INSIGHT: the Journal of the Prophecy Society of Atlanta Volume 2, Number 3 May 1, 2014

INSIGHT: The Journal of the Prophecy Society of Atlanta Volume 2, Number 3 – May 1, 2014

How do the heavens declare righteousness?

While re-reading the Book of Psalms, I ran across a prophecy that was at first puzzling, as follows:

"And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah" (Psalm 50:6)

I knew that Psalm 19:1 says that "the heavens declare the glory of God," and I could easily understand how the vastness of the cosmos, estimated to be 100 billion light years across, and the age of the cosmos, estimated to be 13.7 billion years old, could testify to the glory of an infinite God, but I had a hard time understanding how the heavens could declare his righteousness.

Then I remembered from my research in the Book of Daniel, chapter 9, verse 24, the six things specified in that verse that had to happen during the Seventy Weeks. The fourth thing that had to happen was "to bring in everlasting righteousness." In the interpretation of the Seventy Weeks offered in my book, Daniel Unsealed (explained in Chapter Six, starting on page 104), that fourth thing is shown to have been fulfilled by the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist in 28 CE.

Jesus pointed to the event of his baptism as being the fulfillment of the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, as recorded in Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13-15:

“Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.”(KJV).

The next two verses, Matthew, chapter 3, verses 15-17, go on to say:

“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (KJV).

And there it was in the Gospel of Matthew, the fulfillment of the prophecy given in Psalm 50:6 about the heavens declaring his righteousness. The fulfillment is also mentioned two more times, in the account of Jesus' baptism recorded in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.

Dan Bruce, Independent Researcher