The Prophecies about Christ
The miraculous story of Jesus the Christ began long before His birth in Bethlehem. Did you know that there were hundreds of prophecies about His birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection? These prophesies spanned thousands of years before the newborn babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger, was announced by angels to humble shepherds, watching over their flocks on that historic night.
The probability of one person being able to fulfill just eight of those prophecies was calculated and the results are astonishing. Better yet, the great state of Texas was required as part of an illustration. The follow excerpts are from the book “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell pgs. 193-194 He cites Peter Stoner’s work in Science Speaks to show that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability.
Stoner says that by applying the modern science of probability to just these eight prophecies, “… We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017.” That would be one in 1 quadrillion.
in order for us to be able to comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that:
“… we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote in their own wisdom.
“Now these prophecies were either given by inspiration of God or the prophets just wrote them as they thought they should be. In such a case the prophets had just one chance in 1017 of having them come true in any man, but they all came true in Christ.
“This means that the fulfillment of these eight prophecies alone proves that God inspired the writing of those [eight] prophecies to a definiteness which lacks only one chance in 1017 of being absolute.” [Stoner, Peter W. Science Speaks. Chicago: Moody Press, 1963, pp 100-107.]
Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, “… We find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10157.
“With that introduction, let us go back to our chance of 1 in 10157. Let us suppose that we are taking this number of electrons, marking one, and thoroughly stirring it into the whole mass, then blindfolding a man and letting him try to find the right one. What chance has he of finding the right one? What kind of a pile will this number of electrons make? They make an inconceivably large volume.” [ibid., pp 109,110]
The chances of finding the correct electron out of the pile of electrons that Stoner uses for this last illustration is something on the order of picking one single correct electron out of all of the electrons in all the known mass of the entire known universe. Such is the chance of any one man fulfilling any 48 prophecies. Yet Jesus fulfilled not just 48 prophecies, not just 61 prophecies, but more than 324 individual prophecies that the Prophets wrote concerning the Messiah.
Merry Christmas and may you experience the Peace of Christ in your heart all year.