Biblical Prophecy

"No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
-2 Peter 1:21

Beyond the evidence for the Bible's correctness (manuscript evidence) and it's historicity (archeological evidence), the most important evidence is that of its inspiration. The fact of the Bible's inspiration is perhaps the most crucial to understand. Why? Because any book can claim truth, and simply because it is grammatically and historically correct does not mean it is true. I have many books that could pass the tests so far, but whether or not the Bible is actually ultimate in its truth does not hinge on these prior proofs, they were given to show that the Bible does in fact stand up to the tests of time and that what we have today is the real thing. But the real determination of the Bible's claim to absolute inspired truth is in its supernatural evidence including prophecy. God used prophets to speak and write down His Word.

"You may say to yourselves, 'How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?' If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him."
Deuteronomy 18:21-22

So God uses fulfilled prophecy to authenticate His messengers. They must also not run after false gods, but that is another story. The question before us now is, "Does the Bible contain predictive prophecy to authenticate its message?" Let's take a look at just a few examples and see for yourself.

In Genesis 12, God promises that the land of Israel was to be for Abraham and his descendants. In 1948 Israel was given back to the Jewish people... for the second time in history. This may not seem so astonishing until you realize that no nation in the history of the world has been scattered from its homeland and returned! Israel has done it twice. God has kept His promise to Abraham's descendants.

The book of Daniel predicts with accuracy the coming of the four great kingdoms from Babylon, to Medo-Persia, to Greece, to Rome. This represents a time span of over 1,000 years and includes the reigns of Alexander the Great and Antiochus Epiphanes. The prohecies are so acurate that skeptics used to use is as evidence that the book was written after the fact! But after the disocervy of the Dead Sea scrolls that objection was proven false.

In Ezekiel 26 we are told in astonishing detail how the city of Tyre was to be destroyed, how it would be torn down, and how its debris would be thrown into the sea. When Alexander the Great marched on that area he encountered a group of people holed up in a tower on an island off the coast near there. He could not cross the sea, so he could not fight those in the tower. Rather than wait them out, the proud conqueror had his army throw stones into the sea to build a land bridge to the tower. It worked. His army crossed the sea and overthrew the occupants of the stronghold. But where did he get so much stone? The rocks that were used for the land bridge were the leftover rubble from the city of Tyre . . . its stones cast into the sea!

There are so many prophecies concerning Christ (over 270!) that it would take more than a few screens worth of space to list them all. Let us just say this. First, Christ Himself would have had no control over many of them (had He not been God!), such as His birthplace or time of birth.  Second, the odds of one man accidentally fulfilling even 16 of these are 1 in 10⁴⁵ How many is that? For comparison, there are less than 10²⁸ atoms in the entire universe!

Jesus Himself was the source of many prohecies as well. One of the most astonishing is that of Jerusalem's destruciton in AD 70 - a full generation prior to tits fulfillment (Luke 13). Jesus not only predicted this surprising event would occur within a generation, but also told in detail how Jerusalem's temple would be destroyed, that certain signs would precede this destruction, that believers would be saved by fleeing Jerusalem after it was surrounded (this may seem like odd advice - but Josephus records an inexplicable retreat of the Roman armies after their initial setup for the seige, this gave those in-the-know time to escape!).

Unlike the vague ramblings of Nostradamus in which we are forced to wait around until some event just happens to sound a little like what he said or the often laughable predictions of today's "prophets," what we see in the Bible are accurate times and exact names with no guesswork is involved.

Here are a few more to consider:

• Land Covenant - Genesis 13:14-17; 17:21; 28:14 
• The future of the 12 tribes - Genesis 49:1-28 
• Israel's warning against idolatry - Deut. 4:25-31; 28:63-68 
• Nineveh's destruction - Isaiah 10:5-34; 14:24-27 (612 B.C.) 
• Egypt to be conquered by Assyria - Isaiah 19 & 20 
• Babylon's destruction - Isa. 21:1-10; 47:1-15; Daniel 2-5 (539 B.C.) 
• Edom's destruction - Isaiah 21:11-12; Jeremiah 49:7-22 (550 B.C.) 
• Arabia's destruction - Isaiah 21:13-17 (715 B.C.) 
• Prophecy against Jerusalem - Isaiah 22:1-14 ( 701 B.C.) 
• The destruction of Tyre - Isaiah 23:1-18; Ezekial 26 & 27 (332 B.C.) 
• Judah's captivity - Jeremiah 1:13-19, 2:35-37, 5:1-19 
• Judah attacked by Babylon - Jeremiah 6 & 7 
• Jerusalem would be rebuilt - Jeremiah 31:38-40 (currently fulfilled) 
• Judah's return from captivity after 70 years - Jer. 29:24-32, 32:1-40 
• Babylon to invade Egypt - Jeremiah 43:1-13, 44, 46 (605 B.C.) 
• Damascus would be destroyed by fire - Jer. 49:23-27 
• The destruction of Moab, Ammon, Kedar, Hazor - Jeremiah 49 
• The future empires of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome - Daniel 2 & 7 
• The fall of Babylon - Daniel 5:25-28 (fulfilled 539 B.C.) 
• The fall of Medo-Persia - Daniel 8:1-8, 20-22 (fulfilled 334 B.C.) 
• The rise of Antiochus Epiphanies - Daniel 8:9-14 (fulfilled 175 B.C.) 
• The kings following Darius - Daniel 11:2-20 
• Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon & Moab - Amos 1:1-2:5 
• The rebuilding of the temple - Zechariah 4:1-14 
• The coming of John the Baptist - Micah 4:5 
• Jesus would die for His sheep - John 10:11 
• Jesus predicts His crucifixion - John 3:14-16 
• Jesus predicts His resurrection - John 2:13-22 
• The disciples would be rejected - Matthew 10:24-25 
• False Christs will come and deceive many - John 5:41 
• Fate of Korazin, Bethsaida, Tyre, Sidon, Capernaum - Matt. 11:20-24
• The outpouring of the Holy Spirit - John 7:37-39 
• Jesus called a Nazarene - Matthew 2:23 
• The Kingdom of God will grow rapidly - Matthew 13:31-32 
• Judas' betrayal of Christ - Matthew 26:21 
• The disciples would desert Christ - Matthew 26:30 
• Peter to disown the Lord - Matthew 26:33-34 
• Peter's martyrdom foretold - John 21:15-19  
• Lazarus' illness would bring glory to God - John 11:4 
• Lazarus would rise again - John 11:23 
• The future unity of the disciples - John 17 
• The entrance of gentiles into God's fold - Romans 9:25, 10:12 
• Apostasy in the last days - 2 Timothy 3:9 (cf. Hebrews 1:1) 
• The better covenant of Christ brought forth - Hebrews 8:6-13 
• Faith will be purified by persecution - 1 Peter 1:7
• Unfaithful churches will be brought down - Revelation 2-3

"I see many contradictory religions, and consequently all false save one. Each wants to be believed on its own authority, and threatens unbelievers. I do not therefore believe them. Every one can say this; every one can call himself a prophet. But I see that Christian religion wherein prophecies are fulfilled; and that is what every one cannot do."
-Blaise Pascal