Bible Prophecy: Evidence of Jesus Christ
What Is Bible Prophecy?
When you mention prophecy to someone, many people ponder in thought about possible future events, especially unbelievers. Unbelievers may look at prophecy as predictions of the future that come out every year in the gossip magazines in your local supermarket. Many people wonder about if, how, or when the world will end. End time events get exciting to study, especially if you’re a Christian, because we Christians win in the end. The topic of this blog is evidence of Christ, so this blog will not involve the study of eschatology. However, I will treat eschatological prophecy as true and prophetic as any other Bible prophecy. I will show proof of Messianic prophecy as fulfilled in the Bible and show you the fulfillment of historical events that were prophesied throughout the Bible. Bible prophecy proves these historical events 100 per cent. All these prophetic events happened in history and proves the Bible as the accurate word of God. No biblical prophecy ever failed to come true. So that means even though there are people who do not believe in an end-time wrath of God and that God will punish all unbelievers and send them to an eternal lake of fire, it will happen whether they believe it or not. The word prophecy can be expressed as a noun as written here and pronounced (präfˊə sē). When prophecy is used as a verb it is spelled prophesy and pronounced (präfˊ ə sīˊ). This article on Bible prophecy is only an introduction to Bible prophecy and what prophecy is all about. In the future I will write more detailed articles on specific prophetic topics; that is if God through His grace grants me that future.
Biblical History and Messianic Bible Prophecy
There are two types of prophecy I wish to dwell on: 1) the prophetic events of Israel and her surrounding enemy nations. 2) The prophetic events of the Messiah, JESUS CHRIST. The reason I will dwell on these two areas of Bible prophecy is that they reveal events that have already taken place in history. These prophecies prove the validity of the Bible. The Old Testament has sixteen books that are named after the prophet’s name, but several books in the Old Testament have prophetic messages in them including much of the book of Psalms. Even at the very beginning of Genesis we see the first Messianic prophecy concerning the Messiah in Genesis 3:15. In the New Testament Matthew is known as being the most Messianic gospel because it quotes more Messianic prophecy than any other gospel. Mark, Luke, and John also contain Messianic prophecy. Jesus prophesied about the end times too. Read Matthew 24. The book of Revelation is devoted to end time prophecy. In the book of Acts, we see in chapter 2 that the apostle Peter acknowledges Joel’s prophecy of the introduction of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost bringing about the birth of the church.
Every prophecy from the Bible about Israel and her surrounding nations and the Messiah has come true. The same will be true for end time events. Jesus will come again. The first time He came as a lamb to be slaughtered. Jesus was our blood sacrifice for our sins. Jesus voluntarily submitted to crucifixion. He became our sacrificial lamb for sin. If we believe in Him and repent, we can be saved from our sins by the loving grace of Jesus Christ. Jesus further proved who He was by rising from the dead. He is now alive and seated at the right hand of God the Father. Next Jesus is coming again as a lion instead of a lamb. The book of Revelation written by the Apostle John explains the final wrath of God and how the Earth and everything will end.
Accuracy of Bible Prophecy
How do I know that the Bible is 100 per cent accurate when it comes to Bible prophecy? We can prove the accuracy of Bible prophecy by looking into history. History confirms the capture of the Jewish people of Israel and Judah to Babylon. History confirms the capture of Assyria and Babylon. All Messianic prophecies that were prophesied by the biblical prophets were 100 per cent accurate. You can read it in the Old Testament and see the fulfillment in the gospels. It’s like the Bible was written by one author. That one author would be the Holy Spirit which used individual writing styles of many men and produced the Bible as one book. As the Apostle Peter mentions, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NKJV). Also, the Hebrews had a truth test for any prophecy that was uttered. Read these chilling words. “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD, has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18: 20 – 22 NKJV). How many false teachers on television have you seen utter prophecy that never came true? Scripture says don’t follow them. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1 NKJV).
Do you want more proof of the 100 per cent prophetic accuracy of the Bible? We live in the early 21st century. Imagine what it was like 800 years ago. Let’s take a trip in a time machine. Set our time machine back 800 years. That would put us in the 1200s. The printing press wasn’t even invented until 1440. So, there was not much progress throughout the world in the 13th century. We have achieved a lot since the early 1200s. Imagine going back in history to 1223 and telling one of those people, “Oh yea, in the late 20th century we sent a dozen men to the Moon. They walked around there, studied it, and told us all about it.” Those people from the 13th century would think you were crazy. They would tell us, “People will never be able to travel to the Moon.”
Let’s go back farther to the birth of Christ. We see a baby Jesus. Let’s not stop there. Now let’s go back to our time machine. Let’s travel another 800 years in the past. Yes, that’s 800 years before Christ. We get out of our time machine; we are in the country of Judah and near Jerusalem. We see a man by the name of Isaiah predicting the future. We listen to part of his speech. “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53: 5–6 NKJV). Isaiah was speaking in the past tense, but he was speaking about the future Messiah to come, Jesus the CHRIST. If you haven’t already read the complete chapter of Isaiah 53, it is all about JESUS. When Jesus was born, He came as a suffering servant. Please read Isaiah 53. Please also read Psalm 22. This Psalm is about the suffering of Jesus.
Study Bible Prophecy
So now you can better understand Bible prophecy and know it is not just about end times. I challenge you to read a prophetic book of the Bible. The Old Testament has a collection of 16 prophetic books: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. I did not include Lamentations, because in that book Jeremiah is expressing what is happening to his people in the present. The only book in the New Testament that is prophetic is Revelation, but it is only about the end time wrath of God on unbelievers and finishes with the ultimate glory expressed as eternal life given only to His saints, his believers in Christ. Unbelievers will die a second death in the Lake of Fire. A promise of a blessing is offered to those who read, hear, and obey what is written in the prophetic book of Revelation (Revelation 1:3).