Bible foreshadowing
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:26 pm
here is something I just typed out, and I believe it is a strong supporter for the validity of the Bible and Christianity. Let me know what you think, and enjoy And you may quote individual "mistakes" you think I have made, but I would also like you to respond to it as a whole, and to not try and prove it wrong on one half of a sentence. What I'm hoping for is that a lot of you agree with it.
Another aspect of the Bible that seems to stand out to me and help verify it is all the foreshadowing located in its first book, Genesis. Genesis was written thousands of years before the New Testament, yet it tells and hints of many of the things that will happen. This is not mere coincidence. God had his plan for mankind since the time of creation and within the first three chapters of Genesis He foretells the coming of Jesus Christ and the defeat of Satan. No joke.
First of all, Genesis 3:15 is the first prediction of Jesus death and victory over Satan. "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." The "He will crush your head" is Jesus victory over Satan. The "you will strike his heel" is Jesus dieing on the cross. Obviously, even though Satan hurt Jesus, Jesus won the fight, thus the difference between a crushing of the head and a striking of the heel.
This is only one of the very many instances where the foreshadowing of Jesus death and victory is in the Old Testament. A flawed book written by simple men could not foreshadow in such a way. It is clear that whoever wrote Genesis KNEW what was going to happen, and this leads me to believe that God directly and divinely inspired the people who wrote the Bible. I mean look at it this way. Let's hope that you may believe by now, or that you consider the fact that, God created the heavens and the Earth. That is a pretty amazing miracle. I believe God inspired the men who wrote the Bible so that it was without flaw. Compared to creation, does this not seem like a very small and simple deed? It is most definitely not out of the grasps of God's power to make sure that a book written by corrupt beings was perfect and without flaw. Another book besides Genesis that I would like to give reference to on this account is the book of Psalms. I will tackle this a few verses at a time.
Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?”
Interestingly enough, (Matthew 27:46: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) And also before that, Jesus prayed to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane to be spared of what must be done if it was His Father's will. This was not God's will though, so Jesus had to die on the cross to pay for OUR penalty of sin, death. This is why God was so far from saving him, so far from the words of His groaning.
Psalm 22:6-8: “But I am a worm, not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”
Once again, the Gospel reflects this. (Matthew 27:39-44: Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, “I am the Son of God.”” In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.) This gospel verses are a perfect fulfilment of what was written in these Psalm verses, reflecting what the people thought of Him and how they treated Him while He was being crucified.
Psalm 22:14-16: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.”
Here Psalm's explains and predicts many things that would happen to one being crucified. The poured out like water is also an indication of this Gospel verse: (John 19:34: Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”) Therefore Jesus fulfils these verses through His crucifixion.
And now one last Old Testament quote from Isaiah.
Isaiah 53: 5, 7, 12: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. . . . He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. . . . For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Wow, that right there is truly incredible. Those verses state the complete theme of Christianity: that our punishment is taken from us because of the sacrifice of Jesus. Once again he was pierced, hence the crucifixion. And as stated in Isaiah, Jesus was silent during His trial; He did not open his mouth. And most certainly being unfairly beaten, tried, and convicted to death would be oppressed and afflicted.
I hope you made it through all that there. Although it is not yet complete, I will now explain why this is proof for the validity of the Bible and for Christianity.
First, you must remember that the Bible was written by many different authors over the course of thousands of years. Psalms was actually written by more than one other as well. So, we have this book that stretches over thousands of years, and it predicts so accurately. It seems as if the people who wrote these Old Testament verses were present during Jesus' lifetime. Jesus fulfils all of these prophecies and many, many more in the Old Testament. I did not quote any more because the fulfilling of prophecy by Jesus is not the only intent of this document; I only wanted to include a small but powerful part of that.
Now right now you may be thinking that the fulfilling of prophecy proves nothing. You could write down on a piece of paper today that you will eat pizza tomorrow, and then you go out tomorrow and eat pizza. You also wrote on that paper that you are the King of the World. Now, since you have eaten the pizza, does that mean that everything else in what you wrote is true? Of course not, but with the Bible it is much different. See, it was the Jewish people who wrote the Bible. They are the ones who wrote the prophecies, so if the prophecies were just a ploy they intended to fulfil later then the Jews would have made sure this happened the way they stated. Well hey, you may be thinking, the Jews are the reason Jesus was crucified, and it did happen the way they predicted, so doesn't this point to some clever plot from the Jews? And once again, of course not! Why doesn't it? Well if this was a plan the Jews intended to carry out for whatever purpose, then the Jewish people would have immediately converted to Christianity after it was fulfilled. But this did not happen. Instead, almost NONE of the Jewish leaders who were involved with getting Jesus crucified ever converted to Christianity. And the biggest advocate for Christianity after Jesus death and resurrection was not a Jew; it was Paul, a Roman Citizen. Another huge point is that the Jewish people have NEVER tried to ride the wave of power Christianity has been on. And if the people who wrote this planned to fulfil it by bogus means, it would definitely be because they wanted benefit from it. That never happened.
This is a huge amount of evidence for Christianity. What we have here is a book that was written by a certain people over the course of thousands of different years. This book fulfils the prophecies it states down to the letter, and it is not fulfilled by and then used as a tool by those who wrote it, proving the fulfilment of the prophecies was not some ploy. The ONLY way this could possibly happen is if it was divinely directed. The chance of all of this happening is about 1 in 1X10^50*, which in all practical sense is impossible. We have already discussed how the idea of a God is not far-fetched and actually makes sense in our universe, and I will assume in these next following sentences you believe this. Once again we go back to creation. Creation is amazing; humans have yet to create a single atom. So if God did create everything, it would not be hard for him to have Jesus born of a virgin. Jesus is God of course, so then God went about fulfilling all of the prophecies He inspired His Old Testament writers to write, with the ultimate goal being to die on the cross for all of our sins! The whole point of all those prophecies in the first place was so that when God did decide to fulfil them, people would be able to recognize that this was God's work. It is very clear that humans did not and could not have orchestrated this, and the chance of it just happening to happen is too low to be reasonably considered.
*Predicted
Another aspect of the Bible that seems to stand out to me and help verify it is all the foreshadowing located in its first book, Genesis. Genesis was written thousands of years before the New Testament, yet it tells and hints of many of the things that will happen. This is not mere coincidence. God had his plan for mankind since the time of creation and within the first three chapters of Genesis He foretells the coming of Jesus Christ and the defeat of Satan. No joke.
First of all, Genesis 3:15 is the first prediction of Jesus death and victory over Satan. "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." The "He will crush your head" is Jesus victory over Satan. The "you will strike his heel" is Jesus dieing on the cross. Obviously, even though Satan hurt Jesus, Jesus won the fight, thus the difference between a crushing of the head and a striking of the heel.
This is only one of the very many instances where the foreshadowing of Jesus death and victory is in the Old Testament. A flawed book written by simple men could not foreshadow in such a way. It is clear that whoever wrote Genesis KNEW what was going to happen, and this leads me to believe that God directly and divinely inspired the people who wrote the Bible. I mean look at it this way. Let's hope that you may believe by now, or that you consider the fact that, God created the heavens and the Earth. That is a pretty amazing miracle. I believe God inspired the men who wrote the Bible so that it was without flaw. Compared to creation, does this not seem like a very small and simple deed? It is most definitely not out of the grasps of God's power to make sure that a book written by corrupt beings was perfect and without flaw. Another book besides Genesis that I would like to give reference to on this account is the book of Psalms. I will tackle this a few verses at a time.
Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?”
Interestingly enough, (Matthew 27:46: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) And also before that, Jesus prayed to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane to be spared of what must be done if it was His Father's will. This was not God's will though, so Jesus had to die on the cross to pay for OUR penalty of sin, death. This is why God was so far from saving him, so far from the words of His groaning.
Psalm 22:6-8: “But I am a worm, not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”
Once again, the Gospel reflects this. (Matthew 27:39-44: Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, “I am the Son of God.”” In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.) This gospel verses are a perfect fulfilment of what was written in these Psalm verses, reflecting what the people thought of Him and how they treated Him while He was being crucified.
Psalm 22:14-16: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.”
Here Psalm's explains and predicts many things that would happen to one being crucified. The poured out like water is also an indication of this Gospel verse: (John 19:34: Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”) Therefore Jesus fulfils these verses through His crucifixion.
And now one last Old Testament quote from Isaiah.
Isaiah 53: 5, 7, 12: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. . . . He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. . . . For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Wow, that right there is truly incredible. Those verses state the complete theme of Christianity: that our punishment is taken from us because of the sacrifice of Jesus. Once again he was pierced, hence the crucifixion. And as stated in Isaiah, Jesus was silent during His trial; He did not open his mouth. And most certainly being unfairly beaten, tried, and convicted to death would be oppressed and afflicted.
I hope you made it through all that there. Although it is not yet complete, I will now explain why this is proof for the validity of the Bible and for Christianity.
First, you must remember that the Bible was written by many different authors over the course of thousands of years. Psalms was actually written by more than one other as well. So, we have this book that stretches over thousands of years, and it predicts so accurately. It seems as if the people who wrote these Old Testament verses were present during Jesus' lifetime. Jesus fulfils all of these prophecies and many, many more in the Old Testament. I did not quote any more because the fulfilling of prophecy by Jesus is not the only intent of this document; I only wanted to include a small but powerful part of that.
Now right now you may be thinking that the fulfilling of prophecy proves nothing. You could write down on a piece of paper today that you will eat pizza tomorrow, and then you go out tomorrow and eat pizza. You also wrote on that paper that you are the King of the World. Now, since you have eaten the pizza, does that mean that everything else in what you wrote is true? Of course not, but with the Bible it is much different. See, it was the Jewish people who wrote the Bible. They are the ones who wrote the prophecies, so if the prophecies were just a ploy they intended to fulfil later then the Jews would have made sure this happened the way they stated. Well hey, you may be thinking, the Jews are the reason Jesus was crucified, and it did happen the way they predicted, so doesn't this point to some clever plot from the Jews? And once again, of course not! Why doesn't it? Well if this was a plan the Jews intended to carry out for whatever purpose, then the Jewish people would have immediately converted to Christianity after it was fulfilled. But this did not happen. Instead, almost NONE of the Jewish leaders who were involved with getting Jesus crucified ever converted to Christianity. And the biggest advocate for Christianity after Jesus death and resurrection was not a Jew; it was Paul, a Roman Citizen. Another huge point is that the Jewish people have NEVER tried to ride the wave of power Christianity has been on. And if the people who wrote this planned to fulfil it by bogus means, it would definitely be because they wanted benefit from it. That never happened.
This is a huge amount of evidence for Christianity. What we have here is a book that was written by a certain people over the course of thousands of different years. This book fulfils the prophecies it states down to the letter, and it is not fulfilled by and then used as a tool by those who wrote it, proving the fulfilment of the prophecies was not some ploy. The ONLY way this could possibly happen is if it was divinely directed. The chance of all of this happening is about 1 in 1X10^50*, which in all practical sense is impossible. We have already discussed how the idea of a God is not far-fetched and actually makes sense in our universe, and I will assume in these next following sentences you believe this. Once again we go back to creation. Creation is amazing; humans have yet to create a single atom. So if God did create everything, it would not be hard for him to have Jesus born of a virgin. Jesus is God of course, so then God went about fulfilling all of the prophecies He inspired His Old Testament writers to write, with the ultimate goal being to die on the cross for all of our sins! The whole point of all those prophecies in the first place was so that when God did decide to fulfil them, people would be able to recognize that this was God's work. It is very clear that humans did not and could not have orchestrated this, and the chance of it just happening to happen is too low to be reasonably considered.
*Predicted
