The reason why prophecy is an
indication of the divine authorship of the
Scriptures, and hence a testimony to the
trustworthiness of the Message of the Scriptures, is
because of the minute probability of fulfillment.
Anyone can make predictions. Having
those prophecies fulfilled is vastly different. In
fact, the more statements made about the future, and
the more the detail, then the less likely the precise
fulfillment will be.
For example, what's the likelihood of a
person predicting today the exact city in which the
birth of a future leader would take place, well into
the 21st century? This is indeed what the
prophet Micah did 700 years before the Messiah.
Further, what is the likelihood of predicting the
precise manner of death that a new, unknown religious
leader would experience, a thousand years from now - a
manner of death presently unknown, and to remain
unknown for hundreds of years? (Crucifixion
was invented by the Romans about 200 B.C.).Yet, this
is what David did in 1000 B.C.
Again, what is the likelihood of predicting
the specific date of the appearance of some great
future leader, hundreds of years in advance? This
is what Daniel did, 530 years before Christ. If
one were to conceive 50 specific prophecies about a
person in the future, whom one would never meet, just
what's the likelihood that this person will fulfill
all 50 of the predictions? How much less
would this likelihood be if 25 of these predictions
were about what other people would do to him, and
were completely beyond his control?
For example, how does someone
"arrange" to be born in a specific family?
How does one "arrange" to be born in a
specified city, in which their parents don't actually
live? How does one "arrange" their own
death - and specifically by crucifixion, with two
others, and then "arrange" to have their
executioners gamble for His clothing (John 16:19;
Psalms 22:18)?
How does one "arrange" to be
betrayed in advance? How does one
"arrange" to have the executioners carry
out the regular practice of breaking the legs of the
two victims on either side, but not their own?
Finally, how does one "arrange" to be God? How
does one escape from a grave and appear to people
after having been killed?
Indeed, it may be possible for someone to fake one or
two of the Messianic prophecies, but it would
be impossible for any one person to arrange and
fulfill all of these prophecies. Note: This material extracted from web site,
unknown author.
This study highlights
the Messianic prophecies. One should know, however,
that much of the Old Testament, (estinated around
50%) is prophecy. Much of it was prophesied in the
earler writings and later writings then recorded the
various fulfillments. And of course much of these are
yet to be fulfilled in the future.
There are many
prophecies recorded in the New Testament. Some are
fulfilled, i.e. Jesus told the disciples that the
temple would be completely destroyed in Matthew
24:1-2. This was literally fulfilled in 70 A.D. when
the Roman General, Titus crushed the Jewish
rebellion. Dozens of NT prophecies are yet to
be fulfilled during and after the return of Christ.
With the
Bible, literally, littered with fulfilled prophecy,
we can confidently know that the ones yet
un-fulfilled will be fulfilled in due time!
Speed the Day!
Duane Gilchrist
The
Mathematical Odds of Jesus Fulfilling Prophecy
The following probabilities are taken from
Peter Stoner in Science Speaks (Moody Press,
1963) to show that coincidence is ruled out
by the science of probability. Stoner says
that by using the modern science of probability in
reference to just eight prophecies,
'we find that the chance that any man might have
lived down to the present time and fulfilled just all
eight prophecies is 1 in 1017." That would be 1
in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help
us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner
illustrates it by supposing that "we take
100,000,000,000,000,000 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 only these eight prophecies and having them
all come true in any one man."
This information regarding
Peter Stoner was taken from the book Evidence that
Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell.