Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
The most marked illustration of the double sense of prophecy
however is to be found in _Matthew 24_ and _25_, especially
_24:34_ and _25:31_, where Christ’s prophecy of the destruction of
Jerusalem passes into a prophecy of the end of the world. Adamson,
The Mind in Christ, 183—“To him history was the robe of God, and
therefore a constant repetition of positions really similar,
kaleidoscopic combining of a few truths, as the facts varied in
which they were to be embodied.” A. J. Gordon: “Prophecy has no
sooner become history, than history in turn becomes prophecy.”
Lord Bacon: “Divine prophecies have springing and germinant
accomplishment through many ages, though the height or fulness of
them may refer to some one age.” In a similar manner there is a
manifoldness of meaning in Dante’s Divine Comedy. C. E. Norton,
Inferno, xvi—“The narrative of the poet’s spiritual journey is so
vivid and consistent that it has all the reality of an account of
an actual experience; but within and beneath runs a stream of
allegory not less consistent and hardly less continuous than the
narrative itself.” A. H. Strong, The Great Poets and their
Theology, 116—“Dante himself has told us that there are four
separate senses which he intends his story to convey. There are
the literal, the allegorical, the moral, and the analogical. In
_Psalm 114:1_ we have the words, ‘When Israel went forth out of
Egypt.’ This, says the poet, may be taken literally, of the actual
deliverance of God’s ancient people; or allegorically, of the
redemption of the world through Christ; or morally, of the rescue
of the sinner from the bondage of his sin; or anagogically, of the
passage of both soul and body from the lower life of earth to the
higher life of heaven. So from Scripture Dante illustrates the
method of his poem.” See further, our treatment of Eschatology.
See also Dr. Arnold of Rugby, Sermons on the Interpretation of
Scripture, Appendix A, pages 441-454; Aids to Faith, 449-462;
Smith’s Bible Dict., 4:2727. _Per contra_, see Elliott, Horæ
Apocalypticæ, 4:662. Gardiner, O. T. and N. T., 262-274, denies
double sense, but affirms manifold applications of a single sense.
Broadus, on _Mat. 24:1_, denies double sense, but affirms the use
of types.
(_b_) The prophet was not always aware of the meaning of his own
prophecies (1 Pet. 1:11). It is enough to constitute his prophecies a
proof of divine revelation, if it can be shown that the correspondences
between them and the actual events are such as to indicate divine wisdom
and purpose in the giving of them—in other words, it is enough if the
inspiring Spirit knew their meaning, even though the inspired prophet did
not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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