"Produce your cause,
saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let
them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen; let them show the former
things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of
them, or declare us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter,
that we may know, that ye are gods” (Isaiah 41:21-23). "I declare 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” (Isaiah 46:10).
This is Jehovah’s
challenge to the idol-gods of Babylon
to predict future events. He alone can do that. The Lord can declare the end
from the beginning, and make known things that are not yet done. The dumb idols
of the heathen know nothing concerning the future. They cannot predict what is
going to happen. And man himself is powerless to know future events and cannot
find out things to come. Jehovah, who has made this challenge and declaration,
has also fully demonstrated His power to do so. He has done it in His holy
Word, the Bible. Other nations possess books of a religious character, called
"sacred books.” Not one of them contains any predictions concerning the future.
If the authors of these writings had attempted to foretell the future, they
would have thereby furnished the strongest evidence of their deceptions. The
Bible is the only book in the world which contains predictions. It is
pre-eminently that, which no other book could be, and none other is, a book of
prophecy. These predictions are declared to be the utterances of Jehovah; they
show that the Bible is a supernatural book, the revelation of
God.
PROPHECY NEGLECTED AND
DENIED
In view of this fact it
is deplorable that the professing Church of today almost completely ignores and
neglects the study of prophecy, a neglect which has for one of its results the
loss of one of the most powerful weapons against infidelity. The denial of the
Bible as the inspired Word of God has become widespread.
If prophecy were
intelligently studied such a denial could not flourish as it does, for the
fulfilled predictions of the Bible give the clearest and most conclusive
evidence that the Bible is the revelation of God. To this must be added the
fact that the destructive Bible criticism, which goes by the name of "Higher
Criticism,” denies the possibility of prophecy. The whole reasoning method of
this school, which has become so popular throughout Christendom, may be reduced
to the following: Prophecy is an impossibility; there is no such thing as
foretelling future events. Therefore a book which contains predictions of
things to come, which were later fulfilled, must have been written after the
events which are predicted in the book. The methods followed by the critics,
the attacks made by them upon the authenticity of the different books of the
Bible, especially upon those which contain the most startling prophecies
(Isaiah and Daniel), we cannot follow at this time. They deny everything which
the Jewish Synagogue and the Christian Church always believed to be prophecy, a
supernatural unfolding of future events.
PAST, PRESENT AND
FUTURE
The prophecies of the
Bible must be first of all divided into three classes:
1. Prophecies
which have found already their fulfillment.
2. Prophecies
which are now in process of fulfillment. Many predictions written several
thousand years ago are now being accomplished before our eyes. We mention those
which relate to the national and spiritual condition of the Jewish people and
the predictions concerning the moral and religious condition of the present
age.
3. Prophecies
which are still unfulfilled. We have reference to those which predict the
second, glorious and visible coming of our Lord, the re- gathering of Israel
and their restoration to the land of promise, judgments which will fall upon
the nations of the earth, the establishment of the Kingdom, the conversion of
the world, universal peace and righteousness, the deliverance of groaning
creation, and others.
These great prophecies of
future things are often robbed of their literal and solemn meaning by a process
of spiritualization. The visions of the prophets concerning Israel and Jerusalem,
and the glories to come in a future age, are almost generally explained as
having their fulfillment in the Church during the present age. However, our
object is not to follow the unfulfilled prophecies, but prophecies fulfilled
and in process of fulfillment. At the close of our treatise we shall point out
briefly that in the light of fulfilled prophecies, the literal fulfillment of
prophecies still future is perfectly assured.
FULFILLED PROPHECY A
VAST THEME
Fulfilled prophecy is a
vast theme of much importance. It is equally inspiring and interesting. Volumes
could be written to show how hundreds of Divine predictions written in the
Bible have passed into history. What God announced through His chosen
instruments has come to pass. History is bearing witness to the fact that the
events which transpired among nations were pre-written in the Bible, even as
prophecy is nothing less than history written in advance. As much as space
permits we shall call attention to the fulfilled prophecies relating to the
person of Christ; to the Jewish people; and to a number of nations, whose
history, whose rise and downfall, are divinely predicted in the Bible.
Furthermore, we shall mention the great prophetic unfoldings as given in the
Book of Daniel, and how many of these predictions have already found a most
interesting fulfillment.
MESSIANIC PROPHECIES
AND THEIR FULFILLMENT
The Old Testament
contains a most wonderful chain of prophecies concerning the person, the life
and work of our Lord. As He is the center of the whole revelation of God, the
One upon whom all rests, we turn first of all to a few of the prophecies which
speak of Him. This also is very necessary. The destructive criticism has gone
so far as to state that there are no predictions at all concerning Christ in the
Old Testament. Such a denial leads to and is linked with the denial of Christ
Himself, especially the denial of His Deity and His work on the cross.
To follow the large
number of prophecies concerning the coming of Christ into the world and the
work He was to accomplish we cannot attempt in these pages. We point out
briefly in a general way what must be familiar to most Christians who search
the Scriptures. Christ is first announced in Genesis 3:15 to be the seed of the
woman, and therefore a human being. In Genesis 9:26-27 the supremacy of Shem is
predicted. The full revelation of Jehovah God is connected with Shem and in due
time a son of Shem, Abraham, received the promise that the predicted seed was
to come from him. (Genesis 12:8). Messiah was to come from the seed of Abraham.
Then the fact was
revealed that He was to come from Isaac and not from Ishmael, from Jacob and
not from Esau. But Jacob had twelve sons. The Divine prediction pointed to Judah and later to the house of David of the
tribe of Judah
from which the Messiah should spring. When we come to the prophecies of Isaiah
we learn that His mother is to be a virgin. (Isaiah 7:14). But the son born of
the virgin is Immanuel, God with us. Clearly the prophetic Word in Isaiah
states that the Messiah would be a child born and a Son given with the names,
"Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of
Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
The promised Messiah is
to be the seed of a woman, of the seed of Abraham, of David, born of a virgin.
He is to be Immanuel, the Son given, God manifested in the flesh. This promised
Messiah, the Son of David, should appear (according to Isaiah 11:1) after the
house of David had been stripped of its royal dignity and glory. And what more
could we say of the prophecies which speak of His life, His poverty, the works
He was to do, His rejection by His own people, the Jews. In that matchless
chapter in Isaiah, the fiftythird, the rejection of Christ by His own nation is
predicted. In another chapter a still more startling prophecy is recorded:
"Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and
in vain.” This is Messiah’s lament on account of His rejection. Then follows
the answer, which contains a most striking prophecy: "It is a light thing that
Thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the
preserved of Israel:
I also will give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My
salvation unto the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:5,6).
Here the revelation is
given that He would not alone be rejected by His own nation, but that He would
also bring salvation to the Gentiles. What human mind could have ever invented
such a program! The promised Messiah of Israel, the longed-for One, is
predicted to be rejected by His own people and thus becomes the Saviour of the
despised Gentiles. His sufferings and His death are even more minutely
predicted.
In the Book of Psalms the
sufferings of Christ, the deep agony of His soul, the expressions of His sorrow
and His grief, are pre-written by the Spirit of God. We mention only one Psalm,
the twenty-second. His death by crucifixion is prophesied. Yet death by
crucifixion was in David’s time an unknown mode of death. Cruel Rome invented that
horrible form of death. The cry of the forsaken One is predicted in the very
words which came from the lips of our Saviour out of the darkness which
enshrouded the cross. So are also predicted the words of mockery by those who
looked on; the piercing of His hands and feet; the parting of the garments and
the casting of the lots. In the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, the purpose of
His death is so blessedly predicted. He was to die the substitute of sinners.
There we find also His burial and His resurrection predicted. All this was
recorded 700 years before our Lord was born. In the Psalms we find the prophecy
that the rejected One would occupy a place at the right hand of God (Psalm
110:1). He was to leave the earth. David’s Son and David’s Lord was to have a
place in the highest glory, even at the right hand of God, to wait there till
His enemies are made His footstool. It is indeed a wonderful chain of
prophecies concerning Christ. We could give a very few of these predictions.
How they all were long ago literally fulfilled in the coming, in the life, in
the death, in the resurrection and ascension of our adorable Lord, all true
believers know.
THE JEWISH PEOPLE
When Frederick
the Great, King of Prussia, asked the court
chaplain for an argument that the Bible is an inspired book, he answered, "Your
Majesty, the Jews.” It was well said. To the Jews were committed the oracles of
God. (Romans 3:2). These oracles of God, the Holy Scriptures, the Law and the
Prophets, are filled with a large number of predictions relating to their own
history. Their unbelief, the rejection of the Messiah, the results of that
rejection, their dispersion into the corners of the earth, so that they would
be scattered among all the nations, the persecutions and sorrows they were to
suffer, the curses which were to come upon them, their miraculous preservation
as a nation, their future great tribulation and final restoration — all these
and much more were over and over announced by their own prophets. All the
different epochs of the remarkable history of Israel were predicted long before
they were reached. Their sojourn in Egypt and servitude, as well as the
duration of that period, was announced to Abraham. The Babylonian captivity of
70 years and the return of a remnant to occupy the land once more was announced
by the pre-exile prophets, who also predicted a far greater and longer exile,
their present world-wide dispersion and a return which up to 1914 has not yet
come. Of the deepest interest and the greatest importance in connection with
the predictions of the return from Babylon
is the naming of the great Persian king through whom the return was to be
achieved. This great prophecy is found in the Book of Isaiah: "That saith of
Cyrus, He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be
built; and of the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith Jehovah to
His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations
before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open the doors before him,
and the gates shall not be shut” (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). This prediction was made
about 200 years before Cyrus was born. A careful study of the part of Isaiah
where these words are found will show that they are linked with the challenge
of Jehovah and the declaration that He knows the end from the beginning; the
passages we have already quoted. In naming an unborn king and showing what his
work would be, Jehovah demonstrates that He knows the future. The great Jewish
historian, Josephus, informs us that when Cyrus found his name in the Book of
Isaiah, written about 200 years before, an earnest desire laid hold upon him to
fulfill what was written. The beginning of the Book of Ezra gives the
proclamation of Cyrus concerning the temple. When the Prophet Isaiah received
the message which contained the name of the Persian king, he wrote it down
faithfully, though he did not know who Cyrus was. Two centuries later Cyrus
appeared and then issued his proclamation which fulfilled Isaiah’s prediction.
Higher criticism denies the genuineness of all this. In order to disprove this
prophecy as well as others, they declare that Isaiah did not write the book
which bears his name. For about 2500 years no one ever thought of even
suggesting that Isaiah is not the author of the book. They have invented an
unknown person, whom they call Deutero-Isaiah, i.e., a second Isaiah. They
claim that he wrote chapters 40-66. With this they have not stopped. They speak
now of a third Isaiah, a Trito-Isaiah, as they call him. With their supposed
learning they claim to have discovered that some of the chapters of Isaiah were
written in Babylon and others in Palestine. However, all
the arguments, advanced by the critics for a composite authorship and against
one Isaiah who lived and wrote his book at the time specified in the beginning
of Isaiah, are disproven by the book itself. One only needs to study this book
to find out the unity of the message. One person must be the author of the Book
of Isaiah.
A REMARKABLE CHAPTER
The Pentateuch contains
many of the prophecies concerning the future history of the Jews. One of the
most remarkable chapters is the twenty eighth chapter in Deuteronomy. It is one
of the most solemn chapters in the Pentateuch. Orthodox Hebrews read in their
synagogues each year through the entire five books of Moses. When they read
this chapter, the Rabbi reads in a subdued voice. And well may they read it
softly and ponder over it, for here is pre-written the sad and sorrowful
history of their wonderful nation. Here thousands of years ago the Spirit of
God through Moses outlined the history of the scattered nation, all their
suffering and tribulation, as it has been for well nigh two millenniums and as
it is still. Here are arguments for the Divine, the supernatural origin of this
book which no infidel has ever been able to answer; nor will there ever be
found an answer. It would take many pages to follow the different predictions
and show their literal fulfillment in the nation which turned away from Jehovah
and disobeyed His Word.
Apart from such general
predictions as are found in verses 64-66 and fulfilled in the dispersion of Israel,
there are others which are more minute. The Roman power, which was used to
break the Jews, is clearly predicted by Moses, and that in a time when no such
power existed. Read verses 49-50: "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 language thou shalt not understand.” The eagle was the standard of the
Roman armies; the Jews understood many oriental languages, but were ignorant of
Latin. "Which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the
young.” Rome
killed the old people and the children. "And he shall besiege thee in all thy
gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy
land”(verse 52).
Fulfilled in the siege
and overthrow of Jerusalem
by the Roman legions. "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, shall eat her children, for lack of all things in the siege and
straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates” (54-57).
Fulfilled in the dreadful
sieges of Jerusalem,
perhaps the most terrible events in the history of blood and tears of this poor
earth. Every verse, beginning with the fifteenth, to the end of this chapter
has found its oft repeated fulfillment. It does not surprise us that the enemy
hates this book, which bears such a testimony, and would have it classed with
legends. Of much interest is the last verse of this great prophetic chapter.
"And Jehovah will bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way
whereof I said unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again; and there ye shall
sell yourselves unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall
buy you.” When Jerusalem was destroyed by the
Romans, all who did not die in the awful calamity were sent to the mines of Egypt,
where the slaves were constantly kept at work without being permitted to rest
or sleep till they succumbed. The whip of Egypt fell once more upon them and
they suffered the most terrible agonies. Others were sold as slaves. According
to Josephus, about 100,000 were made slaves so that the markets were glutted and
the word fulfilled, "No man shall buy you.”
THEIR DISPERSION AND
PRESERVATION
When Balaam beheld the
camp of Israel
he uttered a prophecy which is still being fulfilled. "Lo, the people shall
dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations” (Numbers 23:9).
God had separated the
nation and given to them a land. And this peculiar people, living in one of the
smallest countries of the earth, has been scattered throughout the world, has
become a wanderer, without a home, without a land. Like Cain they wander from
nation to nation. Though without a land they are still a nation. Other nations
have passed away; the Jewish nation has been preserved. They are among all the
nations and yet not reckoned among the nations. All this is written beforehand in
the Bible. "And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the
sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation and your cities shall be a
waste” (Leviticus 26:33). "And Jehovah will scatter you among the people, and
ye shall be left few in number among the nations, whither Jehovah shall lead
you away” (Deuteronomy 4:27). "And Jehovah will scatter you among all peoples,
from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; and there
thou shalt serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers,
even wood and stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there
shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot; but Jehovah will give thee there a
trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul. And thy life shall
hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no
assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even! and
at even thou shalt say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thy heart which
thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see”
(Deuteronomy 28:64-67). "And yet for all that, when they be in the land of
their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy
them utterly, and to break My covenant with them; for I am Jehovah their God”
(Leviticus 26:44). In many other passages the Spirit of God predicts their
miraculous preservation.
"Massacred by thousands,
yet springing up again from their undying stock, the Jews appear at all times
and in all regions. Their perpetuity, their national immortality, is at once
the most curious problem to the political inquirer; to the religious man a
subject of profound and awful admiration.” (*Milman: "History of the Jews.”)
Herder called the Jews
"the enigma of history”. What human mind could have ever foreseen that this
peculiar people, dwelling in a peculiar land, was to be scattered among all
nations, suffer there as no other nation ever suffered, and yet be kept and
thus marked out still as the covenant people of a God, whose gifts and callings
are without repentance. Here indeed is an argument for the Word of God which no
infidel can answer. Jehovah has predicted the history of His earthly people.
"Though I make a full end
of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of
thee” (Jeremiah 30:11).
THE LAND AND THE CITY
Palestine,
the God-given home of Israel,
the land which once flowed with milk and honey, has become barren and desolate.
Jerusalem, once a great city, the hallowed city
of David, is
trodden down by the Gentiles. All this is more than once predicted in the Word
of Prophecy. "I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not
inhabited. And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his
weapons; and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the
fire. And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to
his neighbor, Wherefore has the Lord done thus unto this great city? Then they
shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God,
and worshipped other gods and served them” (Jeremiah 22:7-9). "And the
generation to come, your children that shall rise up after you, and the
foreigner that shall come from a far land shall say, when they shall see the
plagues of that land even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah
done thus unto this land, what meaneth the heat of this great anger?”
(Deuteronomy 29:22-25).
Thus it has come to pass.
Their land is being visited by Gentiles from all over the world who behold the
desolations. Many other passages could be added to the above — passages which
prophesied the very condition of the promised land and the city of Jerusalem which are found
there now, and which have existed for nearly two thousand years.
The national rejection of
Israel
and the fulfillment of the threatened curses have come to pass, and the land in
its barren condition witnesses to it. Even the duration of all this is
indicated in the prophetic Word. There is a striking passage in Hosea. "I will
go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offence and seek My
face; in their affliction they will seek Me early. Come, let us return unto the
Lord; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten and He will bind
us up. After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up,
and we shall live in His sight” (Hosea 5:15-6:2).
According to this
prophecy Jehovah is to be in their midst and is to return to His place. It
refers to the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ among His people. They
rejected Him; He returned to His place. They are to acknowledge their offence.
Elsewhere in the Word predictions are found which speak of a future national
repentance of Israel
when the remnant of that nation will confess the blood-guiltiness which is upon
them. According to this word in Hosea, they are going to have affliction, and
when that great affliction comes they will seek His face, and confess their
sins, and express their trust in Jehovah. They acknowledge that for two days
they were torn and smitten by the judgments of the Lord, afflicted, as
predicted by their own prophets. A third day is coming when all will be
changed. These days are prophetic days. Several ancient Jewish expositors
mention the fact that these days stand each for a thousand years. The two days
of affliction and dispersion would therefore stand for two thousand years, and
they are almost expired. The third day would mean the day of the Lord, the
thousand years of the kingdom to come.
Nor must we forget that
our Lord Jesus Christ, too, predicted the great dispersion of the nation, the
fall of Jerusalem,
and that Gentiles were to rule over that city, till the times of the Gentiles
are fulfilled. (Luke 21:10-24).
NO GOVERNMENT, NO
SACRIFICE, NO HOLY PLACE
"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”
(Hosea 3:4). No further comment is needed on this striking prediction. Their
political and religious condition for 1900 years corresponds to every word
given through Hosea the prophet.
PROPHECIES ABOUT OTHER
NATIONS
Besides the many
predictions concerning the people Israel,
the prophets have much to say about the nations with whom Israel came in touch and whose
history is bound up with the history of the chosen people of God. Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt,
Ammon, Moab,
Tyre, Sidon,
Idumea, and others are mentioned in the Prophetic Word. Their ultimate fate was
predicted by Jehovah long before their downfall and overthrow occurred. The
Prophet Ezekiel was entrusted with many of the solemn messages announcing the
judgment of these nations. The reader will find these predictions in chapters
25-37. The predictions concerning Ammon, Moab, Edom and the Philistines are
recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter. Tyrus and its fall is the subject of
chapters 26 to 28:19. A prophecy about Sidon
is found in the concluding verses of the twenty-eighth chapter. The prophecies
concerning the judgment and degradation of Egypt are given at greater length
in chapters 29 and 30. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum
and Habakkuk, all contain prophecies concerning different nations foretelling
what should happen to them. A mass of evidence can be produced to show that all
these predictions came true. Many of them seemed to fail, but after centuries
had passed, their literal fulfillment, even to the minutest detail, had become
history.
We must confine ourselves
to a very few of these predictions and their fulfillment. The siege and capture
of the powerful and extremely wealthy city of Tyrus
by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
is predicted in Ezekiel 26:7-11. It came literally to pass. One of the proofs
is to be found in a contract tablet in the BritishMuseum
dated at Tyrus in the fortieth year of the king. The overthrow predicted by
Ezekiel had come to pass. The walls were broken down and the city was ruined.
The noise of the song ceased and the sound of the harps was no more heard. But
not all that Ezekiel predicted had been fulfilled by the Babylonian conqueror.
The Divine prediction states, "They shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy
dust in the midst of the water” (verse 12).
Nebuchadnezzar had not
done this. History acquaints us with the fact that the Tyrians, before the
destruction of the city had come, had removed their treasures to an island
about half a mile from the shore. About 250 years later Alexander came against
the island city. The ruins of Tyre
which Nebuchadnezzar had left standing were used by Alexander. He constructed
out of them with great ingenuity and perseverance a dam from the mainland to
the rock city in the sea. Thus literally it was fulfilled, "They shall lay thy
stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.” The sentence
pronounced upon that proud city, for so long the powerful mistress of the sea,
"Thou shalt be built no more,” has been fully carried out.
Of still greater interest
are the prophecies which foretell the doom of Egypt. Ezekiel and Nahum mention
the Egyptian city No. (Ezekiel 30:14-16; Nahum 3:8). No is Thebes
and was the ancient capital of Egypt.
The Egyptian name is No-Amon. It had a hundred gates, as we learn from Homer,
and was a city of marvelous beauty. It was surrounded by walls twenty-four feet
thick, and had a circumference of one mile and three quarters. The Lord
announced through Ezekiel that this great city should be rent asunder and that
its vast population should be cut off. Five hundred years later Ptolemy
Laltyrus, the grandfather of Cleopatra, after besieging the city several years
razed to the ground the previously ruined city. Every word given through
Ezekiel had come true. One could fill many pages showing the literal
fulfillment of Ezekiel’s great predictions relating to Egypt. The decline and degradation
predicted has come true. The rivers and canals of Egypt have dried up. The land has
become desolate. The immense fisheries which yielded such a great income to the
rulers of Egypt
are no longer in existence. Ezekiel 30:7 has found a literal fulfillment. Egypt
is a land of ruins and wasted cities. The instruments whom God used in
accomplishing this were strangers (Ezekiel 30:12) like Cambyses, Amroo, Ochus
and others. "There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt”
(Ezekiel 30:13). This too has been literally fulfilled. Ochus subdued
rebellious Egypt 350 B.C.,
and since that time no native prince has ruled in Egypt. It is also written that Egypt
should become 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.” This degradation has fully come to pass. Who would ever have
thought that this magnificent country with its vast resources, its wonderful
commerce, its great prosperity, its luxuries, the land of marvelous structures,
could ever experience such a downfall! Another significant fact is that in
spite of the great humiliation and degradation through which Egypt has passed for so many
centuries, it is not to experience a total extinction. In this respect her fate
differs from that of other nations, "They shall be there a base kingdom”
(Ezekiel 29:14); this is the condition of Egypt today. And other prophets
announce the same fact. One of the earliest prophets is Joel. He prophesied
between 860 and 850 B.C. He predicted at that early date, "Egypt shall be a desolation.”
Isaiah also foretells the awful judgment of this great land of ancient culture.
In the light of unfulfilled prophecy we discover the reason why God has not
permitted the complete extinction of Egypt. Egypt
is yet to be lifted out of the dust and is to receive a place of blessing only
second to that of Israel
(Isaiah 19:22-25). This will be fulfilled when our Lord comes again.
And what more could we
say of Idumea, Babylonia, Assyria and other
lands. Moab and Ammon, the
enemies of Israel,
once flourishing nations, have passed away and the numerous judgment
predictions have come true. (See Jeremiah 48-49). Edom is gone. "O thou that dwellest
in the clefts of the rock, that boldest the height of the hill, though thou
shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from
thence, saith Jehovah” (Jeremiah 49:16). "Thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir,
and all Idumea, even all of it” (Ezekiel 35:15).
It was an atheist who was
first used to report that during a journey of eight days he had found in the territory of Idumea the ruins of thirty cities.
Babylonia and Assyria, once the granaries of Asia,
the garden spots of that continent, enjoying a great civilization, are now in
desolation and mostly unproductive deserts. The predictions of Isaiah and
Jeremiah have been fulfilled. The judgments predicted to come upon Babylon were also
fulfilled long ago. "How utterly improbable it must have sounded to the
contemporaries of Isaiah and Jeremiah, that the great Babylon, this oldest
metropolis Of the world, founded by Nimrod, planned to be a city on the
Euphrates much larger than Paris of today, surrounded by walls four hundred
feet high, on the top of which four chariots, each drawn by four horses, could
be driven side by side; in the center a large, magnificent park an hour’s walk
in circumference, watered by machinery; in it the king’s twelve palaces,
surrounding the great temple of the sun-god with its six hundred-foot tower and
its gigantic golden statue — should be converted into a heap of ruins in the
midst of a desert! Who today would have any faith in a similar prophecy against
Berlin or London
or Paris or New York?” (Prof. Bettex).
THE BOOK OF DANIEL
The Book of Daniel,
however, supplies the most startling evidences of fulfilled prophecy. No other
book has been so much attacked as this great book. For about two thousand years
wicked men, heathen philosophers, and infidels have tried to break down its
authority. It has proven to be the anvil upon which the critics’ hammers have
been broken to pieces. The Book of Daniel has survived all attacks. It has been
denied that Daniel wrote the book during the Babylonian captivity. The critics
claim that it was written during the time of the Maccabees. Kuenen, Wellhausen,
Canon Farrar, Driver and others but repeat the statements of the assailant of
Christianity of the third century, the heathen Porphyry, who contended that the
Book of Daniel was a forgery. Such is the company in which the higher critics
are found. The Book of Daniel has been completely vindicated. The prophet wrote
the book and its magnificent prophecies in Babylon. All doubt as to that has been
forever removed, and men who still repeat the infidel oppositions against the
book, oppositions of a past generation, must be branded as ignorant, or
considered the willful enemies of the Bible.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S GREAT
DREAM
The great dream of
Nebuchadnezzar is recorded in the second chapter of the Book of Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar who had been constituted by Jehovah a great monarch over the
earth (Jeremiah 27:5-9) desired to know the future. All his astrologers and
soothsayers, his magicians and mediums, could not do that. Their predictions
left him still in doubt (Daniel 2:29). God gave him then a dream which
contained a most remarkable revelation. The great man-image the king beheld is
the symbol of the great world empires Which were to follow the Babylonian
empire. The image had a head of gold; the chest and arms were of silver; the
trunk and the thighs were of brass; the two legs of iron, and the two feet were
composed of iron mixed with clay. The Lord made known through the prophet the
meaning of this dream. Nebuchadnezzar and the empire over which he ruled is
symbolized by the golden head. An inferior kingdom was to come after the
Babylonian Empire; its symbol is silver. This kingdom was to be followed by a
third kingdom of brass to bear rule over all the earth. The fourth kingdom was
to be strong as iron and was to subdue all things. Exactly three great world
powers came after the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian, the Graeco-
Macedonian and the Roman. Interesting it is to learn, from the different metals
of which the image was composed, the process of deterioration which was to
characterize the successive monarchies. The fourth empire, the Roman world
power, is seen in its historic division, indicated by the two legs. The empire
consisted of two parts, the East and West Roman sections. Then the division of
the Empire into kingdoms in which iron (monarchical form of government) and the
clay (the rule of the people) should be present is also predicted. How all this
has come to pass is too well known to need any further demonstration. These
empires have come and gone and the territory of the old Roman
Empire presents today the very condition as predicted in
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Monarchies and republics are in existence upon that
territory. The final division into ten kingdoms has not yet been accomplished.
The unfulfilled portion of this dream we do not follow here. The reader may
find this explained in the author’s exposition of Daniel.
DANIEL’S GREAT VISION
OF THE WORLD POWERS
In the seventh chapter
Daniel relates his first great vision. The four beasts he saw rising out of the
sea, the type of nations, are symbolical of the same world powers. The lion
with eagle’s wings is Babylonia. Jeremiah also
pictured Nebuchadnezzar as a lion. "The lion has come up from his thicket and
the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way” (Jeremiah 4:7). Ezekiel speaks of
him as a great eagle. (Ezekiel 17:3). The Medo- Persian Empire is seen as a
bear raised up on one side and having three ribs in its mouth. The one side
appeared stronger because this second world empire had Persia for its stronger element.
The three ribs the bear holds as prey predict the conquests of that empire.
Medo-Persia conquered exactly three great provinces, Susiana,
Lydia and Asia
Minor. The leopard with four wings and four heads is the picture
of the Graeco-Macedonian Empire. The four wings denote its swiftness and rapid
advance so abundantly fulfilled in the conquests of Alexander the Great. The
four heads of the leopard predict the partition of this empire into the
kingdoms of Syria, Egypt, Macedonia
and Asia Minor. The fourth beast, the great
nondescript, with its ten horns, and the little horn, still to come, is the Roman Empire. These are wonderful things. Be it
remembered that the prophet received the vision when the Babylonian Empire
still existed. Here also the character of these empires typified by ferocious
beasts is revealed. The great nations of Christendom which occupy the ground of
the Roman Empire testify unconsciously to the
truth of this great prophecy. The emblems of these nations are not doves,
little lambs or other harmless creatures. They have chosen the lion, the bear,
the unicorn, the eagle and the double-headed eagle.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
PREDICTED
In the eighth chapter a
new prophecy is revealed through Daniel. Once more the Medo-Persian Empire is
seen, this time under the figure of a ram with two horns, one higher than the
other, and the higher one came up last. It foretells the composition of that
empire. It was composed of the Medes and the Persians; the Persians came in
last and were the strongest. It conquered in three directions. This corresponds
to the bear with the three ribs in the previous chapter. The he-goat which
Daniel sees coming from the west with a great rush is the type of the leopard
empire, the Graeco-Macedonian. The same swiftness as revealed in the leopard
with four wings is seen here again. The notable horn upon the he-goat,
symbolizing the Macedonian Empire, is Alexander the Great. Josephus tells us
that Alexander was greatly moved when the Jewish high priest Jaddua acquainted
him with the meaning of this prophecy written over two hundred years before.
And how was it fulfilled, what is predicted in Daniel 8:5-8? 334 B.C. the
notable horn, Alexander, in goat-like fashion, leaped across the Hellespont and
fought successful battles, then pushed on to the banks of the Indus and the
Nile and from there to Shushan. The great battles of the Granicus (334 B.C.),
Issus (333 B.C.), and Arbella (331 B.C.) were fought, and with irresistible
force he stamped the power of Persia
and its king, Darius Codomannus, to the ground. He conquered rapidly Syria, Phoenicia,
Cyprus, Pyre, Gaza, Egypt,
Babylonia, Persia. In 329 he conquered Bactria, crossed the Oxus
and Jaxaitis and defeated the Scythians. And thus he stamped upon the ram after
having broken its horns. But when the he-goat had waxed very great, the great
horn was broken. This predicted the early and sudden death of Alexander the
Great. He died after a reign of 12 years and eight months, after a career of drunkenness
and debauchery in 323 B.C. He died when he was but 32 years old. Then four
notable ones sprang up in the place of the broken horn. This too has been
fulfilled, for the empire of Alexander was divided into four parts. Four of the
great generals of Alexander made the division, namely, Cassander, Lysimachus,
Seleucus and Ptolemy. The four great divisions were Syria,
Egypt, Macedonia, and Asia Minor.
