Is it true the Torah states that no one will claim national revelation?

Question

Many kiruv/outreach Rabbis, in an attempt to prove the veracity of the Torah, will base their claim on the concept of National Revelation. Part of that proof, they say, is that the Torah states that no other people will claim a national revelation and live. I'm not asking if that statement is true or not, but I'm wondering if the Torah really says that. The verse they cite is Deuteronomy 4:32:

כִּ֣י שְׁאַל־נָא֩ לְיָמִ֨ים רִֽאשֹׁנִ֜ים אֲשֶׁר־הָי֣וּ לְפָנֶ֗יךָ לְמִן־הַיּוֹם֙ אֲשֶׁר֩ בָּרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אָדָם֙ עַל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּלְמִקְצֵ֥ה הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְעַד־קְצֵ֣ה הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם הֲנִֽהְיָ֗ה כַּדָּבָ֤ר הַגָּדוֹל֙ הַזֶּ֔ה א֖וֹ הֲנִשְׁמַ֥ע כָּמֹֽהוּ׃

You have but to inquire about bygone ages that came before you, ever since God created man on earth, from one end of heaven to the other: has anything as grand as this ever happened, or has its like ever been known?

Now, this verse is explicitly talking about the past. Never before the Jewish people was there a claim of national revelation. Fine. But where is it evident this verse is also talking about the future? Is it something that is perforce somewhere in the verse, with regards to its wording or grammar? Do any of the commentaries point this out?

I'm interested in a demonstration from the verse itself, as this verse is supposed to convince the non-believer.

Note: I once asked one of these outreach Rabbis where they saw it in the verse. They said it's obvious that it's included in the verse, because otherwise there's no reason for the Torah to say it. Meaning, there isn't a novelty in the verse unless it includes the future as well. This was very unconvincing, especially if we're using this verse to convince someone who doesn't believe there is nothing extra or redundant in the Torah.

Answer 1

Look two verses earlier:

בַּצַּ֣ר לְךָ֔ וּמְצָא֕וּךָ כֹּ֖ל הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֑לֶּה בְּאַחֲרִית֙ הַיָּמִ֔ים וְשַׁבְתָּ֙ עַד־יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ֖ בְּקֹלֽוֹ׃

when you are in distress because all these things have befallen you and, in the end, return to the LORD your God and obey Him.

Perhaps one could argue that the verse in between breaks the futuristic voice, but this seems like a strong indication that the exclusivity is eternal.

Answer 2

As is understood from the verses beforehand, this parsha is talking to future generations when Klal Yisroel will be in exile. Therefore, the verse is clearly stating, that even in 2021 (or any time in the future for that matter) this verse will still ring true. So, in essence the verse is saying that nobody will ever make such a claim and people will always be able to verify the verse no matter how far into the future of history they live.

Answer 3

The point is that if everyone in an entire nation sees the revelation (several million people), then it would be not probable that one individual invented it and convinced the entire nation to testify about that occurrence. Once that happened, everyone maintained exact copies of that document in sufficient duplicates to maintain everything exactly as it was for three thousand years. None of the first born objected to the priesthood being set up. Nor did anyone object to commandments that would not be logical restrictions nor did they object to sudden restrictions (such as shaatnez or kashrus) which would (supposedly) never have existed before. Only a direct command of Hashem to the entire generation suffice. Indeed, the other nations (at that time) never objected or claimed that it never happened.

As an example, consider many of the conspiracy theories that we have floating around the world.

Chabad.org How Do We Know That We Heard G‑d at Sinai? discusses this.

I think most historians will agree that history as it is practiced in academic circles can be defined as follows: The search for the most likely sequence of events to explain whatever remnants have endured till today.

Following this paradigm, let us examine our case. The evidence is as follows: Universally, there is a single account of how the Jewish people received the Torah. It states that on the sixth day of the third month of the year 2448 from Creation, an entire nation full of dissidents and skeptics gathered at the foot of a mountain in the Sinai Desert and witnessed how G‑d spoke with Moses. Rather overwhelmed by the experience, they asked Moses to kindly fetch all the details of what exactly G‑d would like from them and report on it. Which he did, over a period of forty years wandering in the desert. Moses also charged the people to keep multiple copies of the written record, which they did, and so we have many copies of that record to this day.