Christ and Fulfilled Prophecy
by Jefferson David Tant
God has not left us without proof. There are many ways to authenticate the truthfulness and accuracy of the Bible, which firmly establish the fact that the Old and New Testaments are not the product of the mind of man. There had to be some higher power that caused it to be written. Among the various proofs that establish the divine origin of the Bible, as written through human scribes, are the prophecies made in just one chapter of the book of Isaiah.
Consider the prophecies about Jesus Christ. Wouldn't it be amazing if someone could tell 15 facts about a person 750 years before he was born? That's just what the prophet Isaiah did in Isaiah 53. He had a vision and wrote a description of it, which was so detailed that it could fit no one else but Jesus Christ.
Isaiah's Vision
| Description | Predicted | Fulfilled |
| 1. Hated | Isaiah 53:3 | Matthew 27:39-43 |
| 2. Man of sadness | Isaiah 53:3 | Matthew 26:38 |
| 3. Familiar with suffering | Isaiah 53:3 | Hebrews 4:15 |
| 4. Rejected by his people | Isaiah 53:3 | John 1:10-11 |
| 5. Taking our suffering for us | Isaiah 53:4 | Matthew 8:16-17 |
| 6. Without sin | Isaiah 53:9 | I Peter 2:22 |
| 7. Silent to his accusers | Isaiah 53:7 | Matthew 26:63; 27:12 |
| 8. Taking our sins on himself | Isaiah 53:5 | I Corinthians 15:3 |
| 9. Taking our punishment | Isaiah 53:5 | I Peter 2:24-25 |
| 10. Treated like a criminal | Isaiah 53:12 | Luke 22:37 |
| 11. Asking for our forgiveness | Isaiah 53:12 | Luke 23:34 |
| 12. Treated unjustly | Isaiah 53:8 | Matthew 27:24 |
| 13. Buried with rich people | Isaiah 53:9 | Matthew 27:57-60 |
| 14. Raised from dead | Isaiah 53:10 | Luke 24:6-8 |
| 15. Honored | Isaiah 53:12 | Philippians 2:9-11 |
Early Christians used this prophecy as starting place to tell about Jesus. Acts 8 tells of a man from Ethiopia who was reading from Isaiah 53 while riding in his chariot. Philip was sent by the Holy Spirit to ride with the Ethiopian, who then asked Philip about whom Isaiah was writing.
"The eunuch answered Philip and said, 'Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?' and Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him" (Acts 8:34-35).
This is just one chapter containing a few of the 300+ prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in every detail. How do we explain this? These prophecies came from God. Therefore God is and we should give heed to the message He has left to us. That message is called "The Bible."
