CHAPTER SEVEN

PROPHETIC EVIDENCE

Some of the greatest proofs that there is a God in heaven and that Bible is His word are the many prophetic statements that we find in the Bible. Prophecies are found in both the Old and New Testaments. There are literally thousands of prophecies and every prophecy is fulfilled exactly as God said it would be.

ISAIAH 44 AND 45: An outstanding example of the Bible's prophetic accuracy is found in Isaiah 44:24-45:7. At this time, let us consider the passage. "...I am the Lord... who says of Jerusalem, 'It shall be inhabited,' of the towns of Judah, 'they shall be built,' and of their ruins, 'I will restore them,' who says to the water deep, 'Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,' who says to Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please,' he will say of Jerusalem, 'Let it be rebuilt,' and of the temple, 'Let its foundation be laid.' This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and (loose the loins of the kings, KJV) to open doors before him so that the gates (leaved gates KJV) will not be shut. (I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; KJV) I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you treasures of darkness...so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who
calls you by name. For the sake of Jacob my servant...I call you by name...that...men may know there is none beside me."

Before we develop this fantastic picture, let us number the important facts in this prophecy and learn a few things about the ancient city of Babylon.

ISAIAH 44 AND 45

1. Is. 44:26 - Jerusalem shall be inhabited.

2. Is. 44:26 - The cities of Judah shall be rebuilt.

3. Is. 44:27 - The deep waters will go dry.

4. Is. 44:28 - There will be a man named Cyrus.

5. Is. 44:28 - Cyrus will take care of God's people.

6. Is. 44:28 - Cyrus will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt."

7. Is. 44:28 - Cyrus will say that the foundations of the temple shall be laid.

8. Is. 45:1 - Cyrus will subdue nations.

9. Is. 45:1 - God will loose the loins of the kings before Cyrus.

10. Is. 45:1 - The two leaved gates will be opened.

11. Is. 45:2 - The crooked places shall be made straight.

12. Is. 45:2 - The bars will be broken.

13. Is. 45:3 - God will give Cyrus treasures of darkness.

14. Is. 45:4 - God called Cyrus by name for Jacob's sake.

15. Is. 45:6 - These things are written that they may know there is none besides Him.

Babylon was a huge city. It was fifteen miles square and it straddled the mighty Euphrates river. In ancient days, when cities were conquered, the opposing armies often shut off the cities' water supply, and the drought that followed forced the cities to surrender. But, Babylon's water supply was a little more difficult to cut off. The mighty Euphrates river not only provided an ample supply of water for household use, but it also provided plenty of water for a deep wide moat that completely surrounded the city wall. Directly inside the moat rose this enormous wall made of large solid bricks. The wall was twenty feet thick and extended thirty-five feet below and three hundred feet above the ground surface. Beyond the first wall was a space of forty feet and then another twenty foot thick wall just like the first one. In the early days of Babylon, it was thought that if an army penetrated the moat and the first wall, it would be trapped between the first and the second walls. The people of the city could then, casually, drop rocks and boiling oil down on the heads of the soldiers and greatly confuse their efforts. During the years that followed, the space was completely filled. This made a solid wall, three hundred feet high and eighty feet thick. Chariots could drive six abreast on top of this totally impenetrable wall.[1] The wall had 250 lookout towers to provide extra safety. The Euphrates river made a bend and then went under the wall of the city. The tunnels under these walls were made secure by huge iron gates that extended to the bottom of the river bed. As the river came out from under the mighty wall and into the city, it was guarded by two huge walls that ran on either side of the river and stretched the length of Babylon. Draw bridges were used to span the river during the day, but these were removed at night for safety's sake. A tunnel under the river provided access to both sides of the city during the night. The king's palace was heavily fortified by seven more walls, which ranged up to fifty feet thick.[2]

Isaiah made his fantastic predication while the city of Jerusalem, the beautiful temple and the other cities of Judea were at peace. Years later, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, waged war against the Jews of Israel. He destroyed their cities, even their capital city, Jerusalem. He tore down their temple and carried the temple’s utensils, and many of the people, including Daniel, away to his city, Babylon. Still more years passed and finally Nebuchadnezzar died and left his kingdom to his son Belshazzar. One night Belshazzar had a drunken party and used the Holy vessels that his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem for his worship to the heathen gods. This action caused God's wrath to be kindled against Belshazzar. God then prepared the fingers of a man's hand to write a warning message on the wall near the king. Daniel was called in to interpret the message. The message was, "God has numbered the days of your reign and brought them to an end." (Daniel 5:26) Daniel 5:6 says, "His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way." The King James version says, "...his loins were loosed..." Daniel 5:30 says, "That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians was slain."

The way Belshazzar's kingdom was conquered is very interesting. A man named Cyrus, noted that an ancient prophet had recorded in the Bible his name and the method he would use to conquer Babylon. He followed the directions, dug a huge ditch and straighten out the Euphrates river. When the ditch was completed, the river's path was changed and the old river bed went dry. The two river gates were mysteriously left open, probably because of the drunken party that Belshazzar was having.[3] That night Cyrus conquered the impenetrable city, killed Belshazzar and later, to show his gratitude to God, ordered the Jews to return home to rebuild their cities and to lay the foundation for their temple. It should be noted that kings never give up their slaves easily but Cyrus did because of this Bible prophecy.

All this would serve as nothing more than an interesting history lesson if it were not for the fact

that Isaiah prophesied all of these events more than 150 years before they came about. The recent discovery of the "Dead Sea Scrolls" shows us that the writings of Isaiah are authentic.[4] They were written between 745-695 B.C. Cyrus reigned from 538-529 B.C.[5]

Every one of the thirteen points of prophecy were fulfilled exactly as Isaiah had foretold. Verification of this can be found in the writings of two noted secular historians, Herodotus and Xenophon,[6] and in the Bible books of Daniel and II Chronicles.

May I remind you again of God's words, "For my servant Jacob's sake I called you by name, that men may know that there is none besides me." Isaiah 45:4 (KJV) If this passage is not a prophecy it makes no sense at all. If this is a prophecy, it is certainly an astonishing proof that there is a God in heaven and that the Bible is His word, for how could mortal men have known the events of the future as they were recorded in the book of Isaiah?

PROPHECIES OF JESUS: As was mentioned earlier, there are literally thousands of prophecies in the Bible, and the exact fulfillment of each is a definite proof that an all-knowing God caused these prophecies to be recorded. If we were to take thirty-two archers, stand them at a different distances from a target (we might place one fifteen hundred feet away, another four hundred feet away, and scatter the others between these two), blindfold them, turn them around and around until they loose all sense of direction, give each of them nine arrows, and ask them to shoot out into the inky darkness. What would be the chances of just one of them actually hitting the target? But suppose that when the first arrow was shot it hit the bull's-eye exactly in the center, and the second arrow split the first, the third arrow split the second, and so on until all 288 arrows were shot. The possibility of this happening is beyond all reasoning. It just simply could not happen. Yet, thirty-two Old Testament writers wrote about Jesus, all of them making profound statements about events in Jesus' life that they could not possibly have known. Some of these writers prophesied fifteen hundred years before Jesus was born, others four hundred years, and the others were scattered between. All of the prophetic arrows hit the target exactly in the center.

Actually, there were more than three hundred prophecies made about the life of Christ,[7] and all of them were perfectly fulfilled. There were thirty-three prophecies telling of the events of the last twenty-four hours of his life and all were fulfilled exactly as foretold. A clock that does not run is right twice a day and a blind sow will pick up an acorn once in a while, but when a book is one hundred percent accurate in thousands of minute predictions, we are forced to conclude that this is not just chance happening. This proves that an all-knowing God directed the writing of the Bible. There is a God in heaven and the Bible is His word.

We Can Know . . .

  1. We can Know God made America Great!

2. We can know that evil people and evil nations will be punished if they don't repent.

 3. Faith and Knowledge

  4. The Bible claims there is a God, He created the Heaven and the earth, the Bible is His word, and that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. We can know the Earth is less than 10,000 years old!

  5. We can Know the gap theory and the million years per day theory are unfounded.

  6. We can know scientific evidence proves God's existence.

  7. We can know prophetic evidence proves God's existence.

  8. We can know why a young earth looks so old.

  9. We can know the answers to flood questions such as: Where could all the water necessary to flood the whole earth come from; where could it go; how could a boat be built large enough to hold all the animals; how could the animals get from one continent to another?

 10. We can know what it was like before the Genesis flood.

  11. We can Know why many methods to date the earth are unreliable.

 12. We can know our Bible is accurate.

  13. Final summery and conclusion.

 14. Common questions such as:

• Which came first the chicken or the egg?

• Was sex the forbidden fruit? Was prostitution the first profession?

• Were did Cain get his wife?

• Could God have created other people beside Adam and Eve?

•  Does "replenish the earth" mean there were people on the earth before Adam?

• Where do cave men fit into the Bible picture?

• Is there life on other planets?

• Where does the Ice Age fit into the Bible picture?

• Why do good people suffer?