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Does Prophecy Confirm Jesus as Messiah?

The Old Testament contains some three hundred prophecies that Jesus fulfilled during His coming. The number varies among scholars, but whatever the exact number, it is huge.

To help us understand the significance of Jesus’s fulfillment of these prophecies, Peter Stoner in his book Science Speaks offers this well-known example. Stoner hypothetically figures what the chances are of Jesus fulfilling only eight prophecies. Even if Jesus fulfilled only eight prophecies, Stoner claims that the odds of this happening are 1 in 1017 power. That would be 1 chance in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (17 zeros after 1), a number so mindboggling it’s impossible to grasp apart from an illustration. Stoner provides one by having us envision 1017 silver dollars spread out over the entire state of Texas. The silver dollars would cover the state of Texas two feet deep. Now mark one of the silver dollars and stir them all up. Then blindfold a man and tell him he can go wherever he wishes, but he’s allowed to pick only one silver dollar out of the mass of silver dollars covering the state. What are the chances of him picking up the marked silver dollar? The same chance that the prophets had of writing out just eight prophecies that would be fulfilled in Jesus. Astonishing! If that’s not convincing, I’m not sure what is.

This not only validates Jesus as the Messiah, but it also gives credence to the credibility of God’s inspired Word. If the odds of fulfilling eight prophecies seem staggering, imagine the math on roughly three hundred prophecies.

Question to Consider

How can learning some of these prophecies both encourage your faith and make you more effective in sharing the Gospel with non-believers?