In the year after I was born, 1968, a movie came out that fascinated the world. Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick co-wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey.” I don’t really have time to discuss the details of the film, but suffice it to say that it was a futuristic look at the world…a prediction, of sorts.
Then, in 1984, a “2001: A Space Odyssey” sequel was released and it was about—among other things—humans making contact with alien life. And the year Clarke chose for this breakthrough? 2010. And here we are in December of 2010 and the closest we’ve come to making contact with alien life is the recent NASA announcement about some arsenic-based bacteria found in a California lake!
It’s actually quite humorous to read predictions made decades ago about what life would look like today. I know, based on all the hype from the mid-80s—I thought we’d all be driving flying cars by now. Futurists were predicting back then that we’d be living in floating space communities and underwater habitats by now. Japanese experts said in 1983 that by 2010 major diseases like cancer and heart disease would be conquered.
It’s easy to make such predictions…much more difficult to make them materialize.
That’s what makes the prophecies of Christ’s birth all the more amazing to me. The first one—Genesis 3:15—was given more than a thousand years before Jesus was born! Isaiah and Micah and Hosea prophesied explicit details of Jesus’ birth more than 700 years before the fact; Jeremiah 600 years. Daniel more than 500 years before Christ was born. And every single prediction—every prophecy—was fulfilled perfectly and completely…down to when and where and from what family Messiah would come!
Most of the predictions that people make today are just wishful thinking…and they would hardly qualify as “prophecy.” Prophecy is history written ahead of time…and only God can do that. I hope you'll give thought to the prophecies of Christ this Christmas and let them shape your understanding and reception of the coming of Christ!
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