Some have questioned my insistence on exact fulfillment of the Bible’s predictive prophecies, as though such precision were a personal quirk or an unnecessary rigidity. It is not. That insistence does not originate with me; it originates with the Bible itself.
Throughout Scripture, God presents fulfilled predictive prophecy as a primary means of establishing his authority and distinguishing himself from false gods. “I have declared the former things from the beginning… before they came to pass I announced them to you” (Isaiah 48:3). Jesus echoed the same principle: “I have told you before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe” (John 14:29). These statements are not rhetorical flourishes; they are claims of verifiability.
Predictive prophecy is not given to satisfy curiosity about the future. Its purpose is evidentiary. It functions as God’s signature across history, demonstrating that he stands outside time and governs it. For that reason, approximation is not sufficient. Fulfillment that is merely “close enough” cannot establish authority; it weakens it.
Allowing elastic or approximate fulfillment in predictive prophecy is akin to saying Jesus was approximately resurrected. Scripture leaves no room for that category. Either the event occurred as proclaimed, or the claim collapses. The same standard applies to prophecy used to authenticate divine revelation.
Prophecy may be difficult to understand before fulfillment, but it must be exact in fulfillment once God presents it as evidence of his authority. If fulfillment is allowed to be approximate or elastic, prophecy ceases to function as proof and becomes merely illustrative and all-too-often fodder for Hollywood movies and internet podcasts.
My approach, therefore, is not driven by stubbornness or novelty, but by submission to the Bible’s own stated purpose. If Scripture presents fulfilled prophecy as proof of divine authorship, then precision is not optional. It is essential.
Truth does not need approximation to survive scrutiny. And if the Bible is what it claims to be, neither do its prophecies.