tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10056905938059812582024-03-13T01:08:01.328-07:00Christian Apologetics ExplainedBrian Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12852057894774654639noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1005690593805981258.post-22573001106002613252014-07-10T20:02:00.002-07:002014-07-13T10:22:03.372-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>HOW THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS & THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL CHAPTER 9 PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, THE MESSIAHSHIP OF JESUS AND THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">by Brian D. Cates</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">March, 1998</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">copyright 1998</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Did you know there's a prophecy in the Bible that accurately predicted the very year that the Messiah would present Himself to Israel, and give up his life on behalf of others? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As incredible as this might sound, <i>it's absolutely true. </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> It's a prophecy found in the Old Testament, a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">prophecy that no human agency, no matter how clever or determined, could have come </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">close to predicting or to fulfilling. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This prophecy establishes beyond all reasonable doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Christ and that the Bible does contain accurate predictive prophecies written hundreds of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">years before their complete and exact fulfillment. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This incredible prophecy is found in the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here is that chapter in it's entirety: </span><br />
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<div class="chapter-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Dan-9-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="chapternum" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; bottom: -0.1em; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">9 </span>In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— </span><span class="text Dan-9-2" id="en-NKJV-21991" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">2 </span>in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">specified</i> by the word of the<span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Dan-9-3" id="en-NKJV-21992" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">3 </span>Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. </span><span class="text Dan-9-4" id="en-NKJV-21993" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">4 </span>And I prayed to the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, </span><span class="text Dan-9-5" id="en-NKJV-21994" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">5 </span>we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. </span><span class="text Dan-9-6" id="en-NKJV-21995" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">6 </span>Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. </span><span class="text Dan-9-7" id="en-NKJV-21996" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">7 </span>O Lord, righteousness <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">belongs</i> to You, but to us shame of face, as <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">it is</i> this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Dan-9-8" id="en-NKJV-21997" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">8 </span>“O Lord, to us <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">belongs</i> shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. </span><span class="text Dan-9-9" id="en-NKJV-21998" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">9 </span>To the Lord our God <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">belong</i> mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. </span><span class="text Dan-9-10" id="en-NKJV-21999" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">10 </span>We have not obeyed the voice of the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. </span><span class="text Dan-9-11" id="en-NKJV-22000" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">11 </span>Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.</span><span class="text Dan-9-12" id="en-NKJV-22001" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">12 </span>And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Dan-9-13" id="en-NKJV-22002" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">13 </span>“As <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">it is</i> written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. </span><span class="text Dan-9-14" id="en-NKJV-22003" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">14 </span>Therefore the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> our God <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</i> righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. </span><span class="text Dan-9-15" id="en-NKJV-22004" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">15 </span>And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">it is</i> this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!</span></div>
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<span class="text Dan-9-16" id="en-NKJV-22005" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">16 </span>“O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">are</i> a reproach to all <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">those</i>around us. </span><span class="text Dan-9-17" id="en-NKJV-22006" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">17 </span>Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. </span><span class="text Dan-9-18" id="en-NKJV-22007" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">18 </span>O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. </span><span class="text Dan-9-19" id="en-NKJV-22008" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">19 </span>O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”</span></div>
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<span class="text Dan-9-20" id="en-NKJV-22009" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">The Seventy-Weeks Prophecy</span></h3>
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<span class="text Dan-9-20" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">20 </span>Now while I <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">was</i> speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> my God for the holy mountain of my God, </span><span class="text Dan-9-21" id="en-NKJV-22010" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">21 </span>yes, while I <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">was</i> speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. </span><span class="text Dan-9-22" id="en-NKJV-22011" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">22 </span>And he informed <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">me,</i> and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. </span><span class="text Dan-9-23" id="en-NKJV-22012" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">23 </span>At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">you,</i> for you <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">are</i> greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision:</span></div>
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<span class="text Dan-9-24" id="en-NKJV-22013" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; left: -4.4em; line-height: 22px; position: absolute; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">24 </span>“Seventy weeks<span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-22013a" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-22013a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-22013a" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #b34b2c; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</span> are determined</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-24" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">For your people and for your holy city,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-24" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">To finish the transgression,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-24" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">To make an end of<span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-22013b" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-22013b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-22013b" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #b34b2c; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote b">b</a>]</span> sins,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-24" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">To make reconciliation for iniquity,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-24" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">To bring in everlasting righteousness,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-24" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">To seal up vision and prophecy,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-24" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">And to anoint the Most Holy.</span></div>
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<div class="line" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">
<span class="text Dan-9-25" id="en-NKJV-22014" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; left: -4.4em; line-height: 22px; position: absolute; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">25 </span>“Know therefore and understand,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-25" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">That</i> from the going forth of the command</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-25" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">To restore and build Jerusalem</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-25" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">Until Messiah the Prince,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-25" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">There shall be</i> seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-25" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">The street<span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-22014c" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-22014c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-22014c" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #b34b2c; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote c">c</a>]</span> shall be built again, and the wall,<span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-22014d" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-22014d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-22014d" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #b34b2c; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote d">d</a>]</span></span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-25" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">Even in troublesome times.</span></div>
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<span class="text Dan-9-26" id="en-NKJV-22015" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; left: -4.4em; line-height: 22px; position: absolute; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">26 </span>“And after the sixty-two weeks</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-26" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-26" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">And the people of the prince who is to come</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-26" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-26" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">The end of it <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">shall be</i> with a flood,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-26" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">And till the end of the war desolations are determined.</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-27" id="en-NKJV-22016" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; left: -4.4em; line-height: 22px; position: absolute; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">27 </span>Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-27" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">But in the middle of the week</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-27" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-27" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-27" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">Even until the consummation, which is determined,</span><br />
<span class="text Dan-9-27" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">Is poured out on the desolate.”</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In this prophecy, Daniel claims he read the prophetic book of Jeremiah and saw that the 70</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">year exile of the Jewish people from the land was almost over. He then prays a long,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">heartfelt prayer in which he asks God to forgive him and his people and to restore them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While he is still praying, God sends the angel Gabriel to visit Daniel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Gabriel then relates a prophecy to Daniel, and this is the gist of it: God has</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">decreed that his purposes that he is working in the world through the medium of the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jewish people will last 70 more weeks, or 490 years [a week is a period of 7 years, and so 7 x 70 = 490]. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> During this span of 490 years, these purposes are going to be accomplished: transgression will be finished, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">sin will be put to an end, atonement will be made for iniquity, everlasting righteousness will be established, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">vision and prophecy will be sealed up, and the most holy place or person is to be anointed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All of this is to happen in a span of 490 years. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Gabriel tells Daniel that this 490 year period will begin to expire when a decree is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">issued commanding that the city of Jerusalem and the temple be rebuilt. The next</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">prophetic event that would take place would be the arrival of Israel's Messiah.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The angel tells Daniel that the span of time between the giving of the decree to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">rebuild and the arrival of the Messiah will be 69 weeks. Now one week is seven years</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">according to Jewish reckoning of that day. So the angel is saying that the 70 weeks in</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">which all of God's purposes will be accomplished through the Jewish people equals 490</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">years. Because 70 weeks equals 490 years, 69 weeks equals 483 years. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The angel has just set a TIMETABLE for the arrival of the Messiah! 483 years</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">after the decree to rebuild is given, the Messiah will come! Great news, right?! Imagine</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">how excited Daniel would be to hear this, and all other devout Jews of the day would no</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">doubt have been excited too. Not only is the city and temple to be rebuilt, but</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">now we know exactly when Messiah will come: 483 years from the time we're allowed by</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">decree to go back and rebuild Jerusalem and our Holy Temple!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But what Gabriel had to say next would have caused Daniel and his</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">contemporaries jaws to drop open in shocked, negative astonishment. The angel says that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">when Messiah comes, He's going to die! And not only will Messiah die, but the rebuilt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">city and temple will also be destroyed! Imagine what a hard revelation this would be for a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">devout Jew like Daniel to take. The temple is the center of Jewish national and cultural</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">identity; God is going to let them go back and build it again only to have it destroyed all</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">over again later? How can this be? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now this prophecy was written long before Jesus was ever born. There is no way any </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">human agency could have been consciously trying to bring about the fulfillment of this awful </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">prophecy; and any devout Jew who read this prophecy would fervently hope that it never came </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">true.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Can you imagine as Jesus was growing up, this passage from Daniel being read in the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">synagogues? What would the people have made of it? We're back in the land now, with our city </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rebuilt and our temple functioning again! We're eagerly awaiting our Messiah who is coming to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">free us from Roman oppression! When that happens we're going to become the greatest nation </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on the face of the Earth, and the Kingdom of God will begin immediately and we will enjoy peace </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and prosperity forevermore! Hey, what's this? Daniel talks about the Messiah being cut off? Our </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">city, our temple destroyed? Never! God will never allow this to happen! I mean, we all know </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Daniel is a prophet, but there is no way the death of the Messiah and the destruction of our city </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and temple could be in God's plan! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>THE PROPHECY NOBODY WANTED TO COME TRUE</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If there is any prophecy found in the O.T. Scriptures that would make a 1st century Jew</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">shudder when he read it, it is Daniel chapter 9. There is no way any devout Jew was fervently </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">looking forward to what was written here. If there was any Scripture that a Jewish religious </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">leader would have gladly expunged from the Scripture, it would have been Daniel 9. It is just </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">tragic in it's implications. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But the prophecy did come true just exactly as Daniel wrote it. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artaxerxes_I_of_Persia">King Artaxerxes of Persia</a> issued the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem in 444 B.C. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey's foal on Passover Week, 33 AD, the EXACT DAY that the 483 years expired. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He is the only person of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">historical record who showed up, claimed to be the Messiah, and died in the required 483rd year. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And then in 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed both the city and the temple. Archaeology and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">historical evidence place Jesus' crucifixion in 33 A.D., which by the Jewish method of reckoning </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">years (with 360 days rather than our 365) places as exactly 483 years after Artaxerxes' decree. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://jewishroots.net/library/prophecy/daniel/daniel-9-24-27/royal-decree.html">Here's a good explanation</a> about the use of Jewish reckoning of a prophetic year of 360 days rather than the Roman version of 365 days for a year: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: justify;">What's so great about using the 444 B.C. Date is the fact that it uses a prophetic year (360 days) instead of the Gregorian Calendar year (365 days). There are solid biblical reasons for looking at this prophecy from a prophetic year perspective as opposed to any other type of year. 483 prophetic years is equal to 173,880 days (360 days X 483 years = 173,880 days). Going forward in time (the year 0 is skipped) from March 4, 444 B.C. (Neh. 2:1-8) 483 prophetic years would bring you out around March 30, A.D.33. which could easily be the date of the Jesus </span><a href="http://jewishroots.net/library/prophecy/zechariah/triumphal-entry-first-coming-2.html" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: justify;">Triumphal Entry</a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: justify;"> into Jerusalem found in Matthew 21. This would then be followed by His crucifixion on April 3rd A.D. 33</span><span class="style_9_pt" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: justify;">.(3)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Think about it. The Messiah has to show up <b><i>before</i></b> the city and the temple are destroyed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This means that Messiah had to show up before 70 A.D., and the prophecy narrows it down ever </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">further to an exact year after a decree is given. Jesus is the only man who fits the qualifications. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now this looks incredible, doesn't it? Here is a man named Daniel writing accurately </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">about events over 400 years before they occurred; he accurately predicts the exact year a man</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">claiming to be the Messiah will come, that this person will die, and</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> that the rebuilt city </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and temple will be destroyed. There is no way a devout Jew in his right mind would dream this </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">stuff up on his own. And Daniel's contemporaries knew this. This is why Daniel's book was </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">revered by the Jews, and why they took it and Jeremiah's and Ezekiel's prophetic books back to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Israel with them when the exile came to an end. They knew Daniel was a prophet and that God </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">spoke to him, even if God did tell Daniel things that were hard to understand at the time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Jews had learned a valuable lesson from Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet that God</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">raised up among the Jews before the exile and captivity in Babylon. Jeremiah told the people that </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">God was telling him that the Babylonians would come and conquer them if they did not turn away </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">from their idolatry and other sin. The people refused to believe him. The king even took a scroll </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with the prophecies God gave to Jeremiah written on it and cut it into pieces and burned the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">pieces in a fire. And when things happened exactly as Jeremiah had said they would, the Jewish </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">people found themselves exiled in Babylon. At that point they got out their copies of what </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jeremiah wrote and read it again and realized that God had been talking to them through this </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">prophet, and by refusing to hear him they had refused to hear God. So the reason they were </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">suffering this bitter exile was because they had refused to listen to God when He spoke to them </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">through His chosen prophet Jeremiah. This was a painful admission for them to make. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because of this, it's easy to see why they would accept Daniel's book as prophetic and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">divinely inspired even if it contained predictions that seemed incredible and intensely disturbing to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">THE CRITICS ATTACK THE PROPHECY </b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now after reading this plain prophecy of Daniel, some critics have realized how powerful</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">it is, and have tried to undermine it. They charge that the most of the book of Daniel, and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">especially Daniel chapter 9, was written after the fact; that is, Christians tampered with their </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">copies of Daniel after Jesus came and after the Romans destroyed everything in 70 A.D.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In other words, the book is mostly a fabrication written after many of the events it</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"prophecies" had already taken place. There are several crucial problems with such a theory.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First, how is a small sect of Jewish Christians going to influence their non-Christian Jewish</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">brethren, most of whom are hostile to the Christian message, into altering their Scriptures into </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">making it look like Jesus was the Christ? And remember, the Jewish Christians only have between </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">33 and 70 A.D. to talk the non-Christian Jews into this. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anyone who has studied Jewish history and ancient Jewish culture and is well versed in</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the reverence the Jews had for what they believed to be divinely inspired Scripture would laugh </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">this idea right out of court after a moment's reflection. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>HOW THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS PROVE THE BOOK OF DANIEL WASN'T CHANGED</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4LKO14lgPQDD6kv9-1U718DIJFBMduS8nLWQIQX2isFMKLxDKYsnZlpuaQeUADR_enOtN2S1Pfq0oSm7xGm3m0yTYtp95UtvPwsnGyNsZdB509h-tCHMbR9TFJB8-SHXH6FXDUGlhwSj/s1600/new-dead-sea-scrolls-theory_24016_600x450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4LKO14lgPQDD6kv9-1U718DIJFBMduS8nLWQIQX2isFMKLxDKYsnZlpuaQeUADR_enOtN2S1Pfq0oSm7xGm3m0yTYtp95UtvPwsnGyNsZdB509h-tCHMbR9TFJB8-SHXH6FXDUGlhwSj/s1600/new-dead-sea-scrolls-theory_24016_600x450.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Dead Sea Scrolls prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the book of Daniel was</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">accurately preserved between 70 A.D. and the 10th century A.D. Before the Dead Sea Scrolls </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">were discovered, the earliest complete copy of the O.T., and therefore of the book of Daniel, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">dated from the 10th century A.D. Because of this, when the critics looked at the prophecies </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">contained in Daniel, such as the accurate prediction of the supplanting of the Babylonian empire </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">by Greece and Alexander, and then Greece being supplanted by Rome, as well as the Messianic </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">prophecy of chapter 9, they would grin and say, "Well it's all written after the fact, you know. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Christians have tinkered with it down through the years." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This theory was confidently held by many despite the fact that there was not one shred of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">physical, historical evidence to verify it. The fact that there were no copies of the O.T. books </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">dating before the 11th century "proved" to the critics that the Scriptures had been altered down </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">through the centuries. This is an argument based upon silence, and the wonderful thing about an </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">argument based on silence is that there is no evidence that can be brought up to disprove it </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">because.....the argument isn't based on any evidence! Neat, huh? So a critic holding such a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">theory built on a lack of evidence is invincible because no one can disprove his theory.....unless an </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">archaeologist makes an unfortunate discovery. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And in the case of the critic's theory about supposed changes to the Old Testament,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls"> this is</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls">exactly what happened.</a> There was an archaeological discovery that suddenly filled that vacuum </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of silence upon which the critics had built their cherished theories with physical, crude evidence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Dead Sea Scrolls ended arguments from silence forever. These scrolls, discovered in 1945, were radiocarbon </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">dated as having all been made between the 2nd century BC and the early 1st century AD. This collection of 981 texts included every single O.T. book with the single exception of Esther. Comparisons were </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">made between the O.T. of the 10th century A.D. and the Old Testament of the early to mid 1st century A.D. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> The result? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Incredible! <i>There was no appreciable difference. </i> In the entire book of Isaiah, for instance, experts </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">found not a single discrepancy save for variant spellings of certain words, or copyists errors. Not </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one meaning of single sentence of a single chapter was different. And all the other books proved </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">just as identical; including Daniel, and especially Daniel 9. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They didn't just find ONE copy of each book, either. Here's a list of how many different copies of each Old Testament book was found in the 11 caves that comprised this fascinating archaeological find: </span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW-0SMgWdvBpvkKF0R9KLqo-1isretEWAZxv3xFa2lnJjAua4F6iqhZ-LqXIe6qiIOyK4b-vo0mncASuYdveeG3IKMDmnyMrM1hW0mhrcMQHqOOyZ1qT2PVLLZi_9vl7EEGtioUrskLr-A/s1600/dead+sea+scrolls+number+of+ot+books+found.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW-0SMgWdvBpvkKF0R9KLqo-1isretEWAZxv3xFa2lnJjAua4F6iqhZ-LqXIe6qiIOyK4b-vo0mncASuYdveeG3IKMDmnyMrM1hW0mhrcMQHqOOyZ1qT2PVLLZi_9vl7EEGtioUrskLr-A/s1600/dead+sea+scrolls+number+of+ot+books+found.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Archaeologists didn't find one copy of the Book of Daniel; they found EIGHT. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls">Just like that</a>, a gap of over 1,000 years between complete texts of the Book of Daniel vanished! </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_language" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-decoration: none;" title="Hebrew language">Hebrew language</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;"> manuscripts of the Bible were </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masoretic_text" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-decoration: none;" title="Masoretic text">Masoretic texts</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;"> dating to the 10th century, such as the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo_Codex" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-decoration: none;" title="Aleppo Codex">Aleppo Codex</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">. (Today, the oldest known extant manuscripts of the Masoretic Text date from approximately the 9th century.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-112" style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls#cite_note-112" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[112]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">) The biblical manuscripts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls push that date back a millennium to the 2nd century BCE.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-113" style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls#cite_note-113" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[113]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;"> Before this discovery, the earliest extant manuscripts of the Old Testament were manuscripts such as </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Vaticanus_Graecus_1209" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-decoration: none;" title="Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209">Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;"> and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-decoration: none;" title="Codex Sinaiticus">Codex Sinaiticus</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;"> (both dating from the 4th century) that were written in Greek.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now here's a fact verified by historical research and extensive archaeological evidence: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">these Dead Sea scrolls were left in a cave in 70 A.D. by a small religious Jewish sect called the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Essenes. Why did these Essenes put the scrolls into clay jars and then seal them up in a cave? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">BECAUSE THEY WERE TRYING TO SAVE THEIR SACRED TEXTS AS THE ROMAN ARMY PREPARED </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">TO DESTROY JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE IN DIRECT</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">FULFILLMENT OF DANIEL'S PROPHECY.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How could the Essenes' copy of the Daniel scroll have been"doctored" when the events it</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">predicted were taking place right outside the cave where that scroll had been put for safekeeping? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>WHY THE ESSENE SECT WOULD NEVER HAVE ALTERED THEIR SACRED SCRIPTURES TO PANDER TO CHRISTIANS</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It must be remembered that the Essenes were not Christians; far from it! Like the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Pharisees and temple authorities that they opposed in Jerusalem over the administration of the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">temple, the Essenes would be scandalized by the claims of the Christians. A "New Covenant" that </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">repudiated the need for further animal sacrifices, that claimed that God bestowed righteousness on </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the faithful apart from the works of the Law of Moses through the medium of a substitutionary </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">atonement, and proclaimed a man executed publicly as a common criminal by the instigation of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the highest Jewish authorities as Israel's long awaited Messiah would have been strongly rejected </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">by the Essenes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Essenes hoped and looked for a restoration of Judaism as they understood it. They</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">wanted the temple and the priesthood transformed to fit their model of religious purity (and the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">more one discovers about how things were done by men like Annias and Caiphas, the more one </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">understands why certain segments of Jewish society would feel this way!) One thing that the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Essenes certainly did not want was to see the city of Jerusalem and it's temple destroyed. If the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">destruction of the city and temple was what they wanted, they would have been cheering the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Romans on, and would have offered no resistance. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Essenes were legalistic to the core, and would have understood that a message that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">proclaimed the establishment of righteousness by faith in a dying and rising Messiah would have </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">wiped out their entire religious theology. They believed that righteousness came by following the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Law, not by the grace of God in response to faith. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because of this, the Essenes had no incentive to doctor their Daniel scroll so it would</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">appear to endorse the Jewish Christian's claims about Jesus being the Messiah. Indeed, the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Essenes had the strongest DISincentives for doing so. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not only would the Essenes not have allowed any changes to what they considered Holy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Scripture, there is also no such time for any such doctoring to occur. We know the Romans</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">under Titus sacked Jerusalem in 70 A.D. We know that very close to this time the Essenes put </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">their scrolls into these sealed jars and closed them up in a cave. And we know that the Essenes </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">were wiped out by the Roman army shortly thereafter. So who is going to go back and find the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">cave, unseal the jars, take out the scrolls, make the necessary changes, put the scrolls back in the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">jars, reseal the jars, and then reseal the cave? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even if we allow that in some strange way Jewish Christians did manage to convince their</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Essene brethren to alter Daniel 9 to appear to be a Messianic prediction of Jesus, who in the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">world convinced them to add the destruction of the temple and the city when these things hadn't </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">happened yet? I find it hard to believe that the ink wasn't dry yet on that scroll when it was </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">tucked away in that cave. Is 40 years enough time for anyone to convince devout Jews to throw </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">aside generations of cultural reverence for the Scripture and add things this horrible to it? How </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">would such a repugnant idea come to be so accepted to extremely devout Jews like the Essenes </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">so quickly that they would add this prophecy to their Daniel scroll? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If any form critic or any other kind of higher critic can come up with an answer to that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">dilemma that is not based on an argument from silence, I'll gladly consider it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So the authenticity of the prophecy is vindicated; we have seen that no Jewish man would</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">ever dream this up on his own, and that there is no way Jewish Christians would have been able to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">persuade their non-Christian Essene brethren to doctor their Scriptures, and now we have seen that the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dead Sea scrolls are stored away for safekeeping as the things predicted in Daniel were occurring </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rather than after their occurrence. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jesus' prediction of the destruction of the temple can be"discredited" if the critic does</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">enough mental gymnastics. But Daniel's prediction of the same thing 500 years before Christ </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">cannot be discredited. (Besides, there is good reason to surmise that Jesus knew of the coming </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">destruction of the temple by reading the prophecy of it in Daniel 9!) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The existence of this prophecy in the book of Daniel is proof of it's authenticity. Unless</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the Jews believed it to be the Word of God, there was no way they would leave something so</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">threatening in there. The existence of the Dead Sea scrolls is proof of the prophecy's authenticity. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This prophecy was actually written before Jesus came and before Jerusalem and the temple were </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">destroyed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, on the basis of good, solid historical evidence, we can confidently state that the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">authenticity of the passage is beyond dispute.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now we turn our attention to the contents of the passage. What the passage predicts</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">actually occurred. Jesus presented himself in Jerusalem as Messiah the 483rd year after the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">decree and was subsequently 'cut off' or killed. The city and temple are also destroyed. That Daniel 9 </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">contains an accurate predictive prophecy written hundreds of years before it's fulfillment is beyond </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">debate. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Therefore the real question now is the source of the prophecy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>A LUCKY GUESS OR KNOWLEDGE FROM A HIGHER POWER? </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now it could be that Daniel was just incredibly lucky and a very good guesser. But</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">common sense tells you the odds against a man under his own power predicting things like this </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">even 100 years into the future are so astronomical as to be almost absolute zero. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Besides this, we have an avenue to explore found in the historical evidence itself; that is,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Daniel's testimony as to how the prophecy came to him. He says an angel sent from God</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">appeared to him and told him these things. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Can we trust Daniel's testimony as to how this prophecy came to him? Is he right about</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the prophecy but wrong about how that prophecy came to him? That wouldn't make any sense. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Only a force beyond the world could communicate to Him the things found in the prophecy, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">because that force would be moving things around to cause the things prophesied to actually </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">occur. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The only position that agrees with common sense is that Daniel received the prophecy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">exactly as he said he did: an angel sent from God told it to him, and he wrote it down. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">No other explanation makes sense. An incredibly lucky guess is ruled out because the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">chances of Daniel being right about even one element of this prophecy are astronomical and there </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">are FOUR elements here (time of Messiah's coming, death of Messiah, and destruction of temple, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">destruction of city). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is good and reasonable archaeological and historical evidence that can demonstrate</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">to any reasonable person that Daniel chapter 9 contains a divinely inspired predictive prophecy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Alternative explanations that deny this involve one in directly contradicting the known evidence. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In an era in which so many in academic religious ivory towers are doing as much as they</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">can to convince thinking and reasoning people that the Bible is not really a divinely inspired book, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I feel compelled to make an answer to the charges that are being made against the validity of the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">faith to which the Bible testifies. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It seems clear to me that whatever answer is formed in response to the various claims and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">theories made by these form critics must be characterized by two crucial demonstrations:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. The demonstration of the fact that modern science has not ruled out the possibility of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the existence of a supernatural.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. The demonstration of the fact that history contains evidence that supernatural events</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">have actually occurred. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If both of these demonstrations can be made to the satisfaction of a reasonable person, I</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">believe that a case can be made for the divine inspiration of the Bible. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>THE HISTORICAL RESURRECTION PROOF & IT'S WEAKNESSES</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have noted in the past that such an argument has been formulated by noted Christian</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">apologists such as Josh McDowell. I call it "The Historical Resurrection Proof For The Divine </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Inspiration of the Bible". It looks kind of like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. There is good historical evidence that Jesus rose from the dead</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. Because Jesus rose from the dead, all of His claims are true</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. Jesus claimed that the O.T. was inspired</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4. Jesus promised that the N.T. would be inspired</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5. The entire Bible is inspired. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, if you can convince someone on the basis of the resurrection accounts and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">common sense that Jesus rose from the dead, this proof is very powerful and logical. If the first </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">premise is proven. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But that's the problem when dealing with a form critic who often has a solidly entrenched</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">anti-supernatural bias. The Gospel accounts cannot be historically accurate because they are </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">bearing witness of a miraculous event, something that rules the documents out of court right from </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the beginning as far as such a critic is concerned. The chief proof to the critic that the Bible is </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">historically unreliable is the fact that the writings depict miraculous events occurring. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So this kind of proof is not going to be satisfying at all to someone with such a viewpoint. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Christian apologist is never going to even get past first base. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In fact, as far as the form critic is concerned, not only are the Gospel documents unreliable</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">because they make a miraculous claim; they also are called into question by the critic because they </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">were written after the fact. Even the most conservative of Biblical historical scholars place the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">earliest writings of the Gospels around 10 - 15 years after the death of Jesus. In the critic's </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">viewpoint, this is plenty of time for the story to be altered and embellished. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So this Historical Resurrection proof is dismissed out of hand by the critic since </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. The Gospel accounts claim a miraculous event occurred</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. The Gospel accounts were written years after the events they proclaim.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In order to demonstrate the divine inspiration of the Scripture, the Christian apologist is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">going to have to provide a proof that </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. Demonstrates that miracles are possible and cannot be ruled out of bounds on</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">philosophical grounds before the historical evidence is examined</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. Demonstrates a miracle that is not written down after the fact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">WHY A PROPHETIC MIRACLE IS THE BEST PROOF FOR CHRISTIANITY</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because of this, the first thing the Christian apologist needs to provide is not historical</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">evidence that a miracle has occurred; he or she needs to prove first the possibility of a miracle </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">occurring. This involves discussing philosophy, not history or science per se. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After laying a philosophical framework that demonstrates to the critic that miracles cannot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">be ruled out from occurring on a priori philosophic grounds, the apologist can continue on to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">demonstrating if there is sufficient evidence in history that a miracle has indeed occurred. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The nature of the miracle best provided is one that is not written down after fact. That is, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"I saw a miraculous event 10 years ago and now I'm writing to tell you about it." Even if the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">critic now sees that miracles cannot be ruled out philosophically, he or she will be able to hold </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">that in the span of time between the supposed occurrence of the miracle and the written record of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the miracles occurring, the facts will have had plenty of time to have been confused and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">embellished. So after proving the first point, the Apologist is only halfway home. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The historical miracle best provided to a critic is not an eyewitness account of a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">miraculous event. This is because such accounts are always written down after the fact, and no </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">matter how large or small the gap in time, the critic will make use of it to hold that the story has </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">been changed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The historical miracle best provided to the form critic is a Biblical prophecy where</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">reasonable evidence insists it was written before it's fulfillment. Such a prophecy would prove the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">existence of a supernatural to a logical person, especially if the Bible can be proven by historical </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">evidence to contain more than one. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A prophetic miracle meets the two criteria where the Historical Resurrection proof fails. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. The Bible prophecy itself is the miraculous event, irrespective of whether the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> events it points forward to are also miraculous or not. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. The Bible prophecy is not written down after fact; it is written down many </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">years before the event/s it predicted took place. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Having laid out the framework of my case as to why the Historical Resurrection Proof is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">weak in the eyes of the modern form critic, and why it need to be replaced with a Biblical</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Prophecy proof, I will now endeavor to demonstrate the first crucial point for successfully</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">proving the divine inspiration of the Bible; namely, that modern science and the anti-supernatural </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">philosophy upon which it is often based do not rule out the possibility of the occurrence of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">miracles. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>HOW WE CAN KNOW MIRACLES ARE POSSIBLE?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The argument upon which all of modern science and history's anti-supernatural bias is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">based is a circular one and it can quite easily be proven to be so. First proposed by the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">philosopher David Hume, it runs like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Miracles are impossible because they violate the laws of nature." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hume stated that our observations of the way nature works demonstrated that there were</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">certain laws by which the universe functions. Since nature is observed to usually function a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">certain way, and no exceptions to these rules are ever observed, nothing can possibly violate the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rules. Should someone claim to have observed a violation of the rules, their testimony must be </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">discounted because their observations would not fit those of the majority of other men. So in </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hume's argument, even if by some fluke a miracle should occur, eyewitness testimony must be </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rejected because people must go with what the rules say based on what the general experience has been up </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">until now, and not any reported exceptions to those rules. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And it all looks quite convincing, especially if one has a reason for not wanting miracles to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">have occurred. But when you look a little more carefully, you can see that this argument commits </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one of the cardinal sins of logic, and that if everyone held this argument to be true all scientific </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">discovery would come to an abrupt halt. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hume's proof argues in a circle. Let's turn it around and see what it looks like.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Violations of natural law are impossible because they are miracles."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A circular argument is defined as one where the conclusion to be proved is contained in the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">premise. And that is certainly true of the above statement. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's a circular argument that I'm sure most people have heard; it's used by sincere</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Christians who haven't really thought through what they are saying: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The Bible is the Word of God, so it is divine revelation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's turn that around. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The Bible is divine revelation, so it is the Word of God."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As you can see, when the premise to be proved is the SAME as the conclusion, you are arguing in a circle. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If a miracle is defined as "an act that violates the laws of nature", and according to Hume‵s</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">argument, it is, the circularity of the argument can also be seen in the following way:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Miracles are impossible because they violate natural law."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">‟Violations of natural law are impossible because they are violations of natural law."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">‟Miracles are impossible because they are miracles.‶</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's do the same thing with the "Bible proof" used above. Divine revelation and the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Word of God are the same thing from the Christian viewpoint.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The Bible is the Word of God, so it is divine revelation."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The Bible is the Word of God, so it is the Word of God."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">‟The Bible is divine revelation, so it is divine revelation."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From this we can see how circular arguments work, and learn to avoid them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We need to remind ourselves what the scientific method is and what that method can and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">cannot do. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>SCIENCE & NATURAL LAW</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First of all, science is the classification of knowledge gained from modern humanity's</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">observations over time of the natural world. The classification and gaining of knowledge involves </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">observations made both in natural settings and in experimental settings. Theories are tested, and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">if found to be valid, are capable of being repeated again and again. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Science tells us how nature functions in the ordinary course of events by making</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">observations over time. What we call modern science began in the 15th-16th centuries. What we </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">call Natural laws are descriptions of the movements of matter based on observations made over a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">brief amount of time by man about how man has observed nature to function. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> To state that these Natural Laws are the highest authorities in the universe that are</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">causing things to function the way we presently observe them to function is to trap oneself in a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">philosophic Never-Never Land. Natural Law has not produced a single event in the entire history </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of the cosmos. They are simply a description of the patterns that Nature is observed to regularly </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">follow when nature gets around to doing something. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This truth reveals the very prevalent fallacy of modern thought, which says, "Since the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">universe is governed by the Laws of Nature, these Laws exercise control over whatever occurs; </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">therefore a miracle is impossible because it would violated the government of Natural Law." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">C.S. Lewis explained the problem with this kind of thinking this way. "When billiard ball A strikes billiard ball B, the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">momentum lost by A exactly equals the momentum gained by B. That is a natural law. That is, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">that is the pattern that the motions of the two billiard balls must follow.....provided something sets </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ball A in motion. And here's the snag.......the LAW won't set it in motion. The conclusion </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">suddenly rose into my mind...in the entire history of the universe the laws of Nature had not </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">produced a single event." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To say natural laws are providing the matter in the universe with the energy to move is to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">say that descriptions of the movements of matter are empowering matter with the energy to move. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It‵s saying that descriptions of the movements of matter have legislative authority over the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">movements of matter. This is a nonsensical proposition. Manmade descriptions of the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">movements of matter in nature exercise no control whatsoever over the movements of matter in </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">nature. Wherever the energy came from to get things moving, Natural Law certainly did not </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">supply it for the very simple and obvious reason that Natural law has not caused a single event. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ever. If this is true, what does one make of the supposedly scientific proposition that "The Laws </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of Nature operating on their own have given rise to our present Universe."? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Natural Law causes nothing to happen. Not only that, it also cannot prohibit anything</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">from happening. If Nature should suddenly move in different way from which it has been</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">observed to move in the recent past, I sincerely doubt that a manmade description of the Laws of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nature is going to leap from the scientific textbooks and shout "Stop that!!!" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>THE THREE MAJOR FALLACIES OF ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first major fallacy of Hume's argument is that it is circular in nature. The second is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">that is supposes that Natural Law has a governing authority over the movements of nature, when </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">it clearly does not. The third major fallacy is that it mandates that any knowledge that is not </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">presently possessed about the movements of nature are going to be shut out in the future, because </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the argument states that the Laws of Nature are rooted and fixed, and whatever exceptions to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">them occur in the future are to be discounted, no matter how convincing the proofs are. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If a miracle is seen as an exception to the Laws of Nature as presently understood by</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">observation of the recent past, how can any new scientific discoveries get their foot in the door? </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It seems rather crass to say to the person who has witnessed an exceptional event or made a new </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">discovery, "Sorry, but a few years ago we decided we already knew everything there was to know </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">about how nature works. We ratified our present understanding of Natural Law into an </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">immutable and fixed Decree, which your new testimony contradicts. So go away." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On philosophic grounds it is impossible to prove that the forces of nature are the highest</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">authority in the Universe. Any argument in favor of the proposition can be reduced to: "There </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">isn't any higher authority than the way I have observed natural forces to work, and because I have </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">never observed the forces of Nature to work differently, it is impossible for them to work </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">differently." With this kind of thinking, a witness to a miracle and a Galileo get the same hook </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">from stage right. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These three fallacies render the Natural Law argument against miracles null and void. The</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">possibility of an authority above the forces of nature is left open and cannot be excluded on a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">priori grounds. The possibility that nature might move in ways not generally observed by a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">majority of persons in the recent past is also left open. All this proves, of course, is that it's </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">POSSIBLE for a miracle to occur. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is up to the facts and data of history to provide the evidence as to whether a miracle has</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">ever occurred or not. I believe sufficient evidence can be supplied.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>HISTORY ITSELF DEMONSTRATES THAT A MIRACLE HAS OCCURRED</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The great thing about the Bible Prophecy Proof for the Inspiration of the Bible is that you</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">only have to prove one. One proven Bible prophecy that cannot be explained away as:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. Having been written after the fact</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. Having been consciously fulfilled by human agency</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. or having been just an incredibly lucky guess.....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">will establish the existence of the supernatural, and by inference, the inspiration of the Bible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here is the Historical Biblical Prophecy Proof of Daniel Chapter 9 laid out in eight points:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. The Old Testament Book of Daniel is written around 475 B.C. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">it's ninth chapter states a decree will be issued to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> When the decree is made, a 483 year 'clock' would begin to counting down, ending with the arrival of God's great deliverer of the Jewish people, Israel's Messiah.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. Artaxerxes, the ruler of Persia, issued a decree to rebuild Jerusalem in 444 BC. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. In the required 483rd year, Jesus of Nazareth rode into Jerusalem on a donkey's foal, proclaimed He was the Messiah to the nation's religious leaders, and was crucified for it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4. In 70 AD the Romans destroyed Jerusalem & it's temple. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5. The Dead Sea Scrolls provided scholars with eight 1st century copies of the Book of Daniel that demonstrated it was not altered in any way. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>6. But this means the Bible contains what can only be described as a miracle. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">7. A supernatural power working through a writer in the 4th century is the only logical explanation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8. A supernatural power created Israel's Messianic hopes, and then fulfilled them in Jesus of Nazareth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The last three claims of the proof rest on the historical framework provided by the first five claims. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If history proves the validity of the first five points of this proof, it would be very, very difficult to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">deny the validity of the 3 conclusions at the end. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While the Resurrection Proof for the Inspiration of the Bible only has one historical claim </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(which we have seen that the critic will often dismiss out of hand), the Biblical Prophecy Proof </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">based on Daniel 9 has FIVE historical claims. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Daniel's book was written, even according some of the most liberal scholars, by 250 B.C.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is a historically verifiable fact. And get this: there isn‵t any verifiable historical evidence that </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">proves it was not written when it claims to have been written. All arguments that claim the book </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">was written after the 4th century have no historical evidence to back them up. The main reason </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">for holding a late writing date for the book is ‟Well gee, if it was written in the 4th century that </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">means the author accurately predicted a whole lot of stuff. And that‵s impossible, so of course </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the book is written later.‶ Note that such arguments are based on an a priori anti-</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">supernaturalism, not on scientific or historical evidence. <b> It is therefore a historically verifiable fact that Daniel 9 was written hundreds of years before the events it predicted. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In chapter 9 of his book, Daniel claims to receive a visit from an angel who reveals to him</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">that between the time a decree is given to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, and the arrival of the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Messiah will be 483 years. Artaxerxes the king made such a decree in 444 B.C. <b>This is a </b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>historically verifiable fact.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the specified 483rd year, the only one in which Messiah was supposed to arrive, Jesus of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nazareth appeared in Jerusalem and was killed. <b>This is a historically verifiable fact.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 70 A.D., the rebuilt temple and city, which had not even stood when Daniel wrote his</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">9th chapter, were destroyed by the Romans exactly as that 9th chapter predicted. <b> This is a </b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>historically verifiable fact. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is no way the devout Jews of 30-70 A.D., including the Essenes, would have altered</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">their sacred Scriptures to suit Jewish Christians. <b>This is a historically verifiable fact.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If all five of these historical claims are proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the existence of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">an inspired prophecy in the O.T. must be accepted as a fact. </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">WHAT ARE THE REAL-WORLD IMPLICATIONS OF A GENUINE BIBLE PROPHECY?</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From what we have seen, it is obvious that Jesus of Nazareth was a man who had definite</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">supernatural forces at work in His life. His death must have meant something if a Higher Power </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">predicted it hundreds of years before it happened. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because Daniel 9 has now been revealed by good and reasonable historical evidence to be</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">a genuinely inspired prophecy, this means there was an intelligent Higher Authority above and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">beyond the forces of nature and the whims of mankind that was directing and guiding events in </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once we are faced with the validity of this prophecy, logic leads us to consider the other</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the Messiah. Can it be that all the other prophecies </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">are wrong while this one single prophecy is right?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Every prophecy must be investigated on it's own historical merits. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Are there any other prophecies given in Scripture concerning the Messiah that have</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">evidence of supernatural inspiration? And can it be reasonably demonstrated that any of these </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">prophecies were fulfilled in the life and death of Jesus? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well, the O. T. is chock-full of Messianic prophecy. And if Jesus fulfilled this one huge</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">prophecy of Daniel 9 by showing up and dying on the right year, it behooves us to investigate and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">see if he fulfilled any of the other prophecies. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah was supposed to be born in the city of Bethlehem (Micah 5:1-5) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would born of a virgin. (Isaiah 7:14-16) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah was supposed to come to Jerusalem riding on a donkey's foal. (Zechariah</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">9:9) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be announced by a forerunner. (Malachi 3:1) John the Baptist</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">prepared Jesus' way. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be God Himself (Isaiah 9:6-7). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be consumed with zeal for the purity of God's house, something that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">would cause dishonor and shame to heaped upon Him. (Psalm 69:5-9)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would come humbly and be rejected (Isaiah 53)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would identify with sinners, be counted as a sinner Himself, and </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">intercede with God on behalf of sinners (Isaiah 53)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be despised and rejected (Isaiah 53)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be valued at 30 pieces of silver. (Zechariah 11:12-13)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be scourged. (Isaiah 53)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would take the sins of the world upon himself (Isaiah 53)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would not plead His own case under oppression and persecution. He would not say anything in his own defense at a trial. (Isaiah 53)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would intercede for his enemies as He suffered. (Isaiah 53)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah's enemies planned to bury Him as the wicked were buried, but instead,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He would receive the burial of a rich and honored man. (Isaiah 53)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would pour Himself out to death. (Isaiah 53)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be crucified. (Psalm 22) Note: During David's time, a method</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">of executing someone by piercing the hands and feet was unknown.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be mocked by His enemies as He suffered. (Psalm 22)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be forsaken by God as He suffered. (Psalm 22)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah's garments would be divided among his persecutors, and they would</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">cast lots for his clothing (Psalm 22)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would be given gall and vinegar to drink as he suffered (Psalm 69:21)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Messiah would rise from the dead. (Psalm 16:7-11)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Every single one of these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jesus was very familiar with Daniel chapter 9; this means he knew the exact year and day</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">that He was going to die many years in advance. Jesus truly lived His life under a sentence of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">death. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>JESUS THE SUPERNATURAL MAN</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hundreds of years before Jesus was born a Higher Power outside the natural world</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">revealed to a Jewish man named Daniel the exact year the long awaited Messiah would come and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">die. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Does this not verify that the Jewish expectation of a Messiah was not the invention of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">man, but instead an expectation fixed and rooted within them by that self-same Higher Power? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This means a key claim of the Jewish O.T. is true; the Jewish race was called out and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">created and set apart from other nations in order to achieve the purposes of this Higher Power. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Messianic prophecies were written over a 1,500 year span by more than 20 different men,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and Jesus showed up in 33 A.D. and fulfilled all of the prophecies. Either all this stuff was </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">written after the fact (impossible), all of these writers got together and colluded (equally </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">impossible), it's a case of blind freak luck (unlikely), or some Power beyond nature revealed all </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">this Messiah stuff to the Jews and then brought it all to pass. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As long as one holds to the untenable anti-supernatural bias, blind freak luck IS the best</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">alternative. After all, these are usually the same people who believe that blind freak luck is the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">best explanation of how you go from a fish in the ocean to a man. If you can believe that, it's not a problem </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to talk yourself into believing just about anything. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once cannot be forced into believing that Jesus is the Messiah (with all that such an</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">admission would entail); all that can be maintained is that there is a REASONABLE case that He </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">was. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And the first step in making that reasonable case is to expose the fallacies of a priori</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">philosophical anti-supernaturalism. As we have seen, this is quite easy to do. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once the possibility of a Higher Power behind Nature has been established, it can be</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">demonstrated that the activity of such a Higher Power is the most REASONABLE explanation </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">for the prophecy of Daniel 9, and hence, all the Messianic prophecy of the O.T.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Daniel 9 prophecy verifies the other Messianic prophecies of the Scriptures, since it</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">would mean that the reason that the Jews were expecting a Messiah was because this Higher</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Power revealed to them that He was sending this Person into the world. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In other words, the writings of Moses, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc., are also prophetic, and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">not just Daniel. So these writings are inspired too. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As we have seen, Jesus fulfilled many Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, and not</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">just Daniel 9. So it follows that the Higher Power who moved those prophets to write those</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">prophecies was intimately involved in the life and death of Jesus as He went about fulfilling those </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">inspired prophecies. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This means the Higher Power would have purposes to achieve in Jesus' life and that those</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">purposes would be accomplished. The forces of Nature have their way with puny humankind all </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the time; how could humans then frustrate the plans and purposes of a Power that stands above </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and beyond those awesome forces of Nature?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(By the way, this gives you insight into why the disciples were so shocked by Jesus‵</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">ignoble death on the cross; believing that an Almighty God had sent Jesus into the world to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">establish the Kingdom, it just did not compute in their minds that God could have sent His Son to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">die on a Roman cross like a common criminal, expose to public shame and mocking. In the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">disciples mind, something had gone seriously wrong with the Divine Agenda!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If it was so important to this Higher Power that Jesus accomplish his divinely ordained</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">mission, how important would it be to this Intelligent Being that the fulfillment of this divine </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">mission be accurately preserved? Can man frustrate the purposes of this Awesome Power in this </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">regard? It is not reasonable to assume so. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It then follows that both the oral and written sources of Jesus' fulfillment of his divine</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">mission would be accurately preserved. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If the mission of Jesus was important to this Intelligent Being, would this Being bring</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">about the mission's fulfillment and then let people invent whatever interpretation struck their fancy </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">as to what it really meant?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The O.T. prophecies state the Messiah's mission, and how that mission had importance</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and impact on all people, Jews and Gentiles alike. Would this Divine Being allow the important </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">meaning of the Messiah's fulfilled mission to be discarded, distorted, or "improved" in any way, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">even by sincere but misguided followers of the Messiah? This is not reasonable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Therefore, it follows that the N.T. Scripture is just as inspired as the O. T. Scripture.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For you see, once you put God back into the picture, you can see quite plainly that He is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">in control of the process from start to finish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once you admit there is a God out there who gave this prophecy to Daniel, you have to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">admit it is a reasonable position that the entire Bible is inspired. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jesus not only endorsed the inspiration of the O.T.; he promised his disciples the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">inspiration of the N.T. If God was with Jesus and working through Him, Jesus would not be</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">wrong on such an important subject as the fulfillment of O.T. prophecy by his ministry and the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">preservation of the memory of that ministry in the N.T.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Bible is a supernatural book. The divinely inspired prophecies of the O. T. are</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">fulfilled in the divinely-inspired events of the N.T.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If the Bible is a supernatural book, then Jesus of Nazareth is a supernatural man, because</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the O.T. prophesied His coming, and the N.T. heralds His arrival and accomplishment of His </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">mission. In this regard, the entire divinely inspired Bible is about Jesus the Christ, and what God </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">has done through Him (the past), what God is doing through him today (the present) and what </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">God will do through Him (the future). </span>Brian Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12852057894774654639noreply@blogger.com1