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PREDICTIONS
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No one denies the antiquity of this record of predictions; its authenticity as a document is accepted throughout the world by scholars of ancient history.
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Imagine our reaction if we were to uncover an ancient papyrus, written thousand of years ago, that described exactly everything that has happened in the modern world since the beginning of the twenty-first century. If the details were precise, we would be overwhelmed. How could someone take pen in hand, say three thousand years ago, and predict what would happen in the year 2003 or 2009?
It would certainly make us stop and think!
But hold on a minute; the fact of the matter is that we do have such a document! It lists no end of phenomena which took place over the span of thousands of years, just as the text said they would. The amazing part of it is that this document was known to be extant hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of years before the events actually came about!
What is more, no one denies the antiquity of this record of predictions; its authenticity as a document is accepted throughout the world by scholars of ancient history.
Another point of rare consensus in the academic world is the unique character of Jewish History. No other ethnic or national group can lay claim to so tempestuous a history as the Jewish People. The annals of their past are replete with one extraordinary event after the other.
From the day the Jewish nation came into being, and down to our own times, our nation's path on the world scene has comprised one illogical, abnormal, unpredictable, inexplicable episode after the other. The events recorded on the pages of Jewish history throw down the glove to the standard chronicles of world history recorded by other nations. The axioms and generalizations which admirably sum up the workings of history vis a vis; other ethnic groups simply do not hold water when applied to the sons of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Over three thousand years ago, Bilaam declared: "...lo, it is a nation that shall dwell on its own, and shall not be reckoned among the nations" (Numbers 23:9).
Israel was never just "another nation." Throughout its long history, Jews have never been like the rest of the world. Three thousand years ago, Bilaam was already aware of this distinction between Israel and the other peoples populating the face of the globe. This special quality remains unaltered yet today.
The events of Jewish history have no parallel in the chronicles of any other people. Neither does its past conform to any historical pattern established by other nations. Is Israel a country? Today, one might answer yes and no, for a large portion of its people are at last concentrated on their own soil. Nonetheless, their title to that tiny slice of the globe's surface is highly contested, and millions of their people are scattered in other locations on nearly every corner of the earth.
What is more, for some two thousand years, even that minuscule piece of land was not in their hands.
Clearly, the Jews are not a nation by virtue of possession of a common piece of real estate.
An ethnic group? What "ethnic group" has remained vital and flourishing for over three millennia, while scattered amongst seventy foreign powers? How many gypsies, for instance, appear in the headlines of the New York Times each day? If you wanted to meet a gypsy – any gypsy – ten minutes from now, would you know where to find one?
There are approximately the same number of Greeks and of Hungarians in the world as there are Jews – twelve or thirteen million.
How many Americans do you know whose great-grandparents emigrated to the United States, generations ago, and who still identify themselves as Greeks or Hungarians, and not as just plain Americans?
No matter how we analyze it, the Jews are different, and they are unique. They always have been, and always will be. It's in their blood, so to speak. Others integrate, assimilate, and their former identity disappears in the melting pot. Not the Jew. Wherever he goes, and no matter how many generations he remains there, he will continue to be identified as a Jew.
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