Advent Day 5

December 5

“I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”  Isaiah 46:9-11

“For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses to His majesty…. We have the prophetic word strongly confirmed.  You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dismal place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”  2 Peter 1:16,19

There are many religions available to us, so how do we know that Christianity is the right one?  How can we know that the Bible is true?  If I am going to base my life on its words, then I need to be sure that it is trustworthy and reliable.  The Bible claims that there is only one way to God.  There are not lots of paths to get to Him.  The Bible very clearly says that the only way to the Father is through Jesus the Son.  (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Ephesians 2:18, I Timothy 2:5) How do we know that the Bible isn’t just a fairy tale made up by people to help them deal with difficulties and cope with life?  The Apostle Peter and Isaiah address these very questions in the passages above.   There are two compelling evidences for why we can trust the Bible. 

1.     Christianity is based on historical facts testified to by many eyewitnesses.  The best evidence in a court of law is eyewitness testimony.  

2.     It is proven by Messianic prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus. 

In the Isaiah passage God Himself is making an incredible claim.  He is contrasting Himself with all of the pagan gods the people are worshipping.  He tells them that He alone is God, He can tell the end from the beginning and only He can tell them what is going to happen in the future and then it happens every time, just like He said.  He isn’t guessing or predicting.  He can see the future and He knows exactly what is going to happen.  He speaks it and it comes to pass.  Nearly a third of the Bible is made up of prophecies.  Many of them are about the coming Messiah.  Over the next few days, we will look at several of them about His birth, but today let’s examine them from a scientific perspective.   

Biblical scholars point to approximately 332 prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus fulfilled.  Professor Peter Stoner, a professor of mathematics, in his book, Science Speaks, outlines the probability of one person in the first century fulfilling just eight of the most clear and straightforward Messianic prophecies.  His calculations show that the probability of only 8 out of those 332 being fulfilled by one man is 1 in 10^17.  (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000) He went on to calculate the probability of one person fulfilling 48 of the prophecies:  it is 1 in 10^157.  I can’t even write out all of those zeros.  If you took 100,000,000,000,000,000 silver dollars and laid them out across the state of Texas there are enough to cover the state 2 feet deep.  If I marked one of them with a red X and blindfolded you, set you in the middle of the state and told you to find that silver dollar and you only had one chance to find it you would have the same odds.  Jesus fulfilled not only 8 but 332 of those prophecies.  For people who want scientific evidence there is an abundance available.  Jesus was and is the promised Messiah.