Soul Harvest Ministries of Minnesota
Online Bible KJV
Community Discussion Board
Contact Us
61 directly fulfilled
Science speaks
|
What significance does fulfilled prophecy have in establishing that the bible was inspired by God? It is the mathematical improbability of all these predictions coming true, it's beyond explanation. Remember these were predicted 250 years or more before they came to pass. Thus, revealing the Divine intellect behind these prophecies.
There are many prophecies predicted in the bible, but let's begin with just the prophecies dealing with the coming of Jesus Christ. There are 332 old-testament prophecies predicting His coming. The old-testament was completed 450 years before Jesus was born. Some might argue these dates, so for arguments sake, we know the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) was initiated in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphia (285-246 B.C.), which leaves it at least 250 years before Jesus was born.
Peter Stoner wrote Science speaks in which he did a mathematical analysis of the prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. Using the principles of probability he studied the 61 prophecies directly fulfilled by Him (He fulfilled a total of 332), and came to the conclusion that coincidence is ruled out as a possibility in these prophecies coming to pass in one man. Before we look at some of his findings its important to remember that many other similar attempts have been made in which they came to the same conclusion. Often these individuals started as atheist or agnostics and as a result of their findings became Christians. Lee Strobel who wrote Case for Christ is another such individual. Also, I'm sure there are many who believe this is a biased opinion, but let me assure you Science speaks was carefully reviewed by a committee of American Scientific Affiliation. In their findings they stated Stoner's research was dependable and accurate.
Stoner took eight prophecies initially and found the probability of Jesus fulfilling those 8 and found it to be 10 to the 17th power. To put it into terms most of us can grasp. It would be like covering the entire ground of Texas two feet high with silver dollars. You mark one silver dollar and stir the whole mass. Afterwards blind fold someone and send them into Texas and they must find the one you marked. This was just 8 of the 61 He fulfilled. The probability of 48 was 10 to the 157 power! Now remember a total of 332 where fulfilled by Jesus, not to mention all the other prophecies in the bible. Clearly this wasn't by chance, and it leaves us with only one conclusion God was behind these prophecies and the bible they are recorded in.
|
|
