Prophecy Proves the Bible
When I discuss God with non-Christians, they often question whether the Bible is really true? Let’s face it; the Bible is the foundation, the bedrock of our faith. The Bible is how we understand God, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Everything we know about our faith, from its history to our relationship with Jesus, comes from this book. So what do we say to someone who doesn’t believe? Well, it turns out that prophecy proves the Bible is true.
Prophecy is All the Proof We Need
In 2 Peter 1:16-18, Peter describes being an eyewitness to Jesus himself. Peter describes God’s voice coming from heaven, receiving Jesus, and calling him his beloved son. How glorious it must have been to witness that firsthand. However, in verse 19, Peter says that we who read the scripture have something even better. We have prophecy.
Peter is saying we can be sure the Bible is real because it is tested through the number and accuracy of the prophecies contained within it. The Bible contains thousands of prophecies, including over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament about the birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ.
The most important thing to know about Biblical prophecy is that all prophecies belong to one of two categories. All prophecies have either been fulfilled with a precision that can only come from God, or they are clearly future prophecies.
With just the prophecies about Jesus Christ, the odds of just one person fulfilling them are so astronomical it makes winning the lottery several times in a row seem ridiculously easy.
Just a few of the 300 Fulfilled Prophecies About Jesus Christ
- Isaiah 7:14 says Jesus will be born of a virgin.
- Micah 5:2 says Jesus will be born in Bethlehem.
- Psalm 78:2 states that Jesus will teach using parables.
- Isaiah 40:3-4 tells of how Jesus would be proceeded by John the Baptist, the “voice crying in the wilderness.
- Zechariah 9:9 says Jesus will ride into Jerusalem seated on the back of donkey, the foal of a donkey.
- Zechariah 11:12 tells of the betrayal of Jesus for exactly 30 Pieces of silver.
- Psalm 22:14-16 describes the crucifixion of Jesus centuries before that method of execution was even invented.
- Psalm 22:18 foretells the Roman soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ garments as he was hanging on the cross.
- Isaiah 53, you will see a complete description of the life and death of Jesus Christ.
There is even one prophecy given around 540 BC that predicts the exact day Jesus would ride into Jerusalem as the Messiah. In Daniel 9:25-26 it not only tells the day Jesus would enter Jerusalem, but it says he will be executed for the crimes of others. As Jesus was entering Jerusalem, He even held the Jews accountable for knowing the timing of this prophecy. In Luke 19:41-44 he weeps because they didn’t know when he is supposed to arrive, and because they didn’t know, he decrees the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Each of these prophecies are so exact that, taken together, they can only point to Jesus Christ.
Bible in Black and White Three Centuries Before Jesus
The astonishing thing about these prophecies is that, regardless of who the author is or when they were written, we have a verified copy of the entire Old Testament three centuries before Jesus Christ. Around 285BC the Jews living in Judea spoke mostly Greek and couldn’t understand the Hebrew their Torah was written in. It was much like the Latin spoken in American Catholic churches today. The Jews of the time asked Ptolemy II, the Greek King of Egypt to translate the entire Torah (our Old Testament) into Greek. Ptolemy gathered 72 scholars from among the Jewish elders for this task, and it was completed by 270BC. The resulting document was named the Septuagint (Greek for “The 70”).
Prophecy proves the Bible is true. In these 300+ prophecies from the Old Testament about Jesus Christ, historically documented three centuries before the birth of Christ, God demonstrates something only he can do. Only God can predict the future with 100% accuracy. This is God’s authentication that tells us we are reading the true, God inspired, word of God.
