History and Prophecy Speak

History and Prophecy Speak

How do we know what happened hundreds of years ago? We must examine the witness of those who lived then and who wrote of the events or told them to their children, whose children tell us. How do we know that Napoleon Bonaparte existed? or Alexander the Great? Only by the testimony of witnesses and the evidence of the past in the form of archaeological findings—buildings, manuscripts, etc.

1. GOD'S WITNESSES—HISTORY AND PROPHECY

Now, what about God's witnesses to the truth of His Word? An early spokesman for God wrote:

"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."—Isaiah 43:8-10.

"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord." Notice that positive statement. This is God's answer to the skeptics. He appeals to history and human experience, and asks all the gathered nations of earth, "Can you produce one instance in which My word has not come true?"

He challenges them: "Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth." Let the skeptics bring forth their evidence that God's prophecy has not been fulfilled, or that history has proved that He spoke falsely. They must either do that, or admit that God spoke the truth. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord."

Notice God's challenge, "Shew us former things"—that is, the things that have happened in past centuries. Dig into history, bring forth the records of the past, and bear witness of any failure of divine prophecy. But, if history proves the absolute truth of prophecy and God's foreknowledge, then it becomes His witness.

Christ repeatedly appealed to fulfilled prophecy as evidence. Fulfilled prophecy is especially significant as a test, for we are 1,900 years from the writing of the last book of the Bible and 3,300 years from the writing of the first.

"Miracles performed 2,500 years ago cannot be seen now, so they are often flatly denied. A prediction, however, made 2,500 years ago, and which was contrary to all analogy, and a stumbling block at the time, but which was recently fulfilled, is evidence even more convincing than a miracle—such a fulfilled prediction is the greatest of all miracles, and so admitted by the skeptic Hume."—Earle A. Rowell, Prophecy Speaks, p. 17.

Other evidence can be falsified or lost, but prophecy foretells history before it happens; and history is recorded fact. As His witnesses, God calls ancient nations and places now famous in history—Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Arabia, Tyre, Sidon, Palestine, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Nineveh, Judea, Rome, and many others. Before the jury of the twentieth century, the testimony of these witnesses grows stronger every year as new facts are searched out by the historian or dug up by the archaeologist.

The Bible stakes its credentials as the divinely inspired Word of God on its ability to foretell future events because God claims to be the only one who is able to see the future.

"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."—Isaiah 46:9, 10.

Skeptics have gone to great pains to disprove the Bible, but here are two very simple methods of doing so: First, disprove the prophecies; second, produce some other book containing real prophecies. But God says that neither can be done. Why have unbelievers failed in their attempt to do this? Because history proves that God spoke the truth.

2. TYRE'S HISTORY FULFILLS PROPHECY

Take, for instance, the prophecy of Tyre, the great commercial city of Asia. At the height of her power, about 590 B.C., when it seemed that she would stand forever, Ezekiel prophesied:

"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. . . . And they shall LAY THY STONES AND THY TIMBER AND THY DUST IN THE MIDST OF THE WATER. . . . 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."—Ezekiel 26:4, 5, 12, 14.

Soon after this prophecy was given, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon laid siege to Tyre, destroyed the city, and left the buildings in ruins. But the prophecy calls for more than this, for the timbers, and rocks, and the very dust of Tyre were to be cast into the sea, leaving a bare rock on which fishermen could spread their nets.

For two and a half centuries the ruins of Tyre stood as a challenge to the truth of prophecy. Then from the west came Alexander the Great with his armies and attacked the new Tyre which had been built on an island half a mile from the shore. The walls and ruined house and palaces of ancient Tyre were used to build a causeway from the mainland to the island city. So great was the demand for material that the very dust was scraped from the site and used to build up the causeway. Again the accuracy of prophecy was vindicated.

But the prophecy goes even further. It declares that Tyre would never be built again: "Thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord have spoken it." This challenge has faced the world for over two thousand years, and still faces it. The rebuilding of the city would disprove the Bible, but it has not been rebuilt. Speaking of Tyre, a modern traveler says: "As she is now, and has long been, Tyre is God's witness; but great, powerful, and populous, she would be the infidel's boast. This, however, she cannot be. Tyre will never rise from her dust to falsify the voice of prophecy."

Through the clear water, the submerged columns and other parts of the ancient buildings are visible today.

During all these centuries no skeptic has dared to say that this prediction is untrue, for the prophecy concerning Tyre has been fulfilled, as all the world can see. Even the French skeptic Volney tells in his Travels (vol. 2, p. 212) of visiting this spot and observing fishermen actually drying their nets on the rocks, just as the Bible prophecy said they would. Tyre is gone, but the Bible still endures.

"The word of God . . . liveth and abideth for ever."—1 Peter 1:23.

3. FULFILLED PROPHECY AT BABYLON

Babylon, the greatest city of the ancient world, is often spoken of as the golden city of a golden age. Isaiah prophesied that—

"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah."—Isaiah 13:19.

The prophet Jeremiah concurs with Isaiah in this prophecy concerning Babylon:

"Thou shalt be DESOLATE for ever. . . . Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, . . . WITHOUT AN INHABITANT."—Jeremiah 51:26, 37.

Those who have visited the site of Babylon report that it is a desolate waste, "without an inhabitant." But the prophecy is still more definite. Listen to these words:

"It shall never be inhabited, . . . neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there."—Isaiah 13:20, 21.

After 2,500 years the Arabians still exist, but there is not a Babylonian on earth today. The mighty palaces and Hanging Gardens of Babylon are only a memory, but the Arab still lives in his tents. How did Isaiah know that the Arabs would continue to live near Babylon's ruins for 2,500 years, but would refuse to use them for shelter? Explorers and excavators report that it is impossible to get an Arab to remain amid the ruins of this ancient city overnight because of their apprehension of evil spirits. It is impossible to eradicate this idea from the minds of these people.

There are many particulars in this one prophecy, each of which furnishes proof of divine foresight. Put together, they would fill a large book.

4. THE HAND OF GOD IN EGYPT'S HISTORY

The prophecy concerning Egypt proves divine foreknowledge. In the days of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, Egypt was a mighty nation. It had the longest unbroken line of kings, the greatest pyramids, one of the most brilliant civilizations on earth. But at a time when all other men, judging by analogy, would have predicted unending prosperity for Egypt, Ezekiel (chapters 29-32) foretold many amazing things concerning her, reaching down more than 2,500 years beyond his time. Here are a few of these outstanding prophecies:

"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 29:14, 15.

"I will . . . 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. . . . And THERE SHALL BE NO MORE A PRINCE of the land of Egypt."—Ezekiel 30:12, 13.

The kingdoms of Tyre and Babylon met utter extinction, but not so with Egypt. The prediction of God was continual decline. Egypt was to continue as a nation, but no longer was it to rule other nations. On the contrary, it was to be ruled by "strangers."

This prophecy could not have been the result of human foresight, because in the time of Christ, six hundred years later, Egypt had only recently (in 30 B.C.) been conquered by the legions of Rome and integrated into the empire of the Caesars.

But since the time of Christ, Egypt has been buffeted by war and ruled by many nations so that her power and prestige in the world cannot be compared to the greatness and glory that was hers in the time of the ancient Pharoahs. For many centuries she has been ruled by "the hand of strangers," just as Ezekiel had predicted.

Here is a vital point: Babylon, Assyria, Tyre, and other nations of Ezekiel's day were destroyed utterly, as the prophecy had said they would be. If Ezekiel had been predicting by analogy, he would have said the same of Egypt. But not so. Suppose God's prophet had said that Egypt, like Babylon, would be utterly destroyed, how eagerly the skeptics would point to Egypt's many cities and its millions of inhabitants today! But the unbeliever cannot show a single prophecy concerning Egypt that has failed.

"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."—Amos 3:7.

How could Ezekiel foretell the future? There is only one explanation. The prophets spoke by inspiration from God. That we may know that our God is the true God, and that His Word also is true, He reveals things that will come to pass.

5. ISRAEL'S ROLE IN HISTORY AND PROPHECY

Here is another prophecy, one which every nation in the world has helped to fulfill, the prophecy concerning the people of Israel. In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, Moses outlined the political and religious history of these unusual people for over 3,400 years—from about 1500 B.C., to this present moment.

"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. . . . Upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; . . . I WILL NOT CAST THEM AWAY, . . . TO DESTROY THEM UTTERLY."—Leviticus 26:33, 36, 44.

"And [they shall] be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth."—Deuteronomy 28:25.

These ancient people of God have mingled with all nations for over 2,500 years, yet they have always remained different and distinct. During this same time many other nations have arisen, remained distinct for a while, then disappeared in the mass of mankind. We need to look only at America, where millions have poured in from other lands. An immigrant group may preserve its nationality for a generation or two, but after that it is lost. Not so with the Jews. They are found in every nation, as the prophecy said they would be; but always and everywhere they are a distinct people. We think of the prophecy in Numbers 23:9, which says:

"The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations."

The descendants of Abraham have resisted successfully many of the customs of society, all the powers of persecution, and most efforts to compel or induce them to be absorbed into the cultures of nations. They are indeed a worldwide proof of divine prophecy. As Moses foretold, they have literally been "rooted . . . out of their land" (Deuteronomy 29:28) and scattered over the earth.

Can anyone deny the truth of these predictions? Surely we can say with the apostle Peter:

"We have also a more SURE WORD OF PROPHECY; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts."—2 Peter 1:19.

Men are born and die; kingdoms arise and pass away; but the Word of God endures. History still proves that God spoke the truth and that we can believe the Word which reveals Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. Accept that Word; accept Him for your eternal salvation. Do it now.

Dear Father in heaven: Forgive me where I have ever doubted the promises of Thy Word. Save me from unbelief. Help me to understand Bible prophecy as the revelation of divine love for me. Give me a clear mind to understand, and an open heart to take the Word of Scripture for my life just as it reads. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.