DAVID
DARE:
INFIDEL
RULER TRIES TO BREAK PROPHECY
DAVID DARE FOUND the hall crowded when he
arrived. He chatted a few
minutes with friends, then met Dr. Morely, and together they went to the
platform. As he arose to speak,
there was rather an unusual ovation.
Mr. Dare smiled acknowledgement.
“I see you are interested in the subject announced for today,” he
remarked. “To me it is
gratifying to see someone with the courage of his convictions and willing to
do more than talk about them. Most
doubters never go beyond the talking stage.
“After all, it should be an easy matter for infidels to disprove
the Bible if they were half as in earnest as they would have us believe.
They need only rebuild old Tyre, or Babylon, or Nineveh; for God has
said that these cities will never again have inhabitants.
And He challenged the world to disprove His words if they could.
“If unbelievers would inhabit only one of these doomed cities, they
would no longer be compelled to argue the question of Bible prophecy, for
they themselves would be the living disproof of it’s truth.”
“But that is a fantastic idea, and an absurd and unreasonable thing
to ask of sceptics,” protested Mr. Emerson.
“I agree with Mr. Dare, Dad,” whispered Lucile, as he sat down.
“if doubters set such store by their scepticism, let them venture
something on it, or keep still. Certainly
the believers venture everything — their property and even their lives;
the sceptics, not even a few dollars. Yes, the speaker is right.”
“The thought of actually trying to disprove a prophecy,” replied
Mr. Dare, “is not so fantastic. It
is just what ought to occur to the logical mind.
It did occur to one determined doubter.
“There lived a learned man about A. D. 300 who
read the words of Jesus in Luke 21:24:
‘Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times
of the Gentiles be fulfilled.’ He
had once been a Christian, so he knew the predictions.
He made up his mind that Jerusalem should be trodden underfoot by the
Israelites instead of by the Gentiles.
“This man also knew that the Bible foretold the utter destruction
of the Jewish Temple and its services, that the Jews were to be scattered to
all nations of the earth, and that Christianity was to go to ‘every
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.’
“He was determined to overthrow Christianity, not by killing its
adherents, which had been tried by his predecessors for 250 years and had
served only to increase its followers, but by the more effective method of shattering
the prophecies. Thus he would
prove Jesus a liar. And he had
the power, if anyone ever had, for he was Julian, emperor of Rome, with an
immense army and the wealth and power of the civilized world at his
command.”
“Aren’t you assuming a great deal when you assert that Julian had
no other purpose in mind than to disprove the Bible?” asked Mr. Emerson.
“That he intended to stage a contest between himself and God, that
he consciously planned to disprove prophecy, is stated by a writer as
infidelic as Julian himself — Edward Gibbon, the world’s accepted
authority on that period, in chapter 23 of his famous history.
Rather than paraphrase, I will read Gibbon’s account:
“Julian ‘embraced the extraordinary design of rebuilding the
temple at Jerusalem. In a
public epistle to the nation or community of the Jews, dispersed through the
provinces, he pities their misfortunes, condemns their oppressors, praises
their constancy, declares himself their gracious protector. . . . They
deserved the friendship of Julian by their implacable hatred of the
Christian name. . . .
“ ‘After the final destruction of the temple by the arms of Titus
and Hadrian, a ploughshare was drawn over the consecrated ground, as a sign
of perpetual interdiction. . . .
“ ‘The vain and ambitious mind of Julian might aspire to restore
the ancient glory of the temple of Jerusalem.
As the Christians were firmly persuaded that a sentence of
everlasting destruction had been pronounced against the whole fabric of the
Mosaic law, the imperial sophist would have converted the success of his
undertaking into a specious argument against the faith of prophecy and the
truth of revelation. . . .
“ ‘He resolved to erect, without delay, on the commanding
eminence of Moriah, a stately temple, . . . and to invite a numerous colony
of Jews, whose stern fanaticism would be always prepared to second, and even
to anticipate, the hostile measures of the pagan government.
“ ‘Among the friends of the emperor . . .the first place was
assigned, by Julian himself, to the virtuous and learned Alypius. . . .This
minister . . .received an extraordinary commission to restore, in its
pristine beauty, the temple of Jerusalem.
The desire for rebuilding the temple has in every age been the ruling
passion of the children of Israel. . . . Every purse was opened in liberal
contributions, every hand claimed a share in the pious labour, and the
commands of a great monarch were executed by the enthusiasm of a whole
people.
“’Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts of power and
enthusiasm were unsuccessful; and the ground of the Jewish temple, which is
now covered by a Mahometan mosque, still continued to exhibit the same
edifying spectacle of ruin and desolation. . . .
“ ‘The Christians entertained a natural and pious expectation
that, in this memorable contest, the honour of religion would be vindicated
by some signal miracle.
“ ‘Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province,
urged, with vigour and diligence, the execution of the work, horrible balls
of fire breaking out near the foundations, with frequent and reiterated
attacks, rendered the place, from time to time, inaccessible to the scorched
and blasted workmen; and the victorious element continuing in this manner
obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance,
the undertaking was abandoned.’
“Julian could have rebuilt a whole city with his wealth and power,
but he could not rebuild a single temple.
He began his work with a great flourish of trumpets, advertised to
the whole world his purpose, and the reason for it; he was going to disprove
the Bible prophecies and so destroy Christianity.
“Account for it as you please, two facts remain:
First, Julian boasted he was going to disprove Bible prophecy by
doing what the Bible had said would not be done; second, with all the wealth
and power of the world at his command, he failed.”
Mr. Emerson stood up, and David Dare listened while he spoke.
“Do you believe, Mr. Dare, that God predicted the event and then
supernaturally intervened to see that His word was not thwarted?
Was it not rather the superstition of the workmen that defeated the
project”
“It is immaterial whether the workmen were discouraged by
superstition or not. The
prophets did not say how such attempts to rebuild were to be
defeated. The public were
invited by God Himself to defeat His prophecies if they could.
Here was a man who boldly, boastingly accepted the challenge, put the
power and wealth of the Roman Empire into the endeavour, and miserably
failed. God had said all such
attempts would fail. I am glad that if the endeavour was to be made, one who was
wealthy, and who was more powerful than any man now living, tried it.
No one else since Julian’s day has made a similar experiment.
“Interesting as all this discussion has been to the student, the
most important topic of all will be introduced next week:
Christ — the Heart of Prophecy and History.”
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