Article 24
It has been claimed
that 1.6 billion people in the world favor Christianity as their religious
preference. Another 1.1 billion are Moslem. Along with the Jews, these
religions trace their roots back to Abraham who lived around 2000 B.C.
Most of what is known
about Abraham is found in the most widely read national history, that
of the Children of Israel, which, of course, is the Bible. According to
this account, God called Abraham and his father's house out of Ur of the
Chaldees which was part of old Babylonia. Ur was ruled by the moon god
whose name was Sin. Abraham was called out of Babylon and out of sin.
God promised Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would
be blessed. This seed was seen as the Deliverer who would crush the head
of the serpent of Eden, the originator of evil.
When Abraham's wife
failed to conceive, he took his wife's maid who bore Ishmael. Moslems
trace their heritage back to him, who had twelve sons who became princes
and populated Arabia.
Thirteen years after
the birth of Ishmael, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, Abraham's
wife, who was beyond child bearing age, miraculously conceived and Isaac
was born. He became the child of promise for the Jews and for the Christians.
Isaac's wife bore
twins, but the younger, Jacob, tricked the father into giving him the
blessing. Years later when it appeared that Esau was about to exact retribution
on his younger brother for this treachery, Jacob wrestled all night with
an Angel, who was Christ. Although helpless, Jacob held on to the Promise.
His name was changed to Israel, which means "a prince of God",
and he became the one through whom the seed would come. Why? Because he
held on to the Promise. The Old Testament repeats over and over that the
Promised One will come. Israel looked and longed for him.
John the Baptist proclaimed
that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. The people were in great expectation,
musing in their hearts whether he was the Christ.
The disciples were
able to recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the Promised One of Israel "We
have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ."
John 1:41. The "anointed one" is Christ in Greek and Messiah
in Hebrew. .
Christianity is based
on the premise that Jesus of Nazareth was the seed of Abraham that was
to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. The proof offered by
the New Testament writers is not so much that Jesus healed the sick, raised
the dead, or walked on water, but rather that He met and fulfilled the
predictions about the Messiah in the Old Testament. From His birth of
a virgin in Bethlehem to His death on the cross where His hands and feet
were pierced, and events in between, He
met and fulfilled the prophetic predictions recorded in the Bible. Jesus
said that the Scriptures testified of Him. He is the embodiment of every
figure, the substance of every shadow in the law and the prophets.
The Bible predicted
the future and that future was Jesus. Belief in Christianity is also a
belief in the Bible's ability to predict the future.
"Remember the
former things of old: for I am God and there is none else; I am God, and
there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, `My counsel shall
stand and I will do all my pleasure'." "Behold the former things
are come to pass and new things do I declare: before they spring forth
I tell you of them." Isaiah 46:9-10; 42:9.
Christianity's foundation
was built upon the belief that the Bible predicted the future... and that
future was Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. From Christ's day unto the very
present time, the word Messiah is the choice term used to identify the
Promised One who would deliver God's people.
Surprisedly, the word
Messiah is found only in one place in the Old Testament and that is in
the Book of Daniel. It is a surprise that it is found only once, and it
is a surprise that the one place is the Book of Daniel. Why?
"Modern critical
scholarship is practically unanimous in its rejection of the book as a
6th century document written by Daniel..." The Illustrated Bible
Dictionary; Tyndale House Publishers. See Enclosure.
Why do critics reject
the book as written when it claims to have been written, about 500 B.C.?
"...because it
contains prophecies of post-Babylonian kings and wars which supposedly
become increasingly accurate as they approach..." 165 B.C., when
critics claim it was written. (Ibid.)
In other words, the
claim in Isaiah that God can predict the future is rejected by critics
for the Book of Daniel for the very reason that it predicts the future
too accurately.
Not only does the
Book of Daniel predict future post-Babylon kings, but it predicts the
very year the King of Kings, the Jewish Messiah, would began His ministry.
"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
three score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall,
even in troublous times," Daniel 9:25.
After the fall of
Babylon to the Medo-Persians in 538 B.C., three decrees were issued for
the Hebrews to return to their homeland. The first two, by Cyrus in 536
B.C. and by Darius in 519 B.C., were to rebuild the Temple. The third
decree by Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. was to rebuild Jerusalem. Ezra 1-7.
Using a year for each prophetic day (Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6), the
69 weeks of years or 483 years began in 457 B.C. and, picking up a year
crossing from B.C. to A.D., end in 27 A.D., the very year Jesus began
his ministry. See inclosure for details.
So the Book of Daniel
utilizes the claim of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He can
declare the end from the beginning by giving the exact year the Messiah
would begin his ministry in the greatest time prophecy in the Bible.
Whatever criticism
that may be raised against this method of prophetic interpretation, the
fact remains that it works. It works. It works.
Even if Daniel was
not written until around 165 B.C., as most critics claim, the book predicts
the year the Messiah would come two hundred years beforehand. Now, if
the book can predict the future two hundred years ahead of time, why couldn't
it do it 500 years ahead?
Tyndale's Bible Dictionary
rejects the later dating by most critics and gives four scholarly reasons
why. See Enclosure.
Besides these four
reasons, it must be added that Jesus Himself not only quoted from Daniel,
but called him a prophet and said whoever reads this in Daniel let him
understand. Also, when Jesus mentions the great tribulation, he is quoting
from Daniel 12:1 (Matthew 24:15, 21 and Luke 21:20).
Predicting the future
is not within man's natural abilities. Predicting the future is a supernatural
ability. Christianity is based upon a supernatural Being. One who can
declare the end from the beginning. Although scholars may acknowledge
the existence of a supernatural Being, most are reluctant to acknowledge
that the supernatural Being performed supernatural acts on this earth,
i.e. virgin birth, resurrection, etc.
We need scholars.
They help us understand the ancient languages, the ancient history and
archeology. Unfortunately, they are not very effective at conveying the
supernatural nature of the Bible.
In speaking of Jesus,
the record states that the common people heard him gladly. He was opposed
by the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the scribes and the doctors of the law.
They were the educated elite. His most scathing rebukes were directed
at them.
"In the last
days there shall come scoffers." II Peter 3:3. Prior to Darwin most
scholars were believers. Today academia is filled with skeptics. The counter-parts
of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arminathaea are few and far between.
Jesus gave the signs of His second coming, but what good are these for
those who doubt the Bible's ability to declare the end from the beginning?
Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Inter-Varsity Press); Tyndale House Publishers
