Ah, gee, I butted in, did I? Prophecies, FYI, are not open to interpretation, either they are proven true or false.
Seriously, a prophecy fulfilled is a prediction "thrown at a wall hoping it will stick"??? Want to talk about odds? OK. What are the odds of one man fulfilling even one prophecy, let alone 8, or more importantly, 414?
Professor of mathematics Peter Stoner gave 600 students a math probability problem that would determine the odds for one person fulfilling eight specific prophecies. (This is not the same as flipping a coin eight times in a row and getting heads each time.) First the students calculated the odds of one person fulfilling all the conditions of one specific prophecy, such as being betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver. Then the students did their best to estimate the odds for all of the eight prophecies combined.
The students calculated that the odds against one person fulfilling all eight prophecies are astronomical-one in ten to the 21st power. To illustrate that number, Stoner gave the following example: “First, blanket the entire Earth land mass with silver dollars 120 feet high. Second, specially mark one of those dollars and randomly bury it. Third, ask a person to travel the Earth and select the marked dollar, while blindfolded, from the trillions of other dollars."
People can do some pretty squishy things with numbers, so it’s important to note that Stoner’s work was reviewed by the American Scientific Association, which stated, “The mathematical analysis … is based upon principles of probability which are thoroughly sound, and Professor Stoner has applied these principles in a proper and convincing way."
Setting aside the thousands of prophetic passages in the OT (which I certainly refuse to "interpret" for you), let's consider just the Messianic prophecies. The seed of the Messianic prophecies was planted 40 centuries before Jesus was born, the last came 3 centuries before. When you synthesize them into a coherent whole, they tell of the man who would announce His coming, they tell of His birth, where He would be born, to whom, and under what circumstances; they tell of His mission on earth and His ministry, and how He and His teachings would be received; they tell of His betrayal and how much money the betrayer would receive; they tell of His arrest, who would arrest Him and why, they tell of His scourging, and crucifixion, they tell us how long His body would be entombed and when He was resurrected, and that He would remain on earth 40 days.
And, all this 3 to 40 centuries before He came.
Some years ago, United States Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson wrote:
"The fact is, the birth, crucifixion, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ are celebrated worldwide by folk of every race, language, and color, every year. And believing in Jesus, they have been delivered from the most evil, disastrous, frustrating, debilitating habits and life styles possible. The real problem with Jesus Christ is not that folk can't believe in Him—but that they won't believe in Him."
Ah, gee, I butted in, did I? Prophecies, FYI, are ... (
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