92 LT.-COL. MOLONY, O.B.E., LATE R.E., ON PREDICTIONS AND 



and fulfilled besides those dealt with above. Though as many 

 as three personages may have been expected, namely, a very 

 great prophet, Messiah son of David, and Messiah son of 

 Ephraim, all the fulfilments centred upon one personage. Most 

 of the prophecies are gathered into a single prophetical book, 

 that of Isaiah, and a single psalm, the 22nd. Parallel with the 

 prophecies there went Messianic preparation, and that on several 

 converging lines. 



The simplest and most rational explanation of the whole 

 matter is that we have here a manifest case of the working of a 

 loving, personal God ; who inspired the prophecies, and saw 

 to their fulfilment. 



I am unaw^are that any other coherent explanation has been 

 put forward. Yet 250 years have passed since the famous Pascal 

 wrote that the greatest of the proofs of Jesus Christ are the 

 prophecies. Every other branch of Christian evidences has been 

 controverted by sceptics. Why not this ? Surely because no 

 line of attack holds out any prospect of success. 



In conclusion, may I urge you to study the prophecies that 

 Messiah should be a Saviour from the guilt of sin, and that He 

 should be Divine ? Points of the utmost interest and importance, 

 but beyond the scope of this paper. 



Discussion. 



The Chairman said : Colonel Molony has placed us much in his 

 debt. He has proved his thesis up to the hilt and his paper is an 

 encouragement to further study of the prophecies. Is he quite 

 correct on page 92 in saying that prophecy is a branch of Christian 

 evidences which has never been controverted by sceptics ? Certainly 

 the modernist school has attacked the prophetic Scriptures to the 

 point of denying to them any quality of prediction. In terming 

 this a swing of the pendulum Colonel Molony seems too kind to his 

 opponents. A pendulum can hardly swing from affirmation to blank 

 denial, only between degrees of affirmation or denial. I think the 

 modernists have jammed the pendulum of their clock, but we have 

 a better, which goes serenely well. What is the use of denying the 

 predictive quality in prophecy ? Numberless fulfilments, both 

 adequate and accurate, regarding, for instance, Babylon, the Jews, 

 and, as the lecturer has shown, our Lord Himself, prove the contrary. 



