By the foretelling of persons, places and events hundreds of years before their occurrence, the Bible demonstrates knowledge of the future that is too specific to be labeled a good guess. By giving examples of fulfilled prophecy, the scriptures give a strong testimony to their own inspiration.
The acid test for identifying a prophet of God is recorded by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:21-22. According to this Bible passage (and others), God's prophets, as distinct from Satan's spokesmen, are 100 percent accurate in their predictions. There is no room for error.
An example of this would be the prophecy of King Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). The prophet Isaiah, writing about 700 B.C., predicts Cyrus by name as the king who will say to Jerusalem that it shall be built and that the temple foundation shall be laid. At the time of Isaiah's writing, the city of Jerusalem was fully built and the entire temple was standing. Not until more than 100 years later would the city and temple be destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. After Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians, it was conquered by the Persians in about 539 B.C. Shortly after that, a Persian king named Cyrus gave the decree to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. This was around 160 years after the prophecy of Isaiah! Thus Isaiah predicted that a man named Cyrus, who would not be born for about 100 years, would give the command to rebuild the temple which was still standing in Isaiah's day and would not be destroyed for more than 100 years. This prophecy is truly amazing, but it is not isolated. There are, in fact literally hundreds of prophecies in scripture which predict future events and prophecies that have already been fulfilled.
For more information on prophecies fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled go to our study : http://empoweredbiblestudy.sermon.tv/Exploring_End_Times/2237712
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