any of God’s decrees in any manner. Again Isaiah declares for God, “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? And the things that are coming, and shall come, let them ,shew unto them” (Isaiah 44:6, 7). "Here the Lord makes a challenge on the basis of His prophetic truth, He says in effect, “If there are any other gods, if they can predict, bring them forth and let them prophesy to see if it will come to pass.” Absolute silence has and always-will be the mute re sponse. “Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any” (Isaiah 44:8). We do not need to be afraid to trust completely the Word of God, for we shall never be deceived. How important it is to trust the Word of God for the words and thoughts of men are entirely undependable. Men do their best to find a way out of their problems and dilemmas. Man’s knowl edge is limited; he has vast areas of ignorance. Man is not omniscient ,a$ is God. Man has no power. Because he is sinful man is proud, vain, and ar rogant. There is a great difference be tween the words of men and the Word of God as this portion of Isaiah’s pro phecy shows us. The Lord not only shows us accurate ly how the world began but also ex- (continued on next page) 5
F requently people w ill ask , ’“ H o w is it possible for the Bible to pre dict things to come? There is no other book which can do this.” At the outset of our study it is important to verify the answer to this important question. The answer is simply because God knows the end even from the begin ning. God, being the Creator of the world and the Author of history, can predict with complete reliability what is to come. God spoke through His pro phet Isaiah, “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; 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* say ing, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:9, 10). Here God asks Isaiah to turn the atten tion of the Israelites to the beginning of their history. God foretold things which would occur to His people way back in Gene sis and Exodus. Since the prophecies had already taken place it should have been clearly evident to them that God’s truth and predictions could be trusted. The trouble is most of us have good “forgetteries.” Who could remember and predict with such accuracy but God? The Lord is omniscient which means simply that His all knowledge encompasses the beginning to the end of everything. There are many brilliant men living among us today. Each of them, however, is limited by his own ignorance. God does not suffer from this human weakness. His omnipotence gives this truth reality. No individual, whether human or angelic, can break
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