Today I would like to show you a way in which you can find the answers yourself. It is better that you convince yourself than that I try to do so. Perhaps you have not been aware of the path I am talking about until now.

The Bible contains many predictions. They are called prophecies or prophecies. Hundreds of them have been fulfilled. We can learn about them and verify them. You probably know some of them. But perhaps I can show you a new point of view today.

One group of these predictions, known as the ‘Messianic prophecies’, refers to the first coming of Jesus 2,000 years ago. ‘Messiah’ comes from the Hebrew. The Greek ‘Christ’ is more familiar to us. In German: Redeemer, Saviour, Anointed One, Saviour. This group contains 333 details. We can easily familiarise ourselves with them.

What does all this have to do with the answers to our three big questions? You'll recognise it in a moment.

The apostle Peter tells us in the Bible in 2 Peter 1:21 GNT:

„The prophets ... have said what God gave them to say.”

According to Peter's conviction, this means that the Bible is based on divine revelation. If this is the case, then the Christian faith is from God insofar as it agrees with the Bible.

Check what the apostle Peter said. How can you do this?

No one has foreknowledge. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. Of course, we can guess what tomorrow will bring. We also know what we want to do. Let's take the weather forecast as an example. Is this foreknowledge? No, it is a calculation of what the weather will be like based on current factors. But because these can change, the forecast is sometimes incorrect.

The predictions of the various prophets about Jesus Christ were made between 400 and 1,500 years before his coming. These predictions contain precise details that were fulfilled exactly. No human being has such abilities, neither then nor now. But there are ONE, who knows everything exactly in advance. The Bible calls this one: GOD

Just think about our elections! Even on the morning of the election, nobody knows in advance who will win. After all, the projections are only conclusions drawn from polling certain people. You ask them how they vote and draw your conclusions from that. That is a calculation, but not foreknowledge.

God tells us in the Bible through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 46, verses 9-10:

„Remember what I have done in the past!” says the Lord. „I alone am God and no one else, no one is equal to me. I announce what will happen long before it happens. What I have resolved to do, I will do.”

If you can produce a book that contains prophecies similar to those in the Bible about Jesus Christ, which were given centuries in advance with all the details, then you can collect 5,000 US dollars from an American. No one has yet found such a book.

Nobody can falsify these facts, because science has now provided a wealth of evidence.

The more science advances, the more powerfully the divinity of the prophecies and thus of the Bible itself emerges. WHAT DOES THIS SHOW US?

1. There is someone who knows the future in every detail centuries in advance. He is omniscient. What he reveals happens. No one can change that. This ONE is omnipotent. He has revealed himself to us because he loves us. You too can experience this personally.
2. With the best will in the world, the writers of the Bible were not able to make the predictions they made by thinking or by chance. Therefore, the Bible can only be from God. There is no other possibility.
3. Each person can be distinguished from others by a few distinguishing features. A letter from Japan will reach you if the country, city, street, house number and your name are given. The 333 details in the prophecies about Christ mean that God has endowed Jesus with just as many characteristics. Among all people, these characteristics only apply to one person, Jesus of Nazareth. We therefore know that only he is the Saviour sent by God.

A FIRST EXAMPLE:

In the Bible, in the Old Testament, in the prophet Micah, chapter 5, verse 1, it says: (translation by Dr H. Menge).

„But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, are too small to belong to the cities of Judah, but from you will come forth to me the one who is to be ruler in Israel and whose origin belongs to the past, to the days of primeval times.”

The prophet Micah lived around 700 years before Christ. He points to a little-known village as his birthplace. This prophecy was clearly understood. The fulfilment is found in the New Testament, in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2, verses 3-6:

„ ... Herod ... enquired of them where Christ was to be born. They answered him, „In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ”You Bethlehem ... out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel."

One location is clear. Some questions about this prediction: Did Micah just guess well? Was the exact fulfilment after 700 years a coincidence? Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. They had to go to Bethlehem, a 4-day journey by donkey or on foot. Why this hardship right before the birth? Emperor Augustus had ordered a census.

Everyone had to go to the ancestral home of their family. This should have taken place earlier. However, the Jews did not want this census. They had sent a delegation to Rome. The emperor had refused. The census was therefore delayed. In 1923, the famous British chemist and archaeologist Sir William Ramsay discovered a Roman inscription in which this measure is mentioned. Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem at exactly the right time for the birth of Jesus - a precise fulfilment.

You can't guess. You can't know something like that 700 years before either. How did Micah know? There is only one possibility:

„The prophets ... have said what God gave them to say.”

Micah knew it from the omniscient God. Do you know another possibility? Can you predict where the man (or woman) will be born who will rule Germany in 700 years? (... if the world is still standing) Do you know of anyone else who can give us such information that will actually materialise?

That was just one example. You can find many others yourself. If you read the Gospels in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), you will repeatedly come across statements similar to those in Matthew 2 verse 5

„for thus it is written by the prophet.”

Many Bibles also include the place where the prediction is found in the Old Testament. The Bible translators have added this so that we can find our way around more easily. Remember: in the Messianic prophecies, the predictions are always in the Old Testament. This was already finalised in 400 BC. This means that all such prophecies were given at least 400 years earlier. I don't think it matters under these circumstances if you don't know that, for example, Micah lived 700 BC, David around 1,000 BC, etc.

As the New Testament was only written after Jesus' life on earth, you will find the fulfilment of all the predictions there. If you are short of time, then at least read the Gospel of Matthew, as it contains the most examples.

Let me give you a few more predictions about Jesus Christ:

• He comes from the tribe of Judah
• He will be a descendant of David
• A herald would announce him
• The manner of death by crucifixion
• Casting lots for his robe and distributing his clothes
• Not breaking his legs
• Piercing his side
• His vicarious death

Every detail was fulfilled in his life, as well as in his death and resurrection.

These are just a few of the 333 predicted details.

He was the greatest personality ever to walk this earth.

Dr Olinthus Gregory says that if only 50 prophecies ‘coincidentally’ came true (instead of hundreds), that would be a ‘coincidence’ of 1:1 trillion 125 trillion. In numbers: 1:1,125,000,000,000,000,000

Anyone who knows this will never again speak of a coincidental fulfilment of biblical prophecies. Peter tells us:

„...we know that the prophets” predictions are reliable, and you would do well to heed them." 2 Peter 1:19

F. J. Meldau, who has studied all the Messianic prophecies, says: „Truly blind is the man who cannot or will not see that the Spirit of the Infinite has planned these details and that the hand of the Almighty has executed His perfect plan.”

The omniscient God does not expect blind faith from us. He has given us good reasons to trust him. The opportunity to learn about prophecy gives our minds a firm foundation to trust God, Jesus Christ and the Bible.