The prophecies about the coming Messiah in the Old Testament are God's own provided evidence. He said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judah (
Micah 5:2), would be despised and rejected of men and bruised/wounded/killed for our iniquities in making his soul an offering for sin (all in Isaiah chapter 53), and then you read Psalm 22 which obviously extended beyond David and describes a man suffering consistent with crucifixion, followed afterwards by glory- and then you see in
Zechariah 12:10 how when the Messiah returns in glory He will have been pierced previous to this. Then you read
Daniel 9 and see Daniel's 70 weeks (commonly understood to be 70 periods of 7 seven years): I is clear that the Messiah would come on the scene and be crucified at the end of the 69th week (483 years from when these weeks took effect)- and when you understand the basic time frame of the beginning of these 7 weeks (as
Daniel 9 shows, when the Persian Emperor was to command that Jerusalem be restored and built- and this happened in a way through both Ezra and Nehemiah who lived in the same general time frame but were sent to Jerusalem a few years apart), it is obvious that these weeks began in the late to mid 450s BC- and this means that the Messiah would be killed 483 years later in the late 20s or early 30s AD. And then you read
Haggai 2 and
Malachi 3 which both teach that the Messiah would come to the 2nd Temple- and this existed between the 5th century BC until the Romans destroyed it in AD 70. You also see in
Malachi 3 how the Messiah would have a preaching ministry that would rebuke the corruption in Judaism and purify it by properly teaching the Law of God as God intended it to be understood when He gave it.
So you have the Scriptures before Jesus even came teaching that the Messiah would be a male born in Bethlehem-Judah who would live in the time of the 2nd Temple, have a preaching ministry that would rebuke Israel and challenge Israel to return to the true intents of the Law of God, that He would be despised and rejected of men, that He would be pierced and overall suffer a death consistent with crucifixion, enter into glory afterwards, and even that His death would be 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and which would therefore need to be around approximately AD 30. And that is only a few of the obvious prophecies about the Christ/Messiah. And that is not even to mention all the types and shadows through the object lessons in the sacrifices in the Law of Moses and the stories of the righteous men in the Old Testament whose lives were in so many ways previews of Jesus' life.
It is no wonder then that Jesus could tell His disciples after His resurrection that they should have known He was going to die and rise again simply by what the Scriptures had already foretold.
Luke 24:25-27 "Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."
Luke 24:44-48 "And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things."
God Himself orchestrated the circumstances and fulfilled what He had said would happen through the free-will choices of men to execute His plan of redemption. Acts 13:27-31 "For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people."
In light of all this, God gave enough internal evidence through many authors over spans of hundreds of years in His own inspired Word to verify the truth about Jesus and the salvation which He has provided to those who will bow before Him as their Lord and their God and follow Him by subjecting themselves to the very same instruction in the Scriptures which testify of Him. He is just as faithful to fulfill His promises to those who put their trust in Him now as He was to fulfill the prophecies about Christ which He had given hundreds of years before. The Apostle Peter could thus tell the Christians he ministered to: "Who (Jesus Christ) verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." (
1 Peter 1:20-21)
The Scriptures have also told us what we need to know about Christ's 2nd coming and heaven and hell- we know that He will be the Judge of all men and that those who have responded right to His Word and followed him as their Lord will reign with Him at His return while those who are disobedient will be rejected from His kingdom as His enemies and suffer the just and horrific consequences that are appropriate for them. "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe" (
2 Thessalonians 1:8-10a)
