Fulfilled Bible Prophecy

Christian apologists have long said that the three greatest miracles of the Christian faith are the creation of the universe, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and His bodily resurrection from the dead. To these a fourth awesome miracle could be added—fulfilled Bible prophecy.

This fourth miracle has overarching importance because fulfilled prophecy gives powerful evidence of the divine origin of the Scriptures. Many professed Christians today overlook the importance of the infallibility of the Bible. For example, I have heard Christian leaders say, “I can accept anyone as a brother or sister in Christ if they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.” But wouldn’t you also want to know if they believe in the authenticity and authority of the Scriptures?

After all, how can we know anything about Jesus apart from the Bible? He is our Lord and we must obey His commands. How can we know what He commands if we doubt His Word?

Since we are so dependent on a reliable Bible, how does prophetic evidence support the Word we have? Estimates vary regarding the number of Bible prophesies which have been fulfilled, but well over 300 are Messianic prophecies concerning the person and work of Christ.

The Old Testament, written centuries before the birth of Christ, tells us that Jesus would be a descendent of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10; Jeremiah 23:5-6), born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), and born in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). It says He would perform miracles (Isaiah 35:4-5), would be rejected by His people (Psalm 118:22), and that His hands and feet would be pierced (Psalm 22:16). The Old Testament even predicts that He would die for our sins (Isaiah 53:5-6), that those who killed Him would gamble for His clothes (Psalm 22:18), and He would rise from the dead (Psalm 16:10).

The more details given in a prophecy, the less likely it will occur unless God is in it. For example, if you predict that there will be an earthquake on a certain day in California and it happens, that could be pure coincidence. But if you publicly announce that there will be a high-magnitude quake with an epicenter of Oakland, California, in the middle of the afternoon on a certain day, and it happens exactly as you say, the news media would be all over you wanting to know how you knew.

So, it is with the Bible. The odds are astronomical against any one person fulfilling the predictions listed above. No mere mortal could make such precision predictive prophecies apart from access to the foreknowledge of God. Add to these hundreds of other fulfilled prophecies and you have the most profound evidence available to support the divine origin of the Bible.

That is why we can believe the Apostle Peter when he wrote: “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).