Isaiah 41  p3

Vv21-29 

Two questions are being asked in v22

#1  Do you know the future?

This is a huge question w/ great significance -    

Isaiah hangs his claim that Yahweh is the only being worthy of the title “God” squarely on the possibility of predictive prophecy.  Oswalt  

The premise is simple: only God can predict the future and the only way that He can predict it is because He knows it.  He doesn’t know it as someone might read the trends and project these into the future; He knows the future as One who can see it in advance. 

New Year’s Day on Colorado Blvd. – get high enough, see whole parade.  What is future/present/past to one in the stands is present to the one high enough to view it all.   

Only God can see it all.  But that doesn’t mean that others haven’t tried - Edgar Whisenant - 1988 - 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. Predicted the rapture would occur in 1988.  1989 - The final shout: Rapture report 1989. Predicted the rapture would occur in 1989. 1993 - 23 reasons why a pre-tribulation rapture looks like it will occur on Rosh-Hashanah 1993. Predicted the rapture would occur in 1993. 1994 - And now the earth's destruction by fire, nuclear bomb fire. Prediction for 1994. 

What should we make of Edgar Whisenant?  Deuteronomy 18:21-22.  Only God knows the future exhaustively and accurately.  The Bible uses the omniscience of God as an apologetic – as a defense of the faith. 

48 “Dead-On” Prophecies About Yeshua (3 slides)  

Many who read right through Genesis 1:1 stumble at Isaiah 41:25.  “God can do anything, but He can’t know everything.”  That’s a peculiar position to take.  Why is it difficult to believe that the same God who created man can also communicate w/ man?   

#2  Can you explain past events and their effect today?  Creation.

These are questions asked of Job at the end of that book. 

V23a  Omniscience is an attribute of deity.  (Elohim in text).  God’s ability to foretell the future demonstrates His superiority over idols.  This is a major theme of this section.  41:21-24; 42:8-9; 43:9-13; 44:6-8; 45:20-21; 46:9-11; 48:3-7. 

The prophets speak from the Holy Spirit – 1P1:11; 2P1:21.  The prophets didn’t read tea leaves or calculate the position of the stars, they didn’t predict by means of interpreting the weather, gazing into crystals, nor working themselves into self-induced altered states of consciousness.  The God who created them communicated to them. 

V23b  The ability to act would be some sign of life.  God’s not asking for omnipotence here, just some act of potency.  Certain scientists informed God that they could now make life even as He had done in Genesis one.  God said, “Show Me what you’ve got.”  “You first,” they said.  So out of the dust the Lord formed a man.  “Now it’s your turn,” the Lord said.  They scooped up a handful of dust and the Lord said, “Not so fast, make your own dust.”   

V24  You (idols) are from nothing and amount to nothing and those who choose you are an abomination.  1^st two times in Scripture – Egyptians don’t eat w/ the Hebrews nor w/ shepherds for this is detestable.  Egyptians saw these as below themselves and they wouldn’t lower themselves.  God has no fellowship w/ abomination. 

Vv25-26  Prediction of Cyrus and rise of Medo-Persian Empire 

Who else has said and done what I have said and done?  27-29 

²⁷I was the first to tell Jerusalem, ‘Look! Help is on the way!’ ²⁸Not one of your idols told you this. Not one gave any answer when I asked. ²⁹See, they are all foolish, worthless things. Your idols are all as empty as the wind.  Is. 41  NLT 

God proclaims that He is the only God – there is none like Him.  He stands alone as God Almighty; He stands alone as the One who can predict the future.  In effect, God says: “Any religion that isn’t in alignment w/ Me must be considered false,” and that just won’t do today.  We have discovered that not one size fits all.  Henry Ford said that you can have any color of car you want as long as its black.  That doesn’t work any longer.  What’s true for cars is now applied to religion.  Hindu/Buddhist… 

Leaders of the Episcopal Church have rejected the appointment of a bishop-elect who denies that Satan exists/doesn't believe God sent Jesus Christ to die for the world's sins/ teaches that many paths lead to salvation.  The Diocese of Northern Michigan's election of the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester was declared "null/void" yesterday. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says he failed to receive the necessary consent from a majority of Episcopal bishops/diocesan committees.  Thew Forrester also has been criticized for blending elements of Christianity and Buddhism. In a 2004 diocesan newsletter, Thew Forrester said he had "received Buddhist 'lay ordination."'  Bloggers also have criticized him for calling a reading from the Quran "the word of God."  7.28.09

Claim of religious pluralism: there is saving truth in other religions.  The smorgasbord of religions is not new.  The radical monotheism of Israel developed in the midst of Egyptian polytheism.  Paul preached that there is salvation only in Jesus Christ in the midst of Roman polytheism.  The church has always faced the challenge of religious pluralism and their competing claims and the church has always insisted on the uniqueness/exclusiveness of Jesus Christ.  

Some would tell us that ‘right action’ (ethics) is the measure of true religion and not ‘right doctrine’ (orthodoxy).  Religion is to be judged by its moral teaching and not its supernatural element (or lack thereof).  We’re told that if a certain religious teaching helps people live better lives, that is the criteria.  Therefore we can look upon them as not needing the salvation that Jesus brings through His substitutionary death.   

Whereas atheism declares all religions false/pluralism affirms them all as true.  People may be savingly related to God through any number of vastly different religions because God is actively revealed equally through all of them.  They share a basic core/universal essence that allows us to say that they are all saying the same thing for they are all aiming for the same goal.   

Isaiah throws down a challenge: let them come forward w/ predictive prophecy.  Elijah had a challenge for the false prophets of his day: the God who answers by fire, He is God.  Isaiah says: the God who answers by predictive prophecy, He is God. 

V24 deals w/ the idols and v29 deals w/ the idolaters. 

• Isaiah is making a case for faith in Yahweh. 
  • He doesn’t ask the utilitarian question: Does your god work for you? 
  • He doesn’t ask the emotional question: How does he make you feel? 
  • He doesn’t ask the philosophical question: Does your god give you a sense of purpose and meaning?
  • He doesn’t ask the moral question: Are you a better person?
  • He asks the supernatural question: Can your god foretell the future?  If he can’t, he is no god at all.