25/02/2025
CAN WE TRUST BIBLE PROPHECY?
SO FAR, BIBLE PROPHECY HAS ACCURATELY PREDICTED WORLD HISTORY - WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THE FUTURE?
Can we trust Bible prophecy? The Bible itself requires that if a prophet claims divine inspiration, all his or her predictions must come true in every detail, unless they are conditional prophecies like Jonah's. If an unconditional prophecies fails, the prophet is discredited.
Jesus reinforced this principle when He told His disciples, "Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he" (John 13:19). Throughout history, Bible prophets have passed this test.
The Apostle Peter assures us that through prophecy we may have a stronger foundation for our faith than even the disciples own experience with Jesus. Through the "more sure word of prophecy" (2 Peter 1:16-21), prophets speak as moved by God through the Holy Spirit and are in harmony with all other aspects of His Word, including His law. (See Isaiah 8:20.)
Not all Bible prophecies, however, have yet been fulfilled. As we study the end-time prophecies of Daniel and John, we must honestly ask, Have their previous prophecies come true in every detail? If so, we would be wise to seriously study their future prophecies.
Let us begin our study of prophecy with the book of Daniel. We will confine our study to two chapters: Nebuchadnezzar's dream of Daniel 2 and the enlargement of that dream given to Daniel in chapter 7. These chapters give a brief overview of world history from the past reign of Babylon to the future everlasting reign of Christ's kingdom.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM
First, God gave Nebuchadnezzar a dream of a great image with a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, a belly and thighs of brass, and legs of iron with feet partly of iron and partly of clay. Then a stone cut out without human hands came down from heaven and destroyed the whole image. (See Daniel 2:31-35.)
Next, God removed the dream from Nebuchadnezzar so that his wise men could not give it a false interpretation. Then God gave the same dream along with its interpretation to Daniel, a Hebrew captive who, while serving the king as a wise man, honored Jehovah. The dream was an outline of world empires from Babylon to Christ's second coming.
Babylon: The head of gold represented the king or kingdom of Babylon. (See Daniel 2:36-38.)
MEDO-PERSIA: The Babylonians were defeated in 539 B.C. by Cyrus, the Medo-Persian general. Daniel 5:22-31 tells the story of Babylon's capture. The Medo-Persians were symbolized by the silver breast and arms.
Greece: Twice in the book of Daniel we are told that the Medes and Perians would be defeated by the Greeks. (See Daniel 8:4-7, 20-21; 11:1-3.) The Greeks defeated the Medes and Persians in 331 B.C., and are represented by the belly and thighs of brass.
ROME: The iron legs represent the fourth world empire. (See Daniel 2:40.) History records that the Greeks were defeated in 168 B.C. by the Romans. Rome is well described here as an empire that crushes like iron.
No new earthly superpower emerged to defeat and conquer Rome. Instead, around A.D. 476, Rome was overrun by ten barbaric tribes which eventually became the nations of Western Europe. These ten tribes are aptly depicted by toes of iron and clay. (See Daniel 2:41-43.) There have been many attempts to bring these tribes into a singular empire, but the prophecy was, "they shall not cleave one to another" (Daniel 2:43). Napolean, Hi**er, and others sought to unite Europe through force. Others have tried through political alliances and royal intermarriage - the mingling of the "seed of men." Unity of sorts may have existed for a few brief years, yet no lasting unity has ever been achieved.
CHRIST'S KINGDOM: In the end, the stone cut without hands, representing Christ's kingdoms. (See Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45.) Daniel chapter 2 teaches us that man will never build an everlasting empire. Only God's kingdom will reign forever and ever.
DANIEL'S SECOND DREAM
Many years later, Daniel was given additional information about these four kingdoms, especially details leading to Earth's closing events. Daniel sees "four great beast" or "kings" with kingdoms come "up from the sea, diverse one from another" (Daniel 7:3, 17).
BABYLON: The first beast resembled a lion with the wings of an eagle. (See Daniel 7:4). The lion with eagle's wings was a common symbol used by ancient Babylon. The Bible elsewhere describes Babylon as a lion. (See Jeremiah 50:17.)
MEDO-PERSIA: The second beast resembled a bear raised up on one side with three ribs between his teeth. (See Daniel 7:5.) The Medes and the Persians defeated the Babylonians in 539 B.C. The bear was raised on one side because the Persians were dominant. Between the years of 547 - 545 B.C., Egypt, Lydia, and Babylon were conquered, symbolized by the three ribs betwee the bear's teeth.
GREECE: The third beast resembled a leopard with four wings and four heads. In 331 B.C. the 31-year-old Alexander the Great conquered the world with amazing speed. When he died suddenly, the empire was divided among his four generals: Egypt to Ptolemy; Syria to Seleucus; Asia Minor to Cassander; and Macedonia to Lysimachus.
ROME: The ferocious beast with ten horns represents the fourth kingdoms to rule the world. (see Daniel 7:23-25.) Rome defeated the Greeks in 168 B.C., becoming the fourth world empire. Ten kingdoms or tribes overran the Western Roman Empire contributing to its collapse in A.D. 476: Anglo-Saxons (English), Alemanni (German), Franks (French), Burgundians (Swiss), Suevi (Portuguese), Visigoths (Spanish), Vandals (North Africans), Lombardi, Ostrogoths, and the Heruli (each from a different part of Italy).
THE LITTLE HORN POWER: Another king emerges from among the first ten kings. (See Daniel 7:8, 20-26.) In its rise it plucks up - or destroys - three of the first ten kingdoms. (See Daniel 7:8, 23.) Who is this king with a "look more stout than his fellows?"
THE LITTLE HORN POWER
The following ten identifying marks of the little horn power accurately describe it as the next extension of the Roman Empire - Papal Rome:
1. It was a kingdom as the other horns are kingdoms. "And another [horn] shall arise..." (Daniel 7:24). The Papacy was both a religious and political power.
"Lomg ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the Western emperors was left to the mercy of the barbarous hordes, the Romans turned to one figure for aid and protection, and asked him to rule them; and thus,...command the temporal sovereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of caesar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through so many ages." (Catholic Quarterly Review, April 1911.)
2. It would emerge from the Roman Empire with the other ten kingdoms: "there came up among them another little horn" (Daniel 7:8). "Out of the ruins of political Rome, arose the great moral empire in the 'giant form' of the Roman Church." (The Rise of the Medieval Church, 1909, p. 150.)
3. It would arise after the ten kings had risen to power. "And another shall rise after them" (Dainel 7:24). The ten divisions of Rome were completed in A.D. 476. Yet the papacy did not emerge with power in the Western Roman Empire until Emperor Justinian, isolated in the East in Constantinople, needed the pope's influence and support in the West. The year was 538 and the pope was Vigilius. "From this time on the popes, more and more involved in worldly affairs, no longer belong solely to the Church; They are men of the state, and then rulers of the state." (Medieval Europe from 395 to 1270, pp. 120-121.)
4. It uprooted three of the ten tribes in its pursuit of power. (See Daniel 7:8, 24.) "I might cite three [tribes] that were eradicated from before the pope out of the list first given, viz., the Heruli under Odoacer, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths". (Apocalyptica, Volumes III, 139)
5. It was a radically different kingdom from the first ten kingdoms. (See Daniel 7:8.) The Papacy was an ecclesiastical and political kingdom, while the first ten were merely political or civil kingdoms.
6. It would have a singular male leader at its head, for it has the eyes and mouth of a man. (See Daniel 7:8.)
"The pope is the absolute monarch of this whole structure. Elected for life by a committee of princes, the cardinals, he has exclusive power to appoint new princes as vancancies occur, and the princes have no power to discipline him or to remove him after they have once elected him." (Communism, Democracy, and Catholic Power, p. 51)
7. It would speak great words or blasphemy against God. (See Daniel 7:25.) Jesus was falsely accused of blasphemy because He claimed divinity and the ability to forgive sins. (See John 10:33; Luke 5:20-21.) But when a mere mortal claims divinity or the ability to forgive sins, he is blaspheming. (see Daniel 7:21, 25.)
The Papacy has made such blasphemous claims - By dismissing the idea that one can obtain forgiveness directly from God, and exhorted Catholics to confess more often to their priests. The popes claims to be God on earth. Pope Leo XIII said, "We hold upon the earth the place of God Almighty." (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter of June 20, 1894.
8. It would change "times and laws." (See Daniel 7:25.) The following is from a Catholic cathechism:
"Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept? "Answer: Had she not such power,...she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day -a change for which there is not Scriptural authority." (A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd Edition p. 174.)
The Vatican admits that changing the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week is not biblical. In fact, she recognizes her Sunday Sabbath as the mark of her authrority over Scripture! "Sunday is our mark of authority... The church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact." (The Catholic Record, London, Ontario September 1, 1923)
9. It would persecute God's faithful people. Did the Papacy "wear out the saints of God"? (See Daniel 7:25) and Revelation 12.) "That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a complete knowledge of history." (History of the Rise and influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, Volume II, p. 32)
There are many wonderful Christians in the Catholic communion. They cannot be held accountable for the political intrigues and unchristlike practices for which the Papacy, down through the ages, is responsible.
10. It would have supremacy over the nations" ... until a time and times and the dividing of time" (Daniel 7:25). How long is a "time, times, and the dividing of time"? We find the answer in Scripture.
According to Revelation 12:6, 14, "a time, and times, and half a time" equals "a thousand two hundred and threescore days." In other words, "a time" equals one year, "times" equals two years, and "half a time" equals 6 months. Three years and six months is the same as 42 months or 1260 days. A biblical calender year is 360 days. Therefore, 360 360 360 180 = 1260 days
But wait! How could any entity accomplish all these in only 1260 literal days? In Bible prophecy, a "day" represents a "year." (See Numbers 14:33-34; Ezekiel 4:5-6.)
Did the Papacy rule for exactly 1,260 years? If the Papacy began its temporal rule in A.D. 538 under Emperor Justinian, 1260 years would bring it exactly to the year 1798.
Napoleon's general Berthier entered Rome on the tenth of February, 1798, captured and exiled the pope and proclaimed Rome to be a republic. (The Modern Papacy, p.1)
THE REST OF THE STORY
Did the power of the Papacy end here? No! Prophecies predict the reemergence of the Papacy as a political and religious superpower in the end-times. The Bible reveals that the Papacy will regain her lost power, will once again persecute dissenters, and will become the head of a global political order.
But if prophecy is all doom and gloom, it fails in its purpose to :shine as a light in a dark place" (2 Peter 1:19). Nebuchadnezzar's dream ended with the coming of Christ and the destruction of all earthly oppressors and despots. Daniel's vision ended with the judgment, when evil and its perpetrators are destroyed and God's people are given possession of the earth (Daniel 7:26, 27). These "saints of the most high" include those from every nation, kindred, tongue and people who love God and others more than themselves. (See Revelation 7:9; Matthew 25:31-36.)
Daniel chapters two and seven give us confidence that good will triumph over evil. Because every other detail of the prophecy has been fulfilled, we may trust that Christ's coming kingdom is just as sure.