THE REALITY OF GOD PART 9 – TESTING  PROPHECIES

What is the real test of God’s Word?  Not if it is the same as it was thousands of years ago.  But has it proven true.  The Prophetic word is the best test of this.  Unlike any other supposed sacret text out there, the Bible has made hundreds of prophecies about events to come.  Many of them have already been fulfilled – in very exact ways.  And others are still waiting to be fulfilled at Christ’s Second Coming. 

 GENERAL PROPHECIES

• The Fall of Babylon – Isaiah 13:9-22 prophesied the fall of Babylon. Jeremiah goes into more detail warning of an army of many nations from the North.  Daniel 5 describes the fact that Babylon will fall to the Medes and the Persians.
• The City of Tyre – Written hundreds of years before the event, Ezekiel 26 foresaw the complete annihilation of that city.  “I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, with horsemen and a great army….they will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea.” (Ezekiel 26:7&12)  This too came to pass exactly as predicted.  Nebuchadnezzar did destroy the city.  Later Alexander the Great built a causeway from the rubble to the island where the survivors had fled, by throwing the remainder of houses and walls into the sea.  That causeway remains to this day.

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  The Prophecy of Cyrus – One hundred fifty years before Cyrus was alive, God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah, naming the Persian king by name. It was Cyrus who released the Jews from Babylon to go back to their land and rebuild Jerusalem.  In Isaiah 44:28, God identifies Himself as the One “Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”  It goes on in Isaiah 45:1-2.  “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held— To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: ‘I will go before you And make the crooked places straight.”  All of this a century and a half before Cyrus existed.

PROPHECIES CONCERNING ISRAEL

As to the prophecies concerning the nation of Israel, the accuracy is astounding.  Here are just a few examples.  The outline of the history of the Jewish people for the last 2000 years or so is generally known.  For centuries the Jews were scattered among all the nations of the world, yet somehow retaining their own separate culture.  Then in 1948 an unheard of thing happened, the nation of Israel was reborn.  Not only did it come back into existence, but it did so in one day by a proclamation on May 14^th of that year.  Now thousands of years ago, Hosea, the Old Testament prophet wrote, “My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations.” (Hosea 9:17)  In Deuteronomy 28:25 we read that Israel will be defeated and flee in seven different directions.  But the Bible predicts not just the dispersion of the nation but its eventual rebirth.  Ezekiel 38:8 talks about a land, “In future years…whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate.”  Micah 5:3 tells us, “Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.”  And seemingly in answer to this we read in Isaiah 66:8, “Who has ever heard of such a thing?  Who has ever seen such things?  Can a country be brought forth in a day, or a nation brought forth in a moment?”  This chain of events is unprecedented in history that a people defeated in war and scattered not only survived centuries of dispersion without a homeland but actually became a nation again.  Dozens of nations of the ancient world have long since disappeared, once suffering catastrophic defeat, as did Israel after the war with Rome ending in AD 70.  Yet somehow Israel survived and was reborn, resurrected.

MESSIANIC PROPHECIES

Some of the most compelling evidence for the truth of Scripture is found in the Messianic Prophecies, the ones concerning the coming of Messiah Jesus.  They were written hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.  Yet in their precision and detail they can unmistakably refer only to the life of one man; Jesus of Nazareth.  Some have suggested that Jesus, being a man with a ‘messiah complex’, arranged his life to have fulfilled these prophecies in order to prove He was the promised Savior.  While it is true that Christ may have been able to have arranged some of his actions to conform to the predictions of scripture, so many more were entirely out of his control.  The laws of probability tell us this is no matter of mere chance.

• The Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah – [Genesis 49:10] – Written: 1400 BC. Fulfilled: At Jesus’ birth. Even later 1st century AD Jewish authorities acknowledged that Jesus was from the tribe of Judah and the House of David. In other words they acknowledged that He was, in those respects, qualified to be their King.
• The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem – [Micah 5:2] – Written between 750-686 BC. Fulfilled: At Christ’s birth. Passage: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”
• Betrayed by a friend – [Psalm 41:9] – Written: Circa 1000 BC. Fulfilled: Most are familiar with the passages describing the last supper in Luke 22:3-4 & John 13:18, when his disciple Judas dipped the bread with Jesus before going out to betray Him. Passage: “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.”
• Jesus to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and the money spent on a “potter’s field.” [Zechariah 11:12-13] – Written circa 520 BC. Fulfilled: Matthew 26:14-15 tells us: “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?’ And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.” After Jesus was condemned to die, Judas brought the money back to the High Priests and threw it into the Temple. Matthew 26:6-7 describes what the Jewish authorities did with that blood money. “And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.” Here’s the prophecy that was fulfilled found in Zechariah 11:12-13: “‘If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.’ So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter—that princely price they set on me.’ ‘So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter.’”
• The Christ would enter Jerusalem on a donkey – [Zechariah 9:9] – Written about 500 years before Christ. Fulfilled by Jesus when He entered in triumph on Palm Sunday.
• The disciples scatter when Jesus is taken. – [Zechariah 13:7] – Fulfilled in the Garden of Gethsemane. The apostles ran off as Jesus was seized. The passage reads in part: “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered.”
• Jesus would be struck and spit on – [Isaiah 50:6] – Passage: “I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.” Matthew 27:30 records the fulfillment of that prophecy. “I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.”
• His death by crucifixion; hundreds of years before that method of death was used – [Psalm 22:16] – Passage: “They pierced My hands and My feet.” Fulfillment: On the Cross.
• They would divide and gamble for the rights to His clothing – [Psalm 22:18] – Passage: “They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.” John 19:23-24 describes how after they hung Him on the Cross, the Roman soldiers divided his clothing and gambled for His seamless tunic.
• Messiah‘s Mission: To suffer and die bearing the sins of all that would accept Him – [Isaiah 52:13-53:12] – Written around 700 BC – Fulfilled: In the details of the ministry, suffering and crucifixion of Christ. That passage tells us that He will bear the sin of “many nations” as He was “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for our iniquities…And by His stripes we are healed.” In Isaiah 53:7 it tells us “He opened not His mouth, He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.” Later we find that at His trial He was silent before Pilate, not attempting to defend Himself though it cost Him His life. It tells us also that He would be executed “with the wicked” (the 2 thieves on the cross), and buried “with the rich at His death,” which He was. The Christ would be “numbered with the Transgressors” yet He “bore the sins of many.” That passage tells us that He would be rejected yet make “His soul an offering for sin.” In the end, God will raise Him up with “the great” because “He poured out His soul unto death.”

And there are others – Psalm 69:21 predicted that they would give Him vinegar to drink. They did. – Psalm 34:20 recorded how none of His bones would be broken. They weren’t. – Zechariah 12:10 prophesied that He would be pierced. He was pierced by a Roman soldier to make sure He was dead. – Psalm 35:11 speaks of the false witnesses that would testify against Him. – Psalm 55:12-14 tells us that He would be betrayed by a friend. “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me … But it is you, a man my equal, My companion and my familiar friend. We who had sweet fellowship together, Walked in the house of God in the throng.”   

Prophecy scholar Grant Jeffrey, calculated the probability of any one person fulfilling just 17 of the Messianic prophecies at one chance in 480 billion x 1billion x 1 trillion.