In part 1 of this series, we saw how critics attempt to assign a late date of around 167 B.C. to the book of Daniel, in order to claim that the prophecies in Daniel were not supernatural at all, but simply forgeries written after the fact. We saw how detailed the prophecies were, and how they reach even beyond the 167 B.C. date of the critics. But how do we answer their arguments for a late date to Daniel?
Daniel not one of the prophets?
Skeptics claim that since Daniel was included in the Kethuvim, or "Writings" in the Masoretic text, it must have been dated no earlier than 200 B.C.,...
Skeptics have attacked the book of Daniel perhaps more than any other book in the Bible. Why is this so? I believe the reason is because the Book of Daniel contains such powerful evidence that it is a supernatural, divinely inspired book, and therefore is a great threat to those who have a anti-supernatural worldview. Daniel the prophet lived during the sixth century B.C. and he wrote many prophetic statements that described historical facts so accurately that skeptics over the centuries have tried to assign a late date to the Book of Daniel on the premise that no one can foretell the future....
Have you heard someone teach that the book of Isaiah had two different authors? That there were two Isaiahs? This "Second Isaiah " theory has become popular among some modern scholars, who can't accept the idea that God could actually predict the future.
In chapters 40-66 of Isaiah, many predictions were made about Israel's Babylonian Captivity, which occurred in 587 B.C. However, the time of the prophet Isaiah was in the 700's B.C., and so the critics had to come up with a second Isaiah that wrote chapters 40-66 sometime after the Babylonian Captivity, and then just made it appear that...
Roman ruins of Tyre with seacoast
One of the most dramatic examples of very specific and accurate prophecy are those predictions concerning the city of Tyre, as seen in the book of Ezekiel. It is important to know that the book of Ezekiel is firmly dated by scholars from 590–570 B.C. As mentioned earlier, the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament was made in 280–250 B.C.Multiple biblical prophets make many predictions about places like Tyre, Samaria, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Edom, Nineveh, Babylon and more. Each of these nations had different things happen to them during their...
How do we know we have the Word of God? One way is to see how God writes history in advance.
Let’s look at the ancient kingdom of Edom. The kingdom of Edom was located southeast of the Dead Sea and was almost as large as the state of New Jersey.[1] The people of Edom were the descendants of Esau. Edom was a constant enemy of Israel, and six different prophets spoke against it, with some very detailed predictions. We will look at just a few of these:
Jeremiah 49:18 reads: “No man shall abide there; neither shall a son of man dwell in it.”
Isaiah 34:13-15 states: “And...
A former skeptic testifies about Bible Prophecy
There is a prophecy in the Bible about Samaria, the capital city of the northern Hebrew kingdom of Israel when the Jews were split into two kingdoms. This prophecy is given in Micah 1:6, written in about 700 B.C.: “Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.”
What is predicted about Samaria?
Samaria will become as a “heap of the field.”
Vineyards will...
As 2012 marches on, we draw slowly closer to the infamous date of 12/21/2012, which for some, because it is the end point of the Mayan calendar and supposedly predicted by the French astrologer Nostradamus, is believed to be the “end of the world”. But who should we listen to, and what is the difference between prophets like Nostradamus, and Biblical prophets?
Many think of Nostradamus when they think of prophecy. But when we read his prophecies, called “quatrains”, one notices right away how vague they are, and how many different events could be made to fit them.
For example,...