Is Christianity true? (the Bible)
This blog is part of my series titled “Is Christianity true?” The series addresses four common objections to the truthfulness of the Christian worldview, namely concerns about: (1) the trustworthiness of the Bible; (2) the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection; (3) the compatibility of faith in God with modern science; and (4) the incompatibility of Christian truth claims with those of other worldviews.
IS THE BIBLE TRUSTWORTHY? NEW TESTAMENT FULFILLMENT OF OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY (PART 5)
In Psalm 22, King David spoke prophetically about a future time when an individual would greatly suffer at the hands of persecutors. With the benefit of hindsight, Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection fit this psalm precisely.
According to the biography written by Matthew, Jesus quoted from its opening verse when He hung on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” There in His death throes, Jesus applied it directly to Himself. Amazingly, centuries before crucifixion was invented, Psalm 22 predicted much of what Jesus experienced while He was being crucified! It includes disdainful treatment from those afflicting Him, mockery, insults, and challenges for the Lord to deliver Him. It also includes the division of His clothing among His persecutors. All these specific predictions accord with the New Testament accounts. For perspective, try imagining someone several centuries ago looking ahead to a time when people would communicate by telephone!
In graphic terms, the prophecy describes the agony that Jesus endured, which, again, is in close agreement with the New Testament writings. From Psalm 22, we learn that all His bones were out of joint, that His tongue stuck to the roof of His mouth, that all His bones were on display, that they pierced His hands and feet, and that He was laid in the dust of death. Yet we also learn that the Lord has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
In another Psalm, David declares that “the Lord will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.” These verses harmonize well with the historical account of Jesus’ bodily resurrection.
As previously discussed, perhaps the most uncanny prophecy concerning the suffering servant is found in chapters 52 and 53 of the book of Isaiah. Throughout the centuries up to the present day, many Jews have come to believe in Jesus because of these prophecies. When they read them in the context of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection, they conclude that Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion were clearly foretold in their own Scriptures!
It even goes beyond the Jewish people. Today, approximately two billion people all over the world from every nation, people group, and ethnicity claim to follow Jesus Christ! Such enormous impact can be attributed to no other individual in history.
The fact that the foregoing prophecies were recorded centuries prior to their fulfillment in the New Testament strongly affirms the trustworthiness of the Bible. This in turn supports the claim that Christianity is true. Importantly, the trustworthiness of the Bible is not anchored solely in internal analyses of the biblical texts. It is also supported externally by reference to non biblical sources, to which we turn next week.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
