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The Test

The Bible is an unusual book in that it claims to have been given by God. This claim is difficult to test, but one piece of evidence that strongly supports the Bible's claim is the existence within its text of passages that could not have originated from human beings without God's assistance. One set of passages of this kind describes events to take place after the words of the passages were first written down. The Bible contains a large number of such predictions, and the number of fulfilled predictions is especially impressive.

According to one survey, 8352 of the Bible's 31,124 verses contain predictions. Of these predictive passages, 6893 verses are already fulfilled and 1556 are to be fulfilled immediately before, at or after the day of judgement. This leaves only 31 unfulfilled verses, and most of these could be fulfilled within the next few decades. (The verses do not add up to 6893 as some verses predict more than one event.)

If the Bible has been right on all occasions previously, we can trust all that it says about our future: Jesus will return to set up God's Kingdom on earth.

 

Tyre (near the modern town of Sur)

The predictions found in the Bible are often very detailed and specific. Consider, for example, this prophecy of the fate of the maritime superpower of Tyre, which is found in Ezekiel 26 and was first written down in about 600 BC. There are six specific predictions, and all of these were fulfilled precisely as foretold.

Prophecy	Fulfillment
For thus says the LORD God: Behold I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon... (v7).	Nebuchadnezzar, pictured right, besieged Tyre, for around 15 years, in approximately 585 BC. The inhabitants of Tyre fled to a nearby island which the Babylonians, with no navy, could not reach.
I am against you 0 Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you... (v3).	Alexander the Great besieged Tyre, with a cosmopolitan army, in 333 BC.
...your stones and timber and soil will they cast into the midst of the waters (v12).	To assault the island fortress he constructed a causeway by throwing the stones, timber and even the soil of the old city into the water, between the island and the shore.
They will raise a lamentation over you... How you have vanished from the seas... The isles... are dismayed at your passing (v17-19).	Tyre was conquered and laid waste by Alexander.
You Shall Never Be Rebuilt; For I The LORD Have Spoken (v14).	There is no modern superpower based in Tyre.
You shall be a place for the spreading of nets; (v 5,14).	Alexander's causeway has silted up, and there is a small fishing town, Sur, on the tip of the peninsula formed. The beaches, formed of the ruins of ancient Tyre, are a convenient place to spread nets to dry.

It is impossible that this level of detail could ever have been achieved by chance or guesswork. It is also easy to prove that Ezekiel 26 was written before these events happened! The only fair conclusion that can be drawn is that the Bible writers were inspired by God. The Bible is true.

If you would like to find out more about the Bible's message for you, then please apply for our correspondence course.

Also you might be interested in any of these free materials:

• Bible Prophecy
• Christ is Coming!
• The Kingdom of God on Earth
• Why baptism really matters