What are the odds of Jesus Christ being the Son of God? The following is taken from the book "A Scientific Analysis of Genesis" by Dr. Edward F. Blick, PHD. There are 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled by the first coming of Jesus Christ. Professor Peter Stoner, a mathematician in one of California’s colleges, gave a homework assignment concerning Old testament prophecies and probability. There were 48 students in the class and each student was assigned the problem of estimating the probability that Jesus Christ just happened to fulfill one of the prophecies by chance. For example, one student may have been assigned the prophecy in Micah 5:2 which states that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Well, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, so this student had to estimate that out of all the places on earth, what were the odds that a person from the land of Israel would be born in Bethlehem.
To get the total probability that Jesus Christ by chance alone happened to fulfill 48 prophecies, the individual probabilities had to be multiplied together. After doing so, Professor Stoner found that the total probability was one chance out of 10 to the 180th power (one followed by 180 zeros). To put it another way, the chances that Jesus Christ actually is the Son of God, in compliance with Old Testament prophecy, are greater than 10 to the 180th power, to one. This was calculated using only 48 of the 300 prophecies, so undoubtedly the odds are much larger than 10 to the 180th power to one.
The odds of 10 to the 180th power, to one are more of a sure thing than anything you can predict in the future. For example, let’s suppose you are 20 years old and, based on insurance mortality tables, we knew the yearly death rate of people who were 20 years of age. It turns out that the chances of you dying in the next second are one chance out of 10 billion, or to turn it around, the chances of you living in the next second are 10 to the 10th power to one. Ten to the 10th power
is an extremely large number, bur infinitesimally small compared to 10 to the 180th! To put it another way, the chances that Jesus Christ is actually the Son of God are substantially greater than the chances you have of being alive in the next second!
By George Konig
Christian Internet Forum
www.georgekonig.org
July 6, 2003
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