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There was a time when skeptics claimed that the prophecies in Isaiah 53 were too detailed, too specific, too accurate to be mere coincidence. I agreed. But then the skeptics argued that the ONLY logical explanation was that Isaiah was written after the gospels and patterned the suffering Servant after what the gospels wrote about Jesus.

Let’s look at a few of the prophecies from Isaiah 53.

The Messiah will be a sacrifice for sin, 53:5-12. Paul explained the fulfillment in Romans 5:6-8.

Messiah will be silent before His accusers, 53:7, fulfilled in Mark 15:4-5.

Messiah will be buried with the rich, 53:9, fulfilled in Matthew 27:57-60.

Messiah will be counted among the criminals, 53:12, fulfilled in Matthew 27:38.

There was a time when skeptics claimed that the prophecies in Isaiah 53 were too detailed, too specific, too accurate to be mere coincidence. I agreed. But then the skeptics argued that the ONLY logical explanation was that Isaiah was written after the gospels and patterned the suffering Servant after what the gospels wrote about Jesus.

Then a Bedouin shepherd left his sheep and goats to look for a stray. He found a cave in a crevice among the limestone cliffs. He tossed a rock in. Instead of hearing a “thud” when it hit, he heard something break. With a cousin and a friend, he entered the cave and found clay jars holding the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Prior to that day, the oldest known copy of Isaiah in your modern world was dated between 800 and 900 AD. The first handful of scrolls he brought out included a copy of Isaiah 900 - 1000 yrs older than previously found mss. Pieces of that scroll have been carbon 14 dated four times. The latest of those dates, the latest, is a century before, not centuries after, Jesus lived.

Isaiah accurately prophesied.

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