Good Promises

A well refined search will prove that the Bible is worthy of every right to be considered a historical document completely reliable (although this is not its main purpose – I mean, God did not bring it to us expecting the humanity would have one more simple document to History studies).

The Bible, in fact, is a compound of 66 books, which were written over a period of 1542 years. These books are divided into two sections commonly known as the Old and New Testaments. Just in case you don’t know, concerning the second section, it is known that there are currently more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Besides those, there are over 10,000 manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate and at least 9,300 other early versions, totaling over 24,000 copies of various portions of the New Testament. Other texts of ancient history have far fewer copies (Homer's Iliad, for example, and coming in second place, has only 643 manuscripts currently).

This Christmas, I want to give special attention to a few prophecies about the person who is the reason we celebrate the holiday: Jesus Christ. Such prophecies, historically proven, were made centuries before His birth and prove that what God says He always keeps.

In Micah 5:2 (Old Testament) we read: “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 in Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Micah informed the town of Jesus' birth more than 700 years before He was born, as in Matthew 2:1 (New Testament) we find that “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem” (just a detail: we are not told that the wise men were three, nor that they were Kings).

In Isaiah 7:14 (VT), we read: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” The same prophet predicted that Jesus would suffer mistreatment: “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my bear; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6). These prophecies were made about 800 years before the birth of Christ. And we see their fulfillments in Matthew 1:18 and Mark 14:65 (NT) – “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit”; and “Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said: ‘Prophesy!’ And the guards took him and beat him”.

About 1,000 years before Jesus, David prophesied that He would be betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9), and in Mark 14 we learned that it was Judas Iscariot.

Biblical prophecies come to be so accurate that Zechariah says: “So they paid me thirty pieces of silver” (Zechariah 11:12) and in Matthew 26:15 we read that Christ was sold for exactly 30 pieces of silver.

The point, my friend, is: may this Christmas you recognize the coming of Christ to this world as the fulfillment of a promise very, very ancient but certain. Hundreds of people believed the world would end last Friday just because a handful of people spoke it. Why not recognize, facing so much evidence, it is worthy to guide your life by what God’s Word says? Jesus promised that one day He will come a second time (He didn’t mention when!). This time He will not come as a tender little baby, but as the King He is, when everyone will bow down and confess Him as Lord. Why not start doing it now, for love and gratitude to His coming to us?

A true and merry Christmas to you!