What Are The Odds

I am in a Bible study with a group of friends.  We get together and discuss Biblical things...thus we call it a Bible study.  One of the participants of this group is, shall we say, a deep thinker.  I enjoy listening and thinking about the ideas presented during this study.  Whether or not they are true 100%, the jury is still out.  BUT I haven't found anything with which I scripturally disagree.  I am challenged on what I "think I know" and if "what I think I know about the Bible is really IN the Bible."  For instance, at the church I was previously at we discussed Hell and found that many of the ideas of hell that we understand DON'T come from the Bible but from Dante's Inferno.  Or I'm reminded of a story my mother tells about a disagreement that she and my father had about "wearing your Sunday best" to church.  My father challenged her to find the passage and she, to my knowledge has yet to find that verse some 30 years later.

So the point is this group is very fun and mentally and spiritually challenging.  One of the ideas presented last night was, "What if you could PROVE Jesus is the Christ...and NOT use the Bible?"  My eyebrows furrowed then raised and responded "Prove it." 

What would you say the odds are of someone winning the lottery?  The odds that someone would win the huge March Mega Millions Lottery were 1 in 176,000,000.  What if you won in March and decided to play again, and won.  Since you were on a winning streak, you play again...and win.  Creepy? Fluke?  Cries of "It's RIGGED!"  What if you won it 300 times?  What are THOSE odds? 

Scholars have said there are 300 prophecies in the OT that point to the Messiah.  Others say upwards of 500.  What are the odds that ONE man would fulfill everyone in his lifetime? 

Maybe you are saying, "Yes, but he could set out and plan to achieve each one. Like a checklist."  Ok, Micah prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  How does one PLAN on location to be born.  I know that mother and child have an intense bond but that seems a bit much for me.  Or, the fact that it was prophesied that the Messiah would be betrayed.  Did Jesus, when choosing the 12, say,
"Let me see, I have a big mouth, and his brother...well I need a tax guy, so there's where Matthew fits in...oh, John.  Man I LOVE him.  Now lets see, all I'm missing is a...crooked, money laundering betrayer who will be in charge of all of our money....Ah HA!! Judas!  Checklist done."  I don't think so.

Mathematician, David Williams, crunched the numbers and said that in fact the odds that Jesus is undeniable.  He calculated the figures on 48 of the prophesies and discovered that the odds that ONE man would fulfill those 48 prophesies was 1 in 10^157 (that's a 1 with 157 "0"s.  Want to see how big that number is? 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That's big huh!)

That was only 58 of the 300 prophesies.  Jesus fulfilled another 250...can you imagine what the number would be!? 

As cool as this statistic is, it means nothing if his people don't live the life he calls them to lead.  I read that only 11% of Christians live a "christian lifestyle."  That number is more shocking to me than the number above.  Just something to think about.