Biblical Prophecy - the unfailing proof of Gods authorship

[Pegg]

Its often said that belief in the bible is purely by 'faith' without any 'evidence'. Well i dont believe that is true at all. There is a line of evidence available which gives convincing proof of the bibles divine authorship.

Prophecy is an inspired message; a revelation of Gods will and purpose or a declaration of something to come, it can also have extended meanings such as an inspired moral teaching, divine commands or his judgments. In this thread I will only be providing a few outstanding revelatory prophecies... If there are any specific ones that i dont mention, feel free to bring them up for discussion.


The bible has literally hundreds of prophecies which have been fulfilled to their most minutest detail. These prophecies give us firm 'evidence' that they have come from a higher power and offer convincing proof that the bible is so much more then just a book written by a group of men who lived over a 1600 year time span.


I'll start with the Babylonian Exile prophecy of Isaiah. My fav tv show is about to start so i'll just post this one, and come back after for a few more.

'Is the bible Gods word or Mans' Chapter 9 - published by the WT society
The Exile in Babylon
2 Hezekiah was king in Jerusalem for about 30 years. In 740 B.C.E. he witnessed the destruction of his northern neighbor Israel at the hands of Assyria. In 732 B.C.E. he experienced God’s saving power, when the Assyrian attempt to conquer Jerusalem had failed, with catastrophic results to the invader.—Isaiah 37:33-38.

3 Now, Hezekiah is receiving a delegation from Merodach-baladan, king of Babylon. On the surface, the ambassadors are there to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery from a severe illness. Likely, though, Merodach-baladan sees Hezekiah as a possible ally against the world power of Assyria. Hezekiah does nothing to dispel such an idea when he shows the visiting Babylonians all the wealth of his house and dominion. Perhaps he, too, wants allies against a possible return of the Assyrians.—Isaiah 39:1, 2.

4 Isaiah is the outstanding prophet of that time, and he quickly discerns Hezekiah’s indiscretion. He knows that Hezekiah’s surest defense is Jehovah, not Babylon, and tells him that his act of showing the Babylonians his wealth will lead to tragedy. “Days are coming,” says Isaiah, “and all that is in your own house and that your forefathers have stored up down to this day will actually be carried to Babylon.” Jehovah decreed: “Nothing will be left.”—Isaiah 39:5, 6.

5 Back in the eighth century B.C.E., it may have seemed unlikely for that prophecy to be fulfilled. One hundred years later, however, the situation changed. Babylon replaced Assyria as the dominant world power, while Judah became so degraded, religiously speaking, that God withdrew his blessing. Now, another prophet, Jeremiah, was inspired to repeat Isaiah’s warning. Jeremiah proclaimed: “I will bring [the Babylonians] against this land and against its inhabitants . . . And all this land must become a devastated place, an object of astonishment, and these nations will have to serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”—Jeremiah 25:9, 11.

6 About four years after Jeremiah uttered that prophecy, the Babylonians made Judah part of their empire. Three years after that, they took some Jewish captives, along with some of the wealth of the temple at Jerusalem, to Babylon. Eight years later, Judah revolted and was again invaded by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. This time, the city and its temple were destroyed. All its wealth, and the Jews themselves, were carried off to distant Babylon, just as Isaiah and Jeremiah had foretold.—2 Chronicles 36:6, 7, 12, 13, 17-21.

7 The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land notes that when the Babylonian onslaught was over, “the destruction of the city [Jerusalem] was a total one.”1 Archaeologist W. F. Albright states: “Excavation and surface exploration in Judah have proved that the towns of Judah were not only completely destroyed by the Chaldeans in their two invasions, but were not reoccupied for generations—often never again in history.”2 Thus, archaeology confirms the shocking fulfillment of this prophecy.


I'll post some more after V.

 

[Pegg]

The destruction Babylon is another remarkable prophecy from the prophet Isaiah. When Babylon was the world power, Isaiah fortold its destruction at the hands of the Media/Persian empire...an empire that was not an empire at the time. It was the 8th century BCE when Isaiah wrote: 17 “Here I am arousing against them the Medes, who account silver itself as nothing and who, as respects gold, take no delight in it. 18 And [their] bows will dash even young men to pieces. And the fruitage of the belly they will not pity; for sons their eye will not feel sorry. 19 And Babylon, the decoration of kingdoms, the beauty of the pride of the Chal‧de′ans, must become as when God overthrew Sod′om and Go‧mor′rah. 20 She will never be inhabited, nor will she reside for generation after generation. And there the Arab will not pitch his tent, and no shepherds will let [their flocks] lie down there.—Isaiah 13:17-20.


It was further stated by the prophet Jeremiah that the protective mote surrounding the city would be dried up and the city would fall without any major battle taking place: Jeremiah 50:35; 51:30. "There is a sword against the Chal‧de′ans,” is the utterance of Jehovah, ...There is a sword against her treasures, and they will actually be plundered. 38 There is a devastation upon her waters, and they must be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and because of [their] frightful visions they keep acting crazy.”

In 539 BCE Babylon was attacked by the Mede's and Persians. They faced the mote and the river Euphrates which protected the city but they were ingenius in how they got through the waters. The event was described by Herodotus
“He placed a portion of his army at the point where the river enters the city, and another body at the back of the place where it issues forth, with orders to march into the town by the bed of the stream, as soon as the water became shallow enough . . . He turned the Euphrates by a canal into the basin [an artificial lake dug by a previous ruler of Babylon], which was then a marsh, on which the river sank to such an extent that the natural bed of the stream became fordable. Hereupon the Persians who had been left for the purpose at Babylon by the river-side, entered the stream, which had now sunk so as to reach about midway up a man’s thigh, and thus got into the town.”

Just as fortold, there was ‘a devastation upon her waters, and they were dried up.’ And to back up the prophecy further the Nabonidus Chronicle, an official cuneiform inscription, says that Cyrus’ troops entered Babylon “without battle,” The reason was likely because all of Babylons mighty men were feasting in one of the great halls on the night they were attacked.

 

[Pegg]

it was the prophet Daniel in the 6th century BCE who prophesied the rise and fall of the world powers from his day right into our day. It began with Babylon and ends with the UN.
Daniel sees the rise of Alexander the Great...and then sees how the empire falls.
he says: “The ram that you saw possessing the two horns stands for the kings of Media and Persia. And the hairy he-goat stands for the king of Greece; and as for the great horn that was between its eyes, it stands for the first king. And that one having been broken, so that there were four that finally stood up instead of it, there are four kingdoms from his nation that will stand up, but not with his power.”

When Daniel wrote this prophecy, he was in captivity in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar...Babylon was still the world power at the time, but some 200 years later, Cyrus the Great invaded Babylon and overthrew them. From this point the Perisan/Mede empire (a dual empire) became the world power but was later toppled by the Greeks under Alexander the Great. He proved to be the “the great horn” on the hairy he-goat as the angel revealed. When Alexander died, his 4 generals each took a section of his empire and it broke into 4 parts or 'kingdoms' but none of them ever became a world power as strong as Greece was under Alexander.

 

[Pegg]

Daniel also prophesied about the rise and fall of the Roman empire.

Daniel 7:7 7 “After this I kept on beholding in the visions of the night, and, see there! a fourth beast, fearsome and terrible and unusually strong. And it had teeth of iron, big ones. It was devouring and crushing, and what was left it was treading down with its feet. And it was something different from all the [other] beasts that were prior to it, and it had ten horns...
23 “This is what he said, ‘As for the fourth beast, there is a fourth kingdom that will come to be on the earth, that will be different from all the [other] kingdoms; and it will devour all the earth and will trample it down and crush it. 24 And as for the ten horns, out of that kingdom there are ten kings that will rise up; and still another one will rise up after them, and he himself will be different from the first ones, and three kings he will humiliate

Rome was different to all that went before it because it started as a republic and finished as a monarchy. It lasted longer then any other empire, controlled far more territory and it was not created by conquering other nations like other empires did.
Rome was also never replaced or 'usurped' by any other empire...it disintegrated into a number of smaller kingdoms instead. This is how the 'ten kings that will rise up' was fulfilled. The kingdom that eventually rose up to humilate 3 of the kings was the Britsh Empire. It defeated three rivals - Spain, France, and the Netherlands and thus became a modern world power.

 

[Pegg]

Daniel also prophesied the year of the arrival of the Messiah.
Its known as the “Seventy weeks" prophecy found at Daniel 9:24

“From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem until [the coming of] the anointed one, a prince, shall be seven weeks [of years], and sixty-two weeks [of years].” Daniel 9:25

Without providing all the details, the year that the command to restore Jerusalem went out in the year 455 BCE...this was at the word of Artaxerxes who gave permission for the captive jews to return and rebuild jerusalem after it was destroyed by Babylon in 607bce. (Nehemiah 2:1-9)

So the calculation is this:
7 weeks of years = 7 x 7 = 49yrs
62 weeks of years= 7 x 62 = 434yrs
total years till appearance of Messiah = 483 yrs from the time of the 'word going forth' to rebuild jerusalem.

455bce - 483 yrs = 29 CE

This was the year that Jesus began his ministry.

 

[Pegg]

bump for Android

 

[Android]

This is your "proof" that the bible is true?
These "proficies" sound pretty damn vague to me. Some clever interpretations could make them applicable to just about anything.
Reminds me of John edwards or other such cold reading charletons.

I'm sorry, but they would have to be a lot more specific to carry any weight with me.

 

[IsmailaGodHasHeard]

This is your "proof" that the bible is true?
These "proficies" sound pretty damn vague to me. Some clever interpretations could make them applicable to just about anything.
Reminds me of John edwards or other such cold reading charletons.

I'm sorry, but they would have to be a lot more specific to carry any weight with me.

You are being very rude. There is no need to swear or make fun of this person at all.

 

[IsmailaGodHasHeard]

I agree. Bible prophecy is proof of God.