Looking for a proof God exists?
[Steve Myers] We're continuing our series on prophecy and one of the amazing things about prophecy is it's purpose. A couple of things we'd like to talk about here is how we can verify and help underscore what our faith is all about because there is an evidence of faith that we find in prophecy.
[Darris McNeely] Especially fulfilled prophecy. When you look at fulfilled prophecy, there's two things we can learn from legitimately fulfilled prophecy from the Bible. Number one is the proof of God. When we look in the Bible and we see numerous prophecies that have been fulfilled, and there are a number from Genesis into Revelation that have been fulfilled, we find that if offers us a key proof of God. Let's look at a scripture that says it, Isaiah chapter 46 beginning in verse 9. It says, "Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like Me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done" (Isaiah 46:9-10). God says that He declares the end from the beginning. He knows in advance what is going to happen. He controls certain events, key events in history and in Bible prophecy to fulfill His plan and offers us a proof. Now, later on in this series we're going to go into some key aspects of fulfilled prophecies from the Bible to prove this exactly. Proof of God is number one.
[Steve Myers] And I think that's an important purpose. You've got to start here so as you look at that passage in Isaiah 46 beginning in verse 9 it begins to point out that we can have that faith of ours supported and know that God exists because He said it was going to happen and it did happen. Now what that also then connects to is the fact that it proves the Bible because if God said it and it's recorded in the Bible, then we see very clearly that it's got to be the word of God. And so it proves the Bible. There's a connection to this in the New Testament as well. It's over in 2 Peter 1:20 and that particular passage, Peter was inspired to write this, he says, "Knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man." So, the implication is it only comes through God. It's God's inspired word. And so as you read those prophecies in the Bible, you can verify the fact that God said it, it's true and it came about. So it has to verify that the Bible is the word of God and proves that it is true.
[Darris McNeely] One key reason to study prophecy and understand fulfilled prophecy is that it proves God and it proves His word—two of the most important aspects of faith that we must have as our foundation in our relationship with God—proof of God, proof of the Bible. Now in our next BT Daily we're going to into, begin to go into a few key proofs of fulfilled prophecy from the scriptures to show exactly we mean.
[Steve Myers] That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.
Why are we here? What is our place in the universe? What is the purpose of life? The questions have been asked for centuries. But they all revolve around what is perhaps the most fundamental question of all: Does God exist?
Darris McNeely works at the United Church of God home office in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43 years. They have two sons, who are both married, and four grandchildren. Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. He also is a resident faculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. He enjoys hunting, travel and reading and spending time with his grandchildren.
Steve is the Operation Manager for Ministerial and Member Services of the United Church of God. He is also an instructor at Ambassador Bible College and served as a host on the Beyond Today television program. Together, he and his wife, Kathe, have served God and His people for over 30 years.