Prophecies are the strongest proof of the authenticity of the Bible as the Word of God. To prophesy is risky. Once a prophecy is not fulfilled, its source is discredited. There is a prophetic word in every four verses of the Bible. There are more than one thousand individual prophecies. The fulfillment of the prophecies proves the existence of God and the Bible to be God’s Word.
People may not believe the miracles recorded in the Bible. They may say that they were merely myths and legends. It is indeed hard to prove that the miracles happened. Prophecies, on the other hand, are great miracles that can be substantiated and therefore cannot be denied. God knew man’s inclination to doubt and disbelieve; that is why He put so many prophecies in the Bible.
A prophecy should meet the following five criteria: 1) it should be announced before things happen; 2) it should be beyond human foresight; 3) it should explain in detail; 4) the duration of time between prophecy and fulfillment should be long enough so that the fulfillment cannot be of human manufacture; and 5) the fulfillment should be clearly manifested. Let us proceed to see some of the biblical prophecies that have been fulfilled.
There were many prophecies concerning Christ: His person in His divinity (Isa. 4:2a; 6:1, 3; Micah 5:2), His person in His humanity (Isa. 4:2b; Psa. 45:7), His incarnation (Isa. 7:14; 9:6), His youth (Isa. 53:2a; Hos. 11:1), His appearance (Isa. 52:14; 53:2), His suffering (Isa. 53:3, 8, 10), His living (Isa. 42:1-4), His death (Isa. 53:5-10, 12; Dan. 9:26), His burial (Isa. 53:9), His resurrection (Psa. 2:6-7), His ascension (Isa. 52:13), and His second coming (Isa. 62:11-12; 64:1-5; 66:15; Dan. 7:13-14; Zech. 14:3-5). All these prophecies were spoken between 700 and 4,000 years before Christ. The earliest prophecy of Christ’s coming was spoken by God to Adam in Genesis 3:15 immediately after the fall of man. That was recorded about 1,500 years before Christ came. Except for His second coming, all the other prophecies concerning Christ were fulfilled about two thousand years ago.
There were many prophecies concerning the children of Israel and the nation of Israel: the formation of the nation (Gen. 15:5; 18:18), the slavery of the people (Gen. 15:13-14; Exo. 3:8-10), the exodus (Gen. 15:13-14), the possession of the good land (Gen. 12:7; 15:18; Deut. 11:8, 24), the building of the temple (2 Sam. 7:12-13), the falling away (Deut. 31:29), the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem (Jer. 26:6; 27:11-22), the captivity in Babylon (Jer. 25:8-11), the rebuilding of the temple and the city of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:25a), the destruction of the temple and the city again (Matt. 24:2; Luke 19:41-44), the restoration of the nation (Matt. 24:32), the repossession of the city (Jer. 16:14-15; 23:3; 29:10; 30:1-3; Luke 21:24), the rebuilding of the temple (Dan. 11:31), the deception of the Antichrist (Dan. 9:27; Rev. 19:20), the salvation of Immanuel (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14), and the age of the restored kingdom of Israel (Isa. 65:17-20; Zech. 14:16-19; Rom. 11:26).
The prophecy about the nation of Israel was first spoken around 2000 B.C. It was recorded in Genesis 12:2. God prophesied to Abraham that a nation would come out of him even though he did not have a son. This prophecy was fulfilled about five hundred years later when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, where they had been enslaved.
The prophecies concerning the possession of the good land and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple were first fulfilled between 1500 and 500 B.C.
The nation of Israel was reformed in 1948, about 2,600 years after she had been conquered by the Babylonian army. Jerusalem was returned to Israel in 1967.
The Jewish people currently have all the material ready to rebuild the temple. This prophecy should be fulfilled soon. Following the rebuilding of the temple, the Antichrist will break his covenant with Israel, the nation of Israel will be besieged, and the Lord will come back to save His people. Finally, the restored kingdom of Israel will begin.
The Lord prophesied at around 600 B.C. in Ezekiel 26:3-5, 12, 14, “Behold, I am against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee as the sea causeth its waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.” “...and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the waters.” “And I will make thee a bare rock; thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets; thou shalt be built no more: for I Jehovah have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah.”
Tyre was an ancient city near the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The inhabitants were Phoenicians. They were famous for sailing, trading, and exploration. The city wall was very thick. It was strategically located in the ancient world. At a time when the city seemed invincible, the Bible prophesied concerning its destruction because of the sinful practices of its inhabitants.
The fulfillment of this prophecy took place in three different stages. First, the Babylonian army besieged Tyre for thirteen years beginning in 587 B.C. The city was totally destroyed. The new city of Tyre was built on an island one mile from its former site. Second, 240 years after the Babylonian siege, Alexander’s army laid the stone, timber, and dust from the ruins of the old city of Tyre into the water, constructed a road to the island, and attacked the new Tyre. Third, after years of being washed by rain, the bare rock appeared and fishermen used it as a place for spreading their nets.