From Bible Prophecy Then & Now a book written in Jerusalem & the Galilee of Israel

THE MIRACLE THAT IS THE BIBLE
The Bible is the word of God as revealed in the most important collection of ancient 'books' ever written. In fact word Bible itself comes from an ancient word Biblos, meaning book.

Now these 'books' were not the printed pages we know today – they were handwritten on scrolls of goat and deer skin called parchment. The Jewish people still use the same kind of scrolls in their synagogues today.

And here is one of the first miracles to know about the Bible. These books were copied down through the millennia by hand. But when hundreds of ancient Bible scrolls were discovered buried in caves by the Dead Sea in Israel, scholars found that the words had not changed even by one letter in two thousand years. Anyone who ever played Chinese Whispers can tell you just what a miracle that is!

WHAT'S IN THE BIBLE
The first collection of books is the Hebrew Bible, known to the Jews as the Tanakh and to Christians as the Old Testament. The second collection is the books about the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus. Including the Four Gospels and other important works, these are what we know as the New Testament. 

The first five books of the Bible are known as the Torah - úåøä in Hebrew – also called the Five Books of Moses. Meaning Teaching or Law, these are the words imparted directly to Moses by God on Mount Sinai after the Exodus from Egypt. This was the great event where God himself wrote the Ten Commandments with his finger on two tablets of stone, as told of in Exodus 31:18 and Deuteronomy 5:22.

Following the Books of Moses are the Books of the Nivi'im [ðáéàéí] or Prophets and the Ketuvim (Writings). Together, the first letters of these three words T, N and K, make the root of the Hebrew abbreviation Tanakh.

In the New Testament we find the four Books of the Gospels, the letters of Paul and other early Christians, and the Book of Revelation.

Inside all these books are both the words and the promises of God.

BIBLE PROPHECY FULFILLED – MAKING GOOD THE PROMISES OF GOD
Bible prophecy is not simply a telling of the future, it is the completion of the actual promises made by a Living God.

The prophecies that appear in the Bible are either spoken directly by God to someone, or else they are spoken by one of His prophets – people who are prophets by the fact that they were recognized as the spokesmen or women of God.

About one quarter of all the Bible actually concerns prophecies. Generally speaking these prophecies fall into three major categories:
1) Prophecies about the Coming of the Messiah
2) Prophecies about the Jewish People and the Land of Israel
3) Prophecies about the End Days

One of the first of prophecies we hear in the Bible is the promise made by God in Genesis Chapter 12 when Abraham is still Abram (God changes his name later):
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:1-3
 
This promise to make Abraham the father of a great nation was fulfilled with the creation of the Jewish people – but it is also still being fulfilled today, as witnessed by the rebirth of the Israel in 1948.

This is one of the greatest mysteries concerning God's promises. They are not a 'one-time' thing. God never forgets his promises to us - and therefore we can often see their fulfillment down through different ages.

So the fulfillment of Bible Prophecy is first and foremost an ever-present reminder of God's love for us – else why would He work so hard to make sure He keeps all his promises – down to the last little detail.

And that is what this book Bible Prophecy Then & Now is all about. It's about how we can see that Jesus was the fulfillment of Bible Prophecy made up to His time, and how we today are witnessing the fulfillment of His coming return that the Bible promises will be accompanied by the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland as one of the important signs of the End Days.

Helping Fulfill Bible Prophecy?
Seeing the fulfillment of Prophecy, either in the past or the present, is one of the best ways we have of knowing and coming close to the Lord. Recognizing the many miracles that have occurred through so many generations brings us close to the divine nature of the Bible.

Learning about Bible Prophecy is also one of the best ways to understand the world we live in. While it may look as if the world is chaotic, when we read the prophecies concerning the End of Days we clearly see what's going on today as part of God's greater plan.

And every day each one of us has the opportunity and the choice to be part of that plan. God wants his plan fulfilled, and looks to work through us their fulfillment. Planting trees in the Bible Land is one of the concrete, tangible ways you can help Bible Prophecy be fulfilled. As it is written:
For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.  ... ...
Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
Isaiah 51 - 3  & 11