People like trying to predict the future. Millions still consult their horoscope every day. As New Year’s approaches, publications will be filled with predictions for 2025.
What’s amazing about human prophecies is how often they end up being incorrect.
Many years ago, at the beginning of a new year, I asked an adult Sunday school class attended by about 60 people or so to write down a prediction of something that would take place that particular year. I too wrote something down. At the end of the year, I then asked everyone to review what they had written down to see if any of them had predicted anything that actually happened. And there was no one who prophesied something that took place. No, not one. Including me.
Have you ever noticed how often the “experts” get it wrong? For example, consider these “prophecies” made by various people:
• “There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear] energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” – Dr. Albert Einstein, 1932
• “‘Gone with the Wind’ is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m just glad Clark Gable will be the one falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” – Gary Cooper, 1938
• “I do not consider Hitler to be as bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability that is amazing, and he seems to be gaining his victories without much bloodshed.” – Mahatma Gandhi, May 1940
• “You ain’t goin’ nowhere … son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” – Jim Denny, manager of the Grand Old Opry, firing Elvis Presley after one performance, Sept. 25, 1954
But in contrast to all this, the Old Testament – which the Jews call the Hebrew Bible – contains many prophecies which Jesus Christ fulfilled. That includes promises that touch on the original Christmas. When you look at the Old Testament, we see different statements about the coming one who will be the Savior.
A holiday favorite is Handel’s “Messiah.” This beautiful concert, first performed in 1742, resonates with many hearers, and it has throughout the ages. The fascinating thing about “Messiah” is that all the lyrics are Scripture. They all point to Jesus as the Christ, meaning “The Anointed One” – ultimately the Messiah.
Joel Woodruff of the C.S. Lewis Institute says this about Handel’s “Messiah”: “The libretto includes 81 Bible verses from 14 different books of the Bible, with the most coming from the book of Isaiah (21 verses).” 46 verses come from the Old Testament, while 35 come from the New. The Old Testament was completed c. 400 BC. 21 of the prophecies about Jesus in “Messiah” come from Isaiah, which was written about 700 to 750 years before Jesus.
Former skeptical journalist (Chicago Tribune) turned pastor and professor, Lee Strobel, once gave an analogy to the detailed predictions of Christ’s suffering and crucifixion in Isaiah 53, written 700 years before the event: “That’s like my trying to predict how the Cubs will do in the year 2693.” (Lee Strobel, “Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry & Mary,” 1993, p. 36).
One source shows 350 Old Testament predictions about Christ, fulfilled in the New Testament.
Consider just a few examples this Christmas season:
• Writing about 700 B.C., Micah the prophet stated: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”
• Luke 2 explains how God arranged the circumstances in the lives of Mary and Jesus’ step-father, Joseph, to get them to Bethlehem for the fulfillment of this prophesy.
• Writing also about 750-700 B.C., Isaiah, prophesied, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
• Isaiah also wrote, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
The vast majority of the prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament focus on His death for our sins. If you have heard “Messiah,” perhaps you remember the stirring choral number, based on this verse, also from Isaiah: “All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all.”
There are several reasons I believe the Bible is the Word of God, and fulfilled prophecies is one of those. Only God knows the future. Only God could have written the Bible.
Christmas is a grand miracle. And to think, it was all foretold hundreds of years before it came to pass. Merry Christmas!
