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WHY I BELIEVE

W Publishing Group

Contents

INTRODUCTION........................................................11ONE Why I Believe in the Bible................................15TWO The Stones Cry Out........................................29THREE Why I Believe in God......................................41FOUR Why I Believe in Creation.................................59FIVE Why I Believe in Heaven...................................73SIX Why I Believe in Hell.....................................85SEVEN Why I Believe in Moral Absolutes..........................97EIGHT Why I Believe in Christ...................................115NINE Why I Believe in the Virgin Birth.........................129TEN Why I Believe in the Resurrection.........................141ELEVEN Why I Believe in Christianity.............................157TWELVE Why I Believe in the Second Birth.........................169THIRTEEN Why I Believe in the Holy Spirit..........................181FOURTEEN Why I Believe in the Trinity..............................191FIFTEEN Why I Believe in the Return of Christ.....................207NOTES...............................................................217

Chapter One

I will raise them up a Prophet ... and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. Deuteronomy 18:18

There are many reasons why I believe in the Bible. The first one is the reason that God Himself gives: "I will raise them up a Prophet ... and will put my words in his mouth" (Deuteronomy 18:18). Many people have claimed to be speaking for God, but are they indeed speaking for God or are they false prophets? God says there is a way you will be able to tell. "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him" (18:22). "For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done" (Isaiah 46:9-10). "Hereby ye will know ..." It is a matter of predictive prophecy.

The Scripture says, "Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). Many people have despised the prophecies of God because they have never examined or proved them to determine if they are reliable and true. Perhaps this is because people suppose that prophecy is not real and genuine, or so commonplace that it can be easily explained. The biblical prophecies are quite specific, real, and genuine; they are unique because they do not exist anywhere else.

In all the writings of Buddha, Confucius, and Lao-tse, you will not find a single example of predicted prophecy. In the Koran (the writings of Mohammed) there is one instance of a specific prophecy-a self-fulfilling prophecy-that he, Mohammed, would return to Mecca. Quite different from the prophecy of Jesus, who said that He would return from the grave. One is easily fulfilled, and the other is impossible for any human being.

Jeane Dixon has probably had the most name recognition of any so-called prophet in America. Can she foretell the future? She's made some clever guesses, but do they accurately come to pass, as do the prophecies of the Scripture? During the three presidential elections held in 1952, 1956, and 1960, Jeane Dixon prophesied who the candidate would be for each of the major parties in all three of those elections, as well as who would win each election. How did she do? She missed all of the candidates, all of the parties, and all of the winners of all the elections.

My wife saved an article from the National Enquirer magazine many years ago, which contained the predictions of the ten leading seers or prophets in the world today for the events that were supposed to take place the last six months of that year. I examined all of those sixty-one prophecies carefully. Do you know how many of them were actually fulfilled? Not one! It seemed to me that if a person predicted sixty-one things, he or she ought to be lucky enough to hit at least one. Perhaps God wanted to show people how incapable they are of predicting the future.

A great historian, Dr. John H. Gerstner, has said that historians know how difficult it is to predict the future, because the wheels of the future turn on so many "ifs." What about the Scripture? In the Old Testament alone there are two thousand predictive prophecies-not a few lucky guesses. Someone will say, "Well, they are just sort of vague generalities, like the sayings of the Delphic Oracle or the Sibylline Oracles. Maxentius, emperor of Rome, is said to have come to one of the Sibylline Oracles and asked what would happen if he attacked the army of Constantine that was approaching Rome on the other side of the Tiber River."

The Oracle's answer was: "In that day, the enemy of Rome will be destroyed." So, confident of victory, he attacked Constantine's army, but it was Maxentius who was destroyed. The Oracle failed to define who the enemy of Rome really was; thus in the pattern of most oracular utterances, however it turned out, the prophecy was fulfilled.

The prophecies of the Scripture, on the other hand, are incredibly specific and detailed. They must be exactly fulfilled. The prophecies cannot possibly be just good guesses because they concerned themselves with things that had no likelihood of ever coming to pass. They predicted the very opposite of the natural expectations of human beings. They could not have been written after the events and pawned off as prophecies, because in hundreds of instances the fulfillment of the prophecy did not take place until hundreds of years after the death of the prophet. In many cases, the fulfillment came after the completion of the Old Testament, and even its translation into Greek in 150 B.C.

What are some of these incredibly specific and amazing prophecies? Some two thousand specific prophecies have already been fulfilled. For example, they deal with scores of cities with which Israel had dealings and with dozens of nations contiguous with or near Israel. The entire futurity of those nations and cities is described in the Old Testament, and its accuracy can be verified by anyone who has a good encyclopedia.

Consider the prophecies concerning Tyre and Sidon, two great cities of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Tyre was to the sea what Babylon was to the land. The great city of Carthage was simply one of the daughters of Tyre, and yet at its height, the prophet in the Old Testament declared that the city of Tyre would be destroyed, never to be rebuilt, and never again to be inhabited (Ezekiel 26:19-21). He warned the city of Sidon that the inhabitants would be decimated, but the city would continue (28:21-23). The facts are that the city of Sidon was attacked, it was betrayed by its own king, forty thousand of the inhabitants were killed, but the city of Sidon continues until this time.

What happened to the city of Tyre? These are some of the specific prophecies about it. Ezekiel declared when Tyre was at its height: "And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.... And they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.... And I will make thee like the top of a rock ... thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it" (Ezekiel 26:4-5, 12-14). A few years after the writing of this prophecy, the great Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon brought his army to Tyre and laid siege to the city. For thirteen years the city of Tyre withstood the efforts of the king of Babylon. Finally the walls of the city crumbled, and the hordes of the Babylonian army poured into the city and put its remaining inhabitants to the sword. Thousands, however, had fled into the sea by boat to form the new city of Tyre on an island a half-mile out in the Mediterranean. The prophecy was fulfilled, therefore, only in part.

Some might say that Ezekiel wrote this prophecy after the events happened, but that is impossible. Centuries went by. Two-hundred-fifty years later, when Ezekiel had long been moldering in his grave, most of the walls of Tyre still stood jutting into the sky-mute testimony to the fact that the prophecy had not been fulfilled. Millions of tons of stone, rubble, and timbers were left, and yet God had said the city would be scraped clean like the top of a rock-that the stones and the timbers and the very dust of the city would be cast into the sea. What madman could possibly come along two-hundred-fifty years later and complete this unfulfilled prophecy? It seemed as if God was wrong; yet the Bible had declared, "I the Lord have spoken it."

Then, like a bugle call, there came a thrill of terror out of the north, as a mighty conqueror appeared on the horizon. Alexander the Great was poised at the Strait of the Dardanelles readying his attack on the dominant Persian Empire. He crossed that strait and gave to the king of Persia his first crushing defeat. The mighty Persian army turned and fled to the south, then inland to the east, with Alexander in hot pursuit. However, before turning inland to follow the fleeing army, Alexander, as a great strategist, decided to nullify the effects of the mighty Persian navy. He sealed off all the ports on the eastern end of the Mediterranean. One after another, the cities capitulated and surrendered. Finally Alexander came to new Tyre, built with impregnable walls a half mile out in the Mediterranean. He commanded the city to surrender. When its inhabitants laughed at his command, Alexander, with his chief engineer, Diades, conceived the boldest and most daring plan in the history of warfare: They would build a causeway across the half mile of the Mediterranean Sea to the island of new Tyre. Where would they find the materials for such a causeway? The order was issued by the great king: "Tear down the walls of Tyre, take the timbers and the stones, the rubble and the logs, and cast them into the sea." So the great army of Alexander obediently began to fulfill the Word of God.

A few years ago, I purchased a little book on Alexander the Great by Charles Mercer, with consultant Cornelius C. Vermeule III, the curator of classical art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. This book contains a most amazing description of these events: "Mainland Tyre was leveled, and its rubble was carried to the construction site. Meanwhile, logs were dragged from the forests of Lebanon, and quarries were opened in the hills to supply stones for Diades's fabulous highway.... Alexander himself carried stones on his back." "Rubble, logs, stones!" These are the very same objects that the prophet Ezekiel talked about thousands of years ago. The stones and the timbers and the dust were carried and cast into the sea. History tells us that they scraped the very city itself to get everything they could to make this highway in order to destroy the new city of Tyre. New Tyre was finally besieged, destroyed, and leveled.

But the prophecy still was not completely fulfilled. God had said that He would destroy the walls of Tyrus and make her like the top of a rock. He said that it would become a place for the spreading of nets. A member of my church recently visited the city of Tyre and returned with pictures of new Tyre. They showed nets spread out on the flat rock that once had been the proud city of Tyre. "For I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD" (Ezekiel 26:5). Let any unbeliever explain those prophecies!

Consider two other cities-Samaria and Jerusalem. Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel; Jerusalem was the capital of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. While those cities were both in their prime, the prophets declared that not only would Jerusalem be destroyed and its inhabitants carried away, but the wall would also be destroyed (Jeremiah 24:9; 29:21; 35:17). The prophets further said that the city and the wall would be rebuilt, and the people would be brought back (Isaiah 4:3-6). Concerning Samaria, the prophets said that its walls would be cast down; that it would be made into a vineyard; that the foundations thereof would be uncovered (Micah 1:5-6). What about the walls of Jerusalem? They were destroyed, but they have been rebuilt. I have walked along the top of the great walls of Jerusalem.

Concerning my visit to Samaria, I remember three things about that city. Later, I learned that these are the three specific prophecies that are mentioned in Scripture. I recall looking down from a steep wall on a high mountain and seeing in the valley huge stones that had once been the walls of Samaria. I also remember our guide pointing out the vineyards, the olive trees, and various other trees. I recall seeing the great excavations in the ground going down thirty or forty feet, showing the foundations of the great fortresses that once had been Samaria. "I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof" (Micah 1:6). What if the wall of Jerusalem were destroyed today? What if the walls of Samaria were rebuilt? The prophecy would be shown to be false.

What were the prophecies concerning the cities of Edom? Edom was a nation near the Dead Sea that withstood the people of God, so God pronounced a curse upon Edom. He said: "I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.... I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD" (Ezekiel 35:3-4, 9). Alexander Keith has collected statements by skeptics concerning these prophecies. (The skeptics had no idea that they were making any reference to prophecies, but merely to these places.) Constantine Volney, the skeptic who was responsible for Lincoln's skepticism, said concerning Edom that "the traces of many towns are met with. At present all this country is a desert." The noted Swiss explorer and traveler John L. Burkhardt declares that the whole plain presented to the view an expanse of shifting sands. Stephen, a Christian standing among the ruins of Petra, one of the great cities of Edom, declares, "Would that the skeptic could stand as I did among the ruins of this city, among the rocks, and there open the Sacred Book, and read the words of the inspired penman, written when this desolate place was one of the greatest cities of the world. I could see the scoff arrested, his cheek pale, his lips quivering, and his heart quaking with fear, as the ruined city cries out to him in a voice loud and powerful as that of one risen from the dead. Though he would not believe Moses and the prophets, he believes the handwriting of God Himself and the desolation and eternal ruin around him."

Consider the magnificent city of Babylon, perhaps the greatest city in ancient times. The walls were fourteen or fifteen miles long. The city consisted of one-hundred-ninety-six square miles of the most beautiful architecture, hanging gardens and palaces, temples and towers. She drew her stores from no foreign country. She invented an alphabet, worked out the problems of arithmetic, invented implements for measuring time, and advanced beyond all previous peoples in science. Yet God said of Babylon when it was the greatest city in the world: "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah" (Isaiah 13:19).

There are more than one hundred specific prophecies concerning Babylon's fate. Consider the great walls of Babylon. The historian Herodotus tells us that these walls had towers that extended above the 200-foot walls to a height of 300 feet. The walls were 187 feet thick at the base and enclosed an area of 196 square miles. The city of Babylon was impregnable. But God said of those towers and that city: "The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken.... It shall be desolate for ever" (Jeremiah 51:58, 62). Is that prophecy vague or ambiguous? In no way!

The Great Wall of China is not nearly as large or as strong; though it is older, it still stands today. The walls of Jerusalem still stand. But what about the walls of Babylon? Major Keppel says, in the Narrative of his travels, "We totally failed to discover any trace of the city walls." The walls of Babylon were destroyed, but only gradually. The prophet could not possibly have written his prediction after the event because the fulfillment of the prophecy was not completed until after the time of Christ. The Old Testament had been completed and translated into Greek five hundred years before.

In the fourth century A.D., Julian the Apostate came to the throne of Rome. His one overwhelming desire was to destroy Christianity and reestablish the pagan religions of Rome. While engaged in a war with the Persians near the remains of Babylon, Julian completely destroyed the remnants of the wall of Babylon, lest it afford any protection in the future for the Persian army. Thus the prophecy was brought to fulfillment by one of Scripture's greatest antagonists of all time.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from WHY I BELIEVEby D. JAMES KENNEDY Copyright © 2007 by D. James Kennedy. Excerpted by permission.
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