Imagine that we are trying to call someone in North Dakota. We don’t have their phone number, so we must guess. We won't reach them in this lifetime, at least without some supernatural help, right?
Getting our heads around those odds helps us to understand why many thoughtful people have come to think of the Bible as true. No other religious book offers such proof. The prophets could not have guessed at the things they accurately predicted. They had God! One scholar states that there are 1,817 prophesies in the Bible, and over half have already come true. Let’s look at a few related to Jesus.
The prophet Isaiah said these things 700 years before Christ was born.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 9:6:
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Isaiah 7:14:
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” Isaiah 53:3-7
About 500 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Zechariah wrote.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9
Here is Micah, 700 years before Christ!
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Micah 5:2:
Knowing that hundreds of prophecies have come true gives us confidence in what else God says will happen and our future! For followers of Christ, that future is very bright! May we all draw closer to him while there is time.
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