Amazing Prophecies from the Bible

A Monthly Feature to Build Our Faith

If there was ever a book in the Bible to build our faith, it is the Book of Daniel. More astonishing prophecies of our Lord and His purposes are contained in the Book of Daniel than almost any other book of the Bible. Because we are studying Daniel on Thursday nights this fall, I thought it would be good to give you a glimpse of what we will be studying and the amazing character of the prophecies found in Daniel.

Daniel was written in the 6^th century B.C. and contains a series of prophecies about the entire history of the world from Daniel’s day to the end of history as we know it. Daniel was written during a difficult time in Israel’s history when the people needed to have hope for the future amidst national turmoil and foreign control. The prophecies contained in this book show an amazing Lord, Who is in complete control of all history before it happens. The very fact that a single vision could contain the history of the world before it happens is beyond comprehension, and yet that is exactly what Daniel does for us. I strongly encourage you to “tune into” Daniel and see the greatness of our Lord. You won’t be the same!

The prophecy I would like to briefly look at this month comes from Daniel 8:8 which states:

The goat became very great, but at the height of his power his large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.

This prophecy, from Daniel 8, tells the story of Alexander the Great and his entire empire in just one, amazing, condensed verse. Daniel tells us that this “goat” became very great in power, but was “broken off” at the height of his power. The “goat” was then replaced by four other horns, which were also given power. The “goat” represents Alexander the Great, who died at the age of 33 years old at the height of his power and prestige. His death to this day is still mysterious. After his death, Alexander’s world empire was given to his four generals to rule in his place, exactly as the prophecy states when it refers to the “four prominent horns” that followed him. Therefore, history confirms this prophecy exactly as it is stated in Daniel 8.

Now the amazing thing about this accurate prediction in Daniel 8:8 is the fact that all the events spoken of here did not happen for over 200 years after Daniel’s day. Daniel is giving his prophecy in Babylon, some time in the 6^th century B.C. Alexander the Great was not even born until 356 B.C. and lived until 323 B.C. Hence, the Bible predicts with perfect accuracy the rise and fall of Alexander the Great and his empire hundreds of years before it even began. Daniel 8 is prophetic history written with a confidence and accuracy that should amaze anyone.

Sadly, a number of “scholars” have postulated that Daniel was written after the time of Alexander the Great. The reason this view is presented is because people find Daniel’s prophecies too amazing to be believed. Some people find it hard to believe that God can know the end from the beginning and can write history before it happens. In other words, some “scholars” say Daniel is a fraud because no such predictive power is possible, from God or Man. Instead, they say, the writer of Daniel was attempting to look back at the empires from Babylon to his current day.

As we conclude this brief look at one of Daniel’s prophecies, how amazing it is to find the character of human unbelief amidst these amazing prophecies. Instead of bowing to the Lord’s awesome glory and power found in Daniel’s prophecies, people try with shoddy scholarship to “explain away” what the Lord has done. These modern attacks against the prophecies in Daniel and the Bible in general are a sober reminder of the battles we face in an unbelieving world. May each of us seek the truth and be amazed by the things the Lord has set before us in His Word to build our faith and prepare us for our future with Him.