Building our confidence in our Bible

Let's dig in again, today, in our studies of how prophecies have been accurately fulfilled - bolstering our faith in our Bible!
Our first example will be another from the Old Testament, but unlike Monday's post, we will look at the words of Ezekiel this time. Take a moment and read these verses:

In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will prosper,’3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. 4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. 5 Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, 6 and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.7 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings,with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a great army. 8 He will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you. 9 He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons. 10 His horses will be so many that they will cover you with dust. Your walls will tremble at the noise of the warhorses, wagons and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city whose walls have been broken through. 11 The hooves of his horses will trample all your streets; he will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. 12 They will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea. 13 I will put an end to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more. 14 I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. (Ezekiel 26:1-14)

Wow! Pretty precise, right? Ezekiel predicted that Nebuchadnezzar (the king of Babylon) would destroy the city. He also said that ole Nebby would not be the only one to fight the city of Tyre; many nations would come up against it. He said the city itself would be scraped clean and level, and it would look like a bare rock. Then he foretold that the stones and timbers would be cast into the sea.
Why cast the stuff into the sea? To stop the people from rebuilding?
Hold your horses, and we'll get to that!
Ezekiel then predicted that the region would become a place only good for spreading out fishermen's nets, and that the city would never again be rebuilt to its former glory.
Let's take this one step at a time . . . secular history has recorded that each one of these prophecies has come true. Tyre was a coastal city that had an unusual layout: in addition to the inland city, there was an island about three-fourths of a mile offshore.
Nebuchadnezzar besieged the mainland city way back in 586 BC, but it was a hollow victory when he prevailed. His spies must not have done a very good job of preparing him, because once he conquered the city, he was quite surprised to find the inhabitants had moved to the island!
This situation lasted for over two hundred years, and then Alexander the Great came along. He conquered the city, but it wasn't easy! To get to the island, he literally had his army scrape clean the inland city of all stones, timbers, and dirt, and toss them all into the sea -- to make a land bridge to the island. Now, you might think Ezekiel's batting average was slipping, because even with all that, all that Alexander was able to do was damage the city severely. He didn't prevail.
Here's the thing: It was 1600 years later that the Muslims thoroughly crushed Tyre. In 1291 AD, they completely destroyed it, and the city has never regained its position of wealth and power in the region.

Hard to imagine that Ezekiel could look 1900 years into the future, right? But he did, and he saw the bustling, prosperous city of Tyre as it is today, a bald rock where fishermen gather to open their nets. Modern travelers will see a very small colony of fishermen where a thriving city once stood.

Let's look at prophecies in the Old Testament that pointed to our Savior. There are well over one hundred such prophecies about Him in the Old Testament. Some are referring to His birth; some are about His ministry, His teachings, and His lineage; some are about how He would die and what would transpire then.
Jesus even confirmed for us that the prophecies were about Him:

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, (John 5:39)

First, our Savior was foretold to be born of a woman; and not just of a woman, but born of a virgin:

"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.” (Genesis 3:15)

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

When the wise men traveled and appeared before Herod, trying to find out where Jesus was born, the scribes pointed to the prophecy of Micah:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,    though you are small among the clans of Judah,out of you will come for me    one who will be ruler over Israel,whose origins are from of old,    from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)

There were multiple prophecies of the lineage of Jesus Christ. You can study these verses to see: Genesis 12:3, Genesis 17:19, Genesis 49:10.  The flight to Egypt and the massacre of children due to the jealous rage of King Herod were predicted in Hosea and in Jeremiah:

“When Israel was a child, I loved him,    and out of Egypt I called my son. (Hosea 11:1)

This is what the Lord says:“A voice is heard in Ramah,    mourning and great weeping,Rachel weeping for her children    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.” (Jeremiah 31:15)

There are prophecies of how the Messiah would be preceded by a prophet messenger, praised by children, and how He would be betrayed, spat upon, and despised. There are descriptions of His crucifixion long before the style of execution was even known.
In the book Science Speaks, the authors discuss the improbability of one person fulfilling only eight of the prophecies that Jesus' life, death, and resurrection fulfilled:

The chance of this happening, they say, is 1 in 10¹⁷ power. Stoner gives an illustration that helps visualize the magnitude of such odds:
Suppose that we take 10¹⁷ silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.

Now, let's compare that the psychics of today, or to the people who want to say that they know the exact date the world will end. Or to other religious figures who have perhaps managed a few good guesses, but still have made other prophecies that have never come true....

The Bible is the only book that can claim and verify a 100% accuracy rate. The reason?
That's simple -- it's the only book from God.
We'll conclude our study tomorrow.