Reason 2: Recorded events that fulfilled prophecies
But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. – Deuteronomy 18:20 ESV
Prophecy is all about insight into the future and there are many fulfilled Bible prophecies. God knows the beginning from the end and He never changes or stops being Truth itself.
Satan is cunning and sometimes his prophets can make accurate predications as well. The difference is the source of the information, and its fruit. Prophecies from the Lord bring freedom, direction, and a sense of clarity. Prophecies from the enemy (even if they come true) bring fear, condemnation, judgment, guilt, and a false peace or even success that doesn’t last.
The coming of the Messiah
In Daniel chapter 9, the Bible prophesied the timeline of the coming of the one and only Jewish Messiah, prior to the temple’s demise. Five centuries in advance, the Bible gives a precise and accurate countdown from when King Artaxerxes would give the decree to restore Jerusalem in 445 BC, to the crucifixion of Christ in AD 33, culminating in the temple’s destruction in AD 70.
Some argue that prophecies like this must have been written after the events took place, to make the Bible appear supernatural. However, any historian can attest that the Jewish Scriptures had already been completed, translated into the Greek Septuagint, and widely published before Jesus’ birth.
Who does this description remind you of?
He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him…And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth…He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people he was stricken.
Who do you think this text is speaking about? If you said Jesus Christ, you are correct.
This description was given 700 years before Jesus’ birth in the Book of Isaiah (chapter 53).
It is another clear foretelling of the Savior given hundreds of years before His birth. While many have died for noble causes through the centuries, Jesus alone uniquely embodies these words—so that we could easily identify Him as the Savior.
The Death of the Messiah
Read Psalm 22.
Now compare that to Matthew 27:22-46.
Psalm 22 was written 1,000 years before Jesus was born by a man (King David) who had never seen a crucifixion in his life!
Astounding Mathematical Odds
The Old Testament prophets declared, among many other things, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) to a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12,13), die by crucifixion (Psalm 22), and be buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9).
There was only one person who fits all the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, who publicly performed countless miracles, made the crippled walk and the blind see, resurrected the dead, taught the most profound words ever uttered, and then died for the sins of the people, all before AD 70: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary.
Couldn’t Jesus have “accidentally” fulfilled all the dozens of prophecies?
No.
The scientific probability that any one person could fulfill just eight of these prophecies is 1 in 1017.
Jesus is not a probability. He is the surest of all truths.
Now let’s try to imagine the likelihood of that. If we took that number of silver dollars (100,000,000,000,000,000), drew a black X on only one, and laid them over the state of Texas, they would cover the entire state two feet deep.
Now blindfold a man and tell him to travel as far as he wishes and then pick up only one silver dollar, and it must be the marked one. What chance would he have of picking up the right one?
It would be exactly the same odds that just eight of the messianic prophecies would all come true in any one person—yet they all came true in Christ (adapted from Science Speaks by Peter Stoner).
Even one real case of fulfilled prophecy would be sufficient to establish the Bible’s supernatural origin. But in all, there are over three hundred prophecies that tell of the ancestry, birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth.
All have been literally fulfilled to the smallest detail.
You can read more about these fulfillments in Josh McDowell’s book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict.