The Bible in the Critic’s Den 6By Earle Albert Rowell (1917)
XIV- THE WITNESS OF PROPHECY"To make thee know the certainty of the words of truth." Prov. 22:21.PROPHECY is equivalent to any miracle, and is itself miraculous. Alexander Keith, in "Evidence of Prophecy," page 13, truly says: "If the prophecies of the Scriptures can be proved to be genuine; if they be of such a nature as no foresight of man could possibly have predicted; if the events foretold in them were described hundreds or even thousands of years before those events became parts of the history of man; and if the history itself correspond with the prediction, then the evidence which the prophecies impart is a sign and a wonder to every age; no clearer testimony or greater assurance of truth can be given; and if men do not believe Moses and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." If the prophecies were false, nothing could admit of easier detection; if true, nothing could be more impossible to have been conceived by man. Time infallibly must refute or realize them. Of the thousand predictions made in the Bible, some eight hundred have been fulfilled, and others are fulfilling now. Some prophecies are admittedly symbolic, and therefore not easy of interpretation. Men who desire to discredit the Bible prophecies refer to the symbolic utterances as not clear, and use them to discredit the prophecies known as literal. But such a proceeding is neither honest nor scientific. In science, we always proceed from the simple to the complex, from the easy to the difficult. The study of prophecy would fill many volumes like this. However, a few proofs may be given of the many that might be given, any one of which establishes the divine authority of the Scriptures. The wisest of historians admit that no human can foretell the future. John Clark Ridpath, in Christian Work, December 27, 1894, said: "There is not a philosopher in the world who can forecast the historical evolution to the extent of a single day. . . . The tallest son of the morning can neither foretell nor foresee the nature of what is to come in the year that already stands knocking at the door." It is to be expected, however, that the higher critic will sneer at "arguments from miracles and prophecies which offend rather than impress the modern mind."-"Program of Modernism," page 98. This attitude reminds us of that of the Jews: "For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him." Acts 13:27. The "arguments from miracles and prophecies" offended the "modern" Jewish mind of the first century even more than it offends the minds of our higher critical friends of today. And no wonder the critics are offended by arguments from the prophecies; for the prophecies prove the utter foolishness of their critical fancies, and establish firmer than the foundations of the earth the eternal infallibility of the Bible. In the uncertainty which prevails everywhere, in the paralyzing dread of some sudden and crushing catastrophe, men naturally desire and frantically seek some grounds of certainty with reference to the future. They feel that this soul-harrowing suspense is worse than certainty of even misfortune. The swelling cry is for surety. We have seen that it certainly is not in man and his isms; that it resides only in God's word. And here is where we shall seek it. Man is not alone in seeking to learn of the future, for we find that there are "things the angels desire to look into." I Peter 1:12. They might well search the Scriptures along with man; "for no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:21. Coming from such a source, the prophecies are to be accepted as trustworthy. "And we have the word of prophecy made more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place." 2 Peter 1:19. Even "the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them. To whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto you, did they minister these things." I Peter 1:10-12. And we are told that "God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts 3:21. A few of the more direct and literal prophecies will now be briefly considered. Not one of them has ever been disproved. Leading writers of all denominations are agreed as to the facts. And if these prophecies are true, both the unbelief of infidels and the cavilings of higher critics are forever discredited. Nineveh and Assyria bulk large in the history of ancient times. In a few simple words, the Bible tells the whole story: "And He will stretch out His hand against the north, and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like the wilderness. And herds shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the pelican and the porcupine shall lodge in the capitals thereof; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds. . . . This is the joyous city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none besides me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in!" Zeph. 2:13-15. True to the prophetic Word, Nineveh has lain in desolation for ages, her very site forgotten for centuries. The one who wrote that, be he who he may, made a remarkable prediction, which history has proved to be in every detail true. How did he know? Was it a clever guess? Much is said regarding Tyre in Ezekiel: "Behold, I am against thee, 0 Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. 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. . . . 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 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." Ezek. 26:3, 4, 12, 14. Nebuchadnezzar soon took the city and spoiled it. The sound of her harps was no more heard (verse 13), the sound of her songs had ceased, and the great and joyous city was desolate. The remaining inhabitants removed to an island half a mile from shore, and here built a new city. The ruins of the old city still remained. The prophecy had declared that the timbers and the stones and even the very dust should be cast into the sea, leaving a bare rock. These words were not fulfilled, and it seemed improbable that they ever would be; for if Nebuchadnezzar, in his anger, had taken a full vengeance, and had not thought of this, who was likely to care enough about the ruins of the city to wreak such a vengeance? It would be the very frenzy of madness. But meanwhile there the words stood in the Book of which Jesus said that not one word should be broken. Two and a half centuries passed away, 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 to the attack of Tyre. Reaching the shore, he saw the city he had come to take, with half a mile of water between them, built upon an island. Alexander's plan of attack was speedily formed and executed. He took the walls, towers, timbers, and ruined houses and palaces of the ancient city, and with them, built a solid causeway through the half-mile of sea to the island city. Even her mounds of ruins were carried away; and so great was the demand for material, that the very dust was scraped from the site and laid in the sea. The city was to be built no more. This divine sentence of judgment has for centuries been a challenge to all time. It is unanswered still. Take Babylon. "And Babylon, the glory of
kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in
from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there;
neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there. But wild beasts of
the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures;
and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there. And wolves
shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces." "I
will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water: and I will
sweep it with the "Behold, I am against thee, 0 destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out Mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith the Lord." Jer. 51:25, 26. Here is no ambiguity, no stammering. Here we find a man who was able to write, twenty-five hundred years ago, a history which has been true for all ages, and is undeniably true to-day. No writer of the present time could in so few words, with all the records of twenty-five centuries in his hands, write a more accurate account of Babylon. Hundreds of years passed after that prophecy was uttered, and there seemed to be no signs of its fulfillment. When captured by Alexander, Babylon was still so great that he contemplated making it his capital. At the beginning of the Christian era, the work of destruction was visible; but a small part of the ancient city was still inhabited, and the prophecy was not yet fulfilled. In A. D. 40, Caligula still further reduced its inhabitants by persecution. In 460, Theodoret tells us that only a few Jews had their habitations scattered among the ruins. The ocean of human life was gradually receding from this immense city. Still the prophecy was unfulfilled, for the city was inhabited. In the twelfth century, however, Benjamin of Tudela passed the utterly desolate site of Chaldea's ancient capital, but was unable to investigate the ruins, because of the prevalence of vast numbers of scorpions and serpents. Other cities in prophecy became folds for flocks, but this one was not to have any such history. But, as Rawlinson says, "On the actual ruins of Babylon, the Arabian neither pitches his tent nor pastures his flocks- in the first place, because the nitrous soil produces no pasture to tempt him; secondly, because an evil reputation attaches to the entire site, which is thought to be the haunt of evil spirits."-"Egypt and Babylon," page 206. "There is one fact," says Mr. Rassam, "connected with the destruction of Babylon and the marvelous fulfillment of prophecy, which struck me more than anything else, which fact seems never to have been noticed by any traveler; and that is the nonexistence, in the several modern buildings in the neighborhood of Babylon, of any sign of stone which had been dug up from its ancient ruins. It seems that in digging for old materials, the Arabs used the bricks for building purposes, but always burnt the stone thus discovered for lime, which fact wonderfully fulfills the divine words of Jeremiah, namely, `And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith the Lord."' Turn to the records of historians, and their accounts teem with records of wild animals and wild birds and pests that infest the ruins of Babylon, and of the lagoons of stagnant water. "Thou shalt be desolate forever," was the verdict written by the divine hand over its ruins; and many centuries she has been desolate, her very site a matter of speculation. Why have not the infidels, whether in the church or out, who are so eager to disprove God's word, gone and inhabited Babylon? God's very words on multiplied millions of Bible pages stand a challenge to them to prove that the verdict passed on Babylon is untrue. But despite the pratings of those who say prophecy is history written after the event, no one has ever yet claimed that this prediction was written in this century; yet if their contention be true, the prophecy of the desolation of Assyria and Babylonia must have been written in recent years. Notwithstanding the blind cavils of unbelievers, there lie the ruins of two magnificent world-ruling empires as impregnable proof of the divine foresight given the writers of these prophecies. Or do the higher critics prefer to account for the remarkable fulfillment of these predictions on the score of clever guessing? It is not the fulfillment they deny - that is unquestionable; but they deny that the writers had the wisdom to foretell. Hence the fulfillment was all accident! Let us turn to another of the more ancient kingdoms. Of the destruction of Egypt's two ancient capitals, Thebes and Memphis, we read in Ezek. 30:13, A. R. V., "I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis." Memphis was founded by Menes, and Brugsch Bey speaks of it as "the great temple city of Egypt." In the course of the centuries, Thebes was reduced to ruins, but Memphis retained her glory. At the beginning of the Christian era, the fulfillment of this prophecy seemed more improbable still; for not only were images to be found all over Egypt, Thebes, though in ruins for centuries, being no exception, but Strabo found Memphis "large and populous, next to Alexandria in size," and tells us of its gods and temples and statues. Even as late as the seventh century, it was the residence of the governor of Egypt. But there remained on the pages of prophecy the assertion that though the idols and images of the other cities of Egypt would not be destroyed, those of Memphis would be. How the skeptic of that day might have sneered at the prediction, and taunted the Christian with his fallible Bible and failing prophecies, since there stood Memphis in power and glory nearly fifteen hundred years after its predicted destruction! Even in the thirteenth century, its ruins struck the beholder with admiration. But today? Let the "Encyclopedia Britannica" tell us: "Now the ruins of the city, the great temple of Ptah, the dwelling of Apis, and the palaces of the kings, are traceable only by a few stones among the palm trees and fields and heaps of rubbish." Eleventh edition, article "Memphis." But where are her idols and images and gods and statues? "This is all that remains of Memphis, eldest of cities," says Miss Amelia B. Edwards,- "a few large rubbish heaps, a dozen or so of broken statues, and a name. One can hardly believe a great city ever flourished on this spot, or understand how it should have been effaced so utterly."-"A Thousand Miles up the Nile," pages 97-99. The prophecies concerning Egypt itself were abundant and minute, and a detailed application of them is fascinating; but only a few of them can be admitted here, illustrative of the character of the rest. It was foretold that the canals of Egypt should be dried up, and the rivers be wasted and stink. Ezek. 30:12; Isa. 19:5, 6. "The entire river became a marsh, through which, by the great pressure of water, the stream oozed through innumerable small channels. In fact, the White Nile had disappeared."-"Encyclopedia Britannica," article "Nile." "The great difference between the Nile of Egypt in the present day and in ancient times is caused by the failure of some of its branches. . . . The river was famous for its seven branches; and under Roman dominion, eleven were counted, of which, however, there were but seven principal ones. . . . Now, as for a long period past, there are no navigable and unobstructed branches but those two that Herodotus distinguishes as the work of man." Reginald Stuart Poole, "Egypt as It Is," page 5. Wilkinson speaks of the "noxious vapors that rise when the water has retired and left a bed of liquid mud." Concerning the canals, Mr. Villiers Stuart, who was deputed by the British government to examine into the state of Egypt, says "Canals exist, but many have been allowed to silt up. They all want deepening, and they ought to be connected together on a scientific system."-"Egypt After the War," page 241. "The reeds and flags shall wither away. The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, shall become dry, be driven away, and be no more." Isa. 19:6, 7. At one time, the papyrus and the lotus were so abundant that they were symbols respectively of Upper and Lower Egypt. Even till the seventh century, papyrus was found in its ancient home. But the prophecy said it should be no more; and today we read that "the plant is now unknown in Egypt,"- Wilkinson, "Ancient Egyptians," volume 2, page 97. Says another writer: "It is a curious fact that no water plants or weeds grow on the banks of the Nile. A sedgy margin is never to be met with in this country." "The fishers shall lament, and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish." Isa. 19:8. For many hundred years, fish was the food of the poor, and was caught in such abundance that from Lake Morris alone the Pharaohs derived a revenue of five hundred thousand dollars a year. But today, Poole tells us, "the fisheries are scarcely of any moment." But worst of all: "Moreover they that work in combed flax, and they that weave white cloth, shall be confounded. And the pillars of Egypt shall be broken in pieces; all they that work for hire shall be grieved in soul. . . . Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do." Isa. 19:9,10, 15. The arts and industries of Egypt were her chief glories. The combed flax sold for its weight in gold. The other products of Egypt were famed as the best in the world. It would seem that if all the industries of Egypt passed away, so that there was no work of this kind left for high or low to do, the kingdom could not continue. But the prophecy says only that they shall be grieved in soul. As the centuries passed, these words seemed unlikely of fulfillment. When Alexander conquered Egypt, new markets were opened up, and the destruction of Tyre and Sidon gave new life to her industries. Pliny, a hundred years after Christ, still speaks of the arts and commerce of Egypt as at their height. But today agriculture is her one stay and employment, and it is so unskillfully carried on as to awaken the scorn and pity of the nations. "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." Ezek. 30:12. Thus in one brief sentence is summed up the whole history of Egypt since the occupation of the first conquerors, Volney called it a country "of slavery and tyranny." Malte-Brun speaks of "the arbitrary sway of the ruffian masters of Egypt." Much as the Egyptian hated the foreigner and his ways, it seems a poetic punishment that Egypt, the land that oppressed God's people for hundreds of years, should be oppressed in turn by strangers. Egypt has been treated, for two thousand years and more, as she treated her slaves. The hand of the wicked stranger has made Egyptian history for ages, as the prophet declared. "It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations." "And there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt." Ezek. 29:15; 30:13. And what has history to say? Assyria and Babylonia have been destroyed as the prophecy said; but this kingdom was not to be destroyed, but degraded, debased, the oppressed land of rapacious tyrants during all the rest of her history. For two millenniums, she has been subject successively to the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantine Greeks, the Saracens, the Turks, the French, and the British. Not once in that time has one of her own princes risen to power. "They shall cry unto Jehovah because of oppressors, and He will send them a savior, and a defender, and He will deliver them. . . . And Jehovah will smite Egypt, smiting and healing; and they shall return unto Jehovah, and He will be entreated of them, and will heal them." Isa. 19:20-22. Since the English occupation, thirty years ago, the population of Egypt has doubled. The land under cultivation has doubled in area, as well as increased in productiveness, owing to the modern scientific system of irrigation. Manufactures have multiplied, commerce has increased, schools have been established, Christianity is spreading fast. In fact, "the prosperity of the country became more manifest each succeeding year."-"Encyclopedia Britannica," article "Egypt." Suppose the ancient prophets of the Old Testament, in making their predictions concerning Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt, had by any accident transposed their predictions - that we were told Egypt should never be inhabited, but should remain desolate forever, while Babylon was to be degraded, and her people were to continue subjects of a foreign power. How quick the critics would be to bring forward the fact of non-fulfillment of prophecy! But when history teems with facts which attest the accuracy of predictions made, even, as we have seen, when they extend more than two thousand years beyond the time in which even the most rabid critic claims they were written, he shuts his eyes to the facts, and talks learnedly of prophecy's being history written after the event! How can man, without divine aid, foretell the future for ten years, not to say twice ten centuries? Who, in 1905, dreamed of the revolution in Turkey? Who, in 1900, could have foretold the lightning-like rapidity of the revolution in the most sluggish and cumbersome of all nations -who, in short, could have foreseen a Chinese republic? Who, in July, 1914, foretold the beginning, in a few days, of the world's most awful war? But in the Bible, we have not one instance of such foresight, but hundreds, reaching not ten years into the future, but thousands. If those who foresaw these things were not prophets with divine foresight, those ancient writers are a far greater miracle than we claim for them, and it will tax the acutest ingenuity of the most ingenious critics, whose whole lives are an effort to explain away the truths of the Bible by ingenuity - it will, I say, tax to the utmost all their cautious cunning to explain as guesswork such stupendous foresight.
XV- WITNESS OF PROPHECY-GOD'S PEOPLE"Behold, I have told you beforehand."-Jesus.NOT only is the history of the heathen nations foretold, but as might be expected, the fortunes of God's people have been faithfully delineated. Nearly thirty-five centuries ago, Moses outlined the history of the Jews to the close of time: "And I will destroy your high places. . . . And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 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." Lev.26:30-33. In their stubbornness of heart, the Jews crucified the Saviour, and brought all this woe upon their head. No one can deny that the sanctuaries of the Jews were destroyed, the temple demolished, and the people themselves scattered, "rooted out" of their own land, as Moses said they would be. "Then men shall say, . . . The Lord rooted them out of their land in anger." Deut. 29:25, 28. Not only were they to be deprived of their land, but their enemies should dwell in it. Still the land and the cities were to be desolate and ruined. Dean Stanley is convinced that "above all other countries in the world it is a land of ruins."-"Syria and Palestine," It is a strange fact of history that a land so filled with ruins should be inhabited, or being inhabited, the ruins should not have been utilized or removed. Moses foresaw, and so stated the fact. The land flowing with milk and honey became desolate. Dr. Olin remarks: "The very labor which was expended on these sterile hills in former times has increased their present sterility. The natural vegetation has been swept away, and no human cultivation now occupies the terraces which once took the place of forests and pastures." Speaking of the district about Lake Huleh, Mark Twain said: "It is seven in the morning; and as we are in the country, the grass ought to be sparkling with dew, the flowers enriching the air with their fragrance, and the birds singing in the trees. But alas, there is no dew here, nor flowers, nor birds, nor trees. There is a plain and an unshaded lake, and beyond them some barren mountains."-"The New Pilgrim's Progress," page 124. Though ruined, desolate, bereft of her own people, Palestine was nevertheless to be preeminently a land of pilgrimages; for Moses said that attention should be called to the condition of the country by "the foreigner that shall come from a far land." Deut. 29:22. There was to be no wealth to allure, no beauty to attract; still it was to be the land to which the stranger from afar should come. To-day fifty languages are spoken in Jerusalem alone, so numerous are the different peoples represented. ("Encyclopedia Britannica," eleventh edition, article "Palestine.") "And Jehovah will scatter thee among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth. . . . And among these nations, shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot. . . . And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no assurance of thy life." Deut. 28:64-66. There is nothing in all history so pathetic and so terrible as the tale of the Jews. Two millions were killed or starved to death or sold into slavery worse than death in A. D. 70. Over half a million more were slaughtered by the Romans sixty years later. The history of the Jews has been but the record of the slaughter of a nation, extending over nineteen centuries. "No fanatic monk," says Milman, "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 caste. 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, the Host stolen and outraged. . . . Still, persecuted in one city, they fled to another, and thus spread over the whole of Germany, Brunswick, Austria, Franconia, the Rhine provinces, Silesia, Brandenburg, Bohemia, Lithuania, and Poland. Oppressed by the 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, rarely of protective edicts, more often of their massacres."-"History of the Jews," volume 3, pages 222, 223. Strange as it seems, rooted out of their own land, without central government, without ruler, scattered over the whole earth, they have nevertheless been preserved. "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," volume 2, pages 398, 399. Even to-day we are often startled and shocked by the news of some dread and sudden massacre of the Jews in foreign lands, reminding us that the sword is still drawn out after this unfortunate people. But that is not all. "Jehovah will bring thee, and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation that thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone." Deut. 28:36. In verse 64, the same doom is repeated when they shall be scattered over the earth. The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and the temple of Jerusalem were destroyed the same day. The temple tax of half a shekel paid by every Jew for the maintenance of their temple was after this, used to help rebuild the Roman temple. In vain they refused to pay. They were compelled to lay their offering on the altar of Jove. Not only were they thus obliged to worship the idols of heathen Rome, but papal Rome exacted a greater toll from them, forcing thousands of them to build for her houses of worship, and to supply the money for the adorning and worshiped images; and many of the Jews were compelled to worship these images on pain of death. Thus they worshiped gods, which neither they nor their fathers had known. Still further, "The children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim." Hosea 3:4. As we know, the last king perished in the first century; but a prince of the captivity was honored for centuries. The last prince of the captivity perished on the scaffold in the eleventh century. And they have now been "many days without king, and without prince." They were to be "without sacrifice, and without pillar." The pillar has reference to even the rudest holy place for sacrifice. For eighteen centuries, there has been neither sacrifice nor holy place to Israel an almost unbearable punishment. They were likewise to be "without ephod or teraphim." These were used in the priestly ministrations in the endeavor to learn the mind of God. In the destruction of Jerusalem, the entire priesthood perished. (Milman, "History of the Jews," volume 3, page 414.) The rabbi has taken the place of the priest, and the synagogue has succeeded to the sacred service of the holy temple. The critics, who endeavor to account for these phenomenal forecasts on the supposition of guesswork or accident, are more credulous than the Christians, who believe the obvious fact that the prophecies were inspired - history written in advance. The critics rather elude than elucidate the facts. If men are such good guessers, how does it happen that only in the Bible have we accounts of the successful guesses of men? If Plato, for instance, had accurately forecast the history of Greece for a hundred years, not to say two thousand, how eagerly the unbelievers would have seized upon the fact to exalt Plato! Even as it is, this heathen philosopher is lauded as inspired. But the Bible has foretold the history of all the great nations of the world, not merely for a hundred years, nor for a thousand, but for all time. The historians can add only the details of fulfillment of the prophecies. Puny man, who cannot himself tell what a day will bring forth, calls this guesswork. Such arrogance and willful ignorance stand rebuked before the fact that the men who so confidently exclaim, "Mere guessing!" are themselves unable to predict a single event, not to mention a whole series of them, all contrary to probability- for nothing seemed more improbable than that a nation could be scattered to every nation on earth, hated and killed by them all, yet remain for two thousand years distinct. In pronouncing judgment upon the last king of Israel, Ezekiel also outlined, with a few epic strokes of the pen, the whole history of the world till the second coming of Jesus: "Thus saith the Lord God ; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown : . . . exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." Ezek. 21:26, 27. The crown thus removed from Israel passed successively to Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, Note the historic truth of prediction. Babylon was conquered by Medo-Persia, Medo-Persia by Greece, and Greece by Rome; but concerning Rome, the prophet says, not that it shall be "overturned" by another power, but "it shall be no more," it shall fade away, and there shall be no other universal kingdoms until Jesus, the King of kings, shall come, In the brief space of five hundred years, four universal kingdoms successively bore undisputed sway, as prophecy had said; but in all the two thousand years since the establishment of the universal empire of Rome, there has been no successor to the mighty four. Contrary to all human analogy and reason, four universal empires in five centuries have been followed by twenty centuries in which, instead of sixteen more universal kingdoms, there has been not so much as one set up, despite the desperate attempts of ambitious Napoleons. The history of the Christian era is an almost uncanny commentary upon the words, "It shall be no more, until He come whose right it is." Babylon's golden pomp, Persia's innumerable hosts, Greece's brilliant sway, Rome's invincible might - where are they all? These world powers, which seemed destined to rule forever - where are they? - Vanished into the dim mists of long ago, sunk into the oblivion of dust-covered antiquity. All that is left of their once proud power is a few moldy ruins and a name. As "the flower of the grass" they have perished, and only the ashes of their former greatness remain to attest the eternal truth of the inspired record, and to comfort us with the increasingly evident truth that "surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except He reveal His secret unto His servants the prophets." Amos 3:7. "God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts 3:21. Since we find such unequivocal testimony to the truthfulness and inspiration of Old Testament prophets, let us turn to the New Testament prophets. We should expect at least equal authority for them. Let us pass directly to the greatest of all prophets - Jesus. "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." Acts 3:22, 23. From all who recognize any authority whatever in the Bible, such inevasible testimony commands attention. Let us listen to His words where He explicitly claims the prophetic gift: "Behold, I have told you beforehand." Matt. 24:25. In answer to the disciples' anxious request that He tell them when would be the destruction of Jerusalem, and the sign of His coming and of the end of the world, Jesus told them, in a few graphic sentences of awful significance, the punishment that would befall those who were to utter those historic words, "His blood be on us, and on our children," and the tribulation of the faithful, down the ages to the end of time. Christ said that when Jerusalem was overthrown, not one stone of the temple should remain on another. After the most horrible siege in all history, in which a million Jews perished, Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus in A. D. 70. Later the Jews began to return; and sixty years after the destruction of the city, all the Jews were banished, and the site of the temple was plowed up. (Angus, "Encyclopedic Handbook of the Bible," page 285.) Thus were literally fulfilled not only the Saviour's words, but also Micah's, spoken eight hundred years previously: "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps." Micah 3:12. Then in a few terse sentences, bursting with meaning, Jesus foretold the history of the world from the time when Rome was to "be no more," "for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places." The political history of the world was not, as before, one universal kingdom following another, nor even one kingdom ruling another; but "kingdom against kingdom" was the divine phrase which foretold nineteen hundred years of bloody warfare. In no other instance was so much political history ever embodied in so few words. With awe and amazement we read, on the pages of history, the accounts of a thousand such movements of kingdom against kingdom; and the end is not yet. Nineteen centuries are but one long commentary upon Christ's words. So much for the civil history of the world. Christ next outlined as graphically the religious history of all time: "Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all the nations for My name's sake. And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another." Again let history speak. Have Christians been in tribulation? Let the unanimous reply of historians from Tacitus the heathen to Gibbon the infidel tell us. Have Christians been killed? Let the blood of millions of martyrs testify. Have the nations hated the Christians? Again let the pages of the past bear witness to the universal execration in which they have been held. But saddest of all, besides being hated of nations and killed by hostile powers, have Christians hated and betrayed one another? What infidel does not taunt the Christian with the obvious, infinitely sad fact? What Tom Paine lets slip an opportunity to ridicule, denounce, revile, and hold up to fiendish contempt the Christianity that saturated the soil of Europe with the blood of its professed brothers, in the name of the gentle Jesus? How strangely true, in the light of history, are those mysterious words of Jesus, "I came not to send peace, but a sword." But let not the Christian's faith in Christianity falter and faint when some all too ready skeptic, whether in the church or out, sneers at Christianity because of Christians' betrayal and slaughter of one another; but let him see therein only one more evidence of the exact truthfulness of the Scriptures. Every taunt of the unbeliever against Christianity, based upon the grounds of its bloody past, is an unconscious, unwilling, and therefore valuable testimony to the unaltering fact that the Bible is not only true in its accounts of the past, but minutely accurate in its forecast of all ages. The Christian may well blush at the fierce hatred displayed by his ancestors toward one another; but when mocked with it, he should rejoice that in the very fact of Christianity's greatest shame lies one of the most impregnable proofs of the divine origin of the Christianity that is derided - a proof which even his enemies never tire of thrusting into his face. Instead of blushing and stammering and apologizing, then, let him arouse, and grasp firmly the proof so openly offered by his enemies, of the truth of Christianity, and upon the impregnable rock of the Saviour's fulfilled words build a victorious faith. Let him grasp firmly, gladly, aggressively the weapons thus put into his hands by the enemies of the gospel. Let him rejoice whenever higher critics or infidels pile up books telling of the world's hatred of Christians, of the Christians' hatred of one another; for they are only adding proof upon proof that as Jesus said upon this very occasion, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Thus what the unbeliever in his blindness thinks is a weapon to demolish Christianity and the Bible will prove to be but a boomerang that will in time destroy him and his puny power. That Christ's words shall not pass away He tells us in even more unequivocal language: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come." For hundreds of years, nothing seemed more unlikely than the spreading of the gospel to all nations of the earth. For fourteen hundred years, no headway was made. In fact, ground was lost. Then a new continent, doubling the size of the known world, was discovered, making the prospect of the fulfillment of Christ's prediction recede into the remote future. Well might the skeptic of that day laugh at the simplicity of the Christian who believed Christ's prediction. Yet in God's own good time, a missionary zeal stirred the hearts of His faithful children, and the Reformation was born in a travail of blood. And what do we see now? - The Bible, which was nearly extinct in the Middle Ages, printed by the hundreds of millions in half a thousand languages and dialects, carried and taught by missionaries in every nation under the sun. All the rest of Christ's prophetic forecast has been fulfilled. The next event, according to the divine Word, which "cannot be broken," is the end of the world, and the coming of Christ Himself in the clouds of heaven, to gather His elect, to reward His faithful of all ages. In addition to all of this, archaeology has in late years been pouring an abundance of light upon the past, all proving the divinity of Scripture. As Archibald Sayce, the world's leading archeologist, puts it, "Every turn of the spade has furnished corroborative evidence of the minute truthfulness of Scripture history." The points where archeology has corroborated the Bible would fill a large volume, One instance is all we have space for: In Joshua and Kings are many references that imply the existence of a very powerful Hittite empire north of Palestine. Nowhere in all the world outside of the Bible was there a single reference to this nation. Yet it was represented as equal in power with Egypt. Naturally here was matter for the derision of the higher critics. When they will not believe Bible statements which are supported by abundance of secular evidence, surely we would not look for faith in the unsupported statements of Scripture. So we find them sneering at the Bible account, jeering at those who were simple-minded enough - feeble-minded enough, they called it - to believe that such an empire ever existed. Why, the very fact that the Bible related such a preposterous history of a nation that never existed, was in itself all the proof needed to blast forever the foolish, grandmotherly notion that unsupported statements of the Bible should receive a grain of credence! For hundreds of years, skeptics made merry over the deluded Christians who believed in the former existence of the Hittites. The higher critics copied their arguments, seasoning them with a few eloquent phrases of learned scientific ignorance, and with condescending pity for the abysmal stupidity of the Christian believer. They condescended to show him how "unscientific" it was to believe that a nation so powerful and long-lived as the Bible represented the Hittites to be, could possibly have escaped record in secular history. They demonstrated their position with all the mathematical precision of Euclid; and then, when the Christian still maintained that because the Bible said the nation existed, he would believe it in spite of all their proof, they lost patience, and called him a fool, and other names not altogether conducive to harmony. But now, from both Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions, we learn that the Hittite empire for a thousand years was a great power in Syria and western Asia, and was as extensive and as powerful as either Egypt or Assyria, and its history now fills volumes. It is found to be even stronger and more extensive than the Bible led us to believe. To human reasoning, it seems impossible that so vast and so mighty a nation could exist for ten centuries - seven times as long as the United States - and escape completely all profane record. Yet we know such to be the case. Thus is the Christian's faith in his Bible vindicated where there seemed least likelihood that it could be. The Bible prophecies relate not to things done in a corner, but to the mightiest nations of earth. Alexander Keith, in "Evidence of Prophecy," pages 17, I8, sums up a few of the leading events that have been foretold and fulfilled: "Jerusalem was destroyed and laid waste by the Romans; the land of Palestine, and the surrounding countries, are now thinly inhabited, and, in comparison of their former fertility, have been almost converted into deserts; the Jews have been scattered among the nations; and remain to this day a dispersed and yet a distinct people; Egypt, one of the first and most powerful of nations, has long since ceased to be a kingdom; Nineveh is no more; Babylon is now a ruin; the Persian empire succeeded to the Babylonian; the Grecian empire succeeded to the Persian, and the Roman to the Grecian; the old Roman empire has been divided into several kingdoms; Rome itself became the seat of a government of a different nature from any other that ever existed in the world; the doctrine of the gospel was transformed into a system of spiritual tyranny and of temporal power; the authority of the pope was held supreme in Europe for many ages; the Saracens obtained a sudden and mighty power, overran a great part of Asia and of Europe, and many parts of Christendom suffered much from their incursions; the Arabs maintain their warlike character and retain possession of their own land; the Africans are a humble race, and are still treated as slaves; the Turkish empire attained to great power it continued to rise for the space of several centuries, but it paused in its progress, has since decayed, and now evidently verges to its fall. "These form some of the most prominent and remarkable facts of the history of the world from the ages of the prophets to the present time; and if to each and all of them, from the first to the last, an index is to be found in the prophecies, we may warrantably conclude that they could only have been revealed by the Ruler among the nations, and that they afford more than human testimony of the truth of Christianity." God has so filled earth, sea, sky, and history with the proofs of His word, has buried in the earth for centuries so many wonderful proofs that the Bible is the infallible word of the living God, that only those who are determined not to accept evidence, can remain unconvinced. All through the New Testament are scattered multiplied prophecies, giving many different signs of the imminent second coming of Christ. This is the one great event of prophecy toward which all events trend, to which all prophecies point, for which the church has for ages hoped. "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly." "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
|
