Thursday, March 10, 2016

If you were to conduct a man-on-street interview and ask people what they think of when they hear the word “prophecy”, I imagine that many of them would describe some sort of future prediction. Some people might mention crystal balls and psychics. Others might talk about the uncanny ability their quirky friend or eccentric family member has at somehow being able to predict what will happen in the future. Most people will tie prophecy to mystical or supernatural elements.

When we speak of a biblical prophet, however, we are not referring to a Christian psychic. The Greek word prophetes means “one who speaks forth.” A prophet in the Bible is someone who has been chosen by God to speak forth His word. Oftentimes Old Testament prophets delivered messages from God that had immediate relevance in the context of the culture in which they lived (such as making God’s laws known or calling a people back to repentance and obedience), and at times they also predicted or foretold of future events. In the latter case, there are two types of prophecy: secular prophecies and Messianic prophecies.

Secular prophecies include prophecies about the fall of cities, the destruction of nations, and other worldwide events outside of the coming of the Messiah or prophecies specific to God’s people. One of the prophetic evidences for the Bible is rooted in all of the secular prophecies that have come to past. Consider these examples:

§  Daniel 2-4 – the four kingdoms of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream

King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about a statue with feet of clay and a head of gold. Four kingdoms are mentioned in that passage that are prophesied by Daniel to be the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires. As we see events unroll in ancient history, we realize that they fit exactly with the prophecy and timing described in Daniel 2.

§  Cities prophesied to be destroyed and never rebuilt (see list below).

These prophecies were fulfilled and these cities no longer exist.

o   Nineveh – Nahum 1:10

o   Babylon – Isaiah 13

o   Tyre – Ezekiel 26

§  Prophecy that Babylon would fall and Jerusalem would be rebuilt

The Jews were taken captive into Babylon, and the prophecy to these Jews was that Babylon would fall and Jerusalem would be rebuilt. This would be a radical prophecy for Jews living in exile who have seen the utter destruction of the city walls and the temple—the center of their cultural and religious life. The prophecy is that it will be reversed; mighty Babylon will fall and the temple will be rebuilt. We know this prophecy was fulfilled from history and the Scriptures.

In addition to secular prophecies, there are also Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. Messianic prophecies reveal something to God’s people about the coming of the Messiah. Consider below the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, all of which were fulfilled in Jesus. (Note: click the image for a larger view.)

There are over 48 specific prophecies about the death and resurrection of Christ, and there are over 300 prophecies that relate either directly or indirectly to the coming of the Messiah and His life.

At this point, skeptics might argue:

Maybe, being an intelligent man, Jesus read the Old Testament and sought to fulfill the prophecies about the Messiah. He read that the Son of Man would come on a donkey. He thinks, ‘How difficult is that to fulfill?’ So He asks for a donkey, His followers bring Him one, and He rides on its back while declaring Himself the Messiah. Maybe that is how Jesus went about it. He set it all up so He would be seen as the Messiah.

This was once the thinking of a man named Lee Strobel. Strobel, a bright journalist and hardcore atheist, was distraught when his wife became “religious” and developed an insatiable hunger for the God of the Bible. He set out to logically prove to his wife why Christianity is not true and the Bible is not reliable. In that process, he is converted and becomes a follower of Jesus.

Since his conversion, Lee Strobel has written several books to walk with other skeptics as they intellectually wrestle with claims of the Bible. He writes, “…the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled is one chance in one hundred million billion. That number is millions of times greater than the total number of people who’ve ever walked the planet! He calculated that if you took this number of silver dollars, they would cover the state of Texas to a depth of two feet. If you marked one silver dollar among them and then had a blindfolded person wander the whole state and bend down to pick up one coin, what would be the odds he’d choose the one that had been marked? …the same odds that anybody in history could have fulfilled just eight of the prophecies.”[1]

This just isn’t possible unless the Bible is historically accurate and Jesus really is the Messiah!

Come back again tomorrow as we consider our next question in this series, “How was the Bible put together?”

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[1] Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998. p. 172.