3. Fulfilled Prophecies (1)

What is a Prophecy?

A Biblical prophecy is the forth-telling of truth, touching not only the future, but also the present or the past. In apologetics the study of prophecies limits itself to the foretelling of events fulfilled in history, but documented down well before they happened.

Throughout history, people have sought to know future events from special individuals or groups said to have the gift of prophecy, such as the Oracles at Delphi in ancient Greece or Nostradamus (1503-1566). Nostradamus, the Latin name of Michel de Nostredame, has been one of the most famous publishers of prophecies. He is best known for his book Les Propheties[1] published in 1555. Since then, many people have been virtually obsessed with his work. His followers claim he predicted numerous world events such as the rise of Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany. However, his prophecies are questionable, to say the least. They are found in 942 quatrains (four-line poems) which are cryptic, confusing, and quite imaginative. For instance his most famous quatrain about Hitler and Nazi Germany reads as follows:

“Beasts ferocious from hunger will swim across rivers:
The greater part of the region will be against the Hister,
The great one will cause it to be dragged in an iron cage,
When the German child will observe nothing.”

What does this mean? Basically, it’s anyone’s guess. Believers of Nostradamus insist that “the Hister” describes Hitler, and the “Beasts ferocious from hunger” refer to Germany during WWII. This type of creative interpretation is used to link a number of his many quatrains to world events. However, the great majority of his predictions have not happened yet, and those supposed to have happened are at best dimly vague and darkly cryptic. The vast majority of serious scholars reject them as “unintelligible and garbled by the uninitiated.” [2]

Nostradamus demonstrates the ageless intrigue of prophecy.  In addition, it also reminds us that a true prophet must present hard, objective, solid, and non-disputed evidence, since accurate prophecies are not possible in the natural world. Only one with perfect knowledge of the future can prophesy correctly. Obviously that is possible only for God.

Fulfilled prophecies can be hotly debated, but they are exceptionally strong evidence for the credibility of the Bible as God’s word. Doubted and debated by critics, prophecy demands solid evidence; nothing less is convincing. Fulfilled prophecies contained in the Bible demonstrate that Holy Scripture is truly God’s Word.  No other book has ever been able – beyond objective, reasonable doubt – to uncover the future.

Since prophecies attract intense skepticism, we will apply some tough criteria:

• Written before fulfillment: It has to be proved that the prophecy was written down well before the predicted event would have occurred.

• Unambiguous: The prophecy has to be clear and its meaning beyond dispute. Vague wording open for multiple interpretations could be genuine, but such prophecies will not be considered in this analysis.

• Historically fulfilled: The fulfillment of the prophecy has to be historically recorded, not open to misinterpretation, and carry some significance.
• No intentional fulfillment: The fulfillment has to be beyond control of any involved party, that is, it could not have been an intentional fulfillment.

Not all prophecies that fail to meet these criteria can be rejected as genuine! Not at all. However, critics will insist that unless it can be demonstrated beyond doubt that a prophecy meets these criteria, it could have been invented by the writer or intentionally fulfilled.  Thus it would not “count.”

A well-known prophecy written around 520 BC by the prophet Zechariah illustrates this point. The prophet foretold that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem on a donkey: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion ! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem ! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).  All four gospels record its fulfillment on Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. However, the gospels are also clear that Jesus initiated the event, intentionally fulfilling this prophecy. Hence this foretold presentation of the Messiah on a donkey remains a genuine prophecy and its fulfillment valid, but critics deny it supports divine inspiration. The fulfillment can be explained by actions of men, they insist, so therefore God is not necessarily behind it. 

There are hundreds of prophecies in Christian Scripture [3]. Commonly they are divided into two categories; those related to Jesus (Messianic prophecies) and those not related to Jesus (non-Messianic prophecies).

Before we continue this discussion, it is beneficial to recall that the following facts and dates are beyond any competent scholarly dispute:

• All books of the Old Testament were written before 250 BC. This is proved by the Septuagint translation, which began as early as 285 BC, so to be safe, set the date of the translation at 250 BC. Any translation demands first an original to-be-translated text.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls contain fragments of every book of the OT, with the single exception of Esther. This provides physical (extant) manuscript evidence, demonstrating these books were available in Hebrew well before the birth of Christ.
• The gospels, Acts, and Paul’s epistles were all written before 100 AD. Individual books have earlier non-disputed dates.