable other evils, all conspire to bear testimony to the truthfulness of this conclusion.
We have also inspired testimony on the same subject. Paul says: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Rom. 8:22.
“In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” This has been fulfilled in the history of all mankind that have ever lived on the earth. Every person experiences thoughts of sadness and feelings of sorrow to a greater or less degree every day of his life. There is no point of time where it can be said of any persons that their sorrows are ended until this present life is brought to a close.
“Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.” Verse 18. This is one feature of the prophecy under consideration, and is also literally fulfilled in all the world. While the useful vegetable productions of the earth can be, in most cases, obtained only by labor, sweat, and toil, the brier, the thorn, and the thistle, grow spontaneously, and in such profusion as to become a source of perplexity, and thereby greatly increase the labors of him who is striving to obtain the productions necessary for the sustenance of the human family.
The last and most solemn feature of this prophecy is as follows: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Verse 19.
Had we never witnessed, heard, or learned, of the sad ravages of disease and death, and the consequent corruption and decay of all flesh, who would think, to look upon a person in the bloom of youthful health and vigor, that the beautiful form before us would ever become a mass of putrid corruption, and finally turn to dust itself?
But how sadly literal is the fulfillment of this in the human race! After having laid the form of the loved one in the earth, and a certain period of time passes away, nothing can there be found but dust; not the least evidence can be discovered that ever anything was there deposited.
But although we are compelled to witness the fulfillment of the above prophetic declaration all around us, though the curse rests heavily on every hand, and the sounds of woe continually fall on our ears, yet the light of the sure word of prophecy, beaming forth from other prophetic scriptures, penetrates the gloom of the present, sheds a halo of light upon our otherwise dark pathway, and points us forward to a day when those who now sleep in the dust shall live again, and when the earth shall be renewed, sin and sorrow be forever ended, and the curse so long endured shall be finally removed to return no more. Isa. 26:19; Eze. 37:12–14; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; Isa. 65:17–19; Ps. 104:30; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1–4; 22:3.
“Oh! happy day, when wars shall cease,
And ransomed earth be filled with peace,
When sin and death no more shall reign,
And Eden bloom on earth again.”
We here append the following very appropriate words of another on this subject:—
“Once wert thou fair, O Earth, in loveliness;
Once full perfection bore through all thy forms;
And vigorous stood, and fresh in youthful strength;
But ah, not long; man in his rashness seized
The fatal fruit, and trespassed God’s command,
And broke the barrier of thy defense:
From hence thy history and thy life grew dark.
A visible pang of death through all the works
Of shuddering nature ran; all that was once
So fair, so good, so lovely, so adorned,
Beneath the scorching breathings of the curse,
Distorted, withered, faded, drooped and died.
Sky, once serene, with somber tempests lowered,
And muttering, frowned on earth a gloomy frown,
And cast o’er all her works a dismal shade.
Among the beasts, peaceful, so late and tame,
War sprung; and savage howls were heard; and blood
Thirsted for blood, and raged, and fought, and strove.
The birds their songs of harmony and joy,
Forgot; and at the eagle’s piercing scream,
Tremblingly heard, and quick affrighted fled,
And peace, and loveliness, and beauty, took,
With sad, reluctant step, their final leave;
And some few footprints, faint, some shadows, dim,
Were all they left on earth; thistles and thorns,
Where once they trod, in dread abundance sprung,
As if to mock their former, glorious reign.
And must this ever be? Must ever thus
God’s glorious design frustrated stand?
Not ever! for mankind’s Redeemer, he,
The Son of God, the second Adam, will,
What our first parents lost, doubly restore.
He sin and death will conquer and destroy,
And raze each vestige of their baleful reign;
And close, for aye, their flood-gates, wide, of woe:
And nature’s face renew, and far remove
The fetters of the curse from all her works;
And peace, and loveliness, and beauty, call
Down once again from their abodes of bliss,
To range in glory o’er the earth renewed.
In youthful freedom, then will earth again
Rejoice, its fetters broken, and its voice
Long choked by sin and death to notes of woe,
Shall rise in anthems loud of grateful joy.
All shall be Eden, all be Paradise.
The garden of the Lord; abundantly,
With joy and singing shall the desert bloom,
And blossom as the rose, and Lebanon’s
Bright glory share, and Carmel’s excellence.
The solitary places shall be glad;
For in the wilderness, thus saith the Lord,
The cedar will I plant, the shittah tree,
The oil-tree and the myrtle, and will set
The fir-tree in the desert, and the pine
And box together, that they all may see,
And know, and understand, that I, the Lord
The God of Israel, have created it.
The signet of the curse, thistles and thorns,
Now seen no more, shall be forgotten; and
Fair in their place the fig-tree shall come up.
And for the brier, the myrtle tree shall grow;
And streams of laughing joy shall fresh break forth
Within the desert, and a smiling pool Shall the parched ground become; the thirsty land,
Well-springs of living water gushing forth.
No poison breathing swamps, nor marshes foul,
With noxious breath pollute the crystal air;
Nor dark sulphurous tempests rend the skies;
But all shall lovely be, all shall be pure.
The trees shall clap their hands, and fields shall smile,
Bright in the cloudless sunshine of their God,
And fear no blasting storms, nor fear decay.
No turbid waters in the stream shall flow,
But fountains, pure, make glad the face of earth.
All with abundance swells; in tree and flower,
And shrub, and creeping vine, and clustering fruit,
And lawn and fertile field, behold no lack.
Thus to its primal purity restored,
Thus glorious and beautiful shall be
The earth renewed, the saints’ eternal home.
And then shall be the tabernacle of God
With men; and he himself shall dwell with them,
And be their God and they his people be.
There shall all tears from every eye be wiped;
Sorrow and crying there are never heard;
There death comes not, and pain shall be no more,
Nor sin shall ever there an entrance find;
For lo, the former things are passed away.”