The novella, “The Wreck of the Titan,” eerily depicted an account of an ocean liner striking an iceberg and sinking in the north Atlantic 14 years before the actual sinking of the Titanic. The author, Morgan Robertson, denied any extrasensory knowledge of the future but perceived the probability of such an accident from his maritime knowledge. Some people have tried to predict the future. Most have failed. Some predict in vague words so others reinterpreted in hindsight.

            The predictions of the Book of Revelation are so astounding that opponents of the Bible assert that a man named John must have written the book after the historical events that it claims to predict. Revelation predicts a great persecution of the church, tribulations upon the rulers of Rome, and the Beast ruler who would persecute Christians and justly die.

            In Revelation 11, John revealed that the nations would trample the holy city outside of the temple (Rev 11:2). In AD 70, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the physical temple. However, John prophesied that the nations would not destroy the temple of God. John must have referred to this temple as God’s people — the church. In Revelation 1, John revealed that the churches form a kingdom of priests meaing from the Greek word for priest that they must serve in a temple (1:6). The Scriptures reveal that the church is now the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16–17; Eph 2:19–22; 1 Pet 2:5).

            The Book of Revelation prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem and yet gives no indication that the Romans had already destroyed the physical temple. No New Testament book revealed that Jerusalem’s destruction had already occurred during or before its writing. Any book of the New Testament with modest length would most likely have mentioned this event if written after AD 70, because Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem in detail (Luke 21; cf. Matt 24; Mark 13).

            The destruction of Jerusalem was no small event. The Emperor Domitian honored his brother Titus for his siege of Jerusalem by constructing “the Arch of Titus” to commemorate the conquest. That arch stands today. The first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, was an eyewitness and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in detail for the Romans. Christian writers would not likely have ignored the event when they believed Jesus predicted it. In the fourth century AD, the church historian, Eusebius, recorded that all Christians escaped the destruction of Jerusalem because of Jesus’s prediction.

            No one can predict the future without a supernatural guide. No other religion or text have made such predictive claims. Unbelievers go to great lengths to try to explain prophetic predictions away. However, critical scholars admit that Jesus did predict the destruction of Jerusalem. They recognize that Jesus asked His disciples to pray the event not come in winter when Jerusalem’s destruction occurred in August indicating that the event had not yet occurred by the writing of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 13:18). Furthermore, the Book of Acts concluded before Paul’s death in AD 65 — five years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Acts dates its prequel, the Gospel of Luke, to about AD 60–62 confirming Jesus’s predictions of Jerusalem’s destruction that Luke recorded from witnesses in Luke 19:41–44 and 21:5–24.

             Those honestly seeking the truth are amazed at the revelation of God. Therefore, Christians can stand with boldness and declare the course of history has fulfilled God’s predictions in the Bible. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom 11:33)