Americans love prophecies, which are defined as “the foretelling or prediction of what is to come.” Today we are marking what is the most important prophecy ever made — the birth of Jesus.

Micah is one of a number of prophets who told his listeners about the coming birth of Jesus in Micah 5:2. That was the focus of the Sunday school lesson I taught this week and it aroused my curiosity.

First, I wondered how some men got to be prophets. The Bible says men became prophets before Jesus’ time by being “called by God” — meaning God directly chose them to deliver his messages, often through visions, dreams, or an audible voice, and they were considered to be speaking on God’s behalf.

I also wanted to know how many prophets there were that told us Jesus was coming and who they were.

Micah lived during the reign of three kings, from approximately 740 to 698 B.C. So his prophecy was definitely a long time before Jesus was born.

Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 that God would raise up a prophet like him, and that was about 1500 years before Jesus was born.

Eleven prophets in the Old Testament accurately predicted Jesus’ birth, according to biblestudytools.com. One resource I found surprised me. It said Adam was the first human being and he is believed to have been the first prophet.

John the Baptist is considered a prophet even though he said he wasn’t one. He was the last prophet of the Old Testament before the arrival of Jesus.

Isaiah’s prophecy is Isaiah 9:6. It came nearly 600 years before Jesus’ birth and is considered “the centerpiece of all the Christmas prophecies,” according to The Master’s University at masters.edu.

Isaiah promised it would be a miraculous event, unlike any the world had ever known and the details Isaiah gave were fulfilled precisely by Jesus, the website said.

Other Jesus prophets included Zechariah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Hosea and Jeremiah.

One source I found said there were no prophets after Jesus, and I wondered why that was true. It added that was because Jesus represents the fullness of God’s divine revelation. There could be seers or people to which God has given private revelation, “like what happened at Fatima.”

OK, so what happened at Fatima?

The Virgin Mary, also known as the “Lady of Fátima”, appeared to three peasant children, Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia, on the 13th of each month from May to October 1917.

The children reported that the Virgin Mary told them that God wanted people to pray, repent, and consecrate themselves, and that in return, God would grant world peace.

Another reading we had Sunday was in the first chapter of Luke that deals with Mary, the mother of Jesus, visiting her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.

I recently watched the movie “Mary” on Netflix and found it to be an enjoyable story, but I was curious about how accurate it was. I got an answer.

“Overall, Biblical events and figures are present in Netflix’s Mary but audiences looking for accuracy should be aware this dramatic retelling relies more on fiction and fantasy than facts,” according to thedirect.com.

We got some accurate history Sunday in that first chapter of Luke about Mary’s visit with Elizabeth.

Judith Jones in a commentary on Luke 1:39-55 at workingpreacher.org said, “The spotlight shines on Mary and Elizabeth, two lowly and shamed ones through whom God has chosen to begin the transformation of  the world. Women — so often overlooked or ignored both in society at large and in biblical narratives — have the only speaking roles in this vignette …”

Elizabeth was also a prophet, Jones said, because she was filled with the  Holy Spirit and proclaimed what Mary had not yet told her, and what was not yet visible to the eye: Mary was pregnant. Elizabeth also called Mary “the mother of my Lord.”

Our last reading Sunday was from Hebrews, which one commentator said is a book that is fundamentally about the Lord Jesus — who he was, what he did and how he did it. And he was faithful to God.

Let each of us remember that this is what we are really celebrating today and every  Christmas.

Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or jim.beam.press@gmail.com.