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If specific prophecies were fulfilled by the Messiah does the science of probability consider this “Proof” there is a God?
Anyone can make predictions— that is easy. Having them fulfilled is another story. The more statements you make about the future and the greater the detail, the better the chances are that you will be proven wrong.
For example, how difficult do you think it would be to indicate the precise kind of death that a new, unknown religious leader would experience a thousand years from Today? Could you describe and predict a new method of execution not currently known—one that won’t even be invented for hundreds of years? Thats what David did in 1000 B.C. when he wrote
Psalms 22 through the holy spirit.
Further, if you did think up 50 specific prophecies about some man in the future you will never meet, how difficult do you think it would be for that man to fulfill all 50 of your predictions? How hard would it be for him if 25 of your predictions were about what other people would do to him and were completely beyond his control?
It might be possible to arrange one or two of these prophecies, but it would be virtually impossible for any man to arrange and fulfill all these predictions in advance. If it can be proved that such prophecies were predicted of the messiah hundreds of years in advance, and one man fufilled all of them, then that man would logically have to be the Messiah.
God gave a great number of prophecies (more than 400) about the Messiah for at least two reasons. First, it would make identifying the Messiah obvious. And second, it would make an imposter’s task impossible.
Now let us ask an intriguing question. If we assume some 456 prophecies are fulfilled in one person, what does the science of probability say about this? In brief, it says, if accurate predictions were made about a future Messiah and fulfilled years later by one person, this is reasonable proof that there is a God.
Here is why. The science of probability attempts to determine the chance that a given event will occur. Professor Emeritus of science at Westmont College, PeterStoner, has calculated the probability of one man fulfilling some of the major prophecies made concerning the Messiah. The estimates were worked out by 12 different classes of 600 college students.
The students carefully weighed all the factors, discussed each prophecy at length, and examined the various circumstances which might indicate that men had conspired together to fulfill a particular prophecy. They made their estimates conservative enough so that there was finally, unaimous agreement even among the skeptical students.
But then Professor Stoner took their estimates and made them even more conservative. He also encouraged other skeptics or scientists to make their own estimates to see if his figures for reveiw to a Committee of the American Scientific Affiliation. Upon examination, they verified that his calculations were dependable and accurate in regard to scientific material presented.
After examining eight different prophecies, Professor Stoner and his students conservatively estimate that the chance of one man fulfilling all eight prophecies was one in 10/17.(10 to the power of 17) or , ( 0.588)
To show how large the number 10/17 is ( a figure with 17 zeros) Stoner gave this illustration. Imagine covering the entire state of texas with silver dollars to a level of two feet deep. The total number of silver dollars needed to cover the whole state would be
10/17. Now, choose just one of those silver dollars, mark it , and drop it from an airoplane. then throughly stir all the silver dollars all over the state.
When that has been done, blinfold a man, then tell him he can travel wherever he wishes in the state of texas.But sometime he must stop, reach down into two feet of silver dollars, and try to pull up that one specific silver dollar that has been marked.
Now, the chance of his finding that one silver dollar in the state of texas would be the chance the prophets had for eight prophecies coming true in any one man in the future.
Professor Stoner concluded: “The fulfillment of these eight prophecies alone proves that God inspired the writing of those prophecies to a definiteness which lacks only one chance in 10/17 of being absolute”. Another way of saying this that any person who minimizes or ignores the significance of the biblical identifying signs concerning the Messiah would be foolish.
But of course, there are many more than eight prophecies. In another calculation used 48 propheceis ( even though he could of used 456) and arrived at the extremely conservation estimate that the probability of 48 prophecies being fulfilled by one person is 10/157. (0.064)
And how big is 10/157? In 10/157 years, an ant could actually move all the atoms in 600,000 trillion, trillion,trillion trillion of our universes a distance of 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles. He could do this moving one atom at a time, moving each atom a distance of 30 billion light years, and traveling only at the speed of one inch 15 billion years!/6 .
This incredibly large number illustrates why it is impossible for anyone to have fulfilled all the messianic prophecies by chance. In fact , a leading authority on probability theory, Emile borel, states in his book Probabilities and life, that once we go past one chance in 10/50, the probabilities are so small its impossible to think they will ever occur.
What this means is, it is impossible for these 48 prophecies to be fulfilled apart from the one whom appointed it God.
Anyone can make predictions— that is easy. Having them fulfilled is another story. The more statements you make about the future and the greater the detail, the better the chances are that you will be proven wrong.
For example, how difficult do you think it would be to indicate the precise kind of death that a new, unknown religious leader would experience a thousand years from Today? Could you describe and predict a new method of execution not currently known—one that won’t even be invented for hundreds of years? Thats what David did in 1000 B.C. when he wrote
Psalms 22 through the holy spirit.
Further, if you did think up 50 specific prophecies about some man in the future you will never meet, how difficult do you think it would be for that man to fulfill all 50 of your predictions? How hard would it be for him if 25 of your predictions were about what other people would do to him and were completely beyond his control?
It might be possible to arrange one or two of these prophecies, but it would be virtually impossible for any man to arrange and fulfill all these predictions in advance. If it can be proved that such prophecies were predicted of the messiah hundreds of years in advance, and one man fufilled all of them, then that man would logically have to be the Messiah.
God gave a great number of prophecies (more than 400) about the Messiah for at least two reasons. First, it would make identifying the Messiah obvious. And second, it would make an imposter’s task impossible.
Now let us ask an intriguing question. If we assume some 456 prophecies are fulfilled in one person, what does the science of probability say about this? In brief, it says, if accurate predictions were made about a future Messiah and fulfilled years later by one person, this is reasonable proof that there is a God.
Here is why. The science of probability attempts to determine the chance that a given event will occur. Professor Emeritus of science at Westmont College, PeterStoner, has calculated the probability of one man fulfilling some of the major prophecies made concerning the Messiah. The estimates were worked out by 12 different classes of 600 college students.
The students carefully weighed all the factors, discussed each prophecy at length, and examined the various circumstances which might indicate that men had conspired together to fulfill a particular prophecy. They made their estimates conservative enough so that there was finally, unaimous agreement even among the skeptical students.
But then Professor Stoner took their estimates and made them even more conservative. He also encouraged other skeptics or scientists to make their own estimates to see if his figures for reveiw to a Committee of the American Scientific Affiliation. Upon examination, they verified that his calculations were dependable and accurate in regard to scientific material presented.
After examining eight different prophecies, Professor Stoner and his students conservatively estimate that the chance of one man fulfilling all eight prophecies was one in 10/17.(10 to the power of 17) or , ( 0.588)
To show how large the number 10/17 is ( a figure with 17 zeros) Stoner gave this illustration. Imagine covering the entire state of texas with silver dollars to a level of two feet deep. The total number of silver dollars needed to cover the whole state would be
10/17. Now, choose just one of those silver dollars, mark it , and drop it from an airoplane. then throughly stir all the silver dollars all over the state.
When that has been done, blinfold a man, then tell him he can travel wherever he wishes in the state of texas.But sometime he must stop, reach down into two feet of silver dollars, and try to pull up that one specific silver dollar that has been marked.
Now, the chance of his finding that one silver dollar in the state of texas would be the chance the prophets had for eight prophecies coming true in any one man in the future.
Professor Stoner concluded: “The fulfillment of these eight prophecies alone proves that God inspired the writing of those prophecies to a definiteness which lacks only one chance in 10/17 of being absolute”. Another way of saying this that any person who minimizes or ignores the significance of the biblical identifying signs concerning the Messiah would be foolish.
But of course, there are many more than eight prophecies. In another calculation used 48 propheceis ( even though he could of used 456) and arrived at the extremely conservation estimate that the probability of 48 prophecies being fulfilled by one person is 10/157. (0.064)
And how big is 10/157? In 10/157 years, an ant could actually move all the atoms in 600,000 trillion, trillion,trillion trillion of our universes a distance of 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles. He could do this moving one atom at a time, moving each atom a distance of 30 billion light years, and traveling only at the speed of one inch 15 billion years!/6 .
This incredibly large number illustrates why it is impossible for anyone to have fulfilled all the messianic prophecies by chance. In fact , a leading authority on probability theory, Emile borel, states in his book Probabilities and life, that once we go past one chance in 10/50, the probabilities are so small its impossible to think they will ever occur.
What this means is, it is impossible for these 48 prophecies to be fulfilled apart from the one whom appointed it God.
