Although Peter was one of
the eyewitnesses, he does not ask that we believe
only his testimony. He says that we should examine evidence
even stronger than eyewitness accounts. He says we have “the
more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19).
For over a thousand years,
holy, godly men wrote down
the inspirations that God
sent to their hearts, telling of One whom God would send to be
the Savior of the world. They listed His birthplace, the
circumstances of His birth, and the events of His life.
They even predicted how He would suffer and the way He would
die. Finally, they wrote of His resurrection.
Examining the records of
these holy men of God, we find over 300 stipulations
concerning the Messiah and what He would accomplish in His
birth, life, death, and resurrection. It is fair to ask about the
possibility of one person fulfilling all of the requirements by
just “being in the right place at the right time.” There is a
way to compute the chance factor of this occurring.
The scientific “Law of
Compound Probabilities” allows us to accurately calculate
the chance of any prophesied event taking place. Each
stipulation added to the prediction lessens the chance of the
event’s occurrence, because the possibility of several
details coinciding is more remote than the possibility of one
event occurring alone. When 300 details are considered,
the chance factor becomes astronomical. Let’s look at the Law of
Compound Probability by starting with just eight of
the biblical prophecies pertaining to the Messiah and
calculating the possibility of one man fulfilling all eight of
those requirements.
For instance, Micah 5:2
said Christ would be born in the city of Bethlehem. The
chance of an individual being born in Bethlehem is easy to
determine by taking the average population of Bethlehem since the time
of the prophecy in about 725 B.C.—it turns out to be
about 7,000—and comparing it with the average population
of the earth—about 700 million. Divide the second by the
first, and you find there is one chance in 100,000 of being
born in Bethlehem.
Then Malachi 3:1 said there
would be a forerunner who would go before Christ to
prepare His way. How many men have had a forerunner
prepare the hearts of the people to receive them? Though I can’t
think of any, let’s say one in 1,000.
Zechariah 9:9
said Christ would make His triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a
donkey. How many of the great rulers of history
have made their triumphant entries on donkeys? I don’t know of
any others, but let’s say one in 1,000 again, to keep it
conservative. Most triumphant entries are made on
something like a majestic stallion or in a great chariot—certainly
not on donkeys. But Zechariah said, “Behold, thy King
cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly,
and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”
Zechariah also said He would be betrayed for thirty pieces
of silver by a friend (Zechariah 11:12). How many men in
history have been betrayed by a friend for exactly thirty
pieces of silver? Again, keeping our estimates low, let’s say
one in 10,000.
Then Zechariah 11:13 added
that the thirty pieces of silver would be used to buy a
potter’s field. What are the chances of that coincidence? Let’s
say one in 100,000, though I don’t know of any others in
history. Isaiah 53:7 says that, although He was innocent, He would
make no defense. How many innocent men refuse to
answer in their own defense when brought before a court? An
innocent man falsely accused wants everyone to know
about his innocence—that’s a natural reaction. Still
conservative, we’ll say only one man in 10,000 would be silent in
the face of false charges. Finally, Psalm 22 said that both His
hands and feet would be pierced. On the average,
how many men could you find with both hands and feet
pierced? We’ll say one in 10,000.
Multiplying these chance
factors according to the Law of Compound Probability, we
establish how many men we would have to look at
before we found one who met all eight stipulations. The number
of men would be 10 to the twenty-eighth power, or 10
followed by 28 zeroes. And ours were just conservative
estimates! (We can subtract the total estimated population factor
of 10 to the eleventh power, but that still makes the chance
factor one in 10 to the seventeenth power.)
If you had that many silver
dollars, you could cover the entire state of Texas with
a layer of silver dollars two feet thick—and Texas is a big
state! If you marked one of these silver dollars and let
someone roam through them blindfolded, his chance of coming up
with that marked silver dollar would be the same as
the chance of one person just happening to fulfill the
eight requirements laid out in the prophecies we looked at.
But there were over 300 stipulations contained in the
prophecies! Let’s examine the chance of 16 requirements being
fulfilled by one man.
Assuming the chance factors
for another eight prophecies would be fairly equal to
the factors of the prophecies we examined, there would be
one in 10 to the forty-fifth power, or 10 followed by 45
zeroes. This is a number so vast that if you had this many
silver dollars, you could make a ball of silver dollars
with a diameter which would be 30 times the distance from the
Earth to the Sun. Can you imagine marking one of these silver
dollars and letting some fellow dive into the pile
blindfolded? Can you imagine him grabbing the dollar you
marked, just by chance? The coincidence of this is the same as the
chance of Jesus fulfilling 16 of the prophetic
requirements, just by accident. And again, remember, He fulfilled over
300!
Increase the number to 48
requirements. Now the chance factor increases to one in
10 followed by 157 zeroes, a number so huge our minds
can’t really conceive it. There’s no way to make a ball this
size of silver dollars. Even if there were enough silver
dollars to make it, the universe is just too small. Let’s
compare the number to one of the smallest things we know—an
electron. If two and a half quintillion electrons were
placed single file, the line of them would only be an inch long.
That would be 2.5 x 10 to the fifteenth power. To count
these electrons would take one person nineteen million
years of counting day and night at the rate of 250 per
minute. Imagine how many electrons there are in a one inch
cube—two and a half quintillion times two and a half quintillion
times two and a half quintillion. To count that many would take 6,859,000,000,000,000,000,000 years!
Ten to the one hundred and
fifty-seventh power electrons make a solid ball the
estimated size of our universe, which has a radius of
approximately six billion light years. In fact, if you could go into mass
production and somehow start manufacturing these balls
at the rate of about five hundred per minute, you could go on
making them for six billion years (the estimated amount
of time that this universe has been in existence) and you
could do that 100,000,000,000 times over. Now if you
marked just one of the electrons you had used to make the balls
and asked someone to find it, the chance that it would be
found by random selection is the same chance that Jesus
had of fulfilling forty-eight of the requirements set forth
in prophecy just by accident. And Christ fulfilled over three
hundred!
That is why Peter said: I
was an eyewitness; I saw it all happen; I heard it all. But
if you don’t believe me, look at something more sure than
what I’ve seen and heard: evidence that is stronger than an
eyewitness account. Look at the evidence of God’s sure
word of prophecy fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
It’s
Time for Your Verdict!
In the prophecies
mentioned, I didn’t include Daniel 9:25, in which Daniel said:
“from the going forth of the commandment to restore and
to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be
[sixty-nine sevens]…” (or 483 years). Because Daniel was
computing with the Babylonian calendar, we refer to a
year with just 360 days, so it was 173,880 days from the time
of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to
the coming of the Messiah, according to Daniel’s prophecy.
Artaxerxes, the Persian king, was the one to command the
restoration of Jerusalem in the year 445 B.C. on March 14. We
know this because the Persian record has been preserved
by God so we can be sure of the exact date.
Starting then, on March 14,
445 B.C. and marking the next 173,880 days off the
calendar, we come to April 6, 32 A.D. This happened to be a
Sunday, the day that Jesus made His triumphant entry into
the city of Jerusalem.
Luke 19:41 tells us that
Jesus wept over Jerusalem that day as He beheld it. Now
how many men made a triumphant entry into the city of
Jerusalem that day? Just one man, the one who fulfilled
this and all of the other prophecies concerning the Messiah…Jesus
Christ!
Now you must make your
decision based on the evidence set out for you. Jesus
asked, “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?” (Matthew
22:42). Now you must answer that important question.
If your verdict is: “Yes,
Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah,” then you should
make Him the Lord of your life. There is something
very interesting about your decision concerning Jesus Christ.
Though you are the judge, what you conclude will not
change HIS destiny at all. Your decision determines your destiny
because you will eventually be judged by your decision
concerning Jesus Christ. He is what He is, whether you
believe it or not.
John said, “And this is the
record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11–12).
It’s time for your verdict.
You have examined the evidence. What will you do with Jesus
who is called the Christ?
Taken from the chapter "The More Sure Word"
in the book "Answers for Today"
by Pastor Chuck Smith.
For further study:
https://jewsforjesus.org/answers/top-40-most-helpful-messianic-prophecies/
https://bible.org/article/messianic-prophecies
https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog-and-stories/old-testament-prophecies.html
https://christiananswers.net/dictionary/messianicprophecies.html
https://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/eastman_mark/
https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_234.cfm
by Pastor Chuck Smith.
For further study:
https://jewsforjesus.org/answers/top-40-most-helpful-messianic-prophecies/
https://bible.org/article/messianic-prophecies
https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog-and-stories/old-testament-prophecies.html
https://christiananswers.net/dictionary/messianicprophecies.html
https://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/eastman_mark/
https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_234.cfm