A couple of weeks ago I was reading Justin Martyr’s First Apology † which was addressed to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. In addition to arguing against the persecution of individuals solely for being Christian, Justin also provides the Emperor with a defense of Christianity.
Apology comes from the Greek word ἀπολογία (apologia) which means "verbal defense." The purpose of an apology is to present historical, reasoned, and evidential bases for Christianity, defending it against objections. Justin begins thus, “I, Justin . . . present this address and petition on behalf of those of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused, myself being one of them.”
In this Apology, Justin said, “these God predicted by the Spirit of prophecy as about to come to pass, in order that, when they came to pass, there might be no unbelief, but faith, because of their prediction.” He was talking specifically about one prediction, the virgin birth, but this is a principle – God announced, through the prophets, the coming of Christ, so that when it came to pass we might believe in him.
Then I read about Tertullian. He said that the Old Testament prophecies are required in order to fully understand the two advents of Messiah and to identify Jesus of Nazareth as that Messiah. He stressed that the miracles of Jesus are not sufficient to identify Him as Messiah. The added weight of fulfilled prophecy is necessary.*
As I read these things I had a thought, Why not go through the prophets and note the prophecies of the first coming of Christ? So I began with Isaiah. I have to admit, I had to exercise a good bit of restraint – there is so much good stuff in Isaiah, I had to restrict myself to the prophecies of the first coming and life of Christ!
But before I begin my posts on what I saw in Isaiah, a few explanatory words from Justin:
The different ways prophecy was uttered
“But when you hear the utterances of the prophets spoken as it were personally, you must not suppose that they are spoken by the inspired themselves, but by the Divine Word who moves them. For sometimes He declares things that are to come to pass, in the manner of one who foretells the future; sometimes He speaks as from the person of God the Lord and Father of all; sometimes as from the person of Christ; sometimes as from the person of the people answering the Lord or His Father, just as you can see even in your own writers, one man being the writer of the whole, but introducing the persons who converse. And this the Jews who possessed the books of the prophets did not understand, and therefore did not recognise Christ even when He came, but even hate us who say that He has come, and who prove that, as was predicted, He was crucified by them.”
Prophecy using the past tense
“But when the Spirit of prophecy speaks of things that are about to come to pass as if they had already taken place, — as may be observed even in the passages already cited by me, — that this circumstance may afford no excuse to readers [for misinterpreting them], we will make even this also quite plain. The things which He absolutely knows will take place, He predicts as if already they had taken place. And that the utterances must be thus received, you will perceive, if you give your attention to them. The words cited above (And again, in another prophecy, the Spirit of prophecy, through the same David, intimated that Christ, after He had been crucified, should reign, and spoke as follows: Sing to the Lord, all the earth, and day by day declare His salvation. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, to be feared above all the gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols of devils; but God made the heavens. Glory and praise are before His face, strength and glorying are in the habitation of His holiness. Give Glory to the Lord, the Father everlasting. Receive grace, and enter His presence, and worship in His holy courts. Let all the earth fear before His face; let it be established, and not shaken. Let them rejoice among the nations. The Lord has reigned from the tree.), David uttered 1500 years before Christ became a man and was crucified; and no one of those who lived before Him, nor yet of His contemporaries, afforded joy to the Gentiles by being crucified. But our Jesus Christ, being crucified and dead, rose again, and having ascended to heaven, reigned; and by those things which were published in His name among all nations by the apostles, there is joy afforded to those who expect the immortality promised by Him.”
And with this further word resonating in my spirit . . .
“For with what reason should we believe of a crucified man that He is the first-born of the unbegotten God, and Himself will pass judgment on the whole human race, unless we had found testimonies concerning Him published before He came and was born as man, and unless we saw that things had happened accordingly.”
. . . I went to Isaiah to look for these “testimonies concerning Him published before He came”, and over the next several weeks, at least once a week, I will post what I found in Isaiah – Life and Ministry of the Christ in Isaiah. I’m very excited about this! I’ve already been blessed and I pray that everyone who reads these will be blessed as well.
† The First Apology of Justin Martyr, written between AD 155 and 157 read it here
* Exploring the Interpretation of Isaiah 53 by Early Ante-Nicene Theologians read it here
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