Think about what the Bible would be like if it didn’t contain prophecy. What if it was a book of laws only and there were no prophetic warnings about what would come as a result of disobedience to those laws? Or promises of blessings for obedience? What if it was a book of history alone—with no prophetic connection to our time today? Imagine if we didn’t have the return of Jesus Christ to look forward to!

Without prophecy, there would be no way of knowing why God put man on Earth!

Thankfully, God doesn’t want us stumbling along in darkness, without any awareness of where we are headed—and what it all means. Where there is no prophetic vision, the people perish, He says in Proverbs 29:18. God doesn’t want us to perish! And so He has given us the gift of prophecy.

And yet, did you know that most people today, even in the religious world, don’t believe prophecy is relevant to the present time? They may accept the existence of God and proclaim that the Bible was divinely inspired. But they take God’s Word for granted. They reject its authority over their lives. And they totally misunderstand its prophetic passages.

Just look at the world of traditional Christianity today. When it comes to Bible prophecy, you see nothing but sharp disagreement and utter confusion. Many people profess Christ, but they deny His prophetic message.

In the secular world, on the other hand, many people are actually afraid of Bible prophecy. They fear that if they ever honestly examined the prophecies of God that have already been fulfilled, they would find irrefutable proof of the divine inspiration of Scripture.

Fulfilled Bible prophecy is actually the one sure proof that God exists—and that He rules over His creation!

The book of Daniel is just one of many examples in the Bible where God dares to foretell future events. In Daniel 2, God foretold the future kingdoms of men that would rise and fall after Nebuchadnezzar. God then brought those events to pass over a period of millennia. He set up kings, raised empires and destroyed kingdoms—all according to the pattern outlined in a chapter written more than 2,500 years ago.

In Daniel Unlocks Revelation, my father writes, “The Daniel 2 image didn’t just evolve! How did these great world-ruling kingdoms from the time of Nebuchadnezzar down to the time we now live in take shape like that image? The only way that is possible is if God shaped and molded it—to prove that He rules in the kingdom of men. That image teaches the greatest lesson mankind could possibly learn.”

When we see prophecy being fulfilled, it reminds us that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men (see also Daniel 4:16-17). What a lesson! It shows how involved God is with His creation. It says a lot about God that He would work so hard to demonstrate His supremacy over human affairs.

When God sets His will to do something, He always does it! He’s God. His Word never fails. You can count on it.

Nebuchadnezzar was possibly the greatest king this world has ever seen. And yet God stripped everything from him and made him suffer in order to teach him a fundamental lesson He is trying to teach all of mankind—that God reigns supreme in the affairs of men. This is the very lesson God will soon teach all the kings and leaders of this world.

Isaiah 45:5-7 say, “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil [bring calamity]: I the Lord do all these things.” God will bring His will about—blessings and cursings, to teach mankind the same lesson He taught Nebuchadnezzar.

We have to learn that we are nothing but clay (verses 8-9). And we can’t tell the Potter how to fashion us. Notice what verse 11 says in the Moffatt translation: “And would you question me about the future? Would you dictate to me about my work? says the Eternal, Israel’s maker, Israel’s Majestic One.”

God does everything with purpose! He has the will and power to carry out that purpose—seeing it through to the end (Isaiah 14:24). His word is so reliable that God even swears by Himself (verses 22-23).

I said it—therefore it will happen, God says. His word is reliable. We can count on Him to follow through.

Isaiah 46:9 says, “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me.” An honest study of secular history alongside Bible prophecy shows God’s repeated intervention in world affairs in order to fulfill His purpose. “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,” God says (verse 10).

This is the God we faithfully worship and trust—the God who declares the end from the beginning (see also Isaiah 42:9). We can have absolute confidence in this God—the God of prophecy. Like Abraham, we can be “fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:21).

Abraham staked his life on the authority of God’s prophetic promises! And so must we.

Today we are seeing dozens of prophecies unfold right before our eyes! If that doesn’t draw us closer to our Maker and strengthen our faith, then something is dangerously wrong with our faith. Jesus said God told us these things in advance so that when they come to pass, we might reallybelieve (John 14:29).

Are you a true believer? Does your faith rest on the sure word of what God has prophesied? Do you submit to the authority of the God of prophecy in your day-to-day life?

Remember the lesson God taught Nebuchadnezzar—and that He will soon teach to all of mankind. It is God who rules in the kingdoms of men.