The dictionary gives the word "prophecy" three major meanings: one, the vocation of a prophet; two, an inspired utterance of a prophet; three, a declaration of something to come. Our present purpose limits discussion to the predictive ministry of foretelling the future. Fair judgment of biblical prediction requires a rigid standard for judgment of true prophecy, of diversity in the life and work of Bible prophets, and of examples of detailed prophecy with specific fulfillment.

1. Standard of Judgment to validate prophecy.

The Bible established a strict and uncompromising standard for judging the validity of any prophecy: the future event must fulfill the prophetic prediction.

How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. (Deut.18:21,22).

Prediction could face no higher nor demanding standard. The test allowed no compromise. The fulfillment must correspond to the prediction in time, place, person, and even detailed circumstances. No other book can boast a higher standard nor a more rigid test. Yet the Bible placed the biblical prophet and the prediction under this uncompromising requirement for validation.

2. The diversity of the Bible prophets.

While the Old Testament speaks of a "school of the prophets", God used special people apart from such training to produce the prophetic books. Prophets whose writings are preserved as a part of the Old Testament present a profile of diversity. God's call establishes the one bond of human likeness.

Consider the godly Samuel, the princely Isaiah, the rural Amos, the statesman Daniel, the weeping Jeremiah, the sorrowing Hosea. Each prophet differs from all others. None has special training for the position. Each has responded to God's call.

As the prophets differ, so do the predictions, yet none is contradictory. All progressively unfold God's plan and program for human history through a human spokesman.

3. Examples of Bible prophecy.

Examples of Bible prophecy have captivated the attention of students by the amazing fulfillment of the predictions. Dr. J. Barton Payne has recorded an exhaustive study of Bible predictions. He reached the conclusion that out of 31,124 Bible verses 8352 are predictive. No other book approaches this record. Twenty-eight and one-half percent of the Old Testament and twenty-one and one half percent of the New Testament are predictive. Counting repeats in books, he found 1,817 predictions. On this basis, the Bible tests its own validity nearly two thousand times by the strict standard for judging the validity of a prophecy. No other book could venture this jeopardy.

Consider two of the Old Testament predictions from the multiple examples of foretelling future events with specific and exact statements: one, the blinded king exiled to Babylon (Ezekiel 12:13) and the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezekiel 26:7-14); two, God's protection of Jerusalem and the extermination of the Assyrian army (Isaiah 37:30-38). These two examples of prophecy and fulfillment, selected from the copious plentitude designated by Dr. Payne, demonstrate what distinguishes the Bible from all other religious writings.

No other writing - secular or religious - compares with the biblical books in prediction of the future. Past history has already vindicated hundreds of Bible predictions and, even more importantly, has contradicted none. The Bible is unique in all literature in the area of prophecy. The records of history have chronicled the exact fulfillment of what the Bible prophets predicted.

Sceptics have attempted in vain to discredit the accuracy of biblical predictions. Every opposition has resulted in another vindication by the strict standard that the Bible has established.

Fair judgement requires a reasonable explanation for the unique prophetic portion of the Bible.

Common sense raises the question: how can the unique accuracy of the Bible predictions be explained without accepting the claim that the Bible makes for itself.

Common sense cannot accept the explanation that accidental coincidence can account for the mass of biblical prediction and subsequent fulfillment.

Common sense answers that the Bible is a tangible fact in which prediction defies any answer except that the Bible is what it claims to be: the Word of God.

Common sense can accept no alternative as a reasonable explanation of the fact that biblical prophecy demonstrates the validity of the Bible.

Fair judgment allows no alternative!

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