FUTURE TIME PART 1

The Bible book of Isaiah has been found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and that particular scroll dated to 125BC. Predictions (prophecies) in Isaiah about events after 125BC, of which there are a significant number, cannot have been written “after the events described” as claimed by bemused cynics. The book of Isaiah Isaiah 46:9–11 explains how this extraordinary facility to describe future events arises:

“I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come.

I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”

Notice how God’s prophesied actions were planned from the beginning and will continue until the end, and that it will all happen to fulfil his purpose. There is an incredible purpose not simply for the universe, but for our individual lives that continues into the deep future. Take heart!

Knowing that scripture has been uncanningly precise in predicting the future without error, I have to decide what to do with this extraordinary fact. Would I be a fool not to put confidence in the few remaining prophecies about events that lie ahead? The answer would appear to be a resounding “Yes. Of course you would be a fool!”, but I have found a glitch within this logic. Consider the interaction between Jesus and his disciples shortly before his ascension, described in Acts 1:6–7