later. But even in that case, I am quite convinced, that He was speaking directly to the godly in his own day, giving them assurance that though the exile was certain to come, God was going to eventually deliver from it and that God was going to send His own son to deal with the question of sin which was the cause of the exile. That I believe is the nearest we have to something that has relevance more largely to the distant future than the immediate situation. Though even there, I believe there was an immediate purpose for the faithful followers of Isaiah right then. So to truly understand the prophetic books, you have to understand the relation of the prophet to his own people. That is the relation we have to learn through the study of the historical books and through the incidental references in the prophetic books which give us clues as to exactly how the prophet is dealing with a particular situation. Now personally I think that the prophet said a great deal more than is included in the Bible. But God caused that which should be written in the Bible and preserved what had meaning not only for their own day but for his followers in future days. Not necessarily for all his followers, not necessarily for his followers at any one time. There may be things in the Bible that were tremendously meaningful for people 50 years ago, that is hard for us to see the relevance of for today. There may be matters in the Bible that if the Lord tarries will exactly fit our needs 100 years from now, that is hard for us to see the relevance to today. And there may be passages in them which exactly fit our needs today which would have been very difficult for them to see back then. But we just rule any section out. God can open up matters in it that we realize can’t didn’t were there. In any case, it has great relevance for today. But I would say then that all the Scripture has relevance to believers at all ages but that it all has relevance to people during the immediate time and you have to learn a good bit about the immediate time in order to appreciate and understand truly its relevance to your own time. Then another matter in that connection that I have had a number of
later. But even in that case, I am quite convinced, that He was speaking directly to the godly in his own day, giving them assurance that though the exile was certain to come, God was going to eventually deliver from it and that God was going to send His own son to deal with the question of sin which was the cause of the exile. That I believe is the nearest we have to something that has relevance more largely to the distant future than the immediate situation. Though even there, I believe there was an immediate purpose for the faithful followers of Isaiah right then. So to truly understand the prophetic books, you have to understand the relation of the prophet to his own people. That is the relation we have to learn through the study of the historical books and through the incidental references in the prophetic books which give us clues as to exactly how the prophet is dealing with a particular situation. Now personally I think that the prophet said a great deal more than is included in the Bible. But God caused that which should be written in the Bible and preserved what had meaning not only for their own day but for his followers in future days. Not necessarily for all his followers, not necessarily for his followers at any one time. There may be things in the Bible that were tremendously meaningful for people 50 years ago, that is hard for us to see the relevance of for today. There may be matters in the Bible that if the Lord tarries will exactly fit our needs 100 years from now, that is hard for us to see the relevance to today. And there may be passages in them which exactly fit our needs today which would have been very difficult for them to see back then. But we can’t just rule any section out. God can open up matters in it that we didn’t realize were there. In any case, it has great relevance for today. But I would say then that all the Scripture has relevance to believers at all ages but that it all has relevance to people during the immediate time and you have to learn a good bit about the immediate time in order to appreciate and understand truly its relevance to your own time. Then another matter in that connection that I have had a number of