The Cumulative Fulfillment of Prophecy

This is a copy I painted of a masterpiece by Corot. An artist begins a work like this by first painting the background on his canvas. Background features are painted with softer lines and often employ bluish colors to make them look distant. The middle ground items follow next, painted with a little sharper focus and perhaps more vibrant colors. Finally the subject of the picture is painted in the foreground in sharp focus and perhaps using high contrast colors. The canvas was [ful]filled by the background, but the picture was not complete. The background and middle ground of the painting provide important context and perspective for the true subject, but the canvas is not ultimately [ful]filled, i.e., finished, until the final touches of the foreground subject are added.

In like manner, biblical prophecies are often fulfilled cumulatively. Instead of only one complete fulfillment per prophecy, prophecies can be fulfilled by a progression of events that occur over a long time. Thus, the prophecy of the virgin birth in Isaiah 7.14 receives its first fulfillment in Isaiah 8.3, but this is only a “background” fulfillment. The ultimate fulfillment does not occur until the virgin birth of Jesus recorded in Matthew 1.20-25. A prophecy can have several background and middle ground fulfillments, but the prophetic “canvas” is not finished (ultimately fulfilled) until the final event to which all others pointed occurs. We diagram the cumulative fulfillment of prophecy this way:


P represents the original prophecy, f1 and f 2 represent background fulfillments and f T stands for the Telos (ultimate) fulfillment.

Prophecies of the Holy Spirit's Outpouring

Many Christians today don’t realize how active God’s Holy Spirit was in the OT era. Some are surprised at the thought that people could be “born again” before the day of Pentecost. The confusion arises from the idea that the giving of the Spirit on Pentecost was the inauguration of all the Spirit’s ministries. In fact, the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost was only for the explicit purposes declared by Joel. Consider these observations about the OT prophecies of the Spirit’s outpouring:

(1) The OT prophecies of future outpouring or manifestation of the Holy Spirit fall under two great themes: The Coming of Messiah and The Restoration of Israel (see Plumb Lines pages 19 and 20).

(2) All the predicted ministries or manifestation of the Holy Spirit were already known, at least in part, in the OT era, having been witnessed in the lives of Moses and other Judges and prophets.

(3) Only Isaiah 59.20,21 (implicitly) and Joel 2.28-32 (explicitly) predict a prophetic or charismatic empowering of a large group of people. Both of these passages fall under the greater theme of Israel’s ultimate restoration.

(4) Joel’s prophecy stands out as unique among OT predictions of the Spirit on several counts:

A. While looking to the ultimate restoration of Israel, it applies to “all flesh,” grammatically the most general designation for people possible. Joel specifies the outpouring of the Spirit as upon both genders, all ages and all social stratas.

B. Joel’s prophecy specifies charismatic gifts and manifestations as the result of the outpouring, in contrast to the usual repentance from idolatry that is in view in the other prophecies of the Spirit and Israel’s restoration.

C. Rather than looking only to Israel’s restoration following the Apocalypse, Joel speaks of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that precedes the Apocalypse! We noted that while Peter on the day of Pentecost quoted Joel 2 to the middle of verse 32, Peter cut off his quotation in mid verse (like Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth) for Pentecost only brought fulfillment of the prophecy up to that point: Pentecost brought the pre-apocalyptic outpouring and a fresh opportunity for Israelites to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation, but Pentecost was not the Apocalypse and had no reference to Armageddon “survivors.”

(5) It becomes clear that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, was not a general outpouring for repentance and salvation; those ministries of the Spirit were already active and manifest. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was specifically for charismatic empowering. Furthermore, that charismatic empowering was for accomplishing the great harvest that would occur in the course of obeying the Great Commission. It was no accident that the outpouring occurred on the day of the harvest festival of Weeks.

(6) Therefore, we really have no business celebrating Pentecost Sunday if we have no interest in the charismatic empowering of the Spirit. To think of the Pentecost outpouring as the beginning of the Spirit’s salvific ministries is false pneumatology. Israelites did repent and get saved by the power of the Spirit on Pentecost, but they could have experienced the new birth before that time: what was not previously available to them (unless they were specially chosen prophets) was access to the charismatic gifts.

(7) Finally, understanding the unique and specific purpose of the Pentecost outpouring helps us realize that salvation (new birth) and charismatic empowering are distinct ministries of the Spirit and can be distinct events in the life of the believer. The chronological relationship between salvation and empowering by the Spirit is a topic we will take up at another time.