Fulfilled prophecy is one of the greatest evidences that the Bible is the word of God.
For example, it is clear that today the Babylonian world empire is no more. Babylon, the city, has been desolate for centuries. It has only been resurrected today by archaeologists.
Isaiah 13 talks about the fall of Babylon.
This would not be significant if it were merely recorded history, but Isaiah is not writing about something that in his day had already happened. He is writing about something that will happen in the future from that time.
Then again, that is not even what makes prophecies in the Bible unique. Every social commentator and futurist have ideas about what the future will hold. Some of them get it right, most of them don’t. All of them are vague.
Their ideas are always connected in some way to breakthroughs and changes happening in the present.
When Isaiah prophesied about Babylon’s destruction and fall he did so before the Babylonian empire ruled the world. The world power at the time was the Assyrians. The Assyrian empire was at its peak. In other words, Babylon was not what was in the news, or holding the reigns of world power.
For Babylon to fall it must first have to rise as a world empire. For it to rise the Assyrian empire would have to fall.
Can you imagine someone describing the fall of a world empire that will follow the existing world empire? That would be pretty audacious.
There have been many people predict the fall of the present powers that be, but who predicts the next power to be and their fall? This is the confidence of the Biblical prophets with the foresight of God.
The prophecies do not stop there.
Just speaking about the rise and fall of an empire may be an amazing prognostication, but what if the name of the power that would destroy the not yet world power was given?
“I will stir up the Medes against them” – Isaiah 13:17
The Medes were not a threat to Assyria or the weaker Babylon at the time Isaiah wrote this. They did not even have a king at the time. This would be like saying Rhode Island will overthrow the American empire with their king. What king? Rhode Island has no king, and they are no threat to anyone.
You say, “Well, perhaps he threw a dart at the world map and got lucky?”
What if he prophesied the name of the king that would conquer the Babylonians?
“Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him” – Isaiah 45:1
Cyrus was the ruler that would be responsible for the invasion of Babylon and the deliverance of the Jews from that captivity. This prophecy was written before Cyrus was born. This is historically accurate.
Prophecies in Isaiah and Jeremiah describe:
- The name of the future world powers to be
- The name of the rising power that would overrun them
- The name of their ruler at the time
- The year when this would occur
- The strategy their military will use to seize the city
All of this was prophesied more than a century prior to the events that are now recorded history.
Most people do not know prophecies exist with this amount of detail and foresight.
The only explanation that faithless skeptics have for this sort of amazing prophecy is to say that the so-called authors of the bible cheated and wrote it after the events.
There is zero evidence for this, but they are forced to say so because the only alternative is that these prophecies are undeniable proof that God spoke through these men of old.
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” – 2 Peter 1:20-21
Let God be true, and every man a liar.
Article Index Published: July 25, 2020
Last Modified: August 2, 2024