Muhammadan Objections

206	OBJECTIONS ON THE GROUND OF MUHAMMAD'S

spiritual fulfilment in the conversion of the Gentiles to Christ¹.

215. M. Another similar prophecy of the conversion of the Arabians and others through Muhammad is contained in Isa. lxv. 1-6: "I am sought of them that asked not for me," &c. Verses 2 sqq. tell how wicked were the Jews and Christians, whom God therefore rejected.

C. Verse 1 is a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles to Christ. Verses 2-6 mention the sins of some of the Jews, but verses 8-10 declare that God will not reject the whole Jewish nation (cf. Rom. xi). Nothing is said of the Christians, and not one word about Muhammad.

216. M. In Dan. ii. 45 there is a clear prophecy of Muhammad, the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, and of the Empire of Islam which he founded. In that chapter we are told of four kingdoms which were to precede Muhammad's coming. The first is that of the Chaldaeans, the second the Median, the third the Kayanian (or Persian), and the fourth that of Alexander the Great. Alexander shattered the Persian power,

¹ Muslims sometimes quote Isa. lxiii, 1-6, as a prophecy of Muhammad, "the prophet with the sword." But from comparing v. 5 with Isa. lix. 15, 16, it will be seen that the person who "cometh from Edom, . . . from Bozrah," is Jehovah Himself, who has punished Edom for its sins. Cf. the spiritual development of the passage in Rev. xix. 11, sqq. (Bozrah is Al Busairah, a little south of the Dead Sea. and is nowhere near Mecca or Basrah.)

DIVINE MISSION AS LAST OF THE PROPHETS

208

but it recovered under the Sasanians. After that it lasted, at one time weak and at another strong, until Muhammad was born, in the time of Anushiravan, the great King of Persia. After that the might of Islam arose, broke for ever the Persian power, subdued Persia, Mesopotamia, Macedonia, Palestine, and "filled the whole land" (verses 44, 45).

C. It is unfortunate for your argument that history is against it. The Book of Daniel itself explains the meaning of the prophecy. The first of the four kingdoms was the Chaldaean or Babylonian under Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. ii. 37, 38), as you say rightly. Then came the Medo-Persian kingdom under Cyrus and his successors (viii. 3, 4, 20), which was not two but one kingdom, as the last quoted verse (with many others) proves. This was overthrown by the Macedonian (viii. 5, 7, 21) under Alexander, after whose death his kingdom was divided into four (viii. 8, 22), and thus gradually faded into insignificance, as we know from history. To this third kingdom succeeded the fourth, the Roman Empire, which is described in ii. 40. It was in the time of the Roman Empire¹, while Rome still ruled nearly the whole known world, that Christ was born and set

¹ A Muslim may argue that Muhammad also was born in the time of the Roman (i. e. Byzantine) Empire. But we have already seen that there are no proofs in support of Muhammad's claims, and that the Qur'an itself gives to Christ higher titles than it does to Muhammad. (§§ 116, sqq.)

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