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ARTICLES AND COMMENTARY

ISAIAH AND CYRUS THE GREAT

"Hereupon the Persians who had been left for the purpose at Babylon by the, river-side, entered the stream, which had now sunk so as to reach about midway up a man's thigh, and thus got into the town." - Herodotus

In 539 BC, Cyrus son of Cambyses took Babylon without a struggle. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Cyrus diverted the course of the Euphrates river, making the river level drop and giving the invading forces the ability to enter into the city that night through the river bed. Nobody noticed them coming in, and the city gates that opened up onto the river were not closed; the Persians were able to just walk into town. Within a year, Cyrus declared that all the Jews captive in Babylon were free to return home to Jerusalem, as described in Ezra 1.

These two events - the taking of Babylon the Great without a battle and the magnanimous freeing of the Jews soon after - are both remarkable historical events in themselves. What makes them even more notable is the fact that God told about them in Isaiah 44:26-45:1, 13, appointing Cyrus by name 100 years before this son of Cambyses was born.

The Book of Isaiah is one of the most greatly admired and beloved books of the Bible. The New Testament writers quote Isaiah more than all the other Old Testament prophets combined. From a literary point of view, the writing of Isaiah is superb, full of parallelism and euphony; scholars savor Isaiah's obvious attention to the literary art of his writing.

Beyond his writing skill, Isaiah's book is filled with prophecies about Judah and the surrounding lands. It also contains a host of very important Messianic prophecies (7:14-16; 9:1-7; 11:1-16; 32:1ff; 42:1-7; 50:5-8; 52:13-15; 61:1-3; 65:17), even describing in detail Jesus' crucifixion 700 years before it happened.

In Isaiah 44 and 45, God not only describes the ease with which Cyrus would enter the city with the "two leaved gates" (gates that were not even shut against the invaders!) but also notes that He would "loose the loins of kings" before Cyrus – a euphemism regarding the fear these kings would feel and the mess in their pants they'd make as a result. As a matter of fact, about the time Cyrus' men were entering the city, King Belshazzar, co-regent with his father Nabonidus, was being interrupted in his feast. A hand began to write on the wall to tell Belshazzar that his time was up. Daniel 5:6 puts in not-so-delicate terms how greatly the fear of this sight affected Belshazzar, saying, "his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." Who says God isn't detailed!

In circles of modern liberal criticism, though, it has become popular to dismiss the idea, held for some 2500 years, that Isaiah son of Amoz wrote the entire book credited to his name. Old Testament scholars have found it fashionable to argue that there were at least two "Isaiahs", perhaps even three or more. These critics argue that it makes no sense for God to have foretold events that would not have taken place during the life of the prophet. They attempt to argue that the character of God in Isaiah 1-39 is far fiercer than the gentle God of Isaiah 40-66, that the language is different in the two sections, and that there are two different views of the Messiah between the first part of Isaiah and that written by the alleged Deutero-Isaiah. Ultimately, they do not believe that Isaiah could have written about Cyrus the Great in 700 BC. They cannot believe that the precise information in that prophecy could have been penned 150 years before it came to pass.

These criticisms can sound scholarly on the surface, but they depend far less on evidence than on a bias against predictive prophecy. While these scholars may believe that a bias against the supernatural - and the power of God to speak through His prophets centuries in advance - is scientific in this modern world, the truth is, it's still a bias. It's still just their opinion based on a humanistic worldview.

Honest scholarship strongly supports the historical view that Isaiah ben Amoz wrote the entire book with his name on it.

Historically, Isaiah has always been recognized as the author of all 66 chapters.

The Septuagint: When the Septuagint was translated in the 3rd century BC, merely two centuries after Deutero-Isaiah was supposed to have been written, there was no indication that the book had more than one author.
The New Testament: The New Testament writers treat the entire book of Isaiah as one book belonging to one author and quote him more than all the other prophets combined. In fact, in John 12:37-41, John quotes from Isaiah chapter 53 and chapter 6 back to back, giving Isaiah credit for both sections.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: An entire copy of the book of Isaiah was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. There is no separation between Chapters 1-39 and 40-66. In fact, chapter 40 starts on the last line of the same column that ends chapter 39. As Oswald Allis notes, "Obviously the scribe was not conscious of the alleged fact that an important change of situation, involving an entire change of authorship, begins with chapter 40."

Internally, Isaiah offers extensive evidence of one author:

Isaiah's Hebrew: Throughout all 66 chapters, Isaiah uses pure Hebrew. Unlike Ezra and Nehemiah, which use terminology adopted from Babylon, Isaiah's Hebrew is free from the vocabulary that the Jews gained during the exile.
Jerusalem and the land: The destruction and future healing of Jerusalem are described in chapters 1-39, and Jerusalem is described as still standing in chapters 40-66, demonstrating distant prophecy in the first part of Isaiah and an early date for the end of Isaiah. For instance, in 3:8, Isaiah speaks of Jerusalem as already fallen and destroyed in the context of a prophecy about the future. In 6:11-13, which all agree is a passage by Isaiah son of Amoz, God describes the future destruction of the land followed by the return of the remnant. On the other hand, passages like 40:9 and 62:6 treat Jerusalem and the cities of Judah as still standing, as they were before the Babylonian invasion.
Topography: The description of the topography in Isaiah 40-66 is the rocky mountainous land of Judah and not the flat alluvial Fertile Crescent. For instance, 57:5-6 describes the "clifts of the rocks" and the smooth stones of the streams.
Themes: Certain themes and terminology are repeated throughout the book. The "highway" theme comes up repeatedly (11:16; 19:23; 35:8; 40:3; 62:10). Isaiah refers to God as "Lord of hosts" repeatedly throughout the entire book. "The Holy One of Israel" is Isaiah's distinctive name for God used 12 times in chapters 1-39 and 14 times in chapters 40-66. The phrase is only used six other times in the Bible outside of Isaiah.
The significance of idolatry: Idolatry was a major problem in Judah before the exile, but the post-exilic writers Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi do not mention idolatry even while discussing the nation's other sins. Yet, in the latter end of his book, Isaiah continues to speak strongly against idolatry (41:29; 44:9-20; 57:4ff; 65:2-7), indicating an early authorship.
The by-line: Only Isaiah, son of Amoz, is named as the author throughout the book of Isaiah, at the beginnings of chapters 2, 7, 13, 20, 38, and 39. No other author is mentioned at all. Even when Ezra and Nehemiah were bound together, those two books did not get confused and lumped together under Ezra. Yet, "Deutero-Isaiah" was allegedly lost to history. Chapters 40-66 contain some of the highest quality literature in all of written history, yet we are expected to believe that this writer went mysteriously unrecognized until he was "discovered" by recent scholarship.

As Gleason Archer Jr. declared, "There is not a shred of internal evidence to support the theory of a Second Isaiah, apart from a philosophical prejudice against the possibility of predictive prophecy."

Isaiah is an amazing book, filled with the power and passion of God. In it He declares, "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, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:" (Isaiah 46:9-10).

HUNTING DOWN THE GOD PARTICLE

"They call it the God particle: a mysterious sub-atomic fragment that permeates the entire universe and explains how everything is the way it is. Nobody has ever seen the God particle; some say it doesn't exist but, in the ultimate leap of faith, physicists across the world are preparing to build one of the most ambitious and expensive science experiments the world has ever seen to try to find it." - David Adam, The Guardian, August 21, 2004

The Large Hadron Collider was started up again this weekend and is expected to reach full speed before the end of the month. This massive atom smasher hidden underground in the Alps along the border of France and Switzerland has a price tag of $10 billion and has the job of shooting atoms through its 16.8-mile circular tunnel at insanely high speeds.  Thus far, the LHC has accelerated proton beams to an astounding energy level of  2.36 teraelectronvolts (TeV). The highest any previous atom smasher had reached was .98 TeV. In December the CERN scientists shut down the LHC in order to ready it for even more ambitious experiments.

The massive machine was brought back to life in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and CERN scientists now want the LHC to reach 7.0 TeV in order to create what they consider to be Big Bang conditions. For the next 18 months to two years the LHC should pound atoms against each other and analyze the results through powerful computers in order to catch a glimpse at the very stuff that makes up the universe.  Physicists hope the collider will enable them to directly observe the Higgs boson, the theoretical glue that holds the entire universe together. The Higgs boson, often called the God particle, is perhaps the most elusive element in particle physics.

Back in 2008, world renowned physicist Steven Hawking told British TV, "I think it will be much more exciting if we don't find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of $100 that we won't find the Higgs."  Other physicists, though - a significant number - are hopeful about the possibilities and are willing for Hawking to eventually lose his bet. The project involves more than 8,000 scientists from at least 85 countries.

Dark Matter
The Standard Model in particle physics, which is often compared to the Periodic Table of Elements used by chemists, consists of 16 particles that make up all matter in the universe. The problem is that the Standard Model is not complete. In the late 1960's a physicist by the name of Peter Higgs proposed the existence of a particle that would somehow interact with every other subatomic particle to give them all mass. Since then, scientists have been scrambling to find this particle.

The existence of dark matter was proposed in 1932 by astronomer Jan Oort, who measured the motions of nearby stars in our Milky Way relative to the galactic plane. He found that the mass of the plane must be more than the mass of the material that can be seen. A year later, Fritz Zwicky examined the dynamics of clusters of galaxies and found their movements similarly perplexing. Over the years, many spiral galaxies were observed and found to be swirling too fast to be held together by the gravitational pull of the visible stars. Since the speedy-moving stars have not been flung out through space, some scientists describe dark matter as "the glue that holds the universe together."

Astronomers cannot detect or measure dark matter directly because it emits no light or radiation - hence the name. Its existence is inferred from the gravitational effect it has on visible matter (such as stars and galaxies). There have been a number of conjectures regarding the nature of dark matter, but all of them have eluded any empirical validation.

Physicists hope CERN's Large Hadron Collider will shed even more light on dark matter, dark energy, the existence of extra dimensions, and the fundamental nature of matter, energy, space and time.

Without Excuse:
Science, like religion, often requires us to take a leap of faith. Any honest scientist should admit that despite centuries of scientific discovery and technological advances, most of our universe remains a mystery. There are large numbers of areas that, despite careful investigation, we do not fully understand, from the "magic" of photosynthesis to the mysterious particles that make up the fabric of space-time.

Science continues to develop and change as scientists discover new evidence, and it is one of the great joys of being human to explore and discover the marvelous brilliance and detail God used in putting this world together. But even as scientists analyze the data from the LHC and hope to catch a glimpse of the Higgs boson, we're certain that the name "God particle" is more accurate than some physicists would choose to admit. Whether or not dark matter is busy keeping distant stars from shooting further into space, we know that Jesus Christ holds each of us, and we trust him to hold the atoms in our bodies together with as much care as he takes in sustaining the entire universe. Even if Science changes, we know He does not.

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." - Hebrews 11:3

"For by him [Jesus] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." - Col 1:16-17

FANNY CROSBY: THIS IS MY STORY, THIS IS MY SONG

When Francis Jane Crosby was only six weeks old, she was taken to a doctor to treat an inflammation in her eyes caused by a cold. The regular physician was out of town, and the substitute gave little Fanny's parents a faulty treatment that blinded the child within days. She was blind for the rest of her life. That first tragedy was followed by others. Her father died when Fanny was just a year old, and her mother had to hire herself out as a maid to provide for the family. Fanny was able to attend a school for blind children and afterwards taught there, but when she was 29 a cholera epidemic killed more than half of the children in the school. After she married, her only child died in infancy.

Yet, in spite of these tragedies, Francis Jane was always a cheerful, happy person, free from the bitterness that so easily besets humans. When only eight years old, she wrote a poem that revealed a lot about the spunky little girl who climbed trees and played practical jokes in spite of her blindness:

Oh what a happy child I am, although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be!
How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't!
So weep or sigh because I'm blind I cannot--nor I won't!

Fanny had a natural talent for writing poems and was often asked to recite her poetry. Eventually, her writing brought her national recognition; she was invited to visit presidents and generals and other notable dignitaries. She even was asked to play at President Grant's funeral. When she finally died in 1915, just 6 weeks shy of her 95th birthday, Fanny had written over 8,500 poems and songs.

Most importantly, Fanny loved Jesus Christ. Fanny's love for her Savior became the inspiration for her thousands of songs and poems, many of which are still sung in churches every weekend today. Many beloved hymns bear the name Fanny Crosby, including "To God be the glory, great things He hath done," "I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice," and "Blessed Assurance."

When a preacher once sympathetically remarked that it was a pity God had not given her sight, Fanny replied, "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind?" The preacher asked her why. "Because" she said, "When I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!"

Focusing on Jesus and seeing the good in God's plans for her, Fanny reached millions of people around the world. Children in church and soldiers on the battlefield alike have been touched by her words. May we, like Fanny Crosby, rejoice in the goodness of our God in every situation, that like her we can sing:

"This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior, all the day long."

THIS WEEK’S 66/40 RADIO BROADCAST

This week’s program is:

ARTICLES AND COMMENTARY

ISAIAH AND CYRUS THE GREAT

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HUNTING DOWN THE GOD PARTICLE

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FANNY CROSBY: THIS IS MY STORY, THIS IS MY SONG

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