Christmas 2018 Prophecies and Probabilities
Hello this is Eric again. I am taking some time to answer my friends question, “How can I know that the Bible is true?” To do this I am looking at one of the evidences the Bible gives to answer this question, Prophecy.
(Read the previous blog here: http://takingnextstepswithjesus.blogspot.com/2018/11/christmas-2018-how-can-i-know-that.html)
What is Prophecy? Prophecy is when God tells someone what is going to happen in the future, and it does. Why would this matter? Think about it. If someone were able to tell you what would happen tomorrow, what would you think? What questions would you ask? Something about stocks, or the lottery maybe? Who wins the game? What the weather will ‘Really’ be like? At some point wouldn’t you ask if they were able to see farther than tomorrow? Or, how in the world did you get this ability? Isn’t it more realistic to think that we would consider this person a fraud, and look for the trick, or how they are manipulating us? Wouldn’t you start to question your own sanity, and begin to wonder, “Why am I even asking them?” What would it take for you to believe them?
What is Probability? Probability is defined as, “The likelihood that a given event will occur”—(https://www.wordnik.com/words/probability) What chance is there that the quarter will be heads, or tails (or, end up on it’s side)? Every flip, the probability is the same. It doesn’t change. This is different than an average which is, “the sum of the values of a random variable divided by the number of values”—(https://www.wordnik.com/words/arithmetic%20mean) If I flip 10 times, and heads came up 4 times the average flip is 2.5. Every 2.5 times, on average, I should get a heads by my previous experience. But the probability of heads being flipped is 1 out of 2 (not factoring in the incidence of it landing on it’s side, cause it could happen.)
OK, OK, OK…why all the math? When we begin to look at the probability that God would give a prophecy, and that it would come to pass in the life of one person, things begin to get interesting. Really interesting.
A Moody professor named Peter W. Stoner in 1957 wrote a book called “Science Speaks, An Evaluation of Christian Evidences”* where he looked at the probability of 8 prophecies being fulfilled in the life of one person, namely, Jesus.
For 8 prophecies to be fulfilled, the probably chance of that happening would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
He goes on to illustrate,
“The odds of any one man who lived from when the prophecies were made until the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10 to the seventeenth power. Can we visualize this with an illustration? Suppose we took an atheistic professor, blindfolded him and covered the state of Texas two feet deep with silver dollars. Then we put a check on one of those silver dollars and mixed them up. The odds of one person fulfilling just these eight prophecies would be the same as this atheistic professor selecting the silver dollar upon which we have placed a check, in his first try.”**
He goes on to say,
“There are some 300 – 350 prophecies that were written in the TaNaKh to help us identify which person is the promised Messiah (see Mu – 354 Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus Christ). Suppose we add eight more prophecies to our list? And assume that their chance at being fulfilled by just one man is the same as the eight prophecies just considered. Those odds would be 10 to the 28th power X 10 to the 17th power or 1 in 10 to the 45th power.”**
God fulfilled all of these prophecies through Jesus. A friend of mine is the professor who is the chair of the math department at Judson University, and when I asked him about this number—1 in 10 to the 45th power—and how to describe it, he told me that he couldn’t. He said that there was nothing to compare this to in all nature. If we broke down all the atoms in the universe, and we were able to count them…this 1 in 10 to the 45th power, is greater than all those atoms.
Wow, God fulfilling all the prophecies about Jesus in and through the life of Jesus, is bigger than any number we could represent or understand. That’s a great reason to know that the Bible is true!
Do you want to walk on this journey with us?
Subscribe here: http://takingnextstepswithjesus.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
* Stoner, Peter W. Science Speaks, An Evaluation of Certain Christian Evidences. Moody Press in Chicago, Illinois 1957
** https://jaymack.net/english/life-of-christ-commentary/Ni-The-Odds-of-Eight-Messianic-Prophecies-Coming-True.php
--Thanks to jaymack.net for his great article on Professor Stoner's book
(Read the previous blog here: http://takingnextstepswithjesus.blogspot.com/2018/11/christmas-2018-how-can-i-know-that.html)
What is Prophecy? Prophecy is when God tells someone what is going to happen in the future, and it does. Why would this matter? Think about it. If someone were able to tell you what would happen tomorrow, what would you think? What questions would you ask? Something about stocks, or the lottery maybe? Who wins the game? What the weather will ‘Really’ be like? At some point wouldn’t you ask if they were able to see farther than tomorrow? Or, how in the world did you get this ability? Isn’t it more realistic to think that we would consider this person a fraud, and look for the trick, or how they are manipulating us? Wouldn’t you start to question your own sanity, and begin to wonder, “Why am I even asking them?” What would it take for you to believe them?
What is Probability? Probability is defined as, “The likelihood that a given event will occur”—(https://www.wordnik.com/words/probability) What chance is there that the quarter will be heads, or tails (or, end up on it’s side)? Every flip, the probability is the same. It doesn’t change. This is different than an average which is, “the sum of the values of a random variable divided by the number of values”—(https://www.wordnik.com/words/arithmetic%20mean) If I flip 10 times, and heads came up 4 times the average flip is 2.5. Every 2.5 times, on average, I should get a heads by my previous experience. But the probability of heads being flipped is 1 out of 2 (not factoring in the incidence of it landing on it’s side, cause it could happen.)
OK, OK, OK…why all the math? When we begin to look at the probability that God would give a prophecy, and that it would come to pass in the life of one person, things begin to get interesting. Really interesting.
A Moody professor named Peter W. Stoner in 1957 wrote a book called “Science Speaks, An Evaluation of Christian Evidences”* where he looked at the probability of 8 prophecies being fulfilled in the life of one person, namely, Jesus.
For 8 prophecies to be fulfilled, the probably chance of that happening would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
He goes on to illustrate,
“The odds of any one man who lived from when the prophecies were made until the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10 to the seventeenth power. Can we visualize this with an illustration? Suppose we took an atheistic professor, blindfolded him and covered the state of Texas two feet deep with silver dollars. Then we put a check on one of those silver dollars and mixed them up. The odds of one person fulfilling just these eight prophecies would be the same as this atheistic professor selecting the silver dollar upon which we have placed a check, in his first try.”**
He goes on to say,
“There are some 300 – 350 prophecies that were written in the TaNaKh to help us identify which person is the promised Messiah (see Mu – 354 Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus Christ). Suppose we add eight more prophecies to our list? And assume that their chance at being fulfilled by just one man is the same as the eight prophecies just considered. Those odds would be 10 to the 28th power X 10 to the 17th power or 1 in 10 to the 45th power.”**
God fulfilled all of these prophecies through Jesus. A friend of mine is the professor who is the chair of the math department at Judson University, and when I asked him about this number—1 in 10 to the 45th power—and how to describe it, he told me that he couldn’t. He said that there was nothing to compare this to in all nature. If we broke down all the atoms in the universe, and we were able to count them…this 1 in 10 to the 45th power, is greater than all those atoms.
Wow, God fulfilling all the prophecies about Jesus in and through the life of Jesus, is bigger than any number we could represent or understand. That’s a great reason to know that the Bible is true!
Do you want to walk on this journey with us?
Subscribe here: http://takingnextstepswithjesus.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
* Stoner, Peter W. Science Speaks, An Evaluation of Certain Christian Evidences. Moody Press in Chicago, Illinois 1957
** https://jaymack.net/english/life-of-christ-commentary/Ni-The-Odds-of-Eight-Messianic-Prophecies-Coming-True.php
--Thanks to jaymack.net for his great article on Professor Stoner's book
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