The Bible – Is It True? (Prophecies, Part 3/3)

Now, for the last part of the three part essays! I will be posting a “Q&A” next.

Cyrus the Great and the Freedom of the Nation of Israel. In Isaiah, there are some chapters that tells of a certain individual named Cyrus:
Isaiah 44:28 “That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”
Isaiah 45:1,13 “Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.”
It states that this person would grant the captived nation of Israel freedom – with no obligations or reward asked – and let them rebuild their temple. It also states that Cyrus would be a great leader and conqueror. This passage was right on all counts.
The book of Isaiah was written approximately between 740-680 B.C. About 200 years before Cyrus was even born! And, what do you know, Cyrus built himself a great empire, and he also granted the nation of Israel their freedom.

The Defeat of Babylon In Isaiah 13: 19, it states, “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” Predicting the defeat of this “impregnable” city.
Jeremiah 51:26, 43 also says, 26 “And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.” 43 “Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.”
Babylon truly was a magnificent city with its hanging gardens and “impregnable” walls. However, true to the prophecy that was written in two different books – Jeremiah was written between 630-580 B.C. – Babylon was destroyed in the Battle of Opis in 539 B.C.
Till this day, Babylon is still not a habitated nation. Although, the place is open to tourist. 🙂

The Gathering of Israel In quite a few passages in the Bible it tells of the nation of Israel being gathered together in their own country after being scattered abroad:
Isaiah 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Isaiah 36:19, 24 “And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.
24 “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.”
Now, this has been fufilled quite recently. On May 14, 1948, the Isrealites were once again gathered in their own country and given recognition. And this prophecy was written, oh, just a few thousand years ago.

An Explosion of Knowledge Near the End Times We truly are living in an incredible world. Throughout the years, the world has gotten “smaller” with a network of relatively fast and complex transportation system. This allows us to be with our relatives or friends who are on the other side of the world within a day; whereas, it used to be that it would take at least a month! Not only are we able to travel around the world, we are also living in a day and age where new information is being discovered at an incredible rate. And the public has easy access to most of this information.
Daniel 12:4 “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Written more than a thousand years ago, this verse had already prophesied this events which have come to pass!

Are you ready when the end times does come, or if you were to die today? I urge you to get this matter settled with!

The Bible -Is It True? (History, Part 2/3)

History and archaeological facts have also proved that the time frame and descriptions in the books of the Bible are accurate and true. Here are another four examples:

Tel Dan and the Tel Dan Stele In 1838, the “Father of Biblical Geography” – Edward Robinson discovered the archaeological site of Tel Dan. This was the place in Judges 18:29 “And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.”
Then, at around 1993-1994, while excavations were still ongoing at the Tel Dan site, the Tel Dan Stele was found. Written on the stone are the words “House of David.” This pointed David’s reign as written in the books of Samuel and Kings. And, also proving David to be a real person, not just a mythical hero.
Both the Tel Dan and Tel Dan Stele are tourists attractions in the Israel.

Hittites This ancient civilization was once thought to be a Biblical legend and never really existed.
Okay, hold up, I am going to take a break from here and mention something first. It is interesting to note that even though historians and archaeologist once thought that this was a fake civilization, there is no mention of this in most websites and books. There’s no “Oops, apparently, we were wrong, and the Hittites do exist!” Instead, most of the researches just states that the Hittites were real, as if they knew it all the time, so that they would not be embarrassed that the Bible had once again proved that it was correct.
All right, back to the subject! The first mention of the Hittites in the Bible was in Gen 15:20 “And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,” They are then mentioned for about another twenty-one times throughout the Old Testament.
The civilization of the Hittites is also open for tourists.

The Flood as Described in Genesis Throughout human history there have been many accounts or stories of a world wide flood. For example, there are ancient flood myths from Greece and the Epic of Gilgamesh. In China, there was the “Great Yu,” while in India, there was “Matsya.” And then, there is the Biblical account of the Flood. And, unlike all the other myths, this account has physical evidence supporting this world wide flood.
There have been fossilized marines found on top of MOUNTAINS. Evolution tries to explain this away by millions of years of plate tectonics. But, in the first place, evolution did not happen, therefore there is no such thing of “millions of years.” And, think about this, how come the majority of the fossils are still intact if plate tectonics did happen? I would expect to have more broken pieces of fossils then whole ones.
Then, there are the massive graveyards of bones with all kinds of animals fossils in the mix. Some of the fossils, according to evolution, weren’t even suppose live during the same time. But, hey, what do you know? This “contradicting fossils” were in the same mix!
All this pointed to something catastrophic that happened on a world wide scale.

Hezekiah’s Siloam Tunnel Inscription This tunnel was discovered in 1838 and was described in 2 Chronicles 32 and 2 Kings 20:20. It told of how King Hezekiah was besieged by Sennacherib, king of Assyria. To conserve the water during the siege, King Hezekiah built the Slioam Tunnel and also stopped all the water on the outside of the city to make it harder for the Assyrians.
This is also open for tourists.

So, my friends, we have just gone though four – among a host of others – historical and archaeological evidences that, again, prove the validity of the Bible. Do take note again, that even though the Bible can be used to sometimes find some relics, it is not to be used solely as a textbook for such. It has a greater message that it conveys – the message of salvation!

The Bible – Is It True? (Science, Part 1/3)

The Bible is not a scientific book. It has a greater purpose than just serving that – mainly, the Gospel. However, littered throughout the Bible, there are simple statements made regarding the science realm, which have been proven correct hundreds to thousands of years later. This only serves to prove the validity of the Bible. Here are four facts – among a host of others – found:

Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood…”
The book of Leviticus was written during 1440-1400 B.C. and informed the nation of Israel that the blood is an important component of life itself. Let’s take a short look at what the red blood cell does for us:
-forms blood cots around a wound
-regulates body temperature
-transports oxygen to our lungs and tissues
and so on…
Now, a microscopic red blood cell is such an important and complex cell, and yet, “science” is teaching us that this red blood cell came about by chance, in a big bang, and gradually evolved into this essential-for-life cell. Really? Don’t you think that there need be an Intelligent Design behind this?
Bleeding of patients to let out “bad blood” has been around for about three thousand years now and has only recently not been used. It has not been proven to cure any diseases and on the contrary, did cause some deaths. Probably the most famous was George Washington, who died from too much bloodletting and complications stemming from it.

Job 26:7 “…and hangeth the earth upon nothing.”
There were many different views on what the earth was resting on. For the Greeks, it rested on the shoulders of Atlas. For the Hindus, the world rested on four elephants who stood at the four corners of the world. There was also the idea the the earth rested on the back of a giant turtle.
However, the first look from outer space showed us that the earth literally hangs upon nothing. It’s just there…and the book of Job was probably written around 2000 B.C.

Job 28:25 “To make the weight for the winds…”
In 1643, Evangelista Torricelli invented the mercury barometer and proved that the air/wind had weight. Once again, Job was written around 2000 B.C. and this fact was not discovered by secular scientists until 3500 plus years later.

Ecclesiastes 1:6 “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.”
Over here, King Solomon states that the wind moves in “circuits” or patterns, also known today as wind trades. The Portuguese were one of the first to realize that there was a wind pattern that they could follow to travel across the Atlantic Ocean in order to reach South Africa.
By 1847 to 1849, Matthew F. Murray – Pathfinder of the Seas – drew up a rough wind trade chart, mapping out the wind circuits.
Oh, and, by the way, the book of Ecclesiastes was written in 970 B.C. – 930 B.C., about 1900 years before Matthew Murray’s recorded wind trade chart.

So, my friends, as I mentioned, this book is not written to be used as a science manual, however this little statements found throughout the Bible, and proven to be true, only serve to prove the authenticity of the Bible.

 

The Bible – Is It True?

Throughout all the times that I have “debated” with other people, I find myself using the Scripture to support my arguments. But, then, they would come around and say that the Bible is just a book with some good moral codes – e.g. the Decalogue – and the rest of the book is just a bunch of fairy tales to keep us entertained.
No, that is not true. Every word in the Bible is true and will remain true. Matt. 24:35 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
So, what I would like to do is to write a three part essay – as fast as I can – that will use the evidence of science, history (and archaeological), and prophecies to prove that the Bible is, indeed, true.
During this time, I also encourage you to post up any questions regarding the Bible. You can do so on the comment sections of any of this three essays.
I will answer all of this once I am finished with these three essays.
Stay tuned then, and even let your friends read this essays if they have asked you questions regarding the validity of the Bible. One more thing, if possible, it would be extremely helpful if you helped spread the word of this upcoming essays!