Discovering God's Fingerprints                                                           Dr.Robert C. Newman

Hershey Ev Free Ch, 20 Sept 1997                                                  BiblicalTheol Seminary

 

                                        WORKSHOPON FULFILLED PROPHECY

 

INTRODUCTION

 

            Manythink Xy superstitious, blind faith; while atheism, humanism, etc. arereasonable, firmly grounded in evidence; but opposite is the case

            Lookat one line of evidence for Xy: fulfilled prophecy

 

TIME OF MESSIAH: Daniel 9:25‑26

 

Dan 9:25 (NIV) "Know and understand this: From the issuing ofthe decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler,comes, there will be seven `sevens,' and sixty-two `sevens.' It will be rebuiltwith streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two`sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people ofthe ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end willcome like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have beendecreed.

 

Startingpoint 445 BC: 20 year of Artaxerxes 1 (Neh 2)

Unitof measurement: sabbatical cycle: 7 yrs beg in Oct

StandardJewish counting method: include start & end units

After(7 +) 62 weeks = AD 28‑35

 

              445 BC                                         30 AD

                 v                                                    v

        449   442   435   428 BC AD 14    21    28    35

            |-------|-------|-------|---. . . . -----|------|------|------|

              1st     2nd   3rd   4th    66th   67th  68th  69th

 

ISRAEL'S FUTURE: Hosea 3:4‑5

 

Hose 3:4 (NIV) For the Israelites will live many days without king orprince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol.5 Afterwardthe Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king.They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

 

Six unusual sociological features characterizing Israel for almost2000 yrs

            King/prince:no king since 587 BC or AD 44; no prince from AD 70 to 1948

            Sacrifice/sacredpillar: no sacrifice since 70; app no pillar since c 500 BC

            Ephod/teraphim:no priesthood since 70, no teraphim since c 500 BC

 


TWIN CITIES: Various passages

 

            Goodtest to show that Bible really does make clear predictions that come true

            Liketests used in trying out a new medicine; use a control group which is pairedwith test group, but gets fake pills

           

The cities.

            Memphis& Thebes: capitals of ancient Egypt

            Tyre& Sidon: seaports of ancient Phoenicia (Lebanon)

            Ashkelon& Ekron: two of the Philistine cities

            Babylon& Nineveh: capitals of ancient empires

 

The prophecies fulfilled.

 

Memphis/Thebes:

 

            Prophecies(Ezk 30:13-16)

                        Memphisto have its idols destroyed

                        Thebesto have its masses of people cut off

 

            Fulfillment:

                        Memphissite became quarry for building Cairo

                                    byMuslims who hated idols

                        Thebesreduced from large capital city to a

                                    fewsmall villages

 

            Nogood if names switched, as Memphis now suburb of Cairo,

                        andmany idols found at Thebes

 

Tyre/Sidon:

 

            Prophecies:

                        Tyre(Ezk 26:1-14) to have its rubble thrown into sea, its site scraped clean,becoming a place for spreading fishnets, never to be rebuilt

                        Sidon(Ezk 28:20-23) to face war and disaster, but nothing said about being abandoned

 

            Fulfillment:

                        Tyre'smainland city destroyed about 600 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, but most people escapedto island offshore; almost 300 yrs later, Alexander besieged island, usedrubble from old city to build road out to island; mainland site used forspreading nets today, never rebuilt

                        Sidonhas often been besieged and conquered, but survives today as one of major portsof Lebanon

 

                        Again,no good if names switched, but perfect fit as is

 

Ashkelon/Ekron:

 

            Prophecies(Zeph 2:4-7):

                        Ashkelonwas to be reduced to ruins, but later inhabited by a remnant of the Jews

                        Ekronwas to be uprooted

 

            Fulfillment:

                        Bothinhabited until Crusades, when both destroyed, and harbor of Ashkelon filled w/stones

                        Since1948, Jews rebuilt Ashkelon and cleared harbor, but location of Ekron stilluncertain

 

Babylon/Nineveh:

           

            Prophecies:

                        Babylonto be deserted, without Arabs or shepherd, to be a home for wild animals (Isa13:19-22), its stone not to be used as bldg stone again (Jer 51:26)

                        Nineveh(Zeph 2:13-15) to be destroyed and left desolate, but to become a place forgrazing sheep

 

            Fulfillment:

                        Babylonhas become deserted over the centuries, partly by conquest, partly by shift inriver, leaving site without water; Arabs avoid site as haunted, soil too poorfor grazing even sheep; native use site for clay bricks, but burn stone to makelime instead of building stone

                        Ninevehwas destroyed suddenly and location forgotten for centuries; name of largestmound Quyunyiq means "many sheep"; long abandoned, tho recentlysuburbs of Mosul have grown out to reach site

 

Conclusions re/ cities.

 

            Strikingfulfillment of numerous details about these cities

            Notjust the sort of thing that one could say about any city

            Infact, if you trade names among the paired cities, the

                        fulfillmentswould not have come true!

            Thisshows us that the God of the Bible really does control history

            AndHe controls your history too!

 


LIGHT TO THE GENTILES: Isaiah 42:6; 49:6

 

Isa 42:6 (NIV) "I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;

I will take hold of your hand.

I will keep you and will make you

to be a covenant for the people

and a light for the Gentiles,

 

Isa 49:6 (NIV) he says:

"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant

to restore the tribes of Jacob

and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,

that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

 

            The"suffering servant" to be a light to the Gentiles, though despised byhis own nation

            Whatother Messianic claimant has started a world religion?

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

            Needto pay serious attention to this evidence

            Itshows us that God exists, and that he is the God of the Bible.

            Gospel: 

                        2Great commandments

                        Weare separated from God

                        Whatare we living for?

                        Jesuspaid it all

                        Turnback to God

                        Sharein His work

 


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 

Books in Print:

 

Barfield,Kenny. The Prophet Motive: Examining the Reliability of the Biblical Prophets. Nashville, TN:  GospelAdvocate, 1995.  The most extensiveprsentation to date of fulfilled prophecy in Scripture as an apologetic for thetruth of Christianity.

Gronigen,Gerard Van.  MessianicRevelation in the Old Testament.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Baker, 1990.  A massive study of the Messiah-theme, emphasizing detailedinterpretation of the passages in their textual and historical context.

Montgomery,John Warwick, ed.  Evidence forFaith:  Deciding the God Question. Dallas, TX:  Probe/Word,1991.  A general book on Christianevidences with several chapters on fulfilled prophecies, including the"twin cities" material.

Newman,Robert C., ed.  The Evidence ofProphecy:  Fulfilled Prediction asa Testimony to the Truth of Christianity.  Hatfield, PA:  Interdisciplinary Biblical ResearchInstitute, 1988.  Detaileddiscussions of several fulfilled predictions concerning nations of the ancientnear east, Israel, and the Messiah. Includes material on the time of Messiah's first coming and thefulfillment of Hos 3:4-5 in Israel's history.

Payne,J. Barton.  The Encyclopedia ofBiblical Prophecy.  New York:  Harper and Row, 1971. A compendium of all the prophetic passages in the Bible, suggesting howand when each was or will be fulfilled.

 

SomeShorter Presentations:  these are currently in the process ofbeing translated into French, German, Russian, and Spanish

 

Newman,Robert C.  "The Time of theMessiah."  IBRI ResearchReport 9 (1981, 1988). Looksat Daniel's 70 weeks, plus two other prophecies suggesting the time of theMessiah's first coming.

Newman,Robert C.  "The New TestamentModel of the Messiah,"  IBRIResearch Report 6 (1981,1988).  A comparison of the successof various ancient models in explaining the paradoxical data of Old TestamentMessianic prophecy.

 

Some Classic Works on Fulfilled Prophecy:

 

Keith,Alexander.  Evidence of theTruth of the Christian Religion Derived from the Literal Fulfillment ofProphecy.  36th ed.  Edinburgh: William Whyte and Co., 1848.

Kellogg,Samuel H.  The Jews, orPrediction and Fulfillment:  anArgument for the Times.  New York:  Anson Randolph, 1887.

Newton,Thomas.  Dissertations on theProphecies Which Have Been Remarkably Been Fulfilled, and at This time areFulfilling in the World.  London:  J. F. Dove; Philadelphia:  Crissy and Markley, 1853.

Urquhart,John.  The Wonders of Prophecy. Harrisburg, PA:  ChristianPublications, n.d. [1st ed., 1887].