Probability

Most of us find the whole concept of mathematical probability quite daunting. But simply put, probability just means how likely something is to happen.

We can also describe probability as odds, for instance the odds of your being struck by lightning on any given day are one in 250 million, making it quite a rare occurrence.

There is an event in the Bible that mathematicians have calculated to be (humanly speaking) impossible to arrive at, and yet it happened! It concerns 60 major prophecies made concerning the Messiah, and all being fulfilled in the life of one man, Jesus Christ. These prophecies were penned 500-700 years before His birth.

I will give only four of these as examples: Micah 5:2 designated Bethlehem to be the birthplace of the Messiah. Isaiah 7:14 says that he would be born of a virgin. Ps 22:16 prophecies that His hands and feet would be pierced. Malachi 3:1 mentions that Messiah would live contemporary to the temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed in 70 AD.

The probability of Jesus of Nazareth fulfilling only eight of these 60 prophecies was calculated as being 1 in , that is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000! (calculations vouched for by the American Scientific Affiliation). If we add all the other prophecies to the equation as well, it is clearly not humanly possible to manipulate the outcome to let them all converge in the life of one man. It can only be explained by knowing that God supernaturally gave the prophets future knowledge about the details of the life of Jesus, who is the Messiah.

The following two passages also illustrate this: Zechariah describing his vision in Zech 11:12-13 So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. This was written some 500 years before Christ.

Compare this with Matthew 27:3-7, written 500 years later, after Jesus’ death and resurrection:  ³ When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ⁴ “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”⁵ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.⁶ The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” ⁷ So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners.

Points to ponder: Do the scientifically proven calculations above, and the accuracy of the prophecies given hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus (as proven by history), convince you that the baby born in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago was not just an ordinary human baby, but Jesus Christ the Messiah?