Question: 

Are there any specific prophecies that have been fulfilled? Many skeptics claim that prophecies are too broad to be reliable.

Answer:

The answere is a resounding yes.  You will find a wealth of information on this topic in three of the books I have published.  The three are Reasons for Belief,  Daniel, Prophet to the Nations and From Shadow to Reality.   All three are available for purchase at www.ipibooks.com   Each is jam packed with examples of prophecies of the most specific possible content which were fulfilled in a way which will make even the hardened skeptic very nervous if they are willing to listen to the evidence.

I suggest you read these books, but in the mean time, let me give you a couple of examples.

In Psalm 22:16 there is a prophecy of the Messiah.   It says, "They have pierced my hands and my feet."  That sounds very specific to me.   There is nothing vague about this.  There is only one conceivable way such a prophecy could be fulfilled, which is if it is a reference to crucifixion.  Nothing broad here.

A second example is in Zechariah 11:12-13.  Here God says that he will be "sold" for 30 pieces of silver and that the money from this sale will be thrown to the Potter.  That sounds pretty specific to me.  I assume you know that Jesus was betrayed by Judas for 30 pieces of silver and that when Judas tried to return the money to the temple it was rejected by the priests and used instead to buy a potter’s field.  So much for vague and unreliable.

The prophetic content in Daniel is specific to the nth degree.  Daniel 7 has the eleventh king of Rome persecuting the saints and changing the "set times."  The eleventh emperor of Rome was Domitian; the first to systematically persecute the church.  By the way, Domitian had the name of two of the months of the Roman Calendar changed to Domitianus and Germanicus (his surname).  Again, this is very specific as to which emperor of what kingdom would persecute the church.  The prophetic content of Daniel 8 and 11 is so specific that there is not even a conceivable shadow of a doubt what it is a reference to–the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes against the Jews in 167-164 BC.   Even the skeptics have no choice but to concede this point.  For this reason, they make the spurious claim that the book was written after the events.  For more on this, see my book Daniel, Prophet to the nations.

Those who make this claim that the biblical prophecies are similar to those of the likes of Nostradamus–very broad and capable of almost any interpretation–are wrong.  Plain and simple.  This is a smoke screen to cover the reality.  Are there prophecies in the Old Testament which are rather broad and have more than one possible fulfillment?  Yes.  These authors choose to use such examples.   They tend to avoid the examples I mention above and the dozens of others which are not vague or broad at all.

Rest assured that this argument against Christianity is not a good one!

John Oakes