Can the Bible be trusted as an accurate record of history? Can it even be shown to be supernatural in origin – a message from beyond our three-dimensional existence?
Many people are unaware of just how precisely Scripture can be verified. Popular voices such as Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry and Ricky Gervais have shaped a culture where an atheistic worldview dominates the media, often mocking anyone who defends the Bible.
Yet there is a way to verify the Bible’s accuracy beyond reasonable doubt.
The case from creation
The world around us is itself evidence. The complexity of the universe, and especially the existence of life on this planet, points to a designer. It is simply implausible that life arose by cosmic accident.
Archaeology adds further weight. Discoveries around the world consistently confirm the Bible’s historical accuracy, and many people have come to faith after encountering this evidence firsthand.
The conclusive proof: Prophecy
Even stronger than creation or archaeology is prophecy. If God created time, He exists outside it, and would know the end from the beginning. Prophecy is how He proves this: by telling us what will happen before it does.
The Bible contains over 8,000 prophetic verses, more than 20% of the entire text. It is the only religious text in the world with specific, testable predictions about the future that have demonstrably come true. Roughly two-thirds of biblical prophecy has already been fulfilled.
Below is a selection, some simple, some spanning centuries, that show just how precisely this prophecy has played out.
Prophecies concerning Jesus Christ
Around 300 Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled at Christ’s first coming. The odds of one person fulfilling just 8 of them by chance are estimated at 1 in 10¹⁷. Extend that to 48 prophecies, and the odds become 1 in 10¹⁵⁷ [ref] – a statistical impossibility unless God, existing outside time, revealed it in advance.
Born in Bethlehem
Micah prophesied this 700 years before the event.
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.(Micah 5:2 NIV)
Fulfilled in Matthew 2:1 and John 7:42.
Entering Jerusalem on a donkey
Foretold by Zechariah.
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9 NIV)
Fulfilled in Matthew 21:1-6.
Betrayed by a friend
Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me. (Psalm 41:9 NIV)
Fulfilled when Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus (John 13:26).
Sold for 30 pieces of silver
Later used to buy a potter’s field.
I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”–the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the LORD. (Zechariah 11:12-13 NIV)
Fulfilled in Matthew 26:14-15 and 27:9-10.
Hands and feet pierced
Described by David over 800 years before crucifixion existed as a method of execution.
Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. (Psalm 22:16 NIV)
Fulfilled in 32 AD.
Silent before his accusers
As Isaiah predicted.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7 NIV)
Fulfilled in Matthew 27:12-14.
No bones broken
Unusual for a crucifixion victim, whose legs were typically broken to speed death.
he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. (Psalm 34:20 NIV)
Fulfilled in John 19:32-33.
Died among sinners
As Isaiah foretold.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12 NIV)
Fulfilled in Mark 15:27-28.
Further prophecies of the first coming:
- From the line of David (2 Samuel 7:12a → Matthew 1:1-16)
- A messenger to prepare His way (Malachi 3:1a → Matthew 11:7-10)
- Born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14 → Luke 1:26-35)
- Hated without cause (Psalm 69:4a → John 15:25)
- Soldiers gambling for His clothes (Psalm 22:16-18 → Matthew 27:35-36)
- Accused by false witnesses (Psalm 35:19 → Mark 14:57-58)
- Rejected (Psalm 118:22a → John 1:11-12)
- Killed (Daniel 9:26a → Matthew 27:50)
- Buried with the rich (Isaiah 53:9 → Matthew 27:57-60)
- Forsaken by His disciples (Zechariah 13:7 → Mark 14:50)
The “Daniel 70 weeks” prophecy
Few prophecies are as precise, or as widely regarded as decisive, as Daniel 9:24-27, which pinpoints the arrival of the Messiah to the exact day.
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” (Daniel 9:24-27 NIV, emphasis added)
A “week” here is a Hebrew idiom for seven years, much like our “fortnight” means fourteen days. Both Hebrew and Babylonian calendar years ran 360 days. Sixty-nine “weeks” therefore equals 173,880 days.
The countdown starts with Artaxerxes Longimanus’s decree to rebuild Jerusalem on 14 March 445 BC. Counting 173,880 days forward, adjusted for leap days, lands on 6 April 32 AD – the exact day Jesus presented Himself as Messiah in the triumphal entry, after a ministry spent deliberately avoiding that title.
Daniel 9:26 also predicts the Messiah would be “cut off” before the destruction of the city and sanctuary, which happened in 70 AD. That leaves a hard question for anyone still awaiting a Messiah: whoever he is, Daniel says he had to have already come. It is a claim Jesus alone fits.
(For more detail: Chuck Missler, “The Precision of Prophecy – Daniels 70 Weeks“; John MacArthur’s YouTube teaching on Daniel 9)
Prophecies concerning Israel
The survival of the Jewish people is one of history’s great anomalies – exiled, stripped of land and language, and yet restored and more fruitful than before. (See our article, Why Israel?, for more on its significance.)
Dispersed among the nations
In 132 AD, Rome crushed the Bar Kokhba revolt, killing over 500,000 Jews. The survivors scattered, and Israel ceased to exist as a nation.
They will know that I am the LORD, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries. But I will spare a few of them from the sword, famine and plague, so that in the nations where they go they may acknowledge all their detestable practices. Then they will know that I am the LORD.(Ezekiel 12:15-16 NIV)
My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations. (Hosea 9:17 NIV)
Re-established as a nation
Deuteronomy 29:22-28 predicted the land itself would become desolate, exactly what happened during the 1,816-year exile between 132 and 1948 AD. Deuteronomy 30:1-5 then promises restoration. Israel was reborn on 14 May 1948.
He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. (Deuteronomy 30:5 NIV)
In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean. (Isaiah 11:11 NIV, emphasis added)
Jerusalem regained
Israel took control of Jerusalem in 1967, the first time in over 2,000 years, setting the stage for end-times prophecies tied to the city (Zechariah 12:3; Matthew 24; Revelation 11).
Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into Jerusalem. (Ezekiel 22:19 NIV)
The regathering
In 1914, only 80,000 Jews lived in Israel. Today, over 6 million have returned.
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you. The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess,’ says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 30:1-3 NIV)
The shekel revived
Reinstated as Israel’s currency in 1980.
The shekel is to consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels equal one mina. (Ezekiel 45:12 NIV)
Supernatural strength in conflict
In 1948, five neighbouring nations with a combined population over 20 million invaded a country of fewer than 1 million Jews, and Israel not only survived but expanded by 50%. In 1967, the Six-Day War saw Israel take Jerusalem and additional territory in less than a week. In 1973, Israel repelled a coordinated assault from Egypt and Syria during the Yom Kippur War.
You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. (Leviticus 26:7-8 NIV)
Prophecies concerning Nations and Kings
Four world empires foretold
Writing around 530 BC, Daniel used symbolic imagery – a statue of gold, silver, bronze, and iron mixed with clay – to represent four empires still centuries away: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Each would rule over Israel in turn (Daniel 2:32-33; Daniel 7-8).
Josiah named 300 years early
God named a future king of Judah, Josiah, three centuries before his birth, and predicted he would destroy Jeroboam’s altars (1 Kings 13:2-3). Fulfilled precisely in 2 Kings 23:15-20.
The fall of Tyre
This ancient trading hub, a mainland city plus a fortified island, was the subject of prophecies fulfilled over 250 years, culminating when Alexander the Great destroyed it in 332 BC, using the rubble of the mainland city to build a causeway to the island exactly as foretold.
This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not relent. Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood, I will send fire on the walls of Tyre that will consume her fortresses.” (Amos 1:9-10 NIV)
Related prophecies: attacked by many nations (Ezekiel 26:3); walls demolished and thrown into the sea (Ezekiel 26:12); naval power destroyed (Zechariah 9:3-4); never rebuilt (Ezekiel 26:14, 21).
Cyrus named 150 years early
Isaiah, writing around 700 BC, names the Persian king Cyrus roughly 150 years before he took the throne. Daniel likely showed Cyrus this very prophecy, which may explain why Cyrus granted the exiled Jews permission to return home.
who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.” ‘ (Isaiah 44:28 NIV)
Alexander the Great’s rise and fall
Both Daniel and Zechariah described his campaigns in striking detail, and his kingdom’s division after his early death.
As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power. (Daniel 8:5-7 NIV)
Kings of the North and South
Daniel 11 contains over 100 detailed prophecies charting a 150-year power struggle between the Egyptian and Syrian dynasties following Alexander’s death, widely regarded as one of the most remarkable passages in the Bible for its historical precision.
| Ptolemies (Kings of the South, Egypt) | Seleucids (Kings of the North, Syria) |
|---|---|
| 11:5 Ptolemy I Soter (323-285 BC) | 11:5 Seleucus I Nicator (312-281 BC) |
| Antiochus I Soter (281-262) | |
| 11:6 Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246) | 11:6 Antiochus II Theos (262-246) |
| 11:7-8 Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-221) | 11:7-9 Seleucus II Callinicus (256-227) |
| 11:10 Seleucus III Soter (227-223) | |
| 11:11-12, 14-15 Ptolemy IV Philpator (221-204) | 11:10-11,13,15-19 Antiochus III the Great (223-187) |
| 11:17 Ptolemy V Epiphanes | 11:20 Seleucus IV Philopator (187-176) |
| 11:25 Ptolemy VI Philopator (181-145) | 11:21-32 Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-163) |
Prophecies concerning future technology
A global broadcast
Only in the last few decades has it been technically possible for the whole world to witness an event in real time.
For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. (Revelation 11:9 NIV)
A weapon that dissolves the body
This passage would have baffled its original readers, but reads very differently in a nuclear age.
This is the plague with which the LORD will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. (Zechariah 14:12 NIV)
Conclusion
Critics sometimes claim these prophecies were written after the fact. Archaeological finds such as the Dead Sea Scrolls rule this out – and the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, was already in circulation by the third century BC, centuries before many of these events occurred.
If there is a God who created the world, foretelling its future is no obstacle to Him. Scripture uses prophecy to authenticate itself, precisely and literally, every time. There’s no reason to expect the pattern to break with what remains unfulfilled.
Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ (Isaiah 46:9-10 NIV)
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (Revelation 22:13 NIV)
We’d encourage you to look closely at the prophecies concerning Christ’s second coming. Scripture warns that what’s still ahead deserves the same attention as what has already come to pass.
When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28 NIV)
Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36 NIV)