Good Friday

Psalm 22, written 1000 years before Jesus was born, describes in detail Jesus' experience on the cross. Crucifixion will not be "invented" for another 900 years, yet Psalm 22 accurately describes what it is like to be crucified. Here are verses 12-18 (NLT)

My life is poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax,
melting within me.

My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay.
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead.

My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs;
an evil gang closes in on me.
They have pierced my hands and feet.

I can count every bone in my body.
My enemies stare at me and gloat.

They divide my clothes among themselves
and throw dice for my garments.

How could Jesus' death be portrayed so accurately 1000 years before it happened? Even down to the details such as his hands and feet being pierced, and his enemies gambling for his clothes?

Some say the Old Testament was modified in the 3rd and 4th century. But that attempt to discredit the Bible doesn't work because we have the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were buried in caves more than 100 years before Jesus was born.

Some say the Gospel account of Jesus' death is a "fiction" written so that it matched the Old Testament prophecies. The problem with that is there were too many witnesses. Jesus' "trial" and execution were very public. If what the Gospels report is not true, that lie would have been revealed from the start and been used by the Jews to stop Christianity before it got started.

Christianity was based on a claim of truth. If that claim could be proven false, that would have been the end of Christianity. And the Jewish leadership was highly motivated to prove Christianity false. But Jesus didn't hide what he did, and his final days were not hidden. So the enemies of Christianity did not even try to claim the Gospel accounts are wrong--there were just too many eye witnesses to the truth of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.