Do drugs. Go to hell.

[aurel]

Originally Posted by Caine Walker

by coming in here and asserting that your beliefs and religious views are the only *true* and viable avenues?

suck a fucking dick, man.

Umm, when your religion that you thoroughly believe in says it's the one and only path to God and salvation does it not make sense to assert this?

[Trotskilicious]

This thread except for my posts is like a long stream of watery, lumpy, smelly shit.

[Caine Walker]

Originally Posted by aurel

Umm, when your religion that you thoroughly believe in says it's the one and only path to God and salvation does it not make sense to assert this?

yeah, alright.

/grumble

[aurel]

Originally Posted by Caine Walker

yeah, alright.

/grumble

C'mere. *hug*

[Rockin' Cherub]

i love how the bible doesn't describe and predict anything about history outside the mediterranean / european world

and how it can foretell the rise of the babylonian empire when that empire was already one of the leading powers in the ancient near east around the 18th century BC, well before the old testament was even written

the concept of postdiction also applies to many of these "prophecies"

[Shinobi]

Originally Posted by Caine Walker

by coming in here and asserting that your beliefs and religious views are the only *true* and viable avenues?

suck a fucking dick, man.

All I've stated is 1) a firm belief in Bible prophecy and 2) That if one plans on basing ones life around christianity then its a wise decision to have the Bible as the sole source of authority when it comes to religious practices and the establishment of doctrine, and also havining and understanding of what it actually says and teachs.

Originally Posted by aurel

Shinobi, make with the prophecies already.

yep yep Im working on it now. I was gonna write something up myself because doing such is a great learning aid, but time is running short so will just amalgamate some exerts from the churchs articles and literature.

Originally Posted by Rockin' Cherub

i love how the bible doesn't describe and predict anything about history outside the mediterranean / european world

and how it can foretell the rise of the babylonian empire when that empire was already one of the leading powers in the ancient near east around the 18th century BC, well before the old testament was even written

the concept of postdiction also applies to many of these "prophecies"

The Bible only seemingly deals with events in the mediterranean / european parts of the world is because the the prophecies of the Bible relate mostly to the "lost 10 tribes of Israel" (aka the house of Israel) who were taken captive by the assyrians, taken from their homeland and were subsequently lost from the pages of the bible and history.

People have made the error of thinking that any mention in Bible prophecy against Israel regards only the Jews living in the middle east. Israel consisted of 12 tribes, the tribe of Judah (where Jew is derived from) was just one of those tribes. Judah and benjamin split off from the rest of Israel and they became two totally different and distinct nations and became known as the kingdom of Judah which was the southern kingdom, and the rest of the tribes became the northern kingdom of Israel There are several accounts of these two nations warring against each other and are clearly identified as two different people in the Bible, until Israel was defeated and taken away. They are different, as all californians are americans, but not all americans are californians.

So when all these prophecies in the Bible talk about the house of Israel, its talking about the lost tribes, who were scattered abroad. Knowing who they are identified as today is the key to understanding Bible prophecy, and shatters the idea that prophecy relates only to the european continent.

Also the dealings of Babylon that the Bible refers to was the Neo-Babylonian (or Chaldean) empire around 626BC. The book of Daniel which is one of the key prophecy books of the Bible was written during the reign of this dynasty, and predicted its fall and the rise of three more sucssessive kingdoms.

[Shinobi]

Introduction

“Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do my pleasure’” (Isaiah 46:9–10)

“The Holy Bible is like no other book in all the world. It is the only book which represents itself as the written revelation of the one true God, intended for the salvation of man, and demonstrating its divine authority by many infallible proofs. Other religious documents, such as the Muhammadan Koran, may claim to be the very word of God, but they contain no such self-authenticating proofs as does the Bible (for example, the phenomena of fulfilled prophecy)” (A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, Archer, p. 9)

“One of the strongest evidences that the Bible is inspired by God is its predictive prophecy. Unlike any other book, the Bible offers a multitude of specific predictions—some hundreds of years in advance—that have been literally fulfilled or else point to a definite future time when they will come true” (Geisler, p. 609)

27% of the Holy Bible is devoted to prphecy, and the vast majority of these prophecies relate to world conditions and events leading upto the second coming of Jesus Christ. No other religious book can make these claims. The God of the Bible authenticates Himself by stating massive events in the worlds geopolitics and then bringing them to pass decades, centuries and millenia later. No other religious book can make this claim or have these kind of accurate proofs.

These are prophecies against some of the strongest and most prominent cities and kingdoms of the ancient world, which fell in the manner stated in the prophecies written centuries before hand.


The Fall of Tyre

Tyre was one of the great cities of the ancient world. It was situated on an island at the center of a maritime trading network that controlled Mediterranean commerce. Tyre was a wealthy emporium of goods, surrounded by 150-foot-high walls that were considered impregnable. The Bible reports that Tyre’s citizens rejoiced when Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army conquered Jerusalem; they anticipated gaining access to valuable inland trade routes passing through Jerusalem. In response, God delivered a series of specific prophecies of Tyre’s future devastation.

Ezekiel wrote that, “because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples’… Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea… they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water… you shall never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken, says the Lord God’” (Ezekiel 26:2–14).

To appreciate the power and scope of Ezekiel’s prophecies, picture someone trying to predict what will happen to New York or London over the next 2,500 years! Yet history records how Ezekiel’s predictions have come to pass. In 585bc, Nebuchadnezzar began a 13-year siege against Tyre. His was the first of many nations that would come like waves against Tyre. Around 530bc, the Persians gained control of Tyre. In 332bc, Alexander destroyed the mainland portion of Tyre and threw the debris into the sea to build a causeway for assaulting the island city. When Alexander conquered the island fortress of Tyre, he battered down the walls and reduced the city to ruins. As Phoenician specialist Glenn Markoe wrote, “The conquest of Alexander… marked the beginning of the end for Tyre and Phoenicia… Tyre would soon recover commercially… yet it would never fully reclaim the pride of place it had enjoyed” (Phoenicians, Markoe, p. 61). Greeks and Romans later dominated what remained of the city. In 638ad, Muslim armies captured Tyre. Crusaders recaptured the city in 1124, and used it as a staging area for military operations. In 1291, the Muslims retook Tyre and laid it in ruins, “after which she never again regained any importance” (Geisler, p. 870). Today, there is a small fishing village near the ruins of the once proud city of Tyre, but the city’s ancient power and splendor, and its extensive trade network, are gone. The site of one of the wealthiest cities in the ancient world has become “a place for spreading nets,” just as the Bible predicted.


The Fall of Babylon

Around 700bc, the prophet Isaiah recorded several specific prophecies about the downfall of the Babylonian Empire and the destruction of the city of Babylon (see Isaiah 13; 14). At the time of Isaiah’s prophecy, Babylon was subject to the Assyrians and would not become a major power for another hundred years. Yet Isaiah foresaw the future glory that Babylon would achieve under Nebuchadnezzar with its Hanging Gardens, magnificent palaces, luxurious living, massive walls and military conquests.

Isaiah also foresaw the Medes’ destruction of Babylon, and the city’s ultimate desolation, several hundred years in advance! Isaiah’s prophecies foretold: “The burden against Babylon… I will stir up the Medes against them… And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to generation; nor will the Arabian pitch tents there… but wild beasts of the desert will lie there… her days will not be prolonged” (Isaiah 13:1–22). History records that these prophecies were fulfilled: “In 539 [bc] Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians... Xerxes destroyed the city in 478, and it was finally abandoned in the 4th century bc” (Eerdmans’ Handbook of the Bible, p. 382).


The Decree of Cyrus

In about 700 BC, Isaiah names Cyrus as the king who will allow the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild its Temple. 1 At the time of this prophecy, there was no king named Cyrus and the Temple in Jerusalem was totally built and in full operation.

28 Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd,
And he shall perform all My pleasure,
Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,”
And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”’ (Isaiah 44:28)

In 586 BC, more than 100 years later, the Babylonian King "Nebuchadnezzar" sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. The Jews living in Jerusalem were either killed or taken captive to Babylon. In about 539 BC, the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persians. Shortly thereafter, a Persian king named Cyrus issued a formal decree that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. 3 This decree is confirmed by secular archaeology in the form of a stone cylinder that details many events of Cyrus' reign, including the decree to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem: “Let the house be rebuilt, the place where they offered sacrifices; and let the foundations of it be firmly laid, its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits, (Ezra 6:3)

Remarkably, Isaiah predicted that a man named Cyrus, who would not be born for about a hundred years, would give a decree to rebuild a city and a temple, which were still standing and fully active at the time!


The City of Samaria

The prophets Hosea (748 - 690 BC) and Micah (738 - 690 BC) each predicted the destruction of Samaria, the capital city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Not only did these prophets predict violence and destruction, but they declared that this great city would become "as a heap in the field," with its stones poured down into the valley, and vineyards planted in place of its great walls, with even the foundations being removed.


Samaria is held guilty,
For she has rebelled against her God.
They shall fall by the sword,
Their infants shall be dashed in pieces,
And their women with child ripped open. (Hosea 13:16)

Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field,
Places for planting a vineyard;
I will pour down her stones into the valley,
And I will uncover her foundations. (Micah 1:6)


History tells us that Sargon took Samaria by the sword in 722 BC. Later, Alexander took the city violently in 331 BC, as did Hyrcanus in 120 BC. What's remarkable is not the violent demise of Samaria and its people, but rather, some of the historic specifics of what then happened to that once great city.

Reactions upon visiting the ancient spot have been recorded for centuries. In 1697, Henry Maundrell declared: "This great city is now wholly converted into gardens, and all the tokens that remain to testify that there has ever been such a place, are only on the north side…" Floyd Hamilton continues: "To-day the top of the hill where Samaria stood is a cultivated field with the foundations of the columns marking the place where the palaces and mansions stood. At the foot of the hill, in the valley, lie the foundation stones of the city…" 11 Finally, from Van de Velde:

Her foundations discovered, her streets ploughed up, and covered with corn fields and olive gardens… Samaria has been destroyed, but her rubbish has been thrown down into the valley; her foundation stones, those grayish ancient quadrangular stones of the time of Omri and Ahab, are discovered, and lie scattered about on the slope of the hill.

Daniel's Prophecies

In 604bc, the Chaldean army, under King Nebuchadnezzar, swept from Carchemish down the Jezreel Valley and captured the city of Jerusalem, reducing Judea to a tributary state. Several of the children of prominent Jewish families were taken back to Babylon as captives. During the decades that followed, one of those captives, Daniel, rose to hold high offices of trust in Babylon. The God of Israel, whom he continued to serve faithfully, gave Daniel many visions and interpretations of visions which he recorded in the book of Daniel.

Look carefully at the prophetic outline of world events that God inspired Daniel to record. The Bible really does interpret itself, and the book of Daniel is pivotal to understanding the book of Revelation and other end-time prophecies.

Daniel 2:1 describes King Nebuchadnezzar’s troubling dream, hidden from the king’s magicians and astrologers. They failed to recount back to him this puzzling dream. Finally Daniel came in to the king and explained to him that there is a God in heaven who is a revealer of secrets, and that He would reveal to Daniel not only the dream, but also its interpretation (v. 28). Daniel then explained to the king that in his dream he had seen a great image rising above the plains of Shinar. This mammoth image had a head of gold, shoulders and chest of silver, thighs of brass and legs of iron. The iron legs ended with feet which were composed of a mix of iron and clay (vv. 31–33). Nebuchadnezzar had in his dream watched a great stone of supernatural origin (“cut out without hands”) come down from heaven and smash the image on its ten toes, at which point the whole image was turned to chaff and blew away. The stone became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth (vv. 34–35).

What did this mean? Remember that the Bible interprets itself! Daniel was inspired to tell Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:38, “You are this head of gold.” He also told the king in Daniel 2:39–40 that three more kingdoms would each arise in turn after him. Daniel was inspired to record for us that four great kingdoms or empires would in succession dominate history, after which the God of heaven will set up His everlasting kingdom at the time of the final ten kings—which are represented by the toes on the feet of the “iron legs” of the fourth kingdom (vv. 41–44).

Daniel 2:28 emphasizes that the living God whom we serve is a “revealer of secrets.” The king’s dream was meant to reach from the days of ancient King Nebuchadnezzar to “the latter days” of this world, culminating with the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth (v. 44). Have the events Daniel foretold come to pass just as he foresaw? They absolutely have, as we shall see.

In Daniel 5, we read of the events surrounding the fall of Babylon to the armies of King Cyrus the Great. The empire of the Medes and the Persians was the “second kingdom” that arose after Babylon. History tells us that the reign of the vast-reaching Medo-Persian Empire established by King Cyrus continued just over 200 years.

Then, beginning in 333bc, the Greek forces of Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont from Europe to Asia. Two years later, in 331bc at the Battle of Arabella, the Persian Empire collapsed and the third great world-ruling kingdom took over. This was the Greco-Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great. The Hellenistic empires of Alexander’s successors dominated the Middle East for about 300 years until they were finally swallowed up, one by one, by the fourth great world-ruling empire—the kingdom of iron.

This fourth kingdom, clearly identified in history as the Roman Empire, was prophesied to continue as two “legs” all the way down to the end-time. In that end-time, the ten toes (or kings, Daniel 2:44) would constitute the final embodiment of this system that had its origins in ancient Babylon. If we let the Bible interpret itself, this progression of four world-ruling kingdoms is clear.

There are other very interesting prophecies in the book of Daniel that explain the sucssession of these kingdoms in greater detail. But I dont really anyone on this predominantly godless board cares to read even what i've written.


Outro

These are some of the most interesting and powerful prophecies regarding the future of nations that have been fulfilled. If anyone cares, I'll do more posts on other areas of fulfilled Bible prophecy, like the 300+ Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Jesus' birth, ministry and death, and the prophecies describing the end time revival of the Roman Empire and how EU keeps ticking off biblical qualifiers.

[D.]

tl;dr

[trev]

Originally Posted by Shinobi

how EU keeps ticking off biblical qualifiers.

this is all i'm really interested in

[Shinobi]

Originally Posted by trev

this is all i'm really interested in

Then I'll work on another post regarding the EU, probably have it ready in a couple of days...and will post it in here, if the thread dosn't die.