Prophecy: History Written in Advance

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The Bible gives a test for any claimed word from God: "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken" (Deuteronomy 18:22). By that standard, the Bible invites examination. Hundreds of its predictions concern events that were later fulfilled, many of them centuries after they were written.

The Messiah's Birth

Born in Bethlehem. "But thou, Beth-lehem 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" (Micah 5:2). When Herod asked the scribes where the Christ would be born, they answered from this verse (Matthew 2:1-6).
Born of a virgin. "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14), fulfilled according to Matthew 1:22-23.
Riding into Jerusalem. "Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass" (Zechariah 9:9; compare Matthew 21:1-9).

The Messiah's Death and Resurrection

Two chapters stand out. Psalm 22, attributed to David about a thousand years before Christ, begins with the words Jesus spoke from the cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46). It continues: "they pierced my hands and my feet" (Psalm 22:16) and "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture" (Psalm 22:18). Believers note that these details were written down centuries before the Romans made crucifixion common [3].

Isaiah 53 describes a suffering servant: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:5-6). The chapter predicts silence before accusers (verse 7), burial with the rich (verse 9; compare Matthew 27:57-60), and vindication afterward. Philip used this very chapter to preach Jesus to the Ethiopian official (Acts 8:32-35).

Other details follow the same pattern: not a bone of Him broken (Psalm 34:20; John 19:36), the look upon "me whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:37), and the promise, "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption" (Psalm 16:10), which Peter applied to the resurrection (Acts 2:27-31).

Daniel's Seventy Weeks

Daniel 9:24-27 speaks of a period of "seventy weeks" (seventy sevens) and says that "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince" would be a set number of weeks (Daniel 9:25). Many conservative interpreters calculate this period to land in the first century AD, in the time of Christ.

Nations and Cities

Tyre. Ezekiel foretold the destruction of Tyre, that nations would come against her, that her walls would be broken, and "I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea" (Ezekiel 26:4-5). Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city, and in 332 BC Alexander the Great used the rubble of the old mainland city to build a causeway to the island fortress. Fishermen have spread their nets on the site in later centuries [4].
Cyrus. Isaiah names a Persian king long before his birth: "That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid" (Isaiah 44:28; compare Ezra 1:1-4). The Cyrus Cylinder, now in the British Museum, records his policy of letting exiled peoples return home.

The Weight of the Argument

A single fulfilled prophecy might be coincidence. Believers argue that the sheer number, the specificity, and the fact that these Old Testament texts demonstrably existed before the events they describe make coincidence an inadequate explanation. The Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) was begun in the third century BC, and the Great Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea dates to about 125 BC, so both predate Christ by well over a century [5]. (Chapter 11 takes up the debates over the dating of Isaiah and Daniel.)

CHAPTER 4