book that shows us what God is like, relates his instructions, gives evidences of his power and majesty and is a prime builder of faith.

The Bible is its own greatest proof of its reliability. First, those who had a part in its writing contended that it was from God. David said: “The spirit of Jehovah it was that spoke by me, and his word was upon my tongue.” Paul wrote: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching.” And “the holy spirit spoke beforehand by David’s mouth.” And Peter said: “Prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.”—2 Sam. 23:2; 2 Tim. 3:16; Acts 1:16; 2 Pet. 1:21, NW.

Yet the Bible does not just claim to be from God; it proves that claim! God’s challenge to those who claim divine inspiration is: “Let them approach and tell us what is to happen: . . . Tell us the things that are coming hereafter, that we may know that you are gods.” (Isa. 41:22, 23, AT) This test is conclusive because no man, of his own power, can reliably and in detail foretell specific future events. How does the Bible meet this test? Victoriously! Note the following examples of its reliable, accurate and detailed prediction of such future events—a power that no man has, a power that comes from God.

Years before Judah fell to Babylon the prophet Jeremiah not only foretold that fall, but specified the exact seventy-year length of the land of Judah’s desolation, and said that at the end of that seventy years Babylon would be destroyed, becoming “a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, a horror and a hissing, without an inhabitant.” How could any man have predicted the nation’s captivity, the exact length of the land’s desolation and the time and manner by which the conquering nation would itself fall into ruin? Yet this prophecy came true exactly as foretold, despite the fact that, as one writer said: “None but a madman would have dreamed of prophesying the overthrow of Babylon in the days when Isaiah and Jeremiah were alive. The Babylonians were among the fiercest warriors of their day. They had conquered the world and bent it to their yoke.”e The accurate predictions made by Isaiah and Jeremiah unquestionably prove that their claim to have been true prophets of God really was true.—Jer. 29:10; 51:37, AT.

Further, in Daniel 8:3-8, 20, 21 it was shown that the Medo-Persian empire would succeed Babylon as a world power. The Median power would come first, and the Persian power would follow and surpass it in strength. After the Medo-Persian victory over Babylon the Grecian empire would cast Medo-Persia down. Later the mighty Grecian empire would split into four separate parts. All of these things occurred exactly as predicted, the final event occurring more than two centuries later when Alexander the Great cast Medo-Persia down, and then when, at Alexander’s death, his empire was split into four parts, each ruled by a different general. How utterly impossible it would have been for ordinary men to make such amazing advance predictions as are common in the Bible!

MODERN PROOFS

Would you prefer present-day examples to these ancient ones? Modern examples of the fulfillment of such amazing prophecies are equally convincing. For more than thirty-four years prior to the outbreak of world violence in 1914 (or since 1880) The Watchtower had faithfully and regularly pointed to 1914 as marking the end of the Bible’s “Gentile times” or “times of the nations.”f It showed from the Scriptures that the end of the “times of the nations” would be marked by the worst time of trouble earth had ever known. Before World War I started many people had scoffed, but the Bible’s prediction held true. The Bible writers could not of their own knowledge have known these events, or even have guessed at them, so far in advance. Such specific advance predictions cannot be man’s wisdom, but again the Bible prediction held true!

In Revelation 17:8 it was foretold that man’s political peace organization (the League of Nations) would go into the abyss of nonexistence, as it did during World War II, and would later come to life again, as it did in the United Nations, but that it would not succeed in its promise to bring lasting peace. Would any man have known this on his own? Again the Bible prediction, written nearly 1,900 years in advance, has held true!

This Book of books has stood the test, coming through with flying colors! Its reliable prediction of the future vindicates its claim to inspiration and proves its genuineness. And further, the existence of this obviously inspired book proves unquestionably that its Inspirer, Jehovah God, does exist!

The most important source of faith in God is the Bible itself. If you lack such faith, it is probably through lack of study of that Book; if you wish to gain faith you can do it through studying it. True faith is not blind but well informed. It is based upon facts, logic, understanding and trust. Such faith must be sought, and is gained through the pages of the Book of faith, the Bible. As Paul wrote: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”—Rom. 10:17.

The Bible describes faith as “the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.” Faith is the sum of our beliefs concerning Jehovah God and his kingdom. It is our confidence in him that has been developed through our examination of what is contained in the Scriptures. It is our well-founded conviction that things do exist that we cannot see, that these things can be laid hold upon with confidence and that the promises made in God’s Word will be kept.—Heb. 11:1, NW.

In summary: we believe many things that we cannot see. We believe them because we can see evidence of their working. Similarly, we can see like evidences of God’s activity. The existence of matter, the marvel of life, the amazing intelligence in nature, the scope of the human mind, the miracle of birth, the unerring accuracy of the Bible’s ability to predict the future, and the amazing extent of its ability to engender faith in the minds of its readers—all these and many other evidences point to the sure existence of a Supreme Intelligence, an almighty and all-wise Creator, who is identified in the Bible as being named JEHOVAH. The next step, after recognizing that God exists, is to look into his Word, the Bible, to see how it builds faith and what he requires of you.

The Lure of Comic Books

● A recent survey shows Americans spend more money on comic books each year than on elementary and secondary school textbooks. The survey, made by the Bureau of Public Administration at the University of California, says many hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of comics are sold each year—about four times the combined annual book-purchasing budgets of all public libraries in the country.