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Christ: The Fulfillment of Prophesy

Some time ago I had the opportunity to speak to a man who had no belief whatsoever in the Scriptures
as any sort of divine revelation from God. He was a writer who was articulate and well-educated. While
he was well-read, he was completely ignorant of any evidences for the truthfulness of the Christian
faith and the Scriptures which reveal it. He said the Bible was simply a book written by men, just like
any other book. I said, “That’s very interesting. I would like to read some statements to you about
someone and have you tell me, assuredly, without question, about whom I am reading.”

He agreed, and then I began to read a couple dozen scriptures to him.

I said to him, “About whom did I read?”

He replied, “Well, you obviously read of the life and ministry and suffering and death and
resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.”

I said, “Is there any question in your mind about that?”

He answered, “No, that could refer to no one else.”

I replied, “Well then, I would want you to understand that all of the Scriptures I just read to you
are taken from the Old Testament, which was completed some four hundred years before Jesus was
born. No critic, no atheist, no agnostic has ever once claimed that any one of those writings was
written after His birth. In fact, they were translated from Hebrew into Greek in Alexandria some 150
years before He was born. If this is merely a book written by men, would you please explain to me how
these words were written?”

He said, “I haven’t the faintest idea.” He was completely nonplussed. He had never heard those
things before in his life. Indeed they cannot be explained by any purely humanistic presuppositions.

It is noteworthy that in no other religious writings in the world do we find any specific predictive
prophecies like we find in the Scripture. You will find no predictive prophecies whatsoever in the
writings of Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, Lao-Tse, or Hinduism. Yet in the Scripture there are well
over two thousand prophecies, most of which have already been fulfilled.

They are so specific in nature that they burn all the bridges behind them. If they are not fulfilled,
it leaves no room for excuse. How can these be explained? Of all the attacks that have ever been made
upon the Scripture, there has never been one book written by a skeptic to disprove the prophecies of
the Scripture. Though the Bible has been attacked at every other place, the one place where God rests
His inspiration is that the things He foretells come infallibly to pass.

The Bible prophecies are altogether unexpected! I know of no one ever prophesying that any
other human being would rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. That is exceedingly improbable.
The chance of it happening by coincidence is incalculable. No, the Bible is not merely a book written
by men; it is a book written by God through men, and the heart of its prophetic message is Jesus

Want more? Check out the Apologetics Study Bible on page xxvii or visit ApologeticsBible.com.

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