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LOCUSTS Is It Really Inspired by God?
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.
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 Destruction of Jerusalem
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.” 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
Less than four years later, in 70C.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. 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.