Argument from Prophecies
And there I was, having just come back to the Catholic Church, when my friend used an interesting term: “Salvation History.” Have you ever heard of “Salvation History” before? It’s an idea that I think deserves more attention.
The meaning of “Salvation History” can be summarized as “the revelation of God’s saving plan for humanity throughout history.” Others might think of “Salvation History” as the fulfillment of prophecies—not in an “end of the world” sort of way, but rather as the fulfillment of God’s promises made throughout history. These promises, and their fulfillment, reveal the Will of God to us.
In this segment of the lesson, I’m going to challenge you to think of the word “prophecy” in a less “peering into a crystal ball” way and more of a “keeping promises” sense.
Whichever way one defines “Salvation History,” it’s a very comforting thought that God has never and will never give up on us. Sometimes, this sort of comfort is all we need to extend to others when we evangelize. It gives true hope and meaning to our lives.
So, as my buddy and I were conversing about “salvation history,” he tells a story about a father and a son, and it went like this:
On 7 December, 1988, an earthquake struck the northwestern section of Armenia, killing more than 25,000 people and leaving thousands more homeless. In one of the smaller villages, a father rushed to the school where he believed his son to be, but to his horror, he found the school had collapsed into rubble. There was no sign of life.
The father had no thought of turning back. He remembered what he often told his son, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!”
As tears welled up in his eyes, he rushed over to where he believed his son’s classroom to be and began to dig.
The people around him wailed in despair, “My son!” or “My daughter!” Other bystanders tried to tell the man that it was hopeless and to give up. To those words he replied, “Either help me, or leave me alone.”
Not one of them volunteered to help him. But he drew his strength from the promise he made to his son.
2 hours turned into 4, and 4 into 8. Before the man knew it, 36 straight hours had passed. He fought against his body wanting to buckle, and then in the 38th hour, as he moved a heavy slab of concrete, he heard very faint voices.
Filled with anticipation and frustration, he cried out his son’s name, “ARMAND!”
A child’s voice called back: “Yes Papa! I knew you’d save us. I never lost hope that you would keep your promise!”
What I want you to take away from this story is that when sharing the faith with others, we Catholics have something very distinct. We have a God who has told us from the very beginning that He loves us and will always love us. He’s not some distant deity or unnamed “force” in the universe.
At times, it may seem that He reveals Himself and fulfills His promises very slowly and incrementally; sometimes, in our weakness, we may feel like He has abandoned us—but we know that in the end, He always keeps His promises.
In doing the work of evangelization with people who are Non-Christian believers in God, we can offer the fulfillment of prophecy, of God being faithful to his promises, as “One Good Reason” for believing in Jesus Christ.
How might this come up in a conversation, and what might it sound like, for a street evangelist?
[Example of the Argument from Prophecies in a conversation]
The beautiful part is that these promises—these prophecies—were made early on, and were fulfilled at once in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, for example, if you talk to a Mormon (someone from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), they’ll claim to have received a very, very late prophecy, after Jesus, in the Americas. As Catholics, we don’t need to concern ourselves with such claims because everything that we need for salvation has been summed up in Jesus and passed down to us through the millennia since (which brings us back to the term “Salvation History”).
A word of caution before we conclude. The major prophecies come from Sacred Scripture, which most non-Christian believers do not regard as authoritative. The reason to draw their attention to it will be to illustrate not only how long-held our beliefs are but that they are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Jews still await their messiah. The Muslims derive their origin from a mixture of pagan beliefs and Judeo-Christian influences several hundred years after the founding of Christianity. Hinduism is purely pagan with no central authority and is so diverse in its polytheism and differing doctrines that “truth” can seem to be a foreign concept. The list goes on. But for us, we’ve put our trust in the One and Triune God who promised, “I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 32:38), and who then fulfilled it in Jesus Christ.