By A.W. Burns
If any man today claimed to be Christ, he would have to prove that he is descended from David, of the tribe of Judah and the house of Jacob, and with no genealogy from the time of Christ to the present, that today is impossible to prove!
My subject today is: Fourteen Million Proofs that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. When I say “Fourteen Million” you may think that my mind has become sadly confused by the astronomical figures of our annual national budget or our national debt, but this is not the case. Almost humanly inconceivable as are the figures of our national debt, nevertheless these figures have brought confirmation of Biblical prophecy. Rather than anything which would addle or confuse inspiration of the Bible, I mean not only that many literally, but many more. Before I have completed this study, I will have mentioned over fourteen million proofs why you should accept the Bible as being Divinely inspired.
In the days of the prophet Ezekiel, Israel rejected the ways and Commandments of God and became involved in the most debased forms of idolatry. As a result, judgment fell upon them and they were carried into the Babylonian Captivity. Still continuing to rebel, the word of God came to them through the prophet, Ezekiel 21:2, “2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel.”
Thus, this is a prophecy against Israel. In Ezekiel 21:26 God said: “26 Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.” At the coming of Jesus the first time there was a period put to the Kingdom of Israel. It will be taken away at His second coming, when the rule of Israel will continue, with Christ the King of Kings.
In Genesis 49:10 we read: “10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
Shiloh is a descriptive term from the Hebrew for the Messiah as the Prince of Peace. This is another prophecy that the scepter would depart and the kingdom of Israel would end at the first coming of Christ. In the New Testament we have the complete genealogies from Adam to David and from David to Jesus. But since that time, all the geneological records have been lost, and consequently there is not a Jew on earth today who can tell you from whom, or from which tribe, he is descended. The scepter has departed, and Shiloh, the King Messiah, has come and taken the throne. Thus the angel Gabriel said to Mary in Luke 1:31-32
"31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
“32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.”
Christ received the throne at His first coming. He has taken it away with Him and is now seated upon the throne at the right hand of God the Father in heaven, and He will soon bring it back with Him and continue the rule of Israel at His second coming. Christ is the King of Israel. It is what the people called Him at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem four days before His crucifixion when, we read in John 12:12-13:
“12 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
The Pharisees, bitter with envy, turn to Christ and say, “39 And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.” Luke 19:39. But Christ replies, “40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” Luke 19:40.
He acknowledged the title Himself when, just before His crucifixion, Pilate asked Him: “37 Art thou a king then?” and Christ replied, “Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” John 18:37.
It was the inscription on the cross of His crucifixion: “19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.” John 19:19.
It is what He was called by David in the 10th Psalm, when he sang out: “16 The Lord is King for ever and ever…” Psalm 10:16.
The angels acknowledged Him when, upon His glorious ascension into Heaven, they cried out: “7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” Psalm 24:7.
He was acknowledged by David. He was acknowledged by Pilate. He was acknowledged by the angels. He was acknowledged by the people. And HE IS THE ONLY KING OF ISRAEL!
When God gave the prophecy against the Kingdom of Israel, as found in the 21st chapter of Ezekiel, He said in the 27th verse:
“27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” Ezekiel 21:27.
The Lord made known to His prophet Ezekiel that the kingdom was to be overturned three times as stated. “I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it…” It will come to pass when Jesus comes. John the Baptist did not accomplish this. He did not restore all things. As long as Jesus remains in Heaven, the Kingdom of Heaven will not be restored to the Israel of the Father.
It would be well at this place to give some study to the meaning of “restore”.
To “restore” means to bring back something which was before. God gave the earthly kingdom to Adam and Eve and they lost it, by listening to the sermons of the Devil. The Lord gave the kingdom to the children of Israel which is now in ruins and will remain so until Jesus comes. Therefore, he will restore, bring back, which is the restoration of all things. This Jesus will do. Still, Jesus was not Elijah any more than John.
Daniel is the clearest of the prophets, giving times, events and even dates with conclusive clearness. In Ezekiel, he gave the very date of Christ’s baptism, crucifixion, and even the very date on which the Jews rejected Him through the San Hedrin Council. Now, Daniel predicated the destruction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the Jewish Kingdom. Titus, the son of Vespasian, in A.D. 70, destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish Kingdom, and all their records from the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, per the prophecy in Genesis 49:10. "10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." There is not a Jew today who can tell you what tribe he came from. The scepter has departed, Shiloh the Messiah has come. And if any man today claimed to be Christ, he would have to prove that he is descended from David, of the tribe of Judah and the house of Jacob, and with no genealogy from the time of Christ to the present, that is IMPOSSIBLE!
Let us understand that in this Gospel dispensation, a man might be a Jew by birth, and still he is not an Israelite in the sight of God. On this point, let me repeat two brief verses from our last study. First, Romans 2:28-29,
“28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
For Paul said in Galatians 3:28-29 “28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
So everyone who accepts Christ is an Israelite. For Jesus, as the Son and Heir of David, now occupies the throne at the right hand of God the Father, and those who teach that Christ, at His second coming, will restore the kingdom of literal Jewish seed, deny by their preaching that we are ALL ONE IN CHRIST! Their teaching denies the Gospel! The Jews rejected their Messiah. In A.D. 70, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, their tribal identity was lost in obscurity, their national scepter departed, and now Christ has taken the throne, and has grafted us into His family as adopted sons, joint heirs with Him, and fellow-citizens of the kingdom.
When Frederick the Great, Emperor of Germany, asked his court chaplain to prepare a brief argument to prove the Bible, the court chaplain replied that it was not necessary to prepare one. He already had one in just two words: “The Jew.”
Shortly after the Exodus, while the Israelites were still wandering in the wilderness, God established His covenant with them and said in Leviticus 26:3, 6, & 12
“3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. 12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”
What blessings Israel would have had if they had kept this covenant, but now notice what God said would happen if they broke the covenant in Leviticus 26:15, 17
"15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:"
"17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you."
This covenant, of course, made in the time of Moses, was with literal Israel, and the prophecy of what would follow rejection concerns them. Israel broke God’s covenant and rejected His Messiah. Therefore it was prophesied that in ensuing years, they would be slain by their enemies. This forecast did not mean that one or two would be slain, or a few, or several but if you take the time to read the details of this prophecy, which I do not have the time to cover today, you will see that the meaning of the forecast is obvious that they were to be slain in tremendous and ghastly numbers. But while giving this amazing prophecy, God added in Leviticus 26:44:
"44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God."
And remember, this prophecy of God was written only a few years after the exodus, after the remarkable deliverance from Egypt, about three thousand five hundred years ago, that in coming years the Jews would be slain by their enemies, but would never be utterly destroyed as a people. In Deuteronomy 28:64-66, written about the same time, the Bible gave an even more remarkable forecast concerning the future of the Jews:
"64 And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. 65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: 66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life."
Thus it was forecast that the Jews would be scattered among all the nations of the earth. And among all nations they would encounter trouble, enmity, and persecution. But with all this, they would continue to survive as a people. In Ezekiel 12:15 God said,
“15 And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.”
Nevertheless, although internationally dispersed throughout the earth, the Bible forecasts in Ezekiel 38:8, that in the latter days of this current civilization they would return to the land of Israel or Palestine from among many peoples and nations. "8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of the them."
Now let us list these forecasts concerning the Jews, which the Bible gave from nearly twenty-five hundred to thirty-five hundred years ago:
They would be the victims of great slaughters by their enemies, but they would never be utterly destroyed. They would be scattered among all the nations of the earth, but would always retain their identity. Among all nations they would be a subject of mocking, reproach, and persecution, and finally, in the latter days of earth’s history, they would return, in great numbers, to Palestine, and once again establish a country of Israel.
Have these Bible forecasts been fulfilled? Regarding their being slain by their enemies: just thirty-nine years after their rejection of Christ, the Romans besieged them, and over a million Jews perished, most of them crucified, until the Romans could find no more trees with which to crucify them.
Only sixty-five years later, in A.D. 135, five hundred and eighty thousand were destroyed. And such atrocities against the Jews continued century after century. England banished all Jews in the tenth century. Henry the second ordered baptism or destruction for all Jews in the eleventh century. France confiscated the possessions of all Jews in the thirteenth century. Germany piled two thousand living Jews on a scaffold, that same century, and then set it afire. Prague, now in Czechoslovakia, drove out all Jews in the fifteenth century, and Turkey set fire to three thousand Jewish homes in Constantinople.
But we are living in modern, civilized times, and when American soldiers entered Germany at the end of World War Two, they were sickened by the evidences they saw, proofs that, as reported, six million Jews had been slaughtered by Hitler’s Nazis, many of them buried alive. “Ye shall be slain before your enemies” prophesied the Bible, but never utterly destroyed.
And the next prophetic point: that they would be scattered among all nations, and yet always retain their identity. Today, there is a known and counted population of Jews in eighty-eight countries of the world: 520,000 in France, two and a half million in the Soviet Union, five million seven hundred thousand in the United States, four hundred thousand in Argentina and so on. All together, in all countries, there are approximately fourteen million Jews in the world today. As the court chaplain said to Frederick the Great, they constitute FOURTEEN MILLION PROOFS OF THE BIBLE.
And in this generation, since World War II, they have returned to Palestine, sometimes at a rate of more than seventeen thousand a month, fulfilling the last day prophecy of Ezekiel 38:1-23. There are many more remarkable prophecies in the Bible concerning the Jews, but of course, we cannot cover them all in one study.
The Bible shows, in Ezekiel 38:1-23, that their return to Palestine and setting up of their own country constitutes a sure sign that the Day of the Lord is near. May our study conclude today with this hope.
"1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: 4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: 6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. 7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. 8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. 9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. 10 Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: 11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, 12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. 13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? 14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? 15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: 16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. 17. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them? 18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. 19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; 20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. 21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother. 22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord."
Published 1971