Is Fulfilled Prophecy Of Value For Scholarly Apologetics? -- By: John A. Bloom

Journal: Global Journal of Classical Theology
Volume: GJCT 01:2 (Feb 1999)
Article: Is Fulfilled Prophecy Of Value For Scholarly Apologetics?
Author: John A. Bloom


Is Fulfilled Prophecy Of Value For Scholarly Apologetics? *

John A. Bloom, Ph.D, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Physics
Biola University, La Mirada, CA 90639

Paper presented at the 47th annual meeting of the
Evangelical Theological Society, Philadelphia, PA, November 1995

During the past twenty years, evangelical Christian apologetics has made significant progress in some areas. Today in the field of philosophy, the Christian theist has access to a secular audience and is able to challenge openly the assumptions of skeptics and atheists [Plantinga, Willard]. In the field of astrophysics, the concept of an infinitely old universe has fallen upon hard times, and the notion of “a creation event” is generally recognized [Jastrow, Ross]. Statements of the anthropic cosmological principle (“It’s as if the universe were exquisitely tuned, almost as if to accommodate us”1 are even finding their way into introductory physics and astronomy textbooks.)

I find this a refreshing reversal from the dogma of metaphysical naturalism that has saturated these scholarly disciplines for over a century. It is good to see the idea of a Creator, especially a biblical one, regaining intellectual credibility in these parts of our secular world.

But despite these successes, something seems to be missing. Yes, theistic philosophers can openly present positive arguments for the existence of God and the rational basis for Christianity. Yes, astrophysics suggests that we need God to start the ball rolling—in just the right way—for there to be life somewhere in the universe. But even if a skeptic grants us the logical necessity for a creator God, say 10-20 billion years ago, we are missing an important factor: Is God relevant today?

Is God Relevant?

How do we demonstrate this? If we as Christians consistently acted like God is relevant in our lives, that would help: Changed lives are a powerful witness. But personal testimony and answered prayer, while very important and essential, can all be dismissed as subjective criteria by the religious skeptic. How can we as scholars show that God is relevant to our skeptical culture and academic colleagues? This is a big question, and to begin to answer it we need to argue that God acts in human affairs; that He is not “wholly other.” We first need to establish that God controls or at least influences history.2

I believe that the best tool that God has given us to illustrate His influence of history is fulfilled prophecy. I have several reasons for this:

  1. This is the chief evidence that God offers in the First Testament to verify His exis...
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