Blog: Debunking Deconstruction – Is the Bible Actually Reliable? Part 3: Prophecies

In many religions around the world, prophecies are just part of the gig. In fact, the three biggest religions in the world (Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism) even have messianic prophecies though they revolve around different people, with the Christians believing in Jesus Christ as the Messiah (duh, you already knew that), the Muslims believing in Mahdi, and the Hindus believing in the Kalki Avatar, the final avatar of the god Vishnu. However, one of the biggest ways of telling if a religion is false is if their prophecies don’t come true as outlined in their religious books. Luckily for us Christians, though many end-time prophecies have yet to pass, there are an estimated 300 messianic prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled by Jesus and even more concerning later historical events. Now, while we definitely don’t have time to go through all 300 prophecies about Jesus, as well as all of the prophecies about historical events, I’ll try to focus on the big ones.

#1: Historical Prophecies

1. In Isaiah 13:19-22 and Jeremiah 51:24-26, it is said that Babylon would be destroyed and in 539 BC, Babylon did in fact fall to the Medes and Persians.
2. Nahum 1:1-3:19 accurately predicted the fall of Ninevah, with fell to the Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC.
3. Ezekiel 26:3-14 foretold the destruction of Tyre (which if you read my first post on the historicity of the Bible, you’ll know that archaeologists have confirmed that Tyre was a real place) and the coming of Alexander the Great, all of which happened, with Alexander the Great conquering Tyre in 332 BC.
4. Jeremiah 25: 11-12 prophesied that Judah would be in captivity in Babylon for seventy years and, in 586 BC, the Jews were indeed taken into Babylonian captivity and then returned in 516 BC. (For the archaeological evidence of the Babylonian siege, click here).
5. Obadiah 1:1-4 foretold the destruction of Edom, which was later conquered and destroyed by various invaders, including the Babylonians and Nabateans.
6. Isaiah 11:11-12 and Ezekiel 37: 21-22 predicted the return of the Jewish people to their homeland, which not only happened when they returned from Babylonian exile in 538 BC (and this is where it gets interesting) but also has happened more recently in 1948 with the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel in 1948.
7. In Matthew 24:1-2 and Luke 21: 20-24, Jesus not only used the Temple as an allegory for His death and resurrection, but He also was predicting the actual destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD.
8. Speed Round: Jesus predicted that Peter would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed (Matthew 26:34) and predicted His betrayal by Judas (John 13:21-26), and both predictions happened just as He had said.

#2: Messianic Prophecies

1. Isaiah 7:14 predicted that Jesus would be born of a virgin about 700 years before Jesus lived and it happened in Matthew 1:22-23. Jesus’ conception and birth from a virgin is unique from other cult beliefs during the time such as the belief that Hera bathed in the spring of Canathus to restore her virginity or that Plato was born of a virgin mother through Apollo because:
   • 1). It is unclear if Hera had to bathe before or after giving birth, making it unclear if she was a virgin while in labor, unlike Mary.
   • 2). The fact that Hera even had to bathe to restore her virginity implied that she had engaged in intercourse prior to being pregnant, unlike Mary who had never slept with a man pre-pregnancy.
   • 3). The myth surrounding Plato’s mother came about after his death and was part of a common practice in Hellenistic culture of attributing divine interference to people who were especially talented, wise, or famous, while Jesus’ birth was not only prophesied centuries before His birth, but was also there to emphasize His divine nature and role as the Messiah.
2. Micah 5:2 predicted that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, which happened in Matthew 2:1.
3. Isaiah 53:3-5 predicted the Suffering Servant, which was fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross, which we can see unfold in the Gospels.
4. Zechariah 9:9 predicted Jesus’ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey’s foal, which was fulfilled in Matthew 21:7-9.
5. Zechariah 11:12-13 predicted Jesus’ betrayal by Judas for 30 pieces of silver that was later given back to the priests of the temple who used it to buy a potter’s field. This was fulfilled in Matthew 26:14-16.
6. Psalm 22:16 prophesied that Jesus’ hands and feet would be pierced which we know happened not only from studying the bones of people who were crucified by the Romans, but also from John 20:25, where it is confirmed even more that Jesus had been pierced in his hands and feet.
7. Psalm 34:20 said “He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” This was in reference to Jesus being pierced in the side in John 19:33-36. Because Jesus was already dead, the Roman soldier stabbed Him in the side just to make sure instead of breaking His legs, as was common practice to get those who were still alive to die faster of asphyxiation.
8. Isaiah 53:9 predicted Matthew 27:57-60 which talked about how Jesus was buried with the rich in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb.
9. Isaiah 53:7 prophesied that Jesus would be silent. This happened in Matthew 27:12-14. He stayed silent and was not “Chatty Cathy” as some have said He was.
10. Isaiah 50:6 said that Jesus would be mocked and beaten, and this happened exactly as said in Matthew 26:67.

#3: End Time Prophecies

Okay, this is where things can start to sound a bit like a conspiracy theory and super weird, so I would like all of you reading this to just keep in mind that we’ve been in the end times ever since Jesus died. These prophecies can be interpreted in various ways, so if you disagree with it, that’s fine. This is one area where we can debate day and night about what we think is happening. In the words of that one meme:

Do I believe that it’s possible that some of these interpretations could be valid? Sure, though some of them are so vague that I think that there could be other ways of interpreting them. Anyway, with that little caveat out of the way….

1). Ezekiel 37: 21-22 predicted that Israel would come back, and many people believe that this was fulfilled in 1948 when the State of Israel was officially established.

2). Daniel 12:4 predicted that there would be an increase in knowledge and travel, and some interpret this as having predicted our rapid technological and transportational advancements.

3). Matthew 24: 6-7 predicts that there will be “wars and rumors of wars” and that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” A lot of people point to the numerous conflicts and wars of the 20th and 21st centuries as being evidence of this being fulfilled, though honestly, I take it as more of a warning not to be alarmed even when the world is seemingly falling apart since war has been a thing throughout human history.

4). Matthew 24:14 predicts that the Gospel would be preached to the whole world “as a testimony to all nations” and many people have seen the widespread dissemination of the Christian message as possibly fulfilling this.

5). Ezekiel 47:8-9 and Zechariah 14:8 prophecy that fresh water would flow into the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, and in 2011, researchers from Ben Gurion University discovered fresh water flowing into the Dead Sea from craters on the seafloor that are covered in microorganisms. Freshwater pools containing fish and other life forms have also been reported around the shores of the Dead Sea as well as sinkholes filled with fresh water.

Until next time,

M.J.