Conditional Fulfillment of Prophecy
Fulfillment of prophecy occurs as God brings blessing or consequences based on the conditions of the prophecy.
God makes conditional, dual prophecies. God will do x if we meet His conditions but will do y if we don't. A conditional, dual prophecy.
For example:
Some say that God did not fulfill His promise to bring Israel into ALL of the land promised to Israel. This is not true. God's promise was a conditional promise. Israel's failure to take all of the land was Israel's failure to meet the conditions of the conditional promise.
What is prophetic fulfillment?
Fulfillment of prophecy occurs as God brings blessing or consequences based on the conditions of the prophecy.
Here is the promise of God to Israel before the conquest of the book of Joshua began:
"I have given you every place that the sole of your foot will tread on, as I told Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border" (Joshua 1:3-4).
But, God had also told Israel that He would remove them from the promised land if they disobeyed Him ( Deuteronomy 28:15-68, especially 28:63-64).
Then, at the end of the book of Joshua, after Israel has conquered part of the promised land:
"4 Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun. 5 Yahweh your God will thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight. You shall possess their land, as Yahweh your God spoke to you" (Joshua 23:4-5).
So, at this point in time, Joshua 23:4-5 above, Yahweh promised to drive out the remaining nations from the promised land.
Also at this point, (Joshua 23:14-15), Yahweh has done all He promised to do:
"... You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which Yahweh your God spoke concerning you. All have happened to you. Not one thing has failed of it. 15 It shall happen that as all the good things have come on you of which Yahweh your God spoke to you, so Yahweh will bring on you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you, " (Joshua 23:14-15).
Remember: Before Israel's conquest of Canaan, God had told Israel that He would remove them from the promised land if they disobeyed Him (Deuteronomy 28:15-68, especially 28:63-64). This was reiterated at this point in time after the conquest, in Joshua 23:11-13. God would "no longer drive out these nations" if Israel disobeyed (23:13).
So, in Joshua 23 we see that God "will" and "will no longer" drive out the remaining nations, depending on whether the nation fulfilled God's condition of obedience or not (23:5 and 23:13, respectively).
To the present day, Israel has never controlled the promised land all the way to the Euphrates river as God had conditionally promised in Joshua 1:3-4. God had done His part, but Israel did not do Israel's part. As Israel obeyed God's commandments, God drove Israel's enemies from the land. But when Israel disobeyed God's commandments, God removed Israel from the land. This too was fulfillment of God's promises.
"22 For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him— 23 then Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border' (Deuteronomy 11:22-24).
God's promise was conditional.
Israel did not keep all of God's commandments and therefore they did not possess all of the promised land to the Euphrates.
God had promised to remove their enemies conditionally and progressively. In Joshua 23:14 we see that all that God had promised had been fulfilled at that point. His conditional promise had been fulfilled. When Israel failed to fulfill the conditions of the conditional promise, Israel's promise was unfulfilled but God's promise was fulfilled. God fulfilled the promise He made if they did not follow His commandments and therefore removed Israel from the land.
At every point in time, God fulfilled His conditional covenant. As Israel obeyed, God fulfilled His covenant to grant blessing. As Israel disobeyed, God fulfilled His covenant to remove blessing.
So, God makes conditional, dual prophecies. God will do x if we meet His conditions but will do y if we don't. A conditional, dual prophecy.
Conditional Dual Prophecy
"Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, "Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it' (Jeremiah 18:5-10).
According to Jeremiah 18:5-10, God may not execute His prophecy regarding a "nation of kingdom", based on the conduct of the nation or kingdom. This does not mean that God changes or reneges on His prophecies. No. The fulfillment of His prophecies change depending on whether man meets the conditions of the prophecy or not. So, Jeremiah 18:5-10 should not be interpreted as meaning that God may change or renege on His prophecies regarding the rapture, resurrection, second coming, eternal paradise, etc. God's prophecy of those things is not based on a condition. But each individual person's participation in them is based on a condition: faith, not works (Ephesians 2:1-9, especially 8-9). If you are interested in the doctrine of "Once Saved, Always Saved", click here.
Jeremiah 18:5-10 expressly states that God makes conditional, dual prophecies:
God will do x if we meet His condition but will do y if we don't.
This has great significance. Those who claim that certain prophecies regarding particular nations must come to pass, have sometimes not recognized the contingent nature of national prophecies. This includes Israel, which is specifically mentioned in Jeremiah 18:5-10.
This change on God's part is not arbitrary. It is based on a change in the people of the nation for which God has proclaimed a prophecy.
In summary, Jeremiah 18:5-10 says that God may not execute His prophecy REGARDING A NATION OR KINGDOM, based on the conduct of the nation or kingdom. God sometimes makes conditional, dual prophesies.