Replies

"We appear to differ on who deserves the credit for the unfolding of world history exactly in line with ancient prophecy. I was pointing out that it cannot be by accident or luck that God wins EVERY time! Are there not more than 250 messianic prophecies (major and minor) in the OT? How do you explain that they ALL came true if any one man in the pipeline (over hundreds of years) could have thwarted the whole thing by choosing incorrectly? I cannot explain it, other than, it wasn't luck. Why in the universe would God leave anything to luck?"

+Gregory Palamas addresses this very issue, again in The Triads:

"Thus the deifying gift of the Spirit is a mysterious light, and transforms into light those who receive its richness; He does not only fill them with eternal light, but grants them a knowledge and a life appropriate to God. Thus, as St. Maximus teaches, St. Paul lived no longer a created life, but 'the eternal life of Him Who indwelt him.' Similarly, the prophets contemplated the future as if it were the present."

I'm a little puzzled by your post Kolo. Are you saying St. Gregory Palamas believed in "luck"?

Me: We appear to differ on who deserves the credit for the unfolding of world history exactly in line with ancient prophecy.

+Gregory Palamas addresses this very issue again in The Triads:

"Thus the deifying gift of the Spirit is a mysterious light, and transforms into light those who receive its richness; He does not only fill them with eternal light, but grants them a knowledge and a life appropriate to God. Thus, as St. Maximus teaches, St. Paul lived no longer a created life, but 'the eternal life of Him Who indwelt him.' Similarly, the prophets contemplated the future as if it were the present."

So we do disagree. To me, this quote describes how a prophet might come to "see". You are only giving credit to God for this part. I don't see you giving credit to God for causing those future events that the prophets saw. You can say that God saw the fulfillment of the prophecy and the making of the prophecy simultaneously. For the sake of discussion, I'll give you that.

The problem is: How did the fulfillment happen in the first place? Did God just "look up the answers" to know what prophecies to cause through the Spirit? God looked to us first for our actions, and then (simultaneously) instilled those results into the prophets hundreds of years earlier?

I would say that God had His mighty hand all over each and every fulfillment of prophecy. God made no adjustments to what the prophets said based on what He knew would happen later on. God made it all happen. He gets double credit.