Written by Mark Smith

Brethren Of Christ Articles - Prophecy

Joseph Lomas Towers 1796

Below are notes taken from this book, Volume 2

Illustrations of Prophecy: in the course of which are elucidated many predictions which occur in Isaiah, Daniel, the writings of the Evangelists, and of the Book of Revelation ... Together with ... extracts ... from Mede, Vitringa, ... Sir Isaac Newton, ... Bishop. Newton, and Bishop Hurd.

Notes from pp.568-569.

Deuteronomy 28:37, 49-52, 59-67.

“And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among the nations wither the LORD shall lead thee. The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young: and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trusted, throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful….and ye shall be left few in number…and the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other…and among these nations shalt thout find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee a trembling heart and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life; In the morning thou shalt sat, Would God it were even! And at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! For the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.”

Had anything like this, in Moses time, asks Dr. Clarke ever happened to any nation? Or was there in nature any probability that any such thing should ever happen to any people? That, when they were conquered by their enemies, and led into captivity they should neither continue in the place of their captivity nor be swallowed up and lost among their conquerors, but be scattered among all the nations of the world, and hated by all nations for many ages, and yet continue a people? Or could any description of the Jews, written at this day, possibly be a more exact and lively picture of the state they have been in for many ages, than this prophetic description given by Moses, more than 3,000 years ago. SOURCE: Dr. Samuel Clarke Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion (1738)

Below are comments on the veracity of the Hebrew Scriptures. See pp.314-347 in Volume 2

pg.316 Vol.2 The Hebrew scriptures were read by the Jews in the synagogues with promises of a great deliverer. No one can pretend these were Christian forgeries.

Joseph Priestley. There were no changes in the scriptures after the Babylonian captivity, because the Samaritan OT is the same as the Jewish, and the people who returned after the seventy years captivity were familiar with the Law and the OT. They would not have tolerated any changes - this would have led to a big schism.

The Jews kept the scriptures intact and after Malachi they did not permit any more irrespective of the eminence of the author because of the rule that an author had to be a prophet.

That the scriptures of the OT have not been materially corrupted by the Jews since the promulgation of Christianity is evident from the many prophecies still remaining in their scriptures concerning the humiliation and suffering of the Messiah in which the Christians always triumphed when they disputed with the Jews.

These passages would have been the first that the Jews would have practiced upon, if it had been in their power, or inclination to do it. SOURCE: Institute of Natural and Revealed Religion 1782, Vol. 1, p.297.

The Jews developed an oral tradition to counter corruption of the text. It was never incorporated into the scriptures, even though the temptation to do so must have been strong. It is therefore unlikely that they would have tampered with the OT.

p.320. The Hebrew OT, Septuagint and Samaritan OT all coincide.

p.321 "history and chronology were so uncertain a state in ancient times that the prophecies concerning foreign countries could not have been adapted to the facts, even after they had happened, with so much exactness as modern enquiries have shown the scripture prophecies to be, by a learned nation, and much less by the Jews, who were remarkably ignorant of what passed in foreign countries." Hartley, On Man Vol II pg. 152

p.320 The scriptures were dispersed into so many different hands that no possible opportunity could have been afforded for confederate corruption, and every designed alteration must have immediately been detected.

p.327-8 The Jews were commanded to avoid superstition and idolatry, this being the natural condition of their Gentile neighbours, and although they lapsed, without divine instruction, they would have been no different from their neighbours.

If Jewish writings were an imposture, then why have the oracles of other nations not been preserved or revered to the same extent?

Isaiah 14:23 said that Babylon would be the possession of the bittern, and that there would be pools of water. How could Isaiah know that Babylon would be flooded?

Look at Jeremiah 50:39; Jeremiah 51:26; Isaiah 13:19, 20, 21. These verses all say that Babylon would NEVER be inhabited, and that it would be desolate for ever. How could such words be added after the event? There is an enormous risk in saying NEVER etc. Look also at Ezekiel 26:14 where it says that Tyre would be NO MORE, and Ezekiel 27:36 that it would NEVER be any more. How could these writers be so certain as to use these words?