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The Evidence of the Accuracy of Bible Prophecy

 

The Evidence of Prophecy

Another of the Bible’s most breath-taking claims is that it has power to read the future.

Isaiah 46:9-10: “Declaring the end from the beginning.”

2 Peter 1:19: “A more sure word of prophecy.”

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Amos 3:7: “God reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.”

John 14:19: “I have told you before it come to pass.”

This is an audacious, dramatic claim, and obviously, at this point, the Bible “burns all its bridges” behind it. There is no “backing out” from a claim as emphatic and final as this. At this point, the Bible openly submits itself to a practical, historical test. If it prophecies come true, its claims to super-human authorship are thereby vindicated. If its prophecies fail to come true, the Bible’s claims to Divine Inspiration are thereby demolished. It is as simple as that.

From the many fulfilled prophecies, we will select four outstanding prophecies, to whose exact fulfillment History gives a decisive witness.

 

THE UTTER DESOLATION OF ANCIENT BABYLON

Over one hundred details are included in the many Bible passages which foretold the doom of Babylon, whose empire rose to the height of its glory about 600 B.C. One of the most magnificent cities of antiquity, Babylon appeared to have “everything going for it.” It was built astride the Euphrates river, in the fabulously fertile Mesopotamia plain. It boasted a population of over a million people. It was surrounded by a vast and ingenious system of irrigation canals – providing an apparently inexhaustible food supply. Its legendary “Hanging Gardens” were one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Four-horse chariots could pass abreast along the tops of its massive walls. Its ponderous gates were the pride of its inhabitants, and the astonishment of its enemies.

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If ever a city seemed impregnable and indestructible, it was Babylon. Yet God’s prophet, Isaiah, who lived about 200 years before Babylon’s downfall, predicted its irreparable and final doom. “Babylon,” he wrote, “shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah!” (Isaiah 13:19)

Other prophecies filled out the picture of total and irreversible desolation:

Isaiah 13:20: “It shall never be inhabited.” (Repeated in Jeremiah 50:13, 39).

Isaiah 47:1, 5, 7: “Come down, thou lady of kingdoms, and sit in the dust!”

Jeremiah 51:26, 62: “Thou shalt be desolate forever.”

Jeremiah 51:63-64: “Babylon shall sink, and not rise.”

Jeremiah 50:13: “It shall be wholly desolate.”

Not one of these prophetic specifications has failed in its fulfillment. H. V. Moreton, well known English author, is just one of a multitude of modern travelers who have visited the ruins of ancient Babylon, and marveled at the uncanny accuracy of the Biblical prophecies:

“The ruins are sixty miles south of Baghdad,” writes Moreton, in his book, “Middle East,” and the journey takes three to four hours. The road begins well enough, but soon becomes rough and uneven. I knew we were drawing near when we crossed a single railway track running over the sand, and I saw a notice-board bearing, in English and Arabic, the words: Babylon Halt’….

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“The flat country stretches to the sky, featureless, bare, and arid, except to the west, where the Euphrates flows in a narrow belt of palm-trees. You see no river, but you see this line of foliage running for miles, like a green snake on the sand. Even the ‘waters of Babylon’ have deserted the city, for in ancient times the river ran along the west side of the Kasr, bringing with it the happy sound of water and the scent of flowers. As if obeying a command that no touch of life shall remain anywhere near Babylon, the Euphrates has carved a new channel for itself and has departed, taking all life with it….

“As we wandered over the lonely mounds, silent except for the hum of the wild bee and the hornet, I thought how literally Isaiah’s prophecy of the fall of Babylon has been fulfilled. It is, indeed, overthrown as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” (pp. 173-184)

 

THE HUMILIATION AND DECAY OF ANCIENT EGYPT

One of the most glamorous and romantic names in all history is that of “EGYPT.” No piece of real-estate on earth is invested with more excitement, mystery, or magic. Land of the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Nile; home of the arts from distant antiquity; unequalled in luxury and magnificence. Egypt has continued throughout the ages as a realm of deathless wonder. But the foundation of her ancient greatness was not her military might – it was the inexhaustible wealth of her soil. ‘The Gift of the Nile,” and “The Granary of the World,” Egypt became the symbol of limitless abundance and enviable prosperity. Fat-belled grain-ships carried Egyptian wheat and barley to all the nations of the Mediterranean sea-board. Papyrus reeds – raw materials of ancient paper – grew in abundance in the marshes of the Nile, and the “papyrus-scroll,” an Egyptian invention, became one of its principal exports to the surrounding nations.

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Also, in terms of natural defenses, the Egyptians were uniquely favored. On the South, they were protected by the Cataracts of the Nile; on the East and West by the sands of the desert, and on the North by the sea. Both militarily and economically they seemed invincible. Nevertheless, a succession of bitter humiliations brought this once-proud nation down to the dust, so that today’s Egypt is a pallid and anemic shadow of its former magnificence.

With uncanny per-vision, the Bible prophets foretold Egypt’s descent from majesty to mediocrity. Two major characteristics mark these prophecies:

1.       DECLINE, to the point of virtual non-entity, yet (2)

2.       SURVIVAL – a stubborn clinging to the tattered remnants of national existence – even at radically-reduced status! Whereas Babylon and Assyria would be destroyed utterly and sink into oblivion, Egypt would persist as a nation – though in age-long humiliation and weakness. From these prophecies we select the following significant details.

Ezekiel 30:14-16. Two of its proudest cities. Thebes (the Biblical “No”) – the ancient capital of Egypt – and Memphis (the Biblical “Noph”), would be brought to ruin.

Ezekiel 36:6, 18. “The pride of her power shall come down …. The pomp of her strength shall cease.”

Isaiah 19:7, 9. “The paper(papyrus) reeds shall wither and be no more …. They that work in flax

(linen) shall be confounded.”

 Two staple industries – built up over two millenniums of history – would collapse. (Note: One recent visitor to Egypt (1985) testifies that the papyrus reed has virtually disappeared. In a long journey up the Nile, he saw scarcely a trace of the legendary plant. Apart from a few small plots of cultivated papyrus – used for the manufacture of inscribed souvenirs for tourists – he saw no more papyrus in Egypt than can be found in many botanical gardens around the world!)

Ezekiel 30:13. “No more a prince in the land of Egypt.”

Not only has Egypt’s original monarchy vanished without leaving a trace, but, since the final, decisive conquests by Persia in 341 B.C. no native prince or ruler has arisen possessing power that even approaches the power of the ancient Pharaohs.

 Ezekiel 30:12. “I will make the land waste by “the hand of strangers.” Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine Greeks, Saracens, Turks, French and English have been among the long succession of “strangers” who have pillaged or ruled Egypt during the past 2,500 years. Although today (1986) Egypt achieved political independence, it is not as a monarchy with a line of hereditary native rulers, but as a republic.

Ezekiel 29:14, 15. “A base kingdom …. The basest (lowliest) of kingdoms .... They shall no more rule over the nations.”

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Once the luxurious and fabled home of the Pharaohs, modern Egypt has become a vast open-air museum; a dusty, sweaty show-case for the whole world; a gazing-stock for the curious of all nations. No longer a world-power – or even a great power – its best-known industry is “Tourism,” and its chief claim to international recognition consists of its ponderous, time-worn tombs and monuments – mute relics of its long-departed glory!

Take away this fabulous wealth of unique antiquarian treasures, and what significant role would modern Egypt play in world affairs?

 

THE DELAYED JUDGMENT OF ANCIENT TYRE

In the sixth century B.C., Tyre, the proud Phoenician merchant-city, was one of the wealthiest and most powerful sea-ports in the world. (For a description of Tyre’s prosperity and grandeur see Ezekiel 27:1-25; Isaiah 23:3, 8, 11).

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Situated in a strong-fortified and strategic position, a few miles north of Palestine on the Syrian coast, Tyre was the “London of the East,” the “Mistress of the Seas,” and the commercial centre of the ancient world. The nearby forests of Lebanon furnished her with excellent building timber for her galleys. Ships from all nations anchored in her harbors, and she wielded an immense influence throughout Palestine, Asia Minor,, and the entire Mediterranean with her trading stations. “Tyrian purple” – the dye used for the robes of kings and nobles – was a household-word in those days. For our modern alphabet we are largely indebted to the Phonecian merchants. The alphabet, it has been well said, was their chief export. The Phoenicians were missionaries of culture. It was their function not to create civilization, but to spread it.

Tyre flourished for three thousand years. In the time of Joshua, it was a “strong city”. In the days of Solomon, it was one of the wonder-cities of the world. But because of its pride, avarice, and wickedness, the Lord foretold Tyre’s sure destruction. Ezekiel 26:1-21 contains a marvelously-detailed prophecy of the downfall of Tyre:

(verse 3) Many nations would have a part of her destruction.

(verse 7) Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is expressly named.

(verse 9) Engines of war would break down her towers.

(verse 12) Her stones and timber would be buried in the sea.

(verse 4, 14) Even her dust would be scraped up. Her site would be made bare as the top of a rock.

(verse 5, 14) She would become a place for the spreading of fishermen’s nets.

(verse 19, 20) Never to be inhabited again.

(verse 14) “THOUGH SHALT BE BUILT NO MORE.”

The fact that spoilers of “many nations” would be involved suggests that this is a multiple prediction – containing allusions to several sieges. History shows that the prophecy was fulfilled in two main stages:

First, by Nebuchadnezzar, of Babylon, and later – 250 years later – by Alexander the Great, of Greece.

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After a long and exhausting siege lasting thirteen years, Nebuchadnezzar captured and destroyed the City. However, no great spoil fell into his hands, for the rulers of Tyre had transported their riches to an island about half a mile out in the sea. Frustrated – and probably disgusted – Nebuchadnezzar made no attempt to throw Tyre’s ruins into the sea, or to scrape up her dust! (See Ezekiel 29:18-20)

So, for the next 250 years, the ruins of mainland Tyre stood – an enduring challenge to the accuracy of God’s prophetic Word. Meanwhile, a flourishing new city grew up on the island, half a mile from the shore. Then Alexander the Great, with his invincible Greek legions, swept southward on his campaign into Egypt, in 322 B.C. He called upon the island-city to surrender. She refused, and Alexander promptly ordered his soldiers to take the ruins of the original, mainland Tyre and with them build a cause-way, 200 feet wide, from the mainland to the island-city. So urgent was the demand for materials, that the very dust of the old city was scraped up and dumped into the sea!”

Alexander then marched his legions over the solid roadway; captured the island city, and left in half-burned, ruined, and almost depopulated. The island Tyre is now a peninsula, made by the drifting of sand against the causeway. But every vestige of the great mainland city, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and cast into the sea by Alexander, has disappeared.

“THOU SHALT BE BUILT NO MORE!” said God, and these daring, forthright, final words stand as an abiding challenge to the enemies of the Bible. In spite of the natural advantages of an abundant water-supply (the nearby springs of Ras-el-Ain pour out 10,000,000 gallon of water daily), and the fertile plains stretching away to the mountains, Tyre has never been rebuilt.

 

THE AGE-LONG CRUCIFIXION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

The Jewish race is at once a prodigy and a tragedy. A prodigy – because it has survived the battering of thousands of years, while its most powerful foes have dropped into oblivion. A tragedy – because its footprints through history have been stained perpetually with its own blood.

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The plundered pyramids of Egypt lift their stony summits to the stars, and the Nile whispers of false gods forgotten – but the Jew remains. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are a tumbled ruin – but the Jew remains. The palaces of the Roman Caesars lie gaunt and desolate – but the Jew remains. And yet – in every generation, and in every land – the Jew has been feared, and hated, despised and persecuted.

Wherein lies the key to this baffling historical enigma?

In the writings of Moses, God clearly foretold the turbulent political and religious history of the Jewish people, for over three thousand years ahead from 1400 B.C. to the present. But these prophecies contain one totally unexpected and uncanny ingredient. The fate of the Jews would not be like the overwhelming desolation of Babylon. It would not be like the piecemeal humiliation and destruction of Tyre. Nor would it be like the slicing up of Rome’s empire among a group of lesser nations. (Daniel 2:40-43) The future of the Jews was to be more like an agonizing death-in-life – an age-long crucifixion!

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Both Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 contain detailed forecasts of the appalling consequences of turning away from God. By disease; by drought; by famine; by pestilence, an outraged nature would turn upon the disobedient Jews. By siege; by starvation; by conquest, by captivity, the human enemies of the Jews would join in the grim debauch of humiliation and degradation. In days of siege, the chosen people would turn cannibal, and eat their own children. In days of captivity, their sons and daughters would be sold into slavery. They would be scattered among nations. They would become an astonishment; a proverb; a hissing; a byword. They would have no ease; no rest; no refuge. They would become “wanderers among the nations” (see Hosea 9:17). Jesus, in His day, predicted new dimensions of humiliation and anguish for the Jewish people (Luke 21:22-24).

And yet – incredibly – they would survive, and maintain their distinct, national identity, through all time, as a separate people!

Just as the Gulf Stream, in the North Atlantic, remains a “blue river in the sea” – preserving its individual quality and temperature, unmingled with the surrounding ocean – so, the Jewish people would always remain a solidarity. They would preserve the national characteristics that they had centuries ago. They would always be recognized as Jews!

History contains no more baffling phenomenon than this unique example of national survival. But the transcendent marvel is this: it was all foretold, with uncanny accuracy, thousands of years in advance!

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Small wonder, then, that a Christian witness at the European court, when challenged by his Emperor to give one incontestable proof of the truthfulness of the Bible, replied: “The Jew, Sire! The Jew!

 

Conclusion

Prophecy is History written in advance, and history is simply the echo of the voice of prophecy!

David Hume, the notorious English skeptic, once declared: “A fulfilled prophecy is the greatest of all miracles!” He recognized that an authentic prophecy is a type of utterance that is obviously beyond the wisdom or power of unaided man.

Kautsch, a celebrated German critic of the Bible, confessed that after years of patiently sifting the evidence, his doubts about the trustworthiness of the Old Testament had “shriveled up into nothingness.” When asked to name the one argument that had banished his doubts forever, he put his finger on what he called: “The overmastering phenomenon of Prophecy!”

No internal feature of the Bible stamps upon it more conclusively the signature of God than fulfilled prophecy. Consequently, in the presence of this “overmastering phenomenon,” we are compelled to ask: “If God did not produce the Bible – who did? Who could?”

The Fireproof Book

One daring claim that the Bible makes is that it cannot be destroyed. This claim is made with the same finality as the claim that God is its Author. By this claim of indestructibility, the Bible makes an irreversible committal. It “burns its bridges” behind it. It risks it all. At this point its truth – or its falsehood – can easily be demonstrated.

Prophet Isaiah says, “The Word of our God shall stand forever.” Isaiah 40:8.

Jesus, during His elaboration of the signs of the Destruction of Jerusalem, the signs of His coming and the end of the world, says, “My words shall not pass away.” Matthew 24:35.

John recorded Jesus’ words too, “The Scripture cannot be broken.” John 10:35

And Paul makes it clear in Hebrews 4:12: “The Word of God is living and powerful.”

 

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What answer does history give to this bold claim to indestructibility?

 

1. RUNNING THE GAUNTLET

In old American pioneer days, when a white man was captured by the Red Indians, the savage warriors would sometimes play with their victim as a cat plays with a mouse. The captive would be told that he could have his freedom if he could run between two rows of Indian braves, all of whom were poised and ready to beat him with stout sticks.

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This meant almost certain death, but on rare occasions a man might escape by running like the wind, or dodging like a hare. The grim ordeal was called “running the gauntlet.” 

It is a graphic picture of the hazards through which the Bible has passed during the centuries of the Christian era!

 

Consider a few notable examples:

In A.D. 303, Diocletian, an emperor of Pagan Rome, concentrated all the wealth and power of his empire against the Bible. Christianity was outlawed. Diocletian’s persecution was probably the most devastating onslaught ever made against a single book.

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All meeting-places of the Christians were demolished; their property was confiscated and their Bibles committed to the flames. A systematic attempt was made to destroy every single copy of the Scriptures in existence. Death was decreed for any person who owned a copy of the Word of God.

After years of ruthless persecution, in which thousands of Christians and their Bibles perished, Diocletian struck a medal to commemorate the complete destruction of the Scriptures, and erected a column of triumph bearing the boastful inscription: “EXTINCTO NOMINE CHRISTIANORUM” (The name of the Christians has been extinguished).

 

A.D. 1530. The State-Church of the Middle Ages, in the days before the beginning of the Reformation in the 16^th Century, wage a relentless warfare against the free use of the Bible by the common people, in almost all parts of Europe.

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When her efforts to keep the Bible locked away in a dead language(Latin) proved futile, the Church did not hesitate to confiscate and burn the Book.

In 1530, the Bishop of London burned William Tyndale’s printed English Testaments outside St. Pauls. Tyndale himself was strangled and burned on the Continent. In the same century, Martin Luther’s translations of the Scriptures into the tongue of the common German people were publicly committed to the flames.

 

A.D. 1750. Here comes Voltaire, the brilliant and witty French literary genius, was one of a group of writers who helped prepare the soil and sow the seeds of the French Revolution.

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Voltaire boasted that he, alone, could demolish the Bible! “I am weary,” he is reported to have said, “of hearing people repeat that twelve fishermen founded Christianity. I will show the world that one Frenchman is sufficient to overthrow it!”

Voltaire was a prodigious writer. The flood of infidel works that flowed from his pen absorbed the full capacity of a printing-press.

He rashly predicted that in one hundred years the Bible would have ceased to exist, except for a few copies to be found in museums!

 

A.D. 1795. Thomas Paine, the notorious English Free-thinker, fought the Bible with sarcasm and ridicule. The Age of Reason is one of his best-known books.

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This arrogant boasts from page 127 of Paine’s book, still finds an echo in some publications of the present day: “I have now gone through the Bible, as a man would go through a wood with an axe on his shoulder, and fell trees. Here they lie, and the priests, if they can, may replant them. They may, perhaps, stick them in the ground, but they will never make them grow.”

 

MODERN EFFORTS TO DESTROY THE BIBLE

A.D. 1925. Modern Atheism perpetuates the age-old tradition of malicious opposition to the Bible. Since 1925, there has existed in New York a regularly-chartered organization whose sworn purpose is to promote Atheism in the United States. This is the “American Association for the Advancement of Atheism.” (otherwise known as “The 4A’s”).

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The following is a statement of their aims: “The 4A is here to ensure a complete job in the wrecking of religion. We offer no apology for our tactics. Religion was born of fear, reared by fraud, and kept alive by lies. Falsehood cannot be refined into truth. The supernatural does not exist. There is no God. Religion deserves no more respect than a pile of garbage. It must be destroyed.”

The “4A’s” is but one of the many energetic groups which exist in every land for the express purpose of undermining faith in, and eventually destroying, the religion of the Bible. High schools, colleges, and universities are deliberately chosen as the special targets for such organizations.

The announced purpose of one of these groups of godless militants is, “to destroy and mutilate Bibles in hotels, distributed by the Gideon Society.”

 

A.D. 1935. Nazi Germany, a mortal enemy of the Bible, focused all the brains of its shrewdest thinkers, and all the resources of its vast monopoly in a prolonged attack upon Christianity and all that it stands for.

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Said Adolf Hitler: “Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I am freeing man from the dirty and degrading self-mortification of a chimera called conscience and morality...”

The religions are all alike, no matter what they call themselves. They have no future… Fascism if it likes, may come to terms with the Church. So shall I. Why not? That will not prevent me from tearing up Christianity root and branch, and annihilating it in Germany…

Do you really believe the masses will ever be Christian again? Nonsense! Never again. That tale is finished. No one will ever listen to it again.”

 

A.D. 1950. International Communism, militant, atheistic, is another sworn enemy of the Bible. It stands at the head of the forces of organized atheism today.

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Vladimir Lenin, high-priest of Communism, coined the slogan: “Religion is the opiate of the people.”

Lounatcharski, one-time Soviet Commissar of Education, stormed: “We hate Christians. Even the best of them must be regarded as our worst enemies. They preach love to one’s neighbor and pity, which is contrary to our principles.

Christian love is a hindrance to the development of the Revolution. Down with love for one’s neighbor.  What we want is hatred. We must know how to hate, for only at this price can we conquer the universe.

We have done with kings of the earth; let us deal now with the kings of the skies. All religions are poison. They intoxicate and deaden the mind, they will and the conscience. A fight to the death must be declared upon religion. Our task is to destroy all kinds of religion, all kinds of morality.”

 

A.D. 1750 – 1980. Modern Scientific Criticism. For the past two hundred years, the Bible has been exposed to the most sustained barrage of hostile, scholarly criticism that has ever occurred in its history.

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No other book has ever been subjected to such merciless dissection and analysis. Its text; its transmission; its history; its chronology; its scientific allusions; its miracles; its doctrines; its authorship; its composition; its world-view; its Christ, have all been subjected to microscopic examination by expert, critical minds.

 

THE BIBLE RISES UNSCATHED FROM THE FIRE

In their search for a symbol of immortality, men have repeatedly chosen the Phoenix – the indestructible bird of ancient mythology.

From the ashes of every blazing bonfire that was built for its destruction, this legendary creature rose up again with renewed youth and vigor.

The Phoenix belongs to the realm of fiction – but the Bible belongs to the realm of fact. After every fiery ordeal it rises, unharmed, from the flames of prejudice and hate.

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It is the most durable Book on this planet. It outlives its most implacable foes. Diocletian is dead. Voltaire and Paine are forgotten. Lenin and Hitler have followed them into the mists of oblivion. But the Bible lives.

Said one astonished observer: “The Bible’s obituary has been written hundreds of times, but this Book has an uncanny habit of turning up at its own funeral!”

In our own century, in spite of all the past and present hammer-blows of hate, the Bible has broken all records in book-production and distribution.

No competitor comes within sight of its translation into 1808 languages (1984 total) – twice as many as in 1920 – and this number is increasing steadily.

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The Wycliffe Bible Translators, for example, have a staff of missionary linguists working among almost 800 different tribes, reducing their previously unwritten languages into written form, in order to give them the Bible in their own languages.

It is unrivaled, also, in sheer volume of output. Its world-circulation has now reached the staggering total of over 36,000,000 copies (i.e. complete Bibles) per year. That’s a Bible every second!

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And when Scripture “portions” or “selections” are added, the total swells to almost 500,000,000 items per year.

Indeed, if all the Bibles and portions that were printed in one recent year (1984) were gathered together and laid flat on each other, they would make a pile many times higher than Mount Everest!

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And this is the Book that Voltaire said would be extinct – a dusty, mildewed museum-relic – in one hundred years after his day!

 

Conclusion

Suppose there should come to live in our community a man who had been alive for 1900 years – nearly twice as long as Methusaleh lived!

And suppose we knew of this man that he had been cast into the sea many a time, but could not be drowned. He had been thrown to the wild beasts, but they never could devour him. He had been made to drink deadly poisons of different kinds, but they never did him any harm. He had been bound with strong chains, and locked up in prisons and dungeons, but he always managed to shake off the chains and get out of the dungeons.

He had often been hung till his enemies thought him dead, but when they cut him down he sprang to his feet, and walked away again, as fit and well as ever! Hundreds of times they had burnt him at stake, till there seemed to be nothing left of him; but the fires were no sooner out than he leaped up from the ashes, as strong and vigorous as he was before.

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He had been shot at, and stabbed, and cut to pieces, but the pieces came together again, like little drops of quick-silver. His wounds healed up at once, and he was none the worse for all this hacking and cutting. How amazing it would be to look on such an indestructible man!

Would it be a great wonder to find him alive and unharmed after all that he had passed through? It would be a great wonder, indeed!

Yet this is just the way in which the Bible has been treated. It has been burned, and chained, and put in prison, and buried alive, and torn to pieces, and thrown into the sea, and yet it has never been destroyed. Here it is still, the same pure and precious Bible that it was nineteen hundred years ago!

What is the secret of the Bible’s immortality? There is only one rational answer: The Bible has survived the storms of the ages because the indestructible life of God is in it, just as it claims!

 

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How God Reveals Himself to Us

How God Reveals Himself to Us 

Although, God has not revealed Himself to our senses; for we cannot see Him, or hear Him, or touch Him, but He has not left us to grope blindly in confusion and doubt, without any evidence of His existence. 

In Acts 14:15-17, it says: “God has not left Himself without witness.” 

Mrs. Ellen G. White in her well-known book “Steps to Christ”, puts it this way: “God never asks us to believe without giving sufficient evidence upon which to base our faith. His existence, His character, the truthfulness of His word, are all established by testimony that appeals to our reason, and this testimony is abundant.” (p. 105). 

What are some of these evidences of God’s existence, and where do we find them? Here, we will study one of the three of the plainest evidences for God, which we will call “God’s Footprints in Creation”. These evidences are readily available to every man who is willing to use his eyes, ears and rational power. 

God's Footprints in the Earth 

Job 12:7-10 say: “Ask now the beasts, the fowls, the earth, and the fishes and they shall teach you.” 

Jesus, in his sermon in the mount, says: “Consider the lilies of the field.” Matt. 6:28, 29. 

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And even Paul during his ministry, “The invisible things of God may be understood by the visible things which He has made.” Rom. 1:19, 20. 

All around us, in earth and sea and sky, there are countless evidences of order, beauty, accuracy, adaptation and intelligent planning. 

Consider these marvels of creative design: 

    1. The beauty and perfume of the flowers. 

    2. Snowflake crystals. 

    3. A butterfly’s wings. 

    4. A spider’s web. 

    5. A bird’s feather. 

    6. The marvelous instincts and mechanisms of the honey-bee. 

    7. The annual miracles of bird migration. 

    8. The bat’s ingenious “radar” system.  

Butterfly Beauties 

Many of the butterflies are of such breath-taking beauty that they have been called “animated flowers,” “visual lyrics,” or “living rainbows.” Fragile, colorful, elusive, dainty, they have always had a hypnotic fascination for man. Yet, while their delicate structure and exquisite coloration are awe-inspiring, even to the naked eye, it is only under the microscope that their richest glory unfolds. Then it is seen that, in many cases, their wing-color is not “pigmented color,” but “structural color.”

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Their wing-surfaces are composed of myriad, tiny, overlapping scales, like tiles on a roof, whose surfaces are grooved or “striated.” Thus, each scale is a miniature spectroscope, with the power to “refract” or “splinter” light, i.e. to break light up into its color-components, or “spectrum.” This “splintered light” registers on our eyes as vivid color, ranging over a wide variety, and often glowing as if it were luminous, or phosphorescent. Small wonder, then, that butterflies have been called “living rainbows.” The microscope shows that they are that, in very fact! 

Who but God could design, create and perpetuate these “living rainbows?” 

A Bird’s Feather 

Everyone who picks up a bird’s flight-feather, or “pinion,” holds in his hand a matchless miracle of creative engineering. It is a miracle of lightness; strength; flexibility; ingenuity and adaptability. It is composed basically of a long, hollow, tapering “shaft,” or “mid-rib.” Jutting from this shaft on either side are the main branches, called “barbs.” These “barbs” are composed of smaller fronds, known as “barbules,” and these, in turn, have rows of tiny, hook-like twigs called “barbicels,” which cling tenaciously to the “barbules.” 

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What is the purpose of this intricate structure which, when closed, is like a tight “web,” or fabric, but which can open instantly, like a miniature venetian-blind, to let air through? As well as providing covering and insulation for the bird, the pinion-feather’s main function is to make flight possible. 

As the wings make their strong, downward-forward thrust to propel the bird, the flexible feather – web – or mesh remains tightly closed, but as the wings is raised swiftly for the next downward beat, the feather-mesh automatically opens, so that resistance to the air is minimized. This rhythmic operation has been called “one of the most fantastic and ingenious ‘valve-actions’ in the whole of nature.” Obviously, the flight-feather has been designed by a Divine Craftsman of infinite skill! 

Snow-Crystals 

Another fabulous natural wonder is the snow-crystal, whose exquisite beauty and intricacy are also revealed by the microscope. Composed of minute, frozen water-particles in the remote heights of the upper atmosphere, the snow-crystal is not a formless, haphazard, unstructured ice-shard – it is a miniature crystal cathedral of classic beauty! 

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The primary structure of this crystal, when fully formed, is always a hexagonal or six-pointed star, and the angles are always precise and unvarying. However, the secondary design details vary through what seems to be an almost infinite range, for no two snow-crystals, with their delicate, lace-like feathery fronds, have even been found alike. Wilson Bentley, who, with the aid of microscope and camera, probably did more than any other man to research and popularize the snow-crystal, photographed many thousands of individual specimens – but found no two exact duplicates! 

Where could this exquisite miracle of amazingly consistent, geometric design have come from – but from God? 

Bird Migration 

William Cullen Bryant, in his sensitive poem: “To a Waterfowl,” is not the only man who has been moved to admiration and wonder by the mysterious, purposeful, orderly migrations of the birds. Few natural wonders have such power to set the imagination on fire! 

Without charts, or maps, or clocks, or compasses, or sextants, or obvious navigational equipment – and apparently without schooling – the birds find their way, instinctively, over tens of thousands of miles of land or ocean, in their daring seasonal flights to feeding or breeding grounds. 

Who, or what guides them with such unerring precision, and with such unfailing regularity? What uncanny powers do young birds have, whose migratory flights begin long after those of their parents, yet who, denied the opportunity for experienced guidance, follow their parents’ uncharted path, and arrive unerringly at the same destination? 

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Scientists have many theories about these majestic migratory rhythms – the triggering of the migratory impulse; the consistent timing; the impeccable navigation – but no one really understands them. The sun; the stars; air-currents, geographical land-marks; sensitivity to the earth’s magnetic fields – all have been suggested, and all could be involved, but no scientist has yet come near to solving all aspects of the complex and baffling migratory puzzle. 

However, once we acknowledge an all-wise and all-powerful Creator, the mystery of migration is instantly solved. 

Beehive Marvels 

For the dawn of time, man has been fascinated by the bee-hive. Symbol of industry, persistence, thrift, and single-minded dedication to duty, the honey-bee is an endless source of wonder to young and old. Such precision, orderliness, group-loyalty and focused, tireless effort is manifest among the bees that the hive has been called an insect “city,” or an insect “civilization”. 

Two phenomenal honey-bee skills that have captured the public imagination are associated with direction-finding and cell-building. Both of these operations require superlative mathematical and geometric skills, neither of which need to be learned by the honey-bee. 

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Direction finding-and-giving – takes the form of the intriguing “waggle-dance” of the scout bee – involving an elaborate and sustained “waggling” of the abdomen while the bee is in motion on the surface of the comb. The vigor, frequency, direction and overall pattern of the “waggle-dance,” especially in relation to the sun’s position, conveys accurate information to the hive concerning distance, direction, quantity and quality of the new-found nectar supply. Factors such as wind-direction and velocity, plus obstacles to be encountered, appear to be indicated by this means, also. So intricate and precise is this communicative ritual that it seems to require the employment of some of the more highly-sophisticated forms of mathematics! 

An incredible degree of geometric and engineering skill is also employed in cell-designing and building. The materials, shape, size and angles of the paper-thin cell walls are such that maximum strength, lightness, capacity, durability and insulating quality are secured, yet with minimum use of building materials and hive-space. 

Who taught the busy worker-bee her mathematics and geometry – and her economics? 

A Spider’s Web 

The familiar, industrious, and omnipresent spider is the artisan-extraordinary of the natural world. Not only is he a design-engineer of superlative skill in field and garden, but, in one species, he is also a marine engineer of fantastic ability! 

For conventional, above-water web-building, the average spider has web-producing mechanisms and construction skills of the highest order. The familiar orb-web, whether large or small, is a miracle of complicated geometry, precise engineering and amazing tensile strength. 

treehugger.com

For unconventional, under-water web manufacture, the same type of production glands and mechanisms must be present – this time in the water-spider – but a very significant plus must be added. Instinctive abilities must now come into play that will impel and enable the spider to live in an unnatural environment. First, a closely woven bell-like “tent” of web must be built under the water, and anchored there. Second, water bubbles must be caught on the surface, and carried down and released under the “bell tent,” until it is filled with air. Then the spider must set up house and rear its family in a submarine environment! 

Yet the water-spider does all this with the orderliness and expertise of a professional, who carries a set of detailed, step-by-step instructions in his pocket! 

The Bat’s “SONAR” 

Bats have been called: “Mystery Mammals of the Twilight.” “Mammals” is the right word, for though bats can fly, they are not birds. They bring forth their young alive, and their wings are mad of thin membrane. Unfeathered, they are nevertheless admirably equipped for flight. Indeed, so great is their agility in the air, that they are worthy rivals of the birds! 

The element of “mystery” about the bats is related especially to their ability to fly with the utmost dexterity and confidence in complete darkness. This they do, not only in the outer world at night, but inside the earth, through miles of subterranean caverns, which they negotiate in total darkness, without collision, and with the greatest of ease! 

sciencenewsforstudents.org

It is only in more recent years, since the advent of sophisticated electronic devices, that much of the mystery of the bats phenomenal navigational prowess has been cleared up. It is now known that they do not need to depend on any great degree upon sight. Bats “see” and find their way with their ears! When in flight, they rely upon inbuilt “sonar,” or “echo-location” equipment. Continually, as they fly, they are emitting high-frequency sounds, or squeaks. These sounds travel out rapidly, strike objects, and rebound. From the time it takes from emission to rebound (i.e. reception), the bat can tell how near, or how far, an adjacent object or obstacle may be. 

Who built this amazing “sonar” equipment into the bat? Who endowed him with the instinctive ability to use it with such dexterity? 

It could not possibly have been a slow, piece-by-piece development, over long ages of time. It had to be a complete “package” from the beginning. To make possible that bat’s survival, all parts of its complex array of precision equipment must have been fully-developed and fully operable – from the first moment of this amazing creature’s existence! 

Conclusion

These are just a few of the thousand marvels and mysteries of the natural world, whose only satisfying explanation is “GOD.” They cannot rationally be attributed to “Chance.”

The Treasure I've Found Through Treasure Hunting

 

Treasures I've Found Through My Treasure Hunting Hobby

Credit: Youtube.com

A Start

I love treasure hunting. It has been my one of my beloved hobbies since 2003. I just left it when I went to Manila and other parts of the world. But when I came back to my place it has been ignited again.

The first time I tried to have that activity when one of my friends had a dream when we spent our three nights in the mountain, on top of it, when we had our mini-camping of just about 6 people with two tents. One for the boys and the other one for the girls. 

The first night was really wonderful because we had laughter and sharing of our experiences with one another since all of us were just new friends. We had a short devotional since we all both love God and always talk about Him. The second night was the turning point of our activity. We had been talking many things, sharing of ideas and a lot more. Everyone was really happy and almost spent the whole night just talking, sometimes, silly things except one of our friends, Rene, who was probably so tired so he just went to sleep early. 

Suddenly, while we were talking, he woke up, in a surprise way, and walked roaming around as if he was looking for something. We all were shocked and speechless while looking at him.

"Hey, what are you looking for?" my other friend said.

He did not say anything. He just continued checking the place where we pitched our tents. Probably, 5 minutes after, he went back to sleep again without saying any single word. And that made us wonder until the next morning. But since it was still early for us to go to sleep so we continued talking until midnight.

The next morning, I saw Rene woke up too early and still was not done with his search for something. He picked up something and watched it closely and investigatively. He picked up some broken clay, broken porcelain jar, while I was watching him. To my curiosity, I went to him and asked about what he is doing and why it seems he is restless this time. Then he told us, since everyone was also awaken that time, that last night he had a dream. He was dreaming of a man, with a long white beard, talking to him and had an instruction that we can roam around the top of the mountain and do as we wish but never touch the portion, he was pointing a place with his finger, because he said, there is something in here. So that made Rene and us wonder about that place.

"We need a detector!" a friend shouted. 

We need a detector to know it. We asked friends if they know friends who has a detector and we found an old man, who also was a treasure hunter, and we took him to that place. The only thing is that he did not know the dream and where that place pointed by the man in the dream. What he knew is that we need a detector and we need him since he also has many experiences even with his detector, he uses in treasure hunting. So we went up to the mountain and he started using his detector to detect the place. 

His detector was a dowsing rod, which is just traditional. He tried to check the whole place and detected two places, as he said, one has gold deposit underneath and the other has silver deposit. The one that is detected which has a gold deposit underneath it was the place that man in the dream pointed out. 

"Boom!" One of our friends shouted.

Tatay Mario, who was the owner of the detector, tried to check the shape of the place with the gold deposit and he found out as what the detector revealed, it is a rectangle as if it is a coffin. And we decided to start digging that night, which is the third day of our mini-camping.

The Digging

We prepared many things for digging. We recruited two people to backup and we made three groups, since we were six boys, four of us were part of the mini-camping and two were recruited backups. So each group has two members. Each group was designated with positions. One for lookout, the other for digging and the last group for sleeping. Each would take turn every hour, which means if a group is designated for digging, then that group should be for lookout when taking turn and the sleeping group would be for digging again, and lookout for sleeping, and so on... We had been working digging until we stopped. 

We started at 9 o'clock evening and we stopped at 3 a.m. 

"We have to stop!" one of my friends told the whole group and he explained why and we stopped when we understood.

We stopped in the middle of our work because we reached the part of our digging with a really hard portion which we believe that we were deceived and we thought it was already a rock and needed to withdraw for we could not break that huge boulder which we could see that it is already just a natural rock.

We finished our camping activities in there and we left the place.

The Impact of Digging

What impact that experience in my life is that, as what I interviewed with other people who encounter people who also had that hobby, that there are many places in the island which have huge deposit of gold left by the Japanese during World War II. All knowledge I got from those reliable sources left in my brain. 

In 2005, I went to Manila, Ilocos Norte, Indonesia, Singapore, and some parts of the Philippines and came back to my place. 

In 2014, I was working at one of the colleges in the island. Every day, I go to school and I always pass to the barangay where I had that first experience of treasure hunting. It also seems it hunts my conscience to work to that place again and continue to dig to where we started.

I met other treasure hunters too and told to them my story about that mountain and they were convinced to work too. So we started and we found so many signs of deposits in there with the way they, too, examined the place with there detector and knowledge through their experiences and we gave up. Why? We stopped when we meet hard rocks in digging since we only used manual way of digging with few equipment. 

We tried to find another places, including caves, seashores, etc. It takes half of my every year doing my hobby. We work so hard, with manual way of doing digging with traditional equipment! I have been doing treasure hunting for six years now but never have found treasures yet which I believe it is because we stop when we could not break hard boulders and cement! Though that is what we experience but we still continue doing it until we could find even just one and it is enough for us, for me.

Doing treasure hunting, sometimes, our families are at stake! Even our health, jobs, and relationships suffer! Because we go out doing it at night and going back home at dawn. We continue doing this until we stop because we face hardships while working especially when traps are encountered! We are making just for our family! We find treasures for our family!

Last Night

Last night, I slept alone in our house because my wife and my three kids were at the house of my parents in another town. I left them there because we need to do something in that town and we need to have it done in three days! Since I also have a job in the town where we live, so I have to come back home every afternoon! And they don't need to go home every day since my kids are still at the age of 5 below! So I go to sleep alone!

While I was lying down waiting to be slept, I feel the emptiness of our bed with no kids and mom with me. I badly felt so sad and lonely wondering how they are. I feel so alone wherein I always have my kids and my wife with me when we sleep at night! And now I sleep alone. I almost have to hug all their blankets and pillows imagining that it is them to ease my loneliness! 

I just realized that there is no greatest treasure in the world to make you happy and give you real joy than to have that treasure when every member of the family stays together! I just realized that the treasure I always search for in my search for it in a hobby is when I have all my kids and my beautiful wife with me are the greatest treasure I already have!

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Modern Slaves Passively

We Are The Slaves

http://passion4creatvt.blogspot.com/

      Most of us are now highly engaged in social media without thinking of what the effects are in our lives, whether it's positive or negative.
  
     The average number of people now spends more time each day on their gadgets rather than they do sleeping. We interact with media daily, through using computers, mobile devices, reading newspapers, watching TV, listening to the radio, playing digital games or even watching movies.

     As one of the youth of today's modern generation, I can say that media has a huge impact in our lives, and it depends upon how we interact with it. Media is very helpful particularly to the students who need information from different websites and for updating news. Thus, media affects the youth by shaping their behavior. and that's the main reason why youth nowadays are proned to doing such unexpected things.
    
     In every content of an advertisement, shows on television, music videos, and magazines, increases the youth 'sexualization' and they learn to create bad images in their minds. It affects their studies that makes them stressful due to using media. It can affect their healthy lifestyle, and sometimes can lower their grades. It makes them spoiled brats to their parents because all they want is an "in" technology to socialize with media.

     Yes, media helps us to dwell with this innovative world, but it also treats us as media slaves.

- Shella Mee Escaran, Grade 11 HUMSS A