Argument from Fulfilled Prophecy
·
Definition: in the narrow sense, prophecy is the
foretelling of future events by virtue of direct communication from God.
·
Requirements in Prophecy, considered as an
evidence of revelation:
o
The utterance must be distant from the event.
o
Nothing must exist to suggest the event is
merely natural prescience.
o
The utterance must be free from ambiguity.
o
Yet it must not be so precise as to secure its
own fulfillment.
o
It must be followed in due time by the event
predicted.
·
General features of Prophecy in the Scriptures:
o
Its vast amount, extending over 4000 years.
o
Its unity in diversity--finding its central
point in Christ and excluding all possibility of human fabrication.
o Its
actual fulfillment as regards many of its predictions, while all attempts have
failed to show that any single one of these predictions has been falsified by
the event.
Argument from the Miraculous
·
Definition: a miracle is an event palpable to
the senses, produced for a religious purpose by the immediate agency of God; an
event therefore which, though not contravening any law of nature, the laws of
nature, if fully known, would not be competent to explain.
·
The amount of testimony necessary to prove a
miracle is no greater than that which is requisite to prove the occurrence of
any other unusual but confessedly possible event.
·
Miracles are the natural accompaniments and
attestations of new communications from God.
The great epochs of miracles -- represented by Moses, the prophets, the
first and second comings of Christ -- are coincident with the great epochs of
revelation. Miracles serve to draw
attention to new truth, and cease when this truth has gained currency and
foothold.
Argument from the Credibility of the Writers of Scripture
·
They are able or competent witnesses (having
opportunities of observation and inquiry, being men of sobriety and
discernment).
·
They are honest witnesses (their testimony
imperiled all their worldly interests, the moral elevation of their writings
and their adherence to it show they were not willful deceivers but good men).
·
The writings of the evangelists mutually support
each other.
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