Promise Isa 7:14: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son…”
Fulfillment Mt 1:23: "…and they shall call his name Immanuel…"

PromiseIsa 40:3: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness…"
Fulfillment Mt 3:3: "… Prepare ye the way of the Lord…"

Promise Mal 3:1: "Behold, I will send my messenger…"
Fulfillment Mt 11:10: "… who shall prepare thy way before thee…"

Promise Mic 5:2: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little … yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel…“
Fulfillment Lk 2:15: "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.“

Promise Dt 18:15: "The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken"
Fulfillment Acts 3:22-23: "… every soul, who will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."

Promise Zech 11:12: "If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver."
FulfillmentMt 27:9-10: "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of So him … And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me."

Promise Zech 9:9: "…behold, thy King cometh unto thee, he is just, and having salvation…"
FulfillmentMt 21:5: "…and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass."

Promise Zech 13:7: "Smite the shepherd…"
FulfillmentMt 26:31: "… and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad."

Promise Ps 118:22: "The stone which the builders refused…"
Fulfillment Mk12:10: "…is become the head of the corner."

Promise Ps 2:7: "Thou art my Son…"
Fulfillment Heb 1:5b: "… and he shall be to me a Son."

2Sam 7:14: "I will be his father…”
Heb 1:5a: "… this day have I begotten thee."

Ps 22:22: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren"
Heb 2:12: "…in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee."

Ps 22:1: "My God, my God…”
Mt 27:46: "…why hast thou forsaken me?"

Ps 41:9: "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted… against me."
Jn 13:18: "…he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel”

Ps 22:7: "All they who see me laugh me to scorn"
Mt 27:39: "wagging their heads…”

Ps 22:16: "…they pierced my hands and my feet.”
Rev 1:7: "…and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him”

Ps 22:18: "They part my garments…”
Jn 19:24: "and for my vesture they did cast lots."

Isa 53:4: "Surely he hath borne our…”
Mt 8:17: "He himself took our griefs infirmities…"

Isa 35:5: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped."
Mt 11:5: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear…"

Ps 16:10: "For thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol…”
Acts 2:27: "…neither wilt thou allow thine Holy One to see corruption.”

From the approximately one-hundred references of the Old Testament prophetic Scriptures which then were fulfilled we have only included twenty into our list. These are sufficient to put before us what great value was placed at the beginning of the New Testament to found everything on the unshakeable prophetic Scripture. They showed from the Word Itself the fulfillment. It cannot be different today, if one has a ministry from God. Everything happens as was foretold. God is still His own interpreter.

A few additional comparisons will show unto us how precise the Lord and His servants divided the Word. In the prophetic Scriptures we also find passages and verses which partly were fulfilled at the first coming of Christ and partly are being fulfilled at His return – the second coming of Christ. The proper dividing and placing of the Scriptures is of uncompared great importance – now as was then.

Isa. 61: 1-2: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God…"

Lk. 4: 18-21: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; …To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

The last part of the second verse concerning the day of wrath He did not read. For then He could not have said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled before your ears." The second part of this verse will come to pass approximately two thousand years later, when the day of salvation ends and the terrible Day of the Lord commences. How precise is God in His Word; the Lord and His servants in the preaching and placing of the same!

Joel 2:28-32:
"And it shall came to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh … whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said…"

Acts 2:16-21:
"But this is that which was spoken through the prophet, Joel:…before that great and notable day of the Lord come; And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

The apostle Peter also stopped in the middle of the verse. He only took the part of the prophetic Scriptures pertaining to the space of time allotted to the New Testament church. Just imagine how fatal it would have been if he would have continued reading on and proclaiming to the crowd, "… for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said…"! In that case all from the world over, wherever Acts 2 was being preached, would have started their pilgrimage to Jerusalem to be saved. The second part of this Scripture will be fulfilled after the return of Christ with Israel on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. How precise is God in His Word! He watches over His Word to fulfil it at the right time. With these examples we clearly see what the actual leading of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of God's servants means and how the right dividing and placing of God's Word is being done in reality.

Mal. 4: 5-6:
"…I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD; And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers …"

Lk. 1: 17:
"And he shall go before him in the spirit and Power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children…”

Also the angel Gabriel stopped in the middle of a verse. He was only concerned with the part applying to the ministry of John the Baptist. His commission was to turn the hearts of the Old Testament fathers to the faith of the children of the New covenant in Jesus Christ. The second part was not mentioned then, because its fulfillment is now, as the children of God are turned back to the faith of the apostolic fathers. How precise did the Lord, His heavenly and earthly messengers treat the written Word! They understood the Scriptures pertaining to the plan of salvation and placed them accordingly.

The second part of the promise actually pertaining to Elijah who should come before the great and terrible day of the Lord was not fulfilled in the ministry of John the Baptist. Although he was also called Elijah. The promise of course that Elijah would come is not being touched by that fact, it remained open to be fulfilled in our time, as the Lord Himself confirmed in Mt. 17:11. This He did after the ministry of John the Baptist was already accomplished. The following fact is also noteworthy. The disciples asked the Master the "Elijah-Question". And after that we read, "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things." This answer from the lips of the Master is still binding today with all the disciples of Jesus Christ. Whosoever will ask the scribes of our time, will receive different answers. To us the answer of our Lord is sufficient, and we do not ask anybody else about it. It would be an insult to the Lord on our part, if we are not satisfied with His answer and do not believe the same. Also in this case with the "Elijah Question", we see how precise the angel Gabriel and our Lord Himself gave true testimony. The Holy Spirit divides and places the Scriptures at all times one-hundred percent correctly.

In Acts 1 the apostle Peter even before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit based whatever took place on the prophetic utterances and showed their fulfillment (Ps. 41:10, Ps. 69:26; Ps. t09:8). In this way he proved to be the mouthpiece of God at the very hour the New Testament church was born. Everything was placed on the prophetic Word.

In Acts 2 the apostle did the same after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He told the audience, "For these are not drunk, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken through the prophet, Joel…"

In Acts 13 it was the apostle Paul who turned to the Gentiles with the message of salvation and founded his action upon the prophetic word, "For so hath the LORD commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the nations, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth" (Isa. 49:6) In Acts 15 the elders and the apostles came together in Jerusalem, and also Paul and Barnabas were present. The developments in the Kingdom of God were looked at from the biblical point of view. After some brethren had spoken, James gave his exposition, "Symeon hath declared how God first did visit the nations, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written: After this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down…”

Especially in the Epistles to the Romans and the Hebrews we find in all expositions reference was made to the prophetic word. The complete harmony of Old and New Testament, the prophecies and their fulfillment, the precise placing of the different events and developments as was foretold is convincingly and overwhelmingly proven. Whether it was the Lord or His heavenly messengers, the Spirit of God or His earthly messengers: all is perfect in order and expounded. Also now, as the last part of the plan of salvation is in the fulfilling process, we have the same divine understanding and receive an overall picture in the God-given clarity. In the light of all the prophetic utterances of Scripture, we understand what it means, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Wherever the Lord can have His way with His people, there everything is in the order of His holy Word – is true and precise. Holy men of God have spoken as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In the same way holy men of God have correctly placed everything within the Scriptures. Today still applies what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” (1 Cor. 14:33)

It is noteworthy to pay attention to the formulation "in all the churches of the saints", namely there where the Holy God Himself by His holy Word and by His Holy Spirit can guide His own, even now presently, into all the truth. He has placed the different ministries and given the proper order for the same. In verses 29-32 of this chapter, we are told, "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge." These are not major prophets, they only come one at the time and that for special purposes. God-called brethren were to speak, who had a prophetic ministry, that also the others would receive the divine teachings. "And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." There were prophets in the Old Testament, and there were men of God in the New Testament – and still are who have received the same Word by the same inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, and therefore, have the same revelation. Such men who deal with the prophetic aspect of the Scripture are also called prophets, for they have the ministry of the Word of prophecy to divide and place all things under divine inspiration and leadership. Wherever the Lord Himself can work through a chosen vessel, God's order according to the apostolic pattern will be seen.

In the last chapter of the Bible we read, "And he said unto me, These words are faithful and true; and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done." We are dealing with the Word of prophecy and with the prophets whom God has used, and also with those men who presently have the God-given ability to place everything in divine order. The same assurance the prophets and apostles had, we do have today. This is not presumptuous, it is true. In Rev. 19 we read about the marriage of the Lamb and of those who are called and chosen to be there, "… that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy…“

The Word of prophecy, the Spirit of prophecy and the testimony of Jesus Christ is the same today. The Lord and His servants, the apostles and prophets, have never taken as their authority any signs and wonders, but rather took the final – the absolute, the written Word of God, and build thereupon. Such is the ministry of a true servant of God at all times. Never in the history of mankind the plan of God was revealed so complete and detailed and so clearly put into divine order as in our days. Of a truth, God has given light at the evening time of this Day of Grace. The same light which came forth by the fulfillment of Scripture at the beginning of the time of grace, the same light is with us today.

PromiseIsa 7:14: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son…”FulfillmentMt 1:23: "…and they shall call his name Immanuel…"

Promise Isa 40:3: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness…"FulfillmentMt 3:3: "… Prepare ye the way of the Lord…"

PromiseMal 3:1: "Behold, I will send my messenger…"FulfillmentMt 11:10: "… who shall prepare thy way before thee…"

PromiseMic 5:2: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little … yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel…“FulfillmentLk 2:15: "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.“

PromiseDt 18:15: "The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken"FulfillmentActs 3:22-23: "… every soul, who will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."

PromiseZech 11:12: "If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver."Fulfillment Mt 27:9-10: "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of So him … And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me."

PromiseZech 9:9: "…behold, thy King cometh unto thee, he is just, and having salvation…"Fulfillment Mt 21:5: "…and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass."

PromiseZech 13:7: "Smite the shepherd…"Fulfillment Mt 26:31: "… and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad."

PromisePs 118:22: "The stone which the builders refused…"FulfillmentMk12:10: "…is become the head of the corner."

PromisePs 2:7: "Thou art my Son…"FulfillmentHeb 1:5b: "… and he shall be to me a Son."

2Sam 7:14: "I will be his father…”Heb 1:5a: "… this day have I begotten thee."

Ps 22:22: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren"
Heb 2:12: "…in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee."

Ps 22:1: "My God, my God…”
Mt 27:46: "…why hast thou forsaken me?"

Ps 41:9: "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted… against me."
Jn 13:18: "…he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel”

Ps 22:7: "All they who see me laugh me to scorn"
Mt 27:39: "wagging their heads…”

Ps 22:16: "…they pierced my hands and my feet.”
Rev 1:7: "…and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him”

Ps 22:18: "They part my garments…”
Jn 19:24: "and for my vesture they did cast lots."

Isa 53:4: "Surely he hath borne our…”Mt 8:17: "He himself took our griefs infirmities…"

Isa 35:5: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped."Mt 11:5: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear…"

Ps 16:10: "For thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol…”Acts 2:27: "…neither wilt thou allow thine Holy One to see corruption.”

From the approximately one-hundred references of the Old Testament prophetic Scriptures which then were fulfilled we have only included twenty into our list. These are sufficient to put before us what great value was placed at the beginning of the New Testament to found everything on the unshakeable prophetic Scripture. They showed from the Word Itself the fulfillment. It cannot be different today, if one has a ministry from God. Everything happens as was foretold. God is still His own interpreter.

A few additional comparisons will show unto us how precise the Lord and His servants divided the Word. In the prophetic Scriptures we also find passages and verses which partly were fulfilled at the first coming of Christ and partly are being fulfilled at His return – the second coming of Christ. The proper dividing and placing of the Scriptures is of uncompared great importance – now as was then.

Isa. 61: 1-2: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God…"

Lk. 4: 18-21: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; …To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

The last part of the second verse concerning the day of wrath He did not read. For then He could not have said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled before your ears." The second part of this verse will come to pass approximately two thousand years later, when the day of salvation ends and the terrible Day of the Lord commences. How precise is God in His Word; the Lord and His servants in the preaching and placing of the same!

Joel 2:28-32:
"And it shall came to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh … whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said…"

Acts 2:16-21:
"But this is that which was spoken through the prophet, Joel:…before that great and notable day of the Lord come; And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

The apostle Peter also stopped in the middle of the verse. He only took the part of the prophetic Scriptures pertaining to the space of time allotted to the New Testament church. Just imagine how fatal it would have been if he would have continued reading on and proclaiming to the crowd, "… for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said…"! In that case all from the world over, wherever Acts 2 was being preached, would have started their pilgrimage to Jerusalem to be saved. The second part of this Scripture will be fulfilled after the return of Christ with Israel on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. How precise is God in His Word! He watches over His Word to fulfil it at the right time. With these examples we clearly see what the actual leading of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of God's servants means and how the right dividing and placing of God's Word is being done in reality.

Mal. 4: 5-6:
"…I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD; And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers …"

Lk. 1: 17:
"And he shall go before him in the spirit and Power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children…”

Also the angel Gabriel stopped in the middle of a verse. He was only concerned with the part applying to the ministry of John the Baptist. His commission was to turn the hearts of the Old Testament fathers to the faith of the children of the New covenant in Jesus Christ. The second part was not mentioned then, because its fulfillment is now, as the children of God are turned back to the faith of the apostolic fathers. How precise did the Lord, His heavenly and earthly messengers treat the written Word! They understood the Scriptures pertaining to the plan of salvation and placed them accordingly.

The second part of the promise actually pertaining to Elijah who should come before the great and terrible day of the Lord was not fulfilled in the ministry of John the Baptist. Although he was also called Elijah. The promise of course that Elijah would come is not being touched by that fact, it remained open to be fulfilled in our time, as the Lord Himself confirmed in Mt. 17:11. This He did after the ministry of John the Baptist was already accomplished. The following fact is also noteworthy. The disciples asked the Master the "Elijah-Question". And after that we read, "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things." This answer from the lips of the Master is still binding today with all the disciples of Jesus Christ. Whosoever will ask the scribes of our time, will receive different answers. To us the answer of our Lord is sufficient, and we do not ask anybody else about it. It would be an insult to the Lord on our part, if we are not satisfied with His answer and do not believe the same. Also in this case with the "Elijah Question", we see how precise the angel Gabriel and our Lord Himself gave true testimony. The Holy Spirit divides and places the Scriptures at all times one-hundred percent correctly.

In Acts 1 the apostle Peter even before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit based whatever took place on the prophetic utterances and showed their fulfillment (Ps. 41:10, Ps. 69:26; Ps. t09:8). In this way he proved to be the mouthpiece of God at the very hour the New Testament church was born. Everything was placed on the prophetic Word.

In Acts 2 the apostle did the same after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He told the audience, "For these are not drunk, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken through the prophet, Joel…"

In Acts 13 it was the apostle Paul who turned to the Gentiles with the message of salvation and founded his action upon the prophetic word, "For so hath the LORD commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the nations, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth" (Isa. 49:6) In Acts 15 the elders and the apostles came together in Jerusalem, and also Paul and Barnabas were present. The developments in the Kingdom of God were looked at from the biblical point of view. After some brethren had spoken, James gave his exposition, "Symeon hath declared how God first did visit the nations, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written: After this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down…”

Especially in the Epistles to the Romans and the Hebrews we find in all expositions reference was made to the prophetic word. The complete harmony of Old and New Testament, the prophecies and their fulfillment, the precise placing of the different events and developments as was foretold is convincingly and overwhelmingly proven. Whether it was the Lord or His heavenly messengers, the Spirit of God or His earthly messengers: all is perfect in order and expounded. Also now, as the last part of the plan of salvation is in the fulfilling process, we have the same divine understanding and receive an overall picture in the God-given clarity. In the light of all the prophetic utterances of Scripture, we understand what it means, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Wherever the Lord can have His way with His people, there everything is in the order of His holy Word – is true and precise. Holy men of God have spoken as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In the same way holy men of God have correctly placed everything within the Scriptures. Today still applies what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” (1 Cor. 14:33)

It is noteworthy to pay attention to the formulation "in all the churches of the saints", namely there where the Holy God Himself by His holy Word and by His Holy Spirit can guide His own, even now presently, into all the truth. He has placed the different ministries and given the proper order for the same. In verses 29-32 of this chapter, we are told, "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge." These are not major prophets, they only come one at the time and that for special purposes. God-called brethren were to speak, who had a prophetic ministry, that also the others would receive the divine teachings. "And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." There were prophets in the Old Testament, and there were men of God in the New Testament – and still are who have received the same Word by the same inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, and therefore, have the same revelation. Such men who deal with the prophetic aspect of the Scripture are also called prophets, for they have the ministry of the Word of prophecy to divide and place all things under divine inspiration and leadership. Wherever the Lord Himself can work through a chosen vessel, God's order according to the apostolic pattern will be seen.

In the last chapter of the Bible we read, "And he said unto me, These words are faithful and true; and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done." We are dealing with the Word of prophecy and with the prophets whom God has used, and also with those men who presently have the God-given ability to place everything in divine order. The same assurance the prophets and apostles had, we do have today. This is not presumptuous, it is true. In Rev. 19 we read about the marriage of the Lamb and of those who are called and chosen to be there, "… that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy…“

The Word of prophecy, the Spirit of prophecy and the testimony of Jesus Christ is the same today. The Lord and His servants, the apostles and prophets, have never taken as their authority any signs and wonders, but rather took the final – the absolute, the written Word of God, and build thereupon. Such is the ministry of a true servant of God at all times. Never in the history of mankind the plan of God was revealed so complete and detailed and so clearly put into divine order as in our days. Of a truth, God has given light at the evening time of this Day of Grace. The same light which came forth by the fulfillment of Scripture at the beginning of the time of grace, the same light is with us today.