![\"hays-book\"](\"https:\/\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Hays-book-200x300.gif\")
Today\u2019s post is part 2 of a 3 part series on why Jesus didn\u2019t come back soon as\u00a0he said he would\u2014or in technical terms, why\u00a0the parousia is delayed.<\/p>\n
The posts are co-written by Christopher M. Hays and C. A. Strine\u00a0and based on the recent book edited by Hays,\u00a0When the Son of Man Didn\u2019t Come: A Constructive Proposal on the Delay of the Parousia<\/a><\/em> The gist of yesterday\u2019s post<\/a> (Hays)\u00a0was that, indeed, Jesus told his disciples that he would come back\u00a0soon<\/em> but then didn\u2019t. Today\u2019s post, written by Old Testament scholar Strine begins to tell us why.<\/p>\n Post 2: Prophets aren\u2019t Fortunetellers or Meteorologists<\/strong> (by C. A. Strine)<\/p>\n How does one explain with any intellectual honesty a Second Coming that Jesus said would come soon but didn\u2019t? As Christopher mentioned in the first post<\/a>, we believe it comes down to how one understands \u201cpredictive prophecy.\u201d<\/p>\n We think that the statements about Jesus\u2019 return in the Gospels are prophecies, which aren\u2019t meant to be predictions of future events<\/strong>. Now that really sounds weird.<\/p>\n Except, it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n When most people read something called prophecy, especially predictive prophecy, they assume that the statements about the future intend to describe accurately what the prophet understands, through divine inspiration, will actually happen in the future<\/em>.<\/p>\n We tend to think of prophets like divine meteorologists providing a long-term forecast. Predictions of doom and gloom or images of abundant blessing are taken to be statements about what the future will<\/em> be like.\u00a0That\u2019s what prophets do: they tell us now<\/em> about what things will<\/u> be like then<\/em>, some time in the future.<\/p>\n Only that\u2019s\u00a0not what the Old Testament tells us.<\/p>\n The Book of Jeremiah<\/strong> comes closest to giving a model for how predictive prophecy works, and it is rather different than the \u201cpredict the future\u201d model.<\/p>\n Indeed, Jeremiah makes it very clear that some predictive prophecy is not meant to come pass at all.<\/em><\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at Jeremiah 18:5-10. This passage explains that God reserves the possibility to change course<\/em> even after the prophet who speaks on God\u2019s behalf predicts blessing or cursing.<\/p>\n Then the word of the LORD came to me:\u00a0 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter\u2019s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.\u00a0 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,\u00a0but if<\/strong> that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind<\/strong> about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.\u00a0And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it,\u00a0but if<\/strong> it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind<\/strong> about the good that I had intended to do to it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In other words, God may not send the predicted punishment if the people repent, or conversely withhold a predicted blessing if the people do evil in God\u2019s sight.<\/p>\n Statements about the future are descriptions of how bad it might<\/em> be, or how abundant God\u2019s blessing could<\/em> be. It all depends on what people do<\/em>.<\/p>\n Prophecies are conditional<\/em> statements.<\/strong> Predictive prophecies explain what is on offer, not what has already been decided.<\/p>\n This dynamic is highlighted later in Jeremiah (ch. 26, to be exact). After having prophesied the destruction of the Temple\u2014obviously not a popular position in Jerusalem\u2014the priests, the prophets, and all the people condemn Jeremiah to death (vv. 7-9) because of his prediction of doom.<\/p>\n But then the elders of the land recall that Micah had predicted a similar fate for Jerusalem. They also recall that, on that occasion, Hezekiah (the king reigning at that time) didn\u2019t try to eliminate Micah because he was irked by his dire prophecy; rather, the threat of destruction provoked Hezekiah to plead with God to spare Jerusalem.<\/em><\/p>\n And God did. Crisis averted.<\/p>\n Micah\u2019s prophecy didn\u2019t come to pass<\/em>, but drove Hezekiah to change his ways. And that made him a good<\/em> prophet. A very good one indeed.<\/p>\n Prophecy does not simply seek to predict the future, but to change the present.<\/em> <\/strong>The potential of future disaster is meant to change current behavior, to motivate people to repent, to turn back to God, and to live in a way that will persuade God to hold back judgment.<\/p>\n Or, when blessing is promised, prophecy aims to encourage people to persevere in following God\u2019s commands, to do so with all the more conviction, and to remind them that backsliding into rebellion might convince God not to bestow the good things offered to them at all.<\/p>\n Prophets want to activate<\/em> certain behaviors in their audiences, not prognosticate<\/em> future events.<\/strong> They are like parents warning children against foolish behavior and encouraging good behavior, not weather forecasters attempting to tell you whether or not you\u2019ll need an umbrella at noontime tomorrow.<\/p>\n This is the case around the ancient world and the Old Testament (as we discuss in the book<\/a> Think, for instance, of the book of Jonah<\/strong>. This prophet is no doubt a comic figure, in a comical book, but surely one with a serious point.<\/p>\n C. A. (Casey) Strine<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Why does Jonah resist going to Nineveh? Precisely because he knew that alerting the people of this foreign nation to the potential of God\u2019s punishment would cause them to change their ways<\/em> (Jon 4:1-4). Jonah wanted God to punish Nineveh; he knew his \u201cprediction\u201d of punishment could change their behavior and avoid that outcome; so he ran away.<\/p>\n In the book we show how this same view of prophecy lies beneath passages in Isaiah, 2 Samuel, early Jewish texts, and, as Christopher will explain in the next post, the New Testament too.<\/p>\n Prophets are not fortunetellers or weather forecasters. They are not claiming to predict an inevitable, unchanging future, but to change the way that people live in the present.<\/p>\n When we read predictive prophecy\u2014in the Old Testament, the Gospels, or elsewhere\u2014we need to ask what it wants to activate us to do, not what it might prognosticate about the future.<\/p>\n As we\u2019ll see in our next post, this is just what New Testament shows us.<\/p>\n [Part 3 coming tomorrow . . . ]<\/p>\n See some of Pete\u2019s\u00a0popular books:\u00a0The Bible Tells Me So<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(HarperOne, 2014), \u00a0Inspiration and Incarnation<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Baker 2005\/2015), and \u00a0The Sin of Certainty<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(HarperOne, 2016).<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=inspirandinca-20&l=ur2&o=1&camp=1789\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=inspirandinca-20&l=am2&o=1&a=1451465548\")
![\"C.](\"https:\/\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Strine-speaking-header-image-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMore in this series:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n