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Thursday, October 10, 2013

Unfulfilled prophecy


If, then, fulfilled prophecies are evidence for Scripture's reliability, then don't unfulfilled prophecies have to count as evidence against its truthfulness? It would certainly seem so, especially when we remember that a lot of these prophecies were given two thousand years and more ago. If some modern-day astrologer made a prediction that didn't come to pass even in a hundred years, would we still believe the prediction was correct? I doubt it, but then the skeptic is likely to tell us that if these prophecies about the end times were really true, they would have been fulfilled by now. Certainly, these prophecies can't be used as evidence that Scripture is reliable. J. Feinberg, Can You Believe It's True: Christian Apologetics in a Modern & Postmodern Era (Crossway 2013), 403.

I find this argument odd on several levels:

i) In principle, an unfulfilled prophecy is not equivalent to a failed prophecy. Of course, there can be some overlap. But even though some unfulfilled predictions are failed predictions (i.e. short-sighted psychics), not all unfulfilled predictions are failed predictions. After all, every fulfilled prophecy was unfulfilled before it was fulfilled. There was an interval during which it was unfulfilled. 

ii) If a prophecy says something won't happen until something else happens first, then the nonevent can be a confirmation of the prophecy. Some nonevents are surprising. We normally expect some things to happen. If something hasn't happened, that sometimes calls for special explanation. Some prophecies predict more than one thing, where a later event is contingent on an earlier event. 

iii) Whether we'd expect a prediction to come to pass by now depends on the wording of the prediction, as well as the nature of the problem which the fulfillment is intended to solve. There's nothing antecedently improbable about long-range prophecies. 

iv) As a matter of fact, the OT contains some messianic prophecies which weren't fulfilled for centuries or millennia. So there's precedent for long-range unfulfilled prophecies.

v) Some prophecies are conditional. Contingent on repentance. If you do A, B will happen–but if you don't to A, C will happen. 

vi) If Jesus returned in 500 AD or 1000 AD, you and I wouldn't be here. Our parents wouldn't be here. Our children wouldn't be here. Whether we should expect endtime prophecies to have been fulfilled by now depends on how many fallen generations God intends to save. The sooner Jesus comes, the fewer the number of fallen generations who were given the opportunity to enjoy eternal life. Even if there's procreation in the world to come, those are different generations. Different people. 

Is the objective of the new covenant for Jesus to return as soon as possible? Or is the objective to save more people? 

The new covenant is more expansive than the Mosaic covenant. A missionary faith directed at all people-groups. Expansive in time as well as space. Diachronically as well as geographically. 

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