Jesus fulfilled 365 Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah

 

 

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This 2.6% of the OT is what the early Church used to convert Jews to Christ – see Logos Word of God – BT6, while discounting the other 97.4% that was Law-based – see Logos Word of God – BT8.  61 of these prophecies are incredibly specific!  You know what the astronomical odds of any one man accomplishing this?  The odds of one person fulfilling 8 prophecies are 1 in 10 to the 21st power.  The odds of fulfilling 61 are 1 in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion.”

 

Flavius Josephus was one of the Jewish historians around 0 A.D. hired by the Romans to meticulously record everything that was going on.  He was NOT a Christian, but definitely a Jew, hired by Romans to be impartial, but you can tell that he was seriously impressed and wondering if there really was truth to the claims about this Hebrew Messiah Yeshua or in Greek Christ Jesus in their midst because of the validating miracles and huge following of people. Being a Jew, he knew the prophecies of the Messiah himself, and suspected they were being fulfilled while he was recording history in the making.  He also saw how the huge following of Jesus was causing the Jewish leaders to become exceedingly mad because it threatened their authority.  He also wrote about Jewish King Herod the Great, who built the current temple in Jerusalem of which only the foundation remains and who also built every other major Jewish structure still standing from 2000 years ago.  He went mad in his later years, killing his wife, step mother, 3 of his sons, the high priest, and many other people.  He was very sick and afraid of plots to overthrow him, likely paranoid delusional.

 

Anyway, historical records said that Herod issued a decree to have all male children under the age of 2 be killed in the city of Bethlehem and surrounding districts.  The reason that is recorded in the history books is that great wise men from Mead, which is in our current Persia area where to this day there is a large community of the highly educated, intellectual Jewish people, professionals, scholars, etc, who the people called “Magi” because the Arabic word means “astronomer/astrologer” were involved with the birth of Jesus.  They were highly respected intellectuals, even possibly local rulers according to archeology, who studied all the religious texts of the known world and astronomy.  They had come to King Herod asking where the King and Messiah of the Jews was born, because they had seen the new bright star suddenly appear in the sky.  The star was very obvious, and they were expert charters of the heavens.  In fact, some of these charts have survived!  They also knew from the Jewish texts that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea and evidently near that time, for they had accurately calculated it using the Jewish scriptures and possibly other texts.  History says that King Herod was so paranoid he told them to report back to him where they found him in Bethlehem, giving them directions to the city.  Warned in a dream, they did not return to the King and he was furious after searching for them for two years and then searching the villages for this Messiah or King who threatened his rule.  King Herod had been at war and destroyed many kingdoms already, being a bloody man of battle.  No word came back after coming back from the battlefront.  He went crazy and executed all the male children under 2 years old, based on the time the Magi had arrived and the time that had transpired.

 

Jewish writings make it clear that the Messiah would be killed by his own people, as most of their prophets were, and then the temple would be destroyed by a great army.  Titus did it in 70 AD, throwing every stone off the temple mount, which you can still see on the pavement below, just as was foretold in the Jewish writings.  Here are a few samples:

 

Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:  The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him ‘Immanuel,’ which means ‘God with us’” (a).  This was how the Messiah was born of the virgin Mary (b). <Notes> a) Matthew 1:23, b) Matthew 1:16, 18, 20; Luke 1:27, 30, 34.

 

Isaiah Chapter 52:14 – 53:12 – In the Dead Sea Scrolls, a perfectly intact manuscript was found dating 300 years BC (before the Messiah), depicting what would occur to the “Servant” of Yawheh God.  It was almost identical by 5 letters to a manuscript 500 years older dating around 200 A.D. that Jewish rabbis for years thought had been tampered by the Christians because it so accurately depicted the suffering of the Messiah “Servant” Jesus, the Christ or “Anointed One.”  This Dead Sea’s scroll greatly embarrassed these so-called “scholars” because it clearly says from the Hebrew:

 

 “Many were horrified by the sight of Him, [because] He was so disfigured, [that] He no longer looked like a man; He had no stately form or majesty that might catch our attention, no special appearance that we should want to follow Him.  He was despised and rejected by people, one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness; people hid their faces from Him; He was despised, and we considered Him insignificant.  But He lifted up (a) our illnesses, He carried our pain; even though we thought He was being punished, attacked by Yahweh, and afflicted for something He had done. He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins;  He endured punishment that has made us well;  Because of His wounds (b) we have been healed. All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but Yahweh caused the sin of us all to attack Him. He was treated harshly and afflicted, but He did not even open His mouth.  Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not even open his mouth.  He was led away after an unjust trial, but who even cared?  Indeed, He was cut off from the land of the living; because of the rebellion of His own people He was wounded. They intended to bury Him with criminals, but He ended up in a rich man’s tomb, because He had committed no violent deeds, nor had He spoken deceitfully. Although Yahweh willed to crush Him and make Him ill, once restitution is made, He will see descendants and enjoy long life, and the Yahweh’s purpose will be accomplished through Him. Having suffered, He will reflect on His work, He will be satisfied when He sees what He has done. My Servant will acquit many, for He carried their sins. So I (Yahweh), will assign Him a portion with the multitudes, and He will divide the spoils of victory … because He willingly submitted to death and was numbered with the rebels, when He lifted up the sin of many and intervened on behalf of the rebels.”  When people read this to Jews on the streets of Israel and asked, “Do you know who this could be speaking of?”, many said, “It sounds like Jesus.”  Watch the video! <Notes> a) an obvious reference to crucifixion, which Jesus even prophesied concerning the manner of His death – John 8:28, 12:32, b) together as one massive wound.

 

Micah 5:1-2 “They will strike Israel’s Ruler on the cheek with a rod.  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.” The Messiah Yeshua/Jesus was struck by the Jewish leaders, common people, and Roman soldiers. He was born in Bethlehem (a). And Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM” – a declaration of equality to the “I AM that I AM” God who spoke to Moses (b).  The Jews knew what Jesus was saying because they yelled “blasphemy” and picked up stones to kill Him!  John says that Jesus “was with God in the beginning, and all things were made through Him” (c).  Paul says “He is the exact image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible . . . all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (d).  The writer of “Hebrews” to Jewish-Christians falling back into Judaism reminds them: “In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also God created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of His enabling-power” (e). <Notes> a) Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4, b) Exodus 3:14, c) John 1:1-3, d) Colossians 1:15-17, e) Hebrews 1:2.

 

Daniel 9:24-26 says:  “70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up (fulfill) vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy (a). Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be 7 weeks and 62 weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the 62 weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary (b). The end of it shall be as a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined.”  <Notes> a) the meaning of “Christ” or “Messiah” is “The Anointed One”, b) Titus in AD 70 with his Roman soldiers.

     I found in Daniel the prophecy of the 7 + 62 = 69 weeks and 70 weeks near the end of Chapter 9, where a week = seven years in their timeline (a).  In 450 B.C. Daniel prophesied of Jewish Temple being built, and we find out it happened just as God said.  But then Daniel prophesied that exactly 483 years, which is 69 weeks, later the Messiah would be “cut off” (b) for the sake of the people and this was would be in 33 AD (c), and that’s exactly when Jesus died according to historians.  But Daniel also prophesied that after this the temple would be destroyed by 70 AD by a “prince and his people.”  Jewish historians always thought it was just too accurate of a prediction, so they were sure that Daniel had been written after the fact, but then the Dead Sea scroll found books of Daniel that were dated long before 33 or 70 AD.  The prophecy was clear that the Messiah would appear, be killed, and then the Temple would be destroyed.  Even the Jewish scholars I listened to said that the timeline was accurate, but then they danced around the issue of the Messiah having come by 70 AD because they are still waiting for their Messiah, but they couldn’t  deny the Jewish Temple was “desolated” and all of Jerusalem destroyed in 70 AD by Titus of Rome. <Notes> a) ancient lunar calendar still used by the Essenes at the time of Christ, b) this always meant “killed” in Jewish literature, c) according the Jewish lunar calendar.

 

Psalms 118:22  “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone/cornerstone.” The Jewish leaders did indeed reject their Messiah, as cited in Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6-7.

 

Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Roman historians recorded Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey while being hailed as the king.  See also Matthew 21:7, John 12:14-15.

 

Zechariah 11:13 “And Yahweh said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’ – the handsome price at which they priced Me!  So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.”  The Jewish leaders paid Judas Iscariot 30 pieces of silver for betraying Jesus per Matthew 26:15, which were later thrown down onto the the Temple floor out of remorse, because the priests wouldn’t accept the blood money back per Matthew 27:3-9.  The place where Judas hung himself is call “The Potter’s Field” or “Field of Blood” per Matthew 27:7-10 to this very day!

 

Make sure to read the 5 simple steps to salvation in the previous Salvation – BT1 BLOG.

 

Reflection:

 

 

If you don’t have trusting-relying-faith that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah of the Old Testament even after reading 61 prophecies, then you are defying the statistical odds and thus highly irrational, or just plain hard-hearted and defiant against God.  If you can pull this off after reading 365 prophecies, then you are either unconscious, mentally disable, insane, or just pissed off at God.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, thank You so much for preparing your people in so many ways for the coming of Jesus.  You told them throughout their Old Testament – see Salvation – BT3, and even sent John the Baptist to introduce Christ.  Though evil people plotted against Him, still the Church was predominantly Jewish and grew by thousands a day until AD 70 when the Temple was destroyed.  Then the Church exploded as it went out to the Gentiles of the world!  In 300 years 60% of the Roman Empire confessed Christ!