How can we verify that Jesus is the Messiah?

By Ray Konig
Published: April 6, 2026

This article is contributed by Ray Konig, the author of 301 Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Prophet, Jesus the Miracle Worker, and 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies.

Many skeptics, atheists and other nonbelievers say that we have no evidence that Jesus is the Messiah who was promised by the prophets of the Old Testament.

But this is simply not true. There is an abundance of evidence -- an overwhelming amount of evidence -- that Jesus is the savior that the prophets of the Old Testament were predicting.

Here are five ways to know that Jesus is the Messiah:

Jesus is the one and only person who has ever achieved or sustained a widespread belief that he is the Messiah who was promised by the Old Testament. He is revered by billions of Christians throughout the world as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies.
The prophets of the Old Testament have been silent for the past 2,000 years, since the time of Jesus.
The prophets of the Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would have a worldwide spiritual impact, and Jesus, through the spread of Christianity, is the first person to ever achieve such an impact.
Jesus himself foretold that he would have a worldwide spiritual impact, and today Christianity is the majority religion for a majority of the world’s 200-or-so countries.
Jesus also foretold that the Jews would be forced out of Israel and scattered throughout the nations of the world. Since the Roman destruction of Israel about 2,000 years ago, the Jews became the first group of people to be forcibly scattered throughout the world.

Let’s take a more detailed look at each of these five points.

1. Jesus is the one and only person who has ever achieved or sustained a widespread belief that he is the Messiah who was promised by the Old Testament

There are more than 300 prophecies in the Old Testament about a promised savior, the Messiah, who would suffer and die to pay for our sins and reign eternally over the Kingdom of God.

We have a list of 301 Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus at https://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/301-prophecies-fulfilled-by-jesus.htm. Only one person has ever gained or sustained a widespread following as being the fulfillment of these prophecies and that one person is Jesus.

The 39 books of the Old Testament were written between 2400 BC and 1400 BC. The Old Testament was completed about 400 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. All of the prophecies of the Old Testament were written before Jesus was born.

There have been many false messiahs, throughout history, including Simon bar Giora, Simon bar Kochba, and others. But none were ever able to sustain a belief that they were the Messiah because none of them were able to fulfill any of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

In contrast, Jesus has fulfilled more than 300.

2. The prophets of the Old Testament have been silent for the past 2,000 years, since the time of Jesus

The prophets of the Old Testament, starting with Moses about 3,400 years ago and ending with Malachi about 2,400 years ago, gave many prophecies about the promised Messiah.

But there have been no new pre-Messiah prophets since the time of Jesus about 2,000 years ago. In fact, the very last person to ever predict the first arrival of the Messiah is John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry.

If Jesus was not the true Messiah, then why have the pre-Messiah prophets been silent for the past 2,000 years? Why hasn’t there been more books added to the Old Testament?

One answer is clear: Jesus is the Messiah and God no longer has a need to raise up more pre-Messiah prophets or inspire the writing of more books for the Old Testament.

3. The prophets of the Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would have a worldwide spiritual impact, and Jesus, through the spread of Christianity, is the first person to ever achieve such an impact

There are more than a dozen prophecies in the Old Testament that predicted that the Messiah would have a worldwide spiritual impact.

Jesus, who became the first and only person to ever achieve a widespread following as being the promised Messiah, is also the first person to ever achieved a worldwide spiritual impact, through the worldwide spread of Christianity.

Christianity today has a presence in 97 percent of the world’s 200-or-so countries, according to an analysis of CIA World Factbook data and Pew Research Center data.

In fact, Christianity is the majority religion for more than half of the world’s countries.

4. Jesus himself foretold that he would have a worldwide spiritual impact, and today Christianity is the majority religion for a majority of the world’s 200-or-so countries

Jesus himself predicted that he would have a worldwide spiritual impact. He did this at least five times during his public ministry, which by some estimates spanned from late AD 26 to early AD 30.

Jesus predicted that he would have a worldwide spiritual impact in Matthew 24:14, Luke 24:44-47 and Acts 1:8 (and elsewhere in the New Testament of the Bible):

This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14, EHV)

44 He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46 He said to them, “This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:44-47, EHV)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, EHV)

These prophecies were given by Jesus about 2,000 years ago. Shortly after Jesus ascended into heaven in about AD 30, his followers began evangelizing Christianity in Jerusalem, then throughout Israel, and then throughout the Roman world. They put Christianity on a trajectory that to become the first religion to spread to people throughout the world.

Christianity today is the majority religion for Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America. It is either the first or second largest religion in Africa, and it has a significant presence in Asia.

Achieving a worldwide spiritual impact is not easy. By some metrics, Jesus remains the one and only person to have ever accomplished this feat. Christianity is the only religion in the world today that has a majority presence in at least one country within each of the world’s inhabitable continents, which are Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America. In fact, there are churches in Antarctica, where weather conditions are too harsh for permanent inhabitation.

But Jesus did not merely achieve a worldwide spiritual impact, he also foretold that he would. And he did so during a time when there was no such thing as a worldwide spiritual impact.

5. Jesus also foretold that the Jews would be forced out of Israel and scattered throughout the nations of the world. Since the Roman destruction of Israel about 2,000 years ago, the Jews became the first group of people to be forcibly scattered throughout the world

Jesus gave many prophecies about the land and people of Israel for which we have tangible, visible and testable evidence today that they were fulfilled. One of the more stunning examples is his prediction that the Jews would be scattered throughout the nations of the world:

They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken captive to all nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:24, EHV)

This prophecy, which was given in about AD 30, foretold that the Jews would be forced out of Israel and scattered throughout the nations of the world. It began to be fulfilled about 40 years later, when the Romans crushed a Jewish rebellion for independence known as the First Jewish-Roman War (AD 66-73).

That war, according to Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, resulted in the deaths of 1.1 million Jews and the forced exile and scattering of about 100,000 surviving Jews.

That forced exile and scattering later contributed to a worldwide diaspora of Jews. Historically, since the time that Jesus gave his prophecy, there have been Jewish communities established in all six of the world’s inhabitable continents.

Not only was Jesus’ prophecy fulfilled to extremes, the Jews remain the only group of people in history to ever be forcibly scattered throughout each of the world’s inhabitable continents.