Amazing Claims of Bible Prophecy

BY Mark Hitchcock

Chapter One
Revealing a Man’s Name Long Before His Birth

Before our sons were born, my wife and I, like most expecting couples, spent a lot of time thinking about names for them. Actually, she spent a lot of time thinking about names, and I just served in the advisory capacity. We didn’t find out the sex of either of our children before they were born, so each time, we had to have both a boy’s and a girl’s name ready. When the long-awaited day of birth arrived, we were excited to give each son the special name we had selected just for him.

Naming the baby during the months before he or she is born is not a big deal. It happens every day thousands of times all over the world. But naming someone a full century - or more impressively, 700 years - before he is even conceived . . . well, that’s a totally different matter. When I thought about which Bible prophesies to place at the beginning of this book, the prophecies in which God named people long before their birth immediately came to mind because only an all-knowing God could ever make such remarkable predictions with perfect accuracy.

Isaiah Sees the Future

Isaiah chapters 44-45, which were written about 700 BC, call King Cyrus by name over 100 years before his birth and describe his reign in detail.

It is I who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd! And he will perform all My desire. And he declares of Jerusalem, “She will be built,” and of the temple, “Your foundation will be laid.” Thus says the Lord to Cyrus His anointed, whom I have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings; to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut. (Isaiah 44:28-45:1)

If one accepts Isaiah’s authorship of the book of Isaiah, then there is no way to escape the fact that Isaiah correctly named King Cyrus as the one who would fulfill this prophecy about 100 years before he was born. That this happened sets the Bible apart from any other book that’s ever been written. Yet some maintain that the Bible is not unique in its ability to name people long before their birth. They often point to the “prophecies” of Nostradamus as proof of this claim. But let’s briefly investigate this contention to see if it has any merit. Did Nostradamus name anyone centuries before he was born?

Nostradamus: Prophet or Pretender?

Many believe that Nostradamus anticipated the rise of three great Antichrists and that Adolf Hitler was one of them. Quatrain 3-35 is often connected with the rise of Hitler:

From the very depths of the West of Europe, A young child will be born of poor people, He who by his tongue will seduce a great troop: His fame will increase towards the realm of the East.

Quatrain 2-24 is believed to be one of the most chilling prophecies of Nostradamus. Followers of Nostradamus point to this quatrain as one of their proof texts for his accuracy. They maintain that “Hister” is a coded reference to Hitler:

Beasts ferocious from hunger will swim across rivers: The greater part of the region will be against the Hister, The great one will cause it to be dragged in an iron cage, When the German child will observe nothing.

But what about this Hitler prophecy? Simply put, like the rest of Nostradamus’ prophecies, it is vague, and does not specifically refer to Hitler at all. His name, assuming that’s what was intended, isn’t even spelled correctly. The original document refers to “Hister sera,” not Hitler. In Quatrain 2-24, Nostradamus talks about conflict, division, strife, and war. He also mentions the area in and around Germany, which, of course, has been the site of countless battles and conflicts throughout history. Another key problem is that “Hister sera” almost certainly does not refer to a person at all, but to a place. As Tom Harris notes, “In Nostradamus’ time, for example, ‘Hister’ referred to a geographical region near the Danube River. Most likely, skeptics argue, Nostradamus was referring to this area, not to a person. (Hitler was in fact born near the Danube River, so many believers actually embrace this interpretation.) Those who want to see Hitler in this “prophecy” are not dissuaded by the facts.

Not to be denied, followers of Nostradamus point to Quatrain 2-62 as a prophecy about the Antichrist that allegedly names Saddam Hussein:

Mabus then will soon die, there will come Of people and beasts a horrible rout: Then suddenly one will see vengeance, Hundred, hand, thirst, hunger when the comet will run.

Because Nostradamus saw his prophecies reflected in a bowl of water, it’s maintained that Mabus spells Saddam backwards. Never mind that it actually spells Subam. And never mind that Saddam was not the Antichrist. He was hanged in total disgrace in Iraq by those who brought him to justice. This is another sad case of mistaken identity and trying to twist the facts to create the illusion of a verifiable prophecy. How different this is from the biblical prophecies! With the Bible, no twisting or vivid imagination is required.

The Cyrus Prophecy

By way of stark contrast to Nostradamus and other so-called seers, consider the reliability of the prophecies in the Bible. The Hebrew prophet Isaiah wrote during the golden age of the Hebrew prophets. Writing in about 700 BC, he prophesied about the Medo-Persian king named Cyrus about 150 years before he rose to power. Cyrus began his conquests in about 550 BC, enjoying unparalleled success. And his career culminated when he took the city of Babylon in October 539 BC, as recorded in Daniel 5.

Cyrus is clearly referred to in Isaiah 41:2-4, 25, but in Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1 he is specifically mentioned by name. Isaiah 45:2-6 goes on to predict the conquests of Cyrus and his restoration of the Jewish people to their land. Isaiah 44:28 foretells his restoration of the Jews to their land and their temple worship: “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’“ We read about the dramatic fulfillment of that in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23: Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia - in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah - the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!’“ (see also Ezra 1:1-11)

Critics who deny the inspiration of the Bible and approach it with an antisupernatural bias reject any possibility of God foretelling the future. They contend that Isaiah was not written in the eighth century BC before Cyrus came to power, but by someone else after Cyrus had already been born and accomplished his exploits. Alfred Martin, an Old Testament scholar, gets to the heart of the issue:

This is actually the crux of the problem as far as the attitude of critics toward the Book of Isaiah is concerned . . . Here is Isaiah in the eighth century BC announcing Cyrus as the restorer of the people to Jerusalem, Cyrus who lived in the sixth century BC. The whole point of the passage is that God, the omniscient God, is the One who announces events beforehand. That is the proof of His deity. The destructive critics who way this passage must have been written in the sixth century by some otherwise unknown prophet in the Babylon (“Deutero-Isaiah”) are making the same stupid mistake that the idolaters of Isaiah’s day were making. They are like the Sadducees of another time, to whom the Lord Jesus Christ said, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” (Matthew 22:39)

It’s incredible that critics who deny the authenticity of Isaiah totally miss the point. The Cyrus prophecies are found in Isaiah 41-45, a section of the Bible that extols God as the only One who can accurately foretell the future. The Cyrus prophecies are set forth by God as “Exhibit A” of His ability to predict events before they occur. Notice how many times, in the surrounding context of Isaiah, God drives home the point that only He can accurately forecast the future.

Isaiah 41:21-24
“Present your case,” the Lord says. “Bring forward your strong arguments,” the King of Jacob says. Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; as for the former events, declare what they were, that we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; declare the things that are going to come afterward, that we may know that you are gods; indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together. Behold, you are of no account, and your work amounts to nothing; he who chooses you is an abomination.

Isaiah 42:9
Behold, the former things have come to pass, now I declare new things; before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.

Isaiah 45:21
Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me.

Isaiah 46:9-10
Remember the things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.”

Immediately after Isaiah 46:9-10, where God proclaims that only He can tell the future, is a direct prophecy about Cyrus the Great. “Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.” (Isaiah 46:11) God likens Cyrus to a bird of prey that He will summon from the East to accomplish His purposes.

Critics endeavor to strip away the key prophecy in this section that God provides to prove that He is the only true God as He repeatedly affirms in Isaiah 41-46. Adopting their view would meant that God is no different from idols - the very point that Isaiah disproved. Nevertheless, despite the unbelief of critics, the Cyrus prophecy stands firm as the ultimate proof of the truth of these amazing claims.