F4F | What are the Chances Jesus Would Fulfill Prophecy?

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseboro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So, in the last video we did, we took a look at the top prophecies put out by the charismatic

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Pentecostal NAR churches with a stamp of approval from Charisma News on it, saying that these were the prophecies for 2023 that you needed to hear back at the beginning of 2023.

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And we noted, every single prophecy we heard, prophecy, failed the biblical test.

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Some of them spectacularly, none of them are true prophets, none of them were actually speaking words from God. So we did a little comparative work in that video by looking at Ezekiel chapters 12 and 13 and looking at a gold standard prophet.

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Now here's the thing. Prophecy is an important feature of Scripture. And the reason why it's an important feature of Scripture is because it shows that God knows what's going to happen in the future.

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That's part of the process of prophecy. But that isn't the only thing that prophecy does.

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Prophecy that predicts the future then says, this was supernaturally inspired by God the

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Holy Spirit. And then when you look at the message of the prophets, the prophets over and again were calling people to repent of their various sins, from idolatry, to sexual immorality, to injustice, to the mistreating of people who were poor, all kinds of things like this.

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These were the things that God's prophets were calling people to repent of. And then interspersed in their prophecies were prophecies regarding the

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Messiah, Jesus Christ. And so as we are getting closer to Christmas here, at least this is when this is going to be released in December of 2023,

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I thought it would be fun to actually take a look at how important prophecy is and then introduce you to an argument that I came across decades ago from a book that I had to read when

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I was being formally trained as a Christian apologist and one that I think will be helpful. It needs a little tweaking, but still the methodology is 100 % solid.

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And you'll see that when we take a look at the prophecies that Christ fulfilled in his first coming, the chances of anyone being able to fulfill those prophecies is so astronomically high, it's like beyond statistically probable.

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I mean, the fact that Christ did fulfill so many of them, the statistical probability of anybody doing it is almost zero.

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And the fact that he did shows the supernatural nature of the message of the scriptures, especially the

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Old Testament, because that's all of the prophecies regarding Christ are there in the old. So let's do this.

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Let's whirl up the desktop. So this is a teaching episode of Fighting for the Faith. We will not be listening to any heretics or false prophets.

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I need a break. So let's do this. I'm going to open up my desktop, and then we're going to go first and foremost, we're going to look at the scriptures.

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And I'm going to show you, take a look at how intimately fulfilled prophecy is interwoven into the

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Gospels, especially the Gospel of Matthew, which was initially written to a Jewish audience. So here's what it says in Matthew 118.

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Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the

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Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

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But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take

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Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name

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Jesus. Or in Hebrew, it would be Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins.

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And that's exactly what Yeshua means in Hebrew, Yahweh saves. And all this took place.

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And watch these words. When you read the Gospels, you'll see things like this frequently throughout the

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Gospels. And that's important. All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, quote, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name

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Emmanuel. Prophecy from the book of Isaiah, which means God with us.

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When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son and called his name

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Jesus. So you can see here, there's a prophecy regarding the virgin birth of Christ.

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Kind of an important one. It doesn't show up in the methodology that I'm going to show you because it's hard to statistically pin a number on it.

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But you'll see what I'm saying in a minute here. So let me continue into chapter two. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in those days, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the

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East came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born the king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and we've come to worship him.

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When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the

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Christ or where the Messiah was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet.

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We knew exactly where the Messiah needed to be born. And here's what it says in this prophecy from Micah chapter five, and you,

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O Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people

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Israel. So you can see here that just from this small sampling, when you read the gospel of Matthew, there are a lot of chapters where you get fulfillments of prophecy that are recorded.

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And it's like, check this one off. Christ fulfilled this one. So another example then would be like, we'll take a look at an

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Old Testament text, like Psalm 22. Listen to just a few of the things that this prophesies regarding Christ as specifically regarding his crucifixion.

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Listen to what it says. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Do those words sound familiar?

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Right. Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh, my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I find no rest.

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Yet you are holy and thrown on the praises of Israel and you are father's trusted. They trust and they trusted and you delivered them to you.

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They cried and were rescued in you. They trusted and were not put to shame. But I'm a worm, not a man scorned by mankind, despised by the people.

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All who seek me, mock me or all who see me, mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads.

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He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. You'll note that these are the very words spoken by the people who were reviling

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Jesus while he was on the cross, bleeding for their sins. Yet you are he who took me from the womb.

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You made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my

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God. Be not far from me for trouble is near and there is none to help. Many bowls encompass me.

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Strong bowls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.

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I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax.

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It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt. My tongue sticks to my jaws.

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You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs in company, a company of evildoers encircles me.

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They have pierced my hands and my feet. Check that out. That's a prophecy regarding Christ's crucifixion even before crucifixion was invented as a way to kill people.

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I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.

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But you, O Lord, do not be far off. You, O you, my help, come quickly to my aid.

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Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion.

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You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen. So you get the idea. So that's just teeming with prophecies that Christ fulfilled while he was being crucified, things he didn't even have any control over, right?

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So all that being said, I'm going to teach you a method that I learned. And to do this, we're going to,

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I'm going to note where I got the book. So this is a scan of the cover of the book. Unfortunately, my copy of it has fallen apart.

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And this is an old, this is an old book. It's called Science Speaks, the Scientific Proof of the Accuracy of Prophecy in the

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Bible, written initially by Peter W. Stoner and Robert C. Newman. And specifically,

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I'm going to be looking at chapter three of this book and summarizing an argument that they put forward.

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I'm going to note here, and that is that some people might sit there and go, well, I don't really believe that that verse that you're quoting is really a prophecy about Jesus.

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Fine. I'll substitute it for one of the ones we just read, right? Jesus's virgin birth.

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Or talk about some of the ones from Psalm 22. This is about the methodology, not quibbling over whether or not particular passages can 100 % be said to be fulfilled by Jesus.

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And I think even Stoner and Newman kind of understand later that some people might quibble with those things.

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But all that being said, the methodology is sound. And the statistical probability is unmistakable.

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So the argument, so I put this together. It's called Prophecies of Jesus and the

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Probability of One Man Fulfilling Them. And this is based on the solid, solid work, scientific work of Stoner and Newman.

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So what we're going to do is we're going to walk through eight of Jesus's prophecies, just eight of them.

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And we're going to assign statistical probabilities to each of the prophecies and ask the question, what are the probabilities of one man fulfilling this specific prophecy?

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And when you read Stoner's book, Stoner and Newman's book, you'll see that in this chapter, in chapter three, they actually take great pains to note that when they were coming up with the numbers for this, that their students that they were asking in this chapter, what would be the probability?

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The students came up with numbers that were far larger than what Stoner and Newman ultimately settled on.

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They specifically went with smaller numbers so that people can't say, well, that's because you overinflated this one prophecy.

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They were always, in chapter three, making sure to undervalue the statistical probability that any one person can fulfill these.

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And you'll see how that comes into play. And the end result of this is actually kind of mind -blowing.

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And again, you're going to note, this is true prophecy, not like the wing that whack -a -doodle nonsense that we get when we play

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Prophecy Bingo or when Charisma News puts out, prophecies for 2024 by the top prophets in the church today.

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Those aren't prophecies. We're dealing with real prophecies. And you'll note then, because God doesn't lie and because God fulfills his own words in the mouths of his true prophets, it's because of that feature,

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God never gives a false prophecy, that we then can have certainty regarding the fact that Jesus is the

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Messiah and that he truly is the Son of God in human flesh. So watch how this works.

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All right, so we're going to start with prophecy numero uno, okay? Fulfilled prophecy.

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So Micah chapter five, verse two, we just heard it. I read it out from the book of Matthew chapter two.

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And here's what the prophecy says. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.

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And so the question that Stoner and Newman ask is, one man and how many has ever been born in Bethlehem?

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And I know when they wrote this back in the, what, the 50s and 60s and then updated it in the 70s, the human population wasn't nearly as big as it is now.

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So we're going to note this number, even they at the time deflated it, made it a smaller number.

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I think legitimately we could make it a bigger number, but I'm not good at math. But here's the number they came up with.

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One man in 2 .8 times 10 to the fifth, okay? Out of all the people born, how many males have been born in Bethlehem?

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2 .8 times 10 to the fifth is the number they came up with. And they even purposely tried to make that number small.

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So we'll see how this comes into play at the end, but keep these numbers in mind, okay? Next prophecy,

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Malachi chapter three, verse one, see, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before you.

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This is a prophecy regarding John the Baptist. So Stoner and Newman asked this question, of the men born in Bethlehem, one man and how many have had a forerunner to prepare his way?

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So you can see here early on, these prophecies have to compound a little bit. So we're specifically looking at now the group of men who have been born in Bethlehem, how many of those men have had a forerunner to prepare their way?

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And we could make this really a big number if we wanted to. One in a hundred thousand, one in a million?

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Because it doesn't sound like a very frequent occurrence, but Stoner and Newman in their wisdom, they chose a lower number.

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So they'll say, all right, conservatively, one in a thousand. That way the critics can't sit there and go, no, that's too high.

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No, that seems like intentionally low, and it is, and that's the point. Next prophecy, okay?

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So this is prophecy number three. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, daughter of Jerusalem, see your king comes to you righteous and having salvation gentle and riding on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

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So here's the next question. One man and how many who was born in Bethlehem and had a forerunner entered

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Jerusalem as king riding on the colt, the foal of a donkey. And I would note, this doesn't seem like a common occurrence, okay?

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But I kid you not, Stoner and Newman said, let's go with a really low number, conservatively one in a hundred.

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And if it were really that low, there would be guys reenacting Jesus's triumphal entry multiple times a year, but that doesn't happen.

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But alas, this is all how this works. So keep it a low number, they thought. All right, we'll keep it low.

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All right, next prophecy. So it's Zechariah 13, verse six.

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If someone asks him, what are these wounds in your hands? He will answer the wounds I was given at the house of my friends, okay?

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So now the next question, one man in how many the world over has been betrayed by a friend and the betrayal has resulted in his being wounded in his hands.

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Okay, I would say that's another one in a million, one in a billion. It seems like it would be a high number, but Stoner and Newman said, no, no, let's keep it low.

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Conservatively, one in a thousand. That would mean that that's a pretty common occurrence, right? All right, next prophecy.

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Prophecy from Zechariah 11, 12. I told them, if you think it best, give me my pay, but if not, keep it.

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So they paid me 30 pieces of silver. This is a prophecy regarding Judas and how much he would be paid to betray

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Christ. So next question, of the people who have been betrayed, one in how many has been betrayed for exactly 30 pieces of silver?

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Again, one in a million? There's not a lot of people using silver coins nowadays either, but watch what

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Stoner and Newman do. They go low. All right, we'll go conservative. One in a thousand.

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All right, one in a thousand. Okay, sure. Okay, I like playing this game, but okay.

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But note then, note the compounding impact of each prophecy fulfilled by Jesus.

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And that's the point behind this methodology. And this way of doing statistical analysis is sound.

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It's not unsound. It is perfectly in line with how these things are done. Next prophecy,

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Zechariah 11, 13. And Yahweh said to me, throw it to the potter, the handsome price at which they priced me.

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So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of Yahweh to the potter.

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What a prophecy, by the way. Not only does this talk about Judas's, how much he would betray

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Jesus for, but that he would throw the money back into the temple and then it would be used to buy a potter's field because that's exactly how this was fulfilled.

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So here's the question. One man and how many, after having received a bribe for the betrayal of a friend for exactly 30 pieces of silver, then returned the money, had it refused, had it thrown on the floor of the house of Yahweh, which doesn't even exist anymore, and then had it used to purchase a field from a potter.

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One in a billion, man. This doesn't happen. This has only happened like once in human history.

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But Stoner and Newman go, let's keep it conservative. We'll just say, all right, one in a hundred thousand.

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And all the critics sit there and go, fine. We'll keep it low, like one in a hundred thousand. What's your point?

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Well, let's go on to the next one, right? Isaiah 53, verse seven. It says this.

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He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers, his silence.

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So he did not open his mouth. So here's the next question. One man and how many, after fulfilling all of the above prophecies.

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At this point, you need to have fulfilled all the other previous ones. And we know we haven't even touched the virgin birth here, okay?

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When he is oppressed and afflicted and then is on trial for his life, though he's innocent, will then make no defense for himself.

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Believe me, if I were on trial for my life, I would have attorneys and I would be making a defense for myself, right?

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So Stoner and Newman, rather than going high, they go low. All right, we'll say conservatively, only one in a thousand people will do that.

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You could say one in a billion if you want, but you don't need to and you'll see why here. All right, next part.

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Psalm 22, we read part of this out. So dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men has encircled me.

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They have pierced my hands and my feet. So here's the question. One man and how many, after the time of David has ever been crucified.

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I would say there's a lot of people who've lived who've never been crucified, especially men. But we'll just go with Stoner and Newman.

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Stoner and Newman say, let's keep the number conservative. Let's take it low, take it low.

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Only one in 10 ,000. And you sit there and go, it could be a lot higher than that. It doesn't need to be, trust me.

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Watch what happens next, okay? So here's our final tally. So what you do is you take all of the previous numbers and you multiply them times each other.

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That's how you work out statistical probability. And basically when you do that, even with these low conservative numbers, just eight prophecies, just eight that Jesus fulfilled.

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One man in, I don't even know what that number is. So I will trust Stoner and Newman. They say that that number is one in 100 million billion.

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What? Just eight of Jesus's prophecies that he fulfilled and he's fulfilled a lot more than that, okay?

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That's one in a hundred million billion just to fulfill those eight, which means, yeah, the chances of anybody fulfilling them are astronomically high.

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And so here's the analogy they use. Now, we don't have silver dollars anymore here in the

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United States, but I remember growing up, we used to have silver dollars, okay? And the big honker coins, these are huge.

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I loved it when my grandparents would go to the bank and they would come out and they would give me a silver dollar when

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I was a kid. I mean, I thought I had won the lottery, okay? And I didn't like spending them because they were so huge and they were hefty in your hand and everything like that.

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So you have to think back to the time when we had these big honking silver dollars. And so what they did is they came up with an analogy to give you an idea of just how big of a number a hundred million billion is, all right?

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So what you do is you take the state of Texas and you have to flatten it. You take the state of Texas and you make it completely flat.

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Then you put a fence around the border of Texas don't even talk about Trump. That's not what this is about.

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You put a fence around the entire border of Texas and then you fill the entire state of Texas up with silver dollars, two feet deep, okay?

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Two feet deep in silver dollars and then you take one of those silver dollars and you put an

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X on it. And then from space, you drop it into the state of Texas and you take a big spoon and you stir it up so it's mixed up in there randomly.

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And then you send some poor fellow out with a blindfold on his head and a water bottle and some food and he has to pick that one silver dollar that's been randomly mixed somewhere in the state of Texas and two feet deep of silver dollars.

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He has to pull that silver dollar on his first try. Mm -hmm.

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And now you begin to see just how important prophecy is. And you can see that Jesus, he didn't fulfill eight prophecies.

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In fact, some websites argue that he fulfilled more than 300. Like this one right here argues that Christ in his lifetime fulfilled 351

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Old Testament prophecies. But let's go back to Stoner and Newman's you know, tally here.

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100 million billion for just eight. What if we were to up that to 48, okay?

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Now we're up to just 48 prophecies which is still a fraction.

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It's not even half of the prophecies that Christ fulfilled. What are the chances of one person fulfilling 48 of the prophecies that we find in the

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Old Testament regarding Jesus? Well, now that goes from 100 million billion to one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion.

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Mind bogglingly big number, right? So here's the thing. In order for us to get an analogy to wrap our head around how big of a number that is, all right, you have to change the silver dollars to electrons.

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You know, those things that orbit the nucleus of an atom. And then you, so the silver dollars become electrons and well,

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Texas is way too big, way too small. So now the search area is the entire universe.

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Not the galaxy that we live in, but the entire universe, okay?

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This is a photograph from the James Webb Space Telescope of what's called the deep field.

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And in this particular view in the deep field, every one of these little dots here is an actual galaxy, okay?

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That's what we're talking about. So in order to, what the statistical probability of fulfilling 48 of the 351 that Jesus fulfilled requires you to mark one electron, hide it somewhere in the universe, and then randomly place it in that place and then find it, that one electron on your very first attempt, your first try.

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And now you're beginning to see it. Prophecy is no trifling matter. Prophecy is a big deal.

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And the fact that God doesn't lie and he never allowed his prophets to give prophecies that didn't come true because God's reputation, his name is on the line.

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You'll note then that fulfilled prophecy becomes a very compelling bit of evidence regarding who

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Jesus is and not just who he claims to be, but proving that he is who he claimed to be, none other than God in human flesh.

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And you'll note that the reason why, the reason why the father sends the son is so that you and I can be forgiven, so that we can be pardoned and reconciled, and to have this kind of level of certainty that the

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Jesus that we believe in is who he claims to be because who could fulfill all of these prophecies?

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The 48 required to fill the whole universe with electrons and then randomly pull one out. The 351 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled requires a multiverse.

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That's how big the search field would need to be. So just consider that.

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That's how important all of this is. So when we get ready to celebrate the birth of Christ, again, hear the words of Luke chapter two.

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In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when

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Quirinius was the governor of Syria and all went to be registered each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called

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Bethlehem, exactly where the Messiah was supposed to be born, according to the Old Testament prophets, because he was of the house and the lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child, fulfilling the prophecy of the virgin birth from Isaiah.

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And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

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In that same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the

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Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear.

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And the angel said to them, fear not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

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For unto you was born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the

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Lord and this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.

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And when the angels went away from them, they went into heaven and the shepherd said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the

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Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

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And when they saw it, they made known to them the saying that had been told to them concerning this child.

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And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them, but Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

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And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for they had heard and seen as it had been told to them.

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So note then, we have the supreme joy and confidence of knowing that Jesus has been sent and he is exactly who the angels proclaimed him to be, our savior, your savior and mine.

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And true biblical prophecy and its fulfillment gives us confidence that we can trust this

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Jesus, trust him with our lives, our eternity, he'll meet our needs.

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And we can say that he truly is who he claims to be none other than the son of God in human flesh come to bleed and die for your sins and mine and now you can see it.

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Don't listen to the wingnut wacker doodles and their nonsensical false prophecies. Pay attention to the real prophets, the ones that really spoke the truth in scripture and had their words fulfilled which then gives you confidence that Jesus was sent specifically to save you and to save me.

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So hopefully you found all of this to be helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share this video is down below in the description and a quick shout out, thank you for all of you who support us financially.

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I remind you, you make it possible for us to do the things that we are doing here at Finding for the Faith and for that I am truly thankful and indebted to you.

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.