An Introduction to the Prophetic Apologetic Method

Table of Contents

● Introduction
● The First Great Apologist
● Thousands of Prophecies Fulfilled
● Ezekiel 26: The Destruction of Tyre
○ 1. Ezekiel 26:3
○ 2. Ezekiel 26:6
○ 3. Ezekiel 26:8
○ 4. Ezekiel 26:12
○ 5. Ezekiel 26:14
○ David Padfield’s article ‘The Destruction Of Tyre’
● More Examples of Fulfilled Prophecy
● Jesus Fulfilled Old Testament Prophecies
● Conclusions
● Bibliography

I. Introduction

The prophetic apologetic method employs fulfilled biblical prophecy to show the
historical reliability of scripture. In a much broader sense, fulfilled biblical prophecy
serves as powerful evidence for the credibility of the Christian message and in its
most blunt form, that God is exactly who He says He is in scripture.

Isaiah 46:9-10 - I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.

II. The First Great Apologist

Justin Martyr is considered by many to be the first great apologist of the Christian
church.
Justin was born in 100 AD and he wrote during the period 150 AD to 165 AD with
three of his writings having survived. In the First Apology Justin uses logic and
reason, historical evidence, and fulfilled biblical prophecy to argue for the truth of
Christianity. Of the 68 chapters of The First Apology 23 chapters focus on the OT
prophets and fulfilled predictions about Christ including the manner and location of
His birth, His death, and His resurrection as well as other predictions [1] . In a
later writing called Dialogue with Trypho Justin attempts to convince Trypho
(whose identity is not known and whether or not he was a real person) that
Christianity (the new covenant) has replaced the Law (old covenant) and that
Jesus is the Messiah that the prophets spoke of in the Old Testament. We see just
how important fulfilled prophecy is in Justin’s complete apologetic with this
excerpt:

‘There existed, long before this time, certain men more ancient than all those who
are esteemed philosophers, both righteous and beloved by God, who spoke by the
Divine Spirit, and foretold events which would take place, and which are now
taking place. They are called prophets. These alone both saw and announced the
truth to men, neither reverencing nor fearing any man, not influenced by a desire
for glory, but speaking those things alone which they saw and which they heard,
being filled with the Holy Spirit.’ [2]

I find it interesting that the first great Christian apologist placed such emphasis on
the role that fulfilled biblical prophecy has in the defense of the faith. Justin lived in
a time where the last of the eyewitnesses to apostolic miracles had already
passed away. The age of apostolic signs and wonders had just ended and in
Justin’s apologetic method fulfilled biblical prophecy had stepped into that role. In
the age we live now, where liberal ‘higher’ criticism attempts to place doubts that
the OT prophecies were even written before the events they predict, it is vitally
important that we look back on how the first of the great apologists defended the
faith and use their example.

III. Thousands of Prophecies Fulfilled

Biblical Prophecy provides some great evidence for God. According to Hugh Ross,
the founder of Reasons to Believe, around 2000 of the 2500 biblical prophecies
found in the pages of scripture have been fulfilled, with the remaining 500 future
prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled. [3] Hugh Ross estimates that the probability
that all 2,000 biblical prophecies could be fulfilled independently by chance is less
than 1 chance in 10^2000. Hank Hanegraaff, the president of the Christian
Research Institute, adds a little more detail about the number of fulfilled
prophecies: In addition to Messianic prophecies, the Bible contains nearly 2,000
prophecies concerning almost every nation within a thousand miles of Jerusalem.
[4]

IV. Ezekiel 26 : Destruction of Tyre

The article at equip.org continues on to explore in great detail the prophecy of the
destruction of Tyre from Ezekiel chapter 26 and its fulfillment. In chapter 27
Ezekiel describes the beauty of Tye and its importance to the rest of the kings of
the earth, but in chapter 28 the prophet goes on to detail the city’s spiritual decay:

Ezekiel 27:3-4 -- and say to Tyre, ‘You who are situated at the entrance of the
sea, merchant of the peoples on many coastlands, thus says the Lord GOD:

O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’

Your borders are in the midst of the seas.
Your builders have perfected your beauty.

Ezekiel 28:16-18 - By the abundance of your trading

You became filled with violence within, And you sinned;
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones.

Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;

You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor;
I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings,
That they might gaze at you.

You defiled your sanctuaries By the multitude of your iniquities,

By the iniquity of your trading; Therefore I brought fire from your midst;
It devoured you, And I turned you to ashes upon the earth
In the sight of all who saw you.

Let’s focus on the specific predictions made in Ezekiel chapter 26 and their
fulfillment in history:

1. Ezekiel 26:3 - Many nations would come against Tyre

2. Ezekiel 26:6 - People living in the villages around Tyre would be slain

3. Ezekiel 26:8 - Nebuchadnezzar will build a siege mound against the city

4. Ezekiel 26:12 - The houses and walls would be destroyed and the stones and
timbers thrown into the water

5. Ezekiel 26:14 - The city would never be rebuilt

David Padfield’s article ‘The Destruction Of Tyre’

(https://www.padfield.com/1994/destruction-of-tyre.html) provides precise detail
with references for the historical fulfillment of these prophecies. This is a great
read for anyone interested in biblical prophecy, history or both, here are David’s
closing remarks:
"In point of fact, the mainland city of Tyre later was rebuilt and assumed some of
its former importance during the Hellenistic period. But as for the island city, it
apparently sank below the surface of the Mediterranean…All that remains of it is a
series of black reefs offshore from Tyre, which surely could not have been there in
the first and second millennia b.c., since they pose such a threat to navigation.
The promontory that now juts out from the coastline probably was washed up
along the barrier of Alexander’s causeway, but the island itself broke off and sank
away when the subsidence took place; and we have no evidence at all that it ever
was built up again after Alexander’s terrible act of vengeance. In the light of these
data, then, the predictions of chapter 26, improbable though they must have
seemed in Ezekiel’s time, were duly fulfilled to the letter—first by Nebuchadnezzar
in the sixth century, and then by Alexander in the fourth." [5]

V. More Examples of Fulfilled Prophecy

Here are some additional examples of fulfilled biblical prophecy from the faithfacts
website
https://www.faithfacts.org/search-for-truth/maps/fulfilled-prophecy-as-evidence: [6]

● The Succession of Great World Kingdoms (Daniel 2:37-42). Even

negative critics agree that Daniel foretold the governments in order of
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Neverthirsty.org has a nice
breakdown of the kingdoms referred to in this passage and their references
in Daniel. [7]
● Cyrus King of Persia (Isaiah 44:28-45:1). Since Isaiah lived between
about 740 and 690 BC and Cyrus did not make his proclamation for Israel
to return from exile until about 536 (Ezra 1), there would have been no
human way for him to know what Cyrus would be named or what Cyrus
would do. Here is a detailed article that goes into much detail about this
prophecy and its fulfillment.
● The Closing of the Golden Gate (Ezekiel 44:2-3). The Golden Gate is the
eastern gate of Jerusalem, through which Christ made his triumphal entry
on Palm Sunday before the crucifixion (Matthew 21). Ezekiel predicted its
closing and in 1543 Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent closed the gate and
walled it up, not knowing he was fulfilling prophecy. It remains sealed to this
day exactly as the Bible predicted. More detailed info about the prophecy
and its fulfillment is in this article. [8]
● Destruction of Jerusalem (Mark 13:1-2). Fulfilled literally when the
Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem and the temple buildings.
According to historian and eyewitness Josephus, some of the stones were
37 feet long, 12 feet high and 18 feet wide. Stones were even pried apart to
collect the gold leaf that melted from the roof when the temple was set on
fire. Detail about the prophecy and its historical fulfillment can be found
here. [9]
We have only covered a handful of the fulfilled prophecies found in scripture and
we encourage you to investigate the topic further. In part 2 we will continue our
investigation of fulfilled biblical prophecy with a look at the messianic prophecies
and Jesus’ fulfillment of them.

VI. Jesus Fulfilled Old Testament Prophecies

One of the most fascinating aspects of biblical prophecy is how the New
Testament passages show Jesus’ fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies
about the coming of the Messiah.

The exact number of Messianic prophecies fulfilled by Jesus is in dispute but even
if we only consider a handful of the commonly accepted prophecies that Jesus
fulfilled in the New Testament it still stands as a powerful proof for the existence
and sovereignty of God.

Alfred Edersheim wrote in his 19th century work titled ‘The Life and Times of Jesus
The Messiah’ that the Old Testament contains 456 verses that point to the coming
Messiah and Josh McDowell provides an exhaustive resource which details 351
prophecies that were fulfilled in the New Testament by Jesus. [10]

Ray Konig provides a detailed list which chronicles 68 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus
in the New Testament at about-jesus.org. [11] We will look at just 6 of these and
show the source of the prophecy in the Old Testament, an approximate date when
it was written if available and a reference to the fulfillment by Jesus in the New
Testament.

1. Micah 5:2 - “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”
Written 710 BC, fulfilled in Matthew 2:1-6

2. Malachai 3:1 - “Behold, I send My messenger,

And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,”
Says the LORD of hosts.
 Written in 397 BC, fulfilled in Mark 1:1-8

3. Zechariah 11:12-13 - Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me

my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty
pieces of silver.

And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set
on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of
the LORD for the potter.

Fulfilled in Matthew 26:14-15

4. Psalm 22:16 - For dogs have surrounded Me;

The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;

Fulfilled in John 19

5. Psalm 34:20 -

He guards all his bones;

Not one of them is broken.

Fulfilled in John 19:31-36

6. Isaiah 53:9 - And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich
at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His
mouth.

Fulfilled in Matthew Matthew 27:57

We only looked at the source and fulfillment of 6 of the 351 prophecies that are
listed in Josh McDowell’s Address of Jesus. Mathematician Peter Stoner wrote
about the fulfillment of 8 prophecies by Jesus in his book ‘Science Speaks’. [12]
In the text he calculated the probability of all 8 being fulfilled as being 1 chance in
100,000,000,000,000,000, astonishingly low odds.

VII. Conclusions

Biblical prophecy is a powerful argument for the existence and sovereignty of God.
For those of us who were not around to witness firsthand Jesus’ ministry before
His crucifixion, the miracles He performed, the price He paid on the cross and His
resurrection and ascension, the hundreds of prophecies He fulfilled along with the
thousands of non-Messianic prophecies stand as a firm affirmation by God that He
is God, that He created our world, He created us and He created a plan for us to
be reconciled to Him even after we have rejected Him. If you have not yet sought
out a personal relationship with Jesus there is no better time than right now.

VIII. Bibliography

[1] The First Apology of Justin, the Martyr

<https://biblehub.com/library/richardson/early_christian_fathers/the_first_apology_of
_justin.htm>

[2] ST. JUSTIN MARTYR DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO

<http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-dialoguetrypho.html>

[3] Fulfilled Prophecy: Evidence for the Reliability of the Bible

<https://reasons.org/explore/publications/articles/fulfilled-prophecy-evidence-for-the-re
liability-of-the-bible>

[4] Fulfilled Prophecy as an Apologetic

<https://www.equip.org/articles/fulfilled-prophecy-as-an-apologetic/>

[5] The Destruction Of Tyre

<https://www.padfield.com/1994/destruction-of-tyre.html>

[6] Fulfilled Prophecy as Evidence for the Bible's Divine Origin: An Outline
<https://www.faithfacts.org/search-for-truth/maps/fulfilled-prophecy-as-evidence>

[7] Where are the kingdoms mentioned in Daniel 2 located?

<https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-qa/qa-archives/question/where-are-the-kingdoms-
mentioned-in-daniel-2-located/>

[8] What is the significance of the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem?

<https://www.gotquestions.org/eastern-gate-Jerusalem.html>

[9] Where are the kingdoms mentioned in Daniel 2 located?

<https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-studies/last-days/destruction-of-jerusalem-prophes
ied/>

[10] Address of Jesus

<https://talks.josh.org/product/address-of-jesus/>

[11] Chart of Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus

<http://www.about-jesus.org/complete-chart-prophecies-jesus.htm>

[12] Stoner, Peter W., 1963, Science Speaks. Chicago: Moody Press, pp 100-107