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by Kevin Pauley
Internal Consistency; Inerrancy - Evidenced in Prophecy
But the prophet who dares to speak in My name a message I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods--that prophet must die.' You may say to yourself, 'How can we recognize a message the LORD has not spoken?' When a prophet speaks in the LORD's name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him. - Deuteronomy 18:20-22 HCSB
Besides his claim to fame as the author of the book of “prophecies” called Centuries, Nostradamus (1503-1566) also claimed to be a physician. He wrote a supposed “translation” of Galen and another book called Traite des fardemens with treatments for the plague. Not one of his prescribed treatments worked.
His prophecies were all paraphrases of other works, with added references to various historical figures and events. He plagiarized the works of Livy, Suetonius, and Plutarch. The only parts of one work that were not word-for-word quotations of Richard Roussat’s Livre de l’estat et mutations des temps were copying errors.
The language he used in his quatrains was so vague, confused and nonsensical that not one has ever been used to accurately predict any event before it actually happened.
In contrast, around 701-681 BC, Isaiah accurately predicted the coming of the Messiah, describing Him as a servant of God who would be a light to the Gentiles and bring justice to the world.[1]
Jesus told us that His words would never be forgotten[2] regardless of what happened to the world. Over 2000 years later, we are still discussing them. He predicted the destruction of the Temple saying that not one stone would be left on another but that every one would be thrown down.[3] He went on to prophesy that all of Jerusalem would be destroyed and its people dispersed throughout the nations.[4] Forty years later, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, killing around 1.5 million Jews. The Temple was set on fire causing the gold-leaf ornamentation to run into all the crevices of the stones. The Romans pried apart every stone trying to get at that gold. Then the surviving Jews were taken as slaves and spread throughout the Roman Empire on every inhabited continent, accurately fulfilling the Lord’s prophecy to the letter.
Daniel also predicted the Lord’s death and the ensuing destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, even predicting which people would bring it about some 600 years before it happened.[5]
Around 750-686 BC, Micah said that Jerusalem would be “plowed like a field.”[6] In AD 135, a Roman officer named Turnus Rufus plowed the area of the Temple.
Literally hundreds of prophecies listing dates, times, places and even names of individuals[7] litter the Holy Scriptures. When comes to predicting the earth’s future, who would you rather listen to? El De’ot[8], God of Knowledge, or a pretender like Nostradamus?
[7] Isaiah 44:28; 54:1 some 700 years before Cyrus was born
Kevin Pauley is a pastor and writer. He lives in Illinois with his wife, Lynn, their five children and two dogs. His internet address is Berea.
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