But wait a minute. A skeptic of the Bible might say that Jesus did not actually fulfill all of the Old Testament prophecies about Himself. In fact, they could claim that when Jesus did not, that the writers of the Bible were devious and changed the Old Testament to match what Jesus actually did. This way, it made it look like Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies in the Old Testament about Himself, when, in fact, He did not. And the skeptic could add that you can’t prove that this did not happen and that the Old Testament was not changed. Therefore, they could say, the fact that it looks like Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies has no real validity. Is the skeptic correct and we cannot prove that the writers of the Bible did not change the Old Testament record to conveniently match Jesus’ life?
Fortunately, we can answer the skeptic and prove that the writers of the Bible did not change anything in the Old Testament. For providentially, God has insured that a completely different religion than the Christian faith has kept an independent copy of the Old Testament; a completely different religion that does not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, no less as the Son of God; a completely different religion which is the Jewish faith. And if you go to any synagogue and ask for a copy of their holy scriptures, the Tanakh, which has the same contents as the Bible’s Old Testament and look up all of the prophecies about Jesus in it, you will see that what is in it is identical to what is in the Old Testament of the Bible. You will see that none of the prophecies in the Old Testament were changed by the writers of the Bible. The record of Jesus’ life in the New Testament exactly fulfills every prophecy about Him as it is recorded in the Old Testament. The skeptic’s challenge has been answered and they have been proven to be wrong.
The first skeptic’s challenge has been proven wrong, but a second skeptic could present a second challenge. They could also claim that Jesus did not actually fulfill all of the Old Testament prophecies about Himself. They could then add that since the writers of the New Testament knew that the Jewish faith had their own copy of the Old Testament, that they could not change it to match the facts of Jesus’ life. Instead, the skeptic could say, whenever what Jesus did or said was different from what was recorded in the Old Testament, they did not record that in the New Testament. Instead, they simply wrote what He should have done or said according to what was stated in the Old Testament. This way they made it look like Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies about Himself when He actually did not. Then the skeptic could add that since you cannot prove that this did not happen, your claim that Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies is invalid. Is the skeptic correct and we cannot prove that the record of Jesus’ life as it is recorded in the New Testament is always accurate? Is the skeptic correct so that we cannot prove that the writers of Jesus’ life did not simply write about the prophecies of Him in the Old Testament whenever it was necessary? The skeptic would also add that we were not there to know what Jesus did and said, so how can we know if the record of His life in the New Testament is accurate or not. Is there a way to answer this skeptic?
The answer is yes. During the time when the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ life were being written, the Christian faith had two very powerful opponents who were well established and much stronger than they were. Both the Jewish religion and the Roman Empire were certain that the Christians were wrong and rejected and persecuted them. And they knew that if they could prove that the Christians’ belief in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God was based on lies instead of the truth, that they could undermine the basis of their faith and deal them a death blow. The leaders of the Jewish faith and the officers of the Roman Empire were often present when Jesus carried out His ministry or others were there who told them what had happened so that they knew what Jesus had said and done. If the Christians’ accounts of Jesus’ life in the New Testament were not accurate, the Jewish leaders and the Roman officials would surely have made this known and denounced the Christians’ deceitful writings about His life. They may even have produced their own accurate accounts of Jesus’ life in order to show that the Christians’ accounts were inaccurate. So what does the record of history show? Are there any Jewish or Roman records stating that the accounts of Jesus’ life as they are given in the New Testament are inaccurate? Is there any outrage expressed at a fraud that was perpetrated by the Christians? Is there any account of Jesus’ life by a Jewish or Roman authority of that time who wanted to set the record straight about the Christians’ inaccurate one? The answer is no, no, and no. The silence of history is deafening! The lack of any historical objection by the two most powerful opponents of Christianity at that time to the accuracy of Jesus’ life as it was recorded in the New Testament testifies to its accuracy and truthfulness. Therefore, the skeptic’s challenge that the New Testament writers did not accurately record Jesus’ life has been answered. It has been shown that they did accurately record Jesus’ life and did not alter their account in order to make it match the prophecies in the Old Testament about Him.
In conclusion it has been shown that:
- There are about 100 different prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus and the New Testament record of His life shows that He fulfilled every one of those prophecies.
- It was humanly impossible to produce the approximately 100 different Old Testament prophecies about Jesus hundreds of years in advance and have all of them come true. The only way that the writers of the prophecies could have produced them is if the eternal God who knows the future told them what to write down. This shows then, that the writers must have been inspired by God in what they wrote.
- It has been proven that the approximately 100 different prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus were not changed by the Christian writers of Jesus’ life in order to match His life.
- It has been shown that the record of Jesus’ life in the New Testament where He fulfills all of the 100 different Old Testament prophecies is accurate and true.
- Therefore, since Jesus actually fulfilled all of the approximately 100 different Old Testament prophecies that were written by people who were inspired by God means that the Bible contains the inspired Word of God.
So, yes, it can be proven that the Bible contains the inspired Word of God. And my hope is that this truth about the Bible will strengthen your faith in it as being God’s Word that contains His truth, and that it will encourage you to use it in your worship services to the benefit of your people.