Biblical Evidence: Part 2 - History

The God of the Bible is unique among how many other religions look at their god. The thing is that the God of the Bible shows Himself real and active in Human History. The Bible records real historical events that can be substantiated outside of the Bible. Furthermore we can also see the Bible makes several predictions and seeing those things come true in History. Prophecies fulfilled in History will be the focus of this post. There are three examples I will cover but there are many others.

1. The Destruction of Tyre

"Norman Geisler explains Ezekiel's prediction that the city of Tyre "would be destroyed and its ruins cast into the sea (26:2). This provoked scoffing because, when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Tyre, he left the ruins right where they fell--on the land. But 200 years later, Alexander the Great attacked Tyre and the inhabitants withdrew to an island just off the coast for safety. In order to reach them, Alexander threw all of the debris, stones, timbers, dust, and everything else, into the sea to build a causeway that would reach the island." [6] If events so far in the future can be accurately predicted, certainly the events of the past have been accurately recorded!" source

Ezekiel 26 describes the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar and by Alexander the great. Ezekiel ministered in the 6th century BCE and The final destruction of Tyre came 2 Centuries later. Here is a great article.

2. Prediction of the major World Empires

Daniel chapter 2 recounts the story of a dream that Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had that he wanted to be so sure of the interpretation that he demanded that the interpreter of the dream also tell him what the dream was. Daniel does just that. In chapter 2, verses 24-49, Daniel says that God is saying that three major empires will follow the Babylonians and describes them. Their names are not given, but because of the details given and the fact that 3 major empires did rise in succession we know them as the Persians, Greeks, and Romans. How do we know that this was not written after the fact. Well, this part of Daniel was written before the Persians-Medes conquered Babylon (mentioned in Daniel 5). I'm, sure some skeptics may wonder if Daniel really existed, but I'll table that for another post. The important thing now is the point that we have a biblical prediction that actually takes place in real time concerning events that the human author could not know about.

2. Alexander the Great.
The book of Daniel is an apocalyptic Book. It makes prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled, but some of them have take place. Consider Daniel 8:1-8, The Goat with big horn being split into four smaller horns represents Alexander the Great. When he died his empire was split among his 4 generals. Again this was a couple centuries before the man was even born. Recall at this time, Greece was a backwater. No one really thought that it would ever be a world player.

3. Cyrus - The great.
Cyrus King of Persia was prophesied to return the Jews from exile about 2 hundred years before the fall of Jerualem in 586 BCE and about 3 hundred years before Cyrus was even in power.

27 who says to the watery deep, 'Be dry,
and I will dry up your streams,'

28 who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd
and will accomplish all that I please;
he will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt,"
and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid." ' - Isaiah 44:27,28

and look at

1 "This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut:

2 I will go before you
and will level the mountains [a] ;
I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.

3 I will give you the treasures of darkness,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me. - Isaiah 45:1-4

And the Prophecy of the returning exiles

13 I will raise up Cyrus [b] in my righteousness:
I will make all his ways straight.
He will rebuild my city
and set my exiles free,
but not for a price or reward,
says the LORD Almighty." - Isaiah 45:13

Do we have any secular evidence that this happened? Yes. The Cyrus Cylinder not only confirms Cyrus' existence but it also confirms what the Bible says that he did.

The Decree of Return for the Jews, 539 BCE
CYRUS THE GREAT

There are more examples than just these four, but I want to focus now on providing extra Biblical information substanciating Jesus.

Extra-Biblical Historical Evidence for the LIFE, DEATH, and RESURRECTION of JESUS

My friend Mariano left the following link and comment on one of my earlier blog post.

In the first 3 centuries there are at least 236 known references to Jesus.
But I know that the skeptic will complain that there are not 237.
Historical Jesus.