Last week I claimed that God must exist because the Bible is clearly supernatural. I claimed the Bible is supernatural because of its internal consistency – it is unified despite being written by different authors at different times. This week we look at a second reason the Bible is clearly supernatural: it contains many prophecies that were fulfilled.
RB Kuiper writes: ‘The Bible contains prophecies which have been strikingly fulfilled. For a few examples, the Old Testament foretold that the Saviour would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), that his mother would be a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), and that men would cast lots over his clothes. (Psalm 22:18). The New Testament tells us that all this came to pass. Obviously only God, who sees the things of tomorrow as if they had happened yesterday, can predict future events in such detail and with such precision. That is an excellent argument.’
But Kuiper only provides some of the big ones there. McDowell has a list in his book, Evidence Demands a Verdict, of no less than 332 distinct predictions which were literally fulfilled in Christ. Just in Christ! This isn’t to mention all the prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled within the Old Testament. There are even prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled between the Old and New Testament. Daniel prophesied in chapter 11 what certain kings and nations would do. His prophecy is so detailed and so blisteringly accurate that many have tried to say that the book of Daniel could not have been written before the events occurred. Yet the language style shows that Daniel must have been composed prior to the events. The only people who have a problem with the early dating are those who know that such writing indicates there must be a God because no human could ever have seen the future as Daniel saw it.
Deuteronomy provides commonsense when it says ‘You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken.’ (18:21-22) We have in the Bible accurate predictions of the future that were then fulfilled. If you accept this, not blindly but with historical evidence as your foundation, then you must accept there is a God and we have his words in the Bible.
Joel Radford.
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