Examining the Bible: The Proof of Prophecy

The Bible is the only written revelation of God to man. In the Bible we find out what God wants mankind to know about Himself and His Plan. No one has ever successfully refuted the Bible. Many mock the Bible but avoid challenging it point by point. No one who has done in-depth research, honestly examining the evidence for the Bible's inspiration and truthfulness, has been able to disprove the Bible. In fact, history records many who set out to disprove the Bible, who instead became believers.

The Bible is composed of 66 books, by about 40 different writers of various backgrounds, living during a period of about 1,600 years-yet they present ONE message. Such a miracle can only be explained by there being ONE author, who was in control of all these human writers.

The Bible was written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

One of the strongest arguments for the accuracy of the Bible is its 100% accuracy in predicting the future. These future predictions are called "prophecies." The Old Testament was written between approximately 1450 BC and 430 BC. During that time, many predictions of the future were recorded in the Bible by God's prophets. Of the events that were to have taken place by now, every one happened just the way they predicted it would. No other "sacred writing" has such perfectly accurate predictions of the future. Could man, especially dozens of men, writing in different countries and different times, foretell the future so accurately? Never! Only God could do such a tremendous thing.

No one but God could reveal the future in such detail, often hundreds of years before the events occurred. Not only the future of cities, nations and the world, but also concerning the future birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ.

For example, the truth of 2 Peter 1:20-21 can not be denied. "Above all, you just realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God"

Just consider, for example, this powerful report:

He was despised and rejected-
a man of sorrows, acquainted with
 deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
 He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
 it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were
punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God's paths to follow
our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.

Would you like to venture a guess about who is being discussed? It's pretty clear is it not? It's a description, with detailed accuracy, of the suffering and crucifixion of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. What is remarkable is not so much the accuracy of the account, but the DATE when it was written: these words were written by the Jewish prophet Isaiah (in Isaiah 53:3-6) more than seven hundred years before the life and death of Jesus. Even more revealing is that he had predicted that Christ would be "pierced for our rebellion" centuries before crucifixion as a method of execution had been invented. Furthermore, in the last three verses of that chapter he even foreshadows the resurrection of Jesus. Read the passage for yourself! It's like a historical account-written in advance.

The above evidence of fulfilled prophecy is just one case in point. Hundreds of Bible prophecies have been fulfilled, specifically and meticulously, often long after the prophetic writer had passed away.  Another example comes from Daniel who predicted in about 538 BC (Daniel 9:24-27) that Christ would come as Israel's promised Savior and Prince 483 years after the Persian emperor would give the Jews authority to rebuild Jerusalem, which was then in ruins. This was clearly and definitely fulfilled, hundreds of years later.

More prophecies that were given in the Bible regarding Jesus' First Coming were all fulfilled to the letter. Below are a few of the prophecies written in The Old Testament hundreds of years before Jesus' birth. The fulfillment came in the New Testament when the events actually happened.

1. He would be born of a virgin (prophecy, Isaiah 7:14)
    But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream   and said "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit" (fulfillment, Matthew 1:20)

2. He would be born in Bethlehem (prophecy, Micah 5:2)
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem (fulfillment, Luke 2:4)

3. He would be crucified (prophecy, Psalm 22;fulfillment can be found by reading Mathew 27 and in parallel Gospel passages)

In all, there were over 100 prophecies made about the First Coming of Jesus Christ. All were literally fulfilled. This gives us confidence that the more than 300 prophecies in the Bible related to His Second Coming will also come to pass exactly as predicted. These are just the prophecies related to Christ himself, there are actually about 1000 prophecies in the Bible as a whole, approximately 500 of which have already been fulfilled. Many are related to historic events in Bible times.

God's nature as a God of truth, plus His faithfulness in bringing Bible Prophecy to pass, give us confidence that future prophecies will also be fulfilled. This should give us added assurance that the Word of God is a trustworthy document on which to base our salvation, our relationship with God, and all other aspects of living our lives in the light of His presence.

Consider this: If everything that was prophesied thousands of years ago that was supposed to come true by now has...doesn't that at least slightly concern you that the rest of what is prophesied for the future MIGHT COME TRUE TOO??? Are you ready for those things to happen? Do you even know what they are and what they might mean for yourself on earth AND in the after life? If you are reading this I'm guessing you are at least wondering about now. The answers lie in the Bible. I hope that you will continue to read this blog as I continue to examine the Bible.

coming soon: Examining the Bible: The Proof of Archeology and Science