• The Bible—Is It Really From God?
    The Watchtower—1982 | December 15

    • Prophecy

      Perhaps the strongest proof that the Bible is from God is the fulfillment of its many prophecies. What man is there that can foretell the future with unfailing, pinpoint accuracy, hundreds, even thousands, of years in advance? Men have difficulty in predicting the weather more than a few hours in advance!

      ‘But how do we know that Bible prophecies were really written in advance?’ you may ask. To answer that, turn to Isaiah 13:19, 20 and read Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the destruction of ancient Babylon. Notice that Isaiah did not foretell just the destruction of Babylon. He also said: “She [Babylon] will never be inhabited.” Babylon is desolate to this day. How could Isaiah possibly have written his prophecy after the fulfillment?

      Furthermore, although Babylon was conquered by the Medes and the Persians in 539 B.C.E., Isaiah’s prophecy was not completely fulfilled at that time. In fact, there were still people living in Babylon down to the first century C.E. (1 Peter 5:13) Apparently, it was not until the fourth century C.E. that Babylon became finally desolated, thus completely fulfilling Isaiah’s words. There is no doubt that Isaiah wrote his book before that, for even the Dead Sea Scrolls (Bible manuscripts first discovered in 1947) contain a copy of Isaiah dating from the first or second century B.C.E.

      The Bible contains scores of other long-range prophecies that were fulfilled. More than that, a study of the Bible reveals that it contains prophecies that you are seeing fulfilled today. (Consider the accompanying box.) Can there be any doubt that the Bible writers spoke from God?