Letter 3: It is written – and it happened

“You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’ If, what the prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken, That prophet has spoken presumptuously” (Deuteronomy 18:21, 22).

 

“Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

 

And God spoke through Isaiah:

 

“I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My idols did them’” (Isaiah 48:5).

 

“I am the Lord, who has made all things, who carries out the words of His servants and fulfils the predictions of His messengers” (Isaiah 44:24, 26).

 

We can detect three main themes of prophecy in the Bible. One foretells the very unique history of the Jews, right up to the present time. The second pictures in dramatic detail the time of the end of this world, and the third predicts, again in much detail, the life of Jesus the Messiah. In graphic description the prophets also foretold His suffering and death on the cross, as well as His resurrection from the dead. Had these not been fulfilled, we might have a reason to question the message and the divine source of our Book. But, excepting those describing the end of the world, these prophecies were all fulfilled. This gives us the confidence to rely on the message of the Bible, for no man could have predicted these historic happenings. Only God could have known and revealed them.

 

Little wonder then that throughout the Gospel we read phrases like “as it was written”, or “as the prophet has said”. In the New Testament, we read: