Chapter 18
The Bible—Is It Really Inspired by God?
1. What ability does the Creator possess that humans do not?
NO MAN can accurately foretell the future in detail. That is beyond human ability. However, the Creator of the universe possesses all the necessary facts and can even control events. Thus he can be spoken of as the One who is “telling from the beginning the finale, and from long ago the things that have not been done.”—Isaiah 46:10; 41:22, 23.
2. What telling evidence would indicate that the Bible is inspired by God?
2 The Bible contains hundreds of prophecies. Have they been accurately fulfilled until now? If so, it would be a telling indication of the Bible’s being “inspired of God.” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17) And it would create confidence in further prophecies regarding events yet to come. Hence, it will be useful to review some prophecies already fulfilled.
The Fall of Tyre
3. What was foretold concerning Tyre?
3 Tyre was a prominent seaport of Phoenicia that had dealt treacherously with ancient Israel, her southern neighbor that worshiped Jehovah. Through a prophet named Ezekiel, Jehovah foretold its complete destruction over 250 years before it happened. Jehovah declared: “I will bring up against you many nations . . . And they will certainly bring the walls of Tyre to ruin and tear down her towers, and I will scrape her dust away from her and make her a shining, bare surface of a crag. A drying yard for dragnets is what she will become in the midst of the sea.” Ezekiel also named in advance the first nation and its leader to besiege Tyre: “Here I am bringing against Tyre Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon.”—Ezekiel 26:3-5, 7.
4. (a) How was the prophecy regarding Babylon’s conquest of Tyre fulfilled? (b) Why did the Babylonians fail to take spoils?
4 As foretold, Nebuchadrezzar [Nebuchadnezzar] did later overthrow mainland Tyre, The Encyclopædia Britannica reporting “a 13-year siege . . . by Nebuchadrezzar.”1 After the siege it was reported that he took no spoils: “As for wages, there proved to be none for him.” (Ezekiel 29:18) Why not? Because part of Tyre was on an island across a narrow channel.2 Most of Tyre’s treasures had been transferred from the mainland to that island part of the city, which was not destroyed.
5, 6. How did Alexander the Great destroy the island city of Tyre and fulfill in detail what had been prophesied?
5 But Nebuchadrezzar’s conquest did not “scrape [Tyre’s] dust away from her and make her a shining, bare surface” as Ezekiel had foretold. Nor was Zechariah’s prophecy fulfilled, which said that Tyre would be pitched “into the sea.” (Zechariah 9:4) Were these prophecies inaccurate? Not at all. Over 250 years after Ezekiel’s prophecy and nearly 200 years after Zechariah’s, Tyre was totally destroyed by Greek armies under Alexander the Great, in 332 B.C.E. “With the debris of the mainland portion of the city,” explains the Encyclopedia Americana, “he built a huge [causeway] in 332 to join the island to the mainland. After a seven months’ siege . . . he captured and destroyed Tyre.”3
6 Thus, as predicted by Ezekiel and Zechariah, Tyre’s dust and debris did end up in the midst of the water. She was left a bare crag, “a place to spread nets upon,” as a visitor to the site observed.4 So, prophecies spoken hundreds of years earlier were fulfilled in exact detail!
Cyrus and the Fall of Babylon
7. What did the Bible foretell about the Jews and Babylon?
7 Also remarkable are the prophecies involving the Jews and Babylon. History records that Babylon took the Jews into captivity. Yet, about 40 years before this happened Jeremiah foretold it. Isaiah predicted it some 150 years before it happened. He also foretold that the Jews would return from captivity. So did Jeremiah, saying that they would be restored to their land after 70 years.—Isaiah 39:6, 7; 44:26; Jeremiah 25:8-12; 29:10.
8, 9. (a) Who conquered Babylon, and how? (b) How does history verify the prophecy about Babylon?
8 This return was made possible by the overthrow of Babylon by the Medes and Persians in 539 B.C.E. It was foretold by Isaiah nearly 200 years before it happened, and by Jeremiah about 50 years before it occurred. Jeremiah said that the Babylonian soldiers would put up no fight. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah foretold that Babylon’s protecting waters, the river Euphrates, “must be dried up.” Isaiah even gave the name of the conquering Persian general, Cyrus, and said that before him “the gates [of Babylon] will not be shut.”—Jeremiah 50:38; 51:11, 30; Isaiah 13:17-19; 44:27; 45:1.
9 The Greek historian Herodotus explained that Cyrus actually diverted the flow of the Euphrates and “the river sank to such an extent that the natural bed of the stream became fordable.”5 Thus, during the night, enemy soldiers marched along the riverbed and entered the city through gates that had been carelessly left open. “Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus was about,” Herodotus continued, “they would have made fast all the street-gates which [were] upon the river . . . But, as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and so took the city.”6 Actually, the Babylonians were involved in drunken revelry, as the Bible explains, and as Herodotus confirms.7 (Daniel 5:1-4, 30) Both Isaiah and Jeremiah foretold that Babylon would eventually become uninhabited ruins. And that is what happened. Today Babylon is a desolate heap of mounds.—Isaiah 13:20-22; Jeremiah 51:37, 41-43.
10. What evidence confirms the release of the Jews by Cyrus?
10 Cyrus also restored the Jews to their homeland. Over two centuries before, Jehovah had foretold of Cyrus: “All that I delight in he will completely carry out.” (Isaiah 44:28) True to prophecy, after 70 years Cyrus returned the captives to their homeland, in 537 B.C.E. (Ezra 1:1-4) An ancient Persian inscription, called the Cyrus Cylinder, has been found that clearly states the policy of Cyrus to return captives to their homelands. “As to the inhabitants of Babylon,” Cyrus is recorded as having said, “I (also) gathered all their (former) inhabitants and returned (to them) their habitations.”8
Medo-Persia and Greece
11. How did the Bible foretell Medo-Persia’s rise to power and its fall to Greece?
11 While Babylon was still a world power the Bible foretold its conquest by a symbolic two-horned ram, representing “the kings of Media and Persia.” (Daniel 8:20) As foretold, Medo-Persia became the next world power when it conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.E. In time, however, “a male of the goats,” identified as Greece, “proceeded to strike down the ram and to break its two horns.” (Daniel 8:1-7) This was in 332 B.C.E. when Greece defeated Medo-Persia and became the new world power.
12. What did the Bible say about the rulership of Greece?
12 Note what was foretold to follow: “And the male of the goats, for its part, put on great airs to an extreme; but as soon as it became mighty, the great horn was broken, and there proceeded to come up conspicuously four instead of it.” (Daniel 8:8) What does this mean? The Bible explains: “The hairy he-goat stands for the king of Greece; and as for the great horn that was between its eyes, it stands for the first king. And that one having been broken, so that there were four that finally stood up instead of it, there are four kingdoms from his nation that will stand up, but not with his power.”—Daniel 8:21, 22.
13. Over 200 years after it was recorded, how was the prophecy about Greece fulfilled?
13 History shows that this “king of Greece” was Alexander the Great. But after his death in 323 B.C.E., his empire was eventually split up among four generals—Seleucus Nicator, Cassander, Ptolemy Lagus and Lysimachus. Just as the Bible had foretold, “there were four that finally stood up instead.” Yet, as also foretold, none of these ever had the power that Alexander had. Thus, more than 200 years after this prophecy was recorded, it began to be fulfilled—another striking confirmation of the Bible’s inspiration!
The Messiah Foretold
14. What did one scholar say about the many prophecies fulfilled by Jesus Christ?
14 Especially remarkable are the scores of Bible prophecies regarding Jesus Christ. Professor J. P. Free observed: “The chances of all of these prophecies being fulfilled in one man are so overwhelmingly remote that it is strikingly demonstrated that they could in no wise be the shrewd guesses of mere men.”9
15. What are some prophecies fulfilled in Christ that were beyond his control?
15 The fulfilling of many of these prophecies was completely beyond the control of Jesus. He could not, for instance, have arranged to be born of the tribe of Judah, or as a descendant of David. (Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 9:6, 7; 11:1, 10; Matthew 1:2-16) Nor could he have maneuvered the events that led to his being born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2; Luke 2:1-7) Nor would he have arranged to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12; Matthew 26:15); that his enemies spit on him (Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 26:67); that he be reviled while hanging from the executional stake (Psalm 22:7, 8; Matthew 27:39-43); that he be pierced, but not a bone in his body be broken (Zechariah 12:10; Psalm 34:20; John 19:33-37); and that soldiers cast lots for his garments (Psalm 22:18; Matthew 27:35). These are merely a few of the many prophecies fulfilled in the man Jesus.
The Destruction of Jerusalem
16. What did Jesus prophesy regarding Jerusalem?
16 Jesus was Jehovah’s greatest Prophet. First, note what he said would happen to Jerusalem: “Your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side, and they will dash you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you, because you did not discern the time of your being inspected.” (Luke 19:43, 44) Jesus also said: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then know that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains.”—Luke 21:20, 21.
17. How was Jesus’ prophecy about armies surrounding Jerusalem fulfilled, and so how could people flee the city?
17 True to the prophecy, Roman armies under Cestius Gallus came against Jerusalem in 66 C.E. Strangely, however, he did not press the siege to its completion, but, as the first-century historian Flavius Josephus reported: “He retired from the city, without any reason in the world.”10 With the siege unexpectedly lifted, opportunity was afforded to heed Jesus’ instruction to flee Jerusalem. The historian Eusebius reported that it was the Christians who fled.11
18. (a) What happened in 70 C.E., less than four years after Roman armies had withdrawn from Jerusalem? (b) How complete was Jerusalem’s destruction?
18 Less than four years later, in 70 C.E., Roman armies under General Titus returned and encircled Jerusalem. They cut down trees for miles around and built a city-encircling wall, “a fortification with pointed stakes.” As a result, Josephus observed: “All hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews.”12 Josephus noted that after a siege of about five months, aside from three towers and a portion of a wall, what was left “was so thoroughly laid even with the ground . . . that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited.”13
19. (a) How severe was the distress that came upon Jerusalem? (b) Of what is the Arch of Titus now a silent reminder?
19 About 1,100,000 died during the siege, and 97,000 were taken captive.14 To this day a testimony to the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy can be seen in Rome. There the Arch of Titus stands, erected by the Romans in 81 C.E. to commemorate the successful capture of Jerusalem. That arch remains a silent reminder to the fact that failure to heed the warnings in Bible prophecy can lead to disaster.
Prophecies Now Being Fulfilled
20. In answer to what question did Jesus give the “sign” by which we could know that a great world change was near?
20 According to the Bible, an astonishing world change is near. Just as Jesus foretold events by which people in the first century could know of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem, so he also foretold events by which people today could know that a world change is near. Jesus gave this “sign” in answer to this question by his disciples: “What will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?”—Matthew 24:3.
21. (a) What is Christ’s “presence,” and what is “the conclusion of the system of things”? (b) Where can we read about the sign that Jesus gave?
21 According to the Bible, this “presence” of Christ would not be in human form, but, rather, he would be a mighty ruler in heaven who will deliver oppressed humankind. (Daniel 7:13, 14) His “presence” would be during what he called “the conclusion of the system of things.” Well, then, just what was the sign that Jesus gave to mark the time when he would be invisibly present as ruler and when the end of this system of things would be near? In the Bible, at Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapter 13 and Luke chapter 21, you can review the events that together make up the sign. Some of the major ones are as follows:
22. How have wars from 1914 onward been part of the sign, and how destructive were they?
22 GREAT WARS: “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.” (Matthew 24:7) From 1914 onward the fulfillment of this has been overwhelming. World War I, beginning in 1914, introduced the mass use of machine guns, tanks, submarines, airplanes, and also poison gas. By its end in 1918, about 14 million soldiers and civilians had been slaughtered. One historian noted: “The First World War was the first ‘total’ war.”15 World War II from 1939 to 1945 was even more destructive, with military and civilian deaths rising to some 55 million. And it introduced a totally new horror—atom bombs! Since then over 30 million more have been killed in scores of wars, large and small. The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel notes: “Not for a single day since 1945 has there been any real peace in the world.”16
23. To what extent have food shortages afflicted the world since 1914?
23 FOOD SHORTAGES: “There will be food shortages.” (Matthew 24:7) World War I was followed by widespread famine. After World War II famine was worse. And today? “Hunger today is on a totally new scale. . . . as many as 400 million live constantly on the brink of starvation,” says the London Times.17 The Globe and Mail of Toronto states: “More than 800 million people are underfed.”18 And the World Health Organization reports that “12 million children die each year before their first birthday” from the results of malnutrition.19
24. What increase in earthquakes has there been since 1914?
24 EARTHQUAKES: “There will be great earthquakes.” (Luke 21:11) A specialist in earthquake-proof engineering, George W. Housner, called the T’ang-shan, China, earthquake of 1976 “the greatest earthquake disaster in the history of mankind,” taking hundreds of thousands of lives.20 The Italian journal Il Piccolo reported: “Our generation lives in a dangerous period of high seismic activity, as statistics show.”21 On the average, about ten times as many have died each year from earthquakes since 1914 as in previous centuries.
25. What calamitous epidemics have there been since 1914 to fulfill part of the sign?
25 DISEASE: “In one place after another pestilences.” (Luke 21:11) Science Digest reported: “The Spanish-influenza epidemic of 1918 sped over the earth [and] took 21 million lives.” It added: “In all history there had been no sterner, swifter visitation of death. . . . had the epidemic continued its rate of acceleration, humanity would have been eradicated in a matter of months.”22 Since then, heart disease, cancer, venereal disease and many other plagues have maimed and killed hundreds of millions.
26. How has lawlessness increased since 1914?
26 CRIME: “Increasing of lawlessness.” (Matthew 24:12) Murder, robbery, rape, terrorism, corruption—the list is long and well known. In many areas people fear to walk their streets. Confirming this lawless trend after 1914, an authority on terrorism states: “The period up to the first World War was, on the whole, more humane.”23
27. The prophecy about fear is undergoing what fulfillment today?
27 FEAR: “There will be fearful sights.” (Luke 21:11) Hamburg’s Die Welt called our time “the century of fear.”24 Entirely new threats to mankind strike fear as never before. For the first time in history, such things as nuclear annihilation and pollution threaten to ‘ruin the earth.’ (Revelation 11:18) Escalating crime, inflation, nuclear weapons, hunger, disease and other evils have fed the fear that people have concerning their security and their very lives.
What Makes It Different?
28. Why do the features of the sign occurring now identify our time as “the conclusion of the system of things”?
28 Yet, some point out that many of these things have happened in past centuries. So what makes their occurrence now any different? First, every event making up the sign has been observed by one generation—the generation that was living in 1914—of which millions still survive. Jesus declared that “this generation will by no means pass away until all things occur.” (Luke 21:32) Second, the effects of the sign are being felt worldwide, “in one place after another.” (Matthew 24:3, 7, 9; 25:32) Third, conditions have grown progressively worse during this period: “All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress”; “wicked men and impostors will advance from bad to worse.” (Matthew 24:8; 2 Timothy 3:13) And fourth, all these things have been accompanied by the change in people’s attitudes and actions as Jesus warned: “The love of the greater number will cool off.”—Matthew 24:12.
29. How does the Bible’s description of “the final age of this world” match the moral condition of people today?
29 Yes, one of the strong evidences that we are now living in the foretold crucial time of the end is seen in the moral breakdown among people. Compare what you observe in the world with these prophetic words regarding our time: “You must face the fact: the final age of this world is to be a time of troubles. Men will love nothing but money and self; they will be arrogant, boastful, and abusive; with no respect for parents, no gratitude, no piety, no natural affection; they will be implacable in their hatreds, scandal-mongers, intemperate and fierce, strangers to all goodness, traitors, adventurers, swollen with self-importance. They will be men who put pleasure in the place of God, men who preserve the outward form of religion, but are a standing denial of its reality.”—2 Timothy 3:1-5, The New English Bible.
1914—The Turning Point in History
30, 31. (a) How did those living before 1914 view world conditions, and what did they think the future held? (b) In addition to the sign, what else does the Bible provide to show that we are in “the last days”?
30 From the human standpoint, the world troubles and global wars foretold in the Bible were far from the thinking of the pre-1914 world. German statesman Konrad Adenauer said: “Thoughts and pictures come to my mind, . . . thoughts from the years before 1914 when there was real peace, quiet and security on this earth—a time when we didn’t know fear. . . . Security and quiet have disappeared from the lives of men since 1914.”25 People living before 1914 thought that the future “would get better and better,” reported British statesman Harold Macmillan.26 The book 1913: America Between Two Worlds notes: “Secretary of State Bryan said [in 1913] that ‘conditions promising world peace were never more favorable than now.’”27
31 So, right up to the very brink of World War I, world leaders were forecasting an age of social progress and enlightenment. But the Bible had foretold the opposite—that the unprecedented war of 1914 to 1918 would highlight the beginning of “the last days.” (2 Timothy 3:1) The Bible also provided chronological evidence that 1914 would mark the birth of God’s heavenly Kingdom, to be followed by unprecedented world trouble.28 But was anyone living back then aware that 1914 would be such a turning point in history?
32. (a) What were those who were familiar with Bible chronology saying about 1914 for decades before that date? (b) According to the accompanying chart, what have others said about 1914?
32 Decades before that date, there was an organization of people who were making known the significance of 1914. The New York World of August 30, 1914, explains: “The terrific war outbreak in Europe has fulfilled an extraordinary prophecy. For a quarter of a century past, through preachers and through press, the ‘International Bible Students’ [Jehovah’s Witnesses] . . . have been proclaiming to the world that the Day of Wrath prophesied in the Bible would dawn in 1914. ‘Look out for 1914!’ has been the cry of the . . . evangelists.”29
A People Who Fulfill Prophecy
33. What additional part of the sign are Jehovah’s Witnesses fulfilling?
33 The Bible also foretold that “in the final part of the days” people from all nations would be going, figuratively, “to the mountain of Jehovah” where he would “instruct [them] about his ways.” The prophecy says that, as one result of such instruction, “they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. . . . neither will they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:2-4) The well-known record of Jehovah’s Witnesses regarding war is a clear fulfillment of this prophecy.
34. What evidence is there that Jehovah’s Witnesses have ‘beaten their swords into plowshares’?
34 Martin Niemöller, a Protestant leader in Germany before and after World War II, referred to Jehovah’s Witnesses as “serious scholars of the Bible, who by the hundreds and thousands have gone into concentration camps and died because they refused to serve in war and declined to fire on human beings.” By contrast, he wrote: “Christian Churches, throughout the ages, have always consented to bless war, troops and arms and . . . they prayed in a very un-Christian way for the annihilation of their enemy.”30 Who, then, measure up to the identifying mark that Jesus gave concerning true Christians? He said: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.” (John 13:35) As 1 John 3:10-12 makes clear, God’s servants do not kill one another. It is Satan’s children who do.
35. (a) What unifies Jehovah’s Witnesses? (b) Is their allegiance to God’s Kingdom Scripturally justified?
35 A common allegiance to the Kingdom of God and faithful adherence to Bible principles is what unifies Jehovah’s Witnesses into a worldwide brotherhood. They fully accept what the Bible teaches: that the Kingdom is a real government with laws and authority, and that soon it will govern the entire earth. It already has increasing millions of subjects on earth who are being shaped as the foundation for the civilization to come. Regarding the Kingdom, the prophet Daniel was inspired to write: “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. . . . It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms [now existing], and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” (Daniel 2:44) Jesus gave priority to the Kingdom when he instructed: “You must pray, then, this way: ‘Our Father in the heavens . . . Let your kingdom come.’”—Matthew 6:9, 10.
36. (a) What does God want publicized? (b) Who are doing it?
36 The many events in fulfillment of Bible prophecy since 1914 show that very soon God’s heavenly Kingdom will ‘crush and put an end to all other governments.’ And God wants this fact publicized, as the following important part of the sign shows: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) Millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a worldwide brotherhood, are now fulfilling this prophecy.
37. Why will the end of this system of things at Armageddon be good news?
37 When the Kingdom has been preached to the extent that God wants, then the world will see, Jesus said, a “great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.” This will culminate in the battle of Armageddon, and it will end Satan’s evil influence. It will cleanse the entire earth of wicked nations and men and will open the way for the incoming Paradise where “righteousness is to dwell.”—Matthew 24:21; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 16:14-16; 12:7-12; 2 Corinthians 4:4.
38. (a) What has been established by the Bible’s record of fulfilled prophecies? (b) What do those prophecies concerning the future merit?
38 With so many fulfilled prophecies already to its credit, the Bible has indeed established itself as the book “inspired of God.” (2 Timothy 3:16) Accept it, then, “not as the word of men, but, just as it truthfully is, as the word of God.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13) Also, since its Author, Jehovah God, is “the One telling from the beginning the finale,” you can have complete confidence in prophecies whose fulfillments are yet future. (Isaiah 46:10) And what is to come is truly marvelous. You will be fascinated as you read about it in the next chapter.
[Blurb on page 216]
Fulfilled prophecies create confidence
[Blurb on page 222]
The destruction of Jerusalem was foretold by Jesus
[Blurb on page 226]
Every event making up the sign is being observed by one generation
[Blurb on page 227]
“Before 1914 . . . there was real peace, quiet and security on this earth”
[Blurb on page 229]
“Neither will they learn war anymore”
[Blurb on page 231]
The Bible has established its credibility as a book inspired by the Creator
[Box on page 228]
1914—A TURNING POINT IN HISTORY
Even after a second world war, many refer back to 1914 as the great turning point in modern history:
“It is indeed the year 1914 rather than that of Hiroshima which marks the turning point in our time.”—René Albrecht-Carrié, The Scientific Monthly, July 1951.
“Ever since 1914, everybody conscious of trends in the world has been deeply troubled by what has seemed like a fated and predetermined march toward ever greater disaster. Many serious people have come to feel that nothing can be done to avert the plunge towards ruin. They see the human race, like the hero of a Greek tragedy, driven on by angry gods and no longer the master of fate.”—Bertrand Russell, The New York Times Magazine, September 27, 1953.
“The modern era . . . began in 1914, and no one knows when or how it will end. . . . It could end in mass annihilation.”—The Seattle Times, January 1, 1959.
“In the year 1914 the world, as it was known and accepted then, came to an end.”—James Cameron, 1914, published in 1959.
“The whole world really blew up about World War I and we still don’t know why. . . . Utopia was in sight. There was peace and prosperity. Then everything blew up. We’ve been in a state of suspended animation ever since.”—Dr. Walker Percy, American Medical News, November 21, 1977.
“In 1914 the world lost a coherence which it has not managed to recapture since. . . . This has been a time of extraordinary disorder and violence, both across national frontiers and within them.”—The Economist, London, August 4, 1979.
“Civilization entered on a cruel and perhaps terminal illness in 1914.”—Frank Peters, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 27, 1980.
“Everything would get better and better. This was the world I was born in. . . . Suddenly, unexpectedly, one morning in 1914 the whole thing came to an end.”—British statesman Harold Macmillan, The New York Times, November 23, 1980.
[Picture on page 217]
Building the causeway to reach the island city of Tyre fulfilled Bible prophecy
[Picture on page 218]
Bible prophecy was fulfilled by the draining of the Euphrates River
[Picture on page 219]
This clay Cyrus Cylinder (shown vertically) tells of Cyrus’ practice of returning captives
[Picture on page 220]
Gold medallion depicting Alexander the Great, whose exploits were foretold in prophecy
[Pictures on page 221]
Jesus could not have arranged to fulfill many of the prophecies about himself
[Picture on page 223]
This wall relief inside the Arch of Titus, depicting treasures being carried off after Jerusalem’s destruction, is a silent reminder
[Picture on page 230]
When this system ends, survivors will enter a new system of righteousness