In my last post I wrote about the sermon I was preaching this weekend.  As I write this post, it is Sunday morning and I am in a “holding pattern.” I am transitioning from studying and preparing myself to waiting. I thought I would share something that really struck me as I studied.

There are several reasons why we can trust God’s Word to be authoritative. One of those is fulfilled prophecy. I’d like to comment on that in this post.

I once had a man who was trying to defend his unbelief. When I asked Ken about Jesus and the fulfilled prophecy in His life, Ken’s answer was classic.  He said, “He was just the right man born at the right time and in the right place.” I wasn’t very knowledgeable at the time (and still have a huge lack in that department) and so my answer was simple: “Seriously? All those prophecies and one man filled them all in just the right time and just the right place?” Since then I have learned more. (Good thing since my answer was so weak). Here is just one thing I have found out:

There were 55 OT prophecies He alone fulfilled. One mathematics professor studied just 8 specific prophecies and his research was staggering. Just 8 prophecies and he found the possibility of one person fulfilling just those 8 was 1 in 10 with 17 zeroes. In a journal called Science Speaks this man said, “Suppose that we take 10 with 17 zeroes and had that put into 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 these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.”

That sort of puts it all into a different light doesn’t it?  Which is harder to accept-that Jesus was Who He said He was or that He was a man born at the right time and in the right place and just happened to fulfill the prophecies? I know where I will stake my sword.  And you?