Jesus Christ didn't just appear out of nowhere and create a new religion, but rather He fit like a puzzle the Old Testament prophetic framework that began at the dawn of time and reached stunning clarity 1500 years before He was born! His life and message were the long-awaited fulfillment of the Old Testament.

One might ask, if He so clearly fulfilled Old Testament prophecy then how do we know that those prophecies weren't written after He lived? We can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He fulfilled these prophecies because God didn't entrust them to some obscure individual in the middle of nowhere, but rather He entrusted them to an entire nation in the middle of world history. Not only did God entrust these prophecies to Israel, but some of the most powerful prophecies were an integral part of the very fabric of daily life in ancient Israel. The meaning of Christ's death on the cross and the hope that it brings us was memorialized in the heart of Israel's culture for 1500 years before He was born! When people accused the apostle Paul of inventing a new religion, he replied, "I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen - that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people [the Jews] and to the Gentiles [non-Jews]." (Acts 26:22-23)

Another question that naturally arises is, if Christ so clearly fulfilled these prophecies then why did Israel as a nation reject Him? It would have actually been a greater surprise if they accepted Him! In rejecting Christ Israel retraced the very steps they took 1500 years earlier when they rejected God's plan for them after He delivered them from slavery in Egypt! According to the historical narrative in the Old Testament, God told Moses that He would lead Israel out of slavery in Egypt to the land of Canaan where they would be a sovereign nation. One of their chief purposes as a nation was to serve as guardians of the prophecies that would validate the life of Christ. God made it crystal clear to Israel that new life in the Promise Land of Canaan awaited them (Exodus 6:2-5, 12:24-28, Leviticus 14:34, 18:3, etc.), but when they reached the border of Canaan almost everyone did not believe what God had said. Rather than enter the Promise Land they wanted to run back to Egypt! (Numbers 14:1-4) Likewise, when Christ came in fulfillment of what God had clearly promised, Israel as a nation did not believe. When the apostle Paul proclaimed to unbelieving Israel the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy about the spiritual promise land, so to speak, of peace with God through Christ, his voice echoed the voices of Joshua and Caleb 1500 years earlier proclaiming to unbelieving Israel the fulfillment of God's promise of new life in the Promise Land of Canaan! (Numbers 14:6-11)