Fulfilled Prophecy

In the mid-nineteenth century, German Protestant theologian Julius Wellhausen delivered a bomb to the doorstep of the church that is still going off. Wellhausen's systematic critique of the Bible, which was later known as the "higher criticism," consisted of searching for the rational "evolution" of scripture. Instead of divine revelation, Wellhausen inferred, men had constructed the Bible to meet their own needs and prejudices. As Wellhausen's approach seeped into the seminaries and divinity schools, the whole idea of God's authorship became moot:

If man alone wrote the Bible, then man needed to reinterpret it according to man's intellectual growth and changing conditions....By the late 1990s, many mainstream churches had ditched "The Old Rugged Cross" and struck up the siren songs of the Me Generation, in which God, it is said, dwells in all of us. Since we have godlike perception, we need self-made rules that fit each of us best. Like infected tonsils, New Age priests and priestesses set out with enthusiasm to taint the rest of the Body of Christ and the larger culture with the disease of relativism (pp. xxii-xxiii).

A Great Contrast "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14). "Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22).

Questions Is the Bible the word of God? Did God have it written in a way intended to cause each of us to be able to see His expectations for our lives in the same way? Or, did the Almighty expect each of us, through our own experience and intellect, to respond to whatever it might mean to us individually? Ultimately, with so many saying the Bible means so many different things, one question must be answered. Can we trust the Bible?

Accurate Prophecies Prove the Bible Is From God The criteria of true prophecy has been listed as the following: The event must be beyond the power of man to foresee; it must not be a vision of hope nor a result of fear; it must not be a scientific or political forecast. The prediction must be written before the event occurs and must be applicable to it. The language of the prophecy must be clear and the fulfillment plain (George W. DeHoff, Why We Believe the Bible, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1966, p. 70).

Rely on God’s Prophecies God challenged his people to, “Show the things that are to come hereafter, That we may know that you are gods...” (Isaiah 41:23a). In contrast, the true God could say, “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).

Prophecy Concerning Babylon Isaiah 13 (written around 700 B. C.) –Babylon was still being ruled by a viceroy appointed by the Assyrians, which may explain Hezekiah’s boastful approach to the Babylonian embassy sent to him (2 Kings 20:12-19; Isaiah 39) –Isaiah looked forward to a time when a powerful Babylon (walls 3 chariots abreast could race on and hanging gardens) would be thoroughly defeated by the Medes, foretelling of a city that would be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and left uninhabited –Jerusalem conquered 587 and the Medes attacked Babylon in 539

God Called Cyrus by Name Isaiah wrote before the time of Judah’s captivity, yet he foretold the restoration to the land of promise God foretold Cyrus’ role in this 100 years before his birth and 150 years before he would release God’s people – Isaiah 44:28-45:7

Prophecies of Nahum and Obadiah Nahum wrote extensively of the destruction of Nineveh “Obadiah is a prophecy directed at the Edomites in which it is declared that (a) the heathen would conquer them, and (b) the Jews would conquer them” (Bernard Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences, Chicago: Moody Press, 1953, p. 103). –Both of these came to pass.

Prophecies of Amos and Micah Amos (755 B. C.) spoke of the defeat of Damascus by Tiglath-Pileser (732 B. C.) –Foretold the defeat of Gaza, Ashdod and Ashkelon by three kings (Hezekiah, Sennacherib and Alexander the Great) Micah (730 B. C.) predicted the destruction of Samaria (712 B. C.) and Jerusalem (587 B. C.) –Sargon (722 B. C.) captured Samaria – “Samaria was on a hill and the stones may be found today literally poured down the side of the mountain, and the foundations of the city will be found to be discovered, i.e., laid bare” (Ramm, p. 105).

Prophecies Against Tyre Ezekiel was a captive led away with King Jehoiachin in 599 BC (Ezekiel 1:1-3; 2 Kings 24:8-16). He received his call to be a prophet in the fifth year of exile (595 BC) and continued to prophesy for at least 22 years (29:17). In chapter 26, he prophesied against Tyre. –Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Tyre for some 13 years and left the mainland city in ruins. –The people fled to an island, about a half mile off shore and lived there in some safety because her enemies did not have ships to use in an attack.

Alexander the Great and Tyre In 322 BC, Alexander the Great came against Tyre and, in a most ingenious manner, overcame the problem which had stalled Nebuchadnezzar. He tore down the ruins of the old mainland city and used its stones, timbers and topsoil to construct a land bridge over to the island! Even this, however, was in fulfillment of prophecy. Ezekiel had said of Tyre’s enemies: “They shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the waters.” (Ezek. 26:12). And today the site of the old mainland city is nothing more than barren rock where fishermen can be seen to spread their nets! The city has never been rebuilt (Shelly, p. 24)!

The Salvation of the Gentiles For the Jews, no prophecy may be more distasteful or unlikely than the one made in Malachi 1:11. “‘For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every place incense shall be offered to My name, And a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations,’ Says the Lord of hosts.” The clear fulfillment of these words took place in the church after Jesus had broken down the middle wall of partition and Gentiles over the whole world offered acceptable worship to God.