A simple question about the bible?

Question

Many times I hear christians say that the bible is true because of the prophecies that came true, and thats what seperates the bible from other religious books. But, the prophecies came true in a later part of the bible. Yes I understand that it was written by men over a long period of time, but the men writing the new testament knew what was in the old, so it wouldn't have been hard to include some events that fulfilled the prophecies. It makes no sense to argue that the bible is true because of fulfilled prophecies if all of it happened within the bible. You might as well just say, "the bibles true because it says it is." Can someone explain this to me?

Wow lots of answers. I'm happy many of you gave me intelligent reasons to believe it. to the people that said I had it right that its true because it says it is, you missed my point I guess. to those that gave me predictions from the bible, many of those are as vague as nostradamus or just happen to say something that has a same phrase in it, like the 30 pieces of silver from Zechariah. to those that gave me more historical answers, thank you. One problem I have with the predictions in daniel is that some are kind of vague, but also there are predictions about the end times happening in that same period that seem to be forgotten. My overall point was that if an event happened that could somewhat resemble a bible prediction, it wouldn't be hard for new testament authors to add a spiritual aspect to the story and change things around a bit to make it fit the prophecy since they probably knew them quite well. thanks for your answers! keep em comin

Answer 1

At the time of its writing, 25% of the Holy Bible was prophetic in nature. Even Jesus made a stunning prophecy when He told His disciples about the future destruction of the Temple of Herod, 30 years before it happened. The entire old testament points to the coming of Jesus Christ, from the books of Genesis to Malachi. The prophet Isaiah pictured the Messiah perfectly 700 years before His arrival on earth. The prophet Ezekiel pictured the rebirth of the nation of Israel, while he was in exile in Babylon. An event which happened 2,300 years later. I hope the Spirit of God reveals the truth to you.

Answer 2

First of all there is no such thing as prophecy in the sense of future-telling. Each generation of Christians and Christians within each generation interpret these prophecies to mean different things and be fulfilled in different events. We had two "it's the end of the world" alerts so far this month, with one already passing on August 22nd (yet none of the false prophets of Christianity ever seem to get stoned to death even though God commands it). This only proves the "prophecies" are so vague as to be entirely meaningless. There are such things as political diatribes written as "future prophecies" after the event occurred. Daniel is an example of this kind of writing. Matthew is an example of trying to cleverly retrofit Jesus into Old Testament prophecies by combining texts from different prophets into one prophecy, making up prophecies that appear nowhere in the OT and mistranslating OT vocabulary. Con artist.

It cracks me up. Christians will all agree that fortune tellers are frauds, but Bible prophecy is real. Yet when you ask them to show an unequivocal prophecy fulfillment that is more than just their twisting it to their own use, they got none. They try to explain it all away, but the explanations are just assertions, and one would think if God were going to predict the future he could do so with the clarity of a third grader at least, but not their god.

Answer 3

Where is the P-R-O-O-F? Just because events are written in a book does not necessarily mean that they happened. Other religions have their books, too, and they firmly believe that they are right (and that others are wrong). So you're all in the same boat when you assert your beliefs like that. Just because an Old Testament prophesy supposedly came true in the new Testament does not mean that any of it happened! These books were written by men, and judging from some of the events that they recorded, it appears that they may have been indulging in some worldly pleasures that helped to make their minds very fertile.

Answer 4

The prophecies in the Old Testament were written hundreds of years before the New Testament was written. It's like someone writing in 1863 that JFK would be assassinated, or in 1900 that Bush would be president. The Bible is also a book of history. Why is it so hard to accept facts. People believe that Lincoln freed the slaves and that George Washington was the 1st president. Those are also historical facts, written by men , over a long period of time.

Answer 5

Were those christians you heard the learned type? Because if they're not, then it didn't differ much from hearing a layman discuss the constitution.

People in the apostolic times lived a christian life long before a single line of the gospels were written. The epistles were written to christians which obviously means christian communities existed before the New Testament. So the Bible is true not because the prophesies came true but because the books came from that same christian people who lived it before they wrote it. And we don't have to resort to the Bible to prove that these christian communities were real.

Answer 6

Israel became a nation again in 1948 after being gone for 1878 years. The Bible says that there are some things that must happen in the future-they can not happen if there is no Israel. Do you think that some Jews read the Bible and conspired to make this happen so that the prophecies can come true?

Answer 7

Allot of Bible prophecy was fulfilled by non-believers. Large portions of prophesy was fulfilled after the writing of the Bible. Other prophesies are unfolding right now, just read Ezekiel 38 in light of developments in the Middle East.

Let me give you one example of fulfilled prophecy that we all know about, that couldn't have been set up. Genesis, chapter 3, after Adam sins, God says that Adam will have to toil for his food, and out of the ground will come thistles and thorns. Thorns became the symbol of the cursed ground. When Christ was crucified, the Roman soldiers put on Him a crown of thorns, which symbolized the curse. I can't believe that Roman soldiers knew that they were fulfilling prophecy.

Answer 8

Prophecies came true "during" the Bible? hello???

When the Bible originated. It was 25% prophecy.

There is very little prophecy left to fulfull. How could this possibly even remotley have been a 50/50 guess?

Prophecy has NEVER failed. FALSE prophecy has failed.
NO prophecy in the Bible has ever one time, been wrong :)


Great Question.
.

Answer 9

The Bible hasn't been attributed to being true just because people say it is. The Bible is "authentic" because of the overwhelming documentation (copies upon copies of sacred texts..not all of them of which are in the Bible), the written testamonies of persons not in the Bible, historical scholarship, astrology, medicine, geology, biology and science, the agnostic record, astronomy, and archeaolgy all attest and witness to the fact that the events, occurances and persons of the Bible did indeed happen and exist. It goes without question. The only requirement of faith regarding the Bible has to do with the person of Nazereth, born of Bethlehem in Judea, of the Virgin Mary being who He says He is...the Son of the living God. Beyond that..prophecy has been fulfilled over a1000 times throughout the scriptures...even the prophectic event of the Word of God being produced as the Bible and spread worldwide has and is being fulfilled...not to mention..preached from the skies...It is truely a vast improbability that the self same text as produced in 1611 could've have come about any other way. Check it. But if you have more questions..I've got loads of answers on this very subject. Email me. Love in Christ, ~J~

Answer 10

There are many events that were prophesied in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the New Testament that are verifiable through outside historical record. So, it isn't just that the New Testament says the Old Testament is true. And there are other prophecies that have yet to come true. And some that have been fulfilled in the not so distant past, like the Jews regaining their homeland of Israel in 1948.