The Bible is a most remarkable book. Its account of the origin of evil; its unparalleled record of God’s dealings with the nation of Israel; its searching message through their prophets; its “good news” proclaimed by Jesus Christ and his apostles; above all, its unerring analysis of the weaknesses of human nature and its contrasting portrayal of the holiness, the truth and the mercy of God, made especially plain in the person of His Son – all these are outstanding features found in no other book in the world. They prompted Henry Rogers over 100 years ago to declare: “The Bible is not such a book as man would have written if he would.” [1] In other words, God is needed to explain its existence.
In this short work we shall consider one of the Bible’s unique features: its prophecy. Now strictly prophecy is not just foretelling the future. A prophet was one who “spoke for” another, a spokesman; and prophecy was the message the prophet spoke on behalf of God. But since Bible prophecy contains quite a lot of “prediction”, or foretelling future events, for our purpose here we shall take the term in that sense.
Who has the Power of Prophecy?
But first we must settle …