According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, a prophecy is "a prediction of something to come." The Bible, the holy creed of the Christian religion, contains many passages that predict events or are understood as predicting events. Some of the Bible's prophetic passages are described as direct statements from God while others are ascribed to the original writers known as prophets. These prophets had the ability to communicate with God or receive and understand His messages. Only a small number of men could make biblical prophecies. They included Abraham, Amos, Daniel, Ezekiel, Hosea, Isaiah, Jacob, Jeremiah, Jesus, Joel, Micah, Moses, Nahum, and Zachariah.

One major theme of Bible prophecy is found in the Old Testament where prophets speak primarily of God's warnings to the Israelites to ask for forgiveness (repent) for their sins and idolatry. The threat of punishment and promise of rewards was often used as incentive to persuade the Israelites to heed God's words. For instance, in Leviticus 26: 31-32 through Moses, God says: "I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries and I take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. I will lay waste the land so that your enemies who live there will be appalled." In other words, God says that as a result of disobedience Israel will be a wasteland and that its enemies would then inhabit the land. God goes on to say that He will scatter the Israelites among the nations and pursue them with his sword.

Another theme of Bible prophecy foretells of the coming of a Messiah who will deliver the Israelites from the punishment of their sins, if and only if they make the choice to receive God's forgiveness and make amends for their sinfulness. In Deuteronomy 18: 15-18, the Prophet Moses predicts that: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For his is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, 'Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.' The Lord said to me: 'What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.'"
A third major theme in Bible prophecy occurs in the New Testament's book of Revelation that foretells how the world as we know it will be destroyed. It predicts that the battle of Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil, will usher in a thousand-year period of peace under Messianic rule. In Matthew 24:21-22, Jesus foretells this total destruction by stating that: "For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now--and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened."

These are just there themes of Biblical prophecy that have been made. Have any of them come to pass? Well, it depends on what one believes. Many Christians take Bible prophecy in the literal sense. They believe that these prophecies will come true and that one day Armageddon will be upon us. The dates of the books in the Old Testament suggest that many of the prophecies described in these books were fulfilled as illustrated in other Bible passages.