Old Testament prophecies and their New Testament fulfillment by Jesus Christ: Also See Section Old Testament Prophecy
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The following probabilities are
taken from Peter Stoner in Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) to show that
coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner says that by
using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophecies, we
find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time
and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in ten to the 17th power." That
would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help us comprehend this
staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that "we take ten
to the seventeenth power 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."
Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, "we find the chance that any one
man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in ten to the 157th power, or 1 in
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000."
The estimated number of electrons in the universe is around ten to the
seventy-ninth power. It should be quite evident that Jesus did not fulfill
the prophecies by accident. He was who He said He was: the only way (John
14:6)....
It is due to the evidence presented here that I believe God exists and
Christianity to be the only true religion, and why I cannot accept as
rational the idea that one religion is just as good as another. Jesus is who
He claimed to be, and He proved this by fulfilling prophecy and rising from
the dead...