|
|
Jesus Christ
and the Trustworthiness of the
Bible
Joe Sherman
Davis, Ca.
way.bz
Second Edition
ã1999, 2004, Joseph A. Sherman
There are many alternatives out there as we look for what is real and what or who can be counted on in this life. Jesus Christ made some startling claims. He claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to be the only way to get to God and eternal life; “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me,” He said in John 14:6. He also made some startling demands. He said that whoever would follow him must “deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24), the follower giving control of his life to Christ. How can we know if Christ’s claims are true and his demands viable? These are absolute statements; he didn’t say, “I am a way,” he said, “I am the Way;” meaning that there is no other. How can we trust these claims? What about Muhammad and his teachings, or Buddha and his? Muhammad claims that Jesus was just a prophet, and that Islam is the only true way. Buddha claims that we ourselves are “God,” and we just haven't realized that this is true; there isn’t just “one way” to God, there are many ways. Millions of people follow each of these teachers; are they all wrong? Many people say that they can all be right; this line of thinking is often found in the eastern religions, such as Buddhism, or Hinduism. However, it is important to point out that because of the absoluteness of Jesus’ claims (such as that he is the only way to God), Muhammad and Buddha are necessarily wrong if Christ is correct. Others point out the seeming paradox of the cult leaders who lead their members to tragedy, while at the same time identifying with Christ and teaching from the Bible. A recent example of this would be Herf Applewhite, known as “Do,” and his Heaven’s Gate cult; Herf Applewhite claiming to be Christ in person, and echoing Jesus’ words, “Follow me,” while leading his followers to disaster. On the one hand, we find some leaders with teachings that are clearly not the truth, and yet we find people choosing to follow them nevertheless, such as these cult leaders. On the other hand, we find various other leaders that each have teachings that everyone would agree have at least some value and some truth, and yet at certain points are in complete conflict with each other, leaders such as Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha. Our question at this point is, how can we know who is right and what is the truth? This paper was written to answer this question and to furnish individuals with a reasonable basis for faith in Christ and His claims.
The Christian Message of Salvation
God's love, Our Need, God's Provision, Our Response
In order to accurately state the case for Christ and the Bible vs. other leaders and their teachings, it is necessary to first take a look at what Christians believe about God and salvation. As previously stated, Jesus made the startling claims of being the Son of God, and the only way to God. According to the Bible, Jesus makes these claims on the following premises: There is one God, he has always existed, and he created the entire universe and everything in it. He himself is not created. The following four points are one way of expressing the Christian view of salvation. First, God loves us and values us. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16). Second, the current state of mankind in general is that of both active and passive rebellion against God. “We like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way” (Is. 53:6). We have all chosen to do things our way instead of God’s way; we have put ourselves in control of our own life. Our rebellion, the Bible indicates, results in sin. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). A lot of times if our conscience tells us we have done something that wasn’t right, this is usually a good indication we have committed a sin. And, just as through an act of selfishness we may hurt a friend and feel a sense of separation from that friend, the Bible indicates our sins have separated us from God, and from eternity with him (heaven). As we are (guilty of sin), God cannot allow us into his presence, and still be a just God. (Think of the victims of a crime and the position they would be in if the judge of their convicted offender simply ruled, “That’s O.K., you’re free to go,” without requiring any restitution or payment for the crime committed. Would this judge be upholding justice? No, he would not.) God is just, and requires that the price for evil be paid; if he did not, he would not be a just God. Our good deeds or “religion” cannot get us to eternal life either, because the requirements of God are absolute purity; so if we have committed even one sin, we are already disqualified, or, “have fallen short,” as Rom. 3:23 says above. While this does not sound very hopeful for humanity, the third point is that God did something about it. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Jesus claimed to be the only one in history who committed no sin (1 Pet. 2:22b, “He committed no sin”), and by his death on the cross he claimed to be paying the price for our sins; “The iniquity of us all was laid on Him” (Is. 53:7). John the Baptist, a prophet announcing Christ’s coming, said of him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn. 1:29). So Jesus claimed to be paying the price for the sins of the whole world by his death on the cross, and offers salvation not by our good deeds, but as a free gift by means of his perfect life and his payment for us on the cross; Eph. 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith - and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” The Bible then says that three days after making the payment on the cross, Christ rose from the dead; Paul says, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Cor:15:3,4). As we said, Christ offers salvation as a free gift. The fourth point is that just as with all gifts, this gift must be received, and on an individual basis. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (Jn. 1:12). Paul says “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord…you will be saved,” (Rom.10:9). So what does it mean to receive Christ as Lord? It means to make a change from doing things our way, and give Christ control of our life. We make a decision to follow him with our life. Is. 53:6b says that we “have gone astray, each to his own way.” Jesus said, “Repent and believe in the good news” (Mk. 1:15). To ‘repent’ means to ‘change course.’ The verb for ‘believe’ here means to ‘put one’s trust in,’ and the ‘good news’ refers to Jesus; that he is the Way to God, taking away “the sins of the world.” So we change course from our own way, and put our trust in Christ. How much trust? Jesus said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me”(Matt. 10:37,38). As Lord, Jesus demands first place in our life, above our own will, and that of anyone else. According to the Bible, the alternative to spending eternity with God is spending eternity separated from God and all that is good; which is eternal suffering, or hell. In Matt. 25:46 Jesus speaks of the judgment of those who choose to follow him (the righteous), and those who refuse to follow him (the unrighteous): "Then they [the unrighteous] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous, to eternal life." Jesus confronts us with an important decision. The really good news is this: The Bible says that if we make the decision to receive Jesus as Lord, we can know where we are going as far as eternity is concerned: Heaven! John, a close friend of Jesus, wrote a letter to some Christians, and that letter is now part of the Bible; it is called I John. At the end of this letter, he wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know you have eternal life” (I Jn. 5:13). This being God’s word, God wants us to be assured, He wants us to know that with Christ as our best friend, we have eternal life. Paul, another New Testament writer, writes in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace [free gift] you have been saved.” Note the words ‘have been saved’ are in the past tense; the Christian’s eternal salvation is a 'done deal' as far as God is concerned in his word. Even more amazing is what the Bible says happens to an individual when he or she is saved. Since Jesus is a risen Lord and is alive today, when we receive him as Savior and Lord, the Bible teaches that he actually dwells inside us, in our hearts. Paul says that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith in Eph. 3:17, and Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hears My voice and opens the door, I will come and fellowship with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). To summarize the Bible’s message of man’s dilemma and God’s solution:
1. The one God who created all things loves us (Jn. 3:16).
2. Each of us has gone our own way; we have committed sins, separating ourselves from God and an eternal relationship with him (Rom.3:23).
3. Because of God’s love for us, although we are unable to earn or achieve salvation, God paid the price for our sins through Christ, who died on the cross and rose again; he offers this salvation to us as a free gift (Rom. 5:8, Eph. 2:8).
4. This gift is received on an individual basis by receiving Christ as Lord of our life (Jn. 1:12).
These are some of the basic premises on which Christ makes his claims to be the Son of God and the only way to God the Father.
Some Background to Christ and Salvation
As we compare Christ and his teachings to other teachers, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of him and his background as the founder of Christianity. Jesus Christ was a Jew, the name 'Jew' coming from the name 'Judah,' one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus Christ claimed to be the mediator of God's New Covenant to the people of Israel and to the whole world. The tangible result today of this New Covenant is the New Testament (testament being another way of saying 'covenant') of the Bible, and Jesus' Christian church. To better understand this New Covenant, we need to take a look at the Old, or original Covenant, and its history as it was mediated through the people of Israel; all of this being found in the Old Testament of the Bible, and known as the Jewish religion, or Judaism, a form of which is still practiced today.
After teaching about the creation of the world and of man, the Old Testament of the Bible then teaches and shows how God reached out to man in general ways, such as through the wonder of creation, for example, and in more specific ways to a few specific individuals, usually called prophets. One of these prophets was a man named Abram. In Gen. 12:1-3, God speaks very specifically to Abram, giving him this command and accompanying promise (Gen. 12:1-3): "Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." In Gen. 15:4 God adds to this promise that the nation which shall come from Abram will be taken through a son from his own body. So Abram was to be blessed by God, and a nation was to come from him, and this nation God would somehow use to bless the other nations of the earth. The Bible shows that after a time God appears to Abram and establishes a covenant with him (Gen. 17:1,2): "Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly." God also at this point changed Abram's name to Abraham (meaning 'exalted father'). God then makes it clear that the covenant and blessing would be through Abraham's son, Isaac, who would be born to Abraham's wife Sarah, "...Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him" (Gen. 17:19). Isaac is then born to Abraham as promised. To Isaac is then born a son Jacob, who is known as Israel, who then has twelve sons, which become the twelve tribes of Israel, or the nation of Israel.
The Jews, as stated above, are of the tribe of Judah, one of the twelve sons of Israel, but this name has come today to refer to Israelites in general, and 'Judaism' is the faith of the Israelites. Israel was God's chosen nation (Gen. 17:19), and they were to be set apart to represent God to the other nations and to tell others of him; "I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations." God spoke to the Israelites through prophets, giving them his word (the Old Testament of the Bible, and later the New Testament) which contained commandments and histories, and which foretold of a coming Messiah ('Christ', or 'Anointed One'), who would bring a new covenant and be the Savior for Israel. "'Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,' says the Lord of Hosts," it says in Mal. 3:1, the last book of the Old Testament. Isaiah the prophet spoke of what the Messiah would do: "He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to the prisoners" (Is. 61:1b). Some of the more well-known prophets whom God sent to the Israelites to lead them and foretell of the Messiah were Moses, Joseph, Elijah, and Isaiah. For hundreds of years Israel waited for the promised Messiah.
The New Testament tells of the arrival of this long awaited Messiah and the new covenant: "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also created the world" (Heb.1:1,2). God long ago promised Abraham that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed. Although the Jewish people (Israel) had been called to share their faith about God with the nations around them and thus bless the families, or nations of the earth, Jesus, the Christ or Messiah, a Jew and a descendant of Abraham, came for the whole world and thus is God's ultimate fulfillment of his promise to Abraham. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (Jn. 3:16). "And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world" (I Jn. 4:14). Jesus Christ, as the mediator of the new covenant, came first to the Jews, and then to the whole world, establishing His church with a historical background and foundation of Judaism and the Old Testament, but teaching a whole new revelation of God to mankind through the promised new covenant, this new covenant being a long established plan of God, foretold of in the Old Testament. This church soon became known as Christianity, which makes use of the teachings of God in the Old Testament, but in the context of the teachings of the new covenant of Christ in the New Testament.
To summarize, the Old Testament of the Bible tells of a God who creates all things and then reaches out and establishes a covenant with a particular individual, Abraham, making him into a great nation and promising he would be a blessing to the whole earth. God also promises to Abraham's descendents He will make a New Covenant with them, sending a Messiah to bring this covenant. The New Testament begins with the arrival of this Messiah, Jesus Christ, who establishes the New Covenant from God, offering salvation for the whole world through faith in Christ.
Jesus Christ vs. Muhammad and Buddha
The question remains how can we know that all of this is true, or that what Christ says in the Bible is right or reliable? What about other teachers, other religions, and other "holy books" or scriptures? This is an excellent question. In this age of instant information; the Internet, PCS’s, Direct TV, etc., we are able to be aware more than ever of and be informed on the teachings of many leaders and religions, with varied teachings from all parts of the world. While personal investigation is still the best method to learn the details and discern the facts, one thing we can be fairly certain of is that many people are aware of, and additionally many are following, these teachers and the religions they have founded or profess; millions who adhere to Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and other major religions, in addition to various smaller cults. How do we deal with these religions, or rather, how do we deal with Christ when he says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me"? Jesus (and therefore Christianity) claims that he is the only way to God, that he is the absolute truth, and the only way to eternal life. These are some astounding claims. First of all, they set Christ apart as being no ordinary man, which lines up with his claims to be the only Son of God (Mk. 14:61b,62a: "And the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, 'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?' And Jesus said, 'I am'"), claims which we will treat later in this paper. But more importantly here, Jesus is making absolute statements. All truth ultimately is from him, which means that any so-called truths which do not agree with his teachings must be false. This is the law of absolutes: An absolute statement and its opposite cannot both be true at the same time. Both Muhammad and Buddha make claims which conflict with Christ's teachings. Since, as we have seen with absolute statements that both cannot be true, it is necessary to investigate, and from several directions. One of the main goals of this paper is to compare the teachers as well as their teachings. Taking a look at the four largest religions of the world, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, Hinduism is the only one of these which does not have a specific founder with whom we can compare. However, since Buddhism has many common roots with Hinduism and some of its basic beliefs are almost identical1 we will look at Buddha and his teachings as representing the beliefs of both of these religions.
Muhammad, the inaugurator of Islam (Islam means submission; i.e., to God), was born around 570 A.D. At this time in Mecca, Arabia, there was taking place the worship of many "deities". According to Islamic teaching Muhammad, at age 40, began receiving revelations and visions regarding the right way to live and regarding the one "true God," Allah (Arabic for God).2 Muhammad did not claim to be without sin. In fact, he viewed himself as an ordinary man, and claims he was doubtful when he first began receiving the visions.3 Upon receiving these revelations, and continuing to receive them, Muhammad began to preach against the worship of these "deities" and began to preach a right life and that Allah was the only true God. The followers of Islam became known as Muslims. These revelations and visions were written down, and were later reassembled into the Qu'ran, Islam's chief holy book.
The Qu'ran, Muslims claim, while written down by a human (originally Muhammad), was authored word for word by Allah, and delivered to Muhammad by an angel. Taking the majority of the Bible as its roots, it teaches that Muhammad is the last and greatest of the prophets, beginning with Adam and Abraham in the Old Testament, and including Moses, David, and in the New Testament, Jesus Christ. Muslims do not follow the Bible and its teachings in an exact manner, however. Jesus is considered merely a human prophet, not the Son of God,4 yet Muslims affirm the Bible's claim that Jesus was without sin.5 (This is a paradox; a morally perfect man most agree by definition is no ordinary man). He was born of a virgin, 6 but was never crucified on a cross to pay the price for our sins, (God made someone else on the cross look like Jesus), and therefore Jesus never rose from the dead according to Islam.7 Islam, therefore, considers itself to be an extension of Judaism and Christianity, and a correction of their errors. As stated, Islam accepts the majority of the Bible, where it does not conflict with the Qu'ran. Probably the chief tie Islam has to Judaism and Christianity is due to the national identity of Muhammad and the Arabs. The Arabs are descendants of Ishmael, a son of Abraham, the Biblical prophet. Abraham had been given the Gen.12 promise by God that he would be made into a great nation and that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. The Bible then states that Abraham had two sons; one by Hagar, his wife's maid, given to be his second wife according to Gen. 16:3, agreed to and suggested by Sarah, Abraham's first wife, due to her apparent barrenness, and then Abraham had a second son by his wife Sarah. Abraham's son through Hagar was Ishmael, the father of the Arab nation, and his son through Sarah was Isaac, the father of the Israeli nation. The Bible and Christians assert that only one of these sons was the son promised to Abraham by God. According to, among others, the text in Gen. 17:18,19, Abraham, before Isaac has been born, is trying to convince God that Ishmael should be the son of the promise: "And Abraham said, 'Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!' But God said, 'No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son...Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.'" The Bible is clear that it is through Isaac that God's promise of Gen. 12 to Abraham, of the great nation coming from him which would in turn be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, would come. Islam, on the other hand, asserts that both Israel and Arabia are "promised nations," i.e., both equally have a special status before God as being called and chosen to be used by God to reveal his Word and teach his ways. This issue will be dealt with more thoroughly at a separate time.
To attain eternal life in Islam, the individual must choose to lead a good life, doing good. The Five Pillars of Faith which the Muslim is to follow are: The profession of faith, prayer five times a day, alms to the poor, fasting, and, if possible, one pilgrimage to Mecca. 8
Muslims are judged by Allah on the Last Day and are sent either to eternal life, consisting of an eternity of sensual pleasures, or eternal hellfire, depending on whether they choose to follow the Law of Islam (performing the Five Pillars, and the rest of the teachings), or to lead a life of evil. "Muslim theologians explain that the way to salvation consists in the due performance of the five duties of Islam." 9 The resultant Islamic view from the Qu'ran of salvation is that it is determined by the good works vs. the bad (evil) works of the individual; it is based on how good a life the individual has led. "There is no assurance of eternal life until the Muslim reaches the day of judgment at which it is commonly understood that all will be made to walk over the thin edge of a sword stretched across a deep abyss. Those who succeed will enjoy an eternity of sensual paradise. Those who fail will be consigned to torment in the raging fires of hell. Faith and good works during a person's life are believed to give assistance in passing this test. Muslims believe one's good and bad works will be weighed on a huge scale and will influence whether he successfully crosses over the abyss into paradise."10 Salvation in the Islam faith, then, is an achievement of the individual; the passing of a test, the ability to do this being based largely on the good deeds the individual achieved during his lifetime.
Buddha, Buddhism, and Hinduism
Buddha founded Buddhism at the first half of the sixth century B.C.11 Born Sidhartha Gautama, a prince in India close to the Nepal border, he had everything in life, growing up in a castle. As an adult venturing out of the castle, he saw suffering, which caused him to seek the meaning to life. After studying under various spiritual teachers, he went his own way, a moderate path consisting of prayer and fasting. After a night of striving under a tree he achieved a spiritual "enlightenment," according to Buddhist teachings.12 Faced with the choice of remaining in this enlightened, blissful state, or teaching others the way to enlightenment, he chose the latter.
'Buddha' means 'one who has woken up,' or ‘one who knows' (the basic truth of things).13Anyone who reaches the ‘truth’ is a Buddha. Since Buddha originally studied under Hindu teachers as Hinduism was developing, most of the basic tenets of faith and central teachings of Buddhism are the same as Hinduism, such as reincarnation (the concept that it may take many lifetimes for a human being to reach Nirvana, or, salvation), and the teaching that all human beings are actually divine. “Now Gautama realized what Hinduism had always taught: ‘The true self is God, and God is the true self.’”14 “God… is not any ‘what,’…He is not any ‘who.’ He is beyond desire, craving, wanting, wishing, and beyond such unrealities as age, suffering, and death. And when a man has entered that condition [i.e., becoming God] – when he, too, is above both existence and nonexistence – he is lost in God. He is in Nirvana.”15 Buddha, however, came as a reformer, confronting the fatalism of the Hinduism of his day, teaching that individual effort does make a difference, and while founding Buddhism, he did in fact have an impact on Hinduism. Buddhism’s sacred canon of holy books, called the Tipitakas, contain Buddha’s sayings gathered by his followers, including the saying, “Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.”16
Obviously, the ‘God’ of Buddhism is very much different than the God of the Bible. The God of Buddhism is an impersonal God, not having a personality or feelings, which is in contrast to the God of the Bible and Christianity, who does have these (Jn. 3:16, above, and I Pet. 5:7, "casting all your anxieties upon Him, because he cares for you."). The God of Buddhism is instead an abstract ‘truth,’ or ‘way of the universe,’ supposedly found inside each one of us. Also, as indicated, Buddhists believe that we ourselves actually become ‘God.’ Eternal enlightenment, or Nirvana, then, is becoming one with the truth that, as Buddha claimed, we all are divine or we all are God. This is in stark contrast to the Christian view of God: There is one God who is eternal and who created all things; he created human beings and the universe; he is God, we are not. At the end, those who reach eternal life, according to the Bible, will in heaven still be created beings while God will still be the Creator. This concept of a personal, Creator God who loves us (Jn. 3:16) and the Buddhist concept of God are teachings about God which are in direct conflict with each other. The Buddhist concept of God would directly conflict with the commandment of the God of the Bible in Ex. 20:3, "You shall have no other gods before Me."
At the core of Buddha's philosophy of human morality is his Four Noble Truths: Life is suffering; Suffering is caused by desire; Cessation of desire results in cessation of suffering; There is a path that leads to the cessation of desire.17 This path that leads to cessation of desire is known as the Eight-Fold Path: Right views, Right purpose, Right speech, Right conduct, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right awareness, Right meditation.18 Buddha developed this path to assist others in becoming a Buddha, which is the final life one spends as a human being; after this life one enters Nirvana, becoming one with God.
Hinduism explains this concept of the ‘truth’ of the divinity of human beings, and the path to arrive at oneness with God in this way: “Underlying man’s personality and animating it is a reservoir of being that never dies, is never exhausted, and is without limit in awareness and bliss. This infinite center of every life, this hidden self, or Atman, is no less than Brahman, the Godhead…The reason we don’t act or appear ‘Godlike,’ is due to the fact that the Eternal is buried under an almost impenetrable mass of false ideas and self-regarding impulses that comprise our surface being; in much the same way a lamp that is covered with layers of dust and dirt can be invisible.”19 Hindus teach that we strive to be free from our ego and its false ideas and self-regarding impulses (these being the causes of evil) to reach our divinity by performing four yogas, or four types of exercises: Knowledge, Love, Work, and Meditation.20 These exercises, or disciplines, are comparable to Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path.
In both Buddhism and Hinduism, salvation, or reaching Nirvana, is purely an achievement of the individual: “Every individual must tread this path himself through his own energy and initiative. (Buddha said,) ‘Those who, relying upon themselves only, shall not look for assistance to anyone besides themselves, it is they who shall reach the topmost height.’ No god or gods can be counted on, not even Buddha himself.”21
As we have seen from our brief treatment of Muhammad and his teachings, and Buddha and his teachings, both have at least some aspects which most would argue as true and good and in agreement with some of the teachings of Christ. For example, Muhammad taught as of the Five Pillars of Islam to give alms to the poor, and Buddha, in his Eight-Fold Path, taught that right conduct was important, which would include giving to those in need. Jesus said "give to everyone who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you," Matt. 5:42. So these teachers and their religions, as well as most likely some of the teachings of other religions, such as Hinduism, do contain at least some teachings which most would agree are good and true. However, they also teach things which directly conflict with Christ and the Bible. For example, as we have seen, Christ claims to be the only way to God, and salvation is not by our own personal effort, but by faith. Jesus asserted this first of all because of who he claimed to be, the only Son of God (Matt. 11:27; “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."). Jesus asserted this second of all because of what he claimed to do; that is, pay the price for our sins, giving "His life as a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45). Muhammad teaches, on the other hand, that Jesus was not the Son of God, but one of many prophets, that he did not die on the cross for our sins or rise again, and that he, Muhammad, was the superior of all the prophets including Christ (an interesting proposition, considering that even Muhammad claims that Christ led a perfect life while he, Muhammad, did not, - and perfect is as good as it gets!), and that eternal life is through the confession of Islam and following and performing the Five Pillars of Islam. Buddha asserts that eternal life is achieved by each individual through the practicing of various disciplines, the Eight-Fold Path. So we have examples indicating that each of these founders and teachers of these religions agree on at least some general moral truths (for example, alms giving), but each are in direct conflict and contradiction with regards to what Christianity puts forth as an absolute truth, that of how men can be saved, or reach enlightenment. Since in regard to absolute statements which are in disagreement only one of them can be true, what we now have to ask is, how do we know that Christ is right about his claims that salvation is only by faith in him, and that he is right in his other claims about God which conflict with what Buddha, Muhammad, and other teachers teach? What makes Christ and his teachings superior to Muhammad and his teachings, or Buddha and his?
Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, is immediately set apart from Muhammad and Buddha, in a big way in that his coming, his manner and place of birth, his mission, his reception and treatment from men, the manner, cause, and purpose of his death, the fact of and length of time until his resurrection, and even the date in history of his arrival as Messiah were foretold, or prophesied, over a period of several hundred years in a single body of prophetic and historic literature, the ancient Jewish Scriptures, which is the equivalent to the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, and were documented as fulfilled in the New Testament of the Bible. There were no prophecies concerning Buddha's coming or mission, and although some Muslims attempt to claim the opposite, there were no prophecies of Muhammad's coming or mission either. (This Muslim claim holds that certain Old Testament and New Testament prophecies apply to Muhammad, but this claim will be shown to be completely without substance at a later point.) The prophecies we are about to take a look at are astounding in the detail and accuracy of their predictions of Christ. But can they be trusted as evidence of a God who communicated to select men the details of a person and events of the future, hundreds of years before the fact, and therefore as evidence establishing Christ as a miraculous part of the plan of this God? To answer this, before taking a look at these prophecies and their fulfillments, it is crucial that we determine the validity, the trustworthiness, of the Bible.
To determine the trustworthiness of the Bible, we must ask the standard questions for testing literature: What evidence do we have? Are there eyewitnesses, and do they seem to be credible as to their reputation and manner of reporting? How reliable are the modern-day sources; the manuscript copies on hand today? What kind of 'track record' does the body of work have? What do the unbiased experts say? Does it have any outstanding characteristics in its teaching which lend credence to its validity?
First of all, one strong evidence of the Bible's validity is the current existence in the world today of various key peoples and events. The Bible teaches about a Jewish teacher called Christ who founded the institute of Christianity which then began to spread rapidly in the world. Today we find the existence of the Christian church throughout most of the earth. The Bible teaches on, and the Old Testament is largely based on, the nation of Israel which came into being thousands of years ago and was located in the Mediterranean. We find a nation called Israel in the Mediterranean. The Bible teaches that most of the Israelites rejected Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity. We find today the existence of both Christians and of Israelites throughout the world, and we find that the majority of the Israelites do not adhere to Christianity (although there are many who do). The beginning of this condition is faithfully recorded in the Bible in Acts; for example, where Peter confronts the unbelieving Israelites after healing a crippled man: "'...Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed Him over to be killed, and you disowned Him before Pilate, though he had decided to let Him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You crucified the Author of Life, but God raised Him from the dead,'" Acts 3:12-15. The result of this speech is seen in Acts 4:1-4: "The priests and captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were still speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand." Additionally, as previously discussed, the Bible claims to be made up of two parts; the old covenant (Old Testament), or God's covenant with Isaac (and his heir Israel), and the new covenant (New Testament), or God's new covenant with Israel, not invalidating the old covenant but superceding it (Jesus said, "Do not think I came to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill," Matt. 5:17; Paul said "Christ is the end (goal) of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes," Rom.10:4). The new covenant actually fulfilled and extended the old covenant to include not only Israel as God's primary chosen people, but people from all nations who receive the messenger of the new covenant, Christ, as their Lord and Savior. The Christians we see today follow the new covenant, making use of both the old and new covenant as their Scriptures, and the non-Christian Jews we see today follow, to varying degrees, the old covenant as their Scriptures. This existence today of this Jewish faith, the body of Jews practicing to varying degrees the teachings of the old covenant (of the Bible), and to this day adamantly claiming it to be God's word to them, is overwhelming confirmation of the historicity of the Jewish faith as reported in the Bible, and the claim of the Bible to be historically and didactically made up of the two covenants. The existence of Christianity, the Israeli nation, and the relationship of these two peoples to each other and toward the Bible and its teachings are bedrock support of the Bible and its historical accuracy.
Second, also attesting to the validity of the Bible is its consistency in its teachings and its internal agreement of data. Written by 40 authors over a period of more than 1500 years, the Bible is perfectly consistent in its teaching of God, his attributes, and his plan of salvation by faith, from Genesis to Revelation. For instance, in regard to God's plan of salvation, at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis 15:6 we read of Abraham and how he obtained a right standing before God (salvation) by faith (belief, or entrustment); “Then he believed in the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness." At the other end of the Bible, Revelation 1:5b says, "To Him [Jesus] who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood;" and Rev. 21:6 says, "And He said to me, 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.'" These verses, one at the beginning of the Bible and two at the end, along with others in between, teach that God's plan is not by our achievement of a good life, through which we could then boast (hence, pride), but instead the righteousness required for salvation is credited to the account of those who believe, as with Abraham above, without cost to ourselves, because Jesus paid the price with his blood on the cross. As another example, the Bible teaches consistently that there is only one God, and that he created all things. In the Old Testament Isaiah 44:6 says, "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his redeemer, the Lord of Hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me,'" and Gen. 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In the New Testament, we read in I Tim. 2:5a, "There is one God..," and in Heb. 1:10, "And 'You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands.'" Additionally, the Bible is internally consistent in its teaching of the life and message of Christ as well. The four gospel accounts of Christ, written by four different authors from 20 to 60 years after the events occurred, while giving very different viewpoints of the same events, do not contradict each other even in the details. "There are no contradictions in the gospels which would cause us to question their credibility. There are some mysteries, but no contradictions."22 Apparent problems or contradictions can be virtually always cleared up by more in depth investigation. For example, one apparent contradiction frequently cited by scholars and others is that of the detailed genealogy of Christ in the last portion of Matt. 1:1-17 not matching up with the corresponding portion of the genealogy of Christ as reported in Luke 3:23-38. Taken at face value, there appears to be a problem. The names referred to do not match. But this problem is easily resolved when it is taken into consideration that one list is obviously calculated through Jesus' legal father, Joseph (traditionally the genealogy would be traced through the father's line), while because Jesus is God's Son physically and does not have a natural father (Matt. 1:25 speaks of Joseph taking Mary as a wife; "...and he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and He called His name Jesus.") the list in Luke is traced back through Jesus' mother Mary's line. By necessity these lists would vary, at least in the immediate ancestry. Both, however, are descendants of David, from the tribe of Judah, from which the Messiah was to come; the prophet Micah foretells in Mic. 5:2, "And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of the leaders of Judah; for out of you shall come forth a leader, who will shepherd My people." How could these authors of the New Testament have remembered Christ's many statements, as well as the many details of his life so accurately as to record them in exact agreement with each other? In part, they told and retold the stories to the early church. Jesus, however, gives the overarching reason in Jn. 14:26 when he says that God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, would guide them and remind them: "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." This concept of God's Spirit working through men in writing the Scriptures will be dealt with below. The Bible is internally consistent in its historical and geographical reporting as well, as will be shown.
Third, source reliability attests to the Bible's validity. As we have seen, the Jewish faith, the Israelites of today, and the Christians both consider what the Christians call the Old Testament as God's Holy word. Since the foundation of Christianity by Christ at about A.D. 30 to the present the Jews have had their Hebrew copies of the Scriptures, Old Testament, and Christians have had their copies (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and eventually English) as a rule separate from each other, (since the two groups are opposed in beliefs); yet today the Jewish and the Christian copies are the same, word for word. We have here in Christianity an amazing example that has taken place in history of a system like the business accounting ledger system, a system which acts as a verifying record in a business. In business accounting, in order to assure accurate record keeping, for purposes of elimination of error and/or dishonesty on the part of a clerk, the ledger is kept as a record to maintain and double check the accuracy of the other accountancy books. This is the same principle we see here with the Old Testament of the Bible! The Jews of Judaism (non-Christians) have themselves had a multitude of copies of the Old Testament for the last 2,000 years. Regarding these copies of their Bible as God's Holy word, they would never by any means allow people of another belief, such as Christians (or anyone else), to come in and change any parts of their Bible (say, for example, to rewrite a few prophecies of the coming messiah so that they might match up with the actual events of Christ's life - although, importantly, the concept of this type of behavior clearly has not been warranted by the founders of Christianity). They have for 2,000 years kept their Bible secure from any possible tampering of people of other beliefs. This Jewish Bible, which we have in existence today, is in a sense a ledger for the Christian Old Testament (and of course, the Christian Old Testament is a ledger for the Jewish Scriptures as well). And guess what: A perfect match! The Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Bible are the same, word for word! The Jewish Bible demonstrates the Christian Old Testament to be an exact account of the Scriptures, complete with messianic prophecies, back to the days before Christ; the Christian Old Testament is a remarkably reliable document; the Christians have not changed or altered the Old Testament in the least through these 2,000 years, but have faithfully preserved it complete even through the various language translations of the manuscripts: Perfectly accurate through the language translations, perfectly preserved through time. And as indicated, and crucially, this verification works in both directions, the Christian Old Testament demonstrates the faithfulness of the Jews in regard to preserving their Scriptures. The fact that both the Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Bible are identical demonstrates a long term but random historical picture regarding Jewish practice and tradition: The high value placed by the Jews on Scripture as God's word and as writings which are not to be changed or tampered with, but preserved, honored, and protected. And because of this 2,000 year picture, or example, of the Jewish commitment and success in perfectly preserving their Scriptures (from the time of Christ to A.D. 1999), we are able to have strong confidence in, and in reality no reason to doubt, the accuracy and preservation of this same body of Scriptures, the Jewish Bible (and in effect, the Christian Old Testament), during the its first 1,500 years of its existence, before the arrival of Christ (1500 B.C. to Christ’s arrival). And this is especially so since this attitude of the Jews about their Scriptures came from those Scriptures themselves: Ps. 119:89, "Forever, O Lord, your word stands firm in heaven;" Is. 40:8, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever;" Deut.8:3b, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." This supreme value, and accurate preservation, of Scriptures is very deeply rooted in the Jews' history. Is there any additional evidence to verify the Old Testament's source reliability during its existence before Christ? There is: For example, scholars have shown that "'In 144 cases of transliteration from Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Moabite into Hebrew, and in 40 cases of just the opposite, or 184 in all, the evidence shows that for 2300 to 3900 years the text of the proper names in the Hebrew Bible has been transmitted with the most minute accuracy. That the original scribes should have written them with such close conformity to correct philological principles is a wonderful proof of their thorough care and scholarship; further, that the Hebrew text should have been transmitted by copyists through so many centuries is a phenomenon unequaled in the history of literature.'"23 Putting it all together, these deeply rooted teachings of the Jewish Bible regarding the value and preservation of God's word, combined with our accountancy-style ledger system of separate but identical Jewish Bible and Christian Old Testament, a miracle of history giving us a 2,000 year random picture of the absolute success of the Jews in living out the above scriptural teachings, perfectly preserving their Scriptures, plus the historical record of the comparative texts, gives us not only a phenomenal evidence of the reliability of the Jews in perfectly preserving their Scriptures, but more importantly an amazing evidence for the absolute reliability of the Old Testament for its entire life; the first 1,500 years as well as the last 2,000 years; from its conception 3,500 plus years ago to today! Additionally, and of great importance, this demonstrates that the prophecies concerning Christ in the Christian Old Testament were there before Christ arrived and could not possibly have been fabricated.
Turning to the New Testament, when we compare source reliability of the New Testament documents with the source reliability of other documents of antiquity, we find that the case for New Testament reliability; its accuracy to the original authors' texts, is phenomenal, in fact, unparalleled! "There are 5,300 known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament...No other document of antiquity even begins to approach such numbers and attestation. The Iliad by Homer is second with only 643 manuscripts that still survive."24 Additionally, besides number as attestation, "In no other case is the interval of time between composition of the book and the date of the earliest manuscript so short as in that of the New Testament."25 The earliest extant manuscripts of the New Testament come to within a little over 200 years of the original writings.26This time space is nothing compared to the time space between most classical authors and their earliest manuscripts available today. The text of the seven extant plays of Sophocles come from manuscripts written over 1400 years after the author's death!27 "To be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament books is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested to bibliographically as the New Testament."28
Fourth, the Bible's reputation and track record as being a flawless source for historical and geographical data of the ancient Middle East and even the world attests to its validity. This is crucial: To this date, the Bible has always proven to be correct regarding historical figures, events, and geographic locations, whether pertaining directly to Israel or to a foreign historical figure (such as a king) or place. Occasionally archaeologists or historians are unable to locate or verify the existence of a place or person reported in the Bible, or they make discoveries which appear to refute or contradict the Bible, but what always happens is that given time, as new information surfaces, the Bible is shown to be correct. A perfect and very recent example, and one of countless examples, of where the validity of the Bible has been pessimistically questioned and then vindicated as new evidence emerged is demonstrated in the following article quoted in entirety from Time Magazine, 16 Aug., 1993 edition: "The Bible says David slew Goliath and went on to found a dynasty that ruled the ancient land of Israel. But no corroborating evidence for the story ever surfaced - until now [1993]. An Israeli archaeologist has uncovered an inscription near the Syrian border that refers to the House of David. Biblical scholars have termed the find 'sensational.'"29 David is a prominent figure in the Bible; he wrote many of the Psalms, and is spoken of in, for example, I and II Samuel, I Chronicles, and the New Testament. Yet somehow up to 1993 there was no other known evidence of his existence outside the manuscripts of the Bible. Was the Bible wrong, or, alternately, was the Bible teaching a myth? As we see above from Time Magazine, and as is always the case regarding Biblical data, not on your life! Notably, it has also been published that about the same time as the above discovery of the inscription (early 1990’s) there was actually an additional discovery of a reference to the House of David on an ancient artifact called the Moabite Stone.30 Nelson Glueck, a Jewish archaeologist, and one of the world's leading archaeologists, said, "No archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference."31
Literary scholars, Christian and non-Christian, recognize the Bible as an authoritative and accurate body, at least historically, relying on it as an accurate record of what people said and did and when, what events occurred and when; and geographically, accurately supplying locations of places, things, and events. For example, if we look up "James" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Micropaedia (condensed encyclopaedia) and go to "James, Son of Zebedee" (one of Christ's twelve original disciples), the Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us he was born in Galilee, and died c. A.D. 44 in Jerusalem, his martyrdom being recorded in Acts 12:2.32 The encyclopaedia goes on to say, "As a member of the inner circle, James witnessed the raising [from the dead] of Jairus' daughter (Mark 5:37, Luke 8:51), the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2), and Jesus' agony in the garden of Gesthemane (Mark 14:33, Matt. 26:37)." Notice first of all how the editors of the encyclopaedia, who are literary and historical scholars and experts, cite several events in James' life, and with each event they have included the citation of the biblical passage which is their source for that event. What needs to be documented here is how the cited events are and are not treated by the experts: These events are reported by the editors as accurate historical events, sourced from the Bible, and, as reported, are considered by the experts as trustworthy accounts; no doubt of source reliability is expressed (not in this quote nor in the entire section devoted to this James; see endnote and consult text in context to verify, if necessary). But this is only the beginning; notice second of all what some of the material of the above quote and its cited passages deals with: A dead girl being raised to life by Jesus, and Jesus being transfigured (Mk. 9:2b,3: "And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them;" this event referring to God glorifying Christ at one point to strengthen the faith of the disciples). These events are by no means common, everyday events, but instead are clearly spectacular miracles! And here we have the unbiased experts (Encyclopaedia Britannica is a secular publication, not predisposed toward Christianity) clearly treating these miraculous biblical events as reliable, accurate accounts of historical occurrences! Jesus probably did raise Jairus' daughter from the dead! Jesus' probably was transfigured! The experts' treatment of the Bible here and in other cases implies that it is reliable and trustworthy even in regard to its reports of the miraculous and extraordinary. The example of James the Son of Zebedee was used here, but other biblical characters and events can similarly be referenced from the Encyclopaedia Britannica or other encyclopaedias to verify these points. To demonstrate the distinction the above editors make in regard to ancient literature dealing with Christ which they do not regard as accurate and trustworthy, the following quote is given from the Encyclopaedia Britannica; "...the extra-canonical (outside of the Bible) literature tradition about Jesus, which is marked by legendary features and tendencies, have some points of contact with the sayings of Jesus in the canonical (within the Bible) Gospels...The Coptic Gospel of Thomas...is an example of such extra-canonical literature...It is of no use as a source for the historical Jesus."33 While in their professional judgment the editors find that the Bible can be used as an accurate source, there are certain ancient documents, even pertaining to the same subjects, which they find clearly cannot.
Fifth, the validity of the Bible is affirmed by its outstanding characteristics of the content of its teachings. Actually, just about every point we have discussed above could be considered an 'outstanding characteristic' of the Bible, something which clearly separates it from ordinary literature and demonstrates its superiority and/or phenomenal reliability and accuracy. Additionally, however, since the Bible claims of itself to be God's word given to men so that we can believe in God (Rom. 10:17; "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ"), and so that believers can know God (Jesus said in Jn. 8:31b,32; "If you abide in My word, then you are truly My disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."), and so that believers can do God's will (II Tim. 3:16,17; "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."), as part of its validity as the word of God, it should definitely be able to demonstrate itself as having the outstanding characteristic of being a superior guide and authority on morality and on man's relationship to God also. Does it? The following two examples say that it does: The first, the Golden Rule spoken by Christ, says, "Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do so for them, for this is the law and the prophets," Matt. 7:12. This teaching of Christ is generally considered to be the most profound (therefore golden) moral teaching of all moral teachings in the world in regard to man's relationship with his fellow man, even by other religions of the world. Some argue that this teaching existed in other cultures and religions before Christ. This is not true, however. The negative form of this rule, "Do not do anything to anyone that you would not want done to you," had long been annunciated by Chinese, Hindu, and Greek philosophers, as well as being in Jewish inter-testamental literature in Jesus' day, but Jesus was the first to put it in the positive!34 "The positive formulation in the mouth of Jesus surpasses the negative formulation of previous teachers just as far as 'to help and to benefit' surpasses 'not to injure.'"35The second example of the Bible's outstanding moral content is the Ten Commandments found in Ex. 20:1-17. These Ten Commandments of the Old Testament are widely recognized by many cultures and religions, in all or part, as a strong basic moral standard for man regarding right relationships to his fellow man and to God. Additionally, the depth of the moral teaching of the Ten Commandments is even more profound when it is considered that it came into existence at a quite early point in recorded history, sometime between the fifteenth and thirteenth century B.C.
Finally, the Bible says of itself that it is accurate and without error, being God's word. And as we have seen from the above powerful confirmations of the Bible's validity and trustworthiness, it is not only proper to take a look at what the Bible says about itself, it would be intellectually unfair and improper not to do so. Paul says, "All Scripture is inspired by God, and profitable for training, reproof, and correction; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work," II Tim.3:16,17. While physically written by men, all Scripture is authored by God's Spirit. Peter says, "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God," II Pet. 1:20,21. As God's word, it follows that the Bible would demonstrate the character of God. Does God lie? According to the Bible, no: "Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind," I Sam. 15:29. Does God make mistakes? According to the Bible, no; "For I proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He," Deut. 32:3,4. God's works are perfect; he does not make mistakes, and he does not lie, therefore we can depend on his word as the truth. How did Jesus regard God's word in the Old Testament? When debating with the Jews, Jesus quoted Ps. 82:6 in the Old Testament and then asserted about it, "...the Scripture cannot be broken" (Jn. 10:35b), indicating that God's word is without error. When Jesus was tempted, he continually quoted Scripture to answer the devil. In refuting one temptation he quoted Deut. 8:3, shown in Matt. 4:4, "But he answered and said, 'It is written, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word which proceeds from the mouth of God."'" Jesus not only saw Scripture as without error, but absolutely necessary for life spiritually. Referring to his own teachings in the New Testament, Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away," Mk. 13:31. God's word, the Bible, is eternal, perfect, and absolutely essential for our spiritual life and eternal well-being.
The Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments above clearly demonstrate the Bible to be authoritative in area of moral and spiritual, or God-focused teachings. With regard to the depth and superiority of the Bible's teachings, however, those two examples only "scratch the surface," as will be seen in further examination of the depth and superiority of Christ vs. the other teachers, in a separate section. Nevertheless, keeping in mind these superior teachings, as well as the Bible's perfect historical and geographical record (evidenced most strongly in the existence today of the Jews and Christians, as well as its record of being a flawless source for scholars), its excellent source reliability, its consistent internal agreement (40 authors over a period of 1500+ years, and yet virtually no contradictions in teaching or data), and its own testimony of itself as being true and without error, what statement are we able to make regarding the validity and accuracy of the Bible? We can be sure of the Bible and its validity; we can have strongest confidence possible in the Bible and that what it says is the truth. The Bible is valid, the Bible is accurate, it is "model" as far as its demonstrated ability at passing our tests for literary reliability. This confidence in the validity and trustworthiness of the Bible is a crucial foundation necessary as we examine the further claims and assertions of the Bible.
We are now able to proceed with examining prophecies of Christ of the Old Testament and their fulfillment by Christ in the New Testament. Similarly, we will also look at types of Christ from the Old Testament (a type being a 'model;' a person or thing which is a foreshadow of a person or thing to come). (It should be noted that fulfilled prophecy is itself an astounding confirmation of the above discussed validity of the Bible; i.e., God's word is shown to be true as prophecies years later accurately take place just as God's word said they would.) As we begin to see from these prophecies how Christ is truly different from other religious leaders, which is our primary goal here, we will also see some amazing things that Christ went through for us. Jesus taught that His primary mission here in this world was to give His life for us: Mk. 10:45; "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." But it was more than this one act that he went through for us. He suffered rejection, humiliation, physical abuse and torture ("So His appearance was marred beyond any man," Is. 52:14b), all of his friends denied him, he was considered forsaken by God, and finally, crucified. And yet he knew ahead of time it was going to happen, and he went through it anyway, out of love for us. Jesus said to his disciples on the night of his betrayal, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends," Jn. 15:13. He has demonstrated his love for us. It is up to us to respond. The following list will give first the nature of the prophecy, then the Old Testament Scripture containing the prophecy itself, and then at least one New Testament fulfillment by Christ of that prophecy. This list of prophecies and types is by no means exhaustive, since there are many more of each.
Fulfilled Prophecies by Christ in the Bible:
The Messiah, a descendant of Abraham, is said to be for the whole world:
Gen. 22:18; "And in your seed shall all the families of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my word."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Acts 13:47; "For thus the Lord has commanded us, 'I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles [non-Jews by natural birth], that you should bring salvation to the end of the earth.'"
Gal. 3:16,28,29; "Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, 'and to seeds,' as referring to many, but rather to one, 'and to your seed,' that is, Christ...There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise."
A great prophet like Moses is coming:
Deut. 18:15; "The Lord will raise up a prophet like me from among you, from among your countrymen, and you shall listen to him."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Jn. 5:45,46; "Do not think I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of Me."
Lk. 24:27; "And beginning with Moses and the prophets, He explained all things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures."
The Messiah to be born in Bethlehem:
Mic. 5:2; But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans for Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be a ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago; of eternity."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Luke 2:8,9a,10,11,15-17; "and in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night...and an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to them,...And the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord...And it came about when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds began saying to one another, 'Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.' And they came in haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger."
The Messiah (Christ) will be born of a virgin, and will be known as 'God with us.'
Is. 7:14 "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel." ('Immanuel' is translated 'God with us'!)
Fulfillment by Christ:
Lk. 1:26,27,31,32,34,35: "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in he said 'Hail favored one! The Lord is with you....Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. And Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I am a virgin?' And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.'"
The Messiah will be called God, and there will be no end to his reign.
Is. 9:6,7; "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us,...and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, and there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over His kingdom."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Jn. 20:28; "And Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and My God!'"
Heb. 1:1-4; "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high; having become much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they."
Rev. 1:5a,17b,18; "...Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth...'Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; I was dead, and behold, I am alive again forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.'"
The Messiah's mission will be to bring good news and proclaim freedom to the captives.
Is. 61:1,2a; "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord...'
Fulfillment by Christ:
Mk 1:15; "He came...saying, 'The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel."
Mk. 2:9-12a; "'Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, "Arise, take up your pallet, and walk"? But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,' He said to the paralytic, 'I say to you, rise, take up your pallet, and go home.' And he rose..."
Mk. 5:28,29,34; "For she thought, 'If I just touch His garments, I shall get well.' And immediately the flow of blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction...And He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."
Jn. 8:4,7b,9a,10b,11; "...they said to Him, 'Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.'...He said to them, 'He among you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.' And when they heard it, they began to go out, one by one... Jesus said to her, 'Woman where are they? Did no one accuse you?' And she said, 'No one, Lord.' And Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you; go your way, and from now on sin no more.'"
Mk. 10:45; "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."
The Messiah will come humble, on a donkey.
Zech. 9:9; "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you, He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey..."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Mk. 11:7,9; "And they brought the colt to Jesus, and put their garments on it; and He sat upon it...And those who went before, and those who followed after were crying out, 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’"
The Messiah will inaugurate a new covenant.
Jer. 31:31-34; "'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,' declares the Lord. 'But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the Lord, 'I will put My Law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And they shall not teach again each man his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' declares the Lord, 'For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.'
Fulfillment by Christ:
Lk. 22:19,20; "And having taken some bread, when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is My body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying 'This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.'"
The Messiah, the founder and foundation of the new covenant, will be rejected by the leaders of his own people.
Ps. 118:22; "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone; this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Jn. 1:10-12; "He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not receive Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name..."
Heb. 9:13-15a; "For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of flesh, how much more will blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant..."
The Messiah will be betrayed by thirty pieces of silver, which will be given to the potter.
Zech. 11:12,13; "And I said to them, 'If it is good in your sight, give Me my wages, but if not, never mind!' So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as My wages. Then the Lord said to me, 'Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them...'"
Fulfillment by Christ:
Matt. 26:14-16; "Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests, and said, 'What are you willing to give to me to deliver him up to you?' And they weighed out to him thirty pieces of silver.' And from then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Him."
The Messiah will be struck down, his followers will desert him.
Zech. 13:7; "'Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man, My associate,' declares the Lord of hosts, 'Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones.'"
Fulfillment by Christ:
Matt 26:55,56; "At that time Jesus said to the multitudes, 'Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.' Then all the disciples left Him and fled."
The Messiah will be mistreated.
Is. 50:6; "'I gave my back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck My beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.'"
Fulfillment by Christ:
Mk. 15:16-18; "And the soldiers took Him away to the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort. And they dressed Him up in purple, and after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; and they began to acclaim Him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And they kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting at Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him."
Matt. 27:26; "Then he released Barabbas for them, but Jesus he scourged [whipped] and delivered over to be crucified."
The following prophecies, until otherwise cited, are exclusively from the two Old Testament chapters of Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. Both of these chapters in their entirety are considered to be Messianic prophecies, i.e., prophecies of Christ, because of their predictive nature and the way in which their numerous descriptions and events were precisely fulfilled by Christ. Additionally, Christ quoted the first phrase of Psalm 22 when He was on the cross, and Ps. 22:16b says, "They have pierced My hands and My feet." Psalm 22 was written by David between 1100 and 1000 B.C., or about 1100 years Before Christ! And Isaiah was written between 740 and 700 B.C. All of Isaiah 53 is included below, as well as key passages of Psalm 22.
The Messiah will be acquainted with grief and sorrow, and will be despised and rejected, considered forsaken of God:
Is. 53:1-4; "Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves considered Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Lk. 22:63; "And the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him and beating Him, and they blindfolded Him and were asking Him, saying, 'Prophecy, who is the one who hit You?'"
Lk. 23:33-37; "And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right, and the other one on the left. But Jesus was saying, 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.' And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, 'He saved others, let Him save Himself, if this is the Christ of God, His chosen One.' And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, 'If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!'"
Jn. 11:32b-35; "Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, 'Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died.' When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her, also weeping, He was deeply moved in his spirit, and was troubled, and said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to Him, 'Lord, come and see.' Jesus wept...And Jesus raised his eyes, and said, 'Father, I thank You that you heard Me...' And when He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth.' He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings; his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go.'
The Messiah will be despised by and a reproach of the people, and considered forsaken by God:
Ps. 22:1,2,6-8; "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? Far from My deliverance are the words of My groaning. O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest...But I am a worm, and not a man, a reproach of men, and despised by the people. All who see Me sneer at Me; they separate the lip, they wag the head, saying, 'Commit Yourself to the Lord, let Him deliver Him, let Him rescue Him, because He delights in Him.'"
Fulfillment by Christ:
Matt. 27:39,43; "And those who were passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads,...`He trusts in God, let Him deliver Him now, if He takes pleasure in Him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
The Messiah will suffer abuse and will have his hands and feet pierced, his garments will be taken, and lots will be cast for them:
Ps. 22:16-18; "For dogs have surrounded Me; a band of evildoers has encompassed Me; they pierced My hands and My feet. I can count all My bones. They look, they stare at Me; they divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Jn. 19:23,24; "The soldiers, therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments, and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also a tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. They said therefore to one another, 'Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be;' that the Scripture might be fulfilled, 'They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.'"
We have gone our own way, but the Messiah is to be a sacrifice for our sins:
Is. 53:5-6; "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Jn. 19:17,18b; "They took Jesus therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of the Skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified Him..."
I Jn. 4:10; "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
I Pet. 2:24,25; "And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls."
The Messiah will be silent before his accusers, his burial will at first be along with transgressors, but will have to do with a rich man ultimately, and he will be without sin:
Is. 53:7-9; "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for this generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of My people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned to be with wicked men, yet with a rich man in His death; although He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Jn. 19:8-9; "When Pilate therefore heard this statement, he was the more afraid; and he entered the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, 'Where are you from?' But Jesus gave him no answer."
Mk. 15:27; "And they crucified two robbers with Him, one on his right, and one on His left."
Matt. 27:57-60; "And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance."
Jn. 8:46, (Jesus speaking); "'Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me?'"
Heb. 4:15; "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin."
I Pet. 2:21-23; "For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you and example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously..."
Because the Messiah is to sacrifice himself even to the death, the Lord will prosper him and reward him (the resurrection in view here):
Is.53:10-12; "But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, my Servant, will justify many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors."
Fulfillment by Christ:
Phil.2:5-11; "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men. And, being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Rev. 1:5b,6; "To Him [Jesus] who loves us, and has released us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."
The Messiah will rise from the dead:
Ps. 16:10; "For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol