AS REGARDS THE NATURE OF THE FUTURE
THINGS ANNOUNCED, inasmuch as the future contingent in question is either absolute
or conditional, prophecy is subdivided into absolute prophecy
(prophecy of foresight) and conditional prophecy (prophecy of denunciation
or promise).
The prophecy of
foresight designates foreknowledge of future events inasmuch as they are to be
fulfilled in themselves and forever. However, prophecy of denunciation is not
always fulfilled, but it foretells the order of cause to effect that sometimes is impeded by other supervening
events.
Thus, Jonah, sent by God, preached by
the Ninevites: “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed” (Jonah 3;4 DR).
However, the Ninevites did penance, saying: “How can tell if God will turn, and
forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish? And
God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had
mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and
he did it not” (Jonah 3:9-10 DR) Likewise Isaiah foretold to King Hezekiah in
his illness:
Thus saith the Lord: Take order with
thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live. And Hezekiah turned his face
toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord, remember
how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done
that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping. And the
word of the Lord came to Isaias, saying: Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus saith the
Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy
tears. Behold I will add to thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and
this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.
(Isa 38:1-6 [DR])
This distinction between the prophecy
of foresight and prophecy of denunciation was not invented in order to explain
prophecies that are not fulfilled, but rather, God himself through the prophets
explains the reason for this prophecy of denunciation. {{107}} Indeed, he said
to Jeremiah (in Jer 18:7-8, DR): “I will suddenly speak against a nation, and
against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it. If that
nation against which I have spoken shall repent of their evil, I will also
repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.”
Likewise, the fittingness of the
prophecy of denunciation is clear a priori, given how it manifests God’s
mercy. Indeed, God announces punishments so that he might turn a sinner from
his sin and from damnation. Likewise, he can conditionally foretell a promise.
However, conditional prophecy “is denominated more so from denunciation,
because God is more inclined to relax punishment than to withdraw promised favors.”
(ST II-II, q. 174, a. 1, ad 2) Hence, prophecy of promise is generally fulfilled
and from this perspective pertains to prophecy of foresight. (Réginald
Garrigou-Lagrange, On Divine Revelation: The Teaching of the Catholic Faith,
2 vols. [trans. Matthew K. Minerd; Steubenville, Ohio: Emmaus Academic, 2022],
2:154-55)