Scholar J. Barton Payne found as many as 574 Old Testament verses that point to the Messiah; conservatively, Jesus fulfilled at least 300 prophecies. Here are fifty-four of the clearest threads — each spoken centuries before Bethlehem, each landing on one life.
“You search the Scriptures… and it is they that bear witness about me…” — John 5:39 (ESV)
The Prophets — tap a thread — the Witnesses
Mathematician Peter Stoner asked his students: what is the chance of just eight of these prophecies coming true in one man? Their estimates, combined, give 1 in 1017 — and a committee of the American Scientific Affiliation, reviewing his book, found it “in general, to be dependable and accurate” and its principles of probability “thoroughly sound.” Here is what that number looks like.
Each zoom multiplies the coins by a thousand (the last, by a hundred). Keep going until you reach 1017 — enough silver dollars, Stoner reckoned, to cover the state of Texas two feet deep.
Peter W. Stoner, Science Speaks (Moody Press), ch. 3: mark one dollar, stir the whole mass across Texas, blindfold a man — his chance of picking the marked coin first try equals the chance of the eight prophecies all coming true in one man, had the prophets written “using their own wisdom.” The intermediate labels are ours, scaled from Stoner’s own Texas figure; the 1017 figure and the Texas illustration are his. Read the chapter ↗
Scripture quotations marked “ESV” are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language. esv.org · Sources: GotQuestions · Rose Book of Charts · Stoner · TGC on Psalm 110