The second wonderful fact we ask you to consider, is that the little land of Israel has produced the most wonderful book the world has ever seen.
To begin with the Bible has the distinction of being the oldest book in the world. Books generally last a few years, and then disappear, however popular they may have been; especially true is this of ancient books with the one grand exception of the Bible. The Bible's earliest writings date back some 3,500 years ago; its latest writings over 1,800 years ago. It contains sixty-six books, linked up in harmony in all their parts, one writer not contradicting another, though unknown to each other, and their writings produced in centuries widely apart. This could not be true unless the Bible was God-breathed, inspired from Genesis to Revelation, the product of one Divine mind.
Seeing our space is limited, we propose to limit our remarks to one special feature of the Bible, that of prophecy and its fulfillment, giving one most striking example from the Old Testament, and one equally striking from the New Testament. In all the literature of the world the Bible alone possesses this feature. Infidels and Modernists have tried to explain it away, but they have egregiously failed in their attempts.
Some 2,500 years ago Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had a most remarkable dream, which left a deep impression on his mind. Strangely enough the memory of it completely faded from him With the high-handed autocracy that marked the rulers of those far-off days, he ordered his magicians, soothsayers and astronomers to recall the dream, and give the interpretation, on pain of death. About to carry out his most unreasonable threat, his hand was stayed at the request of Daniel, a young captive of the seed royal of the house of Judah, and one included in this terrible threat. He asked for time and he would show the king the interpretation of his dream. With his three young companions in captivity, they gave themselves to prayer. God graciously gave an answer in a vision of the night, revealing to Daniel the dream and its interpretation.
This dream, couched in symbolic language, is one of the very great outstanding prophecies of Scripture. So damaging is this prophecy and its fulfillment to the theories of the Modernists, that the assertion has been made that the Book of Daniel was a pious forgery composed by some Jew in Palestine in the second century B.C. The Book of Daniel was written close about the sixth century B.C. In that case four centuries would have rolled by, and two world-empires the Medo-Persian and the Grecian -had arisen and passed into history, and would have to be explained away. Long before that time, amid the ruins of Babylon the very name of Nebuchadnezzar was forgotten by the natives in those parts. Was ever a lie more stupidly concocted and more easily exposed? As we shall see, Nebuchadnezzar's dream had only one possible explanation. It was God-given, first to the King, and then to Daniel. It served to bring the youthful Daniel to the front. The dream was so manifestly of God that Nebuchadnezzar himself, heathen as he was, was constrained to acknowledge the hand of God.
In his dream Nebuchadnezzar saw a great image. Its head was of gold; its breast and arms of silver; its belly and thighs of brass; its legs of iron; its feet mingled iron and clay. Finally he saw a stone, cut out without hands, smite the feet of the great image, whereupon the gold, silver and brass were broken in pieces, and became like chaff upon the summer threshing floor. The stone then became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
And what was the interpretation of this most wonderful dream? The Head of Gold symbolized Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian Empire, then present and lasting 68 years. The Breast and Arms of Silver symbolized the yet-to-be Medo-Persian Empire, lasting 208 years. The Belly and Thighs of Brass symbolized the Grecian Empire, lasting 208 years. The Legs of Iron, the feet of mingled Iron and Clay symbolized the terrible and mighty Roman Empire, lasting about 400 years, and according to Scripture to be revived in the last days, of which there are ominous signs today. (Rev. 13:33And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. (Revelation 13:3)).
The histories of these successive world-empires—the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, the Roman -all are most plainly recorded in secular history. In the interpretation of the dream many details have been given, making it impossible for them to be the result of mere coincidences, or of lucky guesses. To refuse the plain facts before us, we should have to condescend to the most wretched and illogical subterfuges in the vain attempt to escape the difficulties denial would put us into. We should find ourselves the victims of blind incredulity on a level with the weird belief that this ordered universe with its myriad wonders and beauties came into being by " a fortuitous concourse of atoms," the dream surely of madness.
A word about the stone cut out without hands. This symbolizes our Lord, who at His second coming will destroy the revived Roman Empire with its blasphemous head, ascribing Divine honors to himself, finally meeting his doom in the lake of fire, along with his companion in setting God at defiance, the Antichrist, the false prophet, at Jerusalem. (Rev. 19:2020And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. (Revelation 19:20)).
Our Lord identified the stone as symbolic of Himself. He asked the chief priests and elders of the people, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you... whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." (Matt. 21:42-4442Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. (Matthew 21:42‑44)).
The time is drawing near when this will take place. The Lord will take to Himself His great power, and reign over the nations.