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2020-02-26 to 28 Pictures: Charleston, South Carolina

One of the few upsides of having to cancel our Spring Break trip last March at the onset of the pandemic is that we are "stuck" with a rather large voucher from one of those discount airlines. Last autumn, Tricia and I spent a weekend in Savannah, Georgia and had a...

A John 3:16 Craft for Kids

John 3:16 is one of the most well known and reassuring verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16 (NIV) The following is a little craft I threw...

2020-03-01 Pictures: Lyndsey’s College Signing Day

This afternoon Lyndsey made it official, signing her letter of intent to play college basketball for the Hiram College Terriers starting next year. While she made the decision and committed to Hiram before Christmas, she has been looking forward to this day since her...

2020-02-13 Pictures: Lyndsey’s 18th Birthday

I am little behind on posting photos. These are some of my favorites from a couple of weekends ago when we got a chance to celebrate Lyndsey's 18th birthday. It's hard to believe that my little girl is officially an adult. It was nice to have the family all back...

What is DOCTRINE?

Introduction I love working with kids, and I love teaching them hard concepts in ways they can understand. To that end, for years I have been working on a dictionary of theological terms for kids and teens. In sharing those definitions, there seemed no better place to...

If You Want It Done Right

In all likelihood, you know how the phrase ends: If you want it done right, DO IT YOURSELF! This is a bit of a mantra for me, and frankly, something that I struggle with daily both in leadership and in my Christian walk.  In theory, this is easy to accept. ...

What Does God Hate?

This is the little and humble post that started it all. I happened to be reading through my Bible, and this passage impacted me so much that I posted a little blurb about it on Facebook. That was July 28, 2008, and I've been writing and sharing ever since. (Maybe...

Why I Believe the Bible #20A (Introduction to Biblical Prophecy)

BIbleOne of the most convincing pieces of evidence of the supernatural origin of the Bible comes in the form of prophecies included in the text.  In my own spiritual journey, it was these prophecies given by God, and their ultimate fulfillment, that ultimately convinced me that Bible was inspired by God and was accurate and reliable.  Due to that, the prophecy of the Bible holds a special place for me.

Let’s look at some background information this week.  John F. Walvoord, in The Prophecy Knowledge Handbook, explains that there are 1,013 prophecies in the Bible including 574 in the Old Testament and 439 in the New Testament.  342 of those prophecies have not yet come true because they deal with heaven or the second coming of Christ.  Of the remaining 671, 668 of those prophecies were historically fulfilled.  The other 3, while not proven wrong, cannot be historically verified.  That means that not one of the hundreds of prophecies written throughout the Bible has proven to be incorrect. While the exact count of prophecies in the Bible sometimes varies, the fact of the matter is that not one of them has proven incorrect, and this is strong (I would argue) irrefutable proof of the supernatural origin of the Bible.

Now, when you talk about prophecy, many people think of Jean Dixon or Nostradamus and types of predictions they make.  To the contrary, the prophecies of the Bible are oftentimes very specific and even include detailed explanations hundreds of years before events unfolded in history.  For anyone to predict the future with 100% accuracy requires supernatural revelation.  It is no wonder then that the Bible uses prophecy as a test for whether or not something comes from God.

The book of Deuteronomy explains the punishment and test for false prophets:

But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’– when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. [Deuteronomy 18:20-22 ESV]

God is clear that only he can predict the future:

remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ [Isaiah 46:9-10 ESV]

Nest week, we will look at some of the individual prophecies which God included in the Bible to allow us, the readers, to test its origins.

Return to the Why I Believe The Bible index page.

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