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The Prophecies of Christ | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Picture this you know, just imagine for a second that you
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were living in a massive ancient city.
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OK, I am picturing. It and for an entire year when
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you look up at the night sky, there is a literal glowing fiery
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sword just hanging there directly over the city walls.
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Oh wow, that is terrifying. Right.
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It does not move at all. It just hangs there like the
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silent, terrifying omen. Yeah, and then one evening just
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before sunset, you lookout and see actual Chariots and armed
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battalions hovering in the clouds.
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Look at Mirage or something. Yeah, but surrounding the cities
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in the distance, and I mean, it sounds like a dark fantasy novel
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for it really does. But these are the actual
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historical records written by a hostile military commander,
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documenting the fall of his own nation.
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Welcome to reformed thinking. Glad to be here.
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You know, usually when we evaluate a historical figure,
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there is this sort of expectation of looking primarily
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at their moral teachings, right? Sure, we look at their
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philosophy, maybe the nice things they said and we debate
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their ideas, but it is all very subjective.
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It is. It relies heavily on personal
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interpretation. Highly subjective, but what if
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you could prove the validity of a historical figure not just by
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the comforting words they spoke, but by the statistically
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impossible precision of their predictions?
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Now that is a huge shift in perspective.
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Right. What if we could look at history
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like an engineering schematic, where the blueprint matches the
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building without a single millimeter of error?
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That changes the entire conversation, honestly.
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We are no longer talking about just philosophy.
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We are talking about verifiable hard data.
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Spot on. And that is our destination
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today. For you listening, we have laid
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out a massive stack of historical notes from Jonathan
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Edwards. Specifically his writings on the
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prophecies of Christ. Yeah, and for those of you who
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might just know Edwards as like an old preacher, it really helps
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to understand that in his private notebooks, he was
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essentially doing the mathematical scratchpad work for
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his theology. He was a highly analytical
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thinker. So our mission for this deep
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dive is to unpack Edwards's arguments on how Jesus
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demonstrated his divine authority through prophecy.
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We are going to look into the highly specific predictions, the
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shocking historical fulfillments, and the massive
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theological shifts that followed.
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So if you are ready for some surprising facts and a few
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serious aha moments, let's just jump, right?
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In I am really looking forward to this.
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Edwards is known for his rigorous logic.
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Oh yeah, and the way he structures this argument is just
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staggering. It really is.
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He builds this cumulative case that basically forces the reader
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to confront the mathematical and historical improbability of
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these events occurring by chance.
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OK, let's unpack this from the start.
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Before we even look at the specific events that were
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predicted, we have to examine the highly unusual manner in
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which the predictions were made. Right, the style of delivery.
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Yeah, deep in his notes, Edwards makes a huge point about this.
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We need to look at the anatomy of authority.
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Here. What stands out to me here is
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the contrast Edwards draws between the ancient Old
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Testament prophets and Jesus. OK, break that down for us.
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Well, if you read the ancient prophets, you know guys like
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Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, they always introduce their visions
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with a very specific formula. Like a sign off or an intro?
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An intro, they would say, hear the word of the Lord, or thus
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sayeth the Lord. Oh right, making it crystal
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clear that they were just the messengers.
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Precise. They were taking zero credit for
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the information. It is.
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It's the difference between a mail carrier reading a letter
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from the king in the town square versus the king himself standing
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on the balcony issuing a royal decree.
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That is a great analogy. Like the mail carrier says, the
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king says taxes are going up. They want you to know they're
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just reading the memo. Don't shoot the messenger.
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Yeah, they were conduits, but Jesus operates entirely
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differently. How so He.
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Does not use that formula at all.
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Instead, he uses the phrase, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
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Right, or in the original Greek, Amen, Amen.
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I say to you, He speaks on his own authority.
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Which is a huge departure. It is furthermore, Edwards
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points out, that Jesus predicted events as things that he would
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personally bring to pass. The king himself issuing the
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decree, he says things like I will raise it up, referring to
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his own resurrection or, you know, I have authority to lay my
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life down and I have authority to take it again.
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He even says he will personally send the Holy Ghost.
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He tells his disciples that whatever they ask in His name,
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He will do it. He claims he will give them a
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mouth and wisdom that their adversaries will not be able to
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resist. He is claiming total sovereignty
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over future events. But I want to pause and think
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about the strategy here. Let's say I'm running a massive
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historical scam. OK, playing devil's advocate,
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yeah. This seems like a terrible way
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to do it. Why is that?
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Well, if I want people to follow me, I want plausible
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deniability. I want to say God might do this
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or the heavens will move in mysterious ways because.
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You have an out. Right, so if it fails I can
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blame a lack of faith or mysterious divine will, but by
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saying I will personally rise from the dead or I will
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personally send the Spirit, he is backing himself into a
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corner. He really is.
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Doesn't that set an impossibly high bar that would immediately
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expose a fraud? It absolutely does.
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The margin for error is 0. 0. If you connect this to the
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broader context of Jewish law at the time, God established very
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strict rules in Deuteronomy chapter 18 for identifying false
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prophets. I remember this, the rules were
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pretty harsh. The rule was simple and brutal.
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If the thing does not come to pass, the prophet is false and
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the penalty is death by stoning. Wow, you do not get a second
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chance to clarify your vision. The stakes were ultimate.
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You were putting your life on the line every time you make a
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prediction. Ultimate stakes.
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Additionally, Edwards brings in Isaiah chapter 41 where God
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actually mocks the idols of the heathens.
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Oh, I love that passage. Yeah, he challenges these false
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gods to foretell the future. God frames the foreseeing of the
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future as a strictly divine prerogative.
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He basically calls them out. He does, God says to the idols,
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Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that
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ye are gods. So if we're telling, the future
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is the ultimate litmus test for divinity in the Jewish context.
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It is the only test that matters in that specific regard.
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Which means claiming you can do it is either the height of
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madness or the absolute truth. And Jesus goes a step further.
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Oh, right, the disciples. Yes.
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He promises to give his disciples the ability to
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prophecy through the Holy Spirit.
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He says the Spirit will show you things to come.
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He is essentially franchising his prophetic authority to a
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bunch of fishermen. Which multiplies the risk
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exponentially. Think about the liability there.
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Exactly. Yeah, I mean, if he is a fraud,
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he is now relying on a dozen other guys to maintain the
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illusion of prophetic foresight. Good luck with that, right?
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Edwards argues that if Jesus were a false claimant,
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Providence would have exposed him immediately.
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The intense scrutiny of his generation would have caught.
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Him. Oh completely.
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They were armed with the strict rules of Deuteronomy 18.
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They would have crushed the movement the moment one of these
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highly specific, personally guaranteed predictions failed.
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And the generation he lived in was not gullible.
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They were watching him like. Hawks.
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They wanted a reason to dismiss him.
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And he hands them the ultimate test.
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He basically says watch what happens next.
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I am guaranteeing it. Yeah, it really is a terrible
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strategy for a con artist, but a perfectly logical one for
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someone who actually holds the authority they claim.
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That leads us to the historical fulfillments.
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Because he did not just make vague predictions about a
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spiritual Kingdom in the clouds. No, he made terrifyingly
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concrete predictions about the physical world.
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Let's transition to the devastation of 8070 then,
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because Jesus set the bar incredibly high, and the
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destruction of Jerusalem is where that bar was met with
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chilling accuracy. It is the most verifiable
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historical fulfillment in this entire stack of notes.
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So walk. Us through the records.
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In the records of Matthew and Luke, Jesus predicts the total
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destruction of Jerusalem, not just a defeat in battle, but a
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complete leveling of the city. He says, Your house is left unto
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you desolate. Yes, and speaks of enemies
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casting a trench about the city, compassing it round and keeping
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them in on every side. And he gives a timeline too.
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He states unequivocally that this will all happen before that
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specific generation passes away. But it was not just a broad
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prediction of doom. You know, anyone could say this
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city will fall someday. True, but Edwards outlines 8
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highly specific signs that Jesus said would precede this
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destruction. He basically gave them a
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checklist. A very detailed checklist.
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False messiahs, rumors of wars, famines, pestilences,
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earthquakes, and fearful sights from heaven.
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Let's match those up, because Edwards maps this perfectly to
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the historical record. Right.
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Specifically under the Roman emperors Caligula, Claudius and
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Nero. Let's look at the context.
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During this period, the historian Josephus records that
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several impostors arose. Claiming they would rescue the
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people from the Roman yoke. Yes, checking off the false
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messiah's box. Then came the rumors of war.
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Caligula, right? Yeah, Emperor.
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Caligula demanded his statue be placed in the Jewish Temple.
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For the Jews, this was the ultimate blasphemy.
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It almost triggered a massive suicidal rebellion.
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They offered their own necks to the Roman swords rather than see
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it happen. But Caligula died suddenly.
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He did, blowing the storm over temporarily, but the societal
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anxiety was just off the charts. The tension was building, and
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then the natural disaster started hitting right on
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schedule under. Claudius Caesar A massive famine
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hit Judea. And pestilences always follow
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famine. Because malnourished bodies
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cannot fight off disease, earthquakes struck in various
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places during the reigns of Claudius and Nero.
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And what about the wars? Nation literally rose against
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nation, with thousands of Jews slain in Alexandria and Babylon
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in brutal ethnic conflicts. So everything Jesus outlined was
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ticking off 1 by 1. 1 by 1. And then we get to the fearful
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sights from heaven. This is the part of the deep
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dive that really blew my mind. It is pretty shocking.
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You mentioned the historian Josephus earlier.
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Let's bring in the details Edwards pulls from him, because
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Josephus recorded things that are frankly terrifying.
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Like the fiery sword you mentioned at the top of the
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show. Yeah.
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Walk us through what Josephus actually wrote.
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He wrote about a fiery sword that hungover the city of
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Jerusalem, and it did not just appear for a night, it hung
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there for an entire year. Just suspended.
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Yes, he also describes a comet that's shown so brightly in the
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temple and about the altar that it looked like daytime in the
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middle of the night. And the Chariots hovering in the
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air. When I read this part of
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Edward's notes, I honestly had to pause.
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It feels unbelievable, but Josephus records that one
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evening before sunset, Chariots and armed battalions were seen
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in the clouds encompassing the cities.
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He notes that the people who saw it were terrified and it was
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widely reported. Very widely reported.
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OK, here is where my skeptical alarm bells ring.
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Let's hear it. It is incredibly convenient to
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have a historian back up these highly specific, almost
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supernatural claims. Sure, if I am looking at this
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objectively, I have to ask. Wait, is Josephus a Christian
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sympathizer? That is the most logical
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question to ask. Like, is this just a Christian
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writing a history book decades later to make Jesus look good
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after the fact? That would neatly explain the
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perfect alignment between the prophecy and the historical
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record. That is a fair concern, but this
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raises A crucial detail that Edwards emphasizes heavily.
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OK, Josephus was absolutely not a Christian.
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Really. No, he was a Jewish historian, a
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Pharisee and a military commander who actually fought
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against the Romans in Galilee before surrendering and working
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for. Them wow OK he.
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Actively avoided mentioning the Christian name or Jesus whenever
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possible. He had 0 theological motivation
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to validate the prophecies of Jesus.
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Zero. So he is a completely hostile
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witness. If anything, he had every reason
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to suppress anything that might make the Christians look right.
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Because the Christians were seen as a rogue heretical sect.
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Correct. His historical account of the
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Jewish War is considered highly objective it.
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Is one of the most detailed ancient histories we possess.
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He is writing to document the tragic end of his own nation.
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When he describes these signs in the sky, he's lamenting that his
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people ignored them. He blamed the people.
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Yeah, he says, this wretched people believed imposters and
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counterfeits, but those great signs and prodigies which did
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forerun the desolation, they neither minded nor believed.
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That brings a heavy, tragic weight to the whole thing.
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It really does. And the tragedy only deepens
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when you look at the poetic irony Edwards highlights
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regarding the siege itself. The timing is incredible.
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Right. The Romans, led by Titus, began
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the siege of Jerusalem at the Passover.
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The very season Jesus was crucified.
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The city was packed with pilgrims for the festival We.
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Are talking about hundreds of thousands of extra people inside
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the walls. This massive population swell
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rapidly accelerated the famine when the Roman siege walls went
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up. The food ran out almost
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immediately. And Edwards points out this grim
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detail. During the siege, the Romans
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were crucifying up to 500 Jews a day outside the walls. 500 a
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day. They did this until they
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literally ran out of wood for the crosses and the surrounding
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countryside. It is a horrifying mirror to the
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crowd's cry decades earlier to crucify him.
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And the people who had bought Jesus for 30 pieces of silver,
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their descendants were sold into slavery by the Romans at an even
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cheaper rate. Because the sleeve market was so
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flooded with Jewish captives. It is a terrifying symmetry.
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It is the brutal reality of historical consequence.
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Josephus estimates that 1,000,000 people died from
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famine and the sword during the siege.
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A million. People and the factional
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fighting inside the city was so severe that Jewish zealots
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actually burned their own food supplies to force the moderates
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to fight the Romans. It led to masturbation.
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It was unparalleled devastation. Which makes me wonder, why was
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there no profit to warn the Jews of this specific destruction?
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What do you mean? Well, during the Babylonian
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captivity centuries earlier, God sent Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Habaka.
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True, they were shouting from the rooftops that Babylon was
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coming. They gave warnings for years.
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Why was there no traditional prophet for Rome?
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Edwards addresses this directly. He notes that God was silent for
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about 500 years before sending Jesus.
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A 500 year gap, yes. There was a perfect silence
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regarding this specific massive Roman desolation.
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Why? Because the warning was
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delivered by the Prophet of Prophets, God did not send a
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standard messenger because He sent His Son.
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The warning was given with maximum authority.
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And accompanied by miracles. And the fact that God preserves
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such an incredibly detailed historical record of this event
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through a non Christian like Josephus allows later
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generations like us to verify the precision of the warning.
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We do not have to take a leap of faith that Jerusalem sell
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exactly how Jesus said it would. We have the receipts from the
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Romans and the Jewish historians.
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The physical destruction of the city was horrifying.
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Yes. Yeah, the loss of life was
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staggering. But the physical demolition is
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really only half the story. The physical burning of the
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temple wasn't just a loss of architecture, it was the literal
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burning of their ability to follow the Law of Moses.
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Which brings us to the unseen demolition that happened in the
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rubble. The theological shockwave of
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8070 altered the entire globe. It changed everything.
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And you might be asking, why should you, the listener, care
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about a building burning down 2000 years ago?
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Because it basically birthed the modern concept of religion.
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Jesus did not just predict a political war, he predicted the
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abolition of an entire religious dispensation.
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Let's define that term for the listener.
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When we say dispensation, we mean an era, a specific way God
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administers His household. So the mosaic system was a
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dispensation. Yes, with all its dietary laws,
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sacrifices and temple rituals. When Jesus said to the Samaritan
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woman, The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain
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nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father, He was announcing a
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total paradigm shift. Let's break down the mechanics
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of why the destruction of the temple was a fatal blow to that
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system. They lost the building, sure,
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but why couldn't they just rebuild it later or, I don't
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know, sacrifice animals in their backyards?
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The law was credibly strict about this.
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The temple was the only authorized location for the
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sacrificial system. So no backyard altars.
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Strictly forbidden. It was the only authorized
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slaughterhouse for Finn. You could not just build an
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altar wherever you wanted. So when the Romans burned the
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temple down and made it desolate, they halted the core
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mechanism of Jewish worship. They did, but the permanent
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fatal blow actually has to do with the genealogical records.
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Ah, right, the dispersion of the Jews into all nations, which
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Jesus also explicitly predicted. When the city was destroyed, the
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records kept in the temple were incinerated.
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Gone. Forever gone, the surviving Jews
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were scattered across the known world.
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This meant that the tribal lineages were completely
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scrambled and lost. Walk us through why that is the
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nail in the coffin. Well, to have a legitimate
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priest, you must be able to prove direct descent for the
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tribe of Levi. Specifically the family of
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Aaron, Yes. Once those genealogical records
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went up in smoke and the people intermingled in the diaspora, it
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became physically and legally impossible to ever uphold the
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ceremonial law again. Because you can't verify
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anyone's lineage. Right.
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You cannot appoint A legitimate priest today because nobody can
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conclusively prove they are from the line of Aaron.
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And without a priest. You cannot offer a legitimate
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sacrifice without sacrifice. The entire our mosaic system is
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permanently frozen. Edwards notes that this blurring
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of the lineages blotted out the families of Aaron and Levi
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forever. It is like a City Council not
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only demolishing a massive municipal building, but
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intentionally burning the original blueprints and then
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firing the architects and outlawing the specific tools
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needed to rebuild it. The scaffolding is gone and the
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means to recreate it are gone forever.
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That is a highly accurate way to visualize.
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It it's permanent. And to illustrate the finality
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of this, Edwards cites an observation by a theologian
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named Mr. Charnock. What did Charnock notice?
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Charnock points out an incredible historical reality.
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The custom of animal sacrifice was not just a Jewish thing.
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Oh, right, it was universally practiced by almost all nations.
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Time out her mind as he puts. It so everyone was doing it.
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The Greeks, The Romans, The Babylonians, they all sacrificed
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animals to their gods. It was the standard religious
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practice globally. But since the time of Christ,
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yeah, and specifically following the events of the 1st century,
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that universal custom has dwindled away and ceased among
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almost all nations. The entire globe just stopped
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sacrificing animals. Almost entirely.
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We take it for granted today that religion involves singing,
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praying and listening to a sermon.
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But for thousands of years, religion meant blood.
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It meant slaughtering an animal. And then, historically speaking,
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it just stops. The theological shockwave did
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not just dismantle the Jewish Temple, it disrupted the
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sacrificial impulse of the human race.
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I have to play devil's advocate here for a second.
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Go for it. Could a skeptic argue that this
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was all just inevitable politics?
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How so? Judea was a volatile region.
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The Jews hated the Romans. The Romans were brutal and had
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zero tolerance for rebellion. Anyone with decent political
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awareness could have guessed that eventually the Romans would
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get tired of the insurrections and come crush the city.
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That is a common objection. Is it really divine
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foreknowledge or just astute political commentary by Jesus?
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It is a reasonable objection on the surface, but Edwards
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counters it by pointing to what he calls the spiritual
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signatures on the event. Spiritual signatures, yes.
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This was not a standard political conquest.
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The timing of the calamities was far too precise.
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Like the Passover thing? Exactly.
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Edwards notes that the worst of the slaughter and destruction
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frequently fell on the Sabbath day and during the great
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festivals. When the maximum number of
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worshippers were gathered. They were gathered expecting
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divine protection because they were observing the law.
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And that's when the hammer fell. Right.
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This indicates A targeted dismantling of a religious
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system. God was showing in real time
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that these festivals and Sabbath's no longer held their
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ancient protective covenant status.
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It wasn't random. No.
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Edwards argues that this was a deliberate shift by the moral
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governor of the universe, ending the era of the physical,
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localized temple and replacing it with a spiritual, rational
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service fit for all nations. A rational service fit for all
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nations. That phrase carries so much
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weight. It really does.
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It means the religion was no longer tied to one specific zip
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code in the Middle East, It was untethered and that.
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Untethering was structurally necessary if Christianity was
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going to be a global faith. It could not be dependent on a
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single physical altar in Jerusalem.
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Because you can't have believers in Great Britain taking a boat
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to Judea every time they need to offer a sacrifice.
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Exactly. The destruction of the temple
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forced the final break. The old system was permanently
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shut down, proving that the era of the Messiah had arrived.
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While the old system was being torn down in a fiery
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catastrophe, a new system was facing impossible odds.
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The early church. Right.
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And I want to shift our focus here to the prophecies regarding
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the fate of the early Christians themselves, because the story of
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the Gospel inside the Roman machine is the story of an
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utterly unlikely triumph. Jesus was incredibly candid with
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his followers about what was coming.
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He didn't sugarcoat it. He did not sell them prosperity
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gospel. He predicted massive
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discouragements. He told them they would be hated
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of all nations for his name's sake.
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He predicted they would be brought before kings and rulers.
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He even gave them highly specific predictions about their
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own death. Walk us through those
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predictions. Well, he predicted that James
22:11
and John, the sons of Zebedee, would drink of his cup.
22:15
Meaning they would face martyrdom.
22:17
Yes, we see James killed with a sword in the book of Acts.
22:20
And Peter? He predicted the specific manner
22:23
of Peter's death. Jesus told Peter that when he
22:27
was old he would stretch forth his hands, and another would
22:31
gird him and carry him where he would not want to go.
22:34
Which everyone listening at the time understood as a clear
22:36
reference to crucifixion. And historical records indicate
22:40
Peter was indeed crucified in Rome in his old age.
22:44
About 40 years after the prediction, right?
22:46
But the physical persecution from the state was really only
22:49
one layer of the discouragement. There is more.
22:52
Jesus also predicted severe betrayal from within.
22:54
The internal rot. Yes, he said, many would be
22:57
offended and would betray one another and hate one another.
23:01
He predicted the rise of false prophets within the Church.
23:04
And Edwards points out that this was remarkably fulfilled in the
23:08
sect of the Gnostics. It was.
23:10
We should define who the Gnostics were for the listener
23:12
because they play a huge role in this internal betrayal.
23:15
Broadly speaking, Gnosticism was a movement that believed
23:19
physical matter was inherently. Evil, and only the spirit was
23:22
good. Right, they claimed to have a
23:25
secret elite knowledge. A gnosis.
23:27
Yes, a gnosis that elevated them above regular believers because
23:31
they believed the physical body did not matter.
23:34
They either fell into extreme punishing asceticism or wild,
23:39
unrestrained hedonism. Because what you do with your
23:42
body doesn't matter if only the spirit is good.
23:44
Exactly. And crucially, because they
23:46
didn't value the physical body or historical reality in the
23:49
same way, they had no problem compromising with the Roman
23:52
authorities. This is where the betrayal
23:54
happens. Sought on When the Romans
23:56
demanded that citizens burn a pinch of incense to the emperor
23:58
and declare him a God, the Orthodox Christians refused.
24:02
And they were thrown to the lions.
24:03
The Gnostics, however, reasoned that since the physical action
24:06
meant nothing, they could just burn the incense to save their
24:10
own skins. Because it's just a bodily
24:12
action, not a spiritual one. Right.
24:14
They actively joined with the heathens to persecute Orthodox
24:17
Christians, just as Jesus predicted.
24:20
Let's frame the opposition here because Edward spends time
24:22
describing the Roman Empire and we need to understand the sheer
24:26
weight of the opponent. The scale is massive.
24:28
This was not a minor local government.
24:31
The Roman Empire was the strongest the world had ever
24:33
seen. Edwards describes it as an
24:36
empire of iron that broke all things in pieces.
24:39
It had the wealth of the known world.
24:41
The greatest philosophers of the age.
24:43
And the unmatched logistical might of the Roman military
24:46
legions. It was a monolithic, state
24:48
sponsored Pagan machine. The emperor was worshipped as a
24:52
God. To refuse that worship was not
24:54
just a religious disagreement, it was treason against the
24:57
state. So you have a tiny group of
24:59
fishermen, tax collectors and outcasts from a backwater
25:03
province. They have no money, no army, no
25:07
political influence. They are facing the iron machine
25:10
of Rome on the outside, and on the inside their own people, the
25:14
Gnostics, are betraying them to the authorities.
25:18
It looks completely hopeless. How did this movement survive?
25:22
It is like a contagion that the Roman immune system simply could
25:26
not identify because it didn't look like a traditional military
25:28
threat. Rome knew how to fight armies
25:31
with swords. They did not know how to fight
25:33
people who sang hymns while being burned at the stake.
25:36
The contagion analogy is a great fit.
25:38
The Romans kept trying to amputate the infected limbs by
25:41
executing the leaders, but the contagion just spread faster.
25:45
Wait, if I am Rome and I see this movement growing and I
25:48
start executing the leaders, shouldn't that stop the
25:51
movement? You would think so.
25:52
How did martyrdom actually help them?
25:55
A skeptic might say, look, they could not even keep their own
25:57
people alive, and they were fracturing from the inside.
26:00
It was a failed movement. That would be a strong argument
26:02
against any normal political movement, except for one glaring
26:06
fact. What's?
26:07
That the fracturing and the martyrdom were part of the
26:09
prophecy. Oh, right.
26:11
Christ foretold that they would betray and hate one another and
26:15
that they would be killed. So if everything went smoothly,
26:18
he would have been wrong. If the early church had
26:21
experienced perfect, unbroken unity and universal acceptance
26:25
from the culture, Jesus would have been proven a false
26:28
prophet. The betrayal in the blood
26:30
validated his foresight. The very things that should have
26:33
destroyed them were the things that proved their founder was
26:35
telling the truth. The blood of the martyrs
26:37
functioned as a catalyst, not a deterrent.
26:40
Precisely. And the fact that the movement
26:43
survived both the external Roman persecution and the internal
26:46
Gnostic betrayal shows a bizarre, almost inexplicable
26:50
resilience. What does Edwards attribute that
26:53
to? Edwards attributes the survival
26:55
to the fulfillment of another promise, the arrival of the Holy
26:58
Spirit. Jesus told them to tarry in
27:00
Jerusalem until they were endued with might from on high.
27:03
He told them he would give them a comforter, a spirit of truth
27:07
who would guide them. And we see that shift happen
27:09
historically. According to the historical
27:11
record, these previously cowardly men.
27:14
Men who literally ran away into the dark when Jesus was arrested
27:18
in the garden. Yes, those same men suddenly
27:21
possessed A courage and activity and an eloquence that absolutely
27:25
baffled the Roman authorities. They stood before magistrates
27:28
and spoke with a boldness that could not be explained by their
27:31
education or background. Edwards brings in a metaphor
27:34
from Isaiah 41 here that I think is really striking to explain
27:39
the mechanism of this shift. Let's dig into that.
27:41
He talks about turning a wilderness into a fruitful
27:44
field. And he is not talking about
27:46
literal agriculture. No.
27:48
Isaiah speaks of opening rivers in high places and planting
27:51
Cedars and myrtles in the desert.
27:53
Edwards argues that this is a figure speech for a massive
27:56
moral and spiritual shift. OK, unpack the moral wilderness.
27:59
The Pagan world was a moral wilderness.
28:01
It was barren of the knowledge of the through God.
28:04
It was full of cruelty, blood, sports in the Colosseum and the
28:07
debasing worship of idols. So turning that wilderness into
28:11
a fruitful field means bringing a culture of virtue, charity,
28:15
and rational worship to the Roman Empire.
28:17
Yes, Edwards frames this as a work far greater than Moses
28:22
Parting the Red Sea. That is quite the claim.
28:24
Well, parting water is a manipulation of physics,
28:28
changing the ingrained moral fabric of an entire empire of
28:31
millions of people. That is a manipulation of the
28:34
human heart on a massive scale. It is fundamentally harder to
28:38
change what a culture loves than to change the weather.
28:41
And it happened despite the iron of Rome.
28:44
The Gospel was universally published throughout the empire
28:46
before the destruction of Jerusalem.
28:48
Just as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24.1.
28:51
Faint. The contagion overwhelmed the
28:53
host. This movement didn't just
28:54
survive in the shadows, it conquered specific geographic
28:58
regions and altered the cultural baseline of the world.
29:01
It certainly did. Let's look at the mechanism of
29:03
how this cultural shift happened, specifically regarding
29:06
the overthrow of global idolatry.
29:09
The Old Testament prophets were absolutely clear that a primary
29:12
distinguishing mark of the Messiah would be his victory
29:15
over the idols of the heathen world.
29:17
Isaiah is full of prophecies about the Gentile world turning
29:21
from idols to the God of Israel. It was promised as the Messiah's
29:24
great reward for his suffering. The scope of this fulfillment is
29:28
staggering. Edwards lists the regions.
29:31
Lesser Asia, Europe, Great Britain, Ireland and America.
29:36
These were places steeped in ancient, entrenched paganism,
29:39
and we have to remember what everyday paganism actually
29:42
looked. Like it wasn't just reading
29:44
mythology. No, it was woven into your daily
29:46
life. You sacrifice to the God of the
29:49
river so your crops wouldn't flood.
29:51
You burned incense to the God of the harvest it.
29:54
Was a time out of mind agricultural paganism?
29:56
We are talking about the worship of wood, stone, silver and gold.
30:00
The worship of ancient deities like Dagon, Bell, and Nebo.
30:04
These systems of worship dictated the seasons, the
30:07
economy and the government. Yet through the influence of
30:10
Jesus of Nazareth, this ancient idolatry was completely
30:13
overthrown. It was not just reformed, it was
30:15
eradicated. The temples were abandoned or
30:18
turned into churches. Edwards makes a brilliant
30:21
comparative argument here that really puts this achievement
30:24
into perspective. Because sometimes we lose sight
30:27
of how hard it is to change a cultures baseline religion.
30:30
It is nearly impossible. Right.
30:33
Edwards points out that the greatest philosophers of Greece
30:36
and Rome, guys like Plato, Aristotle, Socrates.
30:40
With all their wisdom, logic and rhetoric.
30:42
They could not stop paganism. They might have mocked the gods
30:46
in private among their intellectual friends, but the
30:49
public continued to sacrifice to Jupiter and Mars.
30:52
And even looking at the giants of Jewish history.
30:55
David, a warrior king with a heart for God.
30:57
Solomon, the wisest man with immense wealth.
31:00
Moses who saw the plagues of Egypt.
31:02
Elijah, who called fire from heaven.
31:05
Abraham, the patriarch. None of them, not a single one,
31:08
could eradicate global idolatry. Even the whole nation of Israel
31:12
could barely keep themselves from worshipping idols, let
31:14
alone convert the heathens. The Egyptians did not convert
31:18
when Joseph taught their senators.
31:19
The Babylonians did not convert when Daniel interpreted dreams.
31:23
The local idolatry remained untouched.
31:25
Yet Jesus of Nazareth, a Carpenter from a town nobody
31:28
respected, who was executed as a state criminal, accomplished
31:32
this. He achieved the total geographic
31:34
overthrow of ancient gods. So here is a massive logical
31:37
question. OK, if the critics of Edward's
31:40
time, or even modern skeptics believe Jesus was a grand
31:44
imposter, how do they explain him accidentally fulfilling the
31:47
biggest, most difficult job description of the Messiah?
31:50
This is the logical trap that Edward sets, and it is
31:53
brilliant. Let's trace his deduction.
31:55
He says Let us assume for a moment that Jesus is an
31:57
imposter. If he is an imposter, he's a
32:00
wicked man, falsely claiming divine authority, leading
32:04
millions, a stray. So God would be angry with him.
32:07
Highly angry, we must then believe that the God of the
32:10
universe, who is deeply jealous of his glory and hates idolatry
32:13
above all things, allowed this wicked imposter to predict the
32:17
downfall of global heathenism. And not only predict it.
32:20
Right, but God actually granted this imposter the success of
32:24
conquering the Roman Empire and destroying the idols.
32:27
God would be rewarding A blasphemer by giving him the
32:30
exact victory promised to the true Messiah.
32:33
Spot on. I mean, you nailed it.
32:34
It is completely unreasonable to think the moral governor of the
32:37
world would permit an imposter to achieve the greatest moral
32:40
revolution in human history. To eradicate the very idols God
32:44
hates in the name of a false prophet.
32:46
It contradicts the entire nature of God as revealed in the Old
32:50
Testament. God does not share His glory
32:52
with a liar. Logic just collapses in on
32:55
itself. God would not give the ultimate
32:57
victory to a fraud. And there is another layer to
33:00
this trap regarding the timeline of prophecy, which I find
33:03
incredibly compelling. Oh, about the window of
33:06
opportunity, yes. Edwards points out that the
33:08
prophecy is already fulfilled. The ancient idols of the Roman
33:12
Empire, of Greece, of Babylon, of the Canaanites, they are
33:17
gone. Nobody is sacrificing bulls to
33:19
Mars or grain to Dagon today. Therefore, the overthrow of
33:23
ancient heathenism has happened. Which means the window of
33:26
opportunity to fulfill the prophecy is closed.
33:28
Completely closed. There is no ancient heathenism
33:31
left for a future different Messiah to overthaw.
33:34
That's a brilliant. Point If Jesus is not the
33:37
Messiah who fulfilled these prophecies, then the prophecies
33:39
are null and void. Because the conditions for
33:42
fulfilling them no longer exist in the world.
33:44
The ancient gods are dead. Jesus is the one who killed
33:46
them. You cannot wait around for
33:48
someone else to do the job because the job is already.
33:50
Done. And it was done precisely by the
33:53
one who stood there and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
33:56
I will do it. Wow, let's bring this all
33:58
together. What is the take away for you?
34:02
Listener? Edwards is asking us to look
34:04
past the familiar Sunday School stories and observe the massive,
34:08
verifiable shockwaves of Jesus's prophecies.
34:11
We have looked at the terrifying, chilling precision
34:14
of Jerusalem's fall. The famines.
34:16
The fiery swords hanging in the sky.
34:18
The exact timing of the Roman siege at Passover.
34:21
We have examined the permanent end of a global sacrificial
34:24
system. Caused by the loss of the tribal
34:26
records, making the old law impossible to follow.
34:29
We have seen the survival of a persecuted marginal movement
34:33
against the iron might of the Roman Empire.
34:35
And the total geographic overthrow of ancient idols that
34:38
have ruled human imagination for millennia.
34:41
It is a mountain of historical evidence that points to 1 clear
34:44
conclusion. What's that?
34:46
The foresight and authority displayed here are not of human
34:48
origin. The mechanism of history itself
34:51
was bent to accommodate these predictions.
34:53
They cannot be human. And that leaves us with a final
34:56
thought to Mull over something that builds on everything we
34:59
have discussed today. I like this part.
35:01
If the historical predictions of Christ reshaped the political
35:05
and religious landscape of the entire world with such
35:08
terrifying accuracy. If the destruction of Jerusalem
35:12
and the death of the gods happened exactly as he said they
35:15
would. What does that suggest about the
35:17
reality of his future predictions?
35:19
Specifically, his teachings on a future state of final judgement.
35:24
Because those predictions are still waiting to be fulfilled.
35:27
And as we have seen today, his track record is literally
35:30
perfect. It forces you to take those
35:32
future warnings with the utmost seriousness.
35:35
If he was right about the Roman legions in the fall of the
35:38
Temple, there is every logical reason to believe he is right
35:41
about eternity. It is not just philosophy
35:43
anymore, it is a historical guarantee.
35:46
Thank you all for joining us on this deep dive into the archives
35:48
of Jonathan Edwards. We hope this is giving you a
35:50
fresh perspective on the precision of history and the
35:53
weight of these ancient words it.
35:55
Has been a fascinating discussion.
35:56
Truly has. We will see you next time.
35:59
Keep reading, keep questioning, and keep thinking goodbye.