That Jesus’ resurrection was a physical resurrection is confirmed in the following passages:

"See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." (Luke 24:39)

In this passage Jesus makes plain that His resurrection is a physical resurrection by indicating that he has flesh and bones. He asked those He was talking to, to touch Him to see for themselves.

Have you ever heard the expression "He is a doubting Thomas!"? It is a statement made about the Apostle Thomas who happened to be away on business when Jesus first rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples. When he returned His associates told Him Jesus had risen from the dead and was alive! Thomas said in response "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe" (John 20:25). The Apostle John then tells us that Jesus then came in their midst and walked up to Thomas and said,

"Reach here Your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing." (John 20:27-28)

What did Thomas do in response? He said in response to Jesus: "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28)

Okay, this proves Jesus rose from the dead physically alive, but what does this have to do with whether the Bible is true or not? If Jesus is our God and Creator, if there is a heaven and a hell as Jesus claimed (Mark 9:47-48), what proof could He give to us to this fact? His physical resurrection from the dead! If Jesus is God, if He created us in the first place and His own body, then He would have no problem bringing His body back from the dead healthy and alive after it had been dead for three days. The Apostle John wrote in John 2:22,

"When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken." (John 2:22)

Even Jesus’ disciples had doubts about taking the Old Testament literally.

"Oh common! You don’t really believe God created the world, the universe and man in six literal 24 hour days do you? You don’t really believe their was a world wide universal flood which destroyed all life on earth and that this is the reason for the fossils do you? You don’t really believe God parted the red sea for the Jews to cross and then destroyed Egypt’s army afterwards do you? And Jonah being swallowed by a large-fish and living to tell about it? Give me a break!"

After Jesus rose from the dead physically alive! His disciples no longer had any doubts, they took the Bible literally! Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead is Jesus’ proof to us that He is the one and ONLY true God, our Creator, and that the Bible is His Holy word, His Holy Word ALONE!

Second, we know that the Bible is God’s Holy word and God’s Holy Word alone and that Jesus is the one and only true God because of the literal fulfillment of thousands of prophecies given in the Old and New Testament. I have had 34 years to study the Bible and its historical claims. The Bible is not just a religious book, it is also a detailed history book about man. Genesis itself gives a complete genealogy of man from creation up to Moses. I have myself written out this genealogy and was astounded to discover that if you take the book of Genesis (which means "generations") literally, according to the Bible man has only been on this earth for around 6,000 years. This is based on Genesis’ record and what both religious and secular man agree on concerning dates of ancient Babylon and Abraham based on Archaeological documents and findings in archaeology. All this history is great for confirming the historical reliability of the Bible, and believe me not one fact of history found has ever contradicted the Bible, it has completely confirmed it; but this only proves that the men who wrote the Bible were very concerned about historical accuracy in their writings. That still doesn’t prove to us that the Bible is God’s word and God’s word alone or that there even is a God, it only proves the historical reliability of the Bible. Is there anything else besides Jesus’ physical resurrection which does show God’s signature on the book the Bible, that it was inspired by Him that no other religious book can claim? Yes. What is it? It is the Bible’s more than 2,000 prophesies about the future. Over 330 of these refer to Jesus Christ alone of which most were fulfilled during His life time on earth. I cite some of these major prophecies in the previous Chapter title Absolutely Reliable Prophetically.

Notice what God says about Himself to prove who He is:  Yehovah God Jesus Christ. In the following passages God states what His proof is that He and He alone is God, note what He says:

"For Adonai Yehovah [Lord Yehovah] will do nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7)

"For I am El [God], and there is no other Elohim, there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’." (Isaiah 46:9-10)

"I declared the former things long ago and they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. Therefore I declared them to you long ago, before they took place I proclaimed them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’" (Isaiah 48:3, 5)

"Thus says Yehovah, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yehovah of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no Elohim besides Me. And who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; yes, let him recount it to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation, and let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place." (Isaiah 44:6-7)

Why does God reveal the future? For the following reasons:

1. So that we will know who His true messengers, prophets are.

2. So we will know who God really is: Yehovah Elohim.

3. So that we will know that it is He who has performed them and not some demon or false idol.

4. So that we will know that it is He who is truly the author of the events that take place.

The significance of these Old and New testament prophecies are:

1. First it concludes that there is a Divine intellect behind the Old and New Testament.

2. Second, it establishes the fact of God.

3. Third, it authenticates the Deity of Jesus Christ.

4. And fourth, it demonstrates God’s absolute control and inspiration over the men who wrote the Bible.

As I already stated there are over 2,000 prophecies. These prophecies cover 737 separate topics and take up over 27% of the 31,124 verses that are in the Bible. Most of them concern the nation of Israel. Thousand of years ago God chose a people, not because they were more holy or more special than you or I, but to reveal His existence, presence and holiness and character through this nation. Through Moses God gave Israel His moral laws, but he did more than that, He told them that if they violated His law that they would pay certain penalties. One of God’s commands was that every seven years they were not to farm the land for a year, they were to let it lie fallow. He promised them that if they would keep this command that He would increase their produce in the sixth year to cover the seventh year. Israel never once followed through this command, so God told Israel through His prophet Jeremiah that for every seventh year they did not obey this command that they would be in captivity to Babylon, meaning taken out of the land of Israel into Babylon. This took place in 606 BC. They had not obeyed this command for 490 years, so they were held captive by Babylon for 70 years.

"And this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years."  (Jeremiah 25:11)

True to God’s word, in another prophecy He declared that through His servant Cyrus of Persia, who hadn’t even been born yet, that he would release Israel at the end of the 70 years to go back to the land of Israel.

"It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd and he will perform all My desire.’ and he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’" (Isaiah 44:28)

Years later when Cyrus was king, Ezra, a current prophet of Yehovah, recorded Cyrus’s decree concerning the Jews and Jerusalem in Ezra 1:3,

"Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his Elohim be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel; He is the Elohim who is in Jerusalem."

Unfortunately all of Israel did not obey God in this decree to return to the land of Israel. Out of millions, only 50,000 returned. They enjoyed the pagan life style in Babylon too much. For other pagan sins they committed while in the land of Israel before their captivity to Babylon, God said through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 4:3-6 that Israel would be punished for 390 years plus 40 years equaling 430 solar years (by Jewish Calendar 360 days verses our 365 1/4 days a year). Their punishment would be world wide captivity. God warned Israel through Moses that if they did not repent of His punishment of them for a deed, that He would then punish them 7 times more for their sins. In Leviticus 26:18 Moses wrote,

"If also after these things, you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins."

After 70 years of punishment Israel did not repent and so God true to His Word punished them 7 times more for their sins which was 7 times the remaining 360 years (430 minus 70) which equals 2,520 biblical years from 536 B.C. which equals 2,483.8 calendar years. 2,483.8 years minus 536.4 B.C. years equals 1,947.4 years A.D. There was no zero year from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D., so you add one more year which brings it to May 14, 1948. On May 14, 1948 the Jews proclaimed their independence and the rebirth of the nation of Israel confirmed by the United Nations. God fulfilled these prophecies to the month, day and year, to the very letter (Matthew 5:17-19). God speaking through His prophet Isaiah said concerning the fulfillment of this prophecy:

"Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons" (Isaiah 66:8).

There are many other amazing prophecies concerning Israel which concerns our day today. Note for example Zechariah 14:2-4:

"For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then Yehovah will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south."

The Bible tells us that in the last days Jerusalem will become a heavy weight upon the nations of the world and that all nations will be drawn to Jerusalem.

"Thus says Adonai-Yehovah, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.’" (Ezekiel 5:5)

Israel "who live at the center of the world." (Ezekiel 38:12)

"The burden of the Word-of-Yehovah [Jesus is the Word] concerning Israel. Thus declares Yehovah [Jesus is Yehovah] who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it." (Zechariah 12:1-3) (Notes also John 1:1 and Revelation 19:13)

"And it will come about in that day that I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." (Zechariah 12:9)

"Now this will be the plague with which Yehovah will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth." (Zechariah 14:12)