Paton J. Gloag
Heathen
Oracles and Hebrew Prophecy
"The
heathen had their prophets as well as the Israelites, but
the difference between them is very apparent; nor must the
false prophecies of the heathen prejudice us against the
prophecies of the Israelites. The predictions of the
heathen, when they were fulfilled, can easily be accounted
for without the aid of supernatural intervention. A great
amount of artifice accompanied them; they were secretly
divulged; they were seldom delivered, and then only after
great preparations were made; they ministered to the
passions and wishes of men; they were expressed in equivocal
language; their fulfillment generally depended on chance;
they were as often wrong as right; and when they failed, the
fault was not laid to the charge of the prophet, but was
imputed to some error committed by the inquirer.
Several of their predictions were the result of a far-seeing
sagacity, similar to the prediction of Josephus that
Vespasian would ascend to the throne of the Caesars. The
answers of the heathen oracles also were often so cunningly
devised, that whatever way the event happened, the credit of
the oracle would be maintained. Indeed, among the numerous
predictions of the heathen, not a single authentic case of a
true prophecy can be produced, of a prediction the
fulfillment of which cannot be accounted for from purely
ordinary causes, either as a happy guess or as the
anticipation of sagacity. Those which have been adduced are
so vague, so obscure, and so general, that no reasonable man
can class them among the number of genuine prophecies.
The predictions of Scripture are widely different. They were
openly published; they were delivered without solicitation;
they were expressed in no artful language; the events
predicted were beyond the power of human sagacity to
foresee, or even when the general event might have been
foreseen, yet minute circumstances were added which were
beyond the wisdom of man to predict; and there was a
particularity in these prophecies which clearly
distinguished them from the conjectures of wise men.
In short, the prophets of the heathen prophesied, as
Jeremiah expresses it, 'a false vision and divination, and a
thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart' (Jer 14:14),
whereas the true prophets of Israel 'spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost.'
...Hence, the prediction of the future is declared to be a
characteristic distinction between Jehovah and the false
gods of the heathen.
'Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that
are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that
cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them
take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient
time? who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord?
and there is no God beside me' (Isa 55:20,21).
In short, a genuine prophecy is as much a miracle as to give
sight to the blind or to raise the dead; for as miracles,
commonly so called, are exertions of power above human, so
prophecies are exertions of knowledge above human; both
involve the supernatural."
Paton J.
Gloag, "The Messianic Prophecies" The Baird Lectures for
1879 delivered at the University of Glasgow,
(Minneapolis: Klock & Klock, 1887) pp. 13-16
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