What Are The Odds of Jesus fulfilling just 8 of the 300 prophecies that he would come as the long awaited messiah?Did you know that there are 300 predictions found in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible that predict the coming Savior (the Christ)?   Last week I was listening to one of my favorite podcast, Back To The Bible with Woodrow Kroll.  He talked about 8 of those predictions specific to the birth of the Christ in Bethlehem, his ministry and resurrection.  Most interesting were the mathematical odds he shared of the 8 predictions coming true. The 8 predictions were:

  1. The Savior would be born in Bethlehem
  2. The Messiah would be preceded by a messenger
  3. The Messiah would enter the City of Jerusalem on a donkey
  4. The messiah would be betrayed by his own friends
  5. The messiah would be sold for 30 pieces of silver
  6. The money would be thrown to the potter for the potters field for Gods house
  7. The messiah would be silent before his accusers
  8. He would be executed by crucifixion as a thief

Years ago, a university in California researched what the odds would be if only 8 of the 300 prophesies would become true. The Professor who conducted the research used 12 of his university classes with over 600 students to get the results.  As confirmed by the American Scientific Affiliation (independent research organization), the findings confirmed that the probability of 1 person fulfilling all 8 prophesies written from different people, some of them 700 years prior to the actual events were 1 in 10 to the 17th power or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.

To visualize this number, Woodrow Kroll used the example of taking 100,000,000,000,000,000 silver dollars and laying them down side by side. It would take up the space of the state of Texas and the coins would be 2 feet deep! Now, to understand the odds, take one of those coins and marked it with an “X”.   Pick any random person in Texas, blind-folded them and try to find  the 1 marked coin.  Those would be the same odds as having 1 person fulfill those 8 predictions.

Only God could orchestrate the coming Messiah who was born in the manger, walked, taught, healed, loved, suffered and died for you and I. Only Jesus could have been that person as described in the New Testament of the Holy Bible.  He is the one spoken of and predicted in the scriptures and is the begotten son who laid down his life for the sins of the world.  Praise God!

If you would like to listen to the broadcast from Woodrow Kroll on the Back the the Bible broadcast titled “Postpartum Phrophecies”, click here.