Background

• The Bible has predicted great events in the past which could never have been predicted by chance.
• There is strong evidence for the Bible predating the events it predicted.
• God is real. View our Atheism and Agnosticism pages if you are unsure of this.
• Since God is real, he can do miracles, including predicting events that no man could predict.
• If God exists, and he gave you the power to wonder about His existence and to do good or evil, why should you be surprised if he sent you a message in the most popular book of all time?

The Bible is split into two parts. The first part, Old Testament, is heavily focused on the coming of the Messiah and the story of the Israelites. Since the Messiah has come and the God of Israel has spread the message of His Son throughout the world, many of the prophecies from the Old Testament have already been fulfilled. The New Testament's prophecies are mostly about the end of the world, which has not happened yet, clearly. Nevertheless, we can look to a number of prophecies that were fulfilled a long time ago and see remarkable proof of divine knowledge. The first example is a good one.

The Destruction of the Temple

Jesus said that not one stone of the temple in Jerusalem would be left upon another, and lo and behold, within 40 years, the temple was torn down completely by the Romans. The state of the current site of the temple is easily found online, and the prophecy is below:

"Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 'Do you see all these things?' he asked. 'Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.'" (Matthew 24:1–3)

How can we be sure this prediction was made before the temple's demise?

One very compelling reason is that it is never mentioned that the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed in any of the New Testament books. The reason this is such strong proof is that the New Testament authors were Jewish, and when Rome took their capital, slaughtered 1.1 million people, enslaved others, and scattered the rest, it would have unquestionably been a central issue and topic of discussion. To the Jews at the time, this was like the Holocaust.

Secondly, but just as importantly, in the gospels, the authors point out the moments when prophecies were fulfilled, so why wouldn't they mention that this prophecy of Jesus had been fulfilled since? Therefore, it is virtually certain that the gospels were written before 70 AD, when the temple was destroyed.

The Prophecies about the Messiah in Psalm 22

On the cross, Jesus's followers have always maintained that he said, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?', which is the first proper line in Psalm 22. Now you may wonder why would he quote this Psalm on the cross. The answer is immediately obvious if you read it. For instance, before crucifixion was invented, the character in the psalm says, 'They pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.' These are unusually specific details about what Roman crucifixions involved, and there are more. Furthermore, gentiles (non-Jews) are predicted to turn to the God of Israel because of what was done through the Messiah—because of this death and His being rescued from it.

Note that most Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah, so it is unsurprising that the passage I quoted from above causes them particular disquietude. The stock response is that the verse does not say 'they pierce my hands and my feet', but 'like a lion, my hands and my feet.' You may notice that the latter is a badly written sentence, which is not in keeping with the word of God. In addition, the oldest copies of the psalm that exist (older than Jesus) say pierce, not like a lion. If you were a powerful Jew who hated Christians and needed to hide one of their pieces of evidence from other Jews, lest they turn to Christianity, you might make the one-letter change to future copies of the Bible required to muddy the waters. However, even then, lions have gigantic fangs, so the meaning is not entirely lost.

Finally, a dramatic piece of evidence exists in the prophecy: that all the ends of the Earth will turn to the Lord and that future generations will declare, 'He has done it!' My, my. What ever could this thing he was to do be alluding to? Perhaps the very crucifixion that was just also predicted? Yes indeed. And today, people all over the world worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because of the crucifixion of Jesus. Has any other act had such an extraordinary impact? Has the spread of Christianity from a small nation not been unique? And given that this prophecy is older than Jesus by carbon dating (and far older according to Jews themselves), how is all of this anything short of a miracle?

Babylon Will Be Home to Nothing But Animals

Babylon was a powerful ancient city. At one point, it was the capital of the empire that ruled most of the known world (also called Babylon). However, it was not just overthrown or taken over by outsiders; it became desolate, such that no one has lived there for thousands of years, just as the Bible predicted:

"Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; there no nomads will pitch their tents, there no shepherds will rest their flocks. But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds, jackals her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged." (Isaiah 13:19–22)

"Because of the Lord's anger, no one will live there; she will be reduced to total ruin." (Jeremiah 50:13)

"Therefore, Babylon will become a ghost town, a place for desert animals, hyenas, and ravenous birds." (Jeremiah 50:39)

Only outside of the ancient city walls have any towns or villages been set up ever since its destruction, as you can see in the video below.

Alexander the Great and His Successors

In the book of Daniel, there are several prophecies, and there is a striking one I will bring to your attention. In it, Daniel had a detailed dream describing several kingdoms that were yet to come. The kingdom of Greece was predicted conquer the Medes and Persians through one king, and then the kingdom was to split into four but lose strength. This is exactly what happened a couple of hundred years later with Alexander the great, whose kingdom was divided among his four generals after his death.

Josephus, the famous Jewish historian from the first century AD, wrote that Alexnader the Great was met by the priests of Jerusalem outside the city when he arrived there. Then, he recognized the high priest from a dream he had in Macedonia and was convinced that this dream and this man were sent by God. In it, he was told that he would be successful in conquering the Persians (and more). Therefore, he went into the city and was told about the prophecy in the book of Daniel, and he was convinced that the prophecy pertained to him.

The book of Daniel certainly troubles secular scholars, so it is often said that the prophecies in it must have been written after their fulfilment. These scholars believe there is no God, so they insist that there is trickery going on, or some other materialistic explanation. This is circular reasoning, of course, but it is often hidden behind scholarly language. (Do not be disheartened by the stern-sounding title of an academic article.)