What makes the Bible unique and very special among other ancient Books is that the Bible consist of more than 25% of propehecy, both that already been fulfilled or not yet fulfilled (and will be fulfilled). The prophecy telling us the future event that will come and the fulfillment of it showing that the One who predict it can really see the future or even in the case of the Bible, it shows and points to the One who had the future in His hand. It also show how the Bible is true and written or inspired by the true living God.
There are 354 prophecies regarding the Messaiah that is already fulfilled in the person of Jesus the Nazareth. (you can see the detail in here http://www.accordingtothescriptures.org/prophecy/353prophecies.html).
And these prophecies was not written by one or two person but by several prophets that lived in different times (prophet Micah lives 700 years before Christ, David 1000 years before Christ, Isaiah lives 700 years BC, Zachariah 500 years BC) and every writings pointed and fulfilled by the person Jesus Christ! Isn’t that amazing?
What is the odd of one prophecy written 1000 years ago being fulfilled in one person, let alone more than 300 prophecies?
Micah 5:2, states the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah, mathematicians determined the average population of BETHLEHEM from the time of Micah to the present; then they divided it by the average population of the earth during the same period.They concluded that the chance of one man being born in Bethlehem was one in 300,000, (or one in 2.8 x 10^5 – rounded),
After examining only eight different prophecies), the mathematicians conservatively estimated that the chance of one man fulfilling all eight prophecies was one in 10^17.
To illustrate how large the number 10^17 IS (a figure with 17 zeros), you can see this illustration :
If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all the tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that we take 10^17 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They’ll cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would’ve had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man. That`s how amazing the prophecy of the Messiah, savior of the World, that are fulfilled in the person of Jesus the Nazareth, in his birth, ministry, crucixion, resurrection and ascencion of Jesus. Showing and pointing only to one true living God that inspire the divine writings, the Bible!
There is another prophecy regarding the end times that some already fulfilled and many are not yet but will be fulfilled. One of the topic very important to the believers regarding end time prophecy is the rapture, It comes from the Latin word rapare which means “seize”, “snatch” or “take away.”
The term Rapture is used to refer to the faithful believers being taken up to meet Christ in the air as described in this passage written by the apostle Paul:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17)
One interesting preaching about this topic can be found here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KqQuTP3yqs
Hope it can be a blessing, and I will continue the writings later , with prayer for your salvation,
Demita Klassen
Renungan Harian Kristen