Who is it who does not want to know and control their future?  A fortune teller who can predict with more than 80% accuracy of what happens in the future could have millions of followers–Jean Dixon comes to mind.  If I knew what the stock market would do this next year or what land would be worth two years from now, it would help in making investment decisions.  I may have a fifty percent chance of predicting for one year but what if I could predict it every year for at least the next twenty.  How many people would take someone’s advice with that kind of forecasting ability? Once their neighbors told them how much they were receiving each year from their investments and there was absolutely no risk, they would be lining up by the hundreds to invest.

Bernie Madoff who scammed billions from investors did so by returning excellent returns, in a Ponzi scheme, when others were losing.  Everyone wants a no risk investment that returns big yields and that is precisely what they thought they were getting.  Bernie’s investment forecasting plan got him 150 years in jail.  He gets out in 2137 on good behavior, provided he lives to over 200.

The Bible has made at least 40 Prophecies concerning Christ and they were all fulfilled.  Yet the majority of the world rejects Scripture.  However, one man predicts the end of the world and millions become concerned.  Why do so many people believe fortune tellers but refuse to believe the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible?

Isaiah 40:3 & 5 – “A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’..…And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” This was predicted in 740 B.C.  Isaiah told people to prepare to see God prepare the way for a coming Messiah.  This was part of the prediction that John the Baptist would prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah.

Matthew 3:1 & 2 – “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”

Matthew 11:10 – 11 – “This is the one about whom it is written: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’  Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Note that Scripture not only told that there would be a messenger but that he would preach in the wilderness.  He did not go to the people, the people came to him to be preached to and baptized.  They knew the Old Testament Scripture and came to learn about the coming Messiah.

Approximately 400 B.C., Malachi made the same prophecy.  Malachi 3:1 – “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.”  This verse tells of two messengers.  We understand it to be John the Baptist and Jesus, the Messiah.

In about 1450 B. C. Moses made a prophecy.  Deuteronomy 18:15 – 18 – “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.  For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.’  The LORD said to me: ‘What they say is good.  I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.’”

Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”  Immanuel means “God with us.”  What do you think the chances of these men making this entirely up and being right? There is no other recorded account of any virgin of any species, having ever become pregnant as Mary, who conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by a male.

Micah 5:2 – “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.” They also wrote the place where Immanuel, the Messiah would be born.  A small insignificant city!

In 538 B.C. Daniel 9:25 – “Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times.” After Jerusalem is rebuilt, in 483 years the Messiah will enter the city.  The actual figure was 173,880 days from records uncovered.  Jesus entered riding a donkey as prophesized.

The Bible is filled with prophecies and then fulfilled.  I don’t see how anyone could ever study the Bible and not be convinced by the fulfilling of prophecies that there is a God and He sent His Son Christ, to die for the sins of man so that man could be forgiven and receive eternal life with God.  But Scripture tells us a person’s heart can be so hard that they are blinded and will never be able to see the truth.  Satan is very deceiving and has convinced most to accept the beliefs of the world and deny Christ. Would anyone think men could have dreamed these things to happen hundreds of years earlier? What are the odds?