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ANOTHER STAKE FOR SKEPTICS

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forthwith the world's ruler. When God said, "There shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee," who could hinder its coming to pass? This decisive event occurred in B. C. 331. Thus another stake is driven

for skeptics to pull up, if they can. God's mill grinds slowly, but surely. The great wheels of time roll around, and the events come to pass, whether man is prepared or not. It is our privilege to be ready to meet them as they come. "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished." Prov. 22:3.

G. G. Rupert, The Inspired History of Nations Past and Future, p. 284.

GREECE PROPHESIED BY A LEOPARD

CHAPTER IX.

GREECE

63. Did Daniel by a leopard prophesy the Kingdom of Greece?

BIBLE EVIDENCE.

Daniel 7:6-After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.

SECULAR EVIDENCE.

The third kingdom, Grecia, is represented by this symbol. If wings upon the lion signified rapidity of conquest, they would signify the same here. The leopard itself is a swift-footed beast, but this was not sufficient to represent the career of the nation which it symbolized in this respect; it must have wings in addition. Two wings, the number the lion had, were not sufficient, it must have four; this would denote unparalleled celerity of movement, which we find to be historically true of the Grecian kingdom. The conquests of Grecia under Alexander have no parallel in historic annals for suddenness and rapidity.

Rollin, Ancient History, b. 15, sec. 2, gives the following brief synopsis of Alexander's marches:

"From Macedonia to the Ganges, which river Alexander nearly approached, is computed at least eleven hundred leagues. Add to this the various turnings in Alexander's marches; first, from the extremity of Cilicia, where the battle of Issus was fought, to the temple of Jupiter Ammon in Libya; and his returning from thence to Tyre, a journey of three hundred leagues at least, and as much space at least for the windings of his route in different places; we shall find that Alexander, in less than eight years, marched his army upward of seventeen hundred leagues [or more than fifty-one hundred miles], without including his return to Babylon.

URIAH SMITH, Daniel and the Revelation, pp. 128, 131. 64. Did Daniel prophesy that the kingdom of Alexander would be a great one?

BIBLE EVIDENCE.

Dan. 11:2, 3 (B. C. 534)—And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT IN PROPHECY

SECULAR EVIDENCE.

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"Alexander deserves the glory which he has enjoyed for so many centuries and among all nations; ...."-Napoleon.

Quoted in CREASY's The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, p. 57. "Asia beheld with astonishment and awe the uninterrupted progress of a hero, the sweep of whose conquests was as wide and rapid as that of her own barbaric kings or the Scythian or Chaldaean hordes; but, far unlike the transient whirlwinds of Asiatic warfare, the advance of the Macedonian leader was no less deliberate than rapid; at every step the Greek power took root, and the language and the cilivilization of Greece were planted from the shores of the Aegean to the banks of the Indus, from the Caspian and the great Hyrcanian plain to the cataracts of the Nile; to exist actually for nearly a thousand years, and in their effects to endure forever."-Arnold.

Quoted in CREASY'S The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, p. 57.

Alexander is intended in Dan. 2:39 and also Dan. 7:6; 8:5-7; 11:3, 4, the latter indicating the rapidity of his conquests and his power. He ruled with great dominion, and did according to his will, Dan. 11:3; "and there was none that could deliver.... out of his hand." Dan. 8:7.

WM. SMITH, LL.D., Bible Dictionary-Teacher's Edition, p. 29.

65. Did what "has been pronounced the greatest military achievement of Alexander" fulfill a prophecy made by Ezekiel 256 years before the event?

BIBLE EVIDENCE.

Ezekiel 26:4, 12, 14 (B. C. 590)-And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. . . and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

SECULAR EVIDENCE.

The ruins of the old city still remained. The prophecy had declared that the timbers and the stones and even the very dust should be cast into the sea, leaving a bare rock. These words were not fulfilled, and it seemed improbable that they ever would be; for if Nebuchadnezzar, in his anger, had taken a full vengeance, and had not thought of this, who was likely to care enough about the ruins of the city to wreak such a vengeance? It would be the very frenzy of madness. But meanwhile there the words stood in the Book of which Jesus Isaid that not one word should be broken. Two and a half centuries passed away, and still the ruins stood, a challenge to the accuracy of prophecy. Then through the east the fame of Alexander the Great sent a thrill of terror. He marched to the attack of Tyre. Reaching the shore, he saw the city he had come to take, with half a mile of water

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BATTLE OF IPSUS IN PROPHECY

between them, built upon an island. Alexander's plan of attack was speedily formed and executed. He took the walls, towers, timbers, and ruined houses and palaces of the ancient city, and with them, built a solid causeway through the half mile of sea to the island city. Even her mounds of ruins were carried away; and so great was the demand for material, that the very dust was scraped from the site and laid in the sea. The city was to be built no more. This divine sentence of judgment has for centuries been a challenge to all time. It is unanswered still.

EARLE ALBERT ROWELL (A Converted Infidel), The Bible in the Critics' Den, p. 109.

The Siege of Tyre (332 B. C.).-Alexander now turned to the south, in order to effect the subjugation of Phoenicia. The island-city of Tyre, after a memorable siege, was taken by means of a mole built with incredible labor through the sea to the city. The causeway still remains, uniting the rock with the mainland. When at last the city was taken after a siege of seven months, eight thousand of the inhabitants were slain and thirty thousand sold into slavery. The reduction of Tyre has been pronounced the greatest military achievement of Alexander. Myers, General History, p. 153.

66. Did the result of the battle of Ipsus (301 B. C.) fulfill a prophecy by Daniel that no descendant of Alexander the Great would ever sit on his throne, but that his kingdom would be divided between four?

BIBLE EVIDENCE.

Daniel 11:3, 4-And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.

SECULAR EVIDENCE.

"The battle of Ipsus [301 B. C.] resulted in a permanent division of the vast empire founded by Alexander the Great, after twenty-two years of sanguinary wars among his generals, during which the whole of Alexander's family and all his relatives perished. The triumphant Seleucus and Lysimachus divided the dominion of Asia between them, Seleucus receiving the Euphrates Valley, northern Syria, Cappadocia, and part of Phrygia; while Lysimachus obtained the remainder of Asia Minor in addition to Thrace, which extended along the western shores of the Euxine as far north as the mouth of the Danube. Ptolemy was allowed to hold Egypt along with Palestine, Phoenicia, and CoeleSyria; while Cassander was allowed to reign in Macedonia and Greece until his death." 5

These brief historical statements record the fulfilment of every specification given in Dan. 11:4. Within two hundred and thirty-five years after this prophecy was written, Persia had been overthrown by

5"Library of Universal History," Vol. III, p. 779.

GREECE CONQUERED BY ROME

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Grecia; Alexander, the "mighty king," had been broken by the hand of death, and his kingdom had been divided toward the four winds of heaven, "not to his posterity," but "for others."

ARTHUR G. DANIELLS, World Lecturer and Traveler, The World War, pp. 54-56.

67. Did Daniel prophecy, 369 years before the event, that Greece would be conquered by Rome?

BIBLE EVIDENCE.

Dan. 7:7 (B. C. 537)—After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

SECULAR EVIDENCE.

The sovereignty of the world was held by Babylon from the time of this dream, B. C. 603, until B. C. 538, when it passed to the Medes and Persians. The victory of the Grecian forces at the battle of Arbela, in B. C. 331, marked the downfall of the Medo-Persian Empire, and the Greeks then became the undisputed rulers of the world. The battle of Pydna, in Macedonia, in B. C. 168, was the last organized effort to withstand a world-wide conquest by the Romans, and at that time. therefore the sovereignty passed from the Greeks to the Romans, and the fourth kingdom was fully established.

Bible Readings for the Home Circle, p. 207. Copyrighted by the Review and Herald Publishing Association.

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