[Repeat of series introduction that began on 17 December 2023: Where would you go today in the Old Testament to argue that Jesus is the Christ? There’s so much to this that cannot be dismissed. We’re given in many ways what the Messiah would be like, what his character would be, how he’d be received (even by different people), what he’d do, how he’d redeem, that we’d have his lineage, what he’d say, how it would all end, how he’d come and more. So much, and we see it all done in just one man! How would you know that he is the promised Messiah? Jesus’ birth, life, suffering, and glorification all demonstrate the facets of his excellent work. Jesus himself asked two of his disciples the same question I could ask you today, and then went to the same source to explain it that I’d like to go to as well in this series: “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:26-27. Jesus had to suffer to then enter into his glory he said. With this premise, he goes through some measure of the 39 books of the Old Testament revealing himself to them thereby. This is the same Old Testament we have today. I wish we were given the transcript of that talk, but God didn’t wish to give it. But can we see it? Many historical events in the Scriptures could be fulfilled by men and women, but no one but Jesus (Messiah) could fulfill them all. The Lord himself demonstrated that he was and is the Christ, and our New Testament reflects that its writers were well aware of this. The clear approach of the Apostles was to argue the same from the Bible that Jesus read- the 39 books we now call the Old Testament. To know what it means that Jesus is the Christ is to show the fulness of God’s revelation to mankind in the New Testament in him. In the Old Testament, God said he’d defeat sin and death; the New Testament shows us that work done. There are so many ways to talk of this. So many passages. I won’t exhaust them, but in this series, I wish to examine some of these passages. These passages are how I would prove Jesus is the Christ from the Old Testament].
The following quotation was taken on 2 Feb 24 online from: https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog/old-testament-prophecies/.
“Some scholars believe there are more than 300 prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament. These prophecies are specific enough that the mathematical probability of Jesus fulfilling even a handful of them, let alone all of them, is staggeringly improbable—if not impossible. Peter Stoner, Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena College, was passionate about biblical prophecies. With 600 students from the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Stoner looked at eight specific prophecies about Jesus. They came up with extremely conservative probabilities for each one being fulfilled, and then considered the likelihood of Jesus fulfilling all eight of those prophecies. The conclusion to his research was staggering. The prospect that anyone would satisfy those eight prophecies was just 1 in 1017. In Science Speaks, he described it like this: let us try to visualize this chance. If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all of the tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that we take 1017 silver 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 must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he 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 using their own wisdom.”
I remember leaning heavily on Mr. Stoner’s work in a presentation I did in 2009 on Fort Polk in Leesville, LA. I did a “Bible Reliability Presentation” at a local theater. We invited people from all over the city and had a great time. I even met a few lifelong friends there that evening. Much of Dr. Stoner’s work can be found in Josh McDowell’s inimitable book: Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Vol. 1. A phenomenal book!
This series is about examining some of these 300 Old Testament prophecies of Jesus. The Bible Jesus inspired, loved, and taught from is what we call the Old Testament. He spoke of it as pointing to him. He said things like: “Moses wrote of me.” John 5:46. Luke tells us of Jesus teaching two of his disciples on a road to a town called Emmaus: “Beginning with Moses and with all the Prophets, He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:27. The Old Testament all pointed to Jesus. There are genres of all of this pointing such as in song, prophecy and typology. They’re clear and rich pointings. I thought I’d share this this week with you to help us gauge how compelling this study can actually be. No book on earth speaks like God’s book does! Absolutely none! Jesus stepped into a very precise mold. There are zero prophetic details in the Book of Mormon. Zero in the Quran. Zero in the vedas of Hinduism or the ramblings of the buddha’s. There are hundreds in the Bible. God alone speaks the end from the beginning, and Jesus affirmed this in his incarnation very clearly.
God bless!!!
(If this has been a blessing to you, would you please share it with someone else? (If this has been a blessing to you, would you please share it with someone else? Visit Biblecia.com anytime for new stuff).
