Supporting evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

This is what I think about the supposed resurrection of the man called Jesus...It actually happened!! Here is my side of how I think that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ could stand up and win against any intelligent Jury in a court who is willing to look at the evidence with a clear and open mind and correctly weighs the evidence: Who would die for a lie? Now, I know people have died for lies before - but you see there is one difference - they thought that is was the truth. If the resurrection didn't take place then the disciples knew it. I have no way of saying that they could have been deceived or that they could have deceived themselves. In fact, the evidence, or "infallible proofs" (that John talks about at the end of the book of John) convinced the disciples - not one of the disciples, or half of the disciples, but ALL of the disciples - so well that the disciples died some of the most gruesome deaths imaginable for preaching of what they had witnessed - that Christ rose from the grave! (1) Peter - crucifixion upside down ( because he said that he was not worthy of being killed in the same manner as his Savior.) (2) Andrew - crucified (3) Matthew - the sword (4) James, son of Alphaeus - crucified (5) Philip - crucified (6) James, brother of Jesus - stoned (7)Thaddaeus - killed by arrows (8) Thomas - spear thrust (9) Simon - crucified (10) Bartholomew - crucified (He was crucified somewhere in India I think. Crucified upside down. Just like Peter. He was then skinned alive. Despite the agonizing pain he continued to preach and share the message of forgiveness and repentance and love of Jesus Christ with the natives - the risen Christ that he had seen. He wouldn't shut up, so the natives took an ax to his face and killed him.) (11) James, son of Zebeddee - the sword (12) John - Now, John died a natural death - however - he was faced with the same, if not greater persecution than the other disciples went through. In the middle of the coliseum in front of thousands of people, including the emperor, John was there ready to die a martyr's death. However, seeing how much ruckus had been caused by this one man, the emperor would not allow him to die by such a mediocre death such as being eaten by a lion -like so many of the early Christians were or being beheaded with a sword, which was quick and painless. Instead - the emperor ordered a giant vat of boiling oil. So , John was then placed into the boiling oil - but guess what he was doing - lifting his hands high up to heaven, singing and praying to God. Now what do you think would usually happen to a person that was placed to a giant vat of boiling oil? Well - the would burn!! But guess what? John didn't burn!! Standing straight up in the burning oil John sang and praised God in front of everyone!! The boiling oil didn't effect him at all!! The emperor, because of this outrage, exiled John to the island of Patmos (which is where John received the revelation which is in the bible - the book of Revelation) Later, John died a completely natural death. Now, I can't find any evidence that refutes the evidence for Jesus' resurrection, but that doesn't mean that there isn't any, so try to find some. All right, now if the resurrection didn't take place - then the disciples knew it. Therefore, these eleven men not only died for a lie but - and here's the catch - they knew it was a lie. It would be hard to find eleven men in history who died for a lie, knowing that it was a lie. Peter said: "For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16) So the apostles certainly knew the difference between myth or legend and reality. Now, the apostles themselves had to be convinced that Jesus was raised from the dead. At first they had not believed. They went and hid! (Mark 14:50) They didn't hesitate to express their doubt. Only after being convinced would they believe. First, there was Thomas, who said that he wouldn't believe until he put his fingers where the nail prints had been on Jesus' hands. Thomas later died a martyr's death. Was he deceived? He bet his life he wasn't. Then there was Peter who denied Christ several times during the time before Jesus' resurrection. Finally he deserted Jesus. But something happened to this coward. Just a short time after Jesus' crucifixion and burial, Peter showed up in Jerusalem preaching boldly, at the threat of death, that Jesus was the Christ and had been resurrected. Finally Peter was crucified upside down. Was he deceived? What happened then? What could have transformed him so dramatically into such a bold lion for Jesus Christ? Why was he so willing to die for him? The only explanation that I am satisfied with is 1 Corinthians 15:5 - "...and then He appeared to Cephas [Peter]." Next, there was James, the brother of Jesus. He was convinced against his will (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3) Although he wasn't one of the original twelve, he was later called one (Galatians 1:19) When Jesus was alive, James didn't believe in him. In fact he and his other brothers and sisters - I'm sure - probably ridiculed him! He was ashamed of him. For James, it must have been humiliating for his brother Jesus to go walking around Jerusalem making these crazy claims and bringing shame to the family name. ("I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:6; - "I am the vine, you are the branches" - John 15:5; - "I am the good shepherd...and My own know Me" - John 10:14. What would you think if your brother walked around downtown Atlanta saying these things? However, James died a martyr's death - stoning by the high priest Ananias - preaching in Jerusalem of the forgiveness of sins and the grace and power of the Lord God Almighty - his brother - Jesus Christ! How, in such a short time span of three days could a man who had once been so ashamed of his brother, now stand in the streets preaching that his brother was the Messiah, the Christ? How, without having the proof of Jesus' resurrection, could James stand on the rooftops of buildings and boldly give such convincing and powerful sermons - so powerful in fact that they earned him the nickname, along with John, "the sons of thunder", and "James the Just"? Well, was he deceived? I think not. The only way to explain this is 1 Corinthians 15:7 - "...and then He appeared to James." Now, of course people won't believe or will say that even this is not sufficient evidence or might say that the conspirators of some colossal hoax. But that is very inconsistent with what we already know about the disciples - about their moral quality. All of them personally condemned lying and stressed honesty. A guy in some book I read, Michael Green, said this: "The resurrection was the belief that turned heartbroken followers of a crucified rabbi into the courageous witnesses and martyrs of the early church. This was the one belief that separated the followers of Jesus from the Jews and turned them into the community of the resurrection. You could imprison them, flog them, kill them, but you could not make them deny their conviction that 'on the third day he rose again.'" Also, the bold conduct of the apostles immediately after they were convinced of the resurrection makes it unlikely that is was a fraud. They became bold almost overnight. Peter, who had denied Christ several times - stood and preached even in the threat of death and proclaimed Jesus alive after the resurrection. The Jews the arrested them and beat them, yet they were soon back out in the streets preaching (read the book of Acts) Nor did they preach in some obscure won't but in Jerusalem! Jesus' followers couldn't have faced torture and death unless they were sure of his resurrection. Or they could have just been crazy, but it's hard to believe that all twelve, plus the other disciples - and the over 500 that saw Jesus over the period of 40 days before he ascended into heaven - were also crazy. -Unless they actually saw Jesus. Also, if they were deceivers, and made the whole thing up, then it's amazing - first of all that all the 500 who supposedly saw him still believed - and that none of the twelve backed out under pressure of death and of keeping the hoax up. What I mean is, picture those twelve men, meeting after the death of Jesus and entering into conspiracy that he had risen. The removal of the body of Jesus, alone, would not have enough to raise their spirits so quickly and in such an amazing and life changing - world changing - eternity changing way!! Time is needed for such a legendary growth. It's a psychological fact that demands a full explanation. Think of a group of men - a band of defeated cowards - hiding in an upper room one day - and a few days later go out to Jerusalem and become a group which no persecution can silence. That simply wouldn't make sense now would it?

Now, many people have died for a good cause. The problem is that the apostle's good cause died on a cross. They didn't think that the guy could die. They didn't think that he could be persecuted and rejected in such a way as what actually later happened. The life of Jesus majorly conflicted with the idea of the messiah at that time. You see, from childhood, and Jew was taught that the Messiah would be a reigning, victorious, political leader. He would release the Jews from bondage and restore Israel to its rightful place. A persecuted Messiah was completely different from the Jewish conception of the Messiah's coming. Plus, the Old Testament speaks multiple times of the coming Messiah which we can guess, definitely created anticipation for the coming Messiah. The Messiah would be a Son of David who would bring victory and prosperity to the Jewish nation. And I would think that the reason the disciples freaked out so much when Jesus died was because of this. They didn't listen, or refused to remember, the things that Jesus talked about such as his own death and resurrection (Luke 9:22) Alfred Edersheim was right in saying that " the most unlike thing to Christ were His times." Jesus told his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer. James and John then asked him to promise that in his kingdom that they would sit at the right and left hand of his throne. It's obvious that they weren't thinking of a suffering, crucified Messiah. They were thinking of a political ruler. Jesus then told them that they misunderstood what he had to do. The twelve didn't know what he was talking about when he predicted his crucifixion. Because of their background, they just didn't get it - a dead Messiah? Then came Calvary. All previous hopes departed of Jesus being their Messiah. So, discouraged, they returned to their homes. It's a sound psychological fact that we as humans hear only what we are prepared to hear. So Jesus' predictions of his death weren't heard. The disciples were unprepared for what happened next.... He died. But a few weeks after the crucifixion, in spite of their former doubts, the disciples were in Jerusalem preaching Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Messiah of the Jews. The only reasonable explanation is 1 Corinthians 15:5 - "...and that He was seen by Cephas then by the twelve." What else could cause such an amazing change in the disciples to go out and suffer and die for a crucified Messiah. He must have "presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days." (Acts 1:3).

* Just to let you know - 1 Corinthians was written by Paul (Saul of Tarsus) - after he was converted.* Actually, I'm going to tell you about that too. (Saul I mean) Now, only some of these things I knew about him, but like some other details about his life I did not know so I had to look them up in a book. But here it is:

Now, perhaps one of the most important factors in the spread of Christianity would have to been the apostle Paul. He spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ all over the place - but especially to the gentiles. Saul was a Hebrew zealot, a religious leader. Being born in Tarsus gave him the opportunity to be exposed to the most advanced learning of his day. Tarsus was a university city known for its many philosophers. Saul possessed a Roman citizenship, which of course was a great privilege. He seemed to be well taught of Hellenistic culture and thought. He was very adroit of the Greek language and displayed dialectic skill. In fact, many times he quoted some less familiar poets and philosophers: (Acts 17:28) - "For in him we live and move and exist [Epimenides], as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His offspring' [Aratus, Cleanthes]" and many more places too. Paul's education was Jewish and took place under the strict doctrines of the Pharisees. At about age fourteen , he was sent to study under Gamaliel, one of the great rabbis of the time, the grandson of Hillel. He boasted several times about this in scriptures - "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions" (Galatians 1:14). If we are going to understand Saul's conversion then we need to recognize why he was so anti-Christian: the reason was his devotion to the Jewish law, which triggered his adamant discontent with Christ and the early church. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that the new sect of Judaism calling themselves Christians struck at the essence of Paul's Jewish training and rabbinic studies. To exterminate this sect became his passion. So Saul began to pursue to death, this "sect of the Nazarens" (Acts 26:9-11. He literally "laid waste the church" (Acts 8:3). He set out to Damascus with documents authorizing him to seize followers of Jesus and bring them back to face trial. But then: "Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And it came about that as he journeyed, he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' And he said, 'Who art Thou, Lord?' And He said "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise, and enter the city, and it shall be told you what you must do.' And the men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. And Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open , he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. "Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, 'Ananias.' And he said, 'Behold, here am I Lord.' And the Lord said to him 'Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight'" (Acts 9:1-12) And here is where we can really see how much and why Christians feared Paul: Ananias answered: "' Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Thy name.' But the Lord said to him, 'Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for i will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake.' And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he arose and was baptized; and he took food and was strengthened" (Acts 9:13-19a). Paul said, "Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?" (1 Corinthians 9:1) He compared Christ's presentation of himself after the resurrection to the other apostles to his own encounter with Christ, "And last of all...He appeared to me also" (1 Corinthians 15:8). Not only did Paul see Jesus, but he saw him in an irresistible way. He didn't proclaim the gospel out of choice but from necessity. "For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion." (1 Corinthians 9:16). You see, when Paul fell off his ride and heard the voice, he had know idea of who this heavenly person could be. The announcement that it was Jesus of Nazareth left him trembling and astonished. Now, of course no one knows all the details of the psychology of what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus but we do know this: It radically affected every area of his life. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes him before his conversion as an intolerant, bitter, persecuting, religious bigot - proud and temperamental. After his conversion he is pictured as patient, kind, enduring, and self-sacrificing. His relationship with the followers of Jesus also drastically changed. The Bible tells us that he was in Damascus for several days and when Paul went to the apostles, he received the 'right hand of fellowship." "Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is the Son of God'"(Acts 9:20) Paul's mindset even changed. First he was working against the Christians and for the Pharisees, next he was in Jerusalem preaching the gospel - in direct conflict the Pharisees' messianic ideas. His new conception of Christ meant a total revolution in his thought. Paul's missionary preaching can be summarized as 'explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead...'This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,'"(Acts 17:3) Also he was at first a Gentile-hater to a missionary to Gentiles. He changed from a Jewish zealot to an evangelist to Gentiles. Paul was now a propagator of that new radical sect called Christianity which he had so violently opposed. There was a change in him that "all those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying 'Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name [Jesus], and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?'" (Acts 9:21) So, from what I see - about Paul's violent past and amazing life later on ( after the conversion ) I could say that if Paul's twenty-five years of suffering and service and for Christ were a reality, then his conversion was true, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, for everything Paul was and did he attributed to the sight of the risen Christ.





Here are some things I found out about Jesus' burial:

The body, in accordance with Jewish burial customs, was wrapped in a linen cloth. About 100 pounds of aromatic spices, mixed together to from a gummy substance, were applied to the wrappings of cloth about the body. After the body was placed in a solid rock tomb, and extremely large stone, weighing approximately two tons, was rolled by means of levers against the entrance of the tomb. A Roman guard of strictly disciplined men was stationed to guard the tomb. Fear of punishment "produced flawless attention to duty, especially in the night watches." This guard affixed on the tomb the Roman seal, a stamp of Roman power and authority. The seal was meant to prevent vandalizing. Anyone trying to move the stone from the tomb's entrance would have broken the seal and thus incurred the wrath of Roman law. But the tomb was empty.

The followers of Jesus said he had risen from the dead. They reported that the appeared to them during a period of forty days, showing himself to them by many "convincing proofs" (some versions say "infallible proofs"). Paul said that Jesus appeared to more than 500 of his followers at one time, the majority of whom were still alive and could confirm what Paul wrote. The emptiness of the tomb is too big a deal to just be ignored. Paul Althaus states that the resurrection "could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, or a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned." Not one shred of evidence has been found to disprove the fact that the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea (which is the rich guy who went to the high priest and said that he wanted Jesus buried there) was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter. So how can it be accounted for? Natural causes? Based on overwhelming historical evidence, I believe that Jesus was bodily resurrected in time and space by the supernatural power of God. Belief may be hard, but the problems that occur in unbelief present even greater difficulties. So lets see; first, the seal was broken, which meant automatic crucifixion upside down for those who did it. The large stone was moved up and away from not just the entrance, but from the entire massive sepulture, looking like it had been picked up and moved by an angle. The guard unit had fled. Justin in his Digest 49.16 lists eighteen offenses for which a guard unit could be put to death. These include falling asleep and leaving one's position unguarded. Next, the woman (Mary, I think) came and found the tomb empty; she panicked and went back to get the men. John and Peter came running up there to the tomb. John got there first but he did not go in. He looked in and there were the grave clothes, caved in a little, but empty. The body of Christ had passed right through them into a new existence. Now that would make you quite a believer for the moment wouldn't it? And this is funny: The theories brought forward to explain the resurrection from natural causes are so weak, they actually help to build confidence in the truth of the resurrection.

A theory produced by Kirsopp Lake assumes that the woman came to the wrong tomb. If so, then the disciples also had the wrong tomb. But we can be certain that the Jewish authorities, who had asked for that Roman guard to be stationed at the tomb to prevent the body from being stolen , wouldn't have been mistaken about the location . Nor would the Roman guards, for they were there. If it was the wrong tomb the Jewish authorities would have lost no time in retrieving the body from the correct tomb to put an end to the sudden rumor of resurrection. Right? So where was the body and why wasn't it ever produced?

Now, this is the most crazy theory that I have heard about anything. The Swoon Theory. Started by a guy named Venturini, several centuries ago, the swoon theory says that Jesus didn't actually die - he just swooned away. He passed out from loss of blood. Everyone thought that he was dead, but he was resuscitated and the disciples thought it to be a resurrection. all right - now I don't need to go into that - it's obvious that it can't be, but I will any ways. A Skeptic, David Friedrich Strauss - who was not a believer in the resurrection - completely demolished any thought that Jesus got up from a swoon: "It is impossible that a being who had stolen half-dead out of the sepulture, who crept about weak and ill, wanting medical treatment, who required bandaging, strengthening and indulgence, and who still at last yielded to his sufferings, could have given to the disciples the impression that he was a Conqueror over death and the grave, the Prince of Life, and impression which lay at the bottom of their future ministry. Such a resuscitation could only have weakened the impression which He had made upon them in life and in death, at the most could only have given it an elegiac voice, but could by no possibility have changed their sorrow into enthusiasm, have elevated their reverence to worship." So let's see, this guy says that Jesus woke up after being nailed through the hands and feet, suffocated by his own body weight on the cross, stabbed through the side and set up there and bled for hours, was able to breath under 100 pounds of aromatic spices (with a sword piercing in his lungs), get up out from under the spices with such a tired and weak body - then move the two ton rock out of the way without disturbing the Roman guard the slightest bit and slipped past them and walked the streets of Jerusalem for forty days, and preaching to over 500 people. I don't think so.

Now, could the body have been stolen? No. People say that the body could have been stolen while the guards slept. Now it had to be while they slept because if it wasn't then that means that either the Roman guard was working with the disciples in conspiracy to steal the body, or that the disciples took the guard out. Neither are feasible, and the latter means that they would have been caught, unless maybe they went and fled to some undiscovered island in the middle of the Atlantic - which didn't happen. Plus, the body of Jesus would have been discovered, unless they took it with them, and then I wouldn't be a Christian now, because Paul would have never been converted in such an amazing way and his life could not have been turned around in such a way for a thousand different reasons to create an impetus for him to preach the Gospel - which would not have been able to stand on any kind of foundation of truth, because without the resurrection, Christianity would have died out long, long ago. Well, that was a long sentence. But hopefully you see what I mean. Plus, remember that the disciples' Messiah had just been killed and they were in no mood to steal the body of Jesus. And for some reason there is another unplausible theory that says that for some reason, the Jewish authorities moved Christ's body. If they had the body, then why, when the disciples were preaching the resurrection, did they not explain that they had taken it? Why didn't they recover the corpse, put it in a cart and roll it through the streets of Jerusalem? That would have certainly destroyed Christianity. It's crazy to say that the believers were out preaching and causing all kinds of disturbances in the city and all the authorities had to do was to produce the body of Jesus. But they couldn't find it.

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Now, here are some really cool things that I found in a book. Of course I did not come up with these statistics - I'm not a mathematician. Over and over again Jesus appealed to the prophecies stated throughout the Old Testament to substantiate his claims as the Messiah. In the Old Testament there are sixty major messianic prophecies and approximately 270 ramifications, or results of those prophecies, that all ended up being fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ. These prophecies can be found in the Old Testament which was written over a period of 1,000 years - with over 300 references to His coming. Plus, all of these prophecies were made about 400 years before Jesus' coming - which completely rules out any way that humans could manipulate things in such a way as to bring about the Messiah's coming. Now, you can say that the prophecies were written down after the time of Christ and made to coincide with his life. This might sound feasible until you see that the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, was translated around 150 - 200 B.C. This Greek translation shows that there was at least a two hundred- year gap between the prophesies' recording and their fulfillment in Christ. What God was doing was writing an "address" (for lack of better word) in history that only the true Messiah could fulfill. There have been over forty major claims of men saying that they were the Messiah - but only one, Jesus Christ - fulfilled prophecy to back up his claims. ALL the prophecies:

First, in Genesis 3:15, in all scripture, only one Man was to be 'born of the seed of a woman' - all others are born of the seed of a man. This one Man will come into the world and undo the works of Satan. Then, there was Noah who had three sons; Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But in Gen. 9 and 10, God says the line of Messiahship will come through the lineage of Shem. Then, continuing to 2000 B.C., we find Abraham with God calling him out of the land of Ur of the Chaldees. Then God got even more specific, stating that the Messiah will be one of his descendants. He had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. God then chose Isaac to carry on the messianic lineage. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau, and the God chose the lineage Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons, out of whom developed the twelve tribes of Israel. The God singled out the tribe of Judah - eliminating 11/12 th's of the Israelite tribes. And of all the family lines in Judah, the line of Jesse was chosen. You can see the probability building cant you? Jesse had eight children and in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 and Jeremiah 23:5 God eliminated 7/8 th's of Jesse's family line: so, Christ will not only be of the seed of a woman , the lineage of Shem, the race of the Jews, the line of Isaac, the line of Jacob, the tribe of Judah, but that he will also be of the house of David. A prophecy dating 1012 B.C. says that this Man's hands and feet will be pierced (i.e., he will be crucified)This description was written 800 years before crucifixion was put into effect by the Romans. (Read Psalm 22, Zechariah 12:10; compare Galatians 3:13. They all talk about some prophecies and they even go into minor details like that the clothes of the Messiah will be auctioned off. Which they were!) Isaiah 7:14 adds that he will be born of a virgin: a natural birth beyond human planning and control. Mostly in Psalms and Isaiah it talks about the way that he is to be treated and the way he actually is treated: that the Jews will reject him and the Gentiles will embrace him. Also Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1 both talk about ' a voice in the wilderness, one preparing the way before the Lord - John the Baptist. Also, here's my favorite one: that he will be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. Here, God indicates that the Messiah will 1.) be betrayed, 2.) by a friend, 3,)for thirty pieces, 4.) of silver and that it will be 5.)cast on the floor 6.) of the temple, and 7.) used to buy a potter's field. Then in Micah 5:2, (which is in the Old Testament) God eliminates all the cities of the world and chooses Bethlehem, a town with less than 1,000 people living there, as the Messiah's birthplace. Malachi 3:1 and four other Old Testament verses require that the Messiah come while the temple of Jerusalem is still standing. This is a big deal when we see that the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 and has not since been rebuilt. So, we have everything from the exact lineage (read Matthew 1:1-17 for exact lineage) to the approximate time to the manner of birth to the people's reactions, the betrayal, and the manner of death. Now, you could find some of these prophecies fulfilled in many men...but not all the prophecies. In fact, according to this book I have, if you can find one person either living or dead, who can fulfill only half of the predictions concerning Messiahship, the Christian Victory Publishing Company of Denver is ready to give you a $1,000 reward. In a book written by a man named Peter W. Stoner shows the amazing probability that completely rules out coincidences by science and math. The guy says that using the science of probability in reference to eight prophecies "we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10^17 (one in ten to the seventeenth power). That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That's a lot. Peter Stoner gives this equivalent illustration to help us comprehend such as staggering probability: "Suppose we take 10^17 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 that they all wrote in their own wisdom." They all came true in one man - Jesus Christ.

Another objection says that Jesus deliberately attempted to fulfill the Jewish prophecies. This seems OK for a while, until we see that many of the details of the Messiah's coming were totally beyond human control. For example, the place of birth. I can just hear Jesus in Mary's womb as she rode on the donkey: "Mom, we won't make it..." When Herod asked the chief priests and scribes, "Where is the Christ to be born?" they said, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet" Other examples are the time of his coming, the manner of his birth, betrayal by Judas and the betrayal price, the manner of his death, the people's reactions, the mocking, the staring, the laughing, the casting of dice for his clothes, the non-tearing of his garment, etc. Half are beyond his fulfillment...he couldn't help being of the line of Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, etc. Could he? No. I believe that God went to all this trouble because he wanted Jesus Christ to have all the credentials the needed when he came into the world. He fulfilled the hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament and he alone can fulfill the greatest prophecy of all for those who will accept it - the promise of new life: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you....Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come."

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