{"id":850,"date":"2016-05-25T16:20:30","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T20:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=850"},"modified":"2016-05-25T16:20:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T20:20:30","slug":"cyrus-conundrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html","title":{"rendered":"The Cyrus Conundrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the sake of Jacob my servant,
\nof Israel my chosen,
\nI summon you by name
\nand bestow on you a title of honor,
\nthough you do not acknowledge me. <\/em>(Isaiah 45:4)<\/p>\n

One of the most confounding chapters in all the Bible for critics (including those who have slithered into the church) is found in Isaiah 45. Actually, the story begins in chapter 44.<\/p>\n

The Lord announces that He has called-out a ruler…who is to come. This ruler will aid God’s people, the Jews, who have been in captivity for years, having been conquered by the Babylonians.<\/p>\n

Cyrus is a man that history to that time does not know. He is not known because he has not yet been born! In fact, the prophecies concerning this coming king of the Medo-Persian empire are given 150 years before he arrives on the scene.<\/p>\n

The Lord is preparing His people for the end of their captivity. In history, 150 years future from this prophecy, Cyrus issues a decree, allowing conquered inhabitants to return to their national homes and rebuild.
\n\"P1010429<\/a><\/p>\n

The Jews were included in this release.<\/p>\n

Today, in the British Museum, the famous “Cyrus Cylinder” resides; it is a barrel-shaped clay tablet with the decree recorded. A copy exists in the Old City of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

In a bid to attack the veracity of the Bible and thus undermine the faith of many, scores of scholars for more than 100 years have claimed that the prophecies concerning Cyrus were in fact added later, by another, “anonymous” Isaiah. This is their way of trying to get rid of predictive prophecy.<\/p>\n

Put another way, it is their pitiful attempt to eliminate the supernatural from Scripture, a task man has not been granted.<\/p>\n

Honest scholars will accept the correct placement of the prophecies in Isaiah 44 and 45.<\/p>\n

In Isaiah 46, the Lord declares that He alone knows the end from the beginning. He has told us in general ways what is to come.<\/p>\n

It is then up to us whether we accept Him for Who He is, or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. (Isaiah 45:4) One of the most confounding chapters in all the Bible for critics (including those who have slithered into the church) is found in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,15,5,19,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-prophecy","category-christianity","category-holy-land","category-israel","category-the-middle-east"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Cyrus Conundrum - Is it the End of the World?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cyrus Conundrum - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. (Isaiah 45:4) One of the most confounding chapters in all the Bible for critics (including those who have slithered into the church) is found in…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-25T20:20:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/05\/P1010429-1-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Cyrus Conundrum - Is it the End of the World?","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Cyrus Conundrum - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. (Isaiah 45:4) One of the most confounding chapters in all the Bible for critics (including those who have slithered into the church) is found in…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html","og_site_name":"Is it the End of the World?","article_published_time":"2016-05-25T20:20:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/05\/P1010429-1-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Jim Fletcher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html","name":"The Cyrus Conundrum - Is it the End of the World?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/05\/P1010429-1-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-25T20:20:30+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-25T20:20:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/05\/P1010429-1-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/05\/P1010429-1-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/05\/cyrus-conundrum.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Cyrus Conundrum"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/","name":"Is it the End of the World?","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jim Fletcher","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96","name":"Jim Fletcher","description":"Blogger and researcher Jim Fletcher has worked in the book publishing industry for 15 years, and is now director of the apologetics group Prophecy Matters. His new book, \"Truth Wins,\" provides important analysis of Rob Bell and his Emergent friends.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/author\/jfletcher"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":857,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}