Welcome to Affirm foundation, presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Well, we’re glad that you’re here on this beautiful Lord’s day. You remember, a couple of weeks ago, we resolved together that in the coming year we would learn scripture. We would memorize scripture on the front page. On the inside page is our scripture memory for January. And what is it? Matthew 6:33, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 sound a little rough. So next week we’ll come back stronger. Okay, good for you. As we look today at our text, it’s found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 13. And sometimes it’s very important just to go back to basics. And there are a number of basic assumptions that sometimes we don’t talk about, but I hear of them routinely as I listen between the lines.

One of the assumptions that I hear routinely has to do with the Bible. And is the Bible really God’s word? Is it any different than any other book that has been written? And today we’re going to be looking at one particular unique feature about the Bible that is not to be found in any other type of writing of any other religion. And it is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 13, beginning at verse 19. It is a prophecy found on page 688 written by the prophet Isaiah for a city called Babylon. And Babylon is a city that is located about 55 miles south of current day Baghdad in Iraq. So that is the city that we’re talking about. This is a city that also is referred to in other portions of scripture as a region or an empire.

Now, the portion of scripture that we’re looking at is not talking about the empire. It is talking about the city of Babylon, a very specific location found just south of Baghdad in Iraq. And so it is in Isaiah, chapter 13, that we read in verse 19 of that city, Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms. The glory of the Babylonians pride will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations. No Arab will pitch his tent there. No shepherd will rest his flocks there. But desert creatures will lie there. Jackals will fill her houses there. The owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals in her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand and her days will not be prolonged. Let us pray.

Our gracious God and father, we thank you for your word. We ask now that as we begin to look at your word and the predictions that it has made, that you would give us eyes to see that we would understand the unique quality of your book, may the words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. If you were to scour the earth and look at all the various religions, basically what you will find is that of all the religions, there are about 27 sacred books written by various people over a wide period of time.

Now, one of the things that I hear routinely about the Bible in comparison to all of these other religious books is that aren’t they all basically the same, aren’t they all basically trying to say the same thing? Well, it is true that many of them do contain history, and some of it even overlaps with the Bible. Many of these religious writings have poetry, ethics, and some of it overlaps christian ethics. Some of them have practical wisdom, and that is also found in the scripture. But you can study all of the sacred writings of all of the religions of the world, of Buddha, of Confucius, of Mohammed, of Joseph Smith. And if you compare them to the Bible, you will find that all of the other religions do not include one particular type of writing, and that is prophecy.

It is not to be found in any other religious book. And perhaps if were to give the benefit of the doubt, we could say that Mohammed is the only one who prophesied anything and it was a type of self fulfilling prophecy that he would one day return to Mecca. But that is more an illusion than it is a specific prophecy. And you will find no other prophecies in all of the Koran, you will find no prophecies in the book of Mormon. You will find no prophecies. On and on it goes in Buddha or Confucius or any of the other sacred writings. It’s only when we come to the Bible that we find what is referred to as predictive prophecy. Where before the events, something specifically is said about a person or a city or a nation.

No attempt is made by any of the other religious leaders to do anything focusing on this predictive prophecy. It’s the Bible alone that includes prophecy, predictive prophecy. And not only does it include it, but there are literally thousands of such references. And so it is not as though there’s just a few. There are mountains of these predictive prophecies. Now this makes the Bible unique compared to any other religious book. And what it actually does is it makes the God of the Bible unique because we read in Isaiah 46, ten. God speaking about himself. Isaiah 46 ten. I am God. There is none other. I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come? I say my purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

When it comes to this predictive prophecy, we know that there were major prophets and minor prophets. What was it that made them a prophet? It was that they spoke about things that were going to occur and that made them a prophet. There were some kings who hated God’s prophets because they were always right. And usually they predicted things against the king. It was to Herod that the wise men came. And he turned to his wise men, and it was they who told him that it would be the city of Bethlehem, that Jesus would be born. And so in scripture, how do we know when someone is really a prophet? Well, in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verse 22, God says, if what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message.

The Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him. And in the New Testament, in one Thessalonians 520, we’re told, do not treat prophecies with contempt, test everything and hold on to the good. Now there have been a number of objections that are made sort of on the street about these prophecies in the Bible. One of them is that these prophecies were simply written years after the event. And until archaeology came along in the mid 19th century, there was no historical record. Basically very few documents, very few manuscripts had ever been found. And so it was relatively easy to say, well, as we read Isaiah or we read Jeremiah, they’ve made a prophecy. Obviously, the book had to be written after the event. But then what happened? The discovery of the field of archaeology.

And since roughly the mid 18 hundreds, archaeologists have been very busy all through the ancient world digging up science. And you can hardly find a day or a week, certainly, that if you are looking closely at your newspaper, you will not find another archaeological site that has confirmed some detail relating to the Bible. As a matter of fact, no detail has yet been uncovered by the archaeologists that does not support the basic biblical story, the history and the cities and the events recorded. Sometimes people say, well, this is merely coincidental. Well, if it were one time, I would agree, but literally over a thousand times. That is hard to believe that as we list all of these prophecies. Well, let’s consider our text for today. Now, first of all, it’s important to understand that we’re reading from the Book of Isaiah.

Isaiah was written in what year? Oh, around 700, 750 bc. BC. It’s important to know. Now, how do we know that? Do you remember the Dead Sea Scrolls? What was so important about the dead Sea? The Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1947 by a shepherd boy in the mountains overlooking the Dead Sea, in a hermetically sealed cave. And he found these jars, and in the jars were old manuscripts of all types of ancient writings. They knew by what was recorded that what was in these jars was placed there 1000 years before the most recent manuscript we had of the book of Isaiah. In other words, a thousand years had passed. It dated some 200 years or so BC.

Now, there was a whole theology that believed that what we had in the Bible, especially the Book of Isaiah, because of this predictive prophecy, it couldn’t possibly be that one person wrote it, because if one person wrote it, then he was prophesying. Couldn’t have been that. So they had to come up with another theory. And so they concluded that the book of Isaiah was written by several different authors, some before, some later. It was all sort of patchwork together, cut and paste over a period of time. This is what was taught primarily in seminary for a number of years, until the Dead Sea scrolls. The Dead Sea scrolls found a thousand years. That’s a long time gap. If there had been changes, the scholars would now be able to document it. Look what changed.

Doctor Metzger, the professor that I had for New Testament, oversaw the committee, the Dead sea Scrolls. He spent years of his life focused on the Dead Sea Scrolls. And what did they discover? There was virtually no difference. No additional words, no additional sentences, no deletion of paragraphs, no addition of paragraphs. And so because of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, theory of how the Bible was put together had to be abandoned by anybody who is academically being honest. Why? Because the book of Isaiah was written about 750 BC. It’s written about events that are going to happen in anywhere from. From 200 years to 2300 years later. We read in Isaiah, chapter 13, verse 19, Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians pride, will be overthrown by God, like Sodom and Gomorrah. Isaiah, 1920.

She will never be inhabited or lived in. Through all generations. No Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there. But desert creatures will lie there. Jackals will fill her houses there. The owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals in her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand and her days will not be prolonged again. In Isaiah, chapter 14, verse 22, I will rise up against them, declares the Lord Almighty. I will cut off from Babylon her name and survivors, her offspring and descendants, declares the lord. I will turn her into a place of owls and into a swampland. I will sweep her with the broom of destruction, declares the Lord almighty.

Another prophet, Jeremiah, writes in chapter 51, verse 26, you will be Babylon desolate forever, declares the lord. Now these words at 750 bc, what was happening in the city of Babylon now as the archaeologists spayed has uncovered the real history of that city. Well, according to Herodias who visited Babylon, he’s an eyewitness at the time. And he declares that the city of Babylon had walls that were over 300ft high. They were laid out four square. Each side of the square was 15 miles long. The walls at the top, he says, were 87ft wide. You could travel 60 miles on a chariot around the entire wall path. The river Euphrates ran through the center diagonally of the city of Babylon and entered from one side diagonally and out the other side. There was a deep moat around the entire city.

According to Herodias that this moat was so wide that no army could cross it. It was impenetrable. Babylon was a city that was assured of its strength and its position. It was in Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar built his palace. Now, his palace was immense. His palace had a room that was all silver, another room that was all gold. It had another room that was covered in rubies, another that was covered in sapphire. It was in the city of Babylon that the hanging gardens were placed. You see, it’s here that Nebuchadnezzar built the tower of Babel. The tower of Babel that according to Nebuchadnezzar, whose wife wanted to be reminded of the mountains, she had the tower of Babel rebuilt. It was 600ft to remind her of the mountains of Midian.

It was at this site in Babylon that the hanging gardens, one of the seven wonders of the world, was to be found. And so the city of Babylon was the richest and the mightiest and the most prosperous of all cities of the region. It’s at 750 BC, at its height that the prophet writes these words. And he tells us that the future looks very bleak for Babylon. As a matter of fact, it will be destroyed, completely destroyed. And now, as we look at what Isaiah said specifically. Isaiah 13, verse 19. Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians pride will be overthrown by God, like Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, one of the things that’s interesting about the site of Sodom and Gomorrah, even to this day, is archaeologically, there’s still a great deal of debate.

They say they’ve discovered it and then they realize, no, this is not the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. They believe that probably it is somewhere under the Dead Sea, its actual location. But what is more fascinating is that the city was totally destroyed. It came suddenly, unexpectedly, and in the same way Babylon is said one day to be destroyed suddenly, unexpectedly, and it will become completely desolate. Part of the beginning of the field of archaeology, 1853, an archaeologist by the name of Laird wrote a book. He went to Babylon. His book is called discoveries among the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon. And this is what he saw in 1853. The site of Babylon is naked and a hideous waste. Owls start from the scanty thickets and the foul jackal skulks through the furrows.

Truly the glory of kingdoms and the beauty of the Chaldeans excellency is as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Now we are told that the city of Babylon will be utterly and completely destroyed. Now, the prophet Jeremiah declared that the walls, remember the walls that were 300ft high, the walls that themselves were some 87ft high at their top, 300ft high, 87ft at the top, that they would be utterly destroyed. When you think about the great Wall of China is actually quite a bit older than the wall of Babylon and also it is much smaller. And yet the wall, the great chinese wall, exists to this day. And here is a prophecy that this wall, much more massive, will be utterly destroyed.

An archaeologist by the name of Keppel went to Babylon and he said, we totally failed in discovering any trace of the city walls. It wasn’t until we began to dig and they dug very deeply and there they found a foundation that was 136ft wide, which was the foundation of the wall of Babylon. And the entire wall had been, as the prophet said, scraped like a plate, never again to be rebuilt. Another adventurer archaeologist said, I cannot portray the overpowering sensation of reverential awe that possessed my mind while contemplating the extent and magnitude of ruin and devastation station on every side. Now in Isaiah, another prophecy, Isaiah, 1920, he says, she will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations. No Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there, but desert creatures will lie there.

Jackals will fill their houses there. The owls will dwell there. The wild goats will leap about, hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals in her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand and her days will not be prolonged. Now, I hope you understand the significance of that particular prophecy, especially when it comes to archaeology. Recognizes the fact that virtually all of the great cities of antiquity were destroyed and then built over again and destroyed and built over again. And these building over are referred to as tells. And they are able to see these, and that’s where they begin to dig. And as they dig deeper, they start to discover the history of a particular city. This is true of places like Rome and Damascus, even here in the United States, places like Chicago, New York.

The deeper you dig over the existing city, you learn more and more about the history of the city. Well, when we come to this great city of Babylon, there are no tells. It appears that there was just one great city as described, but it was never rebuilt. There was never anything placed over it. There are no ruins on top of ruins. In the 16th century, there was a traveler who went through Babylon. He simply said there was not a house to be seen at Babylon. All that remains are ruins. Now, the prophet Isaiah goes on to say that no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest there. Those who have visited the site of Babylon in the past refer to the dens of wild beasts in various parts.

The dentist are the retreats of jackals, hyenas and other noxious animals, the strong odor of loaths or loathsome smell, which issues from most of them as sufficient warning not to proceed any further. And so Jeremiah makes this very specific prophecy about the city of Babylon. In Jeremiah 51 62, he says, o lord, you have said you will destroy this place so that neither man nor animal will live in it. It will be desolate forever. It’s an all or nothing prophecy that it will be utterly destroyed, not partially, that it will not recover. It will be cleaned like a plate. And so if someone wanted to prove the Bible to be fallacious, then a simple challenge. Go to Babylon, the ancient ruins, and rebuild Babylon and show that the scriptures are false.

Now, before you all run off and start your expeditions, I would remind you that there have been three attempts to rebuild the ruins of the city of Babylon. The first of those was taken by AlexAnder the great. Alexander the Great had conquered the entire world. Alexander the great, who now decided that he would make Babylon his new headquarters. It would be BAbylon upon the ruins of that city that he would build his palace, his headquarters. And so Alexander the Great entered Babylon with great pomp and circumstance, he sent some 600,000 rations of food and supplies for his soldiers to rebuild the city and the palace of Babylon. In preparation for those building programs, he had a party. It was quite a party. There was what is referred to as the Hercules cup. It was filled with liquor and alcohol. No one could drink it.

It was always a challenge, but no one could possibly consume all the alcohol. Well, on this night, Alexander the Great, before his plans to rebuild the city took that Hercules cup and consumed it completely. He died that night in Babylon. There was a second attempt to rebuild the city of Babylon and it was in the year 400 AD. Julian the apostate. He was the Caesar from Rome. He had conquered all of the existing countries and now he was looking for a new project. And so he decided, as the mightiest man of the world, the leader of the roman empire that he would rebuild Babylon. And on the way to Babylon, he died. There was a third world leader whose goal was to rebuild the city of Babylon. He said, let us rebuild Babylon. Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein, in 1978 began the restoration of the ancient city of Babylon. And he put all of his might on those ruins. It was described by someone from the Washington Post as a kind of megalomaniacal Disneyland, one of the world’s oddest tourist attractions. A plethora of snack bars and rest areas and a lake sedan before fishing. But God had declared centuries before that this was not to be in Jeremiah 51 55. Even if Babylon reaches the sky and fortifies her lofty stronghold I will send destroyers against her. The Lord will destroy Babylon. He will silence her noisy dinner. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters. The Lord will destroy the city of Babylon. And so wars came across the city of the ancient ruins of Babylon.

You realize, don’t you, that from 1980 to 1990 Saddam Hussein had internal wars and that there were continual wars back and forth. It was in 1990 that the United nations gathered thousands of troops and in the attack of Iraq, that march to Baghdad. One of the most remarkable wars was ever fought, perhaps in the history of warfare. A war that lasted only 24 hours. Hours. And Iraq surrendered. Saddam Hussein surrendered. As a result, they had begun that war with some $30 billion in surplus. But by the end of 1990 were now some $70 billion in debt. For the next years, as we’re aware of the history, ultimately troops came against Iraq against and crossing the city of Babylon into Baghdad. Eventually Saddam Hussein was pulled from some hole in the ground and executed.

And what of the plans that he had, well, Hussein began to build a great palace, what was left behind. According to a New York Times article, the new Babylon is stalled in a modern upheaval. And so while Hussein thought that he would build, rebuild Babylon, instead he is destroyed against that promise. And what if today, as we look at the promise, even if Babylon reaches the sky and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers. If you go to Babylon, the city of Babylon, the ancient city of Babylon, today, what will you see? It is simply a place where soldiers go to have souvenir pictures taken. They come alone, they come in the dozens to take pictures at the ruins of Babylon. And what continues there today? It is a land, a village that is completely uninhabited.

The same God who said, I am God, and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done. This same God who spoke these words about ancient city also tells us that the wages of sin is death. That he has sent his son Jesus Christ. Now I realize that some of you may be listening to this in and say, I’m not sure I buy this. I understand that. I’m not sure I bought it a number of years ago until I did something. I started to look into it and I started to see. Go on the Internet, you’ll see hundreds of pictures of soldiers walking through the ruins of Babylon. They know what those prophecies were and they’re interested. Ask them.

But more importantly, whether you agree or disagree on the prophetic prophecies related to this village of Babylon. More importantly to me is the hundreds of prophecies from the Old Testament. We know they were written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, and yet we just celebrated Christmas, where some 333 prophets from the Old Testament were used to document and support. Until finally Herod turns and says, do any of you know where this prophet, this king is to be born? And they say, according to the scriptures, in Bethlehem of Judea. You see, I am much more interested that you look at the promises, the predictive prophecies related to Jesus Christ. Get that one straight.

Because once we understand that the God that we worship knows the beginning from the end, who is present right now and offers to whosoever will may come, it’s an offer made in genuine honesty. It’s an offer made to anyone who will come and recognize Jesus Christ as the son of God who died on the cross and was raised from the dead. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you for your word. We ask, Lord, that none of us would simply accept words that we hear, but that each of us would look more closely and try to understand your word. We’ve promised that we want to learn your word, to memorize your word, to study your word. Help us to look at the very assumptions related to your word.

We thank you, Lord, that you’re a God who doesn’t look at things and be surprised of the events that happen. But instead you’re intimately involved in each of our lives. And regardless of the ups and downs, we can trust you in knowing that you are present. We thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ, who gave his life, that we might know the forgiveness of sins. Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, amen.

Thank you for listening to affirm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you and Doctor Smith looks forward to hearing from you.