Original Powerbook

How would you like to find a book that not only can help make you healthier, happier and more prosperous, but can tell you about your future in minute detail? You've already got one. It's your Bible.

We have already seen that one of the proofs that God is real is fulfilled prophecy. Now maybe the skeptic would not put much stock in prophecies about things that happened long ago.

"These things could have been written about after they happened," one could reason. "I'm not an expert on these things . . . how can I know if it really happened?"

But what about things that were predicted long ago for now? Today. The 20th century. They couldn't have been written after the fact. If those prophecies were obviously and undeniably true, would that make a difference?

I think it makes a powerful difference.

It is by these very prophecies that we can know that the Bible is God's own Word, that it is true, and that we can believe it without reservation. Here are several:

Babylon. Babylonia was the first world kingdom, in full flower from 1850 B.C. to 539 B.C. Babylon was its capital. This was a truly magnificent city. Check an encyclopedia. You can tell from pictures of the broken pieces of this civilization that have been left behind. Its ziggurats (spiral towers) and hanging gardens were famous all over the world. It was the New York, Paris, London and Rome of the ancient world -- all in one.

Nevertheless, for its persecution of Israel, God prophesied the destruction of this empire by the prophet Isaiah: "And so Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms, the flower of Chaldean culture, will be as utterly destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah were when God sent fire from heaven; Babylon will never rise again. Generation after generation will come and go, but the land will never again be lived in. The nomads will not even camp there. The shepherds won't let their sheep stay overnight. The wild animals of the desert will make it their home. The houses will be haunted by howling creatures. Ostriches will live there, and the demons will come there to dance. Hyenas and jackals will den within the palaces. Babylon's days are numbered; her time of doom will soon be here."1

Unlike other civilizations that have been decimated and yet were resurrected from the ashes, phoenix-like, such as Rome from ancient times through modern history, or Germany from World War II, or Israel, Babylon has not. This prophecy came true and has remained true down to the last detail.

The ruins of Babylon are in Iraq, 55 miles south of Baghdad. There are animal sculptures, building fragments, streets. Saddam Hussein was about the business of rebuilding Babylon before the second Iraq War (began March 20, 2003).  But just as prophesied, great Babylon of yore is uninhabited. See http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-babylon01.htm

Is this merely a self-fulfilling prophecy? Today, in the age of the hydrogen bomb, a prediction that any city -- or the entire world itself -- would be wasted and left desolate forever would be credible. But back in the days when men fought in hand-to-hand combat, how could Isaiah have known that his prophecy would stick for 2,500 years? Only one way. Only if the Living God had decreed it.

Egypt. Egypt was a leading ancient culture from 3100 B.C. to 642 A.D. It was the seat of great learning, and home for a large population, some seven million at the time of the Pharaohs.

God also prophesied about Egypt. He was going to punish this land for vanity, and for offenses against Israel, but unlike Babylon, Egypt would rise again, though not to her former glory.

Here is how God put it: "Because you said: 'The Nile is mine! I made it!' therefore I am against you and your river and I will utterly destroy the land of Egypt, from Migdol to Syene, as far south as the border of Ethiopia. For forty years not a soul will pass that way neither men nor animals. It will be completely uninhabited. I will make Egypt desolate, surrounded by desolate nations, and her cities will lie as wastelands for forty years. I will exile the Egyptians to other lands.

"But the Lord God says that at the end of the forty years he will bring the Egyptians home again from the nations to which they will be banished. And I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring her people back to the land of Pathros in southern Egypt where they were born, but she will be an unimportant, minor kingdom. She will be the lowliest of all the nations; never again will she raise herself above the other nations; never again will Egypt be great enough for that."2

The first part of the prophecy -- desolation for 40 years -- was carried out by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 670 B.C. He carried the Egyptians captive, wasted the land, and then allowed many Greeks to migrate to Egypt.

The second part of the prophecy -- on her status to the present day -- has also been carried out. Today the population of Egypt stands at less than 70 million, not quite ten times greater than in its ancient days of world leadership. Not much progress for all that time. Outside of her proximity to Israel, and her consequent political importance, Egypt is indeed an unimportant, minor kingdom by comparison to the great nations of the world. In terms of her economy, poverty-wracked Egypt is indeed "lowliest of all the nations" -- the land that was once the breadbasket of the Middle East.

And so the prophecy stands. Egypt is today a minor, impoverished nation.

Yet unlike Babylon, Egypt still exists.

Ashkelon and the coastal cities. Back when Israel was just a little wandering tribe, surrounded by powerful neighbors, Ashkelon belonged to the Philistines, along with Gaza, Ashdod and Ekron. God foretells the future of these cities:

"Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up . . . .And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon.3

And:

"Ashkelon shall not be inhabited . . . ."4

And so again, just as in the case of Babylon, the ruins are there.

Ancient Ashkelon proper is not inhabited. But, the remnant of Judah, modern Israel, does indeed "feed upon" or own the area. A new, modern Ashkelon is in its place.

Ancient Ashkelon gone, save its ruins, now in the hands of the Jewish state.

Egypt remaining, but in a humbled state.

Ancient Babylon gone, save its ruins.

By these prophecies we get an insight into God's power, and the power of his Word.

But the greatest prophecies of all have to do with the Messiah, the anointed one. There are literally hundreds of prophecies about the Messiah, each one of which the Lord Jesus Christ has conscientiously and painstakingly fulfilled. These prophecies are here a little, there a little, precept upon precept, line upon line -- not all in one place.5

Because there are some 300 Old Testament prophecies about the life and ministry of the Messiah, and because it is beyond our mission to examine each one, here are just a relative few submitted as examples showing the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the New Testament:

• Sold for thirty pieces of silver. "They weighed for my price 30 pieces of silver."6
   
• Forsaken by his disciples. "Strike down the Shepherd and the sheep will scatter."7
   
• Accused by false witnesses. "They have spoken against me with a lying tongue."8
   
• Beaten and mocked. "They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek."9 "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting."10
   
• Pierced in hands and feet. "They pierced my hands and feet."11
   
• Crucified with thieves. "He was buried like a criminal in a rich man's grave."12
   
• The object of ridicule. "They shoot out the lip, they shake the head."13 "When they looked upon me they shaked their heads."14
   
• Garments gambled for. "They divide my clothes among themselves by a toss of the dice."15
   
• Deserted by God. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why do you refuse to help me or even to listen to my groans?16
   
• Hid from a gaping crowd in darkness. "At that time I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in the daytime."17
   
• Prayed for his persecutors. "He was counted as a sinner, and he bore the sins of many, and he pled with God for sinners."18
   
• Buried with the rich. "He made his grave . . . with the rich in his death."19
   
• Resurrected. "For you will not leave me among the dead; you will not allow your beloved one to rot in the grave."20 "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with your likeness."21
   

A penultimate point.

One next-to-last point that proves the Bible is the existence of the Jews. The Bible, notably in Ezekiel 38, says that Israel would be around -- and in their land -- in the latter days. This is a precursor to the great homecoming of Israel in the kingdom age. This fact alone is rather amazing when you realize that their land was sacked in 70 A.D., the people taken captive and dispersed throughout the world. Only a relative few Jews lived in the land for nearly 2,000 years thereafter; the "nation," as such, was elsewhere. Then, in the 19th century, the Zionist movement was born, and gathered steam into the 20th century, culminating in the creation of the state of Israel in May, 1948. This after their being confined to the ghettos, and being made a target of annihilation for so long. That we have an Israel today proves the veracity of the Bible.

The most amazing prophecy of all

God is an incredibly generous and an incredibly precise person. He gave Israel a sign by which they could know how long it would be before the promised kingdom would be established, ending wholesale transgression and sin, and bringing in everlasting righteousness. Within this prophecy, God also provided the means by which to make an absolutely positive, unmistakable identification of the Messiah. The sign was in the book of Daniel, chapter 9.

Here it is, as delivered by the angel Gabriel:

"Seventy sevens are determined upon thy People and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven  weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself:"

The Hebrew word here for seven is shabua. This can mean seventy days, or weeks, or years. Which one it is must be gleaned from the context. In this case, it clearly means years. Now seven weeks, and threescore, and two weeks would be 69 weeks. And 69 weeks would be exactly 483 days. In this prophetic denotation then, this would be 483 years.

The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem was given by Asteiages, "Artexerxes," "Darius the Median," the "Ahasuerus" or 'great king' of the book of Esther, in 454 B.C.

Many scholars agree that the Lord Jesus Christ was born during the fall feast of tabernacles in 4 B.C. This was exactly 4,000 years after the creation of Adam, a completion of 80 Jubilee (50 year) cycles. He began his ministry at the age of 30, in the fall of the year 25 A.D. The Jews regarded the age of 30 as the fullness of manhood. His ministry lasted 3 and 1/2 years. He was crucified -- "cut off" -- at the age of 33 and 1/2 in 29 A.D. - exactly 483 years after the edict to rebuild Jerusalem!

When the Lord entered Jerusalem on that fateful 11 Nisan (the seventh Jewish month), 29 A.D., his whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: "Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the Lord." When the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke his disciples for talking that way, He said: "If they keep quiet, the stones along the road will burst into cheers."22 Indeed, somebody or something was going to proclaim Jesus King -- whether it was disciples, or even the stones by the road. This was that glorious day which the angel Gabriel had predicted some 500 years earlier, the day Messiah would be declared Prince.. . the day that was exactly 483 years after the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. As proven out by the prophetic clock, this man Jesus, being hailed as King, had to be the Messiah. God himself had said so 500 years earlier.

Thus, the corrected reading of Luke 19:42, spoken as our Lord came into Jerusalem on that day is most significant: "If thou also hadst known, even on this day, the things which belong to thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes!"

There are hundreds of other prophecies of Christ, and hundreds of other prophecies about things in general. We've looked at just a few.

We've looked at Babylon, Egypt, Ashkelon.

We've looked at some of the 300 prophecies pointing out the true Messiah.

These all speak powerfully; but for the one seeking a still deeper gut, marrow and bone conviction that God, Jesus and the Bible are all true, one final fact speaks more powerfully than any of these ancient prophecies -- as awesome, as powerful as they all are.

And that is the transformation of the disciples from fearful to fearless.

The night Jesus was arrested was traumatic for the men who had given up everything to follow him. While they didn't always fully understand him, they believed he was the long-awaited Messiah; they believed he would establish his kingdom and restore their Roman-occupied land to a glory greater even than that of David and Solomon.

But when the fateful moment came, fear took over.

Peter, who had, only hours before, promised Jesus he would follow him to prison or death, denied even knowing him. The other disciples forsook him, too, leaving Jesus to face trial by the high priest and Pontius Pilate alone.

The next day, when Jesus was crucified, was agonizing for these men. How could this have happened to their leader? They didn't realize that he would come back to life in just three days.23

Fear reigned. Fear of the Jewish leaders,24 fear for themselves. They locked themselves in the upper room.

You can imagine the confusion, the despair, the heaviness, the unspeakable sense of loss in the air. You can imagine the queasiness down deep in the entrails. Obviously, the three-and-one-half years invested in following this man Jesus had been a bad investment. No one said it. But they were all thinking it.

"They killed him. My God, how could it have happened? They'll come to arrest us next . . . or kill us. What if they crucify me like that . . . ?"

Then a strange thing happened -- right in the middle of that thought.

Jesus appeared. He appeared out of nowhere -- right in the middle of the room.

"Shalom," He said. "Peace be unto you."

You can imagine the shock. They were seeing a ghost, or so it seemed.

He showed them his hands. He showed them his side. Then again he said to them: "Peace be unto you, as my Father has sent me, even so I send you."

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said, "Receive you the Holy Spirit."

Jesus spent the next 40 days with his disciples, teaching them about the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, promises of the Father that they should wait for, the restoration of the kingdom, and their witness to him all over the world.

The rest is history. And that history is the strongest proof of all -- of God, Jesus and the Bible: the transformation of these men from fearful, desolate followers of a messiah that was arrested, crucified and buried, to the emboldened, fearless followers of a man they had seen come back from the dead.

And they proceeded to turn the world upside down25 with the (Holy Spirit) power26 of their testimony. They freely and fearlessly risked their lives for the name of this man they saw come back from the dead.27

Now someone might say that the books of the Old Testament that predict the fall of Babylon and Ashkelon and the decline of Egypt were Jewish folklore written after the fact.

Or that this was just some rather lucky guessing...this business about Babylon never rising again, or Egypt going into decline. Or even Israel being back in the land someday.

But for the prophecy of the seventy sevens, and story of the man Jesus Christ and his disciples, there is no such easy disqualification. We can be absolutely certain that no man would have risked his life to advance a fable about a charismatic man called Jesus who claimed to be the long-awaited Messiah, but was arrested, crucified and buried. And then stayed dead and buried. After all, there were "messiahs" before Jesus, and "messiahs" after Jesus. Some 40 in all, according to Jewish historians. You've probably never heard of them. Neither have I. They were forgotten.

But these disciples had seen Jesus come back from the dead, just as he predicted. And that changed their lives, as it has the lives of millions after them down through the centuries.

That is a fact.

And it means that Jesus Christ was who he said he was.

It means the Bible is true, the whole Bible.

It means that there is a real, living, breathing God.

And most pertinent to the theme of this book, it means that he will come again28 to establish his kingdom, just as promised, right on this earth.

 

FOOTNOTES
Chapter 3
ORIGINAL POWERBOOK  FOOTNOTES
1. Is. 13:19-22 LB
2. Ez. 29:10-15 LB
3. Zech. 2:4-7
4. Zech. 9:5
5. Is. 28:10
6. Zech. 11:12 LB
7. Zech. 13:7 LB
8. Psalm 109:2
9. Micah 5:1
10. Is. 50:6
11. Psalm 22:16
12. Is. 53:9
13. Psalm 22:7
14. Psalm 109:25
15. Psalm 22:18
16. Psalm 22:1
17. Amos 8:9 LB
18. Is. 53:12
19. Is. 53:9
20. Psalm 16:10 LB
21. Psalm 17:15
22. Luke 19:40 LB
23. John 20:9 "For until then we hadn't realized that the Scriptures said he would come to life again!" LB
24. John 20:19
25. Acts 17:6
26. Acts 1:8
27. Acts 15:26
28. John 14:3 "I will come again."