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The Prophecy Test
Many people who have rejected the Bible as God’s Word have never even read it.
They say we (Christians) are foolish for believing a book is divine when it was written by man. They say it has to be imperfect because man is imperfect. When told of how prophecy proves the Bible to be divine they say, “There is no real prophecy and the facts are always twisted to fit the prediction.” They also say, “If there is a real occurrence it is purely accidental. They believe prophecy was written after the event and made to fit into it. They believe "Prophecy is either vague or tricky or just a shrewd guess. They are the ones who refuse to look at the truth, for if they did, they might believe it and then have to change from their wicked ways.
Although it is sometimes hard to understand, and at times vague it can be understood when you apply to the Bible a method of investigation that you could use with any other book?
An example could be geometry. The first time you glance at the section on solids and feel perplexed you might defend your lack of understanding by claiming geometry to be vague. Yet it is the most crystal clear of all sciences in the world.
You can be sure that prophecy is as rigidly verifiable as geometry!
If you start with the simple problems in the beginning you will later understand perfectly what you once thought to be obscure.
And so it is with prophecy. Some prophecies naturally precede others. There are some predictions in the book of Revelation that would be impossible to understand without Daniel.
If prophecy is so easy to disprove, how is it that among all the thousands of books written by those who would reject the Bible there is not one in all the world devoted to showing specifically how Bible prophecies have failed?
If these predictions could be so easily proved to be the result of a clever or lucky guess, or if the fulfillment be merely the twisting of facts to fit the prediction, or if the prophecy were written after the events took place and made to fit into them, how is it that simplistic skeptics, who are so alert for arguments against the Bible, universally overlooked the one demonstrative method of proving the Bible to be false?
Why hasn’t some Buddhist, or some Muslim, or some Satanist, for that matter, shown how utterly absurd, false, and contrary to fact the prophecies of the Bible are?
What about what Moses said concerning the Jews?
Or what Isaiah said about Babylon?
Or what Ezekiel spoke of concerning the fate of Tyre and Sidon?
Or what Jeremiah said concerning Egypt and Palestine?
Or Daniel with his amazing predictions about Rome and the nations into which Rome was to be divided?
Or what Jesus said concerning the growth of His kingdom and the spread of this very Bible to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people?
Bible prophecies are worthy of consideration because Bible predictions burn all bridges. If the thing does not happen, no apology can be offered.
Every other part of the Bible has been criticized in elaborate detail by unbelievers, but when it comes to prophecy, the skeptics satisfy themselves with an across-the-board denial, as though it had no meaning.
The Bible bases all its credibility on the accuracy of its prophecy.
Why haven’t unbelievers ever made a detailed study of them, so they might expose the fraud of prophetic failures?
Skeptics despise prophecy. There were many such unbelievers in Paul's day. To them and to you he said;
Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21
Here is a challenge above all things to prove prophecy; that is, test it. And if it proves true, hold fast to it.
People have asked, "Are prophecies better evidence than miracles? I thought that Christ used miracles to convince, and that Christians today appeal to these miracles as the strongest evidence of Bible authenticity.”
Christ repeatedly appealed to fulfilled prophecy as evidence that he was the Messiah. Prophecy is mainly tailored as a test.
You may look back at the miracles of the Bible through time and declare them improbable, if not impossible, but the opposite is true of prophecy, Those beholding His miracles were convinced by them, while many of the prophecies that were unfulfilled were apparently opposed to all reason and probability, and might in those days have been made an excuse for rejecting Christ.
Obviously, miracles performed twenty-five hundred years ago cannot be seen now, so they are often flatly denied.
A prediction, however, made twenty-five hundred years ago, is evidence even more convincing than a miracle—such a fulfilled prediction is the greatest of all miracles.
Other evidence can be falsified, changed, lost, memory may fail, conflicting statements may cloud the issue; passion, self-interest, dishonesty, any one of a thousand things, may impair proofs. But prophecy relates to history, and history is recorded fact.
How was God to give those of us who live today unimpeachable testimony of events as distant as three thousand years ago?
How was He to satisfy a reasonable demand for proof?
And above all, how was God going to give increasing and strengthening proof as we get farther and farther from the event itself?
God had devised an absolutely foolproof method of proving His Word, one that cannot be opposed, one that cannot be counterfeited, one that has no duplicate in all the history of the world, that increases in power with each passing year, that is stronger each tomorrow than it was yesterday.
This strange method of eternally authenticating His Word compels the nations and civilizations throughout time to witness to the truth of His Word.
All the places famous in antiquity Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Arabia, Tyre, Sidon, Idumea, Palestine, Babylon, Assyria, Nineveh, Judea, Rome, and many other countries are witnesses that do not forget, do not contradict, and through these many centuries, rise to testify of the accuracy of God’s Word.
The ages do not detract from, but add to their testimony. Minute cross examination serves only to increase the swelling volume of evidence.
The Bible stakes everything on its ability to foretell the future. If the Bible claim to make genuine predictions is true, it is a miracle of foresight far beyond the ability of human wisdom to discern or to calculate, and is the highest evidence of the supernatural knowledge of the prophet.
Only God is able to foretell the future. And He claims ONE HUNDRED PERCENT accuracy.
Isaiah 46:9-10
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
The ability to foretell the future is the seal of God's deity, which He claims cannot be counterfeited.
The Bible challenges others everywhere to foretell the future.
Isaiah 44:7
And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.
But this is not all. These strong claims are not made casually. Here is a challenge made to the doubter.
Isaiah 41:21-23
Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
Cynic’s will argue that the Bible has not fulfilled these conditions. If they are seeking the truth in this matter they will ask for a rock solid example of prophecy, not a vague one. I enjoy proving the very thing they don’t believe and then looking at their face while they contemplate the evidence.
Isaiah 44:8
Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.
God declared twenty-five hundred years ago that He is going to prove His Word by the very ones who say they doubt His Word. While science has advanced and seems almost supernatural, it has not brought us any nearer to seeing the future than were the ancients. We are still unable to foresee even dimly the events of tomorrow. We can guess, we can hope, but we cannot know.
But if the future has been read; if centuries ago numerous predictions, so varied and so minute that they cover well-known nations and extend over thousands of years—if such predictions have been made so as to rule out all possibility of altering the facts to fit the prophecy; if skeptics themselves admit the accuracy of the fulfillment, and can offer no explanation; and you are witnesses to this fulfillment of prophecies made over twenty-five hundred years ago, how can you doubt that some wisdom other than man foretold the events that have come to pass?
What shall we say of a large Book filled with predictions of events overspreading all time and all nations, events utterly disconnected from any facts existing at the time of their pronouncement?
Events totally unlike anything ever known and the reverse of all experience, in all respects improbable and often seemingly impossible, events entering into the life of the world in all its phases?
A series of hundreds of such events were demonstrably predicted ages before fulfillment, and not one of them has gone contrary, as might well be the case with so many predictions. The proof of their fulfillment now exists in tangible form before your eyes. What shall we say of such a Book?
In the verses I have quoted, God has challenged anyone and everyone on earth to a prophecy contest, and will abide by the result. God claims to be the only one who can look into the future and make predictions.
He tells us He has done this, and offers these prophecies as the one great proof of His Godhead.
Is it a fact that no other book in existence makes such a claim?
Can you produce any other book claiming to contain predictions looking hundreds of years, or even tens of years, into the future? If you know of any in any language, produce it, God Himself challenges you.
Skeptics have gone to great pains and expense to disprove the Bible; I will tell you two very simple, effective, and final methods of shattering the Bible to atoms:
First, just disprove the prophecies.
Second, produce some other book containing real prophecies.
God says neither can be done. To do either will blast forever all confidence in the Bible as the word of God.
Why have unbelievers never done this?
Does anyone here claim that this has been done?
Will anyone here attempt to do it?"
The Test
For two thousand years Tyre grew in importance until she was the commercial center of the world. In short, Tyre was the New York of Asia. Ships from all nations anchored in her harbor and their passengers bartered in her streets.
While Tyre was at the height of her glory and power, while it would seem she must stand forever, along came Ezekiel, who prophesied about 590 B.C., and said:
Ezekiel 26:4-14
And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.
And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people.
He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee.
And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.
By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach.
With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground.
And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.
And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
Immediately after the giving of the prophecy, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre, and after thirteen years of effort took the city and destroyed it.
The skeptic might say, “You cannot prove the prophecy was written before Nebuchadnezzar's time. According to your own statement, Ezekiel was contemporary with the king!”
While personally I believe the prediction was made before Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre, I shall not refer only to that siege. Though the prophecy began with the king of Babylon's siege, its predictions looked more than two thousand years into the future, as we shall see.
Observe that while the ruins of the old city remained after Nebuchadnezzar's time, the prophecy declared that the timbers and rocks and even the very dust should be cast into the sea, leaving a bare rock to be used for spreading nets.
This prediction was not fulfilled by the king of Babylon, and it seemed improbable it ever would be fulfilled; for if Nebuchadnezzar, in his anger, had taken full vengeance, and had not thought of this. Who would care enough about the ruins of a deserted city to be so violently destructive?
But meanwhile there stood the prophetic words, awaiting fulfillment.
Two and a half centuries passed, and still the ruins stood, a challenge to the accuracy of prophecy.
Then through the East the fame of Alexander the Great sent a thrill of terror. He marched swiftly to attack new Tyre, 332 B.C. reaching the shore; he saw-the city he had come to take, with half a mile of water surging between them, for it was built upon an island.
Alexander's plan of attack was to take the walls, towers, timbers, and ruined houses and palaces of the ancient Tyre and with them build a solid causeway to the island city. So great was the demand for material that the very dust was scraped from the site, and laid in the sea.
Skeptics say Ezekiel was written after Alexander's time. But perhaps the fact that the events fit the prediction has much to do with their conclusion. And perhaps they might say the fact that history verifies Ezekiel's prediction has much to do with our belief that the prediction was written first. They claim their assumption has as much foundation as ours, and is more reasonable.
They fail to see three big problems in their view.
First, the Encyclopedia Britannica, fourteenth edition, volume 9, pages 13, 14, under article, “Ezekiel,” is emphatic in stating that the book of Ezekiel was written 586-150 B.C., and this is the extreme critical view. Thus, according to the skeptical version, the prophecy is still 118 years before the event.
Second, when you claim Ezekiel pretends to foretell what in reality was written after the event it professes to predict, you make a book of otherwise high moral teaching a most heartless book, dealing in deception of the basest sort.
Third, there is an inseparable point in their position that no skeptic can remove.
Let’s admit, for the sake of the argument that the book was written whenever you desire, say 330 B.C. All historians would agree it could not be written after this date.
There are other particulars in the prediction besides destruction. In some prophecies the cities were to be destroyed and rebuilt. Such was the fate of Jerusalem, which still exists.
The third difficulty of the skeptics view is that old Tyre was to be built no more. This divine sentence of judgment has been a challenge down the centuries to every unbeliever on earth. God has had a challenge sounding for twenty centuries, daring you and every other skeptic to rebuild this city and thus disprove His Word.
I will tell you how to disprove the Bible.
God Himself has not only dared you to disprove His predictions but has also taken the pains to tell you how. Tyre has continued a daily defiance to every unbeliever.
And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 26:14
The reason it cannot be rebuilt is given here. Here is a test that God has set for the boasting unbeliever. Just rebuild a city! To do that one thing would disprove the Bible.
And this is not asking an unheard-of thing. Many cities in the past have been rebuilt. Even Rome rose again after Nero watched it burn. A city can be built in a surprisingly short time, by a few determined men, was proved when a marsh was transformed by one man into the modern city of Longview, Washington, in two years.
A dollar each from the unbelievers in England and America would be sufficient to rebuild Tyre, and thus blast forever the reputation of the Bible as a truth-telling book. Why not form an unbeliever colony on the site of old Tyre, go into the fishing business in a modern manner, and there, in defiance of the prophecy, dare to answer God's challenge, “Thou shalt be built no more; for I the Lord have spoken it?”
The site is inhabitable; ten million gallons of water daily gush from the springs, and fertile fields stretch clear to the distant mountains. Since there are millions of determined doubters who write numberless books to disprove the Bible, how did any prophet have the audacity to speak such a defiant prophecy?
For two thousand years no skeptic has dared say the prediction is untrue. In fact, Volney, the French skeptic, tells of visiting this spot and observing fishermen drying their nets on the rocks, just as the prophet said they would" (Travels, vol. 2, p. 212.)
Every year, every day, ever minute that Tyre has remained in complete ruin it has disproved the emphatic declaration of skeptics that Bible predictions are vague or were made after the events which they foretell took place.
A good guess, you say. But that is not a satisfactory answer. It is especially lame in view of the fact that no person outside of the Bible ever made a solitary correct forecast covering hundreds of years concerning any city on earth. How is it that only Bible writers are able to “guess” with perfect accuracy two thousand years into the future?"
The skeptic might say, “It would be natural for a writer, looking upon a ruined city to assume, hence to predict that it would never again be inhabited." Such an assumption however would have plunged the prophet immediately into serious difficulty.
To illustrate; Ezekiel turned his attention to Tyre's still more ancient sister city only thirty miles away. For centuries it had been declining in power, while Tyre was still enjoying her days of glory.
Accepting the skeptic’s view of the day of Ezekiel adds strength to our argument, for while Sidon was still in a state of decay it was taken by Artaxerxes Ochus, king of Persia, in 351 b.c., and destroyed.
"Now, according to the skeptic’s theory, Ezekiel was written still later, at least after Alexander's time. So if the prophet were judging by appearances in 330 b.c. as they claim he did judge, he would have pronounced complete oblivion as the inevitable fate of Sidon, for nothing seemed more certain than its utter eradication. But Sidon still remains, even now possessing about ten thousand population.
Let us read the words of the prophet Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 28:20-23
Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 21Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Observe that the judgment on Sidon was not utter extinction like that on Tyre, but only blood in her streets, wounded in her midst, the sword on every side. In spite of the fact that no other city on earth, with the possible exception of Jerusalem, has had so much suffering, has been so often destroyed and rebuilt, Sidon has continued an uninterrupted existence down to the present minute.
Now, suppose Ezekiel had said that both Tyre and Sidon were to be destroyed and were to be built no more, then every one of the ten thousand inhabitants of Sidon would be a living proof of the falsity of the prophecy.
"Suppose, further, that the prophet had said Tyre was to live, but would undergo great suffering, while Sidon was to be utterly destroyed and never be rebuilt; how sarcastic the skeptic would rightly be of the Bible claim to predictive accuracy!
How did it happen that the prophet was exactly right in both cases?
How is it that the city that never has been rebuilt is the city of which this fact was foretold, and that the city which has continued to exist with age-long suffering is that which the prophet foresaw would continue in existence to the end of time?
When you have explained this satisfactorily, you have a still harder question to answer. Sidon, like many other ancient cities, might have sunk into insignificance, so that in its utter defenselessness it could have offered no resistance to even a feeble enemy, and would have tempted no one's greed. How did Ezekiel know that, in spite of many terrible experiences, it would continue a place of strength which, age after age, would be fought for, and passed on, wet with blood, from one conqueror to another?"
We'll take another city, Ashkelon and give it the same test.
For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Zephaniah 2:4
Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. Zechariah 9:5
This city was founded in 1800 B.C. and was in the height of its power about the time of Christ. So you cannot claim that at the time of the prediction its impending fate was apparent to the observer.
But what about now?
Here is a quote from the fourteenth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 2, page 544:
Now a desolate site on the seacoast twelve miles north of Gaza…Protruding from this sand-swept terrain, shattered columns and the remnants of ruined buildings and broken walls bear ample testimony to a past magnificence. . . . The country around is fertile. Vines, olives, and a variety of fruit trees flourish.
Observe that this world-recognized authority, in describing the present condition of Ashkelon, uses the very word of the prophet “desolate.” The prophet saw twenty five hundred years ago what the historian now sees, and both use the same word to describe the final condition of that city. But to quote further from the same authority:
"Ashkelon was the birthplace of Herod the Great. Who adorned it with fine buildings. During the Roman period it was a noted center of Hellenic scholarship. It became also the seat of a bishopric. From 104 B.C. for four and a half centuries it was an oppidum liberum (administrative center) for the Roman Empire.”
Thus on any theory of Biblical composition the city grew in importance for hundreds of years after the prediction.
In 636 A.D. it passed to the Arabs. During the Crusades it was the key to southwest Palestine. Baldwin III captured it after six months' siege in 1153. It was thus still a very powerful city fifteen centuries after the prophet foretold its destruction. During the next hundred years its history was a bloody one. Finally, in 1270 A.D., Sultan Beibars destroyed its fortifications and blocked its harbor with stones. Thus for 660 years the lofty towers of Ashkelon have lain scattered on the ground, giving a picture of desolation; and the ruins within its walls do not shelter a solitary human being.
"But suppose Ashkelon were, like Sidon, a flourishing city, or suppose the predictions had been transposed, how eagerly would unbelievers seize upon the fact! And if it were a fact, it should be used.
The Bible says:
Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:20-2 I
The skeptics do the disdaining, but not the testing. Here are three cities. The prophets foretold their condition exactly as they are today. However unbelievers choose to account for it, the fact remains that these prophecies are true.
Tyre, Sidon, and Ashkelon are today exactly as the Bible prophets said they would be. But skeptics are unwilling to admit or are not convinced that this mysterious foresight is due to any supernatural gift. Yet they know that while the past and present yield their treasures, tomorrow is mockingly silent.
The prophecies are positive, accurate, and truthful to the minutest detail; but we have only entered the doorway of the great prophetic temple. When Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel lived, Egypt was then so ancient that she boasted a longer unbroken line of kings than did any other nation. To Ezekiel the settling of Egypt was as ancient as the beginning of the Christian religion is to us.
The prophets of his day, 600 B.C., knew Egypt as the guide of the world, eminent in science, in the arts, in luxury and magnificence, a leader of civilization. For many centuries those artificial mountains, the justly famed pyramids of Egypt, had stood as proud sentinels of a proud country of many architectural Splendors.
Like its own monuments, Egypt seemed to outlast time and events. All nations had acquired knowledge from her. To the eye of the natural man, be he scientist or philosopher, there appeared on the horizon no cloud to threaten the peace and power of Egypt.
"Nevertheless, at a time when all other men, judging by comparison, would have predicted for her practically unending prosperity Isaiah and Ezekiel foretold many amazing things concerning her, reaching more than two thousand years beyond their death!
In a few words, Ezekiel foretold history that has taken twenty-five hundred years to fulfill and would take several volumes to record.
Ezekiel 29:14-15 And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.
It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
Ezekiel 30:6-7 Thus saith the LORD; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord GOD. 7And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.
Ezekiel 30:12-13 And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the LORD have spoken it.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
Ezekiel 32:15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD.
The doom of Edom and Chaldea and Babylon was utter extinction, but not so for the fate of Egypt. The inevitable decree was one of continual baseness and decline. It was to continue as a nation, but it was no longer to rule. On the contrary, it was to be ruled by cruel strangers.
We have only to consider the condition of Egypt six hundred years later to see that this prophecy could not have been the result of mere human foresight. In the time of Christ there was nothing to indicate that the day of Egypt was past forever. She was still very powerful.
Augustus, after the defeat of Antony, found so great wealth in Egypt that out of it he paid all the arrears of his army and all the debts he had incurred during the war. Even after he had spoiled Egypt at will, she still appeared to him so formidable that he was afraid to entrust her ruler ship to any man of power, lest a rival to him arise. So he gave the government to Cornelius Gallus, a person of low extraction. He denied Alexandria a municipal council and declared all Egyptians incapable of being admitted to the senate at Rome.
And for six hundred years more Alexandria continued the first city in the Roman Empire in rank, commerce, and prosperity. Certainly the skeptic of that day might have read the prophecy of Ezekiel with a mocking smile of disdain.
A hundred years later, Egypt was still so powerful that the Mohammedan hordes, though arrogant with unchecked victory, hesitated to attack it. When Romulus and Remus founded Rome, Egypt was then neatly two thousand years old. Rome waxed powerful, conquered the world, including Egypt, and was in turn conquered by the barbarian hosts of the north. But still Egypt continued powerful, rich, and populous. The Arabs finally decided to attack her. The memorable siege of Alexandria lasted fourteen months, during which the Arabs lost twenty-three thousand men. And then her capture was due to internal treachery. The sight of the city's magnificence and wealth filled the conquerors with amazement.
The burning of the famous Alexandrian library was a world calamity. Its destruction supplied the Arabs with fuel for six months. The wealth of Alexandria was an indication of the riches and strength of the whole Egyptian nation. It would have been impossible for the Arabs, despite their prowess as warriors, to take the land and to retain it had not the people, groaning under the cruel oppression of their Greek masters, thrown themselves into the arms of the invaders.
While the prophecy may seem slow of fulfillment, it has been certain. The decline, though gradual, has been continuous.
Volney says, “Such is the state of Egypt, in Travels, volume 1, pages 74, 103, 110, 193. Deprived two thousand three hundred years ago of her natural proprietors, she has seen her fertile fields successively a prey to the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Georgians, and at length, the race of Tartars distinguished by the name of Ottoman Turks. The Mamelukes, purchased as slaves, and introduced as soldiers, soon usurped the power, and elected a leader. If their first establishment was a singular event, their continuance is not less extraordinary. They are replaced by slaves brought from their original country. Their system of oppression is methodical. Everything the traveler sees or hears reminds him he is in the country of slavery and tyranny.'”
And Gibbon tells us that “a more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be devised than that which condemns the natives of a country to perpetual servitude, under the arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves. Yet such has been the state of Egypt about five hundred years.”—The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 59.
Here are non-Christian historians witnessing to the fact that Egypt has declined steadily until during the past five hundred years and more she has been exactly what the prophet said she would become, “the basest of the kingdoms,” ruled “by the hand of strangers.”
And note this: not until modern times could the amazing accuracy of this prediction be appreciated. The more facts we have with which to test this prophecy, the more true it shows itself. Is there anyone here who claims Egypt to be different from what is pictured in Ezekiel?
How then do you account for the fact that Ezekiel is right?
Egypt did not suffer the fate of the others. Babylonia, Assyria, and other nations about were destroyed utterly. Had Ezekiel been predicting by analogy, he would have said that Egypt would suffer the same fate as the nations that had already been overthrown.
Now, just suppose that Ezekiel had said that Egypt would, like Babylon and Chaldea, be utterly destroyed, how jubilant would be the skeptics, and how eager to point out the fact that the Egypt of today has many populous cities and a varied population which numbers into the millions.
But does the unbeliever attempt to show us a single prophecy concerning Egypt that has failed?"
Even though there are many more predictions I will call your attention to only three more predictions concerning Egypt.
I realize that to some of you who are reading this paper it may seem as if studying the history of ancient Egypt is a dull and unsatisfactory way of seeking God. I do it because God Himself has told us that if we study these prophecies faithfully, we shall be directed to Him, after all, it should interest us intensely to learn whether there actually did exist twenty-five hundred years ago persons who could look ahead to our time and tell exactly the fate of the cities and nations of their day.
I now direct your attention to
Ezekiel 30:13 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
Observe that these words are specifically the words of 'the Lord Jehovah.' If the thing predicted did not come to pass, there would be no alibi.
Now, it is a strange fact that Memphis, founded by Menes, was known as the great temple city of Egypt. A more unlikely fate could hardly be imagined than the destruction of the idols and images of Memphis, because:
1. The climate of Egypt, where it never rains, keeps in a state of perfect preservation for thousands of years whatever is buried in its soil.
2. In all other cities of Egypt, whether in ruins or now flourishing, idols and images are found in superabundance. Thebes, former capital of Egypt, though in ruins while Memphis was still in splendor, has them in abundance.
3. At the birth of Christ, six hundred years after the prophet lived, the predicted ruin seemed more impossible still, for Memphis was large and populous, Alexandria being the only Egyptian city that exceeded it in size.
4 And twelve hundred years after the prophet lived. Memphis was the residence of the governor of Egypt. So you see it was impossible for the prophet to have written this prophecy after the event.
5. And in the thirteenth century, Abdul-Latif, an Arabian traveler, tells of the “wonderful works which confound the intellect, and to describe which the most eloquent man would labor in vain.”
Skeptics have said, “Given enough time any prophecy concerning the destruction of a city or nation must be fulfilled.”
Such an argument is proof they admit the fulfillment; that they do not claim the prediction was written after the event or that the facts have been juggled to fit the prophecy.
If the fulfillment of the prediction is near the date of the prediction, it is at once claimed the prophecy must have been made after the date of the fulfillment. And, if the fulfillment is two thousand years after the prediction, the explanation then is that any prediction will eventually be fulfilled, given enough time.
Unfortunately for this theory, some prophecies already mentioned and others to be produced cannot he explained in this easy manner.
Memphis would be a good example, for time did not destroy the idols and images of other Egyptian cities equally old. But listen to these words from Amelia B. Edwards. Egyptologist, in her book, A Thousand Miles up the Nile, pages 97-99: “And this is all that remains of Memphis, eldest of cities: a few rubbish heaps, a dozen or so of broken statues, and a name! . . . Where are the stately ruins that even in the Middle Ages extended over a space estimated at half a day's journey in every direction? One can hardly believe that a great city ever flourished on this spot or can hardly understand how it should have been effaced so utterly.”
But let us suppose that all that was necessary to fulfillment was time. Now turn your attention to
Ezekiel 30:12
And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the LORD have spoken it.
Volney, the French skeptic who traveled all over this country, calls Egypt “the country of slavery and tyranny.” Malte-Brun, another traveler, writes of “the arbitrary sway of the ruffian masters of Egypt. The history of Egypt for the past eighteen hundred years is but an amazing commentary on the words, ‘I ... will sell the land into the hand of the wicked. The impression of that terrible hand is seen every where.’”
The skeptic might say, “It would be a safe prediction to say evil men would govern. Nearly always rulers of the past, especially conquerors, were evil men.”
But I say, what about the second half of the verse, “I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers.”
For twenty-five hundred years Egypt was ruled by strangers Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine Greeks, Saracens, Turks. French, and British—strangers as the prophecy predicted.
Does anyone here claim that the prophecies concerning Egypt have failed?
Skeptics have to admit the accurate fulfillment of the predictions; and when they are pressed for a reasonable explanation of the strange phenomena, various weak and failing solutions are given.
Robert G. Ingersoll, The famous skeptic, and Henry Ward Beecher, the great preacher, were friends. In the study of the famous minister was an elaborate celestial globe. On the surface, in delicate workmanship, were raised figures of the constellations and the stars which compose them.
The globe struck Ingersoll's fancy. He turned it round and. round in frank admiration.
That is just what I want, he said finally, who made it?
Who made it, do you ask, Colonel? Repeated Beecher in mock astonishment, who made this globe? Why, nobody, of course. It just happened.'
When confronted with the facts of fulfillment of prophecy, you are compelled to admit the fulfillment; but when driven from one insufficient explanation to another, your final explanation is, it just happened.
The fact that prophecy has never happened, outside of the Bible, they do not attempt to explain. But they do say they will not accept any explanation that has the supernatural in it. Is that a reasonable attitude, one that signifies a thinker? Surely the only attitude a philosopher may rightly claim is one that proclaims him willing to follow the evidence, no matter if it leads him to conclusions contrary to those previously held.
When the skeptic says, “That any prediction given time enough would eventually be fulfilled.” And have given up the attempt to show that all prophecy was given after the event. They go to the opposite extreme and make time the component to solve their predicament.
We shall see how completely time, instead of fulfilling, would refute the prediction of a prophet of the Old Testament.
The story of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was first written by Daniel the prophet in the sixth century b.c.
In chapters 2 and 7 are such clear predictions, giving in vivid outline of the whole history of the world, beginning with Babylon and reaching to the present moment, that the most skeptical have had a hard time to account for them without admitting supernatural knowledge on the part of the prophet. Skeptics seem to think that if they can only show that Daniel never wrote a word of the book and that it was composed by some unknown person about 168 b.c., its power will be broken and its prophecies weakened. But for my purpose I will accept the latest date contended for by anyone, and will care not who wrote it. "It is not my purpose to go into the marvelous details of the prophecies of Daniel 2 and 7. It would take a whole series of lectures to cover the subject as it deserves. I plan to develop only one point.
No matter what the opinion of doubters concerning the date and authorship of Daniel, they admit it teaches that beginning with Babylon there will be just four universal world powers— four and no more—to the end of time.
If, as I believe, Daniel lived in 600 B.C., he foretold the rise and fall of the three empires to follow Babylon—a marvelous prediction in itself. It is to deprive Daniel of the honor of having done this that skeptics have desperately commended that the book of Daniel was written in 168 B.C. after Rome had acquired ruler ship.
Then, if it is true, as the skeptics assert, that the writer of Daniel lived in 168 B.C., he had knowledge of the fact that in a period of only four hundred years Babylon, Medo-Persia. Greece, and Rome had ruled the world in succession, Babylon fell in 538 b.c., conquered by Cyrus, king of Medo-Persia. At Arbela in 331 B.C. Alexander conquered the world empire from Medo-Persia. The Roman victory at Pydna, June 22, 168 B.C., marked the final establishment of the Roman world rule. Thus in three hundred seventy years, 538 b.c. to 168 b.c., four empires changed rule
In view of this fact the predictions of Daniel 2 and 7, if written in 168 B.C., are fully as remarkable as if they were written in 600 b.c. Despite the fact that four world kingdoms existed in four hundred years, think of the amazing daring of a man who would have the temerity to predict that in all future history there would never be another world power! How preposterous, how contrary to all analogy, to all previous history, to the wildest imagination was such a prediction!
If experience had been asked to guess the secrets of the future, the reply given by the wise of earth of that day would certainly have been that the revolutions of the past would be repeated again and again in the coming two thousand years as in the past four hundred years; for then as now it was believed that history repeats itself.
As the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persian, the Persian by the Grecian, the Grecian by the Roman, so would every observant thinker also expect the Roman Empire as certainly to be succeeded by some other world power. But was this the fact?
Every schoolboy knows that Rome was the last world kingdom. Someone else knew it before Rome became a ruling power! Again I ask where did he get this knowledge?
Unbelievers realize how unaccountably marvelous were the predictions of Daniel if they were written while Babylon still ruled the world. And they think they have removed the difficulty by bringing the origin of the prophecy down to the time Rome took control.
But instead of solving the problem, they have only placed themselves in a dilemma, and to me it is immaterial which horn of the dilemma they take; the problem remains as great either way. Whether the book of Daniel was written about 600 b.c. or 168 b.c. leaves the problem of prediction unsolved.
If Daniel was written about 600 b.c., it is conceded by skeptics everywhere that the predictions are too marvelous to be explained away easily. But the skeptics overlook the fact that if your contention that it was written about 168 B.C. be granted, you introduce another marvel equal to the marvel you eliminate by putting the writing later.
By making the composition of Daniel in 168 b.c., you place three great universal kingdoms in the past instead of in the future. You thus give the writer the analogy of immediately past history by which to judge the future. He has seen four universal kingdoms arise in four hundred years. But in making his prediction, he goes absolutely contrary to every fact of past history. This is what no philosopher, using all the information at hand, would ever dream of doing. Hence, it is clear that the writer of Daniel had some other source of information than that accessible to anyone else.
On the other hand, if the book of Daniel was written about 600 B.c., its author did not have available any evidence of one universal kingdom followed by another, for the nations before that date, while powerful, were not universal. Thus in 600 B.C. the precedents of history were unsettled, while in 168 B.C. they were settled. The dating of Daniel in 168 b.c. removes one difficulty only to add another, equally unsolvable by human wisdom. But this is by no means all. Let us look at the picture Daniel draws of today.
Imagine, the bewilderment of the believer of 100 B.C. who read the prediction of Daniel that there would never be another world dominion throughout all the ages to come, except that of the kingdom of God; and imagine the derisive sneers of the skeptics of that day over such an absurd prediction.
"But today, skeptic and believer alike look back through the ages to Daniel's time, and they both agree there has been no other. Read any history written by anyone. But in particular, read the great history written by one of the greatest unbelievers of all time Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire—and you will see that this immortal work is but an unwitting commentary on the uncanny accuracy of Daniel.
Let Gibbon the infidel tell how the fierce, rude warriors of the north poured like a flood against the Western Empire in the fifth century; but though they conquered Rome, world dominion was denied them.
However, the dream of world dominion did not pass with them. The pages of history, for the past two thousand years. Though wet with the blood of untold millions, record in unvarying sequence the repeated failure of all attempts to establish a world power.
The attempts to break the prophecy of Daniel went merrily on. The mighty Charlemagne, Charles XII of Sweden, Napoleon, the ambitious Kaiser, and many other Goliaths of war have hoped to wear the toga of the mighty Caesars, but always their endeavors have ended in failure.
But not only did the prophet foretell that there would never be another universal kingdom after the fourth, but he predicted the breaking up of the fourth into a number of smaller nations, which were to continue to exist, with exceptions noted by the Prophet himself, to the end of time.
Now, can you imagine the predicament the Christian would be in today if somewhere down the ages, after the fall of Rome, world dominion like that of Rome had existed in history?
Suppose some all powerful Alexander of the middle Ages had conquered all the known nations of the world and had cemented them into one mighty empire subject to his sovereign will what could any Bible believer say?
Every great king or powerful warrior assumed that someone was of necessity going to be a world ruler, and asked why he should not be the one. And if just one had succeeded, what an irrefutable argument against the truth of prophecy the skeptic would have! God challenged the unbeliever twenty-five centuries ago either to make prophecies of his own or to break one of His. As yet no one has done either.
"Each fulfillment taken by itself is a strong point in favor of divine wisdom on the part of the prophet, but each additional fulfillment increases the strength of the evidence, not by addition, but by multiplication."
Charlemagne, Charles, Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Hitler all tried to unite the broken fragments of the Roman Empire into one nation, but without success.
I approach this subject with a feeling of profound awe nowhere in all the world is there anything so strange, so wonderful, and so sad, as the Jew. He is the most pathetic, the most unique being on earth.
Vast ruins, moldering palaces, broken sculptures, shattered and marred by the violence and vengeance of barbarians, are all that remain of Rome, mightiest of kingdoms. The palaces of the Caesars lie desolate. The kingdom of Rome has sunk into oblivion; the names of its rulers are forgotten, or remembered only for their merited infamy. The iron kingdom, as foretold by Daniel, has been shattered and divided and has no successor.
But the Jewish nation, whose downfall Rome in the heyday of her power accomplished, whose leader was slain, whose city was destroyed, whose Temple was annihilated, whose children Rome sold as slaves—that nation still lives and thrives and multiplies on earth.
Rome has long since passed away, but the Jewish people remain. Centuries before Rome was founded the Jews were a powerful nation. The history of Rome—the mightiest of kingdoms—was only a parenthesis in that of the Jews.
Strange to observe, every nation that was an enemy of the Jews has perished. But the Jews, oppressed, banished, enslaved, and spoiled wherever they were driven, have survived them all and have overspread the earth. Of all the nations around Judea, Persia alone remains a kingdom. And it furnishes food for thought to observe that it was the Persians who restored the Jews from the Babylonian captivity.
In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, Moses clearly outlines the political and religious history of the Jews for 3,400 years—from 1500 B.C. to this present moment.
Read the following scripture.
Leviticus 26:33, 36, 37, 44 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.
Deuteronomy 28:25 The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
These scriptures you just read are but a few that bear on the subject. Please read the following in addition:
Jeremiah 8:3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
Jeremiah 9:15, 16 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
Jeremiah 15:4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 15:7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.
Jeremiah 16:13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.
Jeremiah 24:9-10 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. 10And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.
Jeremiah 31:10 Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
Jeremiah 46:27-28 But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.
Ezekiel 5:10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.
Ezekiel 7:19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
Ezekiel 12:15 And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.
Amos 9:4, 9 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good…
For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
Hosea 3:4-5 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: 5Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
Hosea 9:17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Isaiah 6:10-12 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
Deuteronomy 28 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.
And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.
And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.
Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.
The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:
So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.
Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.
Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.
Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.
The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.
He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD;
Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.
And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
Here is another instance where time, instead of making the problem more simple, makes it more difficult, for we can understand how a people might for a hundred years mingle with other nations and remain distinct, but when this mingling extends to twenty-five hundred years, how shall we account for that nation's remaining distinct all that time? The history of the world presents nothing else like it. Scores of other nations have meanwhile risen up, remained distinct for a while, and then become entirely lost in the great mass of humankind.
Look at our own country. Millions from other nations pour in. For two or three generations they preserve their nationality, but after that it is lost. But not the Jews, they are in every nation, as predicted, and everywhere a distinct people. They are indeed an astonishment. The Jew preserves all the characteristics that he had many centuries ago. He has done what no other people on earth has ever done—he has successfully resisted all the customs of society, all the powers of persecution, all the powerful influences that tend to drive him toward amalgamation with other nations. The children of Abraham are as distinct in religion, customs, and physiognomy as they were three thousand years ago.
Here is a case where every nation in the world has had a part in fulfilling the prophecies of the Bible, for there is not a nation in the entire world where the Jew has not gone, and not one where he has not been oppressed in accordance with the prediction.
Can you point out a solitary nation that has received the Jews with open arms? If you could find half a dozen such nations, what a case against the Bible the skeptic would have. But it is amazing how the Jews have been thus oppressed in every nation and that they are the only nation in all history to be thus oppressed.
Another remarkable thing about it all is the fact that the records telling of their shame are handed down to us by the very people we would naturally expect would want them destroyed. There is no other instance of such remarkable conformity to truth in all history.
As foretold by Moses, the Jews have literally been “rooted” out of their land.
Deuteronomy 29:25 The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth
Not only that, but God says, 'I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
Leviticus 26:32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
Please observe that while the Jews were to be deprived of their land, scattered to every part of the world, and Palestine lay in ruins, still their enemies were to “dwell” in it. Could any prediction seem more improbable?
Dean Stanley, in his book Syria and Palestine, page 117, says that “Palestine above all other countries in the world is a land of ruins.” Is it not a strange fact that a land so filled with ruins should be inhabited? Or being inhabited, that the ruins should not have been utilized or removed? But the inspired writer foresaw this fact, and you and I are compelled to admit the marvelous correspondence of fact to prediction.
Though ruined, desolate, bereft of her own people, Palestine was nevertheless to be preeminently a land of pilgrimages, for Moses tells of the foreigner that shall come from a far land.
Deuteronomy 29:22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it.
And is this not true today?
Is there any other spot on earth to which so many pilgrims journey?
Not one!
Leviticus 26:33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
The history of this people has been one long, bloody commentary on the uncanny accuracy of this prediction.
"Two million of them were killed, starved to death, or sold into slavery worse than death in a.d. 70. More than half a million more were slaughtered by the Romans sixty yean later. The history of the Israelites has been but the slaughter of a nation, continuing for nineteen centuries—the sword drawn out after them.
But let the words of the historian Milman tell the story: “No fanatic monk set the populace in commotion, no public calamity took place, no atrocious or extravagant report was propagated, but it fell upon the heads of this unhappy people. In Germany the black plague raged in all its fury; and wild superstition charged the Jews, as elsewhere, with causing and aggravating the misery, and themselves enjoying a guilty comparative security amid the universal desolation…The same dark stories were industriously propagated, readily believed, and ferociously avenged, of fountains poisoned, children crucified…Still, persecuted in one city, they fled to another, and thus spread over the whole [country]. Oppressed by nobles, anathematized by the clergy, hated as rivals in trade by burghers in commercial cities, despised and abhorred by the populace, their existence is known by the chronicle…of their massacres.'—History of the Jews, volume 3, 222, 223."
Does The Bible Pass The Prophecy Test?
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