Bible prophecy is the idea that the Christian Bible contains statements of events that have not yet occurred. Fulfilled prophecies are frequently cited by believers as signs that the Scriptures can be trusted. This article examines significant propheices that Christians and Jews believe were fulfilled throughout history and interprets the significance of each one. For instance: hundreds of passages in the Old Testament are conventionally connected to the life of Jesus. We also look at the prophecies concerning ancient nations (such as Babylon) and Jerusalem and match them up with what we know from history and archaeology. Prominent examples are Isaiah’s prophesy concerning the fall of Babylon and Jesus’ prediction concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. Lastly, we conclude with some reflections on the nature of prophecy as indicated by verified fulfillments.
What Old Testament prediction is later fulfilled in the New Testament?
Many of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible predicted a messiah, which the New Testament directly links to Jesus. Micah, for example, says that a ruler would come out of Bethlehem, and Matthew quotes this to narrate Jesus’ birth there. Matthew also utilizes Isaiah’s “virgin birth” prophecy with regard to Jesus. Christian apologists tick off dozens of these parallels; some conservative estimates put the number of Old Testament verses that prophesied Jesus’s life and death at more than 300. These specificities include the Messiah’s lineage (from David), his miracles, his suffering and his victory over death. For believers such confirmed prophecies (“Here’s Jesus in Nazareth as ‘prophet from Galilee’) support the notion that New Testament events fulfill the promissory statements of God.
What prophecies explained of the destruction of Babylon and how were they fulfilled?
Isaiah and Jeremiah were among the prophets who foretold the destruction of Babylon. So Isaiah famously cries out: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen!” On the day of its fall, Isaiah’s description is consistent with what we know of such things, and extrabiblical inscriptions describe Babylon’s gods being “shattered” and the city being “broken in.” Isaiah likens Babylon to Sodom and Gomorrah in that it “will never be inhabited,” consistent with the city’s post-biblical desolation. Jeremiah also cited that Judah would “serve the king of Babylon seventy years” and return afterward. In fact, some 70 years after exile began the Persian king Cyrus authorized a decree for Jews to return, thus fulfilling the prophecy. The very name “Cyrus” is actually mentioned in Isaiah in the context of a prophecy that Persia would free the Jews and facilitate the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Such correspondences between ancient predictions and subsequent events are viewed by some as strong evidence of predictive prophecy.
Which predictions did Jesus make about the destruction of Jerusalem, and how were they fulfilled?
Jesus had predicted the fall of Jerusalem, declaring “not one stone shall be left upon another.” 2 The Book of Daniel also contains a similar prophecy that the Messiah should be “cut off” and afterward the city and sanctuary be destroyed. Christians though, take this to mean that the Messiah’s death (the time of which they also place around AD 30) would come followed by the destruction of Jerusalem. In fact, historically accurate records describe how in the year 70 AD, Roman armies invaded Jerusalem, destroying the Temple – precisely as Jesus had predicted. But archaeologists and historians attest to the city’s total destruction in A.D. 70. So Daniel’s timeline and the prophecy of Jesus coalesce, Jerusalem destroyed after the time of the Messiah.
What are the archaeological proofs to support these fulfillments?
Indeed, archeology has discovered evidence that supports the biblical narratives describing these prophecies. For instance, an excavation under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem led to the discovery of a sealed cistern which includes cooking pots and an oil lamp from around 70 CE. Both of these finds indicate that individuals secreted food and light into the underground during the siege of Jerusalem, in accordance with the Gospel accounts and with other histories of the 70 CE conquest. Discoveries like these give visuality to Jesus’s prophecy of siege and destruction.
Archaeology also testifies to the lives of several significant figures in biblical prophecy stories. In 1990, an ornate ossuary inscribed “Joseph son of Caiaphas” was discovered in one tomb. A set of remains in the area is believed to be those of the high priest Caiaphas (AD 18–36), who presided over trial of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. Similarly, an inscription called the Pilate Stone dating to the first century and encompassed Caesarea Maritima where the wording “Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea” is written. This verifies the title and role for Pilate, in agreement with the Gospel image of the Roman procurator. These finds add more evidence to the historical credibility of prophecy fulfillment related events.
What are we to think of biblical prophecy?
The Bible prophecy is essentially a message from God directly delivered by specific spokesmen. Prophets frequently addressed problems in their own time while describing future occurrences. Bad thing will happen, we were told—and, significantly, prophetic warnings were most often conditional. For example, in “forty days” Jonah warned Nineveh of disaster, but “when Nineveh repented,‘God changed his mind about the destruction that he had planned to bring upon them.’” Prophets would frequently speak of a “possible future” that would come about if people continued to do wrong. In short, prophecy frequently takes the “If you do X, then Y will happen” paradigm. If it is fulfilled the prophecy is proved true; repentence averts disaster. Accordingly, fulfilled prophecy generally represents the fulfillment in history of divine threats, not so much some immutable fate.
Additional Queries about Biblical Prophesy
What is the different in prophecy between “foretelling” and “forthtelling”?
Biblical prophecy would include both “foretelling” (foretelling future events) and “forthtelling” (proclaiming God’s message for the here-and-now). They did both in practice, however. The prophet was first and foremost God’s “mouthpiece,” speaking to immediate morally and spiritually pressing issues even if employing symbolic or future language. Most biblical prophecy is not only about the distant future but also about calling people to repentance and righteousness in their own time.
Old Testament prophecies: Conditional or absolute?
But many OT prophecies were linguistic conditions, i.e., where God threatened to take action based on what “he would do” IF men didn’t repent and change their ways. Prophets frequently insisted, “if you repent, God will relent.” The fact that OT history testifies that, whenever people did take the warning seriously, the foretold disaster was postponed or averted ( e.g., the alternating judgments on Israel) makes these calls all the more valuable. This provisional nature is an important aspect of why prophecies can appear to have been fulfilled only in hindsight.
How do academics confirm biblical prophecies have come true?
To judge a prophecy has been fulfilled, academics compare prophecy details with non-partisan historical fact or knowledge. When things like dates, names, and events match, the match becomes more credible. For example, the correspondence of Isaiah’s description of the fall of Babylon to the 689 Assyrian campaign is thought meaningful. Similarly, items and inscriptions (e.g., the siege pots of Jerusalem and Pilate Stone) place Gospel narratives within the context of empirical evidence. While skeptics might try to appeal to “coincidence” or “reinterpretation,” archaelogical and documentary evidence has often vindicated prophetic claims in very actual sense.
How is it that some of the biblical prophecies appears not to have been fulfilled so far?
Some prophecies seem to have failed because they were conditional or represent a figure of prophecy. If it wasn’t, it isn’t prophesy as we know it May not be literally fulfilled. Some of these concern either remote or obscure events (as the visions of the apocalypse ) the completion of which is but partial, or still future. Ezekiel, for instance, predicted that Jerusalem would be destroyed, but he also predicted the temple would be restored; the city, the temple were destroyed, but the restoration is typically understood espiritually or there is eschatologically awaiting a future fulfillment. So-called “unfulfilled” prophecies usually have more to do with the subtlety of prophecy than with mistake.
What is the difference between Jewish and Christian interpretations of prophecy?
The prophets of the Bible are, after all, accepted by both Christians and Jews as bearers of God’s revelation. But they differ on the meaning of some prophecies, particularly messianic ones. In Judaism the Messiah has never come, and many prophecies about him in Judaism either reflect the everyday concerns of their audience or are understood to have been fulfilled in the person of Jesus. In the Christian faith, Jesus is regarded as having fulfilled numerous prophecies in the Old Testament. Even historical sources record that leaders among the Jews of the first century associated some of their messianic prophecies with the town of Bethlehem, where Christians say Jesus met fulfillment of these expectations. Hence, the same oracles form the common basis of both religions, but they are differently explained.
