The Prophecies of the Savior

This is the fifth article in the “Gospel of Salvation” series. (Previous “The Problem of Sin” and “The Penalty of Sin” and “The Payment for Sin” and “The Power over Sin”)

  • I Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
  • 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
  • 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
  • 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
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I Corinthians 15:1-4 is the gospel (vs. 1) of salvation (vs. 2) in a nutshell. The good news of Jesus Christ referred to here in I Cor. 15 is Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. In this article, let’s focus on the phrase “…according to the scriptures…” mentioned two times in vs. 3-4.

In “Definition of Gospel”, we learned that Gospel means “good news.” The Gospel or Good News of Salvation is good news because sinful man can be saved from hell forever by Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. At the same time, The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Salvation is good news because it is proven with impossibly foretold prophecies.

You see, Jesus Christ’s salvation of mankind isn’t just a feel-good story or fable that may or may not be true. Jesus isn’t the fabled Santa Claus living in the North Pole or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. Jesus is real. Not only was Jesus a real person as history records, Jesus still lives as Scripture records. And despite the mockery and hate the world often shows towards the Bible, the myriad of prophecies found therein have never been disproven. As a matter of fact, the Bible’s prophecies are still being seen today! On top of all this, the prophecies of Scripture are very detailed descriptions unlike the much acclaimed Nostradamus whose supposed prophecies were simply vague pictures. Nothing and no one has ever laid out future events so painstakingly and detailed as the Bible.

Israel was promised to receive their land again, and they have even against impossible odds to this day! Jesus prophecied many wars and rumors of wars, and that too has happened. Jesus prophecied earthquakes in diverse places all over the globe before we had seismology and our numerous technologies to prove it. Jesus predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple which happened in 70AD. Jesus even predicted his own death and resurrection!

Concerning the Messiah, there are so many prophecies in the Old Testament about the tribe Messiah would come from, where Messiah would be born, how Messiah would be crucified before crucifixions even existed, that Messiah would be raised from the dead, minute specifics of Messiah’s crucifixion hour, and so many numerous prophecies. The prophecies of Messiah were so specific and clear that the Magi from the east knew of Messiah and the Bible scholars passed the information along to murderous Herod (Mt. 2).

Dear reader, I really could go on and on, but you should take the time to do the research yourself. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and Salvation is good news because it is proven to be fact. The Gospel is truth!