Bible proofs? #1

Have you ever met someone who responds to your witness with, "well you can't prove the Bible can you?"  It's a bit of a cop out to say that because what exactly needs to be proved?  The whole point is that we believer God would have his will and purpose written down so to point us to the central person... the risen, glorified Jesus Christ.  It's a matter of faith.  What I want to do with this writing is to help continue a conversation with someone who says this.  "Well you can't prove the Bible can you?"

Well in a way... yes you can.

The first example of 'proving the Bible' is Daniel chapter 2.  The King of the Babylonian empire asks the wise men to describe and interpret a disturbing dream he has had.  As most crazy dictators do, Nebuchadnezzar  has required something impossible from them.  So they are all sentenced to death!  Daniel is among those sentenced and asks the chief executioner if he can try to describe and interpret the dream.  He is given permission to do this and seeks God for the answer.  Daniel gets the description and interpretation from God.  He relays it to the King and the king honours Daniel and is brought to a realisation that Daniels God is the Almighty.

The description of the dream is a huge statue:

31 ‘Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue – an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing-floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

The interpretation is as follows:

39 ‘After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron – for iron breaks and smashes everything – and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

44 ‘In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure for ever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands – a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.

With that in view, we must assess the subsequent flow of History and its relationship with Empires.  This has occurred in real history with no bias:

Gold - Babylonian Empire

Silver - Mede / Persian Empire

Bronze - The Greek Empire

Iron - Roman Empire

Iron and baked clay - a mix of nations what we see today.

In a display of forensic nature we are in a place in history where we can clearly observe all the parts of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream.  Because these Empires are documented as real historical events, the person who says you cannot prove the bible is left with no facts for the statement.  This is not about being right for the sake of it because we must be sure to add on the last part of the interpretation.   There are six aspects to the dream corresponding to 6 real events.  Five of the events are solid human history but the sixth has yet to happen.

Jesus is going to return to Earth and completely smash the empires, kingdoms and rule of men.  The rock 'not shaped by human hands' is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He comes and establishes his rule and reign on Earth just as Daniel told the King.  If someone predicted the next 6 meals ordered at Macdonalds and they got 5 right, you would probably throw your hat into the sixth being right.  It's the same with this... history has proved 5 of the elements of the statue to be true... would you gamble of the 6th not happening?    

Jesus is coming! 

This is exciting!   The description of the toes of the statue stand for our times.  Although the USA is a huge Empire, as was the British Empire, it has not got global rule and influence.  China and Russia always oppose western nations at the UN.  The EU tried to form itself into an overarching sovereign over the members and Britain voted to leave.  These days are days where unity is not what is happening.  The other Empires were able to subdue any opposing force on the Earth and were thus the only empire.  Now we have countries pointing thermonuclear weapons at each other.  They have different ideologies and therefore mixing or unity is never going to happen.  So we are at this time and it has been fragmenting ever since the Roman Empire.  The next thing to happen is the rock comes and smashes them all... the return of Jesus Christ has to be soon!  That means the rapture has to be soon... imminent!

What a time to be alive!  We could be snatched away without seeing death.   

Gary Ward