You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
#36 – God’s Standard for Mankind (20)
Prophecy points to Inspiration (3)
by Jim Mettenbrink

[printable PDF of article]
[review previous article][advance to next article]

     In 1999, “The Matrix,” although a violent movie, reflects Postmodernistic thought – “There is no absolute truth” or “There are many ways to truth,” or ultimately “Everyone finds his own truth.”  Homogenization of the values from various religions appeals to our two youngest generations, commonly called Generation X (post baby boomers) and Generation Y (cyber generation).  Greg Garrett, professor at Baylor U. and reviewer of the subsequent film (The Matrix Reloaded), stated that both movies reflect a combination of Buddhism, Christianity, Existentialism, Gnosticism, Zen, philosophy of Derrida and Plato.  This second film challenges the possibility of prophecy.  Because the greatest evidence that the Bible comes from God is fulfilled prophecy, The Matrix Reloaded, in effect, questions the divine origin of the Bible, relegating it to human origin.
     Suppose a book had been written beginning in AD 1500 and every 20 years another author unknown to the other authors would add a chapter.  The first author wrote a prophecy of the coming of a great man who would eradicate a terrible disease.  And each successive author predicted something specific about the man, his ancestry, his birth, where he would live, events in his life and even details of his death.  In a period of 500 years there would be 25 prophecies.  The chances of all of them being fulfilled accidently are astronomical, yea impossible!  Who would give credence to such a book?  Yet this is the modus operandi of biblical prophecy regarding Jesus of Nazareth.
     The most astounding prophecies written in all of history are about Jesus.  For example, Micah (770 BC) prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1, 6), and born of a virgin (735 BC – Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).  Zechariah (520 BC) said Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:5).  The soldiers gambled for Jesus robe as foretold by the Psalmist in1000 BC (Psalm 21:18: Matthew 27:35).  Contrary to routine Roman crucifixion in ancient Jewish Palestine, when Jesus was crucified, His side was pierced and none of his bones were broken as propesied (Psalm 33:20; 21:16-17; John 19:36-37).  These prophecies were made between 500 and 1000 years before His birth.
     Although there are over 330 prophecies (the earliest was 4000 years BC) about Jesus in the Old Testament, the odds of eight of these being fulfilled in a singular person is one in one hundred million billion.  This would be like covering Texas entirely with silver dollars 10 inches deep, marking one coin and with a blind man picking just one coin with the hope of selecting the marked coin.  Further, the odds of just 48 of these prophecies being fulfilled in one person is one in one trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion (1 followed by 156 zeroes).  Fulfillment by accident?  Impossible!  These prophecies were not predictive.  Their fulfillment not by happenstance!  They were planned to occur at a particular time in history.  God knew what would occur because He created the prophecies and their fulfillment in Jesus so that all of mankind could know that He was the fulfillment of all 330 biblical prophecies — that He is the Divine Savior as He Himself declared.  So how did the Old Testament prophets know to pen the prophecies centuries before fulfillment?  Inspiration is the only reasonable conclusion.

[review previous article][advance to next article]



      © Jim Mettenbrink; used by permission. rev.04xx-04xx
      Permission guidelines for your use of this article.
      This article’s presentation in Exploring God's Word ©2004 David G. Churchill.
      For additional quality Bible-study materials, contact your local church of Christ or access Exploring God's Word at www.exploringgodsword.co.
      Send us your Bible-related questions.