12/25/2024
Merry Christmas to all of our ranch friends and family! Here is a little food for thought! It's long but SO worth the read! We believe because the proof is too strong not too! Have a wonderful day!
HOW SURE CAN WE BE THAT JESUS IS WHO HE SAID HE IS?
These scriptures - in print and circulated well before the time Christ - contain more than three hundred prophecies detailing the coming Messiah; and all of them were fulfilled in the first century A.D. Let's consider some examples; say, just the ones that are quoted in the New Testament as being fulfilled by Jesus.
*He was to be of David's family - 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Matthew 1:1
*He would be born of a virgin - Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23
*He would be born in Bethlehem - Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6
*He would sojourn in Egypt - Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:15
*He would minister in Galilee and in Nazareth - Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:12-17
*He would be announced in advance by an Elijah-type herald - Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 3:1; Mark 1:2-3
*He would occasion the massacre of Bethlehem’s children - Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18
*His mission would include the Gentiles - Isaiah 42:6; Luke 2:32
*His ministry would be one of healing - Isaiah 35:5-6; Matthew 12:10-14; Mark 7:32-35, 10:51
*He would teach through the use of parables - Ezekiel 20:49; Matthew 13:3
*He would be disbelieved and rejected by the religious rulers of that period - Psalm 118:22; Matthew 21:12-13
*He would make a triumphal entry into Jerusalem - Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:6-9
*He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of sliver - Zechariah 11:12; Matthew 26:15;
*He would be smitten like a shepherd and His sheep scattered - Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 26:31
*He would be given vinegar and gall, and they would cast lots for His garments - Psalm 22:18, 69:21; Matthew 27:34; John 19:23-24
*He would be pierced - Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34
*Not a bone of His would be broken - Exodus 12:46; Psalm 34:20; John 19:33, 36.
*He would die among criminals - Isaiah 53:12; Mark 15:28
*He would be buried by a rich man - Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57-60
*He would rise from the dead on the third day - Psalm 16:10; Johan 1:17; Luke 24:6-7
*His resurrection would be followed by the destruction of Jerusalem - Daniel 9:26; Matthew 24:2
There are many more; but these give us a sampling of the kinds of prophecies that were specifically fulfilled in Christ. Now, let’s look at the probabilities of these just being random or “man made.”
What is the probability that one person could fulfill even just eight of these simultaneously? To do this properly, we need to have a feeling for what is called “compost probabilities.”
If a population has 60% Male and 40% Female, what is the probability that one taken at random is female? Let’s assume we have a room of one hundred people; 60 percent of the people in the room are male and 40 percent of the people are female. If one was blind folded and was to pick just one person out of the crown at random, was then is the probability that one would pick a female? If the people were uniformly mixed together, the probability is 40 percent that one would have picked a female. If a population is 60 percent right handed and 40 percent left handed, what is the probability that one taken at random is left handed? If those attributes are uniformly distributed, what is the probability that one would randomly pick a left handed person our of the crowd? Again, the probability is 40%. Now, let’s consider a composite probability. If someone is blind folded and was to choose just one person at random out of those on hundred, what is the probability one would choose a left handed female? To figure that out, we take the one distribution of 40 percent left handed people, and the distribution, which is 40 percent females, and multiple them together, resulting in a probability of 16 percent. In other words, the way we get the composite estimate of probability is to multiply the probabilities of distribution or occurrence. (There are added factors of advanced statistics that would indicate the probability wold be a little rarer, but this simple formula will do for our purposes.)
Let’s take this principle of composite probity to just eight prophecies concerning Jesus the Messiah. Since we’ve used powers of 10, it’s easy to multiply our probabilities together. Using this simple formula, and taking just eight prophecies together with the very generous levels of probability we’ve allowed each one, we arrive at a composite probability for all eight prophecies of 1 in 10 to the 28. That’s 10 with 28 zeros following it. To be entirely realistic we should divide that by the total population during the past two thousand years, which will liberally estimate at 100 billion (10 to the 11). When we do that, we arrive at the generous composite probability of 1 in 10 to the 17. To try to get a feeling for a particular statistic or probability lie “one in one hundred” is to imagine a bucket with one hundred silver dollars in it. We then imagine taking of of those silver dollar, marking it, then putting it back in and mixing it all up. So then the bucket contains ninety nine unmarked silver dollars, and one marked silver dollar. The chance of reaching in and randomly selecting the one marked silver dollar is one in one hundred. In regard to just eight messianic prophecies of Jesus, we have a probability of 1 in 10 to the 17. So what we need to do is get a bucket and put 10 to the 17 silver dollars in there. The problem is that it would have to be a pretty big bucket. In fact, what we would need is a bucket the size of the state of Texas, which we can then fill with silver dollars to depth of two feet. In other words, the chance of one person fulfilling just eight prophecies is equivalent to marking on silver dollar with an X, putting it in a bucket the size of Texas with unmarked silver dollars standing two feet feet deep, mixing them up in such a way that the married coin could be anywhere, and then reaching back in at random and drawing out that marked silver dollar. AND the probability of one person fulfilling ALL of the prophecies is a marked silver dollar that is mixed in with enough silver dollars that have enough radius to go around the earth AND the sun. I
You see, I don’t believe a fairy tale. I believe that the creator of the universe is who HE says HE is!
