It is written:
“Jesus said to them, “Remember when I was with you before? I said that everything written about me must happen—everything written in the Law of Moses, the books of the prophets, and the Psalms.” 45 Then Jesus helped the followers understand these Scriptures about him. 46 Jesus said to them, “It is written that the Messiah would be killed and rise from death on the third day. 47 You saw these things happen—you are witnesses. You must go and tell people that they must change and turn to God, which will bring them his forgiveness. You must start from Jerusalem and tell this message in my name to the people of all nations.” (Luke 24:44-47)
Throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, there are over three hundred prophecies made of the Messiah Who would come to the world. When Jesus Christ came into the world, He fulfilled every one of these prophecies that applied to His First Coming. Many of these prophecies were beyond the ability of a deceiver to fulfill intentionally (i.e., a deceiver could not describe the place and characteristics of his birth, his lineage, could not demonstrate truly miraculous power over the natural and supernatural, would not be able to describe who would accept and reject him, would not be able to resurrect himself from the dead, etc.). So, the fact of Messianic prophecy and fulfillment is one of the great evidences that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God.
Speaking of the details and implications of these facts, McDowell has written:
“In the Old Testament, there are sixty major messianic prophecies and approximately 270 ramifications that were fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ. It is helpful to look at all these predictions fulfilled in Christ as His “address.” You’ve probably never realize how important the details of your name and address are-and yet these details set you apart from the five billion other people who also inhabit this planet. With even greater detail, God wrote an address in history to single out His Son, the Messiah, the Savior of mankind, from anyone who has ever lived in history-past, present, or future. The specifics of this address can be found in the Old Testament, a document written over a period of a thousand years, which contains more than three hundred references to His coming. Using the science of probability, we find the chances of just forty-eight of these prophecies being fulfilled in one person to be right at one in 10157 (a one followed by 157 zeros!)…The following probabilities are taken from that book (Peter Stoner, Science Speaks, M.T.) to show that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to just eight prophecies, “we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017.” That would be 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000. In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that…”we take 1017silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two 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 mist pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would 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 in their own wisdom. Now these prophecies were either given by the inspiration of God or the prophets just wrote them as they thought they should be. In such a case the prophets had just one chance in 1017 of having them come true in any man, but they all came true in Christ. This means that the fulfillment of these eight prophecies alone proves that God inspired the writing of these prophecies to a definiteness which lacks only one chance in 1017 of being absolute.” (Josh McDowell and Bill Wilson, A Ready Defense: The Best Of Josh McDowell, 210, 213; Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers)
Jesus Christ truly is Gods Son (John 8:24).
Are you ready for His Return (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Acts 2:38; James 5:16)?
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