I believe that the Bible is a book of truth
breathed from the heart of God into its writers. That belief is rooted in testimony evidenced not
only by the creation surrounding me, but also by the fulfillment of so many of
the prophecies recorded there. God has
declared in His word that the ability to foretell future events is unique to
Him alone…
Isaiah 42:8–9 “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not
give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things
are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell
you of them.”
Isaiah 46:9–10 “Remember the former
things of old: for I am God,
and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and
from ancient times the things
that are not yet done….”
... and there is no valid evidence to refute that
statement. Every fulfilled prophecy has
come to pass exactly as foretold. This
provides powerful evidence for the truth of scripture and the confident
expectation that prophecies yet awaiting fulfillment will also be fulfilled
exactly as foretold.
In light
of that truth I thought it would be helpful to look at many prophecies from
scripture that have been fulfilled and affirmed in history with the hope of
encouraging you to take a look at prophecy yet to be fulfilled, I believe, in
the near future.
Let’s
start in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis. God told Abraham that Sarah would give him a
son through whom He would establish a nation through whom the whole world would
be blessed.
Genesis 12:1–3 “Now the LORD had
said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee
a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt
be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that
curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Genesis 15:3–4 “And Abram said,
Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall
come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”
Genesis 17:21 “But my covenant will
I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in
the next year.”
History
verifies that son to be Isaac and that his son Jacob was the father of the
twelve tribes of people that made up the nation of Israel. The LORD eventually confirmed His covenant
with Jacob.
Genesis 28:10–14 “And Jacob went out
from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and
tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of
that place, and put them for
his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a
ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the
angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above
it, and said, I am the LORD God
of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to
thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the
earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the
north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of
the earth be blessed.”
The
primary way in which God has blessed the world through Abraham and Jacob is by
giving us Jesus as one of their descendants.
It is through Jesus that we can obtain salvation and a hope for the
future beyond this life.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
The
scriptures also contain many specific prophecies about Jesus that are part of
the historical record. I will only
mention a few of them. The prophets declared
that he would be a descendant of King David of Israel. Matthew and Luke clearly list the genealogies
of both Joseph and Mary respectively, showing that Jesus descended from King
David.
Isaiah 9:6–7 “For unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the
throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with
judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD
of hosts will perform this.”
Jeremiah 33:14–16 “Behold, the days
come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised
unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that
time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah
be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our
righteousness.”
Matthew 1:6 & 16 “And Jesse
begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias…And
Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called
Christ.”
Luke 3:23 “And Jesus himself began
to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph,
which was the son of Heli…which
was the son of Nathan, which
was the son of David….”
Micah
foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem; and He was.
Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem
Ephratah, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet
out of thee shall he come forth unto me that
is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
Luke 2:4–11 “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city
of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem…To
be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was,
that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be
delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son….And there were in the same
country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by
night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them….And the angel said unto
them….unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ
the Lord.”
Many verses in the Old
Testament prophesy the death of Jesus, a fact that is also confirmed by secular
historians, but these are a couple of the most specific.
Daniel 9:25–26 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore
and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous
times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off….” [cut off = destroy, perish}
Zechariah 12:4 & 10 “In that day, saith the LORD…. And I will
pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit
of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in
bitterness for his firstborn.”
A quote from the Roman historian Tacitus as
cited by Lee Strobel in The Case for Christ: “Christus, from
whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of
Tiberius at the hands of ... Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous
superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea,
the first source of the evil, but even in Rome....”
A quote
from Josephus, a Jewish historian (from www.Josephus.org): “Now there was about
this time Jesus, a wise man, if
it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher
of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many
of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at
the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross,
those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them
alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten
thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so
named from him, are not extinct at this day.”
In the Psalms, David foretold
the very words Jesus would speak from the cross.
Psalms 22:1 “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”
Matthew 27:46 “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud
voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?”
David also recorded the
words of those that mocked the LORD Jesus while He was on the cross.
Psalms 22:8 “He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he
delighted in him.”
Matthew 27:42–43 “He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he
be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will
believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him:
for he said, I am the Son of God.”
(to be continued…)
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