People of the World                                                                               Dr.Robert C. Newman

Cherrydale Baptist Church                                                      BiblicalTheological Seminary

                                                                                                                   Hatfield,Pennsylvania

 

                                               THERELIABILITY OF THE BIBLE:

                                                        FULFILLEDPROPHECY

 

God's Challenge to Other Religions: Isa 46:1-11

 

1 Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over;Their images are {con­signed} to the beasts and the cattle. The things thatyou carry are burdensome, A load for the weary {beast.} 2 They stooped over,they have bowed down together; They could not rescue the burden, But havethemselves gone into captivity. 3  "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the houseof Israel, You who have been borne by Me from birth, And have been carried fromthe womb; 4 Even to your old age, I shall be the same, And even to your grayingyears I shall bear {you!} I have done {it,} and I shall carry {you;} And Ishall bear {you,} and I shall deliver {you.} 5 "To whom would you likenMe, And make Me equal and compare Me, That we should be alike? 6 "Thosewho lavish gold from the purse And weigh silver on the scale Hire a goldsmith,and he makes it {into} a god; They bow down, indeed they worship it. 7"They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it; They set it in its place andit stands {there.} It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it,it cannot answer; It cannot deliver him from his distress. 8 "Rememberthis, and be as­sured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. 9"Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is noother; {I am} God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from thebeginning And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'Mypurpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure'; 11Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country.Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned {it, surely}I will do it.

 

Some Examples of Fulfilled Prophecy:

 

1. Time of Messiah: Dan 9:24‑26

 

24 "Seventy weeks have been decreed foryour people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end ofsin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteous­ness,to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy {place.} 25"So you are to know and discern {that} from the issuing of a decree torestore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince {there will be} sevenweeks and sixty‑two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat,even in times of distress. 26 "Then after the sixty‑two weeks theMessiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who isto come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end {will come} with aflood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.

 

--Starting point 445 BC: 20 year of Artaxerxes1 (Neh 2)

--Unit of measurement: sabbatical cycle: 7 yrsbeginning in Oct

--Standard Jewish counting method: includestart & end units

--After 62 weeks = AD 28‑35; Jesus is cutoff in this period!

 

2. IsraelŐs Future: Hos 3:4‑5

 

4 For the sons of Israel will remain for manydays without king or prince, without sacrifice or {sacred} pillar, and withoutephod or household idols. 5 Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seekthe \Lord\ their God and David their king; and they will come trem­bling tothe \Lord\ and to His goodness in the last days.

 

--Six unusualsociological features characterizing Israel for almost 2000 yrs

--King/prince: noking since 587 BC or AD 44; no prince from AD 70 to 1948

--Sacrifice/sacredpillar: no sacrifice since 70; app no pillar since c 500 BC

--Ephod/teraphim: nopriesthood since 70, no idols since c 500 BC

 

3. Twin Cities: serve as control; can we switch them?

 

Memphis/Thebes (Ezk30:13; 14‑16)

            destroyidols of Memphis vs cut off hordes of Thebes

            usedas quarry for Cairo vs reduced to small villages

Tyre/Sidon (Ezk 26:3‑14;28:22‑23)

            throwrubble into sea, place to spread fishnets, never

            rebuiltvs war & disaster w/o statement re/ abandoning

            Tyreabandoned today vs Sidon still major port

Babylon/Nineveh (Isa 13:20‑22, Jer 51:26;Zeph 2:13‑15)

            Babylon:deserted, no Arabs or shepherds, wild animals, no rock taken for stone vsNineveh: desolate, sheep graz­ing

            Bavoided by Arabs, soil too poor for grass, natives take bricks but burn stonefor lime

            Ninevehlong abandoned, now in suburbs of Mosul; larg­est mound, Quyunyiq, means"many sheep"

Capernaum/Nazareth (Mt 11:20‑24; Lk 4:14‑30)

            Capto be destroyed for not repenting at Jesus' miracles

            Naz:nothing of sort, tho they tried to kill Jesus

            TodayCap abandoned, recently excavated; Naz prosperous city, much larger than in NTtimes

 


4. Light to the Gentiles: Isa 42:6; 49:6

 

ISA 42:5-9 Thus says God the \Lord\, Whocreated the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and itsoffspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walkin it, 6 "I am the \Lord\, I have called you in righteous­ness, I willalso hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as acovenant to the people, As a light to the nations, 7 To open blind eyes, Tobring out prisoners from the dungeon, And those who dwell in darkness from theprison. 8 "I am the \Lord\, that is My name; I will not give My glory toanother, Nor My praise to graven images. 9 "Behold, the former things havecome to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim{them} to you."

 

ISA 49:1-7 Listen to Me, O islands, And payattention, you peoples from afar. The \Lord\ called Me from the womb; From thebody of My mother He named Me. 2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me, And He has also made Me a selectarrow; He has hidden Me in His quiver. 3 And He said to Me, "You are MyServant, Israel, In Whom I will show My glory." 4 But I said, "I havetoiled in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity; Yet surely thejustice {due} to Me is with the \Lord\, And My reward with My God." 5 Andnow says the \Lord\, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bringJacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I amhonored in the sight of the \Lord\, And My God is My strength), 6 He says,"It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up thetribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also makeYou a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of theearth." 7 Thus says the \Lord\, the Redeem­er of Israel, {and} itsHoly One, To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To theServant of rulers, "Kings shall see and arise, Princes shall also bowdown; Because of the \Lord\ who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who haschosen You."

 

--What other JewishMessianic claimant has started a world reli­gion of Gentiles?

--On top of that, heis rejected by Israel (49:7), and is cut off at the time predicted (Dan 9:26)

 

For Further Reading:

 

Barfield,Kenny.  The Prophet Motive:  Examining the Reli­ability of theBiblical Proph­ets.  Nashville, TN:  Gospel Advocate, 1995.  The most detailed presentation to dateof fulfilled prophecy in Scripture as evidence for the truth of Chris­tianity.

Montgomery, JohnWarwick, ed.  Evidence forFaith:  Deciding the God Question. Dallas, TX:  Probe/Word,1991.  A general presentation ofChristian evidences which includes several chapters on fulfilled prophecy.

Newman, Robert C.,ed.  The Evidence ofProphecy:  Fulfilled Prediction asa Testimo­ny to the Truth of Christianity.  Hatfield, PA:  Interdisciplinary Biblical ResearchInsti­tute, 1988.  Detaileddiscussions of several fulfilled predictions concerning nations of the ancientnear east, Israel, and the Messiah.

Payne, J.Barton.  The Encyclopedia ofBiblical Prophecy.  New York:  Harper and Row, 1973. A compendium of all prophetic passages in the Bible, suggesting how andwhen each was or will be fulfilled.