Accuracy of Prophecy (Part 1 of 6)
Prophecy is an integral part of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. It is prophecy that sets the Bible apart from all world religions. Many religious leaders make predictions but none uphold the same standard as the Bible requires. The Bible sets two requirements for a prophet. First, the prophet must be 100% accurate; second, the prophet must draw others to the whole truth of God’s word. In the book of Deuteronomy, God said that if a prophet declares a prediction that fails, he is not to be believed or regarded as a man of God (Deuteronomy 18:22). If a prophet is able to make a prediction that comes true but undermines the Word of God that has already been delivered, he is not of God. The Bible even warns that false prophets will be allowed to rise up in order to test God’s people to see if they are seeking true God or something else (Deuteronomy 13:1-3).
Many false prophets have come and gone. Some are able to use divination to get a vague look into the future and many people are swept away by these prophets. Jeane Dixon boasted that she was 80% accurate. Dixon’s predictions are vague enough to fit many events, so it isn’t hard to see how she gained her accuracy. Michel Nostradamus is praised in the media and has many followers. Nostradamus was a French spiritist in the 1500s. His predictions are so vague that any number of events could fit. I watched a documentary that praised his abilities and then said, “His predictions are worded in such a way that it can be interpreted different ways by different people”. That is a friendly way of saying that his predictions are vague. Here are some examples of his predictions:
The year 1999 seven months.
From the sky will come the great King of Terror.
To resuscitate the great king of the Mongols.
Before and after Mars reigns by good luck.
Nostradamus followers claim that this was John F. Kennedy Jr.’s airplane crash in July of 1999. You may be able to squeeze this into July of 1999, but Kennedy was hardly a great king of terror. He was not a ruler at all. He was the editor-in-chief of George Magazine and had aspirations to run for political office, but he was far from a king and he did not terrorize anyone. He did not resuscitate any kings. This is a failed prophecy. This vague prediction could fit any number of incidents while at the same time fulfilling none.
Here is another example:
From the human flock nine will be sent away,
Separated from judgment and counsel:
Their fate will be sealed on departure
Kappa, Thita, Lambda the banished dead err.
This supposedly was the prediction of the Space Shuttle Challenger’s disaster in 1986. The matches are: 9 will be sent away and their fate sealed on departure. They were not separated because of judgment nor were they banished so the second and last lines are failures. What is the likelihood of 9 people departing and dying in a 440 year period somewhere in the world? If I predicted that 9 sheep would be killed in one slaughter, would I be a prophet if this came true within a 400-year period? There is also a hoax claiming that Nostradamus predicted the World Trade Center bombings. A teen-ager added a couple of details to make one of his predictions sound credible and circulated it on the internet. Hindsight additions don’t count as prophecy.
Even though these predictions are designed to avoid being pinned down with specifics, the Bible makes it clear that Satan has the ability to give mediums some insights. Look at Acts 16
16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation."
18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.
19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.
It was through demonic possession that this girl was able to give divination. However, we know that Satan is limited in his ability to discern the future. Satan and his fallen angels are only able to exist at one place at one time and are bound to the time in which we live. God is outside of time and space. The Bible tells us that God sees the end from the beginning and has planned and ordained all things pertaining to this life for His purposes. Satan is not omnipotent. He cannot see into the future; he can only put two and two together and make a reasonable prediction or use deception. A vague prediction can be shoehorned into an event whereas a specific prophecy cannot. Sometimes Satan can be right, but more often he is wrong or intentionally vague.
It is amazing that the same people who love the psychic’s vague predictions will balk at the Bible’s specific predictions. Only the Bible has the boldness to give times, names and places. However, we know that God limits us to what He has revealed. God did not provide us with a book of predictions. He provides us with prophecies that allow us to know that He is in total control and prophecies encourage us because we can see the end result. When action or alert is necessary on our part, we are given specific flags to watch for. Prophecy in general is meant to be a sign in the road. When we pass it, we will recognize it. When we try to use it to map the road, we will get off course. God does not allow us to predict Him. Instead, He calls us to be watching for Him and recognize the signs He has given. As we go through this study, we will look back at the prophecies that have shown amazing accuracy and we will look ahead to what God has revealed that we should watch for. We will not be predicting the future. To predict the future is unbiblical and impossible. Many seemingly well learned Bible scholars overlook this clear teaching of scripture and predict events which even include the 2nd coming of Christ. Several popular books over the last few decades have given specific dates for the return of Christ. All of these predictions have failed. This does not prove the Bible wrong, it proves it right. Jesus said that only the Father knows the day and hour of the Son’s return. For unknown reasons, many teachers have challenged God on this claim.
Daniel’s Visions
The Image
Daniel’s visions provide a good starting point in our study of prophecy. The first vision in the book of Daniel comes from King Nebuchadnezzar. The account begins by the king having a terrible dream that disturbed him. He called all the astrologers, mystics, sorcerers and other so-called wise men of the land to interpret the dream for him. Because he knew they could fake an interpretation, he put an unreasonable request upon them. He required that they first tell him what he dreamed and then interpret it. If they could not do this, they were fakes and would all be killed. Obviously they could not, so he ordered the execution of every wise man in the kingdom. When they came for Daniel, he was told of Nebuchadnezzar’s demand and accepted the challenge of the king. Daniel went to those who were faithful to God and together they sought God’s mercies. God then revealed the dream to Daniel. Because the dream itself was of God, it was a prophecy which still applies today. Daniel 2 gives the dream:
31 " You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome.
32 "This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,
33 "its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
34 "You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
35 "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
The Bible then explains the meaning of the dream. The image represents the kingdoms of the earth. Babylon, which was already a world empire at the time, was the head of gold. Babylon was the kingdom of splendor by the hand of God. Babylon would fall and then a new, but inferior kingdom would take its place. This is the chest and arms of silver. After this kingdom, another would arise to rule the world represented by the bronze stomach and thighs. The iron kingdom would be stronger and would crush the previous kingdoms. The final world empire will be iron mixed with clay having ten toes. The last world kingdom will be crushed by the Rock who is Jesus Christ. The Rock will become a mountain that fills the whole earth. When Christ returns, the age of rebellion will never return to power. His kingdom will never end. History has validated this prophecy thus far.
Kingdom of Silver
The kingdom of silver had two arms. This represented the Medes and Persians. This began as two kingdoms and was united into one under the leadership of Cyrus. Consider this passage from Isaiah that was written 170 years before Cyrus was born. Isaiah 45:
1 "Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held -- To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut:
2 ’I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron.
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel.
4 For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other;
Babylon was the impenetrable city. It was surrounded by three walls. The highest wall was 300 feet high and 80 feet thick. The moat that surrounded it was over 150 feet wide. The waters that surrounded Babylon and ran through the city was the Euphrates River. Within the city, the river watered gardens that enabled it to grow food and withstand a siege indefinitely. If by some miracle an army should get under the walls where the river flowed, it was barricaded by locked iron and bronze gates. Cyrus was unaware of these precautions, so he diverted the river into the floodplains nearby. He had just enough time to get under the walls before the water would fill the plains and return. Unknown to Cyrus, God promised that He would take Cyrus by the hand and open the gates. Inside Babylon, the current ruler Belshazzar was using Israel’s temple vessels to drink and praise the gods of Babylon as a mockery to the Jewish God. Then a hand appeared and wrote a message that Belshazzar could not read but Daniel interpreted. In Daniel 5, God declared judgment against Belshazzar and stripped away the kingdom and give it to the Medes and Persians. While this judgement was being declared, Cyrus was entering the city and Babylon fell without a battle. In their haste to celebrate the pagan holiday, the guards neglected the gates and left them open. Cyrus went on to unite the Mede and Persian kingdoms into one world empire and fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy and the prophecy about the image being two kingdoms uniting into one precisely.
Of course critics try to late date these prophecies in hopes of discrediting the Bible. Two accusations against the Bible have proven to be false by modern discoveries. The first accusation was that Isaiah was written after this event in order to fabricated this prophecy. The second is that Belshazzar was never king over Babylon. Historical documents of Babylon never listed Belshazzar as being a ruler at all. In the late 1800’s, an interesting discovery shattered these criticisms. A Persian cylinder was discovered that had a historic written account from the Archemean Dynasty. This became known as the Cyrus Stone. This stone called Cyrus the Messenger of God. It revealed that Belshazzar was not the heir of Babylon but was ruling while his father and brother were fighting wars. This is an amazing revelation that fits Daniel exactly. In Daniel 5:16, Belshazzar promised Daniel that he would make him the third ruler over the kingdom. He did not have the right to make Daniel first ruler, nor did he have the right to make Daniel the 2nd in command. The best he could offer was to exalt Daniel to the third in command. The Cyrus Stone also verified that the scroll of Isaiah was brought to Cyrus and he was shown that God had called him by name and commanded him to set the captive Israelites free. Amazed by the prophecy, instead of the traditional practice of inheriting the captives as slaves, Cyrus signed a decree that Israel would be freed.
We have a reliable source that is outside of the Bible which validates two of the most criticized books in the Old Testament.
The belly and thighs of bronze was Alexander the Great. He conquered the civilized world and led the third world empire. All the work of building the Greek Empire was destroyed by the Roman Empire. Rome was the legs of iron. The Romans established the strongest and longest lasting world empire. The Roman Empire was one Empire but soon had two rivaling emperors as indicated by the two legs. The final empire is yet to come. The feet of iron and clay with ten toes is the revived Roman Empire which will have ten rulers submitting to one kingdom. Just as iron and clay do not adhere, this weakened empire will have strength but will unravel very quickly. We will examine the coming empire later in this study.
As we can see, this prophecy has been proven accurate throughout history and current events are proving that the remaining kingdom has also been accurately described. There have been many conquerors and many attempts at world domination, but there have only been 4 world empires. Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin attempted to forge their own empires, but only obtained limited success. God raises up and casts down powers. Ambition and ability will never forge a world empire until God makes the way. Just the fact that the Bible boldly claimed that only 5 empires would arise speaks volumes. The final empire will mark the end. Once the feet of clay has been established, Jesus Himself will destroy it and establish His everlasting kingdom that will not end.
