Why Believe the Bible? Internal Evidence
See Chart: “Short-term Prophecies Fulfilled”
The Bible includes hundreds of prophecies that were given and fulfilled as predicted. It is said that in the Old Testament alone there are some 2000 prophecies made and fulfilled. Fulfilled prophecy is a feature unique to the Bible because no man has the power to know the future. Who can look at a child born in the year 2006 and say with certainty what that child will be doing in 2032? Or who will venture to predict with certainty the name of the person who will be President in 2020, or even who will be the next President? Some will speculate, and occasionally guess right. But the ability to know the future, to foretell events accurately time after time after time belongs to the God of the Bible, and Him alone. The mere quantity of fulfilled prophecy in the Bible attests to the fact that it is indeed the written Word of God.
Just consider the prophecies about Jesus. Nearly every aspect of His birth, life, death and resurrection were foretold, and these prophecies were spoken hundreds—even thousands of years before He was born. The Prophets foretold such specific details as that He would be born in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), that He would be descended from the family of King David (Jer. 23:5), and even predicted the year of His death (Dan. 9:25-26). Prophets of God foretold the effects of Jesus’ ministry (Isa. 53:4), how He would be betrayed, and the price for which He would be sold (thirty pieces of silver, i.e., the price of a slave, see Zech. 11:12-13). Numerous details about His suffering and death were foretold (see Psalm 22), even so specific a point that he would be buried in the grave of a rich man (Isa. 53: 9). The Psalmist foretold that He would be buried but only briefly, because He would be resurrected (“You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” -Ps. 16:10). The Psalmist also foretold His ascension to heaven, that He would be at the right hand of God until the time when He would return, to conquer His enemies (Ps. 110:1-2). All these forecasts proved accurate even to the smallest detail. How is this possible? There is only one answer: the all-knowing God of heaven was speaking through its authors, He who knows the future with as much certainty as we know the past.