The Bible is God's Word, and it speaks of Christ from cover to cover. The Scriptures confirm that Jesus of Nazareth was the prophesied Messiah, and there are over 330 Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. Here are a few examples:

- He was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
- He was to be born of the seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:18).
- He was to be born of the royal lineage of David (2 Samuel 7:12).
- He was to be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14).
- He was to be born during Roman reign (Daniel 2:44).
- He was to be born while Judah still possessed a king (Genesis 49:10).
- He was to be gentle and compassionate (Isaiah 42:1-4).
- He was to be betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9).
- He was to be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12).
- He was to be spit upon and beaten (Isaiah 50:6).
- His hands and feet were to be pierced (Psalm 22:16).
- He was to have no bones broken (Psalm 34:20).
- He was to be numbered with transgressors or criminals (Isaiah 53:12).
- People were going to gamble for His garments (Psalm 22:18).
- He was to die, but His flesh would not experience corruption (Psalm 16:10).

Notice that this was only 15 out of over 330 prophecies! Several years ago the Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College, Peter Stoner, set out to calculate the odds of such prophecies being fulfilled by one man. Stoner estimated that the odds of someone accidentally fulfilling just 48 of the many Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah are about 1 in 10 to the 157th power. That number has 157 zeroes! Those odds are far beyond the realm of accidental possibility, but Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies, not just 48! Jesus Christ was truly the eternal Word who became flesh to die for us (John 1:14; Romans 5:8). Stoner concluded that “Any man who rejects Christ as the Son of God is rejecting a fact, proved perhaps more absolutely than any other fact in the world.”

Jason Hilburn