The Mathematical Probabilities of Eight Specific Messianic Prophecies

There are more than three hundred prophecies detailing the coming Messiah and all of them where fulfilled in the first century A.D.  Let us consider some of them in details and try to estimate their mathematical probabilities as we go.

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out ot thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2).

This first one is familiar to most of us.  There are many amazing things hidden in this verse -- not just that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem, but that He preexisted from eternity past.  However, the point we want to extract here is simply that the Messiah clearly would be born in Bethlehem.

The probability of somebody being born in Bethlehem over the past two thousand years should be about 1:100,000.  Taking a look at the world and start in the Middle east, then Israel, then the Jerusalem region, then south of Jerusalem into Bethlehem.  We are looking for the probability that somebody we might meet over a period of 2,000 years would have been born in Bethlehem.

Using round numbers and staying conservative, let's assume that the population of Bethlehem is less than 10,000.  Let us assume that the average world population at any point in time over the past two thousand years is something in the region of a billion people.  So the probability that someone picked at random would be from Bethlehem is something in the region of one chance in 100,000.  And that is a generous estimate.

so much for the three hundred plus prophecies. The name 'Jesus' was not even mentioned in one. No wonder the jews are still expecting their messiah

the_seeker:

so much for the three hundred plus prophecies. The name 'Jesus' was not even mentioned in one. No wonder the jews are still expecting their messiah

Check these out.

Messianic Prophecies in the Bible Fulfilled .

He was to be of David's family -- 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Matthew 1:1

He would be born of a virgin -- Isaiah 7;14; Matthew 1:23

He would be born in Bethlehem -- Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6

He would sojourn in Egypt -- Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2;15

He would minister in Galilee and in Nazareth -- Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:12-17

He would be announed in advance by an Elijah-type herald -- Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 3:1; Mark 1:2-3.

He would occasion the massacre of Bethlehem's children -- Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18.

His mission would include the Gentiles -- Isaiah 42:6; Luke 2:32.

His ministry would be one of healing -- Isaiah 35:5-6; Matthew 12:10; Mark 7:32-35; 10:51.

He would teach through the use of parables -- Ezekiel 20:49; Matthew 13:3.

He would be disbelieved and rejected by the religious rulers of that period -- Psalms 118:22; Matthew 21:12-13.

He would make a triumphal entry into Jerusalem -- Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:6-9

He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver -- Zechariah 11:12; Matthew 26:15.

He would be smitten like a shepherd and His sheep scattered -- Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 26:31.

He would be given vinegar and gall, and they would cast lots for His garments -- Psalm 22:18; 69:21; Matt.27:34; Jn.19:23-24.

He would be pierced -- Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34.

Not a bone of His would be broken -- Exodus 14:26; Psalm 34:20; John 19:33,36.

He would die among criminals -- Isaiah 53:12; Mark 15:28.

He would be buried by a rich man -- Isaiah 53:12; Matthew 27:57-60.

He would rise from the dead on the third day -- Psalm 16:10; Jonah 1:17; Luke 24:6-7.

His resurrection would be followed by the destruction of Jerusalem -- Daniel 9:26; Matthew 24:2.

i do not deny that some of these phophecies apply to him. Nor do i deny his messaniship. My question is, why is the name jesus not mentioned in any of these countless phophecies? Why didnt the jews accept him despite all these phophecies recored in their OT and still call him an imposter till date? Have u ever read the thalmud? I dont dare repeat the filthy things they wrote about him.

the_seeker:

i do not deny that some of these phophecies apply to him. Nor do i deny his messaniship. My question is, why is the name jesus not mentioned in any of these countless phophecies? Why didnt the jews accept him despite all these phophecies recored in their OT and still call him an imposter till date? Have u ever read the thalmud? I dont dare repeat the filthy things they wrote about him.

Havent you heard of Jews for Jesus? Jews for Jesus is a group of Jewish people who are perpetuating the Messiaship of Jesus Christ. Who knows if they are the ones to perpetuate the Gospel in the endtimes?

that is not the point. There is a similar group called jews for islam.
It is expected that in at least one of these countless prophecies we hear something like 'he shall be called jesus'. These prophecies can be made to fit anybody.

If you torture data sufficiently enough, it will confess to almost anything
Fred manger

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass" (Zechariah 9:9).

This example is a well known prophecy and famous verse because Jesus deliberately fulfilled it in the triumphal entry.  However, the question here is, "How many people throughout history have presented themselves as king in Jerusalem, riding on a donkey?" Do you have any idea?  If I said less than one in a hundred, that would be more than safe.  Let's take that figure: less than one in a hundred people have presented themselves as a king in Jerusalem, riding on a donkey.

"If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear.  So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver" (Zechariah 11:12).

Let's consider this little phrase from God in Zechariah.  Most of us are aware of the fact that this is the precise amount that Jesus was betrayed for by Judas Iscariot.  The question, then, is, "How many people throughout history have been betrayed for precisely thirty pieces of silver?"  I don't happen to know of any others, do you?  If we say less than one in a thousand, we would be well within the limits of reason.

do you u know there were lots of would be messiahs before and after jesus?
Though the second phophecy fit him like a crown, it still does not exclude other possibilities. Many others are vague and could easily other people. And imposter could easily act up to fit these phophecies. I could simply ride an ass and a colt to jerusalem and claim to be king of jews. Does that make me the messiah?

It is aslo obvious that the writers of the gospels manipulated it so that jesus would fit these phopehcies. Read your bible well and u will see the the verse where jesus entered jeruslam stated that he 'mounted on them' (both the cole and the ass). The only place where somthing like that happens in the circus. The is strong evidence that the writers of the gospel commited a blunder in a desperate attempt to make him fit the phophecy by making him ride a colt and an ass at the same time

The only phopecy where a name was mentioned was actually never fulfilled. 'a virgin shall beget a son and he shall be called EMMANUEL.
i want you to show me any where in the bible where jesus was chritianed or ever called Emmanuel by anbody. this was an impasse for he gospel writer cos it was impossible to change his name

the_seeker:

do you u know there were lots of would be messiahs before and after jesus?
Though the second phophecy fit him like a crown, it still does not exclude other possibilities. Many others are vague and could easily other people. And imposter could easily act up to fit these phophecies. I could simply ride an backside and a colt to jerusalem and claim to be king of jews. Does that make me the messiah?

Can you name any other person who fits all of the messianic prophecies of the OT who lived before A.D. 70?  If you are patient enough we will see by the use of composite probabilities to see how we arrive at a conclusive answer.

the_seeker:

It is aslo obvious that the writers of the gospels manipulated it so that jesus would fit these phopehcies. Read your bible well and u will see the the verse where jesus entered jeruslam stated that he 'mounted on them' (both the cole and the backside). The only place where somthing like that happens in the circus. The is strong evidence that the writers of the gospel commited a blunder in a desperate attempt to make him fit the phophecy by making him ride a colt and an backside at the same time

If you had been a Bible student and an astute scholar of the English Language you would have understood that it was prophecied that it meant that He would ride on a donkey's colt.

the_seeker:

The only phopecy where a name was mentioned was actually never fulfilled. 'a virgin shall beget a son and he shall be called EMMANUEL.
i want you to show me any where in the bible where jesus was chritianed or ever called Emmanuel by anbody. this was an impasse for he gospel writer cos it was impossible to change his name

"Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." -- Matthew 1:22-23

Does the verses above shed more light?

"And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them.  And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD" (Zechariah 11:13).

This verse immediately follows the previous prophecy, and it gives additional details to the account.  We now know that Judas, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood."  And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.  And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:3-5).

The 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas ended up on the Temple floor.  What happened next was that "the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.  And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in." -- (Matthew 27:6-7).  The priests couldn't put that type of money into the treasury, because that would violate the law.  But they decided they could use the cash to prepay some expenses.  If a stranger died in Jerusalem, the Temple was responsible to take care of the funeral and burial arrangements.  And since there happened to be a potter's field that was being offered at a bargains price at the time, they took the cash and bought the field as a place in which to bury strangers.

If you are observant to details you will notice the price of 30 pieces of silver; the transaction that took place in the Temple; and the potter who owns the field ended up with the cash.  Now tell me, what the probability is, that all of these details would be fulfilled by chance?  A conservative bible scholar would give it one in a million, but certainly the chances would not be better than one in 100,000.

the_seeker:

do you u know there were lots of would be messiahs before and after jesus?
Though the second phophecy fit him like a crown, it still does not exclude other possibilities. Many others are vague and could easily other people. And imposter could easily act up to fit these phophecies. I could simply ride an ass and a colt to jerusalem and claim to be king of jews. Does that make me the messiah?

Lol, @the_seeker. There might be a simple way to sort out this issue. Conjectures of 'lots of. . . other possibilities. . . other people' etc. do not help your point, not least because you don't seem to have been able to fit any of such possibilities into those prophecies.

Look again at what OLAADEGBU has proffered for his answers as to Christ fulfilling those OT prophecies: he did not just make a flat statement, but he rather went ahead to share some line-by-line delineation of what he meant. That being so, you can take up a specific figure of your choice among those 'other possibilities', then demonstrate the same thing for your chosen figure as OLAADEGBU has outlined for Christ in post#130, and present it for his (and our) consideration(s). I think that would be far more effective than the previous ways you have tried to set forth your persuasions.

The christian god was beaten, spat and slap by his enemy, see mathew 26:67 hahahaha. Is this ur god ?

OLAADEGBU:

Can you name any other person who fits all of the messianic prophecies of the OT who lived before A.D. 70?  If you are patient enough we will see by the use of composite probabilities to see how we arrive at a conclusive answer.

If you had been a Bible student and an astute scholar of the English Language you would have understood that it was prophecied that it meant that He would ride on a donkey's colt.

"Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." -- Matthew 1:22-23

Does the verse above shed more light?

i cannot name anybody that fits these prophecies the same way the jews never believe jesus fits these prophecies as well


like u rigthly said i am not an english scholar but cant pull over my eyes. I am quoting the verse for you again and want u to prove with all your scholarhip that it does not mean a colt and an ass.
'lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass'
how did jesus ride on both an ass and a colt at the same time. An obvious blunder by gospel writers in an attempt to make him fit the prophecies

you keep exposing urself. The verse that you quoted shows another desperate attempt by mathew to fit jesus with the prophecy of 'a child to be called by name EMMANUEL'. Where in the bible was he ever called emmanuel by anyone. If you study the gospels clearly you see a common pattern by the gospel writers - 'so that it may be fulfilled'. This alway preceeds a convolusion of the story to fit a paticular  prophecy

the_seeker:

i cannot name anybody that fits these prophecies the same way the jews never believe jesus fits these prophecies as well

Well, does it not make the point already? If you cannot name anybody that fit those prophecies, then perhaps your inference of other possibilities may not be taken seriously - for now, at least.

However, I don't think your assertion in bold can be left unqualified. There are indeed many Jews that believe Jesus fits those prophecies - for they would not believe Him to be the Messiah if they ignored those prophecies in the first place. True, it is not all the Jews that believe in Jesus; but even so, it cannot be said that "the Jews" never believed Jesus fitted those prophecies.

the_seeker:

i cannot name anybody that fits these prophecies the same way the jews never believe jesus fits these prophecies as well

I couldn't have answered you any better than viaro did. If only you are a truth seeker you will take viaro's advice that he suggested earlier.

the_seeker:

like u rigthly said i am not an english scholar but cant pull over my eyes. I am quoting the verse for you again and want u to prove with all your scholarhip that it does not mean a colt and an ass.
'lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass'
how did jesus ride on both an ass and a colt at the same time. An obvious blunder by gospel writers in an attempt to make him fit the prophecies

It will be worthwhile comparing scripture with scripture to come to the understanding of a verse you don't understand. All the gospel writers covered Jesus fulfilling this prophecy (See Matt. 21:4-5; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:28-40; John 12:12-16). There you will come to the understanding that Jesus came "riding on a donkey - even on a donkey's colt." That is, He rode to Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey (John 12:12-15; Matt. 21:2-7) which in my opinion is the best supporting role any animal can have when you compare it to "talking through the ass" which was to Balaam's embarrassment.

The phrase: "foal of an ass" is a terminology that indicates that the ass on which the Messiah would ride is not broken, for it was still following its mother. And when the time came, the unbroken ass willingly obeyed its Creator. "Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him."

the_seeker:

you keep exposing urself. The verse that you quoted shows another desperate attempt by mathew to fit jesus with the prophecy of 'a child to be called by name EMMANUEL'. Where in the bible was he ever called emmanuel by anyone. If you study the gospels clearly you see a common pattern by the gospel writers - 'so that it may be fulfilled'. This alway preceeds a convolusion of the story to fit a paticular prophecy

Immanuel is a Hebrew male name that means "God with us." It appears only twice in the OT and once in the NT. The OT Immanuel is a prophecy of the birth of Christ, the Messiah, as shown in the Gospel of Matthew. This is a clear example of the law of prophetic perspective, where a prophet sees more than one event at the same time, like one standing on a high hill would see many peaks in the distance without seeing the valleys between them. An astute bible student will recognise this when reading many prophetic passages and come to a better understanding of what the end result would be.

Jesus fulfilled the use of Immanuel "God with us", He was also called Jesus, Holy, the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh etc. He was unique in that He was both God and Man. He told His disciples that where two or three gathered in His name, He would be there (Matt.18:20). Before His ascension, He assured them that He would be with them until the end of age (Matt.28:20). He also spoke of the promise of the Holy Spirit, "who lives with you now and later will be in you" (John 14:17), who will abide with them forever (John 14:16). The concept of "God with us" is also spoken of in (Colossians 1:27) "Christ lives in you." At the end of all things, as shown in the book of Revelation, the Lord said: "Look, the home of God is now among His people. God Himself will be with them" (Rev.21:3). I hope you can now see how Jesus fulfilled the name Immanuel which expresses the truth of the Lord's presence.

Let's continue from where we stopped as we are trying to use composite probabilities to see how Jesus Christ fulfilled these prophecies.

"And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends" -- Zechariah 13:6

The fact that Jesus was wounded in His hands, how many people in the world during the past 2,000 years have been wounded in their hands? If we say less than one in a thousand, we would be making a generous allowance.

"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before he shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth" (Isaiah 53:7).

How many prisoners accused of a capital crime make no defense even though they are innocent? I suspect if we scan the courts records of history, we could find someone, maybe even a few, who were accused of a capital crime, facing the death penalty, and yet made no defense. But if we say conservatively that certainly less than one in a thousand have done so, again it would be more than generous.

"And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth" (Isaiah 53:9).

His grave is with the wicked, and yet He is with the rich in his death. So based on that we might ask, how many people have died among the wicked, but were buried among the rich? Again, we can say less than one in a thousand and be well within reason.

"For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and feet" (Psalm 22:16).

Finally, let's take one more, this time from Psalms.  This reads as though it was dictated in the first person singular as Jesus hung on the cross, even though it was written 800 years earlier.  Let's pick just one of the phrases there: "they pierced my hands and my feet." What makes this remarkable is that it was written by David 700 years before crucifixion was even invented!  The form of capital punishment in Israel used to be by stoning and not crucifixion.  Crucifixion was invented by the Persians about 90 B.C. and was adopted heavily by the Romans.  But here, 800 years before the fact, all of Psalm 22 graphically portays crucifixion.  In fact, there have been articles in the American Medical Association Journal based on Psalm 22 analysing the medical cause of death by crucifixion.

Therefore, how many people taken at random have died by having their hands and feet pierced in crucifixion?  A lot of people probably have, but if I propose that less than one in 10,000 people have been killed by a crucifixon - like method, that would be generous.

Messianic Prophecies in the Bible Fulfilled

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? -- Psalms 22:1

Jesus' words recorded in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 were the fulfilment of David's prophecy in Psalm 22:1 above.  Verse 3 of Psalm 22 then gives us an insight into why God forsook Jesus on the cross: "But You are holy . ."  A holy Creator cannot have fellowship with sin.  When Jesus was on the cross, the sin of the entire world was laid on Him (Isaiah 53:6; 2 Cor.5:21), only God could do this.  The Bible says God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity" Habakkuk 1:13

Messianic Prophecies in the Bible Fulfilled (Contd.)

The fulfilment of prophecies in the Bible is one of the proofs that the Bible's origin is extra-terrestial. Read the whole of Psalm 22 and you will see that the Messianic prophecy was clearly fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. See John 19:28,29; Luke 23:35; and Matthew 27:35. In Psalms 22:6-18 alone, you will see a graphic description of the Messiah on the cross.

He was aware of their scorn (in verse 6-7)

He could hear the mocking words (in verse 8 )

He was praying (in verses 9-13)

The strain of crucifixion pulled His bones out of joint (verse 14)

Loss of blood made His heart feel as though it were melting (verse 14)

His strength completely left Him (v. 15)

Thirst caused His tongue to adhere to His mouth (v. 15)

They pierced His hands and feet (v. 16)

He could see them gambling for His clothes (v. 18)

These Messianic allusions constitutes irrefutable testimony to the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, especially when crucifixion had not been invented, and this explains why cults and false religions will be used by Satan to fight against Christians and the Bible.

OLAADEGBU, I have been responding from my fone and it is quite tiresome having to type out adequate reponse to your post. I shall defer my response till weekend when i will get my laptop back. Then we will do proper anatomy of these prophecies

@the_seeker,

Let me refer you to an article posted in the Nairaland Christian e-fellowship some time last month, as it addresses your concern.

OLAADEGBU:

Zechariah's Strange Prophecy
September 7, 2009

"All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." (Matthew 21:4-5)

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an unbroken donkey colt on that momentous first day of the week, just a week before His resurrection, the multitudes quickly recognised that He was fulfilling an ancient prophecy and thereby specifically claiming to be their long-awaited Messiah.  The prophecy was that of Zechariah 9:9, and the people in turn began to fulfill David’s even more ancient prophecy, laying palm branches in His path, and crying out: "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD" (Psalm 118:26).

This is one of the few events in the life of Christ that are recorded in all four gospels, though only Matthew notes it as the fulfillment of prophecy.  And what a strange prophecy it was! One would think that the anticipated King would come riding on a great white horse, ready to put down all His enemies (and indeed He shall do exactly that some day--see Revelation 19:11).

But here He comes riding on a colt, the foal of an ass, not high and mighty, but meek and lowly! Ah, but as Zechariah prophesied, He comes "just, and having salvation" (Zechariah 9:9).  And the salvation He was bringing was not deliverance from Roman subjugation, but eternal deliverance from sin and its awful wages.

These same multitudes which hailed Him soon were following their high priest in clamoring for His crucifixion. Nevertheless He someday will fulfill Zechariah’s later prophecy: "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him" (Zechariah 12:10).  Then, finally, indeed, "the LORD shall be king over all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9). HMM

Guess what He will be riding on at His Second Coming.

[flash=600,500]http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/yWSATpx7uzk&hl=en&fs=1&[/flash]

Are you ready?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmLhyPjHVes&hl=en&fs=1

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

-- 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

Composite Probabilities

Now that we've reviewed a few prophecies concerning Jesus and offered a few cautious estimates concerning the probabilities on some of them.  The question now is this:  What is the probability that one particular person could fulfill all of these simultaneously?  Composite probabilities will go a long way to do this properly.

For illustration purposes, if a population has 60% male and 40% female, what is the probability that one taken at random is female?  The answer should be 40%, or p = 0.4

If a population is 60% right-handed and 40% left-handed, what is the probability that one taken at random is left-handed?  This will be 40%, or p = 0.4

Let's take another Characteristic of this crowd.  If 60% of those one hundred people are right-handed, and 40% are left-handed and if those attributes are uniformly distributed, what is the probability that one would randomly pick a left-handed person out of the crowd?  Again, mathematicians will tell you that the probability is 40%.

Now, let's consider what is called a composite probability.  What is the probability of selecting a left-handed female?  This would be p = 0.4 x 0.4 = .16

This means that if someone was blindfolded and was to choose just one person at random out of those 100, the probability one would choose a left-handed female would be that we take one distribution of 40% females, and multiply them together which will result in a probability of 16%.

Let's take this principle of composite probability to eight of the Messianic prophecies.  Since we've used powers of 10, it is easy to multiply our probabilities together.  Using this simple formula, and taking all 8 prophecies together with the very generous levels of probability that we've allowed each one, we arrive at a composite probability for all 8 prophecies of 1 in 10²⁸.  We then divide that by the total population during the past 2,000 years, which we will liberally estimate at 100 billion (10¹¹).  When we do that, we arrive at a generous composite probability of 1 in 10¹⁷.

This means that in regard to these 8 prophecies of Jesus, we have a probability of 1 in 10¹⁷.  The chance of one person fulfilling those 8 prophecies is pretty unlikely.  We have to bear in mind that we have more than 8 prophecies that fulfilled in Jesus, in fact, more than 300 prophecies to choose from.  If we add another 8 and realise that the more prophecies we choose, the more technical and specific each selection would become, that is, the more rare they will be in terms of probability.  Let's assume that that the next 8 prophecies are no more rare, or less likely, than the first 8.  Assuming there is no decrease in likelihood, we'll multiply 10²⁸ by 10²⁸, which would be equal to 10⁵⁶.  We then divide by the world population over the past 2,000 years (10¹¹), so we now have a composite probability of 10⁴⁵ that we have to deal with.  The chance of one person fulfilling the prophecies is now 1 in 10⁴⁵.

For a final example, let's triple our sample: let's take 48 prophecies.  We should remember that we still have over 300 prophecies to choose from, so we still haven't scratched the surface.  We will still continue in the assumption that even with the more complex prophecies there is no decrease in likelihood, which is actually not the case at all.  But even so, we now have 10²⁸, multiplied by itself 6 times.  That turns out to be 10¹⁶⁸, but we must divide by the population figure of 10¹¹, so we end up with 10¹⁵⁷.  This is a greater probability than the probability of one person in history fulfilling only 48 of the more than 300 prophecies of the Old Testament that Jesus did fulfill.  This pattern was suggested by Peter Stoner in his book, Science Speaks.

Going through this list of specific and complex prophecies, we haven't included some of the most unlikely prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, such as the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, or that astonishing prophecy in Daniel which was more than 400 years before Christ, that foretold the exact day when Jesus would ride that donkey into Jerusalem.

The purpose behind our little experiment is to demonstrate the confidence we can have that Jesus Christ is the Messiah who was prophesied in the OT.  This proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Jesus Christ is really who He said He was.  The Designer of the universe actually did enter His creation by becoming a man to fulfill a mission on our behalf.

OLAADEGBU:

Check these out.

Messianic Prophecies in the Bible Fulfilled .

He was to be of David's family -- 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Matthew 1:1

He would be born of a virgin -- Isaiah 7;14; Matthew 1:23

He would be born in Bethlehem -- Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6

He would sojourn in Egypt -- Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2;15

He would minister in Galilee and in Nazareth -- Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:12-17

He would be announed in advance by an Elijah-type herald -- Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 3:1; Mark 1:2-3.

He would occasion the massacre of Bethlehem's children -- Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18.

His mission would include the Gentiles -- Isaiah 42:6; Luke 2:32.

His ministry would be one of healing -- Isaiah 35:5-6; Matthew 12:10; Mark 7:32-35; 10:51.

He would teach through the use of parables -- Ezekiel 20:49; Matthew 13:3.

He would be disbelieved and rejected by the religious rulers of that period -- Psalms 118:22; Matthew 21:12-13.

He would make a triumphal entry into Jerusalem -- Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:6-9

He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver -- Zechariah 11:12; Matthew 26:15.

He would be smitten like a shepherd and His sheep scattered -- Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 26:31.

He would be given vinegar and gall, and they would cast lots for His garments -- Psalm 22:18; 69:21; Matt.27:34; Jn.19:23-24.

He would be pierced -- Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34.

Not a bone of His would be broken -- Exodus 14:26; Psalm 34:20; John 19:33,36.

He would die among criminals -- Isaiah 53:12; Mark 15:28.

He would be buried by a rich man -- Isaiah 53:12; Matthew 27:57-60.

He would rise from the dead on the third day -- Psalm 16:10; Jonah 1:17; Luke 24:6-7.

His resurrection would be followed by the destruction of Jerusalem -- Daniel 9:26; Matthew 24:2.

The Bible contains more than 300 prophecies that details the coming of the Messiah, and all of these prophecies were fulfilled in the 1st century A.D. They can be quantitative, systematic and measurable for all to see.

The mathematics of the book of beginning.

What's the chance of evolution being true?

This is a simple calculation that many of us might have taken forgranted.

Add your age to the year you were born. You are likely to arrive at the number 2011 this year. If you've tried it holla back if it is true.

Wat r u ppl talking abt? I HATE MATHS!!!

There are only three kinds of people in this world - Those who are good at Maths, and those who aren't.

OLAADEGBU:

The mathematics of the book of beginning.

This maths remains a mystery to some folks.