Introduction

            Not long ago my wife and I were taken to a buffet to eat. There were many kinds of great food. However, I was not particularly hungry. I fixed a plate, and was satisfied. I did not need to taste everything on the buffet, nor could I eat several plates full. There were others at the restaurant, however, that ate two, three, and four plates full, but no one could eat everything on the buffet.

This book is not a college text book, nor is it a reference book that one could use to find all of the fulfilled prophecies in the Bible. There are probably thousands of fulfilled prophecies in the Bible. There are well over three hundred fulfilled prophecies about Jesus alone.

Those who are hungry to find the truth about how we can be sure that the Bible is the Word of God only need enough facts to satisfy a hungry appetite. To list all of the prophecies would simply be adding ammunition for a debate.

The purpose of this book is simply to provide enough convincing evidence so that a person who is seeking can see evidences of why it is reasonable to believe the Bible is the Word of God, choose to believe it, and then trust Jesus Christ as his Savior based upon the truths set forth in the Word of God.

Back in 1963 the most important thing that has ever happened to anyone happened to me. I trusted Christ as my Savior. That changed my eternal destiny and my eternal existence.

1963 was also the year that John Kennedy was murdered in Texas. There is an interesting thing concerning his death. A lady named Jean Dixon received credit for prophesying that John F. Kennedy would be assassinated. The truth is she had, actually, prophesied that Richard Nixon would die in office after beating John Kennedy in the election. That got interpreted that John Kennedy would be assassinated. She was close, because it was a close election four years earlier. So, she was close. However, in God’s economy, close does not count. If a person is merely close, they were deserving of execution by stoning.[1]  Back during Old Testament times people were commanded to execute any person that made any prophecy that was not 100% accurate.

In Isaiah 48:3-5 God says this: “I have declared the former things from the beginning and they went forth out of my mouth. I shewed them. I did them suddenly, and they came to pass, because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow brass. I have even from the beginning declared to thee. Before it came to pass I shewed it thee lest thou shouldest say mine idol hast done them and my graven image and my molten image hath commanded them.”

In these verses we see some things about prophecy. In verse three God says, “I have declared the former things from the beginning. Before they came to pass I shewed them unto thee. They went forth out of My mouth. I showed them suddenly and they  came to pass.” Here we see an act of God. This was not just a coincidence or a prediction.

We see the God’s motivation for prophecy in verse four where God says, “Because I knew that thou art obstinate.” Why did God give prophecy? He gave prophecy for people who are obstinate. What does that mean? It means that we are stubborn. We are obstinate! That is the description of the people to whom God had written this prophecy.

God went on to describe these people with the words: “Your neck is an iron sinew.” What does He mean by an iron sinew? He is describing a stiff neck. He wrote this to a bunch of stiff-necked, obstinate people.

God continued to describe the people to which God gave prophecy with the words: “And thy brow brass.” What is that saying? That means they are “hardheaded.” He said, “I wrote this down, because you are so obstinate, stiff-necked, and hardheaded that you do not believe My Word.” That is exactly what He means. He said, “You are obstinate, stiff-necked, and hardheaded so I am writing these things before they take place.”

In verse five God says, “I have even from the beginning declared it thee. Lest thou shouldest say.  ‘Mine Idol hath done them, and my graven image and my molten image hath commanded them.’”

In Isaiah 46:10 God says very clearly, “Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My council shall stand I and will do all My pleasure.’” God tells us things before they came to pass.” That is what He repeats in Isaiah 48:5. “I have even from the beginning declared it to thee. Before it came to pass I shewed it.” My point is this. Prophecy is in fact prophecy, and God claimed it was prophecy. There have been other people down through the years that have claimed that there were other books with prophecy in them, but when you look at those claims you wonder how in the world they came up with the idea that those writings were prophecy. After the fact they would start trying to change the wording or timing to make it appear to be some sort of prophecy.

There have been several shows on TV about Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and Jean Dixon. They make some amazing claims that make the shows quite intriguing, but when you read the actual predictions that were considered to be prophecy, you would probably say, “How in the world did they get prophecy out of that?”

There was one prediction written during in the mid 1800’s that predicted that our nation would suffer a civil war. That would be prophecy right? The problem is, everybody had known our nation was heading that way for over fifty years. The disputes that ended in the cessation of the southern states and then the Civil War were being fought over in congress since the inception of our nation. There have been continued disputes and controversy over states’ rights and the powers of the federal government throughout our nation’s existence. In fact these arguments still are not settled. So it was not really a prophecy at all. It was simply a casual observation of the conditions as they were.

In stark contrast the Bible tells of things that could not have been known previously. Some people may say, “Well, how do you know they were even prophecy at all. They probably were written after the fact.”

Back in the late 1940’s there was a fellow named Mohammed  keeping  his  sheep   and   goats  out   by   the  Dead Sea[2]. He went looking for a lost sheep and saw it go into a cave, so he started throwing rocks into it to scare the sheep out. He threw a rock into the mouth of the cave. When the rock went through the opening, he heard something break inside of the cave. So he crawled in to investigate. It was not an easy access. It was very dangerous to get to it, because there was no shelf. It was basically a cave in the side of a cliff. If you stepped out of the cave you would fall to your death, so you had to almost be a rock climber to get to the cave at all. Besides that, the brittle rock in that area does not hold your weight very well. It has a tendency to crumble under your weight. So, people had not gone in there for a long time. After he climbed to the cave, he went in and found all these clay pots, and inside these pots were all these scrolls. Today we call them the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the next several years, as men began to excavate those caves, they found that there were several caves that were full of tons of scrolls. Every book of the Old Testament was found in those scrolls except the book of Esther. Esther was probably there, too, in one of the caves that was a little more easily accessible, but the Bedouins used to go into those caves and get those rolls out, and use them to light their campfires at night. Yet, some of them had actually been turned over to the authorities for money. Consequently, in some of the caves many of the scrolls had been removed previously.  Even so, every book of the Old Testament was found except the book of Esther[3].

Why is this significant? The parchments and the writings on those parchments were written 100 to 250 years before the birth of Christ. Now, what does that tell us? It tells us that every prophecy in the Old Testament was written at lease a century before Jesus was born, and if they were written when they claimed that they were written, they were written at least several hundred years before Jesus was born. Most of them were written over a thousand years before Christ was born.

So the things written about Christ in the Old Testament were definitely prophecies if they spoke of anything about the Christ or events after the Old Testament. We have proof of that now. There is no more question about those any more.

In II Peter 3:15[4] Peter speaks of Paul’s writings. Thirteen books of the New Testament bear Paul’s name as the one God inspired to write them. If Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, then Paul wrote fourteen books of the New Testament, and if you consider Paul’s traveling companions, Luke[5] and Mark[6], you can include three more books of the New Testament in which Paul was closely involved in their writings. In II Peter 3:16 God says that Paul wrote things that people struggle to understand “As they do the other Scriptures.” What does that tell us? The apostle Peter considered Paul’s writings Scripture. Peter, who walked with Jesus and listened to Jesus, and saw Jesus work miracles for three years, said that Paul’s writings are Scriptures.

In II Peter 1:15 God inspired Peter to write, “Moreover I endeavor that ye may be able after my decease (after I am dead) to have these things always in remembrance.” Why did God inspire Peter to write the Scriptures? He wrote down these things so that people would know these truths after he was dead. He was not simply writing to some friends about his life experiences.  He   wrote   these   things   for   the   very purpose of preserving them for those who would come after him.

In Verse 16 God says, “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  In other words Peter did not write down things that were passed down by word of mouth for hundreds of years like some have said. Nor were the things that Luke wrote passed down. They were dictated directly to him from the apostle Paul and the other apostles.

Some might say, “Wait a minute. Paul didn’t walk with Jesus.”

Yes he did. Just as the other apostles were taught by Jesus for three years, Paul was taught by Jesus for three years in Arabia after his conversion[7]. Out in the wilderness Paul was taught directly by Jesus after the resurrection. He heard and saw those things himself. He may not have seen what Jesus did as Jesus walked the earth, but he learned what Jesus did and the doctrines that Jesus taught directly from Jesus Himself.  Then God inspired Paul to write the things Jesus taught Him in his epistles. Finally, the written Word was passed down to us in the Scriptures.

Notice the rest of the verse: “But were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” We are not talking about someone who had received things by hearsay. “We saw these things that we record.” Peter said in Verse 17, “For He received from God the Father honor and glory, (speaking of Jesus) when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, ‘This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’ And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount.” Peter was saying that he heard these things with his own ears.

Did John not say the same thing in I John 1:1-3? (The things) “We have heard, with our ears, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled…that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you.”

That is what Peter is saying, also. “We heard these with our ears and we were eyewitnesses.”

There were 5000 families at one time that viewed some of the miracles of Jesus and heard His teachings when Jesus multiplied the fish and bread, and there were 500 people at one time that viewed Jesus after His resurrection in Galilee, but they did not all write those things down. That was the job of a few of the apostles and their secretaries (Luke and Mark). It was this ministry of writing the Word of God that was confirmed by the miracles. That is how God confirmed that these men had been chosen to write the Word of God.

Which would be more reliable? Would it be more sure to see and hear a witness with your own eyes and ears, or to read what an eyewitness wrote down? Most of us would want to see the witnesses ourselves. Even in a court of law we like to see the witnesses. We like to hear the witnesses’ testimony ourselves. We want to hear the eyewitness tell us what they saw, and what they heard.

However, a deposition is just as admissible in a court of law. A deposition is the testimony of a witness written down before the trial. For some reason, we usually give a deposition less credence than a live testimony. We want to be able to see the eyewitness ourselves.

We had to give a deposition in Kissimmee a few years ago. We went and gave the deposition, but they called us to the court in Miami, anyway,  because  they wanted to see us face-to-face. So, people think that eyewitnesses are better.

There were thousands of eyewitnesses of what Jesus said and did, but only a few that wrote down the things that they saw. They did not write these things down to witness to people that were alive. They had thousands of witnesses for that. These writings were written down for future generations.

Paul said the same thing. He said, “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also,” in II Timothy 2:2. He said that he wanted to make sure that these things were written and taught for at least four generations. That is the reason these things are written down. They were written so that we can have the proof.

Is not an eyewitness proof?

Today, all the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection are dead. If the apostles had not written down what they saw and heard, there would be no more testimony from eyewitnesses, but those who wrote the Bible were eyewitnesses.

God says in verse 18, “And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy.” It is more sure than what? What we have today is more sure than that which they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears. It is more sure than an eyewitness. We have the Word of Prophecy. So which would you rather have?

Just before I went to Bible college, I talked to a lady about the Lord, and she said, “If I could just see Jesus do something. If He would just appear before me and tell me what I needed to believe, then I would believe it.”

We have something more sure than being an eyewitness to something.

If this lady had actually seen Jesus and received a message from Him, after about a week she would not know everything Jesus said to her, if it contained as much information as we have in the Bible. She would not remember all the words word for word. After about a month she probably would not remember all of the facts in general, and she would have some of the facts confused. After a lifetime she would probably even doubt that Jesus really appeared to her at all. So which is better, an eyewitness or that which is written down? That which is written down is far better. It is a legal document. It is like a contract with which God has bound Himself.

Notice that God said that what we have is more sure. The question arises, “More sure than what?” It is more sure than what we see with our eyes and what we hear with our ears.

What makes it more sure? It is more sure, because it is prophecy. God said it before it took place. It is more sure, because most of it has now been fulfilled.

So we understand the reason for prophecy is primarily for those who do not believe, and, also, it is to bring those who do believe to a greater trust in God’s Word so that when God tells us something and gives us instructions, we will believe and do it.

Now, we see “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth unto a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.” That is how we got Scripture.

What does “private interpretation” mean? It means that, since it is not of private interpretation, then it must be for public interpretation. What is public interpretation in contrast to private interpretation?

There are cults today, and there have been cults for hundreds of years, that believe that only their people can interpret the prophecies. If you ask them a question on something of which they have not yet been indoctrinated, they will skirt the issue and wait until they can go back to their authorities, and find out how to interpret it. They do not believe that the public can find the answers to their spiritual questions in the Bible on their own. They have to have their own authority interpret it for them. They believe it is private. They believe that only their apostles, or only their elders, or only their monks, or only their priests can interpret the Scriptures, but God says you can read it and interpret it yourself.

I am not saying you should not look at sound commentaries. I study commentaries. They are great, but remember what is said about commentators. They are nothing more than common “taters.” They are not inspired of God. You still have to discern between truth and error, but you can see for yourself what the Bible is talking about. The Bible is for public interpretation.

Verse 21 says, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.”

That is the same thing Paul was saying in Galatians 1:10 when he said, “For do I now persuade men or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men I should not be a servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it, but by revelation of Jesus Christ.” Paul was converted after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, so where did he get his information?

Paul received his revelation directly from Jesus Christ. He was Christ taught. So “The prophecy came not by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

Some might say, “Wait a minute. It says, ‘They spoke.’  It didn’t say they wrote it.”

That statement is, actually, pretty accurate. It is good that God said it this way, because it was common for a prophet to have a scribe write down what God told him. Many times Jesus would quote the Old Testament. He would say something like, “As spoken the prophet Jeremy[8],” Or, “As spoken of the Lord by the prophet.[9]” Why did He word the quote that way? He said it that way, because the prophet often would not actually write anything himself. The prophet would get the message from God, and he would dictate it to a scribe. Then the scribe would write down the words the prophet would dictate to him.

There are all kinds of prophecies, but the most exciting and intriguing prophecies are Messianic prophecies.

There are prophecies about Gentiles. One example is the Gentile ruler named Cyrus. He was named by God to be the deliverer who would release the children of Israel to  go  back  to their land after they had been carried away captive to Babylon. In Isaiah God named Cyrus before he was even born. (Isaiah 45:1-4[10])

There are also many prophecies about the children of Israel. In the Old Testament God explained that they would be scattered throughout all the world. He said this long before they were ever scattered, and then they were scattered (Ezekiel 36:16-19, 24-28[11]).  He also said in Hosea that the Jews would come back to their land after 2000 years, and then they would, eventually, be subjects of the Messiah during the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ (Hosea 3:4-5, 6:1-2[12]). They have now come back to their land just as God said in Ezekiel and Hosea. So it happened just as God said it would happen.

There have been many wonderful prophecies about Israel and about Gentile nations, but the greatest and most useful prophecies are the prophecies about Jesus Christ Himself. We call those Messianic prophecies. Those are promises about the Messiah.

In Daniel 9:25 God says, “Know therefore and understand, that from the going  forth  of  the  commandment  to

restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and three score in two weeks…The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troubled times.”

God is saying that from the command to rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah would come would be a definite number of years. In this passage these weeks are weeks of years. The   command   went   out   during   the   time   of   Ezra[13]   and Nehemiah[14] to rebuild the temple and the walls of the city. There were three decrees to build the wall and the temple[15]. From then unto the Messiah would be 483 years. There were a total of 490 years that were determined, but from the time of the commands until the Messiah would come would be seven years short according to the passage, because those seven years are yet to be fulfilled in the future tribulation. The last seven years would be separated from the first 483 years.

It is hard to explain all of this to a lost person. So let us look at the next verse to see if there is something useful there. For the lost, just understanding that God prophesied in the Old Testament that during Messiah’s first coming He would be rejected is significant. Almost 600 years before Jesus came, God told how many years it would be until He came. And then He said, “And after threescore and two weeks shall  Messiah  be  cut off.” “Cut off,” means “Cut off out of the land of the living.[16]” That means he would die. It is prophesied here that the Messiah would die, and that He would die “not for himself.” So he would die for others.

“And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” That happened in A.D. 70[17]. The city and the sanctuary was rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah. Then Herod the Great began to embellish the temple in 19 B.C[18]. For over 85 years the embellishment took place. They finally finished the renovation of the Temple shortly before A. D. 70. Then in A. D. 70 Titus came and destroyed it. Every stone was taken one off of another, just as Jesus foretold in the New Testament[19].

In Matthew 24 God said that the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Look at the temple. This is fantastic!”

Jesus said, “See ye not these things? There shall not be one stone left upon another that shall not be thrown down,” (Matthew 24:1-2). Then Jesus went on to explain that every stone would be removed one off of another. As the Romans attacked the Jews who had fortified themselves in the temple, Titus ordered his soldiers not to destroy the temple. When the Romans lay siege to the city, Caesar said, “Don’t destroy the temple.” But the Romans were so enraged by the Jews that, when they went in they burned the temple against the orders  of  Caesar  himself.  When they burned the temple, all the gold with which Herod and all those men after him for eighty-five years had been adorning the Temple, melted and ran down into the cracks in the mortar of all the huge stones. Then men took every stone one off of another to get to the gold in between the stones. The only thing that was left was the foundation of part of Solomon’s Temple, which is still standing today. It is known as the Wailing Wall. However, Herod’s temple was completely destroyed.  Every single stone was dismantled just like Jesus said it would be.

When did God say that this would take place according to Daniel chapter nine? God said that this would happen after the Messiah would be cut off (killed). That shows us that Messiah had already come before A. D. 70. So, if a person does not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, then they need to consider who He might have been. He had to have come before A. D. 70. He had to have come over 1900 years ago.

Let us see something else prophesied about the Messiah, so we can narrow down the Messianic possibilities.

In Micah 5:2 God said, “But thou Bethlehem, Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel.”

The ruler of Israel, the Messiah the Prince which we see in Isaiah 9:6[20] as the Prince of peace, the one who would be heir

to the throne, would come from Bethlehem.  Interestingly enough, when the wise men came to Jerusalem looking for the Messiah, who they expected to be the king of Israel, the scribes read this verse to Herod, but they left out the last part of this verse. The rest of the verse says, “Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

What makes that significant? My goings forth have been since 1949. There is no trace of me before then. So you could not say that my goings forth have been from of old, because I am not old. Well, maybe you might think that I am old. That is O.K., but I am definitely not from everlasting. There is only one person ever to exist whose goings forth have been from everlasting. That is God Himself.

As it says in Isaiah 9:6, the child that was to be born; the Son that would be given on whose shoulders the government would be, His name should be called the Prince of peace according to the last phrase. But it says in the second phrase that He is the Everlasting Father. So the Everlasting Father would come from Bethlehem. That fact coupled with the fact that He would come before A. D. 70 narrows the candidates for Messiah down quite a bit. Just two verses from the Old Testament narrows down the identification of Messiah to somebody who came before A. D. 70 and who was born in Bethlehem. How many people can you name who were born in Bethlehem before A. D. 70? David was born before A. D. 70 in Bethlehem, but he was not the Everlasting Father, and the Messiah was prophesied to be a descendant of David, so David could not have been Messiah.

There are other Scriptures that help identify the Messiah. Zechariah 9:9 says about the coming Messianic King of Israel, “Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion. Shout O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold thy King cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation.” What did the people shout when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of the donkey? They said, “Hosanna!” The translation of that means, “Save now!” The king that would come was to bring salvation. This verse also says, “He is just!” Jesus never broke the law. Furthermore, God says that He is lowly, and on this day when He entered Jerusalem He was “Riding upon an ass and a colt the foal of an ass.” Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey while the people proclaimed that He had salvation.

Who was born before A. D. 70 in Bethlehem, would be the King of Israel, would bring salvation, and would be from everlasting?

Zachariah 11:12 says, “And I said to them, ‘If you think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, ‘Cast it unto the potter,’ a goodly price that I was priced at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.” Jesus was sold to the chief priests by Judas Iscariot for thirty pieces of silver[21], but later the Bible says that Judas repented himself. He changed his mind, so he went back to the priests and he said, “I have betrayed innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See thou to it.” So he turned around and cast the money down in the temple, and went

out and hanged himself. The Jews gathered the money up and said, “We cannot put this back in the treasury, because it is blood money.” So they went out and bought a potter’s field in which to bury strangers. That is what it says in Matthew 21:1-5. A potter’s field, of course, would be a good place to bury people, because the potters would go out and dig holes to get the clay so they could make pots. Consequently, there would already be holes there to bury the strangers. The Lord said, “Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.” Who do you know that was sold for 30 pieces of silver, the money was cast down in the temple, and then it was gathered up and used to buy a potter’s field other than Jesus Christ[22]?  Who else do you know that fulfilled these prophecies and was born before A. D. 70 in Bethlehem? We have eliminated all possibilities except Jesus Christ Himself just by these four verses.

The purpose of Messianic prophecy is to point to the person and work of Jesus. We have looked at the person of Jesus Christ when we consider that the Bible prophesied that He would be the Everlasting Father in Isaiah 9:6, He would be “God with us” when prophesying His virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14[23],  and that He would be from everlasting in Micah 5:2. We have read prophecy that sets forth the work of Messiah as having salvation.

In Ezekiel chapter 44:1-3 God says, “Then He brought me back by the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east and it was shut.”

The outward wall of the temple was the outward wall of the city of Jerusalem, so there was a gate that went out of the temple on the eastern side of the wall. From there the road continued across a bridge over to the Mount of Olives. If you kept following the road over the Mount of Olives, you would end up in Jericho.

Jesus did not spend the night in Jerusalem. He stayed in Bethany. Bethany is on the back side of the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem. So every morning He would walk over the Mount of Olives, come down through the Garden of Gethsemane, come across the bridge, and enter directly into the temple through the Eastern Gate. The first area He entered in the temple would be the court of the Gentiles. The court of the Gentiles is where the priests had set up their marketplace where they were exchanging money and selling sacrifices. The merchants would be making all kinds of racket haggling over the price of the sacrifices and exchanging money. He entered that area through that gate for three days in a row. On those three days he overturned the moneychangers’ tables. Finally, on Monday, which was the third day, the priests confronted Him about it. We do not have knowledge of Him even going there on

Tuesday, but if He did, He would have to go through the eastern gate. Let us see what the Bible says about the Eastern Gate. “Then said the Lord unto to Me, ‘This gate (the Eastern Gate) shall be shut. It shall not be opened and no man shall enter in by it, because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered and by it. Therefore shall it be shut.’”

Now, why? Why was it going to be shut?

Many years ago they used to have ancient Olympics. In the Olympics there was only one winner. There was not gold, silver, or bronze. They only had five games in those Olympics, and, when those five games were finished, there was only one overall winner. When this champion got home, the people of the town he represented would cut a hole in the wall of the city. Then the champion would walk through that new gate. After he walked through that gate, they would wall the gate shut and put his name over it. This was his gate! That was the way they tried to immortalize him.

Notice what God says here, “Then said the Lord unto me, ‘This gate shall be shut, and it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it.’”

Jesus walked through that gate while He was on earth, and so, therefore, it was shut. Today you can look at pictures of that gate and it is walled shut[24]. No man can walk through it.

If somebody blows a hole in that gate and walks through it, I am still going to believe the Bible. I have seen enough prophecy fulfilled that I do not need to see any more, but so far that gate is shut, and, consequently, the prophecy has been fulfilled and continues to be true today. People have tried to disprove this prophecy by opening the gate and walking through it, but it remains shut.

In actuality, the impassible Eastern Gate is not the Eastern Gate that Jesus walked through, anyway. That gate was built by the Turks many years after Christ. Jerusalem was destroyed after Christ came, and the rubble of the walls of the city covered the Eastern Gate. It has been discovered underground and is, consequently, even more impassible than the one above ground.

However, the Bible says that there will also come a time when the gate will be reopened. After that time God said Jesus is going to come back and eat bread in it. He shall enter in by the way of the porch of that gate and he shall go out by the way of the same. If, per chance, someone did blow open that gate, it could be a signal that Jesus is about to return and finish fulfilling that prophecy.

However, if it is in fact underground, how could it be excavated so Jesus could walk through it after He returns to earth?

There will be great topographical changes to the area around Jerusalem at Jesus’ second coming. These could easily explain how that gate will resurface. Read Zechariah 14:4-5, 8, 10[25] and Isaiah 40:3-5[26].

In Psalm 22:1 it says “My God my God why has thou forsaken me.”  That is what Jesus said on the cross. He said that to demonstrate that He was spiritually dead. He was separated from God the Father. Death means separation from the source of life, and spiritual death means separation from the source of spiritual life which is God the  Father. Jesus was spiritually dead, so he cried out, “My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken Me?” “Why have you separated yourself from Me?”

In verse seven notice what else is said. These words were said by Jesus’ enemies. “All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head saying. ‘He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him. Let Him deliver Him seeing He delighteth in Him.’” Those are the very words that were said at the foot of the cross by the enemies of Jesus. They were trying to keep Jesus from fulfilling prophecy, but even their mocking and actions were recorded in Psalm chapter 22 before any of those men were even born. God did not only record what Jesus would say and do, but He also recorded what Jesus’ enemies would say and do.

Verse 14 continues by giving us a better picture of the crucifixion here in the Old Testament than is found in the New Testament. God says here, “I am poured out like water all my bones are out of joint.” When they would stretch a man up on a cross all his bones would be pulled out of joint. That is what happened to Jesus.

“My heart is like wax. It melted in the midst of my bowels.” This refers to what happened when they pierced His side and the water and blood came out.

Verse 15 says, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd. And My tongue cleaveth to my jaws and Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death.” In the New Testament we see this fulfilled when Jesus said, “I thirst.” “For dogs,” (meaning Gentiles – the Romans) “have compassed Me. The assembly of the wicked,” (The Sanhedrin, where Jesus was first tried) “have enclosed Me.”

Notice the next words. “They pierced My hands and My feet.” The gospels do not mention  the piercing of Jesus’ feet. It records that he had prints in his hands and His feet after the resurrection, however, but it was assumed that we would understand that during the crucifixion they pierced His hands and feet. So there is not a real clear picture of the crucifixion in the gospels compared to what is prophesied in Psalm 22. Psalm 22 creates a better picture by far of the crucifixion itself than anywhere in the New Testament.

In verse 17 God says, “I may tell all My bones. They look and stare upon me. They part of my garments among them and cast   lots   upon   My   vesture.”   That  is  what  the  oldiers,  His

enemies, did at the foot of the cross[27]. The record that this was fulfilled is recorded in the New Testament.

Isaiah 50:6 tells that they would beat Him, and they would pull out his beard[28]. In Isaiah 52:14 God says, “His visage would be so marred more than any man.” Why did this take place?

In Isaiah 53 we see exactly why this took place. He says in verse 2, “For He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him.” Look at verse four. “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Psalm 41:4 points out that He is talking about the

spiritual healing of the soul[29]. Why did he suffer these things? He did it for us. It was not because of Him.

In verse six we see how He did it.  “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to our own way (of salvation); and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Our sins were laid on Him and they killed Him.

Verse 7 says, “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.” He did not defend Himself.”

Look at verse eight. “He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation?” How could He have children if He is dead? “For He was cut off out of the land of the living.”

Daniel wrote that He would be cut off for others rather than Himself in chapter nine. Why and for whom? “For the transgression of my people he was stricken.” “And He made his grave.” He died-was cut off, and He was buried. It says here, “He made His grave with the rich in His death.” Joseph of Arimathea[30] gave Him his grave. “Because He had done no violence.”

Look at verse 10. “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.” It pleased the Lord! It pleased the Lord to bruise Him! “He hath put Him to grief!” What does that mean?  How can that “Please the Lord”?

“Without faith it is impossible to please God. We must believe that He is  and He  is  the  rewarder  them  that  diligently seek Him.” “Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back (short of faith) My soul shall have no pleasure in him,” (Hebrews 11:6, 10:38-39). What is it that pleases God? Faith! So when it says that it pleased the Lord, Isaiah it is referring to the fact that the death of the Messiah would bring about faith which pleases God.

“He hath put Him to grief when thou shalt make his soul  an  offering for sin.”  He  died  spiritually.  That does not mean He stopped existing. That means He was separated from God the Father.

“He shall see His seed. He shall prolong his days.” How do you prolong the days of a dead man? There is only one way of which I know. Resurrection! He was resurrected![31]

“And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” (Faith in Him is what brings pleasure to God.)

“He shall see the travail of a soul, and shall be satisfied.” That is propitiation. Propitiation means “satisfactory payment.”

He then says, “By his knowledge.” What does God mean by “knowledge”? “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name is a God that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” He is speaking of the saving knowledge (faith) in Jesus Christ.

“By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify.” Justify means “declare righteous.” It is a legal righteous standing before God.

“For He shall bear their iniquities (our sins). Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall  divide  the

spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with transgressors[32](the thieves); and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

He did all this for us. He did this so that we can have eternal life. He did it to pay for our sins.

We need to understand that the purpose of prophecy is to understand the person and work of Jesus Christ. The work of Jesus Christ, which He accomplished by His death, His burial, and His resurrection, is brought out in the Word of God. That Word, which is without error and without contradiction shows us that we can know we have eternal life because of what He did for us.

What did He do? We have all sinned. (Romans 3:23[33]) That means that we have all done things wrong. That is what iniquity is. It is sin.

The payment for sin is death. (Romans 6:23[34])

So, Jesus died. He did everything required to get us to heaven.

The only thing He requires of us for salvation is that we must trust what He has already done. When we trust what he has done, we can know we have eternal life[35].

If you have never trusted Jesus, I would exhort you to do so now.

If you have never trusted Jesus to get you to heaven, and you want to do that now, maybe pray something like this: “God, I don’t understand it all, but the best I know how I trust you to get me to heaven.”

If you do that sincerely, then you can know that you have eternal life.

If you are already certain of going to heaven, you need to study these Scriptures so that you can know them well enough to be able to share them with those that are lost. God expects you to share this good news so that others can know that Jesus is God who became a man, came to earth to die and pay for sin, and come back from the dead to prove that Jesus accomplished everything that is required to get you to heaven 2000 years ago on the cross. The only thing that man must do is trust Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Deuteronomy 18:20-22 “The prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

[2] LaSor, William S., The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament, p. 28.

[3] LaSor, William S., The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament, p. 36-39.

[4] II Peter 3:15 “Our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you.”

[5] II Timothy 4:11 “Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.”

[6] Acts 13:5 & 15:37 “When they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister.” “Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.”

[7] Galatians 1:17-18 “Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.”

I Corinthians 15:8 “Last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”

[8] Matthew 2:18

[9] Matthew 1:22

[10] Isaiah 45:1-4 “Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

[11] Ezeliel 36:16-19 & 24-28 “Moreover when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings. And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.” “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

[12] Hosea 3:4-5; 6:1-2 “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.”

Hosea 6:1-2 “Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.”

[13] Ezra 1:3 “Who is there among you of all his people?  his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.”

[14] Nehemiah 2:8 “And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into.  And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.”

[15] Ezra 6:3 “In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits.”

[16] Isaiah 53:8 “He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.”

[17] Keyes, Nelson Beecher, Story of the Bible World, p.157.

[18] Ibid. p. 120.

[19] Visalli, Gayla, After Jesus The Triumph of Christianity, p.74

[20] Isaiah 9:6 “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

[21] Matthew 26:14-15 “One of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.”

[22] Matthew 27:3-7 “Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.

And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.”

[23] Isaiah 7:14 “The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

[24] Ward, Kaari, Jesus and His Times, p. 122

[25] Zechariah 14:4-5, & 10 “His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.” “All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses.”

[26] Isaiah 40:4 “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.”

[27] John 19:23-24 “The soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.”

[28] Isaiah 50:6 “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”

[29] Psalm 41:4 “I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.”

[30] John 19:38 “After this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.”

[31] Matthew 28:5-6 “The angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

[32] Matthew 27:44 “The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”

[33] Romans 3:23 “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

[34] Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

[35] I John 5:13 “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”