Unfulfilled Prophecy
By J. C. Philpot
There is, we know, in the mind of many experimental
preachers and writers a prejudice against the whole subject of
unfulfilled prophecy. The cause of this is not difficult to ascertain.
They have seen how many notional professors have made a little smattering of
unfulfilled prophecy and a letter faith in the latter-day glory a substitute
for the teachings of the Blessed Spirit in the soul. They have also seen how
ministers who once promised well have been drawn aside by the study of
prophecy from the line of vital experience into dead and dry speculations,
and instead of feeding the church of God with what they themselves have
felt, tasted, and handled of the word of life, set before them the fruit
only of their studious brain, which indeed may inform the judgment but only
starves the soul.
They feel also that the choice of the flock, the most
tried and tempted, as well as the most blessed and favored of the living
family, especially the poor in this world's goods, are willingly strangers
to this speculative knowledge, and have proved and are daily proving that
there is nothing in it to bless their souls, comfort their hearts, subdue
their sins, deliver them out of temptation, break to pieces their snares, or
make Christ precious. All this we see and feel, and have seen and felt for
years, and can sincerely and honestly say that the study of unfulfilled
prophecy in the bare letter, as distinct from the sweet vein of spiritual
experience hidden in it—which, by the by, these professors never see—has
never communicated a grain of divine comfort to our heart, and has never
been made the least blessing to our soul in a way of sensible communication.
We do not say that it has not been blessed to others.
There are those whom we believe to be children of God who have told us that
they have found the subject truly profitable to them, and have felt their
hearts stirred up, and their affections sensibly loosened from the things of
time and sense, by anticipating the near approach of Christ's Second Coming.
Thus, others may have found a blessing in it which we may not. But we must
acknowledge that we have taken and still do take much interest in it; and
this may be the case with others of our readers. It must be acknowledged
that there are many subjects of interest to the church of God apart from
personal experience. That is indeed the grand point, the indispensable
thing, without which all knowledge is speculative, barren, and worthless;
but we may be allowed sometimes to look out of our own immediate circle of
individual experience and cast a glance at the hopes and expectations of the
church. These things do not clash. In the same way as members of a gospel
church, besides their own personal sorrows and joys, are called upon and
sometimes are enabled to "weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them
that do rejoice," who are bound up in the bond of Christian fellowship with
themselves, so may the members of Christ's mystical body sorrow and rejoice
with the sufferings and hopes of the church at large.
No book in the whole compass of the sacred volume is
confessedly so difficult of interpretation as the Revelation of John. This
difficulty arises not only from the very nature of the subject, unfulfilled
prophecy being necessarily obscure until its accomplishment, but from the
symbolical form under which the predictions in it are couched. In these
symbols there is this striking peculiarity, that while viewed spiritually
they are most simple and expressive, they are, viewed literally, (that is,
with respect to their historical fulfillment,) most difficult and obscure.
Take, for instance, the pouring out of the vials of the wrath of God upon
the earth. (Rev. 16.) What more simple or expressive figure could there be
of the righteous anger of Jehovah, treasured up, as it were, until the
iniquities of the world called it down? But when we come to adapt these
distinct vials to historical events, and attempt to determine at what period
they were successively poured out, and what is their strict, literal
accomplishment, then the difficulty commences, and what, experimentally
viewed, is most plain and instructive, prophetically viewed is most obscure
and uncertain.
The objection, then, immediately arises, "Why attempt an
explanation of what, according to your own admission, is so obscure? Would
it not be better wholly to abstain from examining so perplexing and
uncertain a subject? As the spiritual meaning is so simple and plain, so
filled with holy wisdom, so edifying and instructive, so pregnant with
encouragement and consolation, blended at the same time with such solemn
warning and admonition, would it not be far better to confine yourself to
what is so experimental and profitable, and not puzzle and perplex yourself
and us with what is so dark and difficult?" We admit the force of the
argument, as is evident from the way in which we have stated it; but may we
not have both? Preserving to its fullest degree the spiritual, may we
not also give a glance at the literal interpretation? Is this forbidden by
the blessed Spirit? Does he forewarn us against approaching this holy
ground, if at least, like Moses, we put off the shoes of carnal reason from
off our feet?
How does the sacred record open? "The Revelation of Jesus
Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must
shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his
servant John. Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this
prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is
at hand." If God gave the revelation to Jesus Christ, "to show unto his
servants things which must shortly come to pass," why should not his
servants attempt to understand the things shown to them? And if there be a
blessing promised on those who read and hear the words of the prophecy, why
should we not seek to obtain a manifested interest in such a promise?
Besides the spiritual meaning, there is evidently a prophetical one; and it
is equally evident that this prophetical meaning was given for the church to
read, study, and profit by. If, then, we keep this literal meaning in its
proper place, subsidiary and subordinate to the experimental interpretation,
there seems to be no scriptural reason against examining it. But, if it be
again objected, that the difficulty of the interpretation must always form
an insuperable barrier, may we not reply, that the same ever-blessed Jesus
who gave it to John for the express benefit of his church and people can
unfold its meaning to our understanding, as well as apply its promises with
power to our hearts? But while we speak thus, we at the same time feel so
much both the difficulty of the subject and our own incapacity properly to
handle it, that it has all but deterred us even from making the attempt; and
we therefore trust our readers will bear with us if we come short in laying
it open to their satisfaction.
The inherent difficulty of the book has almost
necessarily produced a proportionate variety of interpretation. Two striking
instances may be adduced to show this. There are interpreters who assert
that the whole of the Revelation has been already fulfilled, and that the
first three or four centuries of the Christian church witnessed its entire
accomplishment;* and there are those who say that no part has been yet
accomplished beyond the first three chapters, and that the whole still
remains in the dim and distant future.† We cannot subscribe to either of
these views, and hardly know which is the more inconsistent or untenable. If
the first opinion were true, it would be the strongest argument which an
infidel could urge against the inspiration of the book; for the grand
evidence of a prophecy being inspired is its undeniable accomplishment. And
if the second view were well founded, not only would the church of God have
been left uncared for and unnoticed in the sacred chart of prophecy for
above 1,700 years, but it would falsify the positive declaration, which we
have already quoted, as standing on the very threshold of the book, that the
things predicted were "shortly to come to pass." In opposition to
these strained and inconsistent opinions, we believe, in common with most
interpreters, that much, if not by far the greater part, has been already
fulfilled, that an important part is now being accomplished under our eyes,
and that the day is fast approaching when there will sound the "great voice
out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done!"
There are certain truths of divine revelation which to an
enlightened understanding are beyond all dispute or controversy; and on
these points, as they are usually of vital, fundamental importance, a
preacher or a writer who seeks to edify the church of God cannot express
himself too clearly or insist too strongly. But there are other truths
which, either because less plainly revealed, or because the time for their
being fully understood is not yet come, are proportionally obscure and
uncertain; and therefore preachers and writers who would reverently treat
the oracles of God must either abstain from them altogether, or if they
approach them, must handle them with caution and with the utter absence of
positiveness and dogmatism. The truths themselves may be as certain, the
obscurity not being in them nor in the mode of their revelation, but in our
mind, which for various reasons—as natural darkness, want of divine
teaching, unbelief, force of prejudice, cleaving to traditional
interpretation, rigid discipleship to some master in Israel—is unable to
grasp or enter into them. This is particularly the case with the prophetical
Scriptures—which, besides the difficulty which arises out of their
symbolical language, must almost necessarily be obscure until their
fulfillment throws upon them its clear and unerring light. When that time
arises, their meaning will be so clear that the wonder will be they were not
before understood.
To make our meaning more clear, let us for a moment
suppose a saint of God under the Old Testament endeavoring to penetrate into
the meaning of Isaiah 53. To us who can read it in the light of Messiah's
humiliation, sufferings, and death, the meaning is plain and clear, and we
see the Man of sorrows portrayed in every line. But that before the coming
of Christ its meaning was most obscure to the Old Testament saints is
evident from the ignorance of the eunuch who was reading this chapter, and
his inquiry of Philip, "I pray you, of whom speaks the prophet this? of
himself, or of some other man?"
Now, in the same way as the prophecies which spoke of
Christ's first coming were obscure until the Redeemer came as a suffering
Jesus, so must the prophecies which treat of his second coming be obscure
until he comes as a triumphant Jesus. But, as the prophets and saints of old
"searched what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them
did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the
glory that should follow," so surely it may be allowable for us in these
last times to search the sacred Scriptures, to see what is revealed in them
of the second coming of the triumphant Messiah.