The Bible and Prophecy

In what other well-known book can we not only find the future predicted, but also the record of the fulfillment of those predictions when they came to pass many hundreds of years later? There can be no more dramatic proof of the truth of the Bible than fulfilled prophecy.

Although the fulfillment of many Bible prophecies lies yet in the future, numerous predictions have been fulfilled, as can be demonstrated in the historical record. If we can confirm fulfilled prophecy —especially in small detail— this evidence would be hard to ignore.

As with the historical evidence recorded by many biblical authors, God through prophecy gives us ample opportunity to disprove the Bible if it can be shown to be inaccurate. Isaiah, Daniel and others recorded many pronouncements, some in great detail, and God invites us to check His record through them.

Speaking through Isaiah, God challenges doubters to prove Him: "For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand . . .'" (Isaiah 46:9-10).

The ancient Israelites frequently resorted to false prophets and empty oracles to gain special insight about the future. Their trust in these sources amounted to vain idolatry.

God's challenge to the skeptics

God Himself says that prophecy is a proof of the true God: "Let these idols come forward and foretell the future for us. Let them declare the meaning of these past events that we may reflect on it; let them predict the future to us that we may know what it holds. Declare what is yet to happen; then we shall know you are gods" (Isaiah 41:22-23, REB).

The best and brightest minds are perplexed about what is happening in the world, including how to solve problems that have defied solution for generations. God, however, knows the solutions, and He has recorded for us exactly how our intractable problems will be solved. He knows how the human experience will end.

God recorded prophecies and their fulfillments in the Bible as proof of the inspiration of Bible prophecy. If He can foretell events centuries in advance, then see that they are brought to pass, we have irrefutable proof of His existence and that the Bible is indeed His inspired Word for us. If God can bring some of His prophecies to pass, it becomes obvious that it is within His power to see that all the Bible's recorded prophecies are brought to pass.

Let us consider how difficult it is to foretell the future. Did any human prognosticators foresee the rapid collapse of the Soviet Union? Did any seers have a premonition that the Berlin Wall would crumble so suddenly? These dramatic events caught the world by surprise.

On the other hand, during the Persian Gulf War of 1991 some self-proclaimed prophets foresaw this as Armageddon in the making. The prophesied Armageddon will occur, but this was not it. Specific aspects of the real Armageddon, as revealed in the Bible, were lacking in the Persian Gulf War. Those who had a solid grasp of biblical prophecy understood that this crisis did not include all the factors required for the final crisis at the close of the age.

Such a major crisis will occur. Exactly how it will develop cannot be foretold in detail by man. History is full of world-shaking events that have caught the most able statesmen by surprise. The brightest world leaders will be confounded when the stage is finally set for the actual Armageddon.

The potential for dramatic shifts in world events increases as the world's technological revolution continues to lunge forward. Events will astonish humankind as never before. Much of the world faces the future with fear and apprehension—and rightfully so, especially as wars, terrorism, iniquity and immorality increase. No one knows all the twists and turns that will take place in the years ahead.

How much can we know?

How much can a Christian really know about the future? People have sometimes made brazen predictions in the past, especially during crises and other tense times. The book of Daniel prophesied events fulfilled many centuries ago as well as occurrences yet to be fulfilled. God instructed Daniel to "shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase" (Daniel 12:4). This verse indicates that certain major prophecies will be understandable as the end approaches.

God's Word tells us that a vast number of prophecies will find their complete fulfillment with the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, the resurrection of the dead, and the establishment of a reign of peace for 1,000 years (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 5:10). It seems likely that some of the major events leading up to that time will be understood by the people of God just before and during their fulfillment (Daniel 12:9-10; Amos 3:7).

The understanding of some major prophetic events is crucial as a guide to comprehending where we stand chronologically in God's plan. The Bible is the lone trustworthy guide in these matters. It foretold much of what we know as history. Similarly, it can help us understand what will yet happen.

The purpose of this chapter is to address some prophecies that have already been fulfilled. This can help us see even more clearly that the Bible is indeed the Word of God, a trustworthy source that can help us understand issues critical to our future. Bible prophecy has rightly been called "history written in advance," as we will see.

Key prophecies

The prophecies of Daniel provide important keys to establishing the accuracy of Bible prophecy. Many of his prophecies are so detailed and specific that, if they stand demonstrably proven, even the most biased mind will be at a loss to refute them.

In fact, some skeptics have not challenged the content of Daniel's prophetic accuracy. Rather than admit that his words are indeed inspired, they have labeled his book a fraud. They claim that it was not written by Daniel in the sixth century B.C., as we can tell by events written of in the book, but was penned by an unknown author sometime after 200 B.C., long after many of the events prophesied in the book came to pass. This, critics allege, is the reason for the book's startling prophetic accuracy.

Perhaps the best-known incident in the book of Daniel features Daniel in the lion's den (chapter 6). Daniel's testimony challenges the critics. But let's first consider the nature of the critics' approach. They dispute Daniel's authorship because he refers to himself in the early chapters in the third person, as if writing about someone else. However, as Gleason L. Archer Jr. points out in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, this "was the custom among ancient authors of historical memoirs . . ." (Vol. 7, p. 4). In relating some of his experiences Daniel did write in the first person (Daniel 7:15; 8:15; 9:2; 10:2).

The identity of Daniel's critics is significant as well. The first person to question the authenticity of Daniel's authorship was the Greek scholar and historian Porphyry, who lived A.D. 233-304. He is labeled by historians as a Neoplatonist, which means he subscribed to the doctrines of the Greek philosopher Plato rather than the Bible. "Porphyry is well known as a violent opponent of Christianity and defender of Paganism" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, Vol. 22, p. 104, s.v. "Porphyry").

Since Porphyry was an enemy of Christianity, his objectivity is open to question. He had no factual basis for his opinion, and his view contradicted the testimony of Jesus Christ, who referred to Daniel as the author of the book (Matthew 24:15).

The biblical scholar Jerome (A.D. 340-420) refuted Porphyry's contention. Thereafter no one took Porphyry's remarks seriously again until many centuries later. ". . . He was more or less dismissed by Christian scholarship as a mere pagan detractor who had allowed a naturalistic bias to warp his judgment. But during the time of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, all supernatural elements in Scripture came under suspicion . . ." (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 13).

Some of today's scholars with liberal leanings have recycled these centuries-old arguments. Old Testament historian Eugene H. Merrill says their beliefs are built upon feeble evidence. "[Daniel's] rhetoric and language are eminently at home in the sixth century [B.C.] . . . It is only on the most subjective and circular lines of evidence that the man and his writing have been denied historicity . . ." (Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1996, p. 484).

Phenomenal prediction and fulfillment

The accuracy of Daniel's prediction of remotely distant events is spectacular. For example, he wrote the "70 weeks" prophecy in the "first year of Darius" (Daniel 9:1, 24). The first year of Darius was about 539 B.C. In this amazing utterance, "Daniel predicts the precise year of Christ's appearance and the beginning of his ministry in A.D. 27" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 9).

A second remarkable prophecy recorded by Daniel is his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in chapter 2. In the second year of his reign the Babylonian king had a troubling dream that none of his counselors could explain. Babylonian culture placed considerable emphasis upon dreams, and Nebuchadnezzar was convinced that this one was of great importance (Daniel 2:1-3).

His dream gives us a "disclosure of God's plan for the ages till the final triumph of Christ" and "presents the foreordained succession of world powers that are to dominate the Near East till the final victory of the Messiah in the last days" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, pp. 39, 46).

Without prior knowledge of its content, Daniel explained the details of the dream to Nebuchadnezzar: "You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay" (Daniel 2:31-33).

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that his Babylonian Empire was represented by the head of gold (verses 37-38). The silver, bronze, and iron and clay components of the image, or statue, represented three powerful empires that were to follow mighty Babylon (verses 39-40).

This interpretation provided an astounding preview of history. Nebuchadnezzar's dream occurred and was interpreted by Daniel about 600 B.C. The image represented, in symbolic form, the sequence of great empires that would dominate the civilized world's political scene for centuries.

"The silver empire was to be Medo-Persia, which began with Cyrus the Great, who conquered Babylon in 539 . . . This silver empire was supreme in the Near and Middle East for about two centuries" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 47).

"The bronze empire was the Greco-Macedonian Empire established by Alexander the Great . . . The bronze kingdom lasted for about 260 or 300 years before it was supplanted by the fourth kingdom" (ibid.).

"Iron connotes toughness and ruthlessness and describes the Roman Empire that reached its widest extent under the reign of Trajan" (ibid.). Trajan reigned A.D. 98-117, and the Roman Empire itself ruled for many centuries.

The fourth empire was depicted as having 10 toes. The feet and toes were composed partly of iron and partly of clay, as verse 41 explains. "Verse 41 deals with a later phase or outgrowth of this fourth empire, symbolized by the feet and ten toes—made up of iron and earthenware, a fragile base for the huge monument. The text clearly implies that this final phase will be marked by some sort of federation rather than by a powerful single realm" (ibid.).

Another dream adds important details

Additional aspects of this succession of world-ruling empires were revealed to Daniel in a later dream. This time the four empires were represented by four beasts: a lion (Babylonian Empire), a bear (Persian Empire) and a leopard (Greco Macedonian Empire), and a fourth beast described as "terrible" and unlike the other three (Daniel 7:1-7).

Notice what verse 7 says about this fourth creature: "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." What does this description mean? It is a reference to the great power of Rome, which crushed all who opposed it. "Thus the superior power of the colossus of Rome . . . is emphasized in the symbolism of this terrible fourth beast" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 87).

What is the meaning of the 10 horns? The ultimate fulfillment of this part of the prophecy is yet in our future. "The ten horns appear to refer to an end-time revival of the Roman Empire . . ." (Ibid., p. 25).

This concurs with Daniel 2:44, which obviously indicates that the second coming of Christ will occur in a time during which vestiges of the fourth beast, or kingdom, still exist: "And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever."

The greater part of these prophetic events, as detailed by the two dreams, has already been fulfilled. Their detailed completion affirms the divine inspiration of the Bible. The odds of any person foreseeing this on his own defy credibility. ". . . There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days" (Daniel 2:28).

The Bible's most detailed prophecy

Daniel 11 records another phenomenal prophecy. The chronological setting is given in Daniel 10:1 as the "third year of Cyrus king of Persia." A "man," no doubt an angel (Daniel 9:21), came to tell Daniel what would occur in the "latter days" (Daniel 10:14).

The prophecy that follows is the most detailed in all the Bible. The third year of Cyrus was more than 500 years before the birth of Christ. Yet this prophecy foretells events that began to occur almost immediately and will continue until the return of Christ. The initial stages of the prophecy confirm the Bible because they have already been fulfilled, as can be verified by a study of the Persian and Greek empires. No man could foresee such fine historical detail.

Some elements of what follows are intricate, requiring close attention. But a comparison of the prophetic words with the historical record makes them clear.

Protracted political intrigue

The first 35 verses of Daniel 11 give an account, written years in advance, of the intrigue between two political entities—the "king of the South" and the "king of the North." In secular history, the king of the South is often referred to as Ptolemy. This dynasty ruled from Alexandria in Egypt. The king of the North ruled from Antioch in Syria under the name Seleucus, or Antiochus.

With this in mind, we will provide commentary on the prophecy. The reader may consult Gleason L. Archer's research in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, which we quote below, or other reliable reference works for a more complete account. Please read in your own Bible the verses we cite, and remember that these details were foretold far in advance of their occurrence.

Daniel 11:2: The "three more kings" are Cambyses, the elder son of Cyrus; pseudo-Smerdis, an impostor who passed himself off as Cyrus' younger son, who had been secretly killed; and Darius the Persian. "The Persian king who invaded Greece was . . . Xerxes, who reigned 485-464 B.C." (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 128).

Verses 3-4: "Verse 3 introduces us to . . . the rise of Alexander the Great" (ibid.). The language in verse 4 "clearly suggests that this mighty conqueror was going to have a comparatively brief reign . . . In seven or eight years he accomplished the most dazzling military conquest in human history. But he lived only four years more; and . . . died of a fever in 323 . . ." (ibid.) Alexander's kingdom was divided "among four smaller and weaker empires" (ibid., p. 129).

Alexander's infant son was murdered in 310. Alexander's uncle was assassinated in 317. "Thus there were no descendants or blood relatives to succeed Alexander himself" (ibid.). So his kingdom was not divided among his posterity (verse 4).

Alexander's generals warred for control of his empire. The ensuing struggles for domination eliminated all but four, who became heads of the four divisions of his empire. The four were Cassander, reigning in Greece and the West, Lysimachus in Thrace and Asia Minor, Ptolemy in Egypt and Seleucus in Syria. Of these four, two—Ptolemy and Seleucus—expanded their rule and territory. These were the kings of Egypt and Syria, respectively.

The machinations that follow relate to these two. They are referred to as the king of the South (Ptolemy) and the king of the North (Seleucus) because of their location relative to Jerusalem.

Verse 5: "The king of the South was to be Ptolemy I" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 130). The biblical expression "one of his princes" refers to Seleucus. He had originally served under Ptolemy.

In the intrigue after Alexander's death, Seleucus ultimately gained control over Syria and became king of the North. Seleucus eventually wielded more power than Ptolemy. The dynasty of the Seleucid line was to continue until 64 B.C.

The Laodicean war

Verse 6: A state of tension and hostility existed between the king of the South and the king of the North. Ptolemy I died in 285 B.C. In 252 the two powers attempted a treaty under which Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy II, was to marry Antiochus II, the king of the North. Laodice, the first wife of Antiochus II, was angry because he had divorced her. In retaliation, she manipulated a conspiracy from her place of banishment. She had Berenice and her infant son assassinated. "Not long afterward the king himself [Antiochus II] was poisoned . . ." (ibid.).

Laodice established herself as queen, because her son Seleucus II was too young to rule. The prophecy "she [Berenice] shall be given up" refers to the coup that Laodice engineered to effect the execution of Berenice. Some nobles who had supported Berenice as queen were also brought down.

Verses 7-9: Retaliation followed. A series of military actions, which came to be known as the Laodicean War, resulted. Ptolemy II died soon after Laodice killed his daughter, Berenice. Ptolemy III sought to avenge his sister's death. He attacked the king of the North and captured the Syrian capital of Antioch. Verse 8 describes the recapture by Ptolemy of "long-lost idols and sacred treasures" (ibid., p. 131) that had been stolen from Egypt by Cambyses in 524 B.C.

Peace was concluded between Ptolemy III and Seleucus II in 240, and hostilities ceased until 221, when Ptolemy III died. Verses 10-12: The sons of Seleucus II attacked the king of the South after their father died. One of these sons, Seleucus III, reigned for only three years. His military activity was relatively minor. He died by poisoning. Another son, Antiochus III (the Great), did "overwhelm and pass through." He conquered Palestine.

Ptolemy IV, the king of the South, retaliated (verse 11) and defeated the larger army of Seleucus III at the Battle of Raphia. After his victory Ptolemy turned to a life of debauchery during which he slaughtered tens of thousands of Jews in Egypt (verse 12). Through all this he weakened his kingdom.

Verses 13-16: The phrase "at the end of some years" refers to an incident when, 14 years after his defeat, Antiochus III came against Ptolemy V, still a young boy. (Ptolemy IV had died in 203.) The Egyptian provinces were in turmoil because of the wretched life of Ptolemy IV. Many of the people—including Jews sympathetic to the king of the North—joined with Antiochus against the king of the South. The rebellion was ultimately crushed by the Egyptian general Scopus (verse 14). Scopus also rebuffed the forces of Antiochus during the winter of 201-200. The king of the North responded with another invasion. He captured the city of Sidon ("a fortified city"), where Scopus surrendered. Antiochus acquired complete control of the Holy Land, the "Glorious Land" (verse 16).

Verse 17: The Revised English Bible reads: "He [the king of the North] will resolve to advance with the full might of his kingdom; and, when he has agreed terms with the king of the south, he will give his young daughter in marriage to him, with a view to the destruction of the kingdom; but the treaty will not last nor will it be his purpose which is served." Having defeated Scopus, Antiochus desired to gain control of Egypt itself. He gave his daughter, Cleopatra, to Ptolemy V in marriage. He believed she would betray the interests of her husband in favor of her father. Cleopatra frustrated the plans of Antiochus by siding with her husband.

Verses 18-19: In his frustration, Antiochus attacked islands and cities bordering on the Mediterranean. The inhabitants of some of these appealed to Rome for aid. Rome responded by attacking Antiochus and inflicting defeat upon his forces.

The Romans deprived him of much of his territory and took several hostages to Rome, including Antiochus's son. Rome exacted heavy tribute of him (verse 18).

Antiochus returned in disgrace to his stronghold, Antioch. Unable to pay the heavy fees exacted by the Romans, he attempted to plunder a pagan temple. His action so enraged local inhabitants that they killed him, bringing him to an inglorious end (verse 19).

Verse 20: According to 2 Maccabees 3:7-40, Antiochus's other son, Seleucus IV, was also unable to pay the taxes (2 Maccabees is an apocryphal book that reports on these events). Seleucus sent a Jew, Heliodorus, to plunder the temple at Jerusalem. Heliodorus went to the holy city but obtained nothing. Seleucus was later poisoned by Heliodorus, and so killed, "but not in anger or in battle."

Antiochus Epiphanes

Daniel 11:21-35: These verses speak of the infamous Antiochus Epiphanes, the brother of Seleucus IV, who had earlier been taken hostage to Rome. He was a "tyrannical oppressor who did his utmost to destroy the Jewish religion altogether" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 136).

Antiochus passed laws that forbade the practice of the Jewish religion, under penalty of death. He was a man of incredible cruelty. On his orders "an aged Scribe, Eleazar, was flogged to death because he refused to eat swine's flesh. A mother and her seven children were successively butchered, in the presence of the governor, for refusing to pay homage to an image. Two mothers who had circumcised their new-born sons were driven through the city and cast headlong from the wall" (Charles F. Pfeiffer, Between the Testaments, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1974, pp. 81-82).

Verse 31: This refers to the momentous events of Dec. 16, 168 B.C., when a crazed Antiochus entered Jerusalem and killed 80,000 men, women and children (2 Maccabees 5:11-14). He then desecrated the temple by offering a sacrifice to a pagan god, Jupiter Olympus. This outrage was a forerunner of a comparable event that Jesus Christ said would occur in the last days (Matthew 24:15).

Verses 32-35: This is the story of the indomitable will and courage of the Maccabees, a family of priests who resisted Antiochus and his successors. The Maccabees' revolt against the Syrian king was triggered when "Matthathias, the leading priest in the city of Modein . . . , after killing the officer of Antiochus who had come to enforce the new decree concerning idolatrous worship . . . , led a guerrilla band that fled to the hills . . ." (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 141).

Matthathias was aided in his cause by five sons, most notably Judas, nicknamed Hammer. Many of these patriots died in this cause, but their heroics ultimately drove the Syrian forces from the country.

At this point Daniel's prophecy takes on a different tone, shifting to "the time of the end" near the end of verse 35. To quote Archer (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 143): "With the conclusion of the preceding pericope [extract] at v. 35, the predictive material that incontestably applies to the Hellenistic empires and the contest between the Seleucids and the Jewish patriots ends. This present section (vv. 36-39) contains some features that hardly apply to Antiochus IV, though most of the details could apply to him as well as to his latter-day antitype, 'the beast.'"

Liberal and conservative scholars "agree that all of chapter 11 up to this point contains strikingly accurate predictions of the whole sweep of events from the reign of Cyrus . . . to the unsuccessful effort of Antiochus Epiphanes to stamp out the Jewish faith" (ibid.).

Interpreting the prophetic evidence

These scholars differ, however, on what this means. Speaking of the two viewpoints, Archer says that to conservative scholars "this pattern of prediction and fulfillment [serves as] compelling evidence of the divine inspiration and authority of the Hebrew Scriptures, since only God could possibly foreknow the future and see to it that his announced plan would be precisely fulfilled. To the rationalists, however, who begin with the premise that there is no personal God . . . , there is no possibility of a genuine fulfillment of prophecy . . . All biblical instances of fulfilled prophecy must be accounted for as pious fraud in which only after the event takes place has the fiction recording its prediction been devised . . . This is what rationalists have to say about all predictive portions anywhere in the Bible. For them there can be no such thing as divine revelation of events to come. Otherwise they must surrender their basic position and acknowledge the possibility of the supernatural, as demonstrated by detailed fulfillment of events foretold, as here in Daniel, by a prophet of God more than 360 years in advance" (ibid., pp. 143-144).

Did you comprehend the full meaning of that last sentence? Those who dispute even the possibility of the existence of Bible prophecy do it because they want to deny the supernatural; they want to deny even the existence of a God who is able to foretell events down to their smallest details.

Some atheists admit that they reach their conclusions because they simply do not want God telling them how to live.For instance, Aldous Huxley wrote in Ends and Means of his bias: "I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption . . . The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves."

He continued, "For myself . . . the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation . . . We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom . . ." (Chatto & Windus, London, 1938, p. 270, 272-273).

How much more plainly can it be said? People deny the authority of the Bible because they do not want God telling them what to do. Such an approach will be to no avail when men face Jesus Christ in the judgment, because "every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:36).

As the apostle Paul told similar men in Athens more than 1,900 years ago, God "has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained" (Acts 17:31). The time of judgment for these people is yet future, and God will be merciful as He opens their eyes.