Does the Bible really contain Prophecy that came true?

An image of a Bible that was written and illuminated in the Armenian quarter of Isfahan, the capital of Persia (present-day Iran) in the 1600s. The artists Malnazar and Aghap’ir lavishly decorated this book with scenes from the Old Testament

If indeed the Bible very clearly predicted something, and later that event actually happened, then that would indeed be truly fascinating. The claim that this is indeed the case is commonly made, but if we dig down and examine it what will we find?

Background Context

As a quick bit of background, this posting is part of an ongoing dialog between myself and another writer. The posting that I am responding to is titled “Fulfilled Prophesy and the Atheist — Part 1 of 2 — BCWorldview”. Within this there are three specific items to consider:

• The Micah prophecy
• The Psalm 22:16–18 reference
• The general observation that there are lots more

Before I briefly cover each in turn I should add one rather important clarification. I’m not religious and I also do not honestly find such claims to be robust. The author of the linked posting holds a different view. We are not attacking each other. Instead, we are laying out our thoughts. The goal is to reach a better understanding. Neither of us anticipates changing the mind of the other.

OK, so let’s move on. I’ll lay out my thoughts on the examples of prophecy provided.

The Micah prophecy