Today's reading: More prophecies of future events in the nations constitute further links in the chain for the inspiration of the Bible.
Memory gem: "Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it" (Isaiah 19:1).
Thought for today:
Fulfilled prophecy is especially adapted to serve as a test, for we are 1,900 years from the writing of the last Bible book, and 3,400 years from the first.
"Miracles performed 2,500 years ago cannot be seen now, so they are often flatly denied," says Earle Rowell. "But a prediction made 2,500 years ago, which was contrary to all analogy at that time and a stumblingblock to the generation which heard it, but which has recently been fulfilled, is evidence even more convincing than a miracle. In fact, such a fulfilled prediction is the greatest of all miracles, and is so admitted by the skeptic Hume." (And there was no greater skeptic than he.)
Other evidence can be falsified or lost; but prophecy relates to history, and history is recorded factual experience.
God calls as His witnesses the great nations and cities of antiquity--Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Nineveh, Arabia, Tyre, Sidon, Palestine, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, India, Rome, and many other countries. Before the jury of the twenty-first century, God brings His witnesses; and the testimony of the witnesses grows stronger every year, as new facts are searched out by the historian or dug up by the archaeologist. No counterproof has even been attempted. And every year that rolls by is itself a witness of the fulfillment of many of these prophecies, as the scroll of history unrolls.
Remember this, friend, the Bible stakes everything on its ability to foretell the future. If its claim to make genuine predictions is true, it is a miracle of foresight beyond human ability.