3. Fulfilled Prophecies (9)

☼ Exhibit #14: The Other Messianic Prophecies

When we discussed the evidences for Jesus as the Son of God, we analyzed the Messianic prophecies Christ fulfilled from the Old Testament. An overview of the most significant of these prophecies was presented in Table 20-1.[21] These prophecies also meet the criteria for divine inspiration of the Bible as introduced at the beginning of this chapter.

 

Analysis of the prophecies:

• All OT prophecies about the Messiah were written centuries before fulfillment. As proved by the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint, the OT texts cannot have been written later than 250 BC. Therefore all prophecies in the OT originated centuries before Christ.
• Many of the prophecies are clear and unambiguous. Some have a double interpretation, an immediate and an ultimate fulfillment. Even if we ignore the vague texts, there are still a substantial number of specific and precise prophecies that point to Christ. This list would at least include Psalm 22, Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah 7:14, Jeremiah 23:5, Micah 5:2, and Zechariah 12:10.
• Through the texts of the gospels, Paul’s epistles, and extra-Biblical sources we have historical confirmation of fulfillment of these prophecies.
• The vast majority of these prophecies lay well beyond the control of Jesus. Apart from a few exceptions, such as Zechariah 9:9 (the donkey on Palm Sunday), Jesus had no control over the events concerning Him that fulfilled the prophecies.

Together with Daniel’s “Seventy Sevens” the Messianic prophecies strongly support the claim for divine inspiration of the Bible.