Biblical Prophecy

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Also, high government leaders are reported to be very interested in what the modern day seers and prophets have to say. Jeanne Dixon, the famous Washington prophetess, was called in by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to get some direct information during World War II on the conduct of his relationships with Russia. Interestingly enough, she gave him advice that he didn’t follow. The nation would be better off had he followed her advice in not giving things away to Russia. It was this same prophetess that warned the Kennedys that if he came to Dallas he would be assassinated.

The Bible

In the Old Testament there was a specific proof of the prophet. What was required of the prophet? Well, he had to have a batting average of 1000. That means no mistakes. That’s as good as you can get. The test of a true prophet was given to the people of Israel by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:21-22: “And if thou say in thine heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophets have spoken it presumptuously and thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Now if a prophet does speak on his own and he gives a false prediction, Deuteronomy 18:20 tells you his fate: “But the prophet who shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.”

Now God says, “My prophets speak because I give them information to deliver.” If he presumes to speak from himself, that will be evident because his predictions will not come to pass. When you find a prophet who stands up and says, “God has told me to tell you this,” and then it does not come to pass, God says, "He’s a false prophet. Stone him."

Now the Bible predicts even far in the future. There is no way to make a fortunate guess by observing current trends when you predict something far in the future. Since the prophet’s information was directly from God, sometimes his predictions were so far in the future that he himself did not understand what it was that he was saying. What I want to do here is to try to dignify for you and impress upon you that the Bible is a prophetic book, and that you do not make the same mistake that the Jews made when Jesus Christ came after centuries of prophecies concerning Him, and ignore the thing. You need to realize that you cannot live your Christian life to the fullest without being aware of Bible prophecy which as yet has not been fulfilled. It will preserve you from all kinds of false efforts which are foisted upon the local church today—goals and promises that can never be realized if you understand where history is going.

Some of the prophets, however, did not know what the very things that they were saying meant. 1 Peter 1:10-12: “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace which should come unto you, searching what (or what manner) of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did signify when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow.” The things that confused the prophets were that Jesus Christ was going to come as the suffering Lamb of God, and they also predicted, on the basis of information from God, that He was going to be the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah. They didn’t understand how a person could come and be a lamb and a lion at the same time because they didn’t have enough information.

Verse 12 says, “Unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven which things the angels desire to look into.” What the Word of God says is that this information was given for a later date, for people who were living at the time when these prophecies were fulfilled, that they would understand. Of course, we see what the problem was. Jesus Christ, when He came as the Lamb of God, was rejected. Now there is an expanse of 2,000 years before He returns in the next role as the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah. What the prophets didn’t see was that there would be this separation of time between a first and a second advent.

Daniel

Daniel’s predictions were very confusing to him. Daniel inquired, trying to make some sense out of the things that had been given him, but Daniel was told in Daniel 12:4 that these things were to be secretive. They were to be sealed up until near the time when they were to be fulfilled. It would be a time when there would be a great expansion of travel—people moving about, and of information and knowledge. Daniel 12:4: “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time as the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel was told that the time would come when these things would be intelligible and they would be clear to people who were living at the time of their fulfillment. Now that’s what we’re living in today—the end times and the fulfillment of these things.

Bible Prophecy

So, what’s the batting average of prophecy? Well, let’s just look at a few of the prophecies of Scripture. I’m amazed at how young people can have doubts and questions about the possibility of interpreting the political alliances of the world and what these alliances will do on the world scene. In recent days I can see the questions and the doubts that the Bible can tell us these things. Well, step number one to get you squared away and reoriented to the Word in reference to the fact that the Bible can tell you what’s coming, is to see what it has done in the past.

Babylon’s Conquest of Judah

So, what’s the batting average of prophecy? Jeremiah, one of the Old Testament prophets, made a prediction that Judah, the Southern Kingdom, would be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Jeremiah 25:9 says that the land of Babylon would be made desolate. It declares that Jerusalem would be destroyed. It declared that the survivors of that conquest would be carried as slaves to Babylon. Then Jeremiah 25:11 says that that captivity in slavery would last for exactly 70 years. History has proved past that point of prophecy made by Jeremiah, and all was fulfilled in exactly that way. Nebuchadnezzar came sweeping in upon Jerusalem out of Babylon. He desolated the land. He conquered the city. He took the people back as slaves. 70 years later, under the Median-Persian rule of Cyrus, they were permitted to return and to reestablish their land and the city of Jerusalem and the walls.

Ahab

In 1 Kings 22 we have a prophet named Micaiah who made a prediction concerning Ahab who was the king of the northern section of Israel, the Northern Kingdom. He made a prediction that Ahab would be killed in battle. The king of the southern part of the Jewish people Judah was Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat joined in an attack with Ahab, upon Ahab’s invitation, on their Syrian enemy. Here you have an example in Scripture of a good man who knows the Word of God who preaches and speaks the true Word of God, as Jehoshaphat did, getting himself involved with the world’s gang, and compromising, in order to be associated with Ahab. They were both Jews, they spoke the same language, and they had a common heritage.

Well, Micaiah was brought in by Jehoshaphat to give a prediction concerning the outcome of this battle. Ahab had 400 prophets. When he asked them how the battle was going to come out if they attacked the Syrians, the 400 prophets said, “Oh, you’re going to win. You’re going to win big.” Jehoshaphat, because he was a man of God and he had some spiritual insight, said, “I’d like to know if you have any other prophets.” Ahab said, “Yeah, I’ve got this dog named Micaiah, and I don’t like him because he always says things I don’t like to hear.” This reminds you of some church members. The result is that he came along and finally Jehoshaphat says, “I want to hear him.”

So, they brought him in and sure enough Micaiah said, “If you go to battle, you’re going to lose. And I’ll tell you something else, Ahab. You’re going to get killed.” A soldier came up and slapped him across the mouth. So, Micaiah said, “I’ll put it to you this way: You go into battle and if you come back alive, Ahab, I’m a liar and no prophet” (1 Kings 22:28). And you know how it came out. Ahab said, “I’ll trick him.” He and Jehoshaphat went into battle and Jehoshaphat took on Ahab’s clothes, and Ahab disguised himself. Jehoshaphat almost got himself killed because the enemy soldiers thought he was Ahab and they zeroed in on him. Finally he identified himself and said, “I’m not Ahab.” So, they laid off of him. A soldier in the ranks takes a bow, pulls an arrow back, and lets it fly at random. And there was a little chink in Ahab’s armor—just one little crack. And where do you think the arrow goes? Right into the chink, and Ahab dies like a dog on the field of battle.

Now you had better get sobered about Bible prophecy if you sit here with some question as to whether God can tell what’s going to come and then men can frustrate what God has predicted. So, this has occurred to some people: “I’ll frustrate what God says. I know what God says is going to come about, and I’m going to set it up so it won’t come about.” Ahab thought he could do it, and he died in the attempt.

Hezekiah

Isaiah made a prediction to Hezekiah the king of Judah of the defeat of Sennacherib the Assyrian. Isaiah 36 tells you about this. Rabshakeh of Sennacherib came and made a great propaganda speech, trying to get the people of Jerusalem to surrender. Isaiah said, “Don’t surrender. The word of God has come to us. We will win.” Hezekiah said, “How are we going to do that?” Isaiah said, “God has told me. Sennacherib is going to get a rumor from back in Assyria that there’s trouble, and he’s going to lead you and he’s going to go back to deal with this rumor, and when he gets there he’s going to be killed by his sons. Sure enough, the rumor came. Sennacherib beat it out back to Assyria. He goes to worship in the temple of his god, and his sons come and they kill him on the spot.

Isaiah was a great man for making predictions way in advance. It was Isaiah who said that Babylon in 100 years—100 years ahead—would conquer Judah and take its treasures. The surviving sons of the royal family would be turned into eunuchs and they would be placed in the palace of Babylon. Isaiah 39:5-7 tells you about that.

Babylon

Isaiah made a prediction 150 years in the future concerning Babylon, that Babylon (150 years in the future) would be conquered by the Medes. Furthermore, he said that Babylon would never again be inhabited. Now I want you to realize that when we talk about Babylon, we’re talking about a tremendous civilization. This place had a canal irrigation system that was a wonder of the ancient world. It had paved streets. It had apartment houses. It had street lights, and it had running water. The wall around the city was 150 feet high, and it was so thick (wide) that three standard-sized chariots could go racing, horses and all, across the top of the wall. Five of your Volkswagen-type chariots could go abreast on that wall. It was an impregnable city for all intents and purposes. This was the place that had the magnificent hanging gardens which were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Yet this city was placed under divine doom because of its idolatry and because of its persecution of Israel (Isaiah 13:19-22). I want to remind you that this was written in 700 B. C. Isaiah was saying that in 150 years, Babylon, this magnificent city, would be conquered by the Medes.

Babylonian Captivity

Jeremiah then predicted that the captivity of Judah would last for 70 years, and at the end of that 70 years, Babylon would fall. Well, under the Median Emperor Cyrus, in 539 B. C., about 150 years later, that’s exactly what happened, just as Isaiah predicted. This magnificent city, under the rule of Belshazzar, was having a great drunken orgy feast. You know the story of the hand-writing on the wall. It so happened that the Euphrates River went right under this city—right under this tremendous wall that was 150 feet high and so wide for chariots to ride abreast, and they diverted the river. The Euphrates runs some 30 feet deep. It’s a deep river. (That’s why it’s an amazing river when it comes to letting Red China and her allies to cross the land bridge down to attack Israel.) Once they diverted the river, they had themselves an easy access way into this city, and they walked right under the walls. They marched right into that drunken banquet hall and they slaughtered the Babylonians on the spot. The Babylonian empire fell.

The prediction was that Babylon would fall and would never be inhabited again. Alexander the Great tried to rebuild Babylon and he wanted to make it his capital, but he gave it up as a hopeless job. The ruins of Babylon caused a chemical reaction with the soil so that a fertile area has become a desert. By the 1^st century, A. D., Babylon was a foul-smelling ruins inhabited by wild animals. By the 12^th century, it was a place that was feared because of the scorpions and the poisonous snakes which inhabited the area. To this day I’m told that the Arabs will not pitch a tent on the site of Babylon and stay there overnight because they fear spirit beings.

Cyrus, 200 years in the future, was predicted by Isaiah as coming to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple (Isaiah 44:28- 45:4, and Ezra 1:1-11). 200 years later it all came about just exactly as had been stated.

Tyre

The city of Tyre is a fascinating prediction of the 1000 batting average of the Scripture. Tyre was rich and an active seaport on the Mediterranean. It also had 150-foot walls. Tyre sinned through pride and abuse of Jewish war prisoners in breaking a treaty with Solomon. Now, Ezekiel 26:3-14, 19, written in the 6^th century B. C., makes a prediction concerning the city of Tyre. Here’s what Ezekiel said: The city would be broken down and the place would be scraped clean like the top of a rock. It was to become a place for fishnets to dry. Nebuchadnezzar led a 13-year siege and destroyed this city. Now when the city was destroyed, the people of Tyre fled to an island that was a half-mile offshore where Nebuchadnezzar could not reach them. So they built a new Tyre.

Now it seemed that part of the Scripture had been fulfilled and part of it had not. Tyre had indeed fallen, but it certainly hadn’t been scraped clean. Along comes the conqueror Alexander the Great in 332 B. C., and what do you think he does? He comes and he gets right down to the seashore and he looks out there a half-mile and he sees the city of Tyre, and Alexander wasn’t a fellow to be frustrated in his conquest. So, guess what he told his soldiers to do. He said, “I know how we’ll get them.” And they started picking up the pieces of the old city of Tyre and they through them into the sea, and they built a causeway all the way to the new city of Tyre. If you look at a map today, Tyre juts right out there because the sea has filled it in since even more. And Alexander the Great took his troops and marched them in and conquered the new city of Tyre. In the meantime, they had literally scraped clean the site of the old city of Tyre. The place is used by fishermen today to dry their nets.

Nineveh

The city of Nineveh was another example of the 1000 batting average of Bible predictions. The capital was 60 miles wide, and God sent Jonah in the 8^th century and led the city to repentance and gave them a reprieve. But they returned to their brutal habits. They used to have contests among the officers with their captains of seeing which officer could take the most skin peeled off of a captive and still keep him alive, and the fellow who won got a tremendous prize. They were a brutal people. Yet, the Word of God predicted that this city would be destroyed. In 612 B. C., that’s exactly what happened. The buildings were literally dissolved and the place was so completely removed that for years the critics of the Bible said that no place like Nineveh ever existed. Then in the 19^th century along came archeology and dug up the ancient city—what was left of it. The Bible had batted 1000.

Prophecies of Christ

Certainly, the Bible has been no place more accurate than in the predictions concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. There are 330 predictions from Genesis 3:15 on through the Bible concerning Jesus Christ—330 specific predictions about Christ. And you may at your leisure compare how accurately these predictions of the Bible line up. Micah 5:2 was written in 700 B. C. Micah 5:2 says, “But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting.” The birthplace of Jesus Christ was predicted 700 years before He was born. If you look at Matthew 2:1, 5, and John 8:58, you will discover that this is exactly where He was born.

Isaiah 35 was also written 700 years before the birth of Christ. Isaiah 35:4-6 gives another prediction concerning Jesus Christ: “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong. Fear not. Behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come and save you.’” This is concerning the Messiah, the coming Christ. “Then when He comes, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in wilderness shall waters break out as streams in the desert.” And the New Testament came along in Matthew 11:4-5 and this was exactly fulfilled. When Jesus Christ came, He performed the physical healing miracles that had never before been known in the history of the world.

Zechariah 9:9: Zachariah was written 500 years before Jesus Christ arrived on the scene. Zachariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion. Shout O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Matthew 21:6-7, 9 records the exact fulfillment of Jesus Christ coming on Palm Sunday riding on the donkey predicted 500 years previously.

Now we can go through many details of Scriptures like this concerning Jesus Christ. One we ought to look at is Psalm 22 which gives in some detail the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross. Psalm 22 was written 1000 years before Christ died. Psalm 22 describes death by crucifixion which was not even known among the Jews in 1000 B. C., but came subsequently under the Roman rule. Psalm 22:18 says, “They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture.” You know that’s exactly what they did. John 19:23-24 describes how they did exactly that. The very first verse of Psalm 22 says, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me?” These were the very words of Jesus Christ that Jesus Christ used on the cross. Through this psalm you have a detailed description of exactly what took place 1000 years later.

The Lord Himself predicted His own crucifixion and resurrection three years before it happened. And he predicted the complete destruction of Jerusalem which took place in 70 A. D.

Now the generation of Jews who were in Jesus’ time ignored prophecy. They had all of this, a prophetic Scripture that batted 1000, and yet they ignored all of these things, and the result was that their nation was destroyed. This is what Jesus told them in Luke 19, that they had squandered their opportunity by ignoring what God said was coming. Luke 19:43-44: “For the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, encompass thee round and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground (the city of Jerusalem), and the children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because you knew not the time of thy visitation.” Because you ignored the fact that it was all the prophecy getting you set for what was coming. When Jesus arrived on the scene they rejected Him.

Now are you going to make the same mistake? Are you going to let some false preacher con you with his ignorance concerning prophetic truth—that it has no value and that we can’t be specific? Well this is something that you have to face and something you have to decide. We have just touched on a bare minimum, a small part, of the fantastic batting average of Scripture. Time doesn’t permit us … to really go into detail, but I do want to show you one thing.

The Mathematical Odds of Bible Prophecy

There was a professor that made a study. His name was Peter Stoner, a scientist and mathematician. He made a study of the probability of Bible prophecy coming about by chance. If a thing has one chance of taking place in X number of times, and another thing has one chance in Y number of times, then of both of these things taking place, the probability is one chance in (X * Y). The insurance companies work on this same principle of establishing their statistics of what they’re going to have to pay out. So, this class took as a project a study of the odds against Bible prophecies all coming to pass. What they did was to proceed to assign by their best judgment what the odds were for a series of prophecies concerning Tyre.

For example, they said that for Nebuchadnezzar to come and actually conquer Tyre, it was one chance in two. For other nations to help Nebuchadnezzar, which they did, was one chance in five. So, for both of those things to come by, it was 2 times 5. There was one chance in ten that Nebuchadnezzar would conquer Tyre with the help of other nations. That Tyre would be cleaned flat like the top of a rock was one chance in 2,000. That Tyre would be a place for nets to dry was one chance in 10. So, we add that. For the stones and the timbers of Tyre to be thrown into the sea, which was also predicted, was one chance in ten, so you add that. For other cities to be in fear when Tyre fell, which was also what was predicted—that when they saw Tyre fall, it would put terror in the ancient world--that was one chance in 10 also. And for the city of Tyre never to be rebuilt again, which was predicted, was one chance in 20. When you multiply all these odds for these seven details—all to take place at the same time, what do you think the odds are? You can multiply that if you want to, but the answer is one in 400 million. The odds are one chance in 400 million that all these seven things would take place as predicted. Yet it happened.

They estimated that the odds concerning the details of the prophecies relative to Babylon were one in 100 billion. The eight prophecies about Jesus Christ have a probability of 1 in 10 to the 32^nd power. Now, the possibility of hundreds of Bible predictions occurring exactly in detail is so astronomically large that it’s impossible to take seriously that this can be written.

What I’m trying to get across to you is this: In a small way, we’ve shown you how accurate the Bible is in prophecy. What kind of intellects are the preachers and the religious leaders of our day and the liberal minds which do not take this book seriously that has so accurately told where history is going, and that will not now take it seriously when it tells where it’s going in the future?

How would you like to be in the president’s … place, and have this information at your command? I’ve often thought what it would be like to be president of the United States and be doctrinally oriented. I think it would be a terrible position. You would know so much as to what’s coming that you couldn’t make any of these foolish statements any more that you have to make when you’re president of the United States. You couldn’t make all these pleasant remarks about a rosy future. You couldn’t get on a special radio program and say, “Hot dog, the Chinese have started ping pong for us. It’s a new day with us. A new day has dawned. Everything is getting better.” You wouldn’t get on the radio and say, “Russia has decided that she doesn’t want us to go any further with our antiballistic missile system, so we’re going to talk about stopping on both sides. You can bet that Russia wants to stop because Russia doesn’t want to get too far behind us any more for the day when she’s ready to move.

This is so astronomical to think that somebody could accidentally write this book and make these specific predictions that it is ridiculous to even consider if you’re an intelligent person. If you make 90 predictions about tomorrow, the odds are one in one octillion that you’re going to be right. Yet the bible makes hundreds of predictions and it’s always right.

So, I commend to you the study of the Word of God and the prophetic Word. What God has said is going to take place. Yet we live in the day where we are warned that people who ignore the prophetic Word are going to act like the people did in Noah’s day.

We close with Matthew 24:37-39: “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be; for as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Now mind you that Noah said, “God has given me some information. He has told me that in 120 years He is going to flood this whole earth with water, and everything on it is going to die. But God is giving you an out. If you will accept His provision for your sin which is coming in the future, He will provide you an ark of safety.” He made the prediction and they ignored it. Then what did they realize? When the day of the flood came, they said, “My God, Noah was right.” Then they were clawing to get in and it was too late.

Now what we are going to look at are the things that shape up to prepare for the tribulation period. When you and I see these things coming right down the line in detail, then it doesn’t take too much of a stretch of imagination to realize that the rapture is very very near, and that the hopes of the world and the ambitions and the directions of the world is taking will shape up in the next (few) years to where everything necessary for the condition of the tribulation will be set. It was an electrifying thing when Israel took over all of Jerusalem. I’ll tell you that the next exciting thing will be when the news announced that the Jew has resolved the problem of the Dome of the Rock on the old site of Solomon’s temple, and that they are proceeding to rebuild their temple. That is a major factor that must come about. Something has to happen to the Dome of the Rock. If you wake up tomorrow morning and discover that an earthquake has shaken the thing of its site, you had better start packing your suitcase because you’re getting ready for a trip. This in itself is a major item of the predictive Word.

But what did they do in Noah’s day? Just like we’re doing today. Everybody is eating and drinking, we’re marrying and having family, we’re working on jobs and our possessions, we’re pursuing pleasures and luxuries, and we’re thinking about out security and finishing our education. There is nothing wrong with any of those things, but whose business is number one with us in view of the limited time we have left? Whose business is number one with you? Yours, or the Lord’s? Wouldn’t you be disappointed (say) twelve years from now to discover that you’ve squandered it all when you could have known better because you were informed? In this segment you were told, and throughout this series, you will continue to be told. If you are a thinking person you will get terrifically excited over what is happening on the world scene in reference to what God has said is coming.

So, think, young person and adult, what you’re going to do with your life for the next few years. That may well be all that you have in preparation for your place at the Judgment Seat of Christ and the evaluation of your divine good. The Jew blew it. He was told, and he ignored. God forbid that we should do the same.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1971