BIBLE PROPHECY

Bible prophecy is a God-given revelation of the future. There is a reason that one fourth of the Bible is devoted to prophecy. God wants His people know what is going to happen in the future. Some of the prophecies have already been fulfilled and the rest are still waiting to be fulfilled.  Biblical prophecies are different from other prophecies in that all of them do come to pass and they are fulfilled “exactly” as foretold.  In fact, the Bible’s own standard is that if a person is known to have given a false prophecy, that person should be put to death. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5) NIV

Fulfilled prophecy is one of the most powerful proofs that the Bible truly is the Word of God. The Old Testament was written over a 1,000 period and contains hundreds of references to the coming of the Messiah. The chances that “all” these predictions came true “exactly” as written are beyond most human comprehension. The chance of one man fulfilling just eight Old Testament prophecies has been calculated at one in one hundred billion. This is a number which is millions times greater than the total number of people who have ever walked the planet. Think about those odds for a moment.

Jesus prophesied to His disciples that the beautiful temple would be destroyed. He said that not one stone would be left in place. (Matthew 24:1-2; Luke 21:6) NIV It happened exactly as Jesus had prophesied to His disciples. The Romans under Titus completely destroyed Jerusalem and the temple buildings in 70 A.D. (Source: Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian.). Stones were even pried apart to collect the gold leaf that melted from the roof when it was set on fire. Excavations in 1968 uncovered a large number of these stones toppled down by the invaders. There were 1.5 million Jews killed during this massacre. The Jews that escaped the Roman massacre fled to different countries all over the world. (Source: Flavius Josephus.) Even after they fled to other countries they were tortured and killed. Read the prophecy of Moses that was written in approximately 1410 B.C. “The Lord will “scatter” you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other and among those nations you will find no rest.” (Deuteronomy 28:64-65) NIV Who can ever forget Adolph Hitler’s Holocaust? 

God promised the Jews that one day He would bring them back to their homeland. The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel spoke of a day when the nation of Israel would be born in one day. This happened exactly 100% as God said that it would. “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own homeland.” (Ezekiel 36:24) NIV Ezekiel wrote these words in approximately 585-573 B.C. “Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a country be born in one day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?” (Isaiah 66:8) NIV Isaiah wrote these prophetic words in approximately 701-681 B.C.  This prophecy was fulfilled in one day when Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948 after 2,900 years. This is a historical fact. Prophecies which have not yet been fulfilled are of great interest to Christians and especially so today. This is true because we see many prophecies beginning to come to pass in our own generation. God’s prophetic clock continues ticking.