There’s a saying in Britain, “If you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes.”
Being a group of islands on the edge of continental Europe with the Gulf Stream passing close by in the Atlantic, Britain’s climate is notoriously changeable and unpredictable. The British Meteorological Office is one of the oldest and most sophisticated weather forecasting services in the world—as a Met Office employee reminded me once, when I suggested they might have a better chance of accuracy if they just looked whether a pine cone was open or closed.
The fact is that any kind of forecasting is fraught with difficulty. Whether you’re a trader who must anticipate movements in the stock markets, a consumer analyst monitoring trends in spending in order to spot upcoming fashions, or a political pundit trying to predict the outcomes of elections, the problem is that the world is full of variables. Something unexpected can happen and throw out the most careful forecast. And the further into the future you try to forecast, the greater the chance of variables and the less accurate you can be.
Which is one reason why the Bible has stood the test of time as a truly extraordinary book. It is packed with forecasts of the future (we call them prophecies), which often span enormous time periods and which have consistently been proven true. Here are three examples:
The Jews
The Bible was written almost entirely by Jews, largely about Jews. It calls them God’s people (Romans 11:2). It’s not that the Jews are any better or more virtuous than anyone else—their history, as the Bible records it, shows this very clearly. God often castigated them for their stubbornness and rebellion (for example Deuteronomy 31:27). But their very existence and their remarkable history attests to the fact that God is working with them: ‘“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he”’ (Isaiah 43:10).
You can read Deuteronomy 28, which lists the consequences that would befall them for their disobedience, and recognise chilling details of pogroms and holocausts through the ages.
You can wonder at their peculiar history—persecuted minorities scattered throughout the world for millennia, resisting assimilation into their host societies and somehow always managing to outlive their enemies—and you can recognise the outworking of the prophecy:
‘I am with you to save you, declares the Lord; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end’ (Jeremiah 30:11).
You can observe the nation of Israel now. Stubborn and rebellious as ever, but their very presence in their ancient homeland is a fulfilment of prophecy (for example Ezekiel 36, Luke 21:24).
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the Bible’s key character—the Son of God who died to save us from our sins and will return to establish God’s Kingdom on earth (Luke 1:31–33, Matthew 1:21). His story is in the New Testament. But the Old Testament, which was written hundreds of years before he was born, abounds with prophecies about him. It’s reckoned that there are around 300 direct and indirect prophecies, detailing every significant aspect of his life and death.
For example, Isaiah describes his birth to a virgin (7:14), his ancestry (11:1–10), his forerunner John the Baptist (40:1–9), his miracles (35:4–6), the abuse by his enemies (50:6–7), his destiny to rule the world (9:6–7); and in perhaps Isaiah’s most poignant prophecy, his willing death as a sacrifice for the sins of his people (ch. 53).
The Future
And the Bible’s prophecies stretch into our own future.
The four Gospel records which commence the New Testament tell how Jesus Christ lived, died and was raised to life again. The next book, Acts, begins with his ascension to heaven. He took his disciples to the Mount of Olives, outside Jerusalem. ‘As they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven”’ (Acts 1:9–11).
The prophet Zechariah tells us of Christ’s return. Chapter 14 describes a multinational invasion of Israel, which will finally bring the self-confident nation to its knees and to its senses. At last, God will intervene.
‘Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east…’ (vs. 3–4).
Jesus Christ, possessing the power and bearing the name of God Himself, will return in glory to the very place from which he ascended 2000 years ago. If you read on in Zechariah’s prophecy you’ll see one of the Bible’s numerous tantalising pictures of the establishment of the Kingdom of God—the culmination of earth’s history, when Christ and his followers will at last restore it to the paradise which God intended.
Bible prophecy is fascinating, and exciting. It’s also personal: it involves you and me. To be a Christian is to live in preparation for the magnificent future which God has promised to those who are faithful to Him. As Jesus taught his followers to pray, ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matthew 6:10).
CHRIS PARKIN