Originally posted by npetreley
Ah, you mean like the 70 weeks of daniel, where all the prophecies were fulfilled less than a year and a half after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given.
Week: "[font="Arial, Helvetica"]
Shabuwa`" Strongs 7620[/font]
1)seven, period of seven (days or years), heptad, week
Or perhaps you mean like in Hosea 6:1-2 where God restored Israel 3 days after Hosea spoke or wrote this.
Can you show me how this is not speaking of the literal 3 days between Christ's crusifixion and rising?
Or perhaps you're talking abouthow Jesus had already been crucified before Isaiah wrote this. After all, prophecy is every time, without fail, always given to be understood by how time relates to man, and this is clearly in the past tense:
Perhaps I wasn't clear, I'll effort to correct that now:
When a time limit is attached to a particular prophesies
fulfillment, it is always given to be understood by how time relates to man, not how time relates to God. Every time, without fail, always.
Here are a few examples, perhaps youcan show me why I should not apply the same "elasticity" to these prophetic time limits that you are suggesting I apply to The 2nd coming.
Genesis 7:1-4, Exodus 9:1-5, Exodous11:4-5, Jeremiah 25:11, Jeremiah 29:10, 2 Chronicles 36:20-21.
All the above have 3 things in common:
1) Each was a prophecy of judgment.
2) Each was given to men trapped in time.
3) Each had a specific time statement concerning its fulfillment.
God spoke through Jeremiah to the nation of Israel that they would be in bondage for seventy years. Now if the futurists interpretation of 2 Peter 3:8-9 is applied to these passages, then the nation of Israel would be in bondage approximately 25,550,000 years! But is this an accurate interpretation? Daniel didnt think so. For in Daniel 9:1-2, it is written:
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasureus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years."
The King James Version states that Daniel "understood" the number of years." What interpretive hermeneutic did Daniel use to understand the number of years the futurists interpretation of 2 Peter 3:8-9, or the plain meaning of the phrase "seventy years?" Obviously, the plain, everyday meaning of the phrase. This alone should answer any question and settle any debate as to how to properly interpret the time statements of Biblical prophecy. However, as if this alone wasnt enough, God gave us another proof history. In 2 Chronicles 36:20-21, God said that the nation of Israel would be in bondage "until the reign of the kingdom of Persian." History teaches us that Persia came into power in 536 BC at the over throw of the Babylonian Empire. History also teaches us that Israel was in bondage to Babylon from 606 BC until their over throw by Persia in 536 BC. That equates to exactly seventy years.
In each of these precident setting cases, God fulfilled His word exactly
when He said He would. This also brings up a very important point. God is the One who fulfills His word. Consider the following verses:
Isaiah 46:9-1,Isaiah 55:10-11
Notice that these passages carry a prophetic implication. God stated that He would speak, declare, or purpose something before it took place, and that He would bring it to pass. He would send out His word and it shall accomplish what He desires. He would speak and bring it to pass. This includes
when those things were to be fulfilled. In all of my examples, we saw that every part of the prophecies was fulfilled. There was not one part left unfulfilled. They were all fulfilled how and when God said He would fulfill them. This should show us the importance God places on His word. Not only on the
how part of His word, but the
when part of it as well. God stated that when He speaks something, He will bring it to pass. Not maybe. Not sometime down the road. But, just like we saw, every part of the prophecy, i.e., the "how," the "why," and the "when," it will all be fulfilled. God declared that His word "shall not return to [Him] "empty." If a prophecy is not fulfilled when God said He would fulfill it, then it would return to Him empty.
The timing of the prophecy is just as important as the events of the prophecy.
