Confirmation through the Fulfilment of Prophecy — Part I: The Prophecies of Christ

Chapter XXVI.—Confirmation through the Fulfilment of Prophecy

Art. 1.—The testimony of Christ is confirmed by His Prophecies.

I.—Prophecy

As already explained a prophecy is a certain prediction of a future contingent event which cannot be foreseen naturally. If the future contingent event happens to be (1) remote, (2) predicted with minute circumstances, (3) complex in character, (4) free, and especially if (5) the predicted event happens to be a miracle and dependent therefore on Divine free-will, it can be said with certitude that the prophecy is absolutely beyond the power of human conjecture. A prophecy of this character, if fulfilled, points to the infinite prescience of God, and constitutes a most certain motive of credibility.

The prophecies made by Christ come first for consideration. The Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament are considered in Art. 2.

Rationalists assert that when Christ announced the destruction of Jerusalem, He joined with this event a prophecy in regard to the immediate end of the world. He was mistaken in the latter prediction, and therefore no confidence can be placed in the fulfilment of other prophecies.

II.—Christ predicted many future contingent events which have been fulfilled to the letter.

1° He knew with certitude the secrets of hearts.

“Some of the scribes said within themselves: He blasphemeth. And Jesus, seeing their thoughts said, why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matt. ix. 3, 4; xii. 24, 25; xvi. 7, 8; Mark ii. 8; Luke vi. 8; vii. 39, 40; xi. 17).

“Jesus knowing their wickedness said: Why do you tempt me ye hypocrites?” (Matt. xxii. 18; xxvi. 10; Luke v. 21, 22; ix. 46, 47).

“He knew what was in man” (John ii. 25).

“Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe, and who he was that would betray him” (John vi. 65; vii. 20; xiii. 11; xvi. 19).

Christ was cognoscent of events which took place at a distance: “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee” (John i. 48).

He told the Samaritan woman all that she had done (John iv. 29).

He said to Peter: “Go to the sea and cast in a hook, and that fish which shall first come up, take; and when thou hast opened its mouth thou shall find a stater: take that and give it to them for me and for thee” (Matt. xvii. 26).

2° He foretold His Passion and Resurrection.

“Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon him went forth” (John xviii. 4).

He foretold His Passion and Resurrection at least three times, clearly, minutely, and with certitude when the events could not be foreseen:

(1) After the confession of Peter (Matt. xvi. 20-23; Mark viii. 30-33; Luke ix. 21, 22).

(2) After the cure of the lunatic (Matt. xvii. 21, 22; Mark ix. 29-31; Luke ix. 44, 45).

(3) After the relation of the parable of the workmen sent into the vineyard (Matt. xx. 17-19; Mark x. 32-34; Luke xviii. 31-34).

St. Mark gives the prediction as follows: “The Son of Man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes and ancients, and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him and spit on him, and scourge him and kill him, and the third day He shall rise again” (Mark x. 33, 34).

St. Matthew adds the circumstance of crucifixion (Matt. xx. 17-19).

The Pharisees said to Pilate: “Sir, we have remembered that that seducer said while he was yet alive: after three days I will rise again” (Matt. xxvii. 63).

All these prophecies were fulfilled (Cf. Matt. xxvi. 57; Mark xiv. 64; Matt. xxvii. 2, 26, 30).

3° Christ foretold many circumstances regarding His disciples.

(a) He foretold to His disciples the graces of the Spirit whom “they should receive who believed in him” (John vii. 39).

He foretold persecutions (John xv. 18-20; Matt. x. 17-22; Matt. xxiv. 9-13; Mark iv. 17; x. 30; Luke xi. 49; xii. 1-11; xxi. 12, 13).

The Acts of the Apostles and Ecclesiastical History witness to the fulfilment (Acts iv. 1-8; v. 17, 41, etc.).

(b) To the Apostles He foretold their flight during His Passion and their meeting in Galilee after the Resurrection (Matt. xxvi. 31; John xvi. 32; Matt. xxvi. 56; xxviii. 16).

He promised to give them the power of converting sinners, the grace of miracles, the gift of tongues, the gifts of the Holy Ghost; He predicted opposition and final victory (Cf. Matt. iv. 18-20; x. 1-19; Mark i. 17; xvi. 17; Luke x. 19; xxi. 14, 15; xii. 32; Matt. xix. 28; John xv. 16).

(c) To Peter He predicted his apostolate, primacy, triple denial, martyrdom (Luke v. 10; Matt. xvi. 17-19; John i. 42; Matt. xxvi. 34; Mark xiv. 30, 71; John xiii. 36).

(d) He predicted to His disciples the incident of the ass and colt (Matt. xxi. 2), the incidents bearing upon preparation for the Supper (Matt. xxi. 3 sq.), the world-wide appreciation of the charity of Mary Magdalene (Matt. xxvi. 13; Mark xiv. 9).

4° Predictions regarding the Church:

(a) Christ predicted that the Apostles would receive the communication of the Holy Ghost (Acts i. 8; ii. 4).

(b) He predicted the wonderful propagation of the Church and its indefectibility (Matt. xvi. 18; xxviii. 19, 20).

(c) He predicted also the conversion of the Gentile nations: “Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Cf. Luke xx. 16; Matt. xiii. 31, 32; Luke xiv. 24; Matt. viii. 10 sq.; xxiv. 14; Luke xiii. 29).

5° Christ foretold many things to the Jews.

He foretold (a) the treason of Judas (Matt. xxvi. 21); (b) the punishment of the Jews (Mark xii. 9-12); (c) the taking away of the kingdom (Matt. xxi. 42-44; xxiii. 34-39; xi. 23).

6° Christ foretold the destruction of Jerusalem.

To understand the enunciation of this prophecy, its parts must be distinguished: (1) The prediction; (2) A twofold question of the Apostles regarding (a) the destruction of Jerusalem, and (b) the signs of the end of the world; (3) Reply of Christ to the first question; (4) His reply to the second question; (5) Detailed prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem.

The reply to (4) is not easily recognisable in St. Matthew’s Gospel, probably it begins at Matthew xxiv. 27; the reply is shorter in Luke xxi. 25-28, because it is answered elsewhere, namely, in Luke xvii. 20 sq.

(1) The prediction: “Do you see all these things? Amen, I say to you, there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed” (Matt. xxiv. 2; Mark xiii. 2; Luke xxi. 6).

(2) The twofold question: “The disciples came to him privately saying: Tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the consummation of the world?” (Matt. xxiv. 3).

St. Thomas notes that in St. Luke’s Gospel (xxi. 7) only one question is asked, namely, regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, because the disciples believed that Jerusalem would not be destroyed before the Second Coming. Hence they asked (Acts i. 6): “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

(3) Christ answers the first question which regards the destruction of Jerusalem. He gives three signs of that event.

(a) “Many will come in my name saying I am Christ: and they will seduce many … many false prophets shall arise” (Matt. xxiv. 5-11; Mark xiii. 5-6; Luke xxi. 7, 8).

Before the destruction of Jerusalem, Elymas and Simon (magicians) and Theodas, etc., appeared (Cf. 2 Peter ii. 1-20; 1 John ii. 18; Acts xiii. 6-11; viii. 9-10; v. 36).

(b) “You shall hear of wars and rumours of wars … nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be pestilences and famines and earthquakes in places. Now all these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matt. xxiv. 6-8; Mark xiii. 7, 8; Luke xxi. 9-11).

Josephus relates that before the destruction of Jerusalem, there was civil war in every state of Palestine (Bell. Jud. II, xvii. 10; xviii. 1-8). In the Roman Empire there were wars in Gaul, Germany, in the regions of the Danube, in Britain, in the country of the Parthians (Tacitus, Hist. I, ii.). Between the years A.D. 60-70 there were earthquakes at Laodicea A.D. 61 and Pompeii A.D. 63. There were pestilence and famine not only in Judea, but in the whole Roman Empire (Acts xi. 28; Tacitus, Annal. xvi. 13; Josephus, Bell. Jud. V, xii. 3; VI, iii.). In the year A.D. 65 terrible portents appeared at Jerusalem (Josephus, Bell. Jud. VI, v. 3; Tac. Hist. V, 13).

(c) “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death, and you shall be hated by all nations for my sake, and then shall many be scandalised and shall betray one another” (Matt. xxiv. 9-14; Mark xiii. 9-13; Luke xxi. 12-19).

Between A.D. 30 and A.D. 67 St. Peter, St. John and other Apostles were cast into prison. Christians were dispersed. St. Stephen and St. James were martyred. St. Paul was imprisoned, stoned, beaten with rods, brought before Gallio, Felix, Festus, Agrippa, Nero. Heresies sprang up and the Apostles preached everywhere (Matt. xxiv. 14; Mark xiii. 10; xvi. 20).

(4) The reply of Christ to the second question, which is eschatological, has already been considered and will be again discussed in this article under No. IV. It will be sufficient here to indicate that the answer is given in Matt. xxiv. 27-31; Mark xiii. 19-27; 32-37; Luke xvii. 20-37; xxi. 25-28.

(5) Detailed prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem (Cf. Matt. xxiv. 15-22; Mark xiii. 14-18; Luke xxi. 22-24). The cause of this terrible punishment was stated by Our Lord when He wept over Jerusalem (Luke xix. 42-44).

All these prophecies were fulfilled. The Jews revolted against Rome in A.D. 66 and 67. Vespasian began the attack and killed many Jews. He became Emperor in A.D. 69, and his son Titus continued the war. Christians fled to Pella. Titus besieged Jerusalem. Josephus relates (Bell. Jud. IV, ix. 3) that 1,100,000 Jews perished either by the sword or from famine, and 97,000 were sold into slavery. Later, the remainder were sold into slavery by Hadrian. The temple and city were burned and destroyed. The “abomination of desolation” was in the temple, for, during the siege, it was converted into a citadel, and after the siege the Romans used the temple to offer sacrifices to their gods (Bell. Jud. VII; VI, iii. 6; VI, vi. 1). These events took place A.D. 70, and thus were fulfilled the words of Christ: “Amen, amen, I say to you, this generation shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished” (Matt. xxiv. 34). The triumphal arch of Titus in Rome, the writings of Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius witness to the fulfilment (Cf. Tacitus, Hist. V. 1-13; Suetonius, Vesp. 4; Titus, 4).

III.—The prophecies of Christ are most certain motives of Credibility.

Christ’s prophecies are utterly beyond the power of natural prevision. Moreover, the prophecies regarding the Resurrection and the unshaken stability of the Church are not only future contingent events, but are miracles and therefore dependent on Divine free-will. In other cases the prediction of minute circumstances precludes the possibility of fortuitous occurrence.

Our Lord said: “At present I tell you before it come to pass: that when it shall come to pass you may believe that I am he” (John xiii. 19; xiv. 29). If the mission of Christ be not Divine, God has borne witness to error—which is impossible.

The gift of prophecy has not ceased. Many Saints possessed this endowment, as may be read in the volumes of the Bollandists and elsewhere.

IV.—Two Rationalistic Objections.

(1) Rationalists object against the validity of the prophecy regarding the destruction of Jerusalem. They claim that because of its detailed character the description of the destruction must have been written after the event. They admit that Christ foresaw in a general obscure way the coming catastrophe but not in detail (Stapfer, O. Holtzmann, Renan, A. Réville, etc.).

Answer: To have foreseen the destruction of Jerusalem was in itself an instance of extraordinary prevision. The Jews were living peaceably under the Roman Empire as Pliny notes (H.N., v. 15), and Jerusalem was the best known of the cities of the East. Again the prophecy of destruction was so well known that the Christians of Jerusalem left the city and went to Pella three years before the siege (Cf. Eusebius: Hist. Eccl., Book III, v.; S. Epiph., Hæres xxix. 7). Moreover, if the prophecy had been made after the event, the writers would not have associated the catastrophic end of the world with the destruction of Jerusalem, and they would have related that the temple was burned before being utterly destroyed.

Weiss (Das Leben Jesu) admits that St. Mark wrote before the event.

(2) Rationalists argue that Christ erred in prophesying the immediate end of the world, when He said: “This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled” (Matt. xxiv. 34; Mark xiii. 30; Luke xxi. 32; Matt. x. 5-6, 23; xvi. 28; xxvi. 64).

(A) These texts are difficult because Christ speaks both of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world, and as the first event is a figure of the second, it is not easy to determine what belongs to the first and what to the second. If, as Rationalists contend, Christ announced the immediate end of the world, He contradicted Himself, for in many places He spoke in an opposite sense:

(a) He said of the day of judgment: “Of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray. For ye know not when the time is” (Mark xiii. 32, 33; Matt. xxiv. 36). At the time of the Ascension He said to His disciples: “It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts i. 7).

(b) Christ foretold the spread of the Gospel amongst all nations: “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come” (Matt. xxiv. 14; Mark xiii. 10; xvi. 15). Moreover, the kingdom is compared to a grain of mustard seed, which gradually increases.

(c) The spread of the Gospel could not take place before the destruction of Jerusalem. The Jews “shall be led away captives unto all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles till the times of the nations be fulfilled” (Luke xxi. 24).

The object of Christ’s utterances regarding the end of the world was to emphasise the need of watchfulness: “Watch ye therefore, because ye know not what hour your Lord will come” (Matt. xxiv. 42; Mark xiii. 33; Luke xii. 39).

(B) These principles having been established, it will be easier to explain the words: “This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled.”

Chrysostom, Theophylus, Euthymius, understood “this generation” to mean the human race. St. Jerome (Hieron. in Matt. xxiv. 34) interprets the expression in the sense either of the whole human race or of the Jewish race. Others judge that the words refer, not to the end of the world, but to the destruction of Jerusalem (P. Lagrange, St. Marc, p. 323).

Others again hold that the words “this generation” have a twofold meaning. With reference to the destruction of Jerusalem they mean the generation of Jews living in those days, whereas with reference to the end of the world they signify the Jewish race (Fillion: St. Matt.).

The word “generation” is often used in the sense of “race” (Cf. Num. x. 30; Ps. xliv. 19).

Cardinal Billot has treated the question in La Parousie, also Lepin in Jésus Messie et Fils de Dieu, pp. 401-403.

(C) The words of Matt. xvi. 28: “Some that stand here shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom,” refer to the destruction of the temple and the expansion of the Church.

(D) Certain critics infer from 1 Thessal. iv. 15 that St. Paul regarded the end of the world as immediate. But comparison with the text 2 Thessal. ii. 2 corrects this impression.