Seek The Lord!

If you are at all interested in prophecy, you may have heard of Nostradamus. Nostradamus was a French physician and astrologer who lived in the first half of the 16th century. He wrote a bunch of four-line verses, called quatrains. His followers claim that these quatrains predict the future.

Here is an example of one of Nostradamus’ quatrains:

From the human flock nine will be sent away,
Separated from judgment and counsel:
Their fate will be sealed on departure
Kappa, Theta, Lambda the banished dead err.

Nostradamus’ followers would claim that this quatrain predicts the explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle on January 28, 1986. The astronauts were “sent away” from the rest of the nation to go to space, but didn’t realize that a defective O-ring would cause their shuttle to crash even before leaving the atmosphere. In this way their fate was sealed on departure. The company that manufactured the defective O-ring was Thiokol, a name that includes the ‘k,’ ‘th’ and ‘l’ sounds present in the last verse of this quatrain. Does this prove that Nostradamus could predict the future?

Hardly. What makes this prophecy extremely doubtful is that it was seven astronauts that were sent out, not nine. The other details of the quatrain don’t seem to make sense (such as “separated from judgment and counsel” as well as “the banished dead err”) and the entire quatrain is so vague that it can be twisted to apply to any number of events with enough creativity.

In contrast to the prophecies of Nostradamus, biblical prophecies are shockingly accurate and specific. This article will share just four prophecies out of hundreds made in the Old and New Testaments. The incredible nature of these prophecies should bear significant weight as you attempt to make a decision regarding the truth of the Bible and the God of the Bible.

Psalm 22

This is a psalm about a man suffering at the hands of evil men. It was probably written around 1000 BC by King David, although people who are skeptical about the Bible might say it was written later. It is beyond all controversy, however, that this psalm was written before 250 BC because it is included in the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The date of the Septuagint is undisputed by biblical scholars.

This psalm mirrors the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which happened around 30 AD. The following list is a comparison between verses in Psalm 22 and verses in the various gospels, which describe the crucifixion event.

Psalm 22:7 “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; ‘He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!’ ”

Matthew 27:39 “And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads…”

Matthew 27:41,43 “So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying…‘He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him.’ ”

Psalm 22:16“They have pierced my hands and feet”

Luke 23:33 “And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him” (crucifixion involved driving nails through the hands and feet)

Psalm 22:18 “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

John 19:23-24 “When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.’ "

Taken individually these Old Testament verses and their New Testament fulfillments are impressive, but considering that Jesus’ death fulfilled all of these prophecies at once, the evidence is overwhelming. Consider that Jesus and his followers could not have possibly orchestrated all the details of Psalm 22’s fulfillment - even if they had wanted to.

Isaiah 45

Isaiah was a prophet who lived during the decline of Israel and the rise of the Assyrian Empire (740-700 BC). He predicted the overthrow of the Northern and Southern kingdoms of Israel as well as Israel’s restoration. Isaiah was probably written around 700 BC.

In the 45th chapter of Isaiah’s book, Isaiah communicates to us the message he has received from God. Isaiah 45:1 says “Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings…” and Isaiah 45:13 says “‘I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

What is remarkable about this passage is that it gives the specific name of the ruler that God would use to free his people from captivity. And sure enough, Babylon sacked Jerusalem about 120 years later (586 BC) and sent the Israelites into exile. They remained in bondage until a Persian ruler defeated Babylon and freed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild it. That Persian ruler’s name was Cyrus - a well-documented historical fact.

What this prophecy proves is that the Bible can reliably predict the future, even something as specific as the name of a king and his actions - a king who would be born about 150 years after the prophecy was made! It also proves that the God who inspired men to write the Bible takes an active interest in history and is sovereign over history.

Daniel 11

Daniel 11 is an incredible chapter. It is so incredible that scholars have done everything they can to reinterpret this passage as anything but genuine prophecy. The book of Daniel was written by Daniel himself, one of several young Israelite men who were exiled in 605 BC to Babylon and chosen to serve in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court. When the Persians conquered the Babylonians in 539 BC, Daniel was again given a position of power. The book was probably composed around 530 BC.

Daniel 11:2-4 says “And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.”

After Cyrus the Persian, mentioned in Daniel 10:1, the above passage predicts the rise of three kings. These kings are Cambyses (529-523), Gaumata (523-522), and Darius (522-485). The fourth king, who is prophesied to “stir up all” against the kingdom of Greece, predicts the campaign of Xerxes, who had an army of one million men (as estimated by the ancient historian Herodotus). The mighty king that is predicted next in this passage is Alexander the Great whose kingdom was divided into four parts. Macedonia and Greece were ruled by Antipater and his son Cassander, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) was ruled by Lysimachus, Asia was ruled by Seleucus Nicator, and Egypt and Palestine was ruled by Ptolemy. None of these men were a descendant of Alexander. In fact, Alexander’s son, Alexander IV, was murdered in 310 BC. These events, occurring two hundred years or more after Daniel was written, are accurately described and predicted by the biblical text!

Daniel 11:5-20 accurately predicts the wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, and Daniel 11:21-35 prophesies the persecution of the Jewish people under Antiochus Epiphanes. Daniel 11:31 says that “forces from him [Antiochus Epiphanes] shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering.” This happened exactly as predicted in December of 168 BC, a full 360 years after Daniel prophesied about it!

Predictions of Jesus

Finally, consider a prophesy of Jesus. Luke 21:5-6 records a conversation that Jesus had. It says, “And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down’.”

Jesus’ prediction of the temple’s destruction was made during his earthly ministry, most probably around 30 AD. This prophecy would not come to pass until 70 AD when the Roman general Titus destroyed the entire city of Jerusalem in response to a Jewish revolt. His destruction of the city and temple was so complete that it could accurately be said that not one stone was left remaining on top of another.

The fulfillment of this prophecy confirms that Jesus was a prophet. He had the ability to know and predict the future - an ability that God had given to Daniel, Isaiah, and other Old Testament prophets as well. But what separates Jesus from the rest was that he claimed to be God. The Jews understood Jesus’ claims to be God because on several occasions they wanted to stone him, which was the penalty for blasphemy. So, either they were right and Jesus deserved to be punished for his egomaniacal claims, or he was truly God in the flesh, the ultimate prophet of God.

What does one do with these prophecies?

Here are a few objections that you might have to what has just been offered.

Objection #1 - The prophecies are unclear or too general, and/or the fulfillment of these prophecies is coincidental.

At the beginning of this article we looked at one of the “prophecies” of Nostradamus. We concluded that the quatrain in question was far too vague, and that it was either inaccurate in detail or didn’t make complete sense. Can the same accusation be made of the biblical prophecies?

We think it has been demonstrated from the above examples that if nothing else, the biblical prophecies cannot be charged with being unclear or vague. As we saw, multiple details of the crucifixion were predicted in Psalm 22, the exact name of a Persian king and his actions were prophesied in Isaiah 45, historical details were predicted in Daniel 11 and Jesus prophesied the complete destruction of the temple. Any one of these prophecies would be remarkable on its own, but the combined weight and accuracy of all these prophecies, and the perhaps hundreds more in the Bible demolish any possibility that the biblical prophecies were either too vague or too general to be authentic. And of course, given the specific details within each prophecy, the objection that these prophecies’ fulfillment was coincidental also becomes unreasonable.

Objection #2 - The writers of Scripture somehow twisted their written portrayal of events in order to fit the prophecies.

Someone might object that as the disciples recorded the crucifixion, they deliberately fabricated the details of the event so that it would fulfill Psalm 22 and other OT Scripture. In essence, this objection accuses the writers of the Bible of fabrication and manipulation for religious purposes. This is a serious accusation. If the biblical writers were deceiving those to whom they wrote, they cannot be trusted at all, and the biblical prophecies would not be true.

The first response to this objection is that a conspiracy in the composition and spread of the biblical writings of the magnitude necessary to convincingly deceive the number of eyewitnesses available at that time (esp. those who were willing to undergo great persecution for their belief in the voracity of these claims) is highly doubtful. It is extremely unlikely that an event as public as the crucifixion could be manipulated or misrepresented without reaction and exposure.

Secondly, because some of the events in the biblical text were confirmed by external historical events, this charge cannot adequately account for the fulfillment of most of the biblical prophecies.

Objection #3 - The biblical prophecies were written after the fact, that is, after what they predicted had already happened.

This is probably the most common objection to the authenticity of the biblical prophecies. Most people who argue against the biblical prophecies assume this objection by default, but there doesn’t seem to be much support for this default position.

This objection was widely dismissed or never considered until the time of the Enlightenment. The reason that this objection has become popular is not because evidence for the late dating of the biblical material has surfaced, but because people began to doubt the possibility of prophecy at all. If you believe in a world without the supernatural, then you must explain the biblical prophecies in some way, and this was the easiest way to do it.

The first thing that could be said to this objection is that regardless of how “scholars” present the biblical prophecies, the Bible itself presents these prophecies as predictions made about the future.

Isaiah 46:9-10 says, “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 not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”

In this passage, God’s ability to know, predict, and control the future are all characteristics that separate him from other “gods.” These claims would not make sense if the prophecies contained in Isaiah, or anywhere else in the Bible, were written after the event had already happened. Again, if we say that the writers of the Bible intentionally wrote prophecies after the event and made them look as if they were recorded before the event, then the Bible would be the most deceptive and manipulative piece of religious propaganda in history.

There are other reasons to believe that the older, traditional dates for the biblical prophecies are reliable. Take, for example, the incredible chapter of Daniel 11 that we looked at earlier. Those that believe that genuine predictive prophecy can’t happen have no way to explain this text. So what they do is assign a later date for the composition of Daniel. They claim that it was written after 165 BC when all of the things about which Daniel “prophesied” had already happened.

There are a few reasons, though, that this late date for Daniel is improbable. First of all, the language used in Daniel points to an earlier, Persian date because of the conspicuous absence of Greek loan words in the Aramaic text. If the book of Daniel had really been written in 2nd century Palestine as the critics claim, then we would expect to find the Aramaic containing many more words borrowed from the Greek.

This is confirmed with the recent discovery of the Genesis Apocryphon, a 2nd or 3rd century Aramaic document that shows a significantly later development of the Aramaic language. The word order in the Aramaic of this document also vastly differs from Daniel. This evidence points to a date for Daniel earlier than the 2nd or 3rd century. The Hebrew of Daniel (Daniel was written partly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic) also shows dissimilarities with other 2nd century Hebrew prose.

Secondly, there is internal evidence that makes a date of about 165 BC unlikely. The book of Daniel predicts the rise of a fourth kingdom that will wipe out all others. The straightforward reading of Daniel predicts the Roman Empire as this fourth kingdom, which would still leave scholars who suggest a date of 165 BC with a problem. To avoid this, they normally twist the obvious reading of the text to make it predict kingdoms that have already been established by 165 BC.

There are more internal problems, however, for those who offer a late date for Daniel. In the book of Daniel, the author refers to the city of Susa being in the province of Elam (Daniel 8:2), states that the new Babylon was the creation of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:30), and tells us that Belshazzar was functioning as king when Cyrus took Babylon in 538 (Daniel 5). These facts are attested to by Babylonian cuneiform records. However, the Babylonian records would not have been available to a 2nd century writer in Palestine. In fact, there is no way to explain how the author would have known these lost historical details unless he was present in Babylonia in the sixth century!

So what?

If you have read through this entire article, you now have a decision to make. The first option would to be skeptical of the biblical prophecies. If you make this decision, you’ll be in good company. You can join the rank of many “scholars” who have decided to write off the supernatural and are forced to weasel out of implications of the biblical prophecies by denying them somehow. But just keep in mind that you will have to jump through a lot of hoops and manipulation of the biblical text in order to pull it off.

The other option would be to give the Bible a straightforward, honest reading and take the prophecies for what they are. If you approach the Bible with this attitude you will quickly come to see that there must be a God who exists and can know, predict, and control the future. And this God must make himself and his power known to people. As was mentioned earlier, the biblical prophecies are meant to show you that there is no one like God (Isaiah 46:9-10). Our hope is that you would come to know this God and trust in him. If he knows and controls the future, your trust in him will not be put to shame.

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