The Christian Doctrine Paradox

“Other books claim divine inspiration, such as the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and parts of the [Hindu] Veda. But none of those books contains predictive prophecy.” —Norman Geisler and William Nix

We will continue our discussion of scientific evidence later in this book. For now, we need to address the “psychic-ness” of the Holy Bible. How in the world did the various biblical authors predict the future? In this regard, and many others as we will see, the Holy Bible is unique in all history.

The skeptics argument should be given a spotlight before we Christians bring our evidence to the stage. It is likely the skeptic will not read past the first page, or hear our opening statements, if we fail to give them grounds to be heard. They have made such claims directly to this author when debating said skeptics online. “Why would any of us debate a Christian when Christians refuse to hear our arguments? You are already brainwashed and you are not listening to us.” So naturally, we should listen intently as they make their case. This type of approach is in fact a biblical instruction written by Solomon himself; Proverbs 18:13. A double edged sword where if either side refuses to listen objectively, the result is often a fool being made of oneself. So, here it is… They will say, “you cannot claim the bible predicted the future because the text could have been altered after the fact, and not at the time it claims to have been written.” In other words, some skeptics claim the biblical text was edited decades and even centuries after the claimed date of authorship. The later scribes would have inserted these portions into the biblical text to give the appearance that the text predicted the future.

For instance, Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue (which predicts three future world empires that would rise to world power after the fall of Babylon; Daniel 2), would have been a forgery written long after the sixth and seventh century BC when Daniel lived in Babylon. It would have been forged at a date after the kingdoms of Mede-Persia (~539-331BC), Greece (~331-146BC) and eventually Rome (~150BC-445AD) had already come and gone. To suggest the book of Daniel was written at the time it claimed to have been written, one would need to admit Daniel possessed the gift of foresight. And since the skeptics refuse to believe God can work through people (the Prophets), they set their sights on debunking the historicity of the Holy Bible.

The BIG problem with the skeptic’s argument of how “it was written after the fact, edited by latter writers”, is that in the mid-20^th century, a much-wiser-than-us God saw fit to provide the “Dead Sea Scrolls”. Another undisputed archaeological discovery! While none of the copies of Daniel found at Qumran are 100% complete, they do when combined preserve substantial portions of the biblical text from both the Aramaic and Hebrew. These later copies of Daniel are dated to at least the second century BC.

Predating Daniel was Isaiah. Remarkably, Isaiah too called out one of these succeeding rulers by name; Cyrus of Persia (Isaiah 41; 44; 45). Isaiah gave this prophecy of Cyrus the Great conquering Babylon long before Cyrus was born. These prophetic texts predicted the exact person who would rise to power ~150 years before the events took place. That is impossible! Either Isaiah was psychic, or he was in contact with someone who had prophetic abilities. Indeed, Isaiah claims he was in contact with God. Hence, the ability to know future events. Additional books of the Holy Bible support Isaiah’s prophetic vision (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-11; 6:3-5; Daniel 1:21; 2; 6:28; 10:1). All of which contain events well documented in the archaeological record.

The book of Isaiah was the most prominent book in all the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran. Many of the scrolls are proven to be dated to the third century BC and therefore were not written or re-edited after the fact as some claim. And since they can be dated to the third century before Christ, we can know the original texts were written at an even earlier date. The odds of the discovery at Qumran being the original and only copies of this “fake book” circulating at that time are astronomical.

Therefore, given the integrity of the scriptural text found at Qumran combined with the archeological record showing the existence of Isaiah as a historical figure (the Isaiah bulla mentioned in chapter 1), we can prove biblical literature is genuine. The skeptics have no ground for an objective denial because the evidence is plentiful. In an honest court of law, this is a closed case. The problem is that the skeptics simply don’t want to believe. Nevertheless, the books of Isaiah and Daniel did in fact predict future events which later came to pass.

The Holy Bible is only a book made of ink and paper. It holds no power in and of itself. It is not a magic wand or a list of incantations, sorceries and alchemies such as the books recording the dark arts. It does however contain evidence that the people who wrote the text were either psychic (which no faithful believer claims) or, the authors were in contact with a God who Himself claims to be outside space and time. God exists in the eternal realms. He can either see into the future; and we cannot, or more likely, God pre-ordained certain things to happen for His own good will and pleasure. He then communicated His planned events to His prophets. God frequently told them in visions, dreams and prophetic utterances “write, for this is what the Lord your God says”. That is how the prophets predicted future events. Because God ordained it so! (Job 12:23; Jeremiah 1:10; Daniel 2:21; 4:17)

“…he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: 22He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.” (Daniel 2:21)

“This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.” (Daniel 4:17)

A demonstration has now been given as to how these prophetic documents are proven authentic by the archaeological record and how the skeptics arguments are those of a rudderless ship taking on water. Let us now turn the spotlight back to the main stage.

The prophecy foretelling the rise and fall of four kingdoms is recorded in Daniel chapter two. In it, the text states that three kingdoms will come to pass after Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. The text gives specific symbolism for each.

“This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 33His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. …39And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” (Daniel 32-33; 39)

These three succeeding kingdoms are universally recognized by the archaeological and historical records as 1) Medo-Persia (with Cyrus the Great conquering Babylon), 2) Greece (with Alexander the Great conquering Persia), and 3) Rome (defeating all major territories throughout the known world, depicted in biblical prophecy as legs of iron with feet and toes of iron and backed clay).

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If you enjoyed this excerpt from the forthcoming book, “A Sure Foundation”, then stay tuned… Lord willing, there is much more cataloging evidence underway.