In this our Lord was unique. No one in all the history of the world, save Himself, prophesied this. Hear His own words, " The Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him: and the third day He shall rise again." (Matt. 20:18,1918Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 19And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again. (Matthew 20:18‑19)).
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" Then He [the Lord Jesus] took unto Him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death: and the third day He shall rise again." (Luke 18:31-3331Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. (Luke 18:31‑33)).
Either our Lord was what He said He was, and the fulfillment of this prophecy would prove it, or else He was the most consummate blasphemer and liar the world has ever known. Shall Christianity owe its success to a lie? Can good fruit be born on a rotten tree? For what are the fruits of Christianity, but what men generally praise and admire? Even infidels and skeptics, who reject the claims of Christ, and deny His resurrection, write of His moral character in terms of glowing praise. Can they do this consistently, believing Christ to be an imposter? Surely not, or else they fail to see how incongruous they are to praise our Lord's moral excellence on the one hand, and on the other hand to disbelieve His claims as to His deity, His true manhood, and the atoning character of His death, which, if untrue, were indeed blasphemous assertions.
The late Theodore Parker, a well-known infidel writer in America, wrote,,.
" Measure Jesus by the shadow He cast into the world; no, by the light He shed upon it? Shall we be told that such a Person never lived? that the whole story is a lie? Suppose that Plato and Newton had never lived. But who did their works, and thought their thoughts? It takes a Newton to forge a Newton. What man could have fabricated a Jesus? None but Jesus."
We could give panegyric after panegryric of our Lord from infidel pens. Strange to admit so much, and not see, if our Lord did not rise from the dead, that He was a con-summate liar, and instead of being praised, He should have been condemned in the severest terms.
A story is told of the evil days of the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. France at that time threw off the profession of Christianity. A harlot was enthroned in mock-royal robes in the cathedral of Noter Dame, Paris, as the Goddess of Reason. The Lord's day was abolished, and in its place a holiday was substituted every tenth day. A deistical system of religion was drawn up by the French Directory (1796), designed to supplant Christianity.
But this new religion—theophilanthropy—did not become popular with the masses. At that time there was a famous statesman, who had previously been a bishop in the Romish Church, Talleyrand by name. He was talking with the leaders of this new religion, who were deploring its want of success. To their astonishment Talleyrand said, " Gentlemen, I can tell you how to make your new religion succeed, and that without lavish expenditure." They eagerly asked to be let into the secret. He replied, " Let one of your number be crucified and put to death, buried, and rise again the third day. Let this happen, and your religion will succeed."
But here was One, who not only rose from the dead, but before His death prophesied His own resurrection; and not only so, but prophets long centuries before fore-told the same. Could this have been brought about by the wit of man, or by human arrangement? Impossible!
We know that the Old Testament Scriptures were written hundreds of years before Christ was born into the world. There is no disputing that. What then made Moses, David, Isaiah and others prophesy the coming of our Lord into this world? Moreover, these ancient prophecies have been fulfilled. Can you explain this, save on the ground of inspiration?