The Apologetic Value of Prophecy

by Kenny Chumbley

“(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17).

According to Paul, prophecy—the ability to call things which are not, as though they were—is one of the chief evidences of deity. True prophecy is neither educated guessing nor weather forecasting, in which predictions are made based on past trends or empirical data. True prophecy is the ability to accurately foretell that which is beyond the scope of human knowledge. Consider this analysis of genuine prophecy from Paley’s Evidences of Christianity, by William Paley, edited by Richard Whately:

“It is important to keep in mind that there are four points requisite to establish the claim of any alleged Prophecy to proceed from a divine revelation:

1. It must have been prior to the event.
2. It must correspond precisely with the event, and must not be in such vague and general language as the predictions in vulgar Almanacs; that 'a certain great personage is likely to have cause for uneasiness,' etc.
3. It must be something beyond mere human sagacity. This rule precludes the predictions of eclipses, etc.
4. It must be a prediction that could not have caused its own fulfillment, by suggesting to someone who knew of it, a corresponding procedure” (217).

So powerful is the force of prophecy as an argument for the existence of deity that God Himself cites it in throwing down the gauntlet to idolaters. “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them; or declare us things to come. Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together” (Isaiah 41:21-23).

Prophecy is indeed an undeniable sign of deity. And it’s for this reason that skeptics have savaged prophetic sections of the Old Testament. For instance, liberal critics frequently talk about “DeuteroIsaiah,״ i.e, someone other than Isaiah who wrote certain sections of the book. The simple reason for the critics’ creation of a second author is prophecy.

To illustrate: in the eighth century BC, Isaiah predicted that the Medes would destroy Babylon (Isaiah 13:17ff). At the time Isaiah wrote this, Assyria was the dominant power; Babylon had the national status of a third-world country, and Media was barely a blip on the political radar screen. But some three hundred years after Isaiah's prediction, a Medo-Persian named Cyrus (see Isaiah 44:28; 45:1) divided his army into three groups. One was stationed on the north side of Babylon, where the Euphrates River entered the city. A second group was posted on the south side where the river exited the city. And the third group marched upstream, where it diverted the river into an adjoining swamp. When the level of the river fell, Cyrus' army waded into the Chaldean capital.

Skeptics can’t handle the implications of Isaiah’s prophecy; it is just too good. Therefore, they argue the prophetic sections must have been written after the fact by someone using Isaiah’s name. Let it be noted that they have no historical evidence to back their assertion. But they nevertheless assert it, based on nothing except their a priori presuppositions against God.

Don’t overlook the apologetic value of the prophetical sections of Scripture. For they are powerful arguments for the existence of God.