Prophecy No. 5: Fulfillment Beyond Personal Witness
By W. H. Blaisdell
Mankind generally have been personal witnesses to the fulfillment of the prophecies referred to in our last two articles. We now call attention to some prophecies which do not have an application in all parts of the world and among all generations of mankind. As some prophecies apply to certain cities, countries, and localities, and to certain generations, or limited periods of time, of course none can be personal witnesses to their fulfillment except those who live in the time when, and are in the country where, the prophecy is fulfilled. A question may here arise as follows: How can we learn the fact that prophecies referring to other lands and nations have been fulfilled? We answer, according to a statement in a previous article: We may learn of the fulfillment of such predictions from the reliable verbal testimony of others, or from authentic historical records. Let us illustrate the necessity of obtaining such information from these sources in the following manner: Suppose that, during the lifetime of George Washington, the first president of the United States, he had uttered a prediction in regard to the future of this nation. Suppose he had possessed the power, and had pointed out the great American Rebellion which would occur, describing the main features of its cause, its terrible and sudden outburst, its fearful and bloody contest, and its final result and close. Suppose further, that his biographer, in writing the life of George Washington, had written down this prediction. Now suppose that General Grant, or any other man who has spent the past twenty-five years of his life in this country, and been personally acquainted with all the leading national events that have here transpired during that time, has in his private library the “Life of George Washington.” In it he reads the prediction. How does he know that the prediction has been fulfilled? He knows it by his own personal knowledge of the facts and events that have transpired around him. But suppose that some man in Prussia has in his library the “Life of George Washington.” In reading that, he there finds the notable prediction. How can he ascertain the fact that it has been fulfilled? The answer is evident—he can learn that fact from the reliable verbal testimony of one who has personally witnessed it, or from a history of the American Rebellion. Now suppose that a man who should live five hundred years in the future (were time to continue till then) should have in his library the Life of Washington, and he reads therein the wonderful prediction. How can that man learn that the prediction has been fulfilled? He can learn it only from historical evidence. But suppose he has also in his library the history of the American Rebellion. He reads in the one, the prediction uttered long before the events occurred; he turns to the other, and there reads the fulfillment written after the events have occurred. The two precisely agree. Though he has not personally witnessed the fulfillment of the prediction himself, yet he there learns from a reliable source that it has been fulfilled. Just so may we learn of the fulfillment of prophecies relating to other lands or other generations. Passing for the present over many other prophecies, not unimportant or uninteresting, we come now to notice some concerning the Jews. In the Old Testament are found numerous prophecies referring to them, and to their ancient cities and land. We shall here examine only a few of them. Lev. 26 and Deut. 28 contain those to which we will now give attention. A careful examination of these entire chapters will greatly aid the reader in an investigation of these predictions, as we shall here quote only a few verses. Here are promises of what God would do for them in blessing them if they would walk in his statutes and keep his commandments, and also threatenings of the evils he would bring upon them if they would not keep them. As they did not walk in his statutes according to the directions given them, but were continually rebellious, he has brought the evils herein predicted upon them. We will now quote from these chapters and give the evidence of their fulfillment: “The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young. And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed. . . . And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustest, throughout all thy land, and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.” Deut. 28; 49–52. The above language met a perfect fulfillment in the terrible wars against the Jews, which finally resulted in the complete subjugation and overthrow of the city of Jerusalem by the Roman army. The following brief language on this point is from Horne’s Introd., p. 123: “Moses foretold that their enemies would besiege and take their cities; and this prophecy was fulfilled by Shishak, king of Egypt, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus Epiphanes, Sosius and Herod, and finally by Titus.” A more extended description of these wars is given in detail by Josephus and others. “And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee.” Verse 53. We may find in Josephus’ Wars of the Jews a record of the perfect fulfillment of this verse. We here give a few short extracts from Book V, chapter 3, as an illustration of the evidence contained in his writings. He says: “There was a certain poor woman that dwelt beyond Jordan. Her name was Mary; . . . . She was eminent for her family, and her wealth, and had fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with them besieged therein at that time. The other effects of this woman had been already seized upon; such I mean as she had brought with her out of Perea, and removed to the city. What she had treasured up besides, as also what food she had contrived to save, had been also carried off by the rapacious guards, who came every day running into her house for that purpose; . . . . And if she found any food, she perceived her labors were for others, and not for herself; and it was now become impossible for her to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself; nor did she consult with anything but with her passion and the necessity she was in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, said: ‘Oh, thou miserable infant! for whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives we must be slaves! This famine also will destroy us even before that slavery comes upon us; yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by-word to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews.’ As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them; and withal uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight; when she said to them: ‘This is mine own doing! Come, eat of this food, for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one-half, let the rest be reserved for me also.’” A further examination of predictions concerning the Jews as contained in these chapters is deferred to another article.