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The Interpretation of Prophecy Part One Chapter 4

In this chapter Fairbairn addresses the question of men’s responses to God’s prophetic words, and particularly to what extent His words are absolute or conditional in their declarations. There have been subscribers to both extremes on this question, viz. Olshausen, et al. holding that all prophecies are more or less conditional, and Hengstenberg, et al. maintaining that all are essentially absolute and unalterable. The author considers that both of these positions generalize too far, and that it is more helpful to recognize three broad distinctions in the nature of prophecy.

The first class of prophecies are those which declare God’s purposes of grace to mankind, e.g. the protoevangelium of Genesis 3.15, the covenant promises to Abraham and David concerning Messiah, et al. In these there is no place for any conditional element as regards their fulfillment, though possibly the time and manner of their fulfillment might in some way be contingent upon the responses of His people. The second class is opposite in general content, but very similar as regards our question, namely the pronouncements of judgment upon those who oppose the kingdom of God. These are given mainly to encourage and engender hope in the hearts of God’s people as they look to the fulfillment of God’s promises, the first class. Being therefore complementary to God’s declared purposes of grace to His people, they are in the main absolute assurances that nothing will thwart those purposes. That said, there may be individual exceptions to a general fulfillment of foretold judgment, e.g. Rahab the Canaanite.

The third class of prophecy is notably different than the first two, both of which have their origin solely in God’s eternal purposes. These prophecies bear directly upon man’s responsibilities to the holy God, a striking example of which is the pronounced judgment by the prophet Jonah upon the wicked city of Nineveh. In this and all prophecies like it, which declare either a promised benefit or a threatened judgment in response to the recipient people’s conduct, there is an implicit contingency that is based upon two fundamental principles. The first principle is God’s ethical character. The judge of all the earth will do right (Genesis 18.25). God will approve the just and punish the wicked. If the wicked repents, God will relent, and conversely if the righteous man turns to wickedness, God’s blessings will be removed (Jeremiah 18.7-10). The second principle is that in order to be comprehended, God condescends to speak from a human point of view. As Calvin said, God is represented as "clothing Himself with our affections, that He might the more effectually penetrate our hearts, and impress us with His abhorrence of sin…?? Hence it is that the Scripture speaks of the Eternal as changing his mind, being sorry that He made man, etc.