Understanding Prophecy

The following talk was given in Sandy, Utah on December 16, 2023.

Foolishness is often displayed in religious matters. I cringe when it shows up among those who have accepted the Lord’s 2017 covenant. In moments of sober reflection I realize it cannot be prevented. It astonishes me that the Lord intends to fulfill His covenants, vindicate His promises, and meet every prophecy of His prophets. It perplexes me how that can happen in this ignorant generation. Nevertheless, somehow God has decreed that it will be so. 

One particularly foolish religious practice involves dogmatic claims to understand just how prophecy will be fulfilled. We can’t do that because God has taken precautions to prevent it. As Isaiah reported: “Have you not known, have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth faints not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.” Isa. 14:5. How God chooses to vindicate His prophecies is entirely in His own unsearchable mind. He intends for it to remain hidden, until at last He accomplishes it. When it is underway, we must consider and ask whether THIS (whatever “this” is) meets the promises God gave beforehand. No matter how it may vary from our predictions, when God’s purposes are underway they will look only how God planned them to look. 

God told Isaiah (referring to His people, Israel):
“Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass, I have, even from the beginning, declared it to you; before it came to pass, I showed it to you, lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my engraved image and my molten image has commanded them. You have heard, see all this; and will not you declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning, even before the day when you heard them not, lest you should say, Behold, I knew them. Yea, you heard not, yea, you knew not; yea, from that time that your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously and were called a transgressor from the womb. For my name’s sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I cut you not off. Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake — even for my own sake — will I do it[.]” Isa. 17:1. 

He shows it beforehand, but to us it still remains “hidden” and we “know not” because our “ear was not opened.” We assume, we presume, we conjecture and we impose our own vanity and foolishness thinking that we can search out God’s plans, even when He has said, “There is no searching of his understanding.” 

When Jesus Christ was here fulfilling all the prophecies of His coming to His people, there was a learned Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin whose interest in Christ was aroused. However, Nicodemus did not recognize Christ as the Messiah, but instead thought Him just a provocative teacher worth quizzing. Christ reminded Nicodemus that everything He had done, was doing, and would yet accomplish, had been foretold by the prophets. Christ explained it this way: 

“Every thing about my assignment, which I am now performing, was foretold by the prophets sent earlier to teach Israel, for they all testified of me. They told you I would come, and I am now here doing what was prophesied, but you refuse to see it happening. Enough is underway that rejecting it means you prefer darkness to light. Humble yourself and admit the prophets foretold the very things now underway; repent and be baptized and the Spirit of Truth will open your eyes. If you want greater light, you will obey this instruction.” T&C 171: TSJ 2:4. 

Nicodemus knew the prophecies, and he thought he understood them. However, he could not understand how it