{"id":32791,"date":"2021-03-01T11:43:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T17:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=32791"},"modified":"2021-03-01T11:43:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T17:43:49","slug":"hostile-fulfillment-of-prophecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/hostile-fulfillment-of-prophecy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hostile Fulfillment of Prophecy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Matthew W. Bassford<\/p>\n<p>In Acts 13:27, Paul makes a fascinating claim about the Jews of Jerusalem and their rulers. He notes that even though they did not identify Jesus as the Messiah or recognize Him in the prophecies of the Old Testament, they fulfilled those prophecies in their bad treatment of Him.<\/p>\n<p>This is demonstrably true, and it is vital to our conviction that Jesus is the Son of God. Fulfilled prophecy, after all, is one of the foremost proofs of the inspiration of Scripture. If the Bible predicts something that happened hundreds of years after the prediction, it reveals the intervention of a God who knows the end from the beginning.<\/p>\n<p>These fulfilled prophecies are particularly relevant when they concern Jesus. The Old Testament contains many prophecies about the Messiah. When we see these predictions take place in Jesus&#8217; life, they prove that He is who He claimed to be.<\/p>\n<p>However, there is a way for want-to-be Messiahs to &#8220;game the system&#8221;. It&#8217;s theoretically possible for a man to deliberately seek to fulfill all the prophecies himself. That doesn&#8217;t prove that he&#8217;s the Messiah, only that he read the prophecies!<\/p>\n<p>In Jesus&#8217; case, though, this is impossible. There are things that Jesus chose to do to fulfill prophecies &#8211; riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, for instance. However, many of these prophecies aren&#8217;t about Jesus&#8217; actions. They&#8217;re about the actions of His hate-filled enemies, men who would have done anything to deny He was the Messiah but unwittingly confirmed His Messiahship through their own choices. Here is a list of only some of the prophecies about Jesus that His enemies fulfilled:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They conspired against Him (Psalm 2:1-2; Acts 2:27-28).<\/li>\n<li>They valued Him at 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13; Matthew 26:14-16).<\/li>\n<li>They used a trusted friend to betray Him (Psalm 41:9; John 13:21-30).<\/li>\n<li>They scattered His followers (Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 26:56).<\/li>\n<li>They condemned Him unjustly (Isaiah 53:8; Luke 23:22-25).<\/li>\n<li>They scourged Him (Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 27:26).<\/li>\n<li>They gave Him gall and vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21; Matthew 27:34).<\/li>\n<li>They pierced His hands and feet (Psalm 22:16; Mark 15:25).<\/li>\n<li>They cast lots for His clothes (Psalm 22:18; Matthew 27:35).<\/li>\n<li>They made Him a public spectacle (Psalm 22:17; Matthew 27:39-40)<\/li>\n<li>They taunted Him with God&#8217;s failure to save (Psalm 22:7-8; Matthew 27:41-43).<\/li>\n<li>They killed Him (Isaiah 53:12; Matthew 27:50).<\/li>\n<li>They allowed Him to be buried with the rich (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57-60).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These prophecies are numerous and specific. Together, the evidence that they offer is overwhelming. When we consider the way that even Jesus&#8217; enemies worked to prove who He was, we can only say along with the centurion who attended His crucifixion, &#8220;Truly, this was the Son of God!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Matthew W. Bassford In Acts 13:27, Paul makes a fascinating claim about the Jews of Jerusalem and their rulers. He notes that even though they did not identify Jesus as the Messiah or recognize Him in the prophecies of the Old Testament, they fulfilled those prophecies in their bad treatment of Him. This is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[73,169],"class_list":["post-32791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-jesus","tag-prophecy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37337,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/christ-in-prophecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":32791,"position":0},"title":"Christ in Prophecy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by C.G. \"Colly\" Caldwell via The Preceptor, September 1988 One of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting the Bible is the fulfillment of prophecy by Jesus Christ. The Old Testament was completed in the fifth century B.C. Malachi is usually dated between 444 and 432 B.C., and it is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7794,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-matthew-fabricate-a-prophecy-to-support-his-claim-that-jesus-was-the-messiah\/","url_meta":{"origin":32791,"position":1},"title":"Did Matthew fabricate a prophecy to support his claim that Jesus was the Messiah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question.\u00a0 It may seem like I am attacking Christianity with this one, but I'm not.\u00a0 I'm just very interested in studying the Bible and every now and then I come across an objection I need help answering.\u00a0 So here is the objection I found on another\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89530,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/skeptic-reexamining-isaiah-and-other-biblical-texts\/","url_meta":{"origin":32791,"position":2},"title":"Skeptic: Reexamining Isaiah and Other Biblical Texts","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Quote: \"Likewise, Isaiah is not a solitary author crafting messianic predictions. It is a composite work, consisting of First Isaiah (8th century BCE), Deutero-Isaiah (6th century BCE), and Trito-Isaiah (5th century BCE), each shaped by the political landscape of Assyrian and Babylonian influence. The \"Suffering Servant\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10540,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-jesus-said-to-be-of-nazareth-if-he-was-born-in-bethlehem-and-who-was-the-serpent-in-the-garden\/","url_meta":{"origin":32791,"position":3},"title":"Why is Jesus said to be of Nazareth if he was born in Bethlehem and who was the serpent in the Garden?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! My brother-in-law asked me, \"Why was Jesus called Jesus of Nazareth if he was born in Bethlehem?\" My answer was because he was only born in Bethlehem, but he was raised in Nazareth. Was I correct? He also feels that Jesus, in the form of a snake, tempted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7430,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-all-prophecies-be-seen-as-fulfilled-in-the-past-preterism\/","url_meta":{"origin":32791,"position":4},"title":"Should all prophecies be seen as fulfilled in the past (preterism)?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I appreciate your view, whatever it may be. I am not a \"full preterist\" at this point in time. I presume that you must have some interaction with others in your circle who do hold to the preterist view. At least we can say, that in this particular instance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37439,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/christ-and-fulfilled-prophecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":32791,"position":5},"title":"Christ and Fulfilled Prophecy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}