There Is A God Ch 3

The God of the Christian Bible, Old and New Testaments, is quite exclusive. He declares (Isa. 44:6), “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no other God.” And He can prove it.

His Word, our Bible, contains a built-in touchstone to prove its God is the only true God. In fact, in Isa. 43:9-12 and 44:6-20 our Christian God challenges all the other claims to deity and identifies all other gods for what they are—the creation and imagination of the people who worship them.

What is this challenge of the One who claims to be the only true God? Listen to Isa. 46:9-10:

“Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning
And from ancient times which have not been done,
Saying, My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.”

Also, Isa. 48:3,5:

“I declared the former things long ago
and they went forth from My mouth,
and I proclaimed them.
Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
Therefore I declared them to you long ago,
before they took place I proclaimed them to you.
Lest you should say,
‘My idol has done them, and my graven image
and my molten image have commanded them.’”

What an awesome challenge! Only an omnipotent and omniscient God, the Creator and Architect of humanity’s destiny, could foretell the events of human history. Where does God make His prophetic declaration? In His written Word—our Bible.

Outside of a few vague statements, no other Scriptures of world religions contain prophecy. Over a third of our Bible is prophetic. The test is simple—if the words of the prophecies come to pass, then our Bible is the inspired Word of the Creator and Ruler of the universe.

Hundreds of Prophecies Fulfilled

Fulfilled prophecies indeed prove our God is the one and only God. Hundreds of events prophesied in the Judeo-Christian Bible have already happened. Before Jesus entered this world, over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament spelled out the events and circumstances that would detail his life.

Over 700 years before his birth, the prophet Micah foretold the actual town where Jesus would be born—Micah 5:2:

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.

About 1,000 years before the death of Jesus, David foretold his triumphant resurrection—Psalm 16:10:

…you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

In between these two events, especially the three and a half years of Jesus’ ministry, are the dynamics of the greatest life ever lived. Over 300 prophecies focus in on the extraordinary events of his life:

Born of a virgin
— Isaiah 7:4 (fulfilled—Matthew 1:18, 24, 25)

The seed of Abraham
— Genesis 22:18(fulfilled—Luke 3:34)

A teacher of parables
— Psalm 78:2 (fulfilled—Matthew 13:34)

Betrayed by a friend
— Psalm 41:9 (fulfilled—Matthew 10:4)

Silent before his accusers
— Psalm 35:11 (fulfilled—Matthew 27:12)

Wounded and bruised
— Isaiah 53:5 fulfilled—Matthew 27:26)

Smitten and spat upon
— Isaiah 50:6 (fulfilled—Matthew 26:67)

Crucified with thieves
— Isaiah 53:12 (fulfilled—Matthew 27:38)

Hated without a cause
— Psalm 69:4 (fulfilled—John 15:25)

People shook their heads
— Psalm 109:25 (fulfilled—Matthew 27:39)

Garments parted and lots cast
— Psalm 22:18 (fulfilled—John 19:23, 24)

To suffer thirst
— Psalm 22:15 (fulfilled—John 19:28)

Offered gall and vinegar
— Psalm 69:21 (fulfilled—Matthew 27:34)

Side was pierced
— Zechariah 12:10 (fulfilled—John 19:34)

Committed himself to God
— Psalm 31:5 (fulfilled—Luke 23:46)

Bones not broken
— Psalm 34:20 (fulfilled—John 19:33)

Buried in a rich man’s tomb
— Isaiah 53:9 (fulfilled—Matthew 27:57-60)

There was darkness over the land
— Amos 8:9 (fulfilled—Matthew 27:45).

This is only a partial list of some 300 prophecies fulfilled in Jesus’ life on earth. How could all of these prophecies be so accurate? The Apostle Peter informs us that the writers of the Old Testament spoke as they were moved by the Spirit or power of God.

The Old Testament abounds with other prophecies. God through His prophets precisely described the future of many ancient cities and people. Ezekiel 26:1-14 contains a remarkable prediction concerning the city of Tyre, the commercial hub of the world for centuries.

Tyre — An Ancient City of Lebanon

The metropolis of Tyre occupied the coast of present day Lebanon. Some of its citizens lived on an island half a mile out into the sea. Six main points stand out in this prophecy of Ezekiel. Many nations would attack Tyre (26:3). Nebuchadnezzar would destroy the mainland metropolis (26:9). The debris of the city would be cast into the water (26:12). The dirt or dust of Tyre would be scraped down to the bare rock then thrown into the sea (26:4,12). Fishermen would spread their nets over the site (26:5). Tyre would never be built again (26:14).

The incredible happened! As predicted, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, captured the mainland city in fulfillment of verses 7-11. But many of the people escaped to the island city.(1) Without a navy, Nebuchadnezzar left.

Over 200 hundred years passed and Alexander the Great called on the Phoenician cities to surrender. Tyre refused and found itself in siege by Alexander. He demolished the old mainland city and with the debris, built a causeway 200 feet wide out to the island city of Tyre. To complete the causeway, Alexander’s army literally scraped the dirt off the old city down to bare rock to smooth out the causeway surface. Finally, he erected towers and war engines and conquered the island fortress of Tyre. What a remarkable fulfillment of verses 4 and 12!(2)

After eighteen years, Tyre recovered rapidly. From 314 B.C. to A.D. 1291, Tyre in fulfillment of verse 3 was sacked and restored numerous times by many nations until its final destruction in A.D. 1291. In fulfillment of verse 14, never again was there an attempt to rebuild the Tyre of old. Since then, and even today, Tyre is the “place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.”(3)

The six predictions from God’s word concerning Tyre in Ezekiel 26 have been remarkably fulfilled.

Sidon — An Ancient City of Lebanon

The Prophet Ezekiel also prophesied (28:22-23) concerning Tyre’s sister city Sidon, also on Lebanon’s coast. The prophecy against Sidon is very different from that concerning Tyre. It was foretold that Tyre would be destroyed, made bare like a rock and built no more. The prediction against Sidon was that blood would be in her streets, her wounded should fall in the midst of her and the sword was to be on her every side. But there was no doom of extinction pronounced against her as was the case with Tyre.

George Davis observed that “not once, but many times blood has been in her (Sidon’s) streets, her wounded have fallen in the midst of her and the sword has been ‘upon her every side.’” The city was demolished time after time, has always been rebuilt and is still in existence today.(4)

Edom

Edom would be a “perpetual desolation and thy cities shall not return.” Ezek. 35:9, 15; Jer. 49:13, 17. Miles can be traveled through the country of ancient Edom without seeing man or beast. Its main city, Petra, has been remarkably preserved, but has been desolate for centuries.

Babylon, Medo-Persia,
Greece, Rome, Egypt, Nineveh

Daniel’s prophecies of the four ancient world empires have been accurately fulfilled in detail. Daniel 7. Where is Great Babylon of the Chaldeas? Isa. 13, Jer. 50-51. The powerful empires of Egypt and Assyria? Isa. 19. Nineveh? Nah. 1. “...For I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee....” Jer. 46:28. In contrast, where is Israel?

Israel

God, for various reasons, permitted the destruction of the nation of Israel and the dispersion of the Jewish People which began in A.D. 70. One reason was Israel failed in reflecting God’s law as a light unto the nations as it could have. Our Bible centuries before prophesied Israel’s national destruction. Jer. 16:13. However, it was prophesied that during this period of dispersion the Land of Israel would be relatively “barren of man and beast” until the Jewish people returned. Jer. 33:10. But from this desolation onward there is an incredible series of prophecies that defy any possibility of chance happening.

Foxes a Harbinger of an Eternal Restoration

One day in the year A.D. 135 when Jerusalem lay in ruins and Rome barred the Jewish people from the precincts of the Holy City, some rabbis from a nearby village where the yeshivas had been removed decided to pray at the former site of the Temple.

When they saw the devastation of Jerusalem, they wept. Upon reaching the charred Temple ruins, they rent their garments in sorrow and tears. Their movements frightened some foxes that had made their nests where the Holy of Holies had stood. As the foxes ran away, the rabbis groaned with tears of anguish. But one of them, Rabbi Akiva, the Chief Rabbi at the time, laughed.

“How can you laugh?” the others asked. “Foxes, unclean animals, in the Holiest Place? Was there ever such an abomination?”

“But this, too, was prophesied,” replied Akiva. “Jeremiah warned that our Temple would be destroyed and that foxes would invade the Holy Place.”

Lamentations 5:17-18 — “For this our heart is sick; for these things our eyes are dimmed with tears. Because of Mt. Zion which is desolate. The foxes walk upon it!”

Rabbi Akiva continued, “Because that prophecy has been fulfilled, I know the prophecy in Amos [of Israel’s restoration, Amos 9:14-15] will also be fulfilled.”

Land Would Remain Desolate

Jeremiah prophesied that the Land would remain relatively “desolate without man and without beast” (Jeremiah 33:10-16) until the return of the Jewish people. How do we know that this promise of restoration to the Land was not fulfilled with the return from Babylon? Jeremiah, after all, wrote before the 70 years’ desolation. Vss. 15,16, predicted a permanent restoration that will culminate in the Messianic Age. “I will cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David . . . Jerusalem shall dwell safely.” Jerusalem did not dwell “safely” after the temporary restoration from the 70 years’ desolation/captivity. This permanent restoration was to occur after the Second Dispersion—which Jesus prophesied would be worldwide (Luke 21:24).

From A.D. 70 until the current regathering, God intended that the Land of Israel would become relatively barren of man and beast. Why? The Land then could receive a mass influx of Jewish immigrants at the prophetic time. No nation would be able to establish itself in Palestine during the interim period. But here we are faced with a credibility gap between the Bible and the Arab Palestinian claim. The Bible speaks of a massive dispersion of Jews followed by centuries of a minimum of inhabitants until God’s regathering of Jews back to their Land. However, the Arab Palestinians claim that a thriving Palestinian culture developed in the Land. Which of these two views of history do the facts affirm?

What happens when this claim is compared with the personal observations of the following recognized authorities? In 1738 Thomas Shaw observed a land of “barrenness…. from want of inhabitants.”(5) In 1785 Constantine Francois de Volney recorded the population of the three main cities. Jerusalem had a population of 12,000 to 14,000. Bethlehem had about 600 able-bodied men. Hebron had 800 to 900 men.(6) In 1835 Alphonse de Lamartine wrote, “Outside the city of Jerusalem, we saw no living object, heard no living sound . . . a complete eternal silence reigns in the town, in the highways, in the country . . . The tomb of a whole people.”(7)

In 1857, the British consul in Palestine, James Finn, reported, “The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is that of a body of population.”(8) This historic observation is a remarkable confirmation of the Biblical predictions that during Israel’s “double” period of time of punishment and dispersion, the Lord would cause the Land to become desolate of man and beast (Jeremiah 33:10; Zechariah 10:12; Jeremiah 16:14-18). No wonder by 1857 it was just waiting for “a body of population”! In the Lord’s providence this needed body of population—the Jewish people—began to return after 1878 at the end of their Scriptural period of God’s disfavor.

The most popular quote on the desolation of the Land is from Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad (1867). “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies….Palestine is desolate and unlovely…. It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land.”

The records of history confirm the Biblical predictions that during the Jewish dispersion and “double” of God’s disfavor, the Land of Israel would become desolate, awaiting the return of the Jewish people when its period of disfavor ended.

Jewish Restoration Gradual

In Ezekiel 37 a dramatic prophecy of Israel’s restoration is given. Ezekiel is shown a valley filled with “dry bones.” These “bones” are identified in verse 11 as Israel’s hopeless condition as a nation.

Verses 5, 6, 11 — “Thus saith the Lord GOD to these bones: ... I will lay sinews upon you and cover you with flesh, and form skin over you. And I will breathe into you and you shall live again. And you shall know that I am the LORD!... And He said unto me, ‘O mortal, these bones are the whole House of Israel.’ They said, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.’”

Although alive as a people, Israel’s national polity had been dead for centuries. But in 1878 the “bones” began to come together. David Ben Gurion said the founding of Petah Tikvah in 1878, the first Jewish settlement for aliyah, marked the real beginning of the Jewish State.

World War One resulted in the Balfour Declaration promising the Jewish State. And sinews began to cover the bones, then flesh and skin. In 1948 the miracle occurred—the body of national polity emerged. Israel was a nation again. Over 2,500 years before, Ezekiel had predicted the death and rebirth of the State of Israel. Surely, Ezekiel wrote under the influence of God.

The Miracle of Israel’s National Rebirth

Never before was an ancient nation destroyed, its people dispersed to the ends of the earth. Then, for that people to be regathered to its ancient homeland and re-established as a nation after nearly 2,000 years. It is no mistake. Our Bible had foretold their return. Jer. 29:14; Ezek. 20:39-44. The rebirth of the Nation of Israel is an unparalleled miracle of history.

This miracle of rebirth actually had its conception in 1878. Remember, David Ben Gurion observed that the new State of Israel did not begin in 1948, but with the pioneering efforts of Jewish immigrants that began in 1878 with the founding of the Jewish settlement Petah Tikvah—which means “Door of Hope.”

The year 1878 did mark the beginning of an incredible fulfillment of a series of Bible prophecies related to the miraculous restoration of natural Israel. In that year the ban on Jewish immigration and Jewish Land purchase was eased. In fulfillment of Bible prophecy, the massive return of the Jew in Diaspora to his ancient homeland commenced. Jer. 16:14-16; Isa. 43:4-6.

The purchasing of land itself was a fulfillment of prophecy. Jer. 32:44. At exorbitant prices, barren desert and malarial swamps were purchased from absentee Moslem landowners.

Amos 9:14-15 — “Behold, the days come saith the LORD, ...when I will bring an end to the captivity of my people, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

“And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again, saith the LORD, be pulled up out of the land which I have given them.”

We have seen the remarkable fulfillment of these words of the prophet Amos in detail. The Jewish people are returning to their Promised Land, restoring the fertility of the waste places, building cities, planting vineyards and other crops and reaping their fruitage. How could Jeremiah predict the foxes within the Temple ruins and how could Amos make such an accurate prophecy over 2,000 years before, unless they were instructed by God? Yes, the Christian Bible is true.

Gathered from the Ends of the Earth

The Children of Israel were scattered to the four corners of the earth and Isaiah 43:5-6 accurately predicted that their regathering would be co-extensive.

Isaiah 43:5-6 [NIV] — “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.

“I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth....”

God enabled Isaiah to pre-empt history by over 2,500 years.

A Land of Miracles

Ezekiel 36:35-36 — “And men shall say, ‘That land, once desolate, has become like the Garden of Eden; and the cities once ruined, desolate and ravaged, are now populated and fortified.’

“And the nations that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD have rebuilt the ravaged places and replanted the desolate land. I the LORD have spoken and will do it.”

Natural Resources. David Ben Gurion, Israel’s dynamic first Prime Minister and an ardent student of the Bible, was convicted of its accurate history of Israel and its Land. He dispatched engineers, horticulturists, botanists, etc., with the Bible in one hand and research tools in the other. Miracles happened!

Following Bible clues, copper and iron mines were established. One mining engineer Abraham Dor observed that at the richest veins of copper, “We come upon the slag and furnaces of ancient Israel. We often get the feeling that someone has just left.” Deuteronomy 8:7, 9 was often framed on the walls of mining offices:

For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, ... a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper.

Cities and Infrastructure. The faith and determination of the returned exiles was reflected in the pioneers who founded Tel Aviv, which became one of the largest and most beautiful cities in Israel. They stood on a hill of sand and elected a mayor before they broke ground. Incidentally, Tel Aviv means “hill of spring.”

New industries now fringe rebuilt historic cities. Highways and pipelines connect cities and communities across an energetic nation that had slept for centuries.

Reclaiming the Wasteland. Barren land transformed to the fertility of ancient Israel is a miracle predicted in Scripture. Amos 9:14-15; Ezek. 36:34-35. It was long assumed that most of Palestine was wasteland, irreclaimable for agriculture. But archaeologists discovered the presence of more than 70 ancient settlement sites in one 65-mile stretch of the Jordan Valley alone, each with its own well for water. Lot, over 3,000 years ago, was not exaggerating when he “lifted up his eyes, and he saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, even as the garden of the Lord.” Gen. 13:10.

New agricultural settlements from Dan to Beersheba have risen beside ancient sites reidentified by Biblical archaeologists. Concrete pumping stations have been set over ancient springs or wells. A well from Abraham’s day now supplies water for residents on the outskirts of Beersheba.

Flowers. One of Israel’s major exports is roses. And guess what countries import tulips from Israel in certain seasons of the year? Right, the Netherlands! This was prophesied, “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” Isaiah 35:1.

Today you can travel through Israel and view vast fields that were formerly wilderness desert areas now growing the finest of roses. For decades fresh flowers have been daily flown at the dawning rays over Israel to grace the homes and hotels across Europe at evening.

Fruits. Isaiah 27:6 — “Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit.” This prophecy has both a symbolic and literal fulfillment. Imagine, Israel was founded almost 60 years ago and for decades has been exporting fruits, vegetables, and now high-tech all around the world.

The writer personally knew the Boyko family who pioneered with the Ben Gurion University in developing biblical principles of agriculture that helped the Arabah and Negev “blossom as a rose.” The Bible made Israel the agricultural giant it is today exporting its products worldwide.

In 1905 Dr. Abraham Kuyper, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, wrote of his trip to Palestine: “The Jews have come in vain. Only God can check the blight of the encroaching desert. Only a miracle can save the Holy Land.” The miracle happened. Why? God reclaimed desolate land just as he told Amos, Ezekiel, and the other prophets over 2,500 years before it happened.

Rain. Miraculous climatic changes nourished the dry and thirsty Land as well. In Bible times there were two copious rainy seasons in Israel—the “early and the latter rain.” But as the Prophet Joel indicated, for the past many centuries, the “early rains” have been minimal while the “latter rain” and dew had disappeared completely. Since 1878, just as the Prophet predicted, the “latter rain” is falling again. The precipitation of both has spiraled up over the decades as predicted in Joel 2:23-24.

“O children of Zion, be glad. Rejoice in the LORD your God. For He has given you the early rain in [His] kindness. Now He makes the rain fall [as] formerly. [The early rain and the late.] And threshing floors shall be piled with grain, and vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.”

What a remarkable prophecy! Joel anticipated the degrees of Israel’s rainfall centuries before it happened. As a result, the barren desert and malarial swamps began to blossom “as the rose”—fulfilling the Divine prediction of vineyards and gardens and roses. Isa. 35:1; Amos 9:14-15. “The wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled” and “become like the Garden of Eden.” Ezek. 36:33-35.

Trees. George Sandys counted the trees in 1611 and found less than 1,000 in the whole land. One of the basic necessities in a barren land is reforestation. The Prophet Isaiah was instructed by God to predict a massive reforestation.

Isaiah 41:19-20 — “I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

Ever since the Jewish exiles began returning, they have been planting forests, naming them in honor of such friends and leaders of Israel as Chaim Weizmann, Lord Balfour, George V, and scores of others.

The Bible has helped them decide what kind of trees to plant and where to plant them. Debating whether a certain barren hill would be a suitable location for Israel’s immense “Forest of Martyrs,” Israelis found the answer in Joshua, which proved that a forest had previously existed there. “Knowing that trees grow more easily where trees have flourished before,” explained Professor Zohary of the Hebrew University, “we rely on the Good Book.”

“The first tree Abraham put in the soil of Beersheba was a tamarisk,” said Israel’s outstanding authority on reforestation, Dr. Joseph Weitz. “Following his lead we put out two million in the same area. Abraham was right! The tamarisk is one of the few trees we have found that thrives in the south where the yearly rainfall is less than six inches.”

Through the efforts of the Jewish National Fund, millions of trees have been planted in Israel. Today from north to south majestic forests grace the hills of the Holy Land.

Jerusalem

The present walls of the Old City of Jerusalem were rebuilt by the Turkish or Ottoman Empire. For centuries Jerusalem was a small town. Sometimes its population waned and reports show a population inside the walls as low as 4,000 inhabitants. The number of its dwellers never swelled over 20,000. Living conditions were miserable. There was nothing outside the walls. Bands of robbers roamed the area and everyone feared to venture outside the walls at night.

When a British Jew, Sir Moses Montefiore, began building houses in the mid 1800s outside the walls, no one would live in them until Sir Moses hired private security police to protect his tenants. Since the late 1800s, whole neighborhoods began to spring up outside the walled city. The magnetic pull of the Holy City is immense. Today the area and population outside the walls is vastly larger than within the walled city of Jerusalem.

How unlikely seemed the words of Zechariah spoken over 2,500 years earlier when he predicted “...Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men....” Zechariah 2:4.

“Inhabited in its Own Place.”

Zechariah 12:6 — “And they shall devour all the peoples round about [Arabs] on the right hand and the left and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.”

Verse 6 reveals that as a result of war with the Arabs, “the people round about,” Jerusalem shall inhabit its “own place, even in Jerusalem”—a unique phrase. What does it mean?

In 1948 when Jordan took the Old City, Israel declared the New City of Jerusalem as its capital. But in their hearts, the Israelis knew the Bible Jerusalem was in the hands of the Arabs. When Jordan attacked Israel in the 1967 War, the Israelis attacked occupied Old Jerusalem with a fervor. With the capture of the Old City Jerusalem, Israel's capital now occupied its own place—even in the biblical City of Jerusalem. A remarkable fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy!

Not only were Jews denied access to their holy places during Jordanian occupation, but the holy places were deliberately desecrated. Sacred stones were used for walkways and latrines. Since the 1967 victory, a Moslem holy place has never been desecrated by Israel. Both Arabs and Christians have access to their holy places.

Between 1948 and 1967 Jordan had systematically destroyed the Old City’s Jewish Quarter—leveling synagogues and eliminating evidence of Jerusalem’s Jewish character. Since 1967 the Israeli government embarked upon an ambitious building program. The old synagogues have been rebuilt. The largest synagogue, Hurva, was left in ruins as a memorial to another of the endless list of indignities suffered in the Jewish Quarter.

Russian Jews

In addition to the worldwide regathering of the Jewish people already considered, the Bible singles out their return from “the land of the north.” Students of prophecy apply the “land of the north” to Russia, including the former Soviet Union. Jeremiah predicted that the exodus from the Soviet Union would be so numerically large that people would observe it would seem greater than the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt over 3,500 years ago.

Jeremiah 16:14-15 [NAS] — “Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and all of the lands where they had been banished.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors.”

Between 1878 and the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russian Jews trickled (“one from a town, two from a family”) into the Holy Land as prophesied in Jeremiah 3:12,14,18. Then the Communist regime in Russia banned any emigration of Jews. With the breakup of Communism, the massive exodus began.

An interesting story. In a meeting with Prime Minister Rabin of Israel when the Jewish emigration from Russia was just beginning, the author told Rabin that on the basis of Bible prophecy the author expected that over one million Russian Jews would emigrate to Israel in the next ten years. Rabin laughed, shook his head ‘No,’ and said at the most 300,000 would come. Two weeks before the national election he said in a campaign speech, “I will turn the economy around so that we will be able to absorb over one million Russian Jews in the next ten years.”

Whether Rabin actually believed this or not, it was good politics. Oh yes, when the ten years had expired, over one million Soviet Jews had made their way to Israel—the largest emigration from any country. It was a miracle! To visualize this miracle, some compare it to the United States absorbing the total population of France in ten years. No wonder, as the Prophet Jeremiah predicted, the people of the world would marvel.

What a litany of prophecies fulfilled! The odds of so many prophecies anticipating centuries beforehand events that have occurred with Israel is absolutely zero. It defies human providence. It requires Divine providence. These Hebrew prophets of old could only have written as influenced by God. Such supernatural fulfillment of prophecy distinguishes the Christian Bible as the veritable Word of God.

The God of Prophecy

Our God, the only true God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, knew His human race would devise gods that were the figment of their own imaginations. Isa. 44:8-20. The Judeo-Christian God, the God of prophecy, challenges the false gods of the various cultures to declare the end from the beginning in Isaiah 46:9-10.

For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning
And from ancient times which have not been done,
Saying, My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.

The gods of the other world religions cannot meet this challenge of prophecy. They are silent—dumb. Why? They do not exist! And the machinations of the world’s nations today do not have the power to meet this challenge. Their schemes will collapse. Why?

The Judeo-Christian Bible contains hundreds of prophecies that have been fulfilled. Indeed, over one-third of your Bible is prophetic. No other purported Bible of the other world religions contains a system of prophecy. Only our Bible contains this prophetic proof that it is the inspired Word of God.