Articles and Bible Questions

In Erwin Lutzer’s book about the trustworthiness of the Bible, he tells the story of a Russian double agent who was stranded in Mexico. He was instructed to meet with the Russian ambassador to Mexico, who would give him a passport and help him get home. 

The agent was told to use five signals, or signs, to make sure the ambassador knew he was the right person to meet with. He was to write a letter to the secretary and sign it, “I. Jackson.” Three days after that letter was sent, he was to go to the Plaza de Colon where he would stand before the statue of Columbus. He was supposed to have a guidebook open with one of his fingers pointing to a paragraph. Using these signs, the ambassador would be able to approach him, and when he was approached, the agent was supposed to say, “Isn’t it a magnificent statue;” and then tell the person that he had traveled to Mexico from Oklahoma. 

Personally, I was struck by how detail-oriented these five signs were. From the initial of the signature, to the state he was to say he came from, these signs included enough detail to ensure that the ambassador could absolutely, positively identify him as the double agent. It would be impossible for someone else to give all five signs accidentally. 

The details proved his authenticity. 

The same is true for the prophetic statements recorded in the Bible. For a prophecy—a prediction of a future event—to be valid, it must come true, and it must be so specific that the prophet could not use probability to make it seem like they knew the future. 

Let me rehearse for you at least four specific prophecies that authenticated the identity of Jesus as Israel’s Messiah, and authenticate the Bible: 

MICAH PREDICTED THE CITY WHERE JESUS WOULD BE BORN. 

The prophet Micah wrote “But you, O Bethlehem … from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel” (Micah 5:2). 

Two kings were born in this little town on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The first king was David, and he was born before Micah’s prophecy, so Micah would not have been talking about David. Micah was predicting the birth of a descendant of David— the Messiah. We know that King Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem. The word Bethlehem means “House of Bread.” And indeed, the Bread of Life was now cradled in a manger, there in the town of Bethlehem. 

ISAIAH PREDICTED JESUS’ SILENT SUFFERING. 

Isaiah wrote: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, … so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). 

The narrative of Jesus’ trial before Pilate fulfills this prophesy. When asked to defend Himself in front of the Jewish and Roman leaders, Jesus did not answer any of the charges against Him, according to Matthew’s Gospel account. 

KING DAVID PREDICTED THE MESSIAH WOULD BE CRUCIFIED AND HIS CLOTHING BARTERED. 

Two more signs that authenticated Jesus as the Messiah described details of his crucifixion. By the way, crucifixion had not yet been invented during the days of King David; he was literally describing something he knew nothing about. He poetically wrote: “They have pieced my hands and feet. … They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (Psalm 22:17-18). 

Jesus was crucified—nailed to a cross through both His hands and His feet. The gospels also record that the soldiers guarding the crucifixion divided up Jesus’ clothes and cast lots for His seamless tunic. 

Precise fulfillments that attested to the identity of Jesus. 

ISAIAH PREDICTED THAT JESUS WOULD BE PLACED IN A RICH MAN’S TOMB. 

“And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death” (Isaiah 53:9). 

Under normal circumstances, Jesus would have been buried in a common grave, or perhaps thrown into the nearby valley of Gehenna and burned along with the cities refuse that evening. 

Instead, Matthew 27 records that Jesus’ body was received by a rich man named Joseph, who laid Jesus in his own tomb. 

These are hundreds more prophecies that Jesus fulfilled during His life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension—and His return to earth one day! 

I can imagine someone saying, “But couldn’t the disciples have made up the stories of Jesus to include all the prophecies they had learned from the Old Testament? Besides, we’ve never met Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Why should we believe them?” 

Let me tell you why: I’ve never met anyone who was willing to die to defend a lie they made up. Hours before Jesus’ death, Peter was too terrified to admit even knowing Jesus. The other disciples, except for John, fled the scene. While the Lord rested in the tomb, the discipleds huddled behind locked doors for fear of the Jewish leaders. 

But following the Lord’s resurrection—perhaps the most significant proof of His life—the cowardly disciples morphed into courageous defenders of the gospel. The historian Josephus, the official records of Roman history, and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs all record the gruesome deaths the disciples suffered. Matthew was speared to death in Ethiopia, Mark was tied to a chariot and dragged through the streets of Alexandria until he died, Luke is believed to have been hung from an olive tree, and John was placed in a cauldron of boiling oil, which he miraculously survived. 

Eleven of the twelve disciples, along with the brothers of Jesus and many others, chose to be killed rather than recant that Jesus was alive and well. 

To this day, faithful followers joyfully receive death for the sake of Jesus. Why? Because they know the truth that Jesus is real, He is alive, and He is coming back one day.