One of the greatest proofs of the truthfulness of the Bible is fulfilled prophecy. It is staggering in its amount. It is extra-Biblical in its verification. In fact, there is no religion extant in the world today with one viable, believable, or verifiable prophecy except Christianity. The Quran, the Book of Mormon, the Hindu Vedas, and all the other sacred religious writings boast no fulfilled prophecies in them.
Just what is prophecy? I like the following definition: The declaration of future events such as no human wisdom or forecast is sufficient to make.
And fulfilled prophecy sets the Bible apart from every other religious book. From political pundits to astrologers mankind has an abysmal success rate in making predictions. According to apologist, Charlie Campbell: “Over and over, the authors of the Bible rightly foretold future events (often times, hundreds of years in advance). The Bible is literally filled with hundreds of specific, detailed prophecies about persons, places, and events—many of which have already come to pass.”1
When it comes to places the Bible talks about and prophesizes the fate of many biblical cities. The rise and fall of cities such as Nineveh, Babylon, Moab, Gaza, Tyre, Samaria, and many others are given in vivid detail in the Scriptures. I challenge you for homework to look up the verses that talk about their predictions and their fulfillments.
And when it comes to the prophecies concerning Jesus the Old Testament, which was completed 400 years before the birth of Jesus, contains more than 300 of them that were fulfilled in Jesus’ life. A sampling of some of these Messianic prophesies follow:
Jesus would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
Jesus would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14).
Jesus would be from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10).
The Scriptures would tell how Jesus would die (Isaiah 53).
The Scriptures foretold that Jesus would rise from the dead (Psalm 16:10).
Jesus would have His hands and feet pierced (Psalm 22:16).
Jesus would be forsaken by God (Psalm 22:1).
The Bible tells us (Isaiah 46:9-10): “…I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done…” Again, Charlie Campbell comments: “In other words, God says here, ‘There’s no one else who can accurately tell you what’s going to happen centuries in advance.’ And that is certainly the case. No other book in the world is able to substantiate its claims with this kind of supernatural ability to rightly foretell future events.”2
In future devotions I will share some more amazing biblical prophecies concerning people, places, and events. But for now, I pray that you will recognize how supernatural a book the Bible is – there is just no book like it!
1 10 Reasons You Can Trust the Bible | Archaeology, Prophecies + more! (alwaysbeready.com)
2 10 Reasons You Can Trust the Bible | Archaeology, Prophecies + more! (alwaysbeready.com)