How Christmas Helps us to Trust the Bible

“Joy to the World”

Christmas is celebrated in many countries all around the world. It is the celebration where we remember that Christ Jesus came into the world. You might be familiar with the old Christmas Carol which says, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King.” It plays over speakers all over the country in malls, stores, churches and cars.

But have you ever taken the time to go back to the root of it? If you do, you will find that Christmas gives us great reason to trust that the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

Why is this, you might ask? It is because when Christ came, he fulfilled prophecies that were written hundreds of years before he was born, about the future Christ who was to come.

What if a Man told you your future?

Think about it like this: If a man were to come up to you and told you that he was inspired by God, and began telling you dozens of specific predictions about what would happen in your life, you might think it was a bit odd. You may or may not believe him. But what if, over the next week, you notice a handful of the specific things that he mentioned actually came true. You might have a hunch that he really knew the future. Or it could have been a coincidence.

But what if, over the next ten years, everything the man told you ended up coming true, down to who you would marry, the events that would take place, and what people would do to you; even things that you couldn’t control. You would go, “Wow! this is amazing. This guy really was inspired by God.”

This is what happenned with the Bible. God inspired the prophets to write specific things about the Christ who was to come, so that people who followed God would be able to identify the Christ when he came. These prophecies are ones that you can read for yourself in the Old Testament. And they were written hundreds of years before Christ was ever born, so there was no chance that they were fabricated after Christ was born. This, any textual scholar can affirm.

Three Key Prophecies

Let’s look at just a few of my favorite prophecies:

1. The prophecy of Jesus’ Birth Place

Micah 5:2 ESV

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

This verse pointed the Jews to the future One, Jesus, who was to be the King of Israel. Notice that it also calls him the one who is “from ancient days.” How can someone be coming in the future, yet be from the ancient days? This is referring to God himself, who was in the beginning. God is sometimes referred to as “The Ancient of Days.” This verse tells us that the Messiah would be from the clan of Judah, and also from the city of Bethlehem. Jesus fulfilled both of these prophecies.

2. The prophecy that he would be a Galilean

Isaiah 9:1 ESV

But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

This prophecy points us to the Christ, who would be a light to Galilee. Although Jesus was born in Bethlehem, as prophesied, a turn of events led Jesus’ parents to move to Galilee and raise him there. So, he was considered a Galilean. God knew beforehand all that would happen ahead of time, and we can see glimpses of it through these prophecies that Jesus fulfilled.

3. The prophecy of how Jesus would die. And that he would take upon himself the penalty for our transgressions.

Isaiah 53:4–7 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

This one passage, written 700 years before Christ, prophesied about the death of Christ. It is so clearly speaking about Jesus, it is awe inspiring. It prophecies that he would bear our transgressions, just like Jesus did. He was stricken and afflicted for our sake. It says that he was pierced. And that’s what happened to Jesus when he went through Roman Crucifiction. But the amazing thing is, this prophecy was written before Ronan Crucifixion was ever invented.

And these are just a few of the many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled.

Lets look at the Odds

A college professor of Mathematics named, Dr. Peter Stoner, set out to determine what the odds were that any human being throughout history could have fulfilled the Prophecies about Jesus. He found that the odds of someone fulfilling just 8 of these prophecies would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power, or one in one hundred quadrillion. And these are conservative numbers here. Statistically, this is considered impossible.

And that’s the point. God made it so clear that Jesus was the Christ, prophesied about in the Old Testament, so that we would believe in him. And that is what Christmas is all about, the Christ who was prophesied about came into the world to save us and be our King.

And not only does this show us that Jesus is the Christ, but it also shows us that the prophecies in the Bible were true. Remember the hypothetical example of the man who came up to you telling you about your future. If the prophecies came true, you would believe him. And as we have seen, the prophecies about the Christ came true. This gives us great confidence that the Bible is trustworthy and inspired by God.

That is how Christmas helps us trust the Bible.