What Can You Learn About the Creator From a Book? - Predictions That Came True

Quite  a few Bible writers recorded prophecies.  Far from claiming that they personally could foretell the future, these writers gave credit to the Creator.  For example, Isaiah identified God  as "the One telling from the beginning the finale."  (Isaiah 1:1;42:8, 9; 46:8-11)  The ability to foretell events that were to occur decades or even centuries in the future marks the God of Isaiah as unique; he is not a mere idol, like those that people past and present have adored. Prophecy gives us convincing evidence that the Bible is not of human authorship.  Considering how Isaiah's book bears this out.

A comparison of the contents of Isaiah with historical data shows that the book was written about 732 B.C.E.  Isaiah foretold that calamity would come upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah because they were guilty of bloodshed and idol worship. Isaiah predicted that the land would be devastated, Jerusalem and its temple destroyed, and the survivors taken captive to Babylon.  But Isaiah also prophesied that God would not forget the captive nation.  The book foretold that a foreign king name Cyrus would conquer Babylon and free the Jews  to return to their homeland. In fact, Isaiah describes God as "the One saying of Cyrus,  'He is my shepherd, and all that I delight in he will completely carry out'; even  in my saying of Jerusalem, 'She will be rebuilt," and of the temple, 'You will have your foundation laid.' " -Isaiah 2:8; 24:1; 39:5-7; 43:14; 44:24-28; 45:1.

In Isaiah's day, the eighth century B.C.E., such predictions might have seemed unbelievable. At that point Babylon was not even a significant military power. It was subject to the real world power of the time, the Assyrian Empire.  Equally strange would have been the idea that conquered people who had been taken into a distant land as exiles could be released and reclaim their land.  "Who has heard of a thing like this?"  Isaiah wrote. - Isaiah 66:8. 

Yet, what do we find if we move two centuries forward?  The subsequent history of the ancient Jews proved that Isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled in detail. Babylon did become mighty, and it destroyed Jerusalem.  The name of the Persian king (Cyrus), his subsequent conquests of Babylon, and the Jews' return are all accepted facts of  history.  So exactly did these prophesied details turn out that in the 19th century, critics claimed that Isaiah's book was a hoax; they in effect said:  'Isaiah may have written the first chapters, but a later writer in the time of King Cyrus made up the rest of the book so that it would appear to be a prophecy.' Someone might make such dismissive assertions, but what are the facts? 

Next time: What Can You Learn About the Creator From a Book? -Real Predictions?

From the book Is There a Creator That Cares About You?