CHAPTER 5

 EGYPT CONFOUNDS THE UNBELIEVER

YOU HAVE ALL admitted,” said David Dare as Mr. Emerson sat down, “that Tyre, Sidon, and Ashkelon are today exactly as the Bible prophets said they would be.  But you are unwilling to admit, or are not convinced, that this uncanny foresight is due to any supernatural gift.

“Yet you know that while the past and present yield their treasures, tomorrow is mockingly silent.

“Let us always bear in mind during these talks how circumscribed is the most remarkable foresight of the most astute statesman.  The stream of history may flow uniformly for a dozen centuries until shrewd thinkers reason from analogy that the course of events will continue thus indefinitely.  Then, unforseen, a single man such as Mohammed or Luther may change the whole course of history; or a Watt, Edison, or Wright brothers may revolutionize civilization.

“The prophecies I have already given are positive, accurate, and truthful to the minutest detail; but we have only entered the doorway of the great prophetic temple.

“When Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel lived, Egypt was then so ancient that she boasted a longer unbroken line of kings than did any other nation.  To Ezekiel the settling of Egypt was as ancient as the beginning of the Christian religion is to us.

“The prophets of his day, 600 B. C., knew Egypt as the granary of the world, eminent in science, in the arts, in luxury and magnificence, a leader of civilization.  For many centuries these artificial mountains, the justly famed pyramids of Egypt, had stood as proud sentinels of a proud country of many splendours.

“Like its own monuments, Egypt seemed to bid defiance to the tooth of time.  All nations had kindled the lamp of knowledge at the fire that burned on her hearth.  She had the unity, repose, and the calm majesty of conscious power, the grandeur of great age.  To the eye of the natural man, be he scientist or philosopher, there appeared on the horizon no faintest cloud to threaten the peace and power of Egypt.

“Nevertheless, at a time when all other men, judging by analogy, would have predicted for her practically unending prosperity, Isaiah (chapter 19) and Ezekiel (chapters 29 and 30) foretold many amazing things concerning her, reaching more than two thousand years beyond their death!

“When you get home, read these chapters carefully, as every verse is literally packed with meaning.  I shall not take time to quote more than a few of the more outstanding statements.

“In a few words, Ezekiel foretold history that has taken twenty-five hundred years to fulfil and would take several volumes to record.  I quote Ezekiel 29:14, 15;  30:6, 7;  32:15; 30:12, 13.

“ ‘They shall be there a base kingdom.  It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.’  ‘The pride of her power shall come down. . . .And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.’  ‘I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full.’  ‘I will . . . sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers:  I the Lord have spoken it. . . . And there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt.’

“Every phase of the verses I have quoted is surcharged with meaning.  The doom of Edom and Chaldea and Babylon was utter extinction, but not so the fate of Egypt.  The inexorable decree was one of continual baseness and decline.  It was to continue a nation, but it was no longer to rule.  On the contrary, it was to be ruled by cruel strangers.

“We have only to consider the condition of Egypt six hundred years later to see that this prophecy could not have been the result of mere human foresight.  In the time of Christ there was nothing to indicate that the day of Egypt was past for ever.  She was still very powerful.

“Augustus, after the defeat of Antony, found so great wealth in Egypt that out of it he paid all the arrears of his army and all the debts he had incurred during the war.  Even after he had spoiled Egypt at will, she still appeared to him so formidable that he was afraid to entrust her rulership to any man of power, lest a rival to himself arise.  So he gave the government to Cornelius Gallus, a person of low extraction.  He denied Alexandria a municipal council and declared all Egyptians incapable of being admitted to the senate at Rome.

“And for six hundred years more Alexandria continued the first city in the Roman Empire in rank, commerce, and prosperity.  Certainly the sceptic of that day might have read the prophecy of Ezekiel with a mocking smile of derision.

“A hundred years later, Egypt was still so powerful that the Mohammedan hordes, though arrogant with unchecked victory, hesitated to attack it.  When Romulus and Remus founded Rome, Egypt was then nearly two thousand years old.  Rome waxed powerful, conquered the world, including Egypt, and was in turn conquered by the barbarian hosts of the north.  But still Egypt continued powerful, rich, and populous.  The Arabs finally decided to attack her.  The memorable siege of Alexandria lasted fourteen months, during which the Arabs lost twenty-three thousand men.  And then her capture was due to internal treachery.  The sight of the city’s magnificence and wealth filled the conquerors with amazement.

“The burning of the famous Alexandrian library was a world calamity.  Its destruction supplied the Arabs with fuel for six months.  The wealth of Alexandria was an indication of the riches and strength of the whole Egyptian nation.  It would have been impossible for the Arabs, despite their prowess as warriors, to take the land and to retain it had not the people, groaning under the cruel oppression of their Greek masters, thrown themselves into the arms of the invaders.

“While the prophecy may seem slow of fulfillment, it has been certain.  The decline, though gradual, has been continuous.  Let the infidel pens of Volney and Gibbon tell the story.

“ ‘Such is the state of Egypt,’ says Volney, in his ‘Travels,’ Volume 1, pages 74, 103, 110, 193.  ‘Deprived two thousand three hundred years ago of her natural proprietors, she has seen her fertile fields successively a prey to the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Georgians, and at length, the race of Tartars distinguished by the name of Ottoman Turks.  The Mamelukes, purchased as slaves, and introduced as soldiers, soon usurped the power, and elected a leader.

“ ‘If their first establishment was a singular event, their continuance is not less extraordinary.  They are replaced by slaves brought from their original country.  Their system of oppression is methodical.  Everything the traveller sees or hears reminds him he is in the country of slavery and tyranny.’

“And Gibbon tells us that ‘a more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be devised than that which condemns the natives of a country to perpetual servitude, under the arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves.  Yet such has been the state of Egypt about five hundred years,’ — ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,’ chapter 59.

“Thus do infidel historians witness to the fact that Egypt has declined steadily until during the past five hundred years and more she has been exactly what the prophet said she would become, ‘the basest of kingdoms,’ ruled ‘by the hand of strangers.’

“And note this: not until modern times could the amazing accuracy of this prediction be appreciated.  The more facts we have with which to test this prophecy, the more true it shows itself.  Is there anyone here who claims Egypt to be different from what is pictured in Ezekiel?  How then do you account for the fact that Ezekiel is right, which of necessity you admit?”

Mr. Emerson stood up again:  “The writer had observed that in time nations are conquered and become the servants of their masters.  He had seen Babylonia and Assyria as well as smaller kingdoms pass into the hands of others.  Though Egypt was old and still powerful, he reasoned that she, too, would in time suffer the fate of the others.”

“But, Mr. Emerson, you overlook a vital point in your argument:  Egypt did not suffer the fate of the others.  Babylonia, Assyria, and other nations about were destroyed utterly.  Had Ezekiel been predicting by analogy, he would have said that Egypt would suffer the same fate as the nations that had already been overthrown.

“Now, just suppose that Ezekiel had said that Egypt would, like Babylon and Chaldea, be utterly destroyed, how jubilant would be the sceptics, and how eager to point out the fact that the Egypt of today has many populous cities and a varied population which numbers into the millions.  But does the unbeliever attempt to show us a single prophecy concerning Egypt that has failed?”

“Have you given all of them?” asked Mr. Emerson.

“I have only touched the edges of the subject.  I will call your attention to only two or three more marvelous predictions concerning Egypt,” replied Mr. Dare.

“I realize that to some here it may seem as if studying the history of ancient Egypt is a dull and unsatisfactory way of seeking God.  I do it because God Himself has told us that if we study these prophecies faithfully, we shall be directed to Him.

“After all, it should interest us intensely to learn whether there actually did exist twenty-five hundred years ago persons who could look ahead to our time and tell exactly the fate of the cities and nations of their day.

“I now direct your attention to Ezekiel 30:13, A.R.V.: ‘Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis.’

“Observe that these words are specifically the words of ‘the Lord Jehovah.’  If the thing predicted did not come to pass, there would be no alibi.

“Now, it is a strange fact that Memphis, founded by Menes, was known as ‘the great temple city of Egypt.’  A more unlikely fate could hardly be imagined than the destruction of the idols and images of Memphis, because —

“1.  The climate of Egypt, where it never rains, keeps in a state of perfect preservation for thousands of years whatever is buried in its soil.

“2.  In all other cities of Egypt, whether in ruins or now flourishing, idols and images are found in superabundance.  Thebes, former capital of Egypt, though in ruins while Memphis was still in splendour, has them in abundance.

“3.  At the birth of Christ, six hundred years after the prophet lived, the predicted ruin seemed more impossible still, for Memphis was large and populous, Alexandria being the only Egyptian city that exceeded it in size.

“4.  At twelve hundred years after the prophet lived, Memphis was the residence of the governor of Egypt.  So you see it was impossible for the prophet to have written this prophecy after the event.

“5.  And in the thirteenth century, Abdul-Latif, an Arabian traveller, tells of the ‘wonderful works which confound the intellect, and to describe which the most eloquent man would labour in vain.’

“Thus eighteen hundred years after the prediction it was still unfulfilled, and —”

Mr. Emerson stood up, and David Dare stopped abruptly.

“Mr. Dare,” he said, “I observe that your prophecies are a long, long time fulfilling.  A thousand to two thousand years are necessary for your prophecies to prove themselves.  Now, given enough time, any prophecy concerning the destruction of a city or nation must be fulfilled.  So, since these prophecies were uttered admittedly about twenty-five hundred years ago, there has been ample time for them to be fulfilled.  There is nothing so very miraculous about it.”

A ripple of applause greeted Mr. Emerson as he sat down.  Lucile leaned over and patted her father’s hand approvingly, while George nodded in agreement.

“I was hoping, Mr. Emerson,” replied Mr. Dare as the applause died down, “that you would make such an observation.  Your very argument is proof you admit the fulfillment; that you do not claim the prediction was written after the event or that the facts have been juggled to fit the prophecy.

“The audience will please observe that if the fulfillment of the prediction is near the date of the prediction, it is at once claimed the prophecy must have been written after the date of the fulfillment.  And if the fulfillment is two thousand years after the prediction, the explanation then is that any prediction will eventually be fulfilled, given enough time.

“But unfortunately for this theory, some prophecies already mentioned and others to be produced cannot be explained in this easy manner, and ——”

“Can you give me a convincing example? asked Mr. Emerson.

“Memphis, the very city we have been considering, is a good example, for time did not destroy the idols and images of other Egyptian cities equally old.  But listen to these words from Amelia B. Edwards, Egyptologist, in her book, ‘A Thousand Miles up the Nile,’ pages 97-99: ‘And this is all that remains of Memphis, eldest of cities: a few rubbish heaps, a dozen or so of broken statues, and a name! . . . Where are the stately ruins that even in the Middle Ages extended over a space estimated at half a day’s journey in every direction?  One can hardly believe that a great city ever flourished on this spot or can hardly understand how it should have been effaced so utterly.’

“But let us suppose that all that was necessary to fulfillment was time.  Now turn your attention to Ezekiel 30:12.  ‘I . . . will sell the land into the hand of evil men.’  This certainly denotes unresisting surrender into the hand of an enemy,  just as slaves were sold.  The slave has no rights, the wicked no mercy.

Volney, the French sceptic who travelled all over this country, calls Egypt ‘the country of slavery and tyranny.’  Malte-Brun, another traveller, writes of ‘the arbitrary sway of the ruffian masters of Egypt.’

“The history of Egypt for the past eighteen hundred years is but an amazing commentary on the word, ‘I . . . will sell the land into the hand of the wicked.’  The impress of that terrible hand is everywhere seen.”

Mr. Emerson interposed:  “It would be a safe prediction to say evil men would govern.  Nearly always rulers of the past, especially conquerors, were evil men.”

“True,” replied Mr. Dare.  “I am glad you admit the truth of the prediction, whatever your explanation.  However, in this connection consider another prediction in the same verse: ‘I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers.’

“For twenty-five hundred years Egypt was ruled by strangers — Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine Greeks, Saracens, Turks, French, and British — strangers as the prophecy predicted.

“When confronted with the facts of fulfillment of prophecy, you are compelled to admit the fulfillment; but when driven from one insufficient explanation to another, your final explanation is, ‘It just happened.’

“The fact that it never has happened outside of the Bible, you do not attempt to explain.  But you do say you will not accept any explanation that has the supernatural in it.

“Is that a reasonable attitude, one that signifies a thinker?  Surely the only attitude a philosopher may rightly claim is one that proclaims him willing to follow the evidence, no matter if it leads him to conclusions contrary to those previously held.

“At our next meeting we will consider the most all-embracing prophecy in the Bible, outlining the history of all nations of the earth, beginning twenty-five hundred years ago and reaching to the present moment, yourselves being the judges.”