My topic today is the question
that atheists cannot answer.
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Now if they could answer
it they wouldn't be atheists
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anymore, and
here is the question.
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If the Bible is not a
divinely inspired book
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why are its prophecies
so incredibly accurate
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in minute detail?
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We're going to explore
that today on the presentation
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let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, as we study
Your Word gives us confidence,
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in the inspiration of scripture.
Help us to know that Your Bible
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is not the product of man but
the product of the Living God.
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So grant us your wisdom as we
study. In Christ's name. Amen!
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The Bible is a remarkable book,
the evidence for its inspiration
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is obvious for those who
approach it with an open mind.
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Now what is inspiration?
Is it that God dictated
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every single word and
the prophets wrote it down?
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Not at all.
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Inspiration works on the mind
so God revealed to the prophets
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visions and dreams and
then they wrote those visions
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and dreams guided
by the Holy Spirit.
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At times God impressed their
minds and they wrote in the
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language of their culture
and day the very thoughts of
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God's Word. So when we
take the Bible in our hands
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it's not the
product of human thought,
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it's the product
of Divine thought.
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Now the evidence for
the inspiration of the Bible
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is incredibly,
incredibly remarkable.
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When you look at the
scripture you find for example
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that in over 1,500 places the
Bible declares that it inspired
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by God. In addition to
that, you notice as well
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that the Bible was
written in three languages,
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it was written in
Hebrew in the Old Testament,
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in Greek and in Aramaic.
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Although written in
three languages, it was written
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by over 40 different authors
over 1,500 year period of time.
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Consider this now.
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Let's suppose that we
are taping this here from
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Thompsonville, IL, and
lets suppose that I went out
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on the street and began to
ask people about the subject
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of death. Now let's suppose
we said, what happens when
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a person dies?
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Well, let's suppose we
took a group to Chicago,
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you see people
walking down the street
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one person would say
well, when you die it's nothing
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you go into the
grave, that's it.
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Another person would say when
you die you are reincarnated,
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another person would say
when you die it's heaven or hell
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another person would
say, when you die, you rest.
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Well, we asked some
subjects about heaven,
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questions about
heaven, most of these people
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when you start
asking them these questions,
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what's going to happen?
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You're going to get all
different kind of answers.
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But yet in the Bible over
a period of over 1,500 years
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in the Bible over a period where
you have 40 different authors
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and they're talking about death,
the second coming of Christ,
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they're talking about Salvation,
they're talking about Heaven,
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these very complex topics
but yet they don't disagree.
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They all have this common
agreement, and you see a common
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mind behind the Bible.
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We call this the
cohesive unity of the Bible
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We call it the fact that the
Bible hangs together in such a
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remarkable way written
over vast ages of time by
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people on
continents, free languages,
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people who
didn't know one another.
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But there is something
else about this very very sacred
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book, over 1,150 manuscripts
of the Old Testament exist.
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Now what does that mean?
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It means there are copies of
the originals that are ancient
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copies that were found
in monasteries, found in
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synagogues, found in caves, you
can take these 1,150 different
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fragments or different
complete manuscripts and you can
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compare the one with
the other and they agree.
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Now look at the New Testament,
in the New Testament, there are
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5.800 manuscripts, 5,8000,
more than any other ancient
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literature, but these
manuscripts don't conflict
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with one another, they agree.
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So whether it is the
cohesive unity of the Bible,
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whether it is the
manuscript of the Bible,
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they indicate
agreement, but most of all
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the prophecies of the
Bible silence atheists.
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So I am going to look at some
of those prophecies with you
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today, in fact, God Himself
says that one of the things that
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distinguishes Him as God is
His ability to know the future.
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Looking here at Isaiah
the 46th chapter, verse 9, 10
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and the
scripture put it this way.
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So why does God say that
there is nobody like Him?
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What is the ability that sets
God apart from all other Gods?
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Here is that ability.
That ability is His ability
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to tell the future.
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That our all-wise Creator
who created this world He is the
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architect of the future
and Bible Prophecy reveals
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God's foreknowledge, God's
ability to know the future.
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Now in the Bible, there
are 2,500 different prophecies.
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How many are there? 2,500.
Two thousand of these prophecies
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have already been fulfilled
there are about 500 that are
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not yet fulfilled that
they are in the future.
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Now these prophecies deal with
nations, they deal with cities,
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they deal with individuals,
they determine the rise and fall
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of kingdoms and so let's look
at a few of these prophecies
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from the Bible. The first
prophecy we want to look at is
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the prophecy of Egypt, Egypt
and we are looking at this in
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Ezekiel chapter 32, Psalms
Proverbs, Isaiah, Ezekiel,
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Ezekiel chapter 32. In Ezekiel
Chapter 32 there is a prediction
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regarding Egypt and it
says starting with verse 12...
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By the swords of
the mighty. By the what?
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By the swords of the mighty.
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That word pomp, in
other words that is wealth.
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Now if you let your
eyes drop down even further,
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it talks about the fact that
verse 15 says when I shall make
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So here Bible Prophecy predicted
very clearly that the wealth
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of Egypt would be
robbed... talk about Egypt
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ruled the world for 30
centuries, over 3,000 years but
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yet it was attacked, its wealth
was plundered, the Assyrians
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attacked Egypt, the Babylonians
attacked Egypt, the Persians
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attacked Egypt, Alexander the
Great, and the Greeks attacked
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Egypt. The Romans attacked Egypt
and later on, Napoleon did.
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And today when you look at
Egypt you see these vast barren
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deserts but it is
only a shadow of the past.
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Take the great kingdoms of Egypt
and the great cities of Egypt
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take a city like Memphis
in Egypt, that was just a
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magnificent city, amazing city,
with its temples and you take
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Karnak in Egypt, these
beautiful temples with columns
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multi-million dollar...Today
if you would ever try to
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build a million-dollar
structure just lavish structures
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but the ruins spread for
miles in Memphis and Karnak.
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Today Egypt's wealth has
been plundered, we've read about
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The Great Grave Robbers in
Egypt who came and plundered the
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wealth of the Pharaoh's
that was buried with them in
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the Pyramid and you
look today and this prophecy
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about Egypt indeed has
been fulfilled indicating the
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truthfulness about God's word.
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You look for example
at prophecies that Daniel
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made about the great
nations that would rise.
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It's a familiar
prophecy to many Bible students
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so I won't deal with it in
detail but I do want to mention
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to you that this prophecy
is quite remarkable found in
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Daniel chapter 2, it's
another one of those great Bible
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prophecies because here in
Daniel chapter 2 the king goes
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to sleep one night and has a
dream, he's King Nebuchadnezzar.
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He attacked Jerusalem in
6005 B.C., he took Daniel's
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friend's captive brought them
back to Babylon to rule this
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puppet kings. And one
night Nebuchadnezzar has a dream
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he goes to sleep and he
dreams of this great statue
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with a head of gold breast and
arms of silver, thighs of brass,
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legs of iron, feet of iron
and clay and then a rock cut out
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without hands
and smites the image.
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Nebuchadnezzar wakes up and
he couldn't remember his dream.
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Have you ever had a dream
that you could not remember?
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Maybe you ate a little bit of
too much pizza before you went
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to bed at night. No, but
that wasn't Nebuchadnezzar's
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problem was it?
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And you wake up and you have
this dream and you just can't
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remember what you dreamt,
it's exactly what happened to
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Nebuchadnezzar. He calls
in his wise men and he says
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unless you interpret the dream,
your head's going to be off
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and the death degree
hangs over their head.
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Daniel requests time to
pray and he goes to pray and God
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reveals to him the dream and
Daniel comes in before the king
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and you find that
Daniel says to the king in
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Daniel chapter 2 verses 27, 28.
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So there is this God in heaven
and then Daniel says to the
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king. So here, Daniel reveals
exactly exactly what the king
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saw. But then Daniel goes on
to the interpretation of that
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and he says king, you are this
head of gold, in other words
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the Babylonia Empire
would be the head of gold.
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Then you will raise
another nation, Medo-Persia,
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then another nation, Greece,
then another nation, Rome,
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but notice what the
prophecy doesn't say,
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it doesn't say there will be
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece,
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Rome, then another
kingdom, then another kingdom,
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and another kingdom, not at all.
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The Bible doesn't list
17 kingdoms or 22 kingdoms,
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it lists the four great
nations that rule the world
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in Daniel's day, Babylon,
Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome
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then it says Rome
would be broken up into
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10 separate divisions.
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It was, then it says that these
iron and clay would never mix,
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they did not. It says that
they mingle themselves with the
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seeds of men that are
there would be intermarriage.
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Napoleon of course intermarried
to try to establish a Napoleonic
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order of Europe and you
have The Great Kings of Europe
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trying to establish the unity of
Europe but just as iron and clay
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don't mix, they didn't mix.
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And then it says after these
things a great rock cut-out
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without hands, the eternal
kingdom of Christ would come.
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See, here's a problem
for atheists and the problem
00:14:04.34\00:14:08.04
for the atheist is this,
why is it that the Bible is so
00:14:08.08\00:14:12.15
incredibly accurate?
00:14:12.18\00:14:13.52
Egypt, desolate, wealth
gone like the Bible predicted.
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Why is it that the Bible
is so incredibly accurate?
00:14:17.92\00:14:20.86
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece,
Rome, they followed one another
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just like the
Bible said they would.
00:14:23.26\00:14:25.43
Rome was divided, you
know the great Gibbon,
00:14:25.46\00:14:29.26
Edward Gibbon who wrote the
Decline and Fall of the Roman
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Empire talks about the images
of gold, silver, brass, and iron
00:14:33.27\00:14:40.64
that were successively broken
by the iron monarchy of Rome.
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So, how could these
things be so accurate?
00:14:46.28\00:14:49.58
You want to talk
about an accurate prophecy.
00:14:49.62\00:14:52.05
Let me give you another
one that's just really really
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quite remarkable and
quite incredible Prophecies.
00:14:55.42\00:15:01.10
Here's one that talks about
Babylon's attack on Jerusalem,
00:15:01.13\00:15:05.17
Jeremiah 32, verse 29
talks about the very attack of
00:15:05.20\00:15:12.17
Nebuchadnezzar on Jerusalem.
00:15:12.21\00:15:14.78
And the Bible talks about
that and predicts these events
00:15:14.81\00:15:18.51
before they happen, the prophet
Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 32
00:15:18.55\00:15:24.19
verse 29...And the Chaldeans,
now Chaldeans is just another
00:15:24.22\00:15:27.22
name for the Babylonians...
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Jerusalem...
00:15:31.93\00:15:33.26
Israel had drifted away
from God and here Jeremiah
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comes and predicts the
very events that would happen.
00:15:48.64\00:15:52.91
The Bible does
not guess, it knows.
00:15:52.98\00:15:57.32
One of the greatest
evidences of Bible accuracy,
00:15:57.35\00:16:01.62
its inspiration is
this fulfilled prophecy.
00:16:01.66\00:16:06.13
Now, if you think what we've
been discussing is quite amazing
00:16:06.16\00:16:10.43
and it is, wait until you
hear these next few prophecies.
00:16:10.53\00:16:13.90
Did you know that it was Cyrus,
King of Persia that attacked
00:16:13.94\00:16:22.94
Babylon and overthrew it?
00:16:22.98\00:16:25.98
Now Cyrus was named 150 years
before he was born in prophecy.
00:16:26.01\00:16:32.49
Somebody says Pastor
Mark, are you serious?
00:16:32.52\00:16:36.36
Are you kidding me here?
I'm not kidding at all, look it,
00:16:36.39\00:16:39.03
Isaiah chapter 44:28,
Isaiah verse 44:28...and this is
00:16:39.06\00:16:45.90
if I were using some vernacular
language I would say this is
00:16:45.93\00:16:49.20
Mind Blowing.
00:16:49.24\00:16:50.64
I mean this is so astounding,
Isaiah chapter 44 verse 28.
00:16:50.67\00:16:57.38
So here God names Cyrus and
He names him 150 years before
00:17:31.58\00:17:39.55
he is born. And He says if
Cyrus would be His shepherd
00:17:39.59\00:17:43.56
to allow Israel to go
back and rebuild Jerusalem,
00:17:43.59\00:17:47.76
now you remember in 605
B.C. 605 years before Christ
00:17:47.80\00:17:52.73
Nebuchadnezzar attacks
Jerusalem the first time,
00:17:52.77\00:17:54.80
takes Daniel captive, he
attacked it a second time
00:17:54.84\00:17:57.57
in 587, burns the city.
00:17:57.61\00:17:59.84
Daniel's in captivity for these
years and the Bible predicted
00:17:59.87\00:18:04.75
a 70-year captivity.
00:18:04.78\00:18:06.61
The captivity is coming
to the end and Cyrus attacks
00:18:06.65\00:18:10.79
Babylon invades it, is
very much in favor of religious
00:18:10.82\00:18:16.76
liberty and allows the
Israelites to go back and freely
00:18:16.79\00:18:22.50
worship and rebuild their city.
00:18:22.53\00:18:25.13
Now here is the remarkable thing
when archeologists were digging
00:18:25.17\00:18:31.87
in the ruins of Ancient
Babylon in 1879 there was this
00:18:31.91\00:18:39.61
amazing discovery, so
these archeologists you know
00:18:39.65\00:18:41.92
they're digging and digging
and they find this little
00:18:41.95\00:18:45.19
nine-inch cylinder
and they look at it
00:18:45.22\00:18:48.99
and they are able to read
it and it's the story of Cyrus
00:18:49.02\00:18:53.56
overthrowing Babylon and
allowing the captives of Israel
00:18:53.60\00:19:00.17
to go free and allow
people to restore their worship.
00:19:00.20\00:19:04.57
If the Bible is not
inspired how could it name Cyrus
00:19:04.61\00:19:12.75
one hundred fifty
years before he was born?
00:19:12.78\00:19:14.95
How could it
describe his very activity?
00:19:14.98\00:19:18.65
Remember too in the
prophecy that we read,
00:19:18.69\00:19:21.36
it said the two-leaf
gates would not be shut?
00:19:21.39\00:19:23.83
How did Cyrus attack Babylon?
00:19:23.86\00:19:27.80
He attacked Babylon
this way. The river Euphrates
00:19:27.83\00:19:32.90
ran underneath the
gates of Babylon and as it did
00:19:32.93\00:19:37.81
it was almost impossible to
attack and overthrow the city.
00:19:37.84\00:19:42.64
The Babylonians had
an adequate water supply,
00:19:42.68\00:19:45.31
their walls were so high that
and so wide that two chariots
00:19:45.35\00:19:51.55
could race side by
side on top of the walls.
00:19:51.59\00:19:53.99
The Persians surrounded the city
but they were unable to get the
00:19:54.02\00:19:58.79
city to fall. Then
Cyrus got this brilliant idea,
00:19:58.83\00:20:04.33
he dammed up the river Euphrates
diverted it out into the desert
00:20:04.37\00:20:08.90
area...When he did that, the
water level beneath the gates
00:20:08.94\00:20:13.98
dropped, Cyrus marched
his army underneath the gates
00:20:14.01\00:20:18.31
but there were gates along
the riverbank inside the city
00:20:18.35\00:20:22.48
but Belshazzar was having a
drunken feast so those gates
00:20:22.52\00:20:26.96
were left open just like the
Bible says the two leaved gates
00:20:26.99\00:20:31.39
that is the gates along
the river would be left open.
00:20:31.43\00:20:34.80
If the Bible is not an inspired
book, how does it know those
00:20:34.83\00:20:38.60
intimate details? Bible
prophecy reveals the accuracy,
00:20:38.63\00:20:45.07
the truthfulness of
the very very Word of God.
00:20:45.11\00:20:50.21
But we're not done
with our prophecies yet.
00:20:50.25\00:20:53.48
There is yet another one
that we must take a look at.
00:20:53.52\00:20:56.42
It's the prophecy
of Tyre and Sidon.
00:20:56.45\00:20:59.05
Now the prophecy of Tyre
is another remarkable prophecy
00:20:59.09\00:21:02.39
in scripture. Tyre is a
city in Lebanon right on the
00:21:02.42\00:21:08.10
Mediterranean Coast,
it's a fantastic city,
00:21:08.16\00:21:10.50
I've visited Tyre, tramped
around there and taken a look
00:21:10.53\00:21:16.34
at its ruins. You find the
story of Tyre in the Book of
00:21:16.37\00:21:19.97
Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and we're going to
00:21:20.01\00:21:23.35
go over to Ezekiel chapter 26.
00:21:23.38\00:21:25.18
We've been talking about
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
00:21:25.21\00:21:28.42
and he attacked Tyre and
the prophet made a prediction
00:21:28.45\00:21:33.96
regarding Tyre in Ezekiel
Chapter 26 and we're going to
00:21:33.99\00:21:39.33
look first at verse four
and five and let's go back
00:21:39.36\00:21:44.20
and pick up verse three as well.
00:21:44.23\00:21:45.57
That's critical,
we'll come back to it.
00:21:55.64\00:21:57.25
And then if you go a little
further in Ezekiel chapter 26,
00:22:15.70\00:22:19.80
it follows through
this prophecy, verse 12.
00:22:19.83\00:22:24.01
Now let's look at this
prophecy, let's look at what
00:22:47.06\00:22:49.76
the Bible says it says
one, many nations, not one would
00:22:49.80\00:22:54.70
come against Tyre. It
says two, that Tyre's ruins
00:22:54.74\00:23:00.64
would be thrown into
the sea. It says three,
00:23:00.68\00:23:03.24
there will be a plate-like
the spreading of nets,
00:23:03.28\00:23:05.51
it would be
desolate not rebuilt.
00:23:05.55\00:23:06.88
What happened?
Nebuchadnezzar attacked Tyre
00:23:06.92\00:23:11.09
it took him 13 years, why?
because the city was not only
00:23:11.12\00:23:15.32
along the coast but there was
a little island city and that
00:23:15.36\00:23:19.23
Nebuchadnezzar could
never quite get that island city
00:23:19.26\00:23:22.00
and so he never destroyed it.
00:23:22.03\00:23:23.37
Now some critics say wait
a minute Nebuchadnezzar took
00:23:23.40\00:23:25.67
13 years, he attacks the
city but he couldn't destroy it
00:23:25.70\00:23:30.97
and so the
prophecy wasn't fulfilled.
00:23:31.01\00:23:33.78
Wait a minute. Two
hundred fifty years later
00:23:33.81\00:23:36.31
Alexander the Great came and
Alexander the Great sees this
00:23:36.34\00:23:41.02
island city, it has amazing
walls of the city right down to
00:23:41.05\00:23:45.85
the sea. He struggling to
attack it, finally, he isolates
00:23:45.89\00:23:50.73
this island city puts it under
siege then he takes the timbers
00:23:50.76\00:23:55.03
and the ruins and the columns
that were left in the water
00:23:55.06\00:24:00.54
and left on the
shores by Nebuchadnezzar.
00:24:00.57\00:24:07.34
And 250 years later
what does Alexander do?
00:24:07.38\00:24:10.75
He takes all these ruins,
he builds a causeway out to
00:24:10.78\00:24:15.48
old Tyre attacks
it and overthrows it.
00:24:15.52\00:24:19.39
What did the Bible
say? Many nations would come
00:24:19.42\00:24:23.43
against the city. They did.
The Bible said it would be like
00:24:23.46\00:24:26.76
waves of the sea, army
after army attacks Tyre
00:24:26.80\00:24:30.47
and if you look for the
old Tyre, you can't find it.
00:24:30.50\00:24:32.47
It was one of the
wealthiest seaport cities,
00:24:32.50\00:24:35.30
it was a city
of lavish splendor.
00:24:35.34\00:24:37.81
Here, the ancient prophecies
of the Bible clearly revealed
00:24:37.84\00:24:44.55
and God's Word is true and
in the book of Isaiah chapter 40
00:24:44.58\00:24:52.15
verse 8 the Bible puts it
this way. Isaiah 40 verse 8.
00:24:52.19\00:24:58.03
As you and I take the Bible
in our hands, it is a divinely
00:24:58.06\00:25:03.00
inspired book, it's a
book that clearly speaks to our
00:25:03.03\00:25:08.57
generation, the Bible is filled
with hope, it's filled with
00:25:08.60\00:25:13.01
encouragement. If you
need hope, open the pages of
00:25:13.04\00:25:17.51
scripture, if you need
encouragement, open the pages
00:25:17.55\00:25:21.78
of scripture, if you need
forgiveness open the pages of
00:25:21.82\00:25:26.32
scripture. If you need power
in your life, open the pages of
00:25:26.35\00:25:30.36
scripture. The Bible
says in Isaiah 48 verse 8
00:25:30.39\00:25:34.23
echoing and re-echoing
down the corridors of time
00:25:45.77\00:25:50.75
are the words of this ancient
book...You know there's an old
00:25:50.78\00:25:55.65
song that goes
something like this.
00:25:55.68\00:25:57.19
Ancient words ever true,
changing me and changing you.
00:25:57.22\00:26:03.63
The greatest inspiration
of scripture, the greatest
00:26:03.66\00:26:09.70
testimony that the Bible has
inspired is the lives that its
00:26:09.73\00:26:14.57
changed. I've traveled around
the world stood on the great
00:26:14.60\00:26:19.41
platform of the world, preached
in Africa, and seen which
00:26:19.44\00:26:24.81
doctors come to Christ,
seen people demon-possessed,
00:26:24.85\00:26:29.62
delivered. I've stood on the
platforms of the world in Europe
00:26:29.65\00:26:34.69
and in bastions of secularism
like Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
00:26:34.72\00:26:40.90
seen many women come to Christ
and have their lives changed.
00:26:40.93\00:26:44.70
I've stood in the Kremlin
Auditorium and watched God
00:26:44.73\00:26:49.87
move upon communist hearts,
atheistic hearts and seen
00:26:49.90\00:26:55.68
them change by the
Christ of this book.
00:26:55.71\00:26:59.31
I have preached in India
the Hindu populations, Pakistan,
00:26:59.35\00:27:07.36
the Muslim population,
Indonesia and as I've traveled
00:27:07.39\00:27:11.79
the world and opened the Word
of God for these last 50 years
00:27:11.83\00:27:16.87
or more, I've seen Jesus
touch hearts and touch lives
00:27:16.90\00:27:21.10
and I don't know what
your situation is as you are
00:27:21.14\00:27:25.21
watching the program, I don't
know what you are struggling
00:27:25.24\00:27:29.44
with but Jesus wants to speak
to you, Jesus wants to touch you
00:27:29.48\00:27:35.48
by His grace. Why
not give God a chance.
00:27:35.52\00:27:39.22
Take the Bible, open the gospel
of John and read about this
00:27:39.25\00:27:45.86
Christ who can change
you what He's done for others
00:27:45.89\00:27:52.40
He can do for you for He
is the life-changing Christ.
00:27:52.43\00:27:58.94