The Power of Prophecy
The U.S. presidential election is less than a month away. Each side is extolling the benefits of voting for their candidate and confidently predicting victory. Don’t you wish you possessed the power of prophecy to know the outcome of the election now?
Or consider where you should invest your money for the best return. On October 8, 2019, the stock price of Zoom Video Communications closed at $73.59. One year later, on October 7, 2020, the stock price closed at $480.61. Don’t you wish you could have prophesied that?
Now consider the power of prophecy in the area of religion. It has been estimated that there are more than 4,000 religions or public faith systems in the world, all claiming to have the answers regarding the origin and meaning of life. So how do we know who is right? Can we even hope to know? Or is this simply a matter of agreeing to disagree: “what’s right for you may not be right for me.”
Today, religious differences spill violently across the world stage. Cries for peace, unity, and ecumenicism have become a new religion in itself. How do we decide the right way forward?
Christianity’s exclusive claims regarding salvation further complicate things. If Christianity is right, then everyone else must be wrong. Is it possible to know for sure?
The answer is found in the power of prophecy.
Think about the founders of the various world religions. In every case, someone stepped out of obscurity, without warning, to establish a new belief system. Now think about Christianity. Unlike every other religious founder, the coming of Jesus Christ was prophesied long before He walked the earth.
There are more than 300 predictive prophecies in the Old Testament fulfilled by Jesus during His earthly life and ministry. His birth was prophesied. His ministry was prophesied, and His death and resurrection were prophesied.
Can we believe Jesus is who He said He is? Yes! Because hundreds of prophecies predicted Him. Starting with the book of Genesis (Genesis 3:15) and moving through thousands of years of history, Jesus’s life and ministry were announced in advance of His coming.
We can trust that Jesus Christ is who He said He is. And this truth is affirmed by the power of prophecy.
Hurrah!
So thankful!
Amen. We can trust Him.
Terrific post! To the point, applicable to our day and age, and with the clincher that cannot be refuted: Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies that foretold his coming, even those prophecies that involved the actions of others, an impossibility to orchestrate by anyone other than God himself. Praise be to the Lord for giving us a Savior who is unquestionably the Son of God, who lived, died, and rose again, was seen by over 500 people, appeared numerous times, ascended to heaven, and will return to judge the living and the dead, in fulfillment of the prophecies made foretelling his return. Come, Lord Jesus!
I find it absolutely fascinating how many prophets told about the Christ in advance. You are right: “Jesus Christ is who He said He is. And this truth is affirmed by the power of prophecy.” Amen!
What a wonderful way to present our faith for others to understand why Jesus is the one true God.