Things Prophesied by Jesus

Jesus Himself gave some specific prophecies.  One way to test the truthfulness of Jesus' claims is to see if His predictions came true.  Here are five prophecies that have been fulfilled, or are on the verge of being fulfilled.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father..."  John 4:21 (NKJV)

This is when Jesus was talking with the Samaritan woman at the well.  She wanted to know which was the proper place to worship.  The mountain where Samaritans worshiped was Mount Gerizim.  But Jesus essentially tells her that its all irrelevant, because soon the Samaritans will not worship at Mount Gerizim and the Jews will not worship at Jerusalem.  Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD, and after the emperor Hadrian, Jews were forbidden from entering Jerusalem (which was given a different name as a Roman colony).  And at some point during Roman rule the Samaritans were forbidden to worship at Mount Gerizim.

Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.  For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."  Luke 19:41-44 (NKJV)

The Jews revolted against the Romans starting in the year 66AD.  This culminated in a Roman siege of Jerusalem.  Vespasian led an army against the Jews and besieged Jerusalem.  He left the siege when he was named "imperator" (emperor) by the legion.  He left command to his son Titus, and Titus finished the job.  The entire account can be read in Josephus' Jewish Wars.  Jerusalem fell in the year 70AD.  The Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem.  Only a small percentage of Jews inside the city survived the siege, and they were sold into slavery.  No one was left in the city, and it was only later refounded as a Roman colony.  Maybe not in a literal sense, but certainly in a figurative sense, not one stone was left upon another.  Jerusalem was completely destroyed.

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.  -Jesus in Matthew 16:18 (NKJV)

The part where He says "shall not prevail against it" might sound like a successful defense.  But gates are not offensive weapons.  So the gates of hell cannot be going out against Christ's church.  Gates are defensive, so if the gates of hell do not prevail against the church, then the church must prevail against the gates of hell.  However you want to slice it, Jesus is basically saying that He will build His church and it will be a success.  That might not seem like much of a prophecy.  You might assume that anyone who founds a religion would very well prophesy success of it.  But it does need to be remembered that this prophecy has been fulfilled.  If we consider it to mean prevailing against the gates of hell, the church has very much done that.  The church has prevailed, even when it seemed like the gates of hell might prevail.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.  -Jesus in Matthew 24:14 (NKJV)

So has the gospel been preached in every nation?  I guess some would say it has, some would say it hasn't.  I'm not going to try to prove that this prophecy has been fulfilled.  But I think its common sense to assume that it soon will be fulfilled.  Maybe the gospel has not been preached in ALL the world, but it won't be long until it has.

Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.  -Jesus in Mark 14:9 (NKJV)

This is about the woman that anointed Jesus with expensive perform.  This is one of only a few stories, other than the events of the Passion, that is mentioned in all four of the gospel accounts.  As it is today, the four gospel accounts usually accompany each other, although sometimes only a single gospel is translated into an obscure language.  In the early days of Christianity the gospel accounts were distributed mostly by themselves.  But whether a person reads the gospel in all four accounts, or a person reads the gospel in only one account, that person will read of what this woman did.  Indeed, wherever the gospel goes, her story goes with it.

There are other things that Jesus predicted which came to pass, like His death and resurrection, or the fact that Peter denied Him three times.  The reason I mentioned these five examples and not the others, is because these examples have their fulfillment after the words were penned.  How could Jesus or the apostles have known that a day would come when no one would worship God at Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem?  How could they have known that the church would continuously prevail?  How could they have known that the gospel would go out into the whole world?  Yes, if there was only one of these predictions, we might be able to say coincidence.  But we have more than one fulfilled prophecy.  Is it really coincidence?