Reason 6: Prophetic accuracy of scripture
The prophetic accuracy of the Bible is a fascinating topic – when you get into it, you will discover that so many prophecies have been fulfilled down to the very last detail. There are also still more prophecies to be fulfilled, so keep reading to learn more.
the rise and fall of nations and leaders
The Scriptures predicted the rise and fall of great empires like Greece and Rome (Daniel 2:39-40), and foretold the destruction of cities like Tyre and Sidon (Isaiah 23). Tyre’s demise is recorded by ancient historians, who tell how Alexander the Great lay siege to the city for seven months. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had failed in his thirteen-year attempt to capture the seacoast city and completely destroy its inhabitants.
During the siege of 573 BC, much of the population of Tyre moved to its new island home approximately half a mile off the coast. Here it remained surrounded by walls as high as 150 feet until judgment fell in 332 BC with the arrival of Alexander the Great. In the seven-month siege, he fulfilled the remainder of the prophecies (Zechariah 9:4; Ezekiel 26:12) concerning the city at sea by completely destroying Tyre, killing 8,000 of its inhabitants and selling 30,000 of its population into slavery. To reach the island, he scraped up the dust and rubble of the old land city of Tyre, just like the Bible predicted, and cast it into the sea, building a 200-foot-wide causeway out to the island.
Another startling prophecy was Jesus’ detailed prediction of Jerusalem’s destruction, and the further dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the world, which is recorded in Luke 21. In AD 70, not only was Jerusalem destroyed by Titus, the future emperor of Rome, but another prediction of Jesus (Matthew 24:1-2) came to pass: the complete destruction of the Jerusalem temple.
Prophecies from the Old and New Testaments that have been fulfilled also add credibility to the Bible. For example, in Isaiah 66:7,8 (700 BC), the prophet gives a strange prophecy: “Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.”
In 1922 the League of Nations gave Great Britain the mandate (political authority) over Palestine. On May 14, 1948, Britain withdrew her mandate, and the nation of Israel was “born in a day.”
There are more than twenty-five Bible prophecies concerning Palestine that have been literally fulfilled. Probability estimations conclude that the chances of these being randomly fulfilled are less than one chance in 33 million.
A statistician from Los Angeles named Peter Stoner wrote a little book called “Science Speaks”. He did a statistical analysis of just a handful of Biblical prophecies and said that you would be more likely to find one marked silver dollar in a pile of silver dollars that are taller than your head covering the whole state of Texas than a single Biblical prediction coming true from sheer force of human reasoning.
How is this relevant to you?
Jeremiah 1:12 (NASB) says, “for I’m watching over my word to perform it.” God’s promise to us is that He is the only one who can predict the future, and have it come to pass exactly as He said it would because He knows the beginning from the end and He only controls the future…which is called fulfilled prophecy. God wrote the Bible as a self-authenticating revelation of Himself to the skeptic.
We are not talking about the Edgar Cayce, Jeanne Dickson or Nostradamus’ vague predictions which could mean almost anything. God describes future events that will come to pass exactly as He said. Prophecy is God’s signature that the Bible is true.
There is no prophetic predictive literature in any major world religion (that is accurate) except the only true and living God’s revelation.
The Bible encourages you to trust the God
“Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and its offspring,
Who gives breath to the people on it
And Spirit to those who walk in it.”“Behold, the former things have come to pass,
Now I declare new things;
Before they sprout, I proclaim them to you.”– Isaiah 42:5; 9
Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My counsel will stand, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’– Isaiah 46:9-10
The God of the Bible accurately knows the future and if you study His prophecies they will prove to you that He is real.
No other book has 100% accuracy.
God has put an authentication code in the Bible so you know you can trust it.
The preceding information on how we know the Bible is true was curated from messages of Voddie Baucham, John Barnett and Ray Comfort.