Participants: Chris Holland
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201509A
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00:01 Philosophy's Achilles heel - The handwriting on the wall -
00:06 Philosophy's Achilles heel - The handwriting on the wall - 00:12 Philosophy's Achilles heel - The handwriting on the wall - 00:18 Philosophy's Achilles heel - The handwriting on the wall - 00:24 Philosophy's Achilles heel - The handwriting on the wall - 00:31 Philosophy's Achilles heel - The handwriting on the wall - 00:37 Philosophy's Achilles heel - The handwriting on the wall - 00:42 Philosophy's Achilles heel - The handwriting on the wall - 00:47 Philosophy's Achilles heel - The handwriting on the wall - 01:31 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time. 01:34 God's book, The Bible 01:38 Still relevant in today's complex world 01:44 It Is Written 01:46 Sharing messages of hope around the world! 01:58 Dear friend, presentation after presentation in this series, Philosophy's Achilles 02:04 Heel, demonstrates how God has opened Himself up to be tested on whether He truly exists. 02:12 Last week demonstrated that not only does God exist, but He is relentlessly pursuing us 02:18 that we might respond to His love. Nebuchadnezzare responded to God's revealing 02:25 by making a decision to serve Him forever. As we now move to Daniel chapter 5, we will once 02:35 again see God revealed in astounding ways. Let's begin in Daniel 5:1-9 which takes 23 02:48 years after Nebuchadnezzar's death. 04:48 Can you imagine the scene? Partying and feasting all interrupted by the handwriting 04:54 on the wall. And once again, the question of "who is the true God?" continues to be 05:02 agitated. This question has been settled over and over again in the book of 05:09 Daniel.Nebuchadnezzar stated in Dan 2:47 that Daniel's God was a God of gods and a Lord 05:17 of kings. In Daniel 3 after the God of heaven rescued the Hebrew young men from the 05:23 fiery furnace, the king stated "There is no other god that can deliver like this;" and 05:30 yet again in Dan 4 the king not only intellectually acknowledged the God of 05:36 heaven, but he fully submitted to him as well. Yet, the decision of Nebuchadnezzar is 05:42 not passed along by genetics to Belshazzar, who is his grandson. Once again, God's 05:51 love is seen to not force or coerce. And now with this new leader in Babylon who was in a 05:59 position of power, God is giving opportunity to either accept or reject the 06:06 overwhelming conviction of His existence and plan for His life. Dear friend, He does the 06:15 same with us. It doesn't matter what your parents believed. What personal 06:21 decision will you make based on the evidence? 06:34 It is evident from this story that Daniel has had no communication with the new 06:40 king. In addition, it appears that Daniel is no longer president of the wise men.We 06:47 cannot know for sure, but it would appear that because Belshazzar is completely 06:52 opposed to every religious and political principle that Daniel stands for, he has been 07:02 marginalized in the kingdom. But the queen mother tells Belshazzar about Daniel and 07:09 that he should be brought to interpret these things. Daniel does come to the palace. And 07:15 Daniel reminds Belshazzar of his grandfather's journey verses 18-23 state: 09:06 As Daniel recounted God's dealings with Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, Daniel mentions 09:12 the main reason for why the issue of"who is the true God?" continues to be agitated, even 09:19 though it has been settled. Very simply put, the reason is pride. That pride then leads 09:28 to self-glorification. It was pride that led Belshazzar to praise the gods of silver, 09:36 gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone; it was pride that led him to get rid of Daniel as 09:43 the president of the wise men; it was pride that led him to continue to rely on the wisdom 09:53 of his wise men even thoughhe should have known better; it was pride that led him to 10:01 desecrate the vessels of God's house and showing that nothing was too sacred for him to 10:08 handle, and it was pride that led him to choose to forget all of the history of what had 10:17 happened to his grandfather. Although pride may attempt to ignore the facts of history, 10:25 in the end, it cannot deny them; nor can it deny the living God to whom they point. 10:36 I wonder, how many of us today are doing the same thing as Belshazzar and his lords. 10:43 Instead of allowing the facts of history to confirm the prophetic statements of t he 10:49 Bible, many choose instead to escape the lessons from history by further drowning 10:56 their convictions in alcohol, sex, sports and the gods of this world. But the revelation 11:04 of God is powerful and convincing. God reveals himself here to Belshazzar and 11:12 the court of Babylon through his prophet Daniel interpreting the handwriting 11:18 on the wall. Listen to Dan 5:25-28: 11:54 The fall of Babylon was a highly improbable eventWith Nebuchadnezzar as king, 12:00 Babylon reached the pinnacle of its power. Even though the rulers that followed 12:05 Nebuchadnezzar were weaker and inefficient, and although the Medes and Persians earlier did 12:11 cross the "Media Line" in the battle of Opisby defeating Babylon, the truth is that 12:18 Babylon was still the ruling power in the world. Furthermore, the city of 12:24 Babylon itself was considered to be impregnable. The inner city alone had a size of about 12:30 1 square mile. In the northwest corner lay the royal palace, and south of that the 12:37 sacred precinct of Esagila, in which stood Etemenanki, the temple tower. This tower was 12:45 about 300 ft. square at its base and more than 300 ft. high, and that it was built in 12:53 7 stages, having on top as its 7th stage a shrine dedicated to the god Marduk. Etemenanki 13:04 means "the foundation stone of heaven and earth." Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt and 13:11 extended the palace, adding among other things a vaulted structure with a roof garden 13:18 on it called the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, known in the ancient world as one of 13:26 the Seven Wonders of the World. He added a new city to the inner city and connected 13:31 it with a permanent bridge. He surrounded the New City with a double wall and a moat that 13:39 met the wall and a moat that protected the inner city. It's estimated that the height of 13:46 the walls was between 200 to 300 ft. high and 87 ft. thick. Furthermore the gates of the 13:54 city were made of solid brass. With a total circumference of about 10 miles, Babylon was 14:03 probably the largest city of antiquity. It is estimated that the city had provisions 14:10 that could last up to 20 years. The land within the limits of the city 14:17 weresufficient to furnish food for the inhabitants and garrison for an indefinite 14:23 period. Also, since Babylon sat upon the great Euphrates river it had an endless water 14:31 supply. Babylon was impregnable and undefeatable The Media-Persian empire was 14:43 growing strong, but certainly nothing to fear. And even thought Belshazzar knew of 14:52 Cyrus' plans to take the city, he had every confidence in those strongly fortified 14:57 walls, in his armies and his supplies. He well knew that the city could never be taken 15:04 with any of the conventional means of warfare known at the time. Therefore, he threw a 15:12 grand party for 1000 of his lords. For Daniel to predict the fall of Babylon back in 15:20 Dan 2 when everything looked like it would last forever was highly improbable. Again, to 15:28 interpret the handwriting, for God to know the city would fall is improbable as well. 15:38 For Cyrus, general of the Medo-Persian armies, the only way to get into the city was 15:45 to find where the river Euphrates entered under the walls and gain access. Cyrus' 15:52 favorite horse had been killed in battles with the Babylonians and he was so 15:57 angered that he resolved that he would take the city. To accomplish this, he would 16:04 utilize a strategy that was not your typical "take it by force" method. He learned of 16:10 an annual festival in which the whole city would be given up to mirth and revelry, and 16:17 he determined that it would be the day to carry out his purpose. Then through a 16:23 marvelous feet of engineering, Cyrus developed a plan in which he would divert the 16:30 waters of the Euphrates from its channel. On the evening of Belshazzar's party he 16:37 detailed one body of soldiers to turn the river at a given hour into a large artificial 16:44 lake a short distance above the city; another to take their station at the point 16:52 where the river entered the city; and a third to take a position fifteen miles below, 16:58 where the river emerged from the city. The two later bodies were instructed to enter the 17:04 channel as soon as they found the river fordable, and then in the night to explore their 17:13 way beneath the walls and press on to the palace of the king where they were to 17:19 surprise the guards and kill the king. And this is exactly what happened. In direct 17:29 fulfillment of the handwriting on the wall. On the very night of Belshazzar's party Daniel 17:36 informed the king his kingdom would end. And in fact, the Medo-Persians would enter the 17:43 city and that night the king was slain. This happened in October of 539 BC, when Cyrus 17:53 entered the gates and took the city without a real battle and Babylon fell. The fall of 18:07 Babylon was a highly improbable event, almost impossible. Belshazzar's 18:13 partying, carelessness and presumption, let to Cyrus' men being able to reach the gates 18:21 in the river, which had been left open. No one saw that the level of the river had 18:27 suddenly gone down signaling their impending doom. However, even more amazing is this. The 18:34 prophet Isaiah, almost 150 years before the event took place, predicted with stunning 18:45 accuracy not only the fall of Babylon, but also the manner in which the city would fall. 18:52 Let's take a closer look at Isaiah 44:26-45:4 20:31 In addition, we find these words about the fall of Babylon written by Isaiah in 20:39 chapter 21:2 20:51 This is a description of the work of Babylon. Then later in verse 2, Isaiah hears the 20:58 words 21:07 In v.4, the prophet Isaiah's fright regarding the destruction of Babylon 21:12 reflects that of Belshazzar, it states 21:23 In v.5 he sees the feasting Babylonians. The passage declares, 21:38 Then in v. 9 the prophet declares 21:51 More than 150 years before it happened, the prophet Isaiah, one, names Media as one of the 21:59 two nations that would come against Babylon; two and even more astonishing, Yet, even 22:06 more astonishing is that Cyrus is called by name. Think about this friend, identifying 22:11 the nation that take over Babylon 150 years in advance is quite a feat, but naming 22:18 the very general who would lead the army adds a significant layer of 22:25 complexity to this prophecy. Isaiah even predicted that the Euphrates river would dry up. 22:32 This fact alone would almost be impossible to predict.Isaiah foresaw that 22:40 the gates of the city would be opened. He saw the drunken night of pleasure and heard 22:46 the declaration that Babylon is fallen Finally, he foresaw that Cyrus would grant 22:55 permission to the Jews to go back to their homeland and to rebuild the temple. Dear 23:01 friends, this is truly remarkable. You know, some respond to these remarkable 23:08 things in several ways: first, some will say that the book of Daniel was written in the 2nd 23:14 century. Part of the reason for this is that the only place where Belshazzar's name 23:20 was mentioned was in Daniel 5. Therefore, they say, the story is fictitious. Furthermore, 23:28 critics have undermined the credibility of the book of Isaiah by believing that the 23:32 book that bears his name was written by at two or three persons. Both of these 23:41 criticisms have been convincingly answered by archaeological and historical 23:47 discoveries. Cuneiform tablets have been discovered that make crystal clear the fact that 23:53 Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, son of Nebuchadnezzar, and that he 23:59 was indeed king of Babylon as Daniel asserted. Also, the discovery of the Dead Sea 24:06 Scrolls has unearthed the entire book of Isaiah laying to rest the assertion that 24:15 this book was written by other redactors. The real reason for why critics of the 19th 24:22 century Enlightenment period rejected the 6th century date for Daniel is philosophical, 24:30 it was the result of Immanuel Kant's criticism of reason, and many critics and liberal 24:37 theologians believed that it was impossible for God to communicate with the prophets. 24:43 They believed that this means that predictive prophecy would also be impossible. Yet, 24:50 Daniel is real, Belshazzar is real, and the fall of Babylon is real; all of which occurred 25:01 in the 6th century BC. Others say that all of this was simply pure coincidence. Yet, 25:12 to take this position is not any different than believing in miracles. At this point, we 25:23 need to remind ourselves that this ancient story is another amazing example that sets the 25:29 Bible apart from all other forms of literature or communication. As we have 25:36 elaborated on in past programs, the reason is really quite simple: The highly 25:41 improbable nature of this prophecy, which includes at least 7 specific predictions, 25:48 not only points to the existence of God, it also points to the Bible being the 25:54 Word of God. Only the Bible gives evidence of the test that only God can pass. Dear 26:08 friends, Belshazzar felt safe within the walls of Babylon, and scoffed at the idea that 26:14 Cyrus had any chance of invading the city.This general feeling of peace and safety 26:20 also characterizes many today who feel secure within their own religious, political or 26:29 philosophical walls, but they are no more prepared for the end of things than was 26:35 Belshazzar. Perhaps the apostle Paul was thinking about Belshazzar when he wrote 26:42 these words found in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3: 27:14 One again, God has demonstrated beyond measure two very important things. 27:21 One, He is real, he does exist. Two, He cares for you and wants to be in 27:30 relationship with you. That same hand that wrote that handwriting on the wall, it is 27:38 the same hand that bore the nails of the cross for you What stops you today from 27:45 entering into relationship with Him? The evidence is clear. The day is today. The 27:54 time is now. 28:06 Dear Lord, help us to believe and help us to follow You, we pray in Jesus name, amen. 28:22 Dear friend, time after time God is revealing Himself. He's revealing Himself to us today. 28:27 I want to offer you the book "The Thought Makers" that you might study more about God and 28:33 understand how He is revealing Himself today. Here's the information you need for 28:37 today's offer. 29:29 >>Chris: My dear friend the Bible says that God is patiently waiting for us. With 29:34 open arms He's inviting us. Time after time He reveals Himself to us. He longs to 29:41 have an experience with you and for you to have an experience with Him. Thank you 29:46 so much for watching this week - I invite you to join us again next week. Until then, 29:51 remember, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that 29:59 proceeds from the mouth of God. 30:03 $$$$$$$$$$ |
Revised 2015-12-04