Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isa 7:14)First off, Isaiah saw his vision about 700 BC. The angel told Mary the same "story" about 5 BC, and the story came true about nine months later. Isaiah prophesied. Prophets are aware of things long before they happen.
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)
Time is not a barrier to prophecy. Jesus himself said that he would come soon (Rev 22:7): "Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." Jesus even referred to prophecy because the Book of Revelation is end-of-time prophecy.
How long is quickly? "One day is as a thousand years" (2 Pet 3:8). That may be rhetorical because God is not tuned to earthy time. But let us say that is an equation, just to test: 1 day = 1 thousand years, so if the time (t) is 700 years what is "T" (cap T is God's Time). Well, T=24 hrs/1000 yrs x T/700 yrs; T= 16 hrs and 48 minutes. Isaiah's prophecy came true in less than seventeen hours in God's time!
Isaiah also beheld Jesus's death:
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. (Isa 25:7-8)
And Paul reported on what already occurred, just as Isaiah prophesied:
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (1 Cor 15:54).What are the odds that anyone could accurately predict Jesus's birth and death? The odds are very low, but there are at a minimum of hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament which accurately foretell New Testament events! The Jesus Film Project, on their webpage (Jan 4, 2018) presents 55 events in Christ's life which came about.
Some say that Jesus merely re-enacted what had been written. In other words, Jesus died to present a fake gospel? What would be his motive in doing that? And how would he fake being born in Bethlehem as prophesied (Micah 5:2)? Zechariah prophesied that Jesus would be sold out for thirty pieces of silver (Zech 11:12-13). How did Jesus get Judas and the Pharisees to negotiate those terms, then get Judas to kill himself in shame?
Oh, yes: Jesus surely asked the centurions not to break his bones (Exod 12:46), as was the custom, but pierce him in the side which was not! Did Jesus really give instructions to those who crucified him in order that prophecy would be fulfilled? Death by crucifixion was not the method in David's time but the psalmist foresaw Jesus on the cross: "For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet" (Psalm 22:16). Surely Jesus said, do not capitate me, but nail me to a cross until dead! Of course, Pilate would do his bidding (sic). (That scenario is silliness; it was not staged but planned and prophesied.)
I could go on and on, but an absurdity are the centurions discussing the part they were to play: Oh, now, we should be gambling for his clothing. Who's got the dice? Ernest... did you remember the dice? Of course, that was prophesied years before, and the centurions did gamble for Jesus's clothes.
I am not a gambler, but if I was, what are the odds that Jesus would be born of a virgin just as predicted? Then to be preceded by John the Baptist? Even two events are astronomically improbable, but just look at all fifty-five presented by The Jesus Film Project from Scripture. Surely, when Paul was convicting Agrippa, by the use of statistics and probability, the king was almost persuaded (Acts 26:28)! (Many in the New Testament were persuaded by prophecy from the Old Testament.)
Well, Jesus persuaded me! He validated what the prophets "saw" long before they saw it. Perhaps they saw Jesus's life in a vision; that could be, but better is that Jesus gave them the gospel story in his own words:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)Where was Jesus in the beginning. He was the Voice in the Garden who walked in the cool of the day. He was there restoring Adam and Eve to their original condition - performing a re-genesis just as he does now. The reason Old Testament prophecy is so accurate is because salvation was planned. Jesus was there informing godly people of the Plan. It's not that the prophets necessarily "saw" God incarnated, but that the Word - Jesus - provided the gospel to them directly. Jesus was speaking to those righteous men about his purpose to come. Jesus was born to die, and died to live, thus providing death to those who live, and life to those who die!
I believe the gospel because the prophets believed it. It's not really a faith thing, but logical. Why would I not believe in Jesus and that he is Creator and Savior if the numbers failed to validate that? The prophets could not possibly all be excellent liars, because their "lies" were all the same, and they all came about. The "players" in Jesus's life, death, and resurrection could not be play-acting even with Isaiah's script. People are not that reliable, and definitely not that good of actors!
The apostles would not have been willing to die to purvey a lie. In what acting school would they have been trained? They died for Jesus. Would they have died for a lie? I think not! Jesus died for us, would all those apostles have died for us if Jesus wasn't truth? I think not. You see, my faith is based on truth. People just won't go to the pyre, cross, or sword for the sake of narrative (lies). They died for the truth.
Probability and statistics support the creation story, and also supports the gospel story. How could God save us - "Yeshua delivers" - if God could not create us? Be realistic! We did not just happen. Face the truth, or you will die quickly. As I have shown, maybe not today, as Adam and Eve failed to understand death, but quickly in God's time!
As a side note, I accept the timing in sacred literature. I believe that eternal time is divided into eight days: the first six "days" in which God works on our behalf, and on the seventh "day", God "rests" which seems to be Jesus's Millennial reign. The eighth "day" is longer and is eternal. Each of those seven "days" are a thousand years according to both sacred literature and Holy Scripture.
I also accept that the Adamic Covenant will end in 5-1/2 "days" or 5500 years. That is when Adam will arise from the grave and be glorified - brought into God's presence again. Today is 5779. Adam lived to be 930 years. 930 plus 5500 is 6430. That is the "sixth" day on God's calendar. 6430 - 5779 = 651. Perhaps, though, that the 5500 years covenant was from the time Adam sinned. Using Holy scripture and the ages and times of the births of Adam's children, Adam must have sinned before he was 130 ( Bodie Hodge; Answers in Genesis; April 20, 2010). The, 651 - 130 = 521. In other words, within the next 521 years we can expect the Rapture of those dead and alive in Christ, but it could be tomorrow. That is 1/2 "day" in God's time, and indeed is quickly as the Revelation of John indicates!
Note that I do not predict neither the day nor the hour but the timing. Jesus will come as a thief does in the night, and it shall be as in the days of Noah. I have written in my book, Killing God: The Tree of Life, an excerpt from sacred literature how it will be in those days. The point is that we must be sober and vigilant as if it will be quickly!
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