Loving this quote.....

Okay, while I was doing research and compiling information for a conference that I am teaching I ran across one of my favorite quotes so I thought I would share. Now the entire book is one that I have used many times in talking with others about Jesus and His claims to be the Messiah. It is entitled: Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. But the quote revolves around the premise of Jesus being able to fulfill the prophecies made about Him. Skeptics have debated that He could have deliberately set Himself up to fulfill those prophecies. However, many of the prophecies would have been beyond human control. For instance here are 8 of the prophecies:

His place of birth (Micah 5:2)

His time of birth  (Daniel 9:25; Genesis 49:10)

Manner of birth (Isaiah 7:14)

Betrayel

Manner of death (Psalms 22:16)

People's reactions at his crucifixion (mocking, spitting, staring, etc.)

Piercing

Burial

Now how could anyone have control over these circumstances in His life unless He was God the Son?

So.. Josh quotes a research statistic source: 

" 'We find the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power' That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that, ' we take 10 to the 17th power of  silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all the of the state 2 feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly ,all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them in their own wisdom. " 

But if you believe as I do, men inspired by God wrote down these prophecies. Now the cool thing is that he was just using 8 of the prophecies. Jesus actually fulfilled 61 major prophecies!!!! So what in the world would that look like????? I just love this because it speaks to so many powerful attributes of God for me but it also reminds me that God is a god of order and deliberateness. Even more amazing to me is that in 33 short years Jesus fulfilled all that the Father determined to be done concerning these prophecies.