EVANGELICAL BIBLE COLLEGE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
EVANGELICAL BIBLE COLLEGE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
PROPHECY
250 BIBLICAL PROPHECIES.
AND
THEIR FULFILLMENTS
by
DR PETER MOSES
[BOOK 116]
JUNE 2006
WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?
Professor Simon Greenleaf was one of the most eminent lawyers of all time. His “Laws of Evidence” for many years were accepted by all States in the United States as the standard methodology for evaluating cases. He was teaching law at a university in the United States when one of his students asked Professor Greenleaf if he would apply his “Laws of Evidence” to evaluate an historical figure. When Greenleaf agreed to the project he asked the student who was to be the subject of the review. The student replied that the person to be examined would be Jesus Christ. Professor Greenleaf agreed to undertake the examination of Jesus Christ and as a result, when he had finished the review, Simon Greenleaf personally accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
Professor Greenleaf then sent an open letter to all jurists in the United States saying in part “I personally have investigated one called Jesus Christ. I have found the evidence concerning him to be historically accurate. I have also discovered that Jesus Christ is more than a human being, he is either God or nothing and having examined the evidence it is impossible to conclude other than he is God. Having concluded that he is God I have accepted him as my personal Saviour. I urge all members of the legal profession to use the “Laws of Evidence” to investigate the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and if you find that he is wrong expose him as a faker but if not consider him as your Saviour and Lord”
HOW CAN I BE SAVED?
Salvation is available for all members of the human race.
Salvation is the most important undertaking in all of God's universe. The salvation of sinners is never on the basis of God's merely passing over or closing His eyes to sin. God saves sinners on a completely righteous basis consistent with the divine holiness of His character. This is called grace. It relies on God so man cannot work for salvation, neither can he deserve it. We need to realise that the creation of this vast unmeasured universe was far less an undertaking than the working out of God's plan to save sinners.
However the acceptance of God's salvation by the sinner is the most simple thing in all of life. One need not be rich, nor wise, nor educated. Age is no barrier nor the colour of one's skin. The reception of the enormous benefits of God's redemption is based upon the simplest of terms so that there is no one in all this wide universe who need be turned away.
How do I become a Christian?
First of all I have to recognise that I am a sinner (Romans 3:23; 6:23; Ezekiel 18:4; John 5:24).
Secondly, realising that if I want a relationship with Almighty God who is perfect, and recognising that I am not perfect, I need to look to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour (I Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:6; John 3:16).
Thirdly, by the exercise of my own free will I personally receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour, believing that He died personally for me and that He is what He claims to be in an individual, personal and living way (John 1:12; 3:36; Acts 16:31; 4:12).
The results of Salvation
The results of this are unbelievably wonderful:
My sins are taken away (John 1:29),
I possess eternal life now (I John 5:11,12),
I become a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17),
The Holy Spirit takes up His residence in my life (I Corinthians 6:19),
And I will never perish (John 10:28-30).
This truthfully is life's greatest transaction. This is the goal of all people; this is the ultimate of our existence. We invite and exhort any reader who has not become a Christian by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ to follow these simple instructions and be born again eternally into God's family (Matthew 11:28; John 1:12; Acts 4:12; 16:31).
© Evangelical Bible College of Western Australia 2004 - PO Box 163 Armadale Western Australia 6992
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INTRODUCTION
Prophecy features strongly in the Bible and the prophecies are often very specific.
Why would God provide so many prophetic statements in the Bible which are unique among “holy books” in their specific details?
In order to answer that question we need to realise that God is outside time. God does not need time, He was before time and will be after time. Man however is constrained by time.
An example of God being outside time is the fact that sins we have committed in this century were judged and paid for in full when our Lord Jesus Christ died on the Cross some 2000 years ago and made the once and for all sacrifice that satisfied God.
In order that we in our century are able to be saved demonstrates clearly that God is outside time.
We live in a four dimensioned world with length, breadth, depth and time being our constraints.
If we met a person who came from say a two dimensional universe we would know much more and be able to share this knowledge with them in a clear way so that they would recognise us as being very different but real.
It is clear therefore that God using His unique book the Bible is able to demonstrate to use that He exists, that He is aware of history past, present and future and is able to identify the Lord Jesus Christ as the true Messiah and only Son of God.
In addition He shows what will happen at various times during the history of man. He names specific people, places and incidents and they are fulfilled perfectly.
By studying and seeing past prophecies being fulfilled we can not only recognise the Lord Jesus Christ for whom He is but see the overall plan of God for the future.
This book is divided into three sections, two of which have been fulfilled which should give us total confidence that the third section which I believe is still future will be fulfilled as promised in His Word.
SECTION 1 - THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
The first section deals with the Lord Jesus Christ. The fulfilment of so many prophecies by a single person at a particular point of time in history is statistically so astronomic as to be absolutely sure.
Let us examine this concept by looking at examples and comparing it to Bible prophecy.
WHAT IS THE CHANCE?
CREATION AND THE DNA MOLECULE
The basic building block of life is DNA. Scientists have calculated that the chance of DNA occurring naturally in its right order is 10 to the 57th power
Most Scientists believe that the age of the universe is 10 billion years If you are going to make DNA by chance you have to make it by biological generation The more generations you have the more chance you have got.
Generations vary. For man a generation could be 70 years. Let us take a very short generation one which only exists for 1 second which of course is absurdly small.
In the 10 billion years we have only 10 to the 17th power seconds which is far too short a time period
If you go to a generation lasting only one nano second which is a millionth of a second the figure goes to 10 to the 26th power. The possibility of a DNA molecule occurring naturally is therefore absurd.
Without DNA there cannot be life so the inability to naturally provide DNA tells of an external Creator.
THE LAW OF CHAOS
The scientific law of chaos states that the universe is getting less organised. An example of this is a new pack of cards when shuffled become less ordered. Another would be fossil fuel when burnt becomes less organised. The only area which does not follow that universal rule is life.
GOD AND DIMENSIONS
As mentioned before man lives in a four dimensioned state, the three dimensions of length, width and depth to which is added a fourth dimension which is time.
God however is outside time and the three physical dimensions even as we are outside a two dimension state and therefore able to view the whole existence of history without the restraints of the fourth dimension time.
This also allows the Lord Jesus Christ in a resurrection body which is flesh and bone to walk into rooms through shut doors as demonstrated in the gospels.
God is the Creator and therefore outside creation. If he were created he would be subject to the four dimensions
CONCLUSION
It is therefore concluded that an external creator is involved with the creation of life as the Scriptures say.
Colossians 1:15-16 “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
PROPHECY AND THE CHANCE OF JESUS CHRIST BEING THE MESSIAH
2 Peter 1:16-21 “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
In this passage Peter makes a startling statement . Peter who was one of the inner circle of disciples with James and John and had been with the Lord, Moses and Elijah on the Mt of Transfiguration states that the Word of Prophecy given to us is even more sure than the eyewitness that he has been privileged to be involved with.
We know that even though we observe something we may not have the full picture. The Holy Spirit who is the author of Scripture as seen in verse 21 knows the whole picture and knew it in eternity past as He is outside time.
Again we see the intervention of a person who is outside of time coming into time for the benefit of those who are in a time dimension. This explains also how God can know the beginning from the end as He is outside that dimension.
EMPHASIS IN THE BIBLE
To show the importance of a subject in the Bible we need to see how much of it is allocated to that subject. The subject of Creation for instance occurs in about 10 chapters. Our redemption is far more represented than creation as is prophecy.
With the amount of space allocated to prophecy God obviously wanted man to take notice. Prophecy and its fulfilment validates the concept of an all knowing and all loving Creator outside our dimension wishing to make His plan known to His creatures so that they can have fellowship with Him.
We will see that the track record of prophecy and history is 100% and demonstrates that the Bible is self validated.
If you check scientific text books, those written a few years ago will seem quaint as they are out of date but the Bible was, is and remains accurate and unchangeable. Jude 3 states “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
The word “once” is “hapax” which means “once and for all”. The continuity claimed by the Lord regarding the Scriptures is further given in Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
THE BIBLE AND PROPHECY – WHAT IS THE CHANCE THAT THE BIBLE IS TRUSTWORTHY?
Firstly we need to be aware of the fact that of the Scriptures of different religions only the Bible gives specific prophecies.
As the prophecies in the Bible are specific we can test out their accuracy by comparing them to history and thereby evaluate the value of prophecies not yet fulfilled.
To this end we look at prophecies involved with the Lord Jesus Christ and the chances of His fulfilling Biblical prophecies personally and literally. We will take a small sample of eight of the 333 Old Testament prophecies said to be fulfilled by the Messiah.
Many critics of the Bible say that Daniel was a historical rather than prophetic book, that there were two or more authors called Isaiah and place prophetic books at a later date to try and downplay prophecy. However the publication of the LXX or Septuagint , the Greek translation of the Old Testament by 70 scholars in Alexandria in the 3rd century BC obviously predates the birth and Ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the Old Testament prophecies involving the Lord Jesus Christ therefore are prophecies and not history.