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Providing A Commentary As The Planets Are Rearranged


       “The king of the South will become strong, but one of his commanders will become even stronger than he and will rule his own kingdom with great power.  After some years, they will become allies. The daughter of the king of the South will go to the king of the North to make an alliance, but she will not retain her power, and he and his power will not last. In those days she will be handed over, together with her royal escort and her father and the one who supported her. One from her family line will arise to take her place. He will attack the forces of the king of the North and enter his fortress; he will fight against them and be victorious. He will also seize their gods, their metal images and their valuable articles of silver and gold and carry them off to Egypt. For some years he will leave the king of the North alone.  (Daniel 11:5-8)
 
            The King of the South was a Macedonian (Greek) named Ptolemy I. He made some conquests outside of his area, but for the 280 years between him and Cleopatra VII, their territory was mostly restricted to Egypt and Cyprus. The "One of his commanders [who] will become even stronger than he" was Seleucus Nicator of the Seleucid Empire.
            After a disagreement with Antigonus in 316 BC Seleucus joined Ptolemy. In 312, he and Ptolemy defeated Antigonus and Seleucis returned to Babylon.  His domain and authority were greater than Ptolemy and put them in conflict until 252, when their sons, Ptolemy II (Philadelphus) and Antiochus II (Theos) set up a peace treaty. Under the terms of that treaty, Antiochus II was to marry Berenice, the daughter of Philadelphus. He was already married to Laodice, and Laodice wasn't happy about being dismissed. She managed to have both Berenice and her infant son assassinated. Soon afterward the king himself was poisoned (247 B.C.), and Laodice's party made her queen regent during the minority of her son, Seleucus II (Callinicus). Thus the prophecy was fulfilled concerning Berenice, that she would be "handed over," along with the nobles who supported her in Antioch.
            Berenice's brother, Ptolemy III (Euergetes) sought vengeance for her assassination in a war that raged from 246 to 241. Ptolemy III captured and pillaged the Seleucid capital of Antioch and invaded its eastern domains as far as Bactria, but did not add the territory to his own. He also recovered all his father's conquests on the coasts of Asia Minor and temporarily gained control of portions of Thrace.
            As I've mentioned before, there are those who tell me that they want proof that God exists. The most recent request wanted the planets to be rearranged in their orbits while God comments on the events. It seems to me that telling us in advance what is going to happen is a pretty good bit of evidence. Claiming that the text "must have been written after the events described" is not proof that the text was written after the events described. It follows naturally from the premise that there is no god and therefore a prophecy this exact and accurate cannot possibly be made, but it is not supported by evidence. As noted yesterday, the textual evidence suggests a date prior to these events and the text itself places the writing in the 600-500 BC range. The evidence points to the text being what it claims to be, which seems to me to require that God exist.

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