No one can accurately predict the future in detail. It is something beyond human possibilities. The Creator of the universe, however, is in possession of all the elements necessary and may even influence events. For this you can say that he is the one who 'announces the beginning of the term, and for a long time ago that things were not done'. - Isaiah 46:10, 41:22, 23.
2 The Bible contains hundreds of prophecies. We are carefully complied with so far? If so, it would be a clear testimony to the fact that the Bible is "inspired by God." (II Timothy 3:16, 17) It would be a good reason to have faith in the prophecies concerning events yet to come. It will therefore be useful to examine some of the prophecies already fulfilled.
The fall of Tyre, Tyre was an important
3 Phoenician city of the sea that he had acted unfairly against ancient Israel, its southern neighbor who loved Jehovah. Through a prophet named Ezekiel, Jehovah predicted the complete destruction of more than 250 years ago. Jehovah said: 'For sure I will go up against you many nations. . . It will bring to ruin the walls of Tyre and demolish the towers, and for sure it raschierò the dust and make them a shining, bare surface of rock. It will offer a place to dry the bottom trawl in the sea '. Ezekiel mentioned earlier the name of the first nation and its leader who was besieged Tyre, "Behold, I come against Tyre from the north, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. " - Ezekiel 26:3-5, 7.
4 As predicted, after Nebuchadnezzar overthrew actually located on the mainland city of Tyre; el'Encyclopædia Britannica speaks of "a siege of thirteen years. . . by Nebuchadnezzar ".1 After the siege was reported that he had not taken remains:" But as wages from Tyre, there was not anyone for him. " (Ezekiel 29:18) Why? Because part of Tyre was situated on an island, separated from the mainland by a narrow canale.2 Most of the treasures of Tyre had been transported from the mainland to the island city, which suffered the defeat.
5 However, the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar do not 'scraped away from the dust and pull it into a shining, bare surface', as Ezekiel had predicted. Neither then is fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah, that Tyre was to be 'thrown into the sea'. (Zechariah 9:4) Prophecies inaccurate? No. In 332 BCE, more than 250 years after the prophecy of Ezekiel, and almost 200 years after that of Zechariah, Tyre was completely destroyed by the Greek armies under the command of Alexander the Great. "With the ruins of the city on the mainland," says the encyclopedia, "in 332 he built a huge pier to connect the island to the mainland. After a siege lasted seven months. . . Shot captured and destroyed ".3
6 Thus, as predicted by Ezekiel and Zechariah, the dust and rubble of Tyre actually ended up in the water. He remained as a bare cliff, "a place to dry the nets," So how could witness a visitatore.4 prophecies made hundreds of years ago were fulfilled in every detail!
Cyrus and the fall of Babylon
7 Worthy of note are the prophecies concerning the Jews and Babylon. The story goes that the captive Jews in Babylon led. But Jeremiah had predicted some forty years before it happened. Isaiah had predicted in advance approximately one hundred and fifty. He also predicted that the Jews would return from exile. Just as Jeremiah had done, saying that would be returned to their country after seventy years. - Isaiah 39:6, 7; 44:26, Jeremiah 25:8-12, 29:10. 8
This return was made possible by the fall of Babylon by the Medes and Persians in 539 BCE This was foretold by Isaiah nearly two hundred years before Jeremiah and fifty years before it happened. Jeremiah said that the Babylonian soldiers would not have resisted. Both Isaiah Jeremiah predicted that the Babylon that protected waters, the waters of the Euphrates, 'would have dried up'. Isaiah he even mentioned the name of the Persian conqueror, Cyrus, and said that before him 'the gates [of Babylon] were not closed'. - Jeremiah 50:38, 51:11, 30, Isaiah 13:17-19, 44:27, 45:1.
9 The greek historian Herodotus says that Cyrus diverted the Euphrates and actually "meant that, by lowering the level of the river, the old bed would become fordable" .5 Thus, during the night, enemy soldiers marched along the bed of the river and entered the city through the doors carelessly left open. "If the Babylonians had been informed in advance of what Cyrus wanted to do," says Herodotus, would "bar the doors that overlooked the small river. . . Now, the Persians found themselves suddenly in front of them and took the città.6 In fact, as explained in the Bible and Herodotus confirms, the Babylonians were busy making baldoria.7 (Daniel 5:1-4, 30 ) Both Isaiah Jeremiah foretold that Babylon would eventually become a heap of ruins inhabited. This happened, and today Babylon is a desolate heap of ruins. - Isaiah 13:20-22, Jeremiah 51:37, 41-43. 10
Cyrus also restored the Jews to their homeland. More than two centuries before, Jehovah had said about Cyrus: "Everything in which I delight [he] fulfilled completely." (Isaiah 44:28), fulfilling the prophecy, in 537 BCE, Cyrus sent the prisoners to their country after seventy years of exile. (Ezra 1:1-4) It is an ancient Persian inscription was found, the Cyrus Cylinder, which makes open reference to the policy of Cyrus to postpone the prisoners in their homeland. "As to the inhabitants of Babylon [and other cities]," says Cyrus according to the inscription, "I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to their homes than before" .8
Media-Persia and Greece
11 When Babylon was still a world power, the Bible predicted the conquest by a symbolic ram with two horns, which represented "the kings of Media and Persia. " (Daniel 8:20) As predicted, the Media-Persia became the next world power when, in 539 BCE, conquered Babylon. Over time, however, a "goat", identified in Greece, "break down the ram and broke his two horns." (Daniel 8:1-7) This happened in 332 BCE, when Greece defeated the Media-Persia and became the new world power.
12 Note that according to the prophecy would then be: "And the goat, for its part, gave himself great airs to the extreme, but as soon as he became powerful, the great horn was broken, and instead of it shall four grew significantly. " (Daniel 8:8) What does this mean? The Bible says: "The shaggy goat is the king of Greece, and since that was the great horn between his eyes, is the first king. And since that was broken, so that four instead of it finally arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. " - Daniel 8:21, 22.
13 History shows that this "king of Greece was Alexander the Great. But after his death in 323 BCE, his empire was eventually divided among four of his generals: Seleucus Nicator, Cassander, Ptolemy and Lysimachus Lake. Just as the Bible foretold, "Finally, four were built instead of it." However, it was pure predetto, nessuno di questi raggiunse mai la potenza di Alessandro. Così, più di duecento anni dopo essere stata messa per iscritto, questa profezia cominciò ad adempiersi, fornendo un’ulteriore notevole conferma dell’ispirazione della Bibbia!
Predetto il Messia
14 Di particolare rilievo sono le centinaia di profezie bibliche relative a Gesù Cristo. Il prof. J. P. Free osservò: “Le probabilità che tutte queste profezie si adempissero in un solo uomo sono talmente remote da dimostrare inoppugnabilmente che non potevano in alcun modo essere scaltre supposizioni di semplici uomini”.9
15 L’adempimento di molte di queste profezie esulava completamente any possibility of control by the example of Jesus, he could not decide to be born into the tribe of Judah, or as a descendant of David. (Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 9:6, 7; 11:1, 10; Matthew 1:2-16) Nor could handle the events that led to his birth in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2, Luke 2:1-7) Neither would have to be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12, Matthew 26:15), or that his enemy they spit on Him (Isaiah 50: 6, Matthew 26:67), or to be insulted when he was on the pole carrying capital (Psalm 22:7, 8; Matthew 27:39-43), or to be pierced but without any bone in his body was broken (Zechariah 12:10, Psalm 34:20, John 19:33-37), or that soldiers tirassero lot his garments (Psalm 22:18, Matthew 27:35). These are just some of the many prophecies that were fulfilled in the person of Jesus
The destruction of Jerusalem
16 Jesus was the greatest prophet of Jehovah. Note first of all that he said would happen in Jerusalem. "Your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed poles and surround you and grieve you from all sides, and thrown to the ground you and your children within you, and do not leave in thee one stone upon another, because you have not understood the time in which you have been inspected. " (Luke 19:43, 44) Jesus also said, "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, know that its desolation has come close. So those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. " - Luke 21:20, 21.
17 As predicted, in 66 CE the Roman armies under the command of Cestius Gallo moved to Jerusalem. Strangely, however, he did not finish the siege, but, as reported by Josephus, a historian of first century, "and suddenly recalled the soldiers, giving up the most absurd way to his plans without having suffered any defeat, log out city \u200b\u200b".10 The fact that the siege was lifted unexpectedly gave the opportunity to obey the command of Jesus to flee from Jerusalem. The historian Eusebius of Caesarea reports that those who fled were the cristiani.11
18 Less than four years later in 70 CE, the Roman armies under General Titus surrounded Jerusalem and back. Cut down trees for miles around, and built a fence all around the city, "a fortification with pointed stakes." So, as Josephus says, "the Jews along with the ways out of the city was precluded any hope of salvation" .12 After about five months of siege, Josephus says, in part three towers and a section of wall around the rest "was shot down and destroyed in a radical way, that everyone who had arrived in that place would never have believed that there was a city "13 19
About 1.1 million people died during the siege, and 97,000 were still without prigioniere.14, in Rome, is a visible testimony of fulfilling the prophecy of Jesus: the Arch of Titus, built by the Romans in 81 CE to commemorate the conquest of Jerusalem. This bow is a silent witness to what can be disastrous not to heed the prophetic warnings of the Bible.
Prophecies being fulfilled
20 According to the Bible, is a huge change in the next world. Jesus, so how to foretold events by which people in the first century could have anticipated the destruction of Jerusalem, also gave some indications by which we can now understand that it is near a global change. Jesus gave this "sign" in answer to the question put by the disciples: "What will be the sign of your presence and the end of the system of things?" - Matthew 24:3.
21 According to the Bible, this "presence" of Christ was not in human form, but as a powerful heavenly King who would free the oppressed humanity. (Daniel 7:13, 14) His "presence" would coincide with what he called the "end of the system of things." What, then, was the sign that Jesus gave to mark the time when it would have been invisibly present as King and that was near the end of the current system of things? In the Bible, and just in the 24 chapters of Matthew, Mark 13 and Luke 21, you can find listed the events that together make up the sign. Here are some of the main
22 Great War: "nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." (Matthew 24:7) Since 1914, these words are being fulfilled in a final. The First World War, which began in 1914, introduced the large-scale use of machine guns, tanks, submarines, aircraft e gas venefici. Quando nel 1918 finì, circa 14 milioni fra soldati e civili avevano perso la vita nel massacro. Uno storico osservò: “La prima guerra mondiale fu la prima guerra ‘totale’”.15 La seconda guerra mondiale (1939-1945) fu ancora più distruttiva, e provocò la morte di circa 55 milioni di persone, fra militari e civili. Introdusse inoltre un elemento terrificante e assolutamente nuovo: la bomba atomica! Da allora più di 30 milioni di persone hanno perso la vita in decine e decine di guerre, grandi e piccole. Il periodico tedesco Der Spiegel afferma: “Dal 1945 nel mondo non c’è stata vera pace nemmeno per un giorno”.16
23 PENURIA DI VIVERI: ‘Vi will be food shortages'. (Matthew 24:7) The First World War was followed by widespread famine. After the Second World War, the famine was even more severe. What about today? "Today the hunger has taken on entirely new proportions. . . . About 400 million people live continually on the brink of starvation, "wrote the Times of Londra.17 According to a Toronto newspaper, The Globe and Mail," More than 800 million people are undernourished ".18 And 'World Health Organization reports that "each year, twelve million children die [as a result of malnutrition] before the age of one year" .19
24 EARTHQUAKES: "There will be great earthquakes." (Luke 21:11) A specialist in the field of earthquake resistant buildings, George W. Housner, described the 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, China, "the greatest earthquake disaster in the history of humanity," the disaster that has made hundreds of thousands of Trieste vittime.20 The newspaper Il Piccolo wrote: "Our generation living in a period of high seismic hazard, as the statistics show "21 Since 1914, on average, earthquakes have done every year, about ten times more victims than in previous centuries.
DISEASES 25: "In one place after another pestilences." (Luke 21:11) The magazine Science Digest scrive: “L’epidemia di influenza spagnola del 1918 dilagò in tutta la terra, facendo 21 milioni di vittime”. E aggiunge: “In tutta la storia non c’è mai stata una piaga mortale più rapida, più violenta. . . . Se l’epidemia fosse andata avanti a quel ritmo, l’umanità sarebbe stata sterminata in pochi mesi”.22 Da allora, disturbi cardiaci, tumori, malattie veneree e molti altri flagelli hanno lasciato invalide o ucciso centinaia di milioni di persone.
26 CRIMINALITÀ: “Aumento dell’illegalità”. (Matteo 24:12) Omicidi, rapine, stupri, terrorismo, corruzione: la lista è lunga e ben nota. In molti luoghi people are afraid to walk down the street. Confirming this tendency to lawlessness after 1914, an expert on terrorism said: "The period that preceded the First World War was, on the whole, more human" 23
27 FEAR: "Men will faint from the fear and the expectation of the things that are about to come on the inhabited earth. " (Luke 21:26) Die Welt, a newspaper in Hamburg, has defined our time, "the century of fear" 24 Humanity is threatened by dangers from scratch. For the first time in history, hazards, such as nuclear annihilation and pollution threaten to 'ruin terra’. (Rivelazione 11:18) L’escalation di criminalità, inflazione, ordigni nucleari, fame, malattie e altri mali alimenta nelle persone il timore per la propria sicurezza e per la loro stessa vita.
Cosa c’è di diverso?
28 Alcuni tuttavia obiettano che molte di queste cose accadevano anche nei secoli passati. Cosa le rende dunque diverse? Primo, tutti gli aspetti del segno sono stati osservati nell’arco di una generazione — la generazione in vita nel 1914 — e milioni di persone appartenenti ad essa sono tuttora in vita. Gesù dichiarò che ‘questa generazione non sarebbe passata affatto finché tutte le cose non fossero avvenute’. (Luca 21:32) Second, the effects of the sign are being felt worldwide, "in one place after another." (Matthew 24:3, 7, 9, 25:32) Third, the conditions have progressively worsened during this period: "All these things are the beginning of pangs of distress", "evil men and impostors will advance from bad to worse" . (Matthew 24:8, II Timothy 3:13) And, fourth, as predicted by Jesus all these things have been accompanied by a change in thinking and acting of people: "The love of most will grow cold." - Matthew 24:12.
29 One of the most forceful indication that we live in that crucial time of the end is in fact the moral decay evident among people. Compare the situation in the world with these prophetic words about our time: "You should know that recently we have difficult days. The men are selfish, greedy, boastful, proud and blasphemers, disobedient to parents is, they will not respect anyone and gratitude for the holy things. They will be without love, hard, slanderers and intractable. Will be violent, enemies of good, traitors, and blinded by pride, attached to the pleasures that God has kept its outside of the faith, but have rejected her inner strength. " - II Timothy 3:1-5, the Word of God, The New Testament. The
1914: a turning point in history
30 From the human standpoint, the difficulties in all the earth and the world wars foretold in the Bible did not fall in the forecast of the world before 1914. The German statesman Konrad Adenauer said: "I come to mind thoughts and images. . . thoughts of the years before 1914, when on earth were true peace, tranquility and security, a time when we did not know fear. . . . Since 1914 the safety and quiet have disappeared from the lives of men ".25 As confirmed by the British statesman Harold Macmillan, the people who lived before 1914 thought that in future it would gone "from strength to strength" .26 The book 1913: America Between Two Worlds (1913: America between two worlds) observes: "The then Secretary of State Bryan said [in 1913] that 'the foundations for world peace had never been more favorable 'then ".27
31 Therefore, practically until the beginning of World War I, world leaders heralded an era of enlightened social progress. But long before, the Bible had predicted the opposite, namely that the unprecedented war of 1914-1918 would have marked the beginning of the "last days". (II Timothy 3:1) The Bible also provided evidence that chronological 1914, would mark the birth of God's heavenly Kingdom, which was followed by world without trouble precedenti.28 But among those who lived at that time there was someone who was expecting such a historic turning point in 1914?
32 Decades before that date there was an organization whose members were proclaiming the meaning of 1914. A New York newspaper, The World of August 30, 1914, said: "The terrifying outbreak of war in Europe has fulfilled an extraordinary prophecy. In the past quarter century, through preachers and through press, the 'International Bible Students' [Jehovah's Witnesses]. . . proclaimed to the world that the Day of Wrath prophesied in the Bible arose in 1914. 'Take heed to 1914!' was the cry of hundreds of evangelists ".29
A people who fulfilled the prophecy
33 The Bible also predicted that" at the end of days "people of all nations would be symbolically flocked to" the mountain of Jehovah, " where he 'would have educated about his ways'. Pointing to one of the results of this education, the prophecy says: "They will have to do with their swords plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. . . . neither will they learn war anymore. " (Isaiah 2:2-4) The well-known attitude of Jehovah's Witnesses against the war un chiaro adempimento di questa profezia.
34 Martin Niemöller, esponente protestante in Germania prima e dopo la seconda guerra mondiale, parla dei testimoni di Geova come di “seri studiosi della Bibbia, che a centinaia e a migliaia sono finiti nei campi di concentramento e sono morti per aver rifiutato di prendere parte alla guerra e di uccidere altri uomini”. Facendo poi un contrasto, egli scrive: “Le chiese cristiane hanno sempre acconsentito a benedire guerre, truppe e armi, e . . . in maniera assai poco cristiana hanno pregato per l’annientamento del nemico”.30 Chi corrisponde dunque al segno caratteristico dei veri cristiani menzionato da Gesù? Egli disse: “Da questo tutti conosceranno that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves. " (John 13:35) How clearly I John 3:10-12, God's servants do not kill each other. They are the sons of Satan to do so. 35 A
join Jehovah's Witnesses in a world brotherhood is their common allegiance to the Kingdom of God and faithful adherence to biblical principles. Fully accept what the Bible teaches, that the Kingdom is a real government with laws and authorities who will soon rule the entire earth. It has already been on earth millions of subjects that are shaped as the foundation of civilization of the future, and their number continues to grow. With regard to the kingdom, the prophet Daniel was inspired to write: "The God of heaven set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. . . . It will crush all these kingdoms [now exists] and put an end, and it itself will stand to times indefinite. " (Daniel 2:44) Jesus gave prominence to the Kingdom when he said: "You must, therefore, pray thus: 'Our Father which art in heaven. . . Thy kingdom come '. " - Matthew 6:9, 10.
36 The various events that have fulfilled the biblical prophecies from 1914 onwards indicate that very soon the heavenly kingdom of God 'will crush all other governments and put an end'. And God wants it to be proclaimed, as the following important aspect of the sign: "This good news of the kingdom shall be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end." (Matthew 24:14) Millions of Jehovah's Witnesses, joined in a worldwide brotherhood, now this prophecy fulfilled.
37 When the kingdom will be preached to the extent desired by God, then the world will see, as Jesus said, "great tribulation such as has not been there since the world until now, no, nor will there be more." This tribulation will culminate in the battle of Armageddon, and put an end to the evil influence of Satan. Purify the entire earth from nations and the wicked men, and will pave the way to Paradise consigned in which "righteousness is to dwell." - Matthew 24:21, II Peter 3:13, Revelation 16:14-16, 12:7-12, II Corinthians 4:4.
38 With all these prophecies fulfilled already to his credit, the Bible has proved its credibility as a book 'inspired by God'. (II Timothy 3:16) Accept it, therefore, "not as the word of men, but, as it truthfully is, as the word of God." (I Thessalonians 2:13) Moreover, as its Author, Jehovah God, 'He who announces the beginning the term,' you can have absolute confidence in the prophecies that are yet performed. (Isaiah 46:10) And what needs to happen is really wonderful. You can read it in the next chapter will charm you.
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