Faith required, yet love verified

Faith is required for salvation according to the bible in Ephesians 2:8-9. God also says in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith no one can please Him or draw near to Him. It may seem harsh for the destination your eternal soul to rest on something that can’t be seen. It may seem baffling that the currency of communion with YHWH is intangible. What kind of God would require such….blind faith? Yes, the above statements are true; however, God doesn’t leave us there. He doesn’t just require our faith, but constantly and miraculously proves how His word is trustworthy and His love is unending even to the point where we don’t have numbers, words, or analogies to compare it to.

How special is Jesus? How unique is the love of God? How confident is God that Jesus is the only way?

I’m so glad that I serve a confident God! Countless times in the bible we come across pagan gods who couldn’t save, deliver, protect, provide, or heal must less see, hear, taste, or feel. God spoke through the prophet Isaiah in chapters 44:6-8; 46:9-10; and 48:5-6 comparing Himself to these gods. In these passages, God is literally challenging us to put Him to the test! He said you will know that I am the true God because of the prophecies I have given and how 100% of them will be fulfilled. God loves His people and in constant pursuit and desire of their hearts, so much so that He is continuously proving it.

I was recently watching a video on social media about the probability of any one man fulfilling the prophesies of the bible. There are over 300 fulfilled prophesies of Jesus written hundreds and even thousands of years before His birth that verify that He is the Messiah. How hard is that to do? What are the odds?

A man named Dr. Peter Stoner did the math in the 1950’s and detailed his finding in the book, Science Speaks. He, along with many colleagues, calculated the mathematical probability of one man fulfilling just 8 of the prophesies of the bible about the Messiah. Below is a chart detailing the 8 prophecies used, its fulfillment in the New testament, and the probability that each could occur.

OT Prophecy	NT Fulfillment	Probability
Born in Bethlehem- Micah 5:2	Matthew 2:4-6	1 in 280,000
There would be a forerunner for Christ- Malachi 3:1	Mark 1:2-8	1 in 1,000
Christ would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey- Zechariah 9:9	Matthew 21:4-11	1 in 100
Christ betrayed by a friend- Psalm 41:9	Luke 22:21	1 in 1,000
Christ betrayed for 30 pieces of silver- Zechariah 11:12	Matthew 26:15	1 in 1,000
30 pieces of silver casted down and used to buy a potter’s field- Zechariah 11:13	Matthew 27:3-10	1 in 100,000
Although innocent, Christ kept silent while on trial- Isaiah 53:7	Mark 14:60-61	1 in 1,000
Christ died by method of crucifixion- Psalm 22:16 (this wasn’t even a method of death at the time this Psalm was written.)	John 19:17-18	1 in 10,000

Stoner then multiplied all of the odds above to calculate the chances that 1 man could fulfill only 8 of the 300+ prophecies. 

The answer is 1 x 10^17. That’s 1 with 17 zeros. 

1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 chance. 

1 in one hundred quadrillion chance.

That number alone is hard for humans to wrap their heads around. Stoner also gave an illustration as to how big this number really is. If you were to take 100,000,000,000,000,000 silver dollars, it would cover the state of Texas up to your knees. If you were to mark on one of those silver dollars, blindfold someone, and send them out to find it, the probability that they would find the right one is 1 x 10¹⁷. 

Peter Stoner said it perfectly in his book Science Speaks, “Can anyone be so unreasonable as to reject Jesus Christ and pin his hope of eternal life on such a slim chance as finding the right silver dollar among this great mass, covering the whole state of Texas two feet deep? It does not seem possible, yet every man who rejects Christ is doing just that.”

But let’s not stop at 8 prophecies. If you increased the probability to cover 48 prophecies, the chance would be 1 x 10¹⁵⁷. That is 1 followed by 157 zeros and yet Jesus has fulfilled over 300 prophecies!

There are so many unique characteristics about Christianity and God, but one of my favorites is that He proves His love. What’s even more amazing is that He didn’t have to. He didn’t have to give us thousands of assurances in the bible or give bible authors hundreds of prophecies that would be fulfilled hundreds and in some cases thousands of years later. He didn’t have to sacrifice His only son for us. He doesn’t have to bless us everyday will all spiritual and physical blessings. But He did all of these things and continues to do so everyday- all because He loves us. This love makes faith (and therefore salvation and God delighting in you) seem easy. This is a love worth dying for. This is a love worth living for. Faith is required, but His love is verified!

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Dr. Peter Stoner’s book is available for free at https://sciencespeaks.dstoner.net/index.html#c0.