(Mike - I am putting your name here so you won't feel left out.)
What is the difference between Prophetic conditions and modifications ?
Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
God has purposes for what He has prophecied, which can not be prevented. Some times these prophecies are allowed to have conditional choices and conditional fulfillments resulting from those choices . People are allowed to choose which way to go in reference to what God has said. But making that choice results in absolute consequences, which are only alterable through the Intercession, Mediation, and merits of Christ; if those choices involve sinning against God . It's like driving on an Interstate Highway, you are allowed to exit onto any exit you choose, but the particular exit ramp (or condition caused by your choice) does not change or modify because you have driven onto it and follow it to it's destination even though it was not the final destination's route shown on the National Map (Bible) and clarified on the local city map (SOP) .
The prophecy was not modified but allowed conditions to it's fulfillment as it was delivered to the people. Instead of following God's expressed will they chose their version of some form of compromise . Thus if possible they entered into the various conditional agreements that required God using either someone else to obey His expressed will to fulfil as He had spoken, or He begins the process of bringing them back into harmony with His expressed will and using them to fulfill things as He has said. If they could not be worked with they were separated from His using them, and He could read their hearts and their futures to see how long He could keep on holding them, before they caused their being cut off.
Consider David's various times of life before his apostasy , during it, and the results afterwards. David could no longer do what he could have done, but who fulfilled this prophecy (verses 34 - 37)? David's offspring - Jesus.
(Verses 38 - 45) David fulfilled that by his sins.
Psalms 89:
34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
38 ¶ But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
41 All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours.
42 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
43 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle.
44 Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.
45 The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
(Notice He did not say the son's of Israel {overcomer}, but Jacob {liar supplanter deceiver}
Who God is, what He does and says are based upon His continual truthfulness and eternal nature of His Deity, He sees all things in every detail and understands them, therefore He does not need to modify something after the fact . The evidence that sinful humanity, inspired by all the wiles of the Devil and his angels for all human history can not cause Him to alter his plans, prophecies, or methods is because He personally does not change and the fulfillment of all His inspired words are based upon His ability to fulfil them. When prophecy is given, it is a form of an agreement or contract or covenant delivered to people giving them opportunity to enter into it or stand apart from it. When conditions are given to the prophecy or within the prophecy, the requirements and effects of those conditions are absolute, even though tests were included within this prophecy. The passing or failing of those tests or conditions determined whether the people would receive this covenant within this prophecy and then God would fulfil it, or they would reject the terms of the covenant within the prophecy and God would reject fulfilling it to or through them. No evidence is yet found that God modifies prophecy, just the opposite. God adds conditions and implied covenants into prophecy thus keeping the nature of the prophecy absolute, even though the obedience of the people was relative (here today and gone tomorrow) .
Matthew 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Jesus always did only the Father's will . He was never a loose cannon. His fidelity becomes the ratification and surety or assurance of the absolute nature of prophecy, and His wisdom sees the need of placing conditions when necessary within prophecy and enforcing the outcomes of the choices taken, and interceding and mediating to fulfill the over riding prophecy made to Him by His Father if people will enter into that covenant.
That prophecy being -
"Isaiah 53:
1 ¶ Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 ¶ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Romans 3:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
John 10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Luke 11:2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Matthew 26:42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.
"If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never been checked. When the message of God meets with opposition, He gives it additional force, that it may exert greater influence. Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers and triumph over every obstacle. {AA 601.1}
What sustained the Son of God during His life of toil and sacrifice? He saw the results of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. Looking into eternity, He beheld the happiness of those who through His humiliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. {AA 601.2}
We may have a vision of the future, the blessedness of heaven. In the Bible are revealed visions of the future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, and these are dear to His church. By faith we may stand on the threshold of the eternal city, and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life co-operate with Christ, regarding it as an honor to suffer for His sake. As the words are spoken, "Come, ye blessed of My Father," they cast their crowns at the feet of the Redeemer, exclaiming, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
. . . Honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Matthew 25:34; Revelation 5:12, 13. {AA 601.3}
The Father promised Jesus - victory & victorious children through Him to be with Him forever. That is the over riding goal of all prophecy and that is why conditions are put into prophecy, so sinful humanity can still be worked with , through being brought into harmony with revealed prophecy and not cut off ; if they can be reached and brought to conform to God's will and be covered by the merits of Jesus .
There is a difference in modifying prophecy after the fact and adding conditions before hand. Perhaps the word modify was a poor choice for it suggests that prophecy and it's truths are relative instead of absolute and built with conditions of reception and fulfilment the effects of which are also absolute.
God has an absolute thing in reserve also, and it places a limit upon human time on Earth, before the Second Coming. Conditions were placed into the prophecies of the Second Coming and SDA's of past generations have activated the conditions that created delay. However stopping the Second Coming is impossible and world conditions suggest the delay phase is running out and global ability to support human life is receeding faster and faster testifing to the receeding of the personal presence of the Holy Ghost from our world. These things in similar but not exactly the same fashion happened just before the flood in Noah's day.
Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Acts 17:
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
We are running out of time to keep on doing our own things while ignouring God's things, is what the evidence is saying.
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Edward F Sutton
[This message has been edited by Edward F Sutton (edited February 17, 2001).]
