Theologians Comment on Predictions

The conditional character of Bible predictions may be explained on the altogether reasonable ground that God, though sovereign, is not arbitrary. He does not deal with men as if they were lifeless objects on a chessboard to be moved about exclusively at His will. He mysteriously holds in check, as it were, His own plans oftentimes, because He will not override the free will of man. That is what gives to divine predictions their conditional quality, and that is what caused God to speak of “my breach of promise,” or “my altering of my purpose.”EGWC 105.2

Well-known Bible commentators have written of this:EGWC 105.3

“God’s unchangeable principle is to do the best that can be done under all circumstances; if then He did not take into account the moral change in his people (their prayers, &c.), He would not be acting according to His own unchanging principle.”—JAMIESON, FAUSSET, BROWN, Commentary, Notes on Jeremiah 18:8.EGWC 105.4

“God’s promises are as conditional as his threats. It would be neither just nor merciful to us for God to continue his favours unabated after we had departed from him. The removal of them is a wholesome warning to us. It springs naturally from the personal relation of God to his people, one which depends on reciprocal sympathy.”—The Pulpit Commentary, Notes (Homiletics) on Jeremiah 18:7-10.EGWC 105.5

“These verses [Jeremiah 18:7-10] contain what may be called God’s decree by which the whole of his conduct towards man is regulated. If he purpose destruction against an offending person, if that person repent and turn to God, he shall live and not die.EGWC 105.6

“If he purpose peace and salvation to him that walketh uprightly, if he turn from God to the world and sin, he shall die and not live.”—ADAM CLARKE, Commentary, Notes on Jeremiah 18:7-10.EGWC 105.7