Biblical Prophecy
Messianic Prophecy: What
Is It?
Messianic prophecy is the collection of over 100 predictions (a conservative
estimate) in the Old Testament about the future Messiah of the Jewish people.
These predictions were written by multiple authors, in numerous books, over
approximately 1,000 years. Messianic Prophecy is so dramatic today, because with
the discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls and the reliability of the
Septuagint version of the Old Testament (both of which have been proven
to exist prior to the time Jesus walked on the earth) you can be assured that
these prophecies were not “conspired” after-the-fact.
Messianic Prophecy:
Fulfillment by Jesus Christ
Messianic prophecy was fulfilled by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Although many
Jews did not accept Jesus as their Messiah, many did, and they became the Jewish
sect later known as the Christians. Christianity, based in dramatic part on the
fulfillment of historical prophecy, spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire
of the 1st Century. Examine the prophecies yourself, and calculate the
probability of one man fulfilling just a handful of the most specific ones, and
you’ll be amazed.
“Jesus said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you:
Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the
Prophets and the Psalms.’” Luke 24:44 (NIV)
The Old Testament verses are the prophecy; the New Testament verses proclaim the
fulfillment. Check them all out for yourself!
Messianic Prophecy - What Are The Odds of
Fulfillment Without God?
Messianic Prophecy is so powerful because of the statistical odds that one man
would fulfill every single one of them. If we just analyze seven of the more
specific prophecies in the Old Testament, that were later fulfilled in the
Person of Jesus Christ, we are stunned by the statistical impossibility of such
an historical reality. As an illustration, we have inserted some conservative
"odds" alongside seven established prophecies. Please feel free to propose your
own prophecies and your own odds - the dramatic point will still be made!
Messianic Prophecy - The Challenge
Messianic prophecy is phenomenal evidence that sets the Bible apart from the
other "holy books." We strongly encourage you to read the Old Testament
prophecies and the New Testament fulfillments on the previous page. Better yet,
get a Jewish Tanakh (the Hebrew scripture read in the Jewish synagogues) and
read the Messianic prophecies from there. It is dramatic, eye-opening and
potentially life-changing!
Biblical Prophecy:
Divine Inspiration?
Biblical Prophecy is evidence Christians hold to validate the Bible's claims of
Divine inspiration. Is this authentic evidence or an illegitimate claim to
bolster Christianity? Prophecy is defined as a Divine declaration of events yet
to pass. As natural man is unable to foresee future events, prophecy would be an
acceptable evidence of Divine inspiration.
The Bible, written by at least 40 authors over a period of at least 1,500
years, is comprised of 66 books. These 66 books claim to contain over 1,000
Divinely inspired prophecies. We will examine a few...
Biblical Prophecy:
Ezekiel 26
One example of Biblical Prophecy is found in the Book of Ezekiel. Chapter 26 of
the Book of Ezekiel claims to have been written in 586 BC, the 11th year of the
reign of King Zedekiah of Judah. On nine separate occasions throughout the
chapter, the writer claims to have been inspired by God with statements such as
"thus says the Lord GOD." The text describes the fall of mainland Tyre to the
armies of Nebuchadnezzar the following year. It further describes the events of
Alexander the Great's siege against the island fortress of Tyre (a half mile off
the coast of mainland Tyre) 253 years later. The chapter describes how the
invaders would tear down the ruins of mainland Tyre and throw it into the sea.
That they would "scrape her dust from her and leave her as the top of a rock"
(v4). That "they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst
of the water" (v12). "I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a
place for spreading nets" (v14). Secular history records that Alexander the
Great laid siege to the island fortress of Tyre in 332 BC. His army demolished
mainland Tyre and threw it into the sea. In their effort to construct a causeway
to the island, they scraped even the dust, leaving only bare rock. Historian
Phillip Myers in his history textbook, General History for Colleges and High
Schools (Boston, Ginn & Co.), writes, "Alexander the Great reduced Tyre to
ruins in 332 BC. Tyre recovered in a measure from this blow, but never regained
the place she had previously held in the world. The larger part of the site of
the once great city is now as bare as the top of a rock -- a place where the
fishermen that still frequent the spot spread their nets to dry" (pg.55). The
fate of mainland Tyre was accomplished as foretold in the book of Ezekiel.
Biblical Prophecy: The
Book of Daniel
Another example of Biblical Prophecy is found in the Book of Daniel. Because of
the stunning foresight found within the Book of Daniel, it is claimed by its
critics to have been written after the events it describes. For example, chapter
11 describes in such detail the interactions between the Ptolemies and the
Selucids from the death of Alexander the Great to the rise of the Roman Empire,
that critics insist it must have been written after 160 BC. However,
Flavius Josephus, court historian for three successive Roman Emperors,
records (Antiquities of the Jews XI, viii, 3-5) Alexander the Great receiving a
copy of Daniel upon his annexation of Jerusalem in the autumn of 332 BC
(immediately following his conquest of Tyre). Furthermore, the
Septuagint (LXX) was translated from Hebrew into Greek in the 3rd century
BC. Daniel is included in the Septuagint version. Daniel is also included in the
Dead Sea Scrolls, which is dated from about 200 BC.
Biblical Prophecy:
Daniel 9:25
A most compelling Biblical Prophecy is found in Daniel, chapter 9, verse 25.
Written 500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ (the oldest preserved copy
dating 200 years before the birth of Christ), it foretells the very day Christ
would enter Jerusalem. The prophecy states: 69 weeks of years (69 x 7 = 483
years) would pass from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, until the coming of the
Messiah. This is according to the Babylonian 360-day calendar, since Daniel was
written in Babylon during the Jewish captivity after the fall of Jerusalem.
Thus, 483 years x 360 days = 173,880 days. According to records found by Sir
Henry Creswicke Rawlinson in the Shushan (Susa) Palace, and confirmed in
Nehemiah 2:1, this decree was made on March 14th, 445 BC, by Artaxerxes
Longimanus. Exactly 173,880 days later, on April 6th, 32 AD, Jesus Christ rode
into Jerusalem upon a colt (fulfilling the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9). The world
celebrates this day as Palm Sunday. Four days later, Christ was murdered upon
the cross. Actually, the form of His execution and even His last words were
foretold in Psalm 22. Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead on Easter
Sunday, fulfilling numerous other prophecies of our Messia