Are Bible Predictions Reliable?

Prophecy signifies the knowledge of the future obtained from a divine source, a prediction uttered under divine inspiration. The Bible abounds in prophecies and the ones fulfilled make anyone consider very seriously that the ones that are for the future will also come to pass.

Over 300 prophecies have come true in Jesus' life, plus numerous other concerning historical events. We nowadays have seen the way other prophecies have fulfilled under our very eyes. For one, the restoration of Israel as a nation.

Who would have believed that after nearly 2,000 years of destruction, they would gain their country back, becoming an independent nation again? God foretold that many times; the prophet Jeremiah wrote this prophecy sometime between 626 and 586 BC, and we have seen its fulfillment.

"This is what the LORD says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar- the LORD Almighty is his name: "Only if these decrees vanish from my sight," declares the LORD, "will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me."
Jeremiah 31:35-36

"I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land."
Ezekiel 34:12b-13

As the prophets predicted, Israel survived in spite of all attempts of destruction and this was a fact noticed by other writers too, Pascal writes:, "This people are not eminent solely by their antiquity, but are also singular by their duration, which has always continued from their origin till now....

...For, whereas the nations of Greece and of Italy, of Lacedaemon, of Athens and of Rome, and others who came long after, have long since perished, these ever remain, and in spite of the endeavors of many powerful kings who have a hundred times tried to destroy them,...

...as their historians testify, and as it is easy to conjecture from the natural order of things during so long a space of years, they have nevertheless been preserved (and this preservation has been foretold);...

...and extending from the earliest times to the latest, their history comprehends in its duration all our histories which it preceded by a long time."
Pensees, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), as translated by W. F. Trotter

The Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Charles Krauthammer, puts it in a nutshell in a commentary published in the Chicago Tribune on July 6, 1998:

"This is the only country on Earth that speaks the same language, worships the same God, and inhabits the same land that it did 3,000 years ago."

In addition to these, there are over 10,000 prophecies in the Bible and each of them up to this time has been fulfilled without exception. It is only logical to expect the others to come true; I mean if all these have, why wouldn't the others? God foretells the fact that every individual will bow his knees before Him:

"By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear."
Isaiah 45:23

"Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To HIM Who sits on the Throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
Revelation 5:13

"We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.
Revelation 11:17

I think we have to carefully consider our position and start questioning ourselves very seriously concerning the relation we have with God. For me, I want to be among those who say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
Revelation 4:11