A Better Basis for Belief - SOME STRIKING FULFILLMENTS OF PROPHECY -Continued

 Even more remarkabe are the prophecies regarding Babylon.  Years before Judah fell to Babylon Jeremiah foretold it, yet said a restoration woudl follow a seventy-year period of desolation.  This would be made possible by the overthrow of the Babylonians, at which time they would put up no real fight:  "The warriors of Babylon have ceased to fight, they stay in their strongholds; their strength is exhausted, they are turned into women."  The once-mighty world power would become ruins:  "Babylon  shall become a heap  of ruins, a haunt for jackals, a horror and a hissing, without an inhabitant." (Jeremiah 29:10; 51:30, 37, AT)  That is all Babylon is today, a heap of deserted mounds.

Fully one hundred fifty years before the Jews were taken captive to Babylon Isiah foretold it, and more than two hundred years in advance he foretold the restoration made possible by Babylon's overthrow, even giving the name of the conquering general. After stating that Jehovah "confirms  the  word of his servants, and fulfills the predictions of his messengers," that Cyrus would serve as his shepherd, that Jerusalem would be rebuilt, the the foundations   of the temple would be laid, the divine record continues:  "Thus says the LORD to his anointedm to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to bring down nations before him, and to ungird the loins of kings to open doors before him, and that gates may not be closed:  'I will go before you, and will level the rugged heights; the doors of bronze will I break in pieces, and the bars if iron I will cut asunder.'"  - ISAIAH 13:17-22; 14:1, 4, 8, 12-16; 39:6, 7; 42:24-28; 45:1, 23, AT.

Next time: A Better Basis for Belief -  SOME STRIKING FULFILLMENTS OF PROPHECY - Continued

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