Posted on 05/29/2013 2:02:35 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
It is impossible that Christianity is not God's revelation of truth to man. Simply impossible. The math proves it beyond question. It doesn't take faith to believe that one plus one equals two, and it doesn't take faith to identify the religion which has mathematical certainty in its corner.
God didn't have to give us mathematical proof of His existence, but He did it anyway. God didn't have to give us proof of Christianity, but He chose to do so. And God didn't have to give us proof of His love for us, but that is exactly what He did. The proof is irrefutable.
I live in Nebraska where I serve as a pastor. Imagine someone covering this entire state in silver dollars 6 feet deep. Then mark one coin and bury it anywhere across the state. Next, blindfold a man and have him choose one coin. The odds that he would choose the marked coin are the same odds of getting 8 prophecies all fulfilled in one man. God gave us about 300 fulfilled prophecies in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Here are 8 of those 300 prophecies:
(1) The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4-6) (2) The Messiah will be a descendant of Jacob. (Numbers 24:17; Matthew 1:2) (3) The Messiah will enter Jerusalem as a king riding on a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9; Mark 11:4-11) (4) The Messiah will be betrayed by a friend. (Psalm 41:9; Luke 22:47,48) (5) The Messiah's betrayal money will be used to purchase a potter's field. (Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:9,10) (6) The Messiah will be spat upon and struck. (Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 26:67) (7) The Messiah's hands and feet will be pierced. (Psalm 22:16; John 20:25-27) (8) Soldiers will gamble for the Messiah's garments. (Psalm 22:18; Luke 23:34)
There is no way one man could have fulfilled all 8 of these prophecies unless God was making it happen. Who else controls history? Who else could give us such irrefutable proof for Christianity? The odds are one in one hundred quadrillion, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
This mathematical proof was calculated by Professor Peter Stoner. He was chairman of the mathematics and astronomy departments at Pasadena City College until 1953. He then went to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, where he served as chairman of the science division.
You don't have to be a mathematics professor to see that this evidence is irrefutable. No one would pick the marked coin under those conditions. No one but God could have given us these biblical prophecies, and then brought them to fulfillment right before our eyes. It is impossible that Christianity is false. The math proves it, and the Man behind the math rose from the dead, just as it had been foretold.
It doesn't take faith to see how the Bible could only have come from God. It does take faith, however, to accept Jesus as your Savior and to believe in God's promise of eternal life. God has done everything to make this way open to you. If you choose to reject it in spite of the overwhelming evidence and in spite of God's love for you, you will be walking away from an open door to paradise.
Some people won't accept proof for the Bible even when it is irrefutable. Man, by nature, is not very good at accepting the evidence which God has laid out for us. The bias against God and against the supernatural is so strong that even irrefutable evidence is viewed with suspicion and doubt.
Never mind the fact that the prophecy about Christ's crucifixion was given hundreds of years before that type of execution was being used. And who but God could have identified Bethlehem 700 years before Christ was born? You really have to have a closed mind to miss the supernatural quality of the Bible, especially when you really start to dig into it. The historical and mathematical conclusions all point to God's plan of salvation through His Son.
Here is an idea. Try looking at this mathematical proof as if you didn't have any bias against God and against the supernatural, and see how that approach works for you. The end result of your honest evaluation may shock you, and then it will change you from the inside out. That is what happens whenever man embraces the truth as revealed to us in Scripture.
One plus one equals two. Old Testament history plus New Testament fulfillment equals irrefutable proof. This is why Christianity is not a "blind faith." It is a faith built on immovable facts. Are you ready to have that firm foundation in your life? Or do you plan to finish out your time here on this planet with nothing more than an unreasonable bias against God?
No one ever said man is going to always be reasonable. That's the tragic thing about the human soul ever since sin entered the world. There are some biases which go even deeper than common sense and mathematical certainty. That's what our sin does to us, and this is why you and I need the Messiah. We need Jesus because we are sinners. We have broken God's law. And God has been gracious enough not only to give us His only Son, but even to give us conclusive proof for Christianity.
So it's no surprise to find that every other belief system and every other religion lacks even a hint of mathematical evidence, let alone irrefutable proof. The followers of those religions are no less sincere, but the foundation for their faith is not based on irrefutable evidence. Where is your faith based today? Do you have a bias against God which is keeping you from considering the mathematical certainty which supports Christianity?
If so, God still loves you, and there is still hope. Many former unbelievers who are now Christians know just what you are going through. This is a critical time for you to consider your sin against God, and your need for His forgiveness.
But don't take my word for it. Instead, accept the irrefutable proof which our Creator has kindly given us in the Old and New Testaments. He loves you far more than you can fathom. He proved it at the cross, and through the fulfilled prophecies. You would have to be blind to miss it.
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Neb. He is a regular contributor to The Christian Post.
It's all just math.
I think he’s saying that there are GOOD REASONS for faith, not that faith is unnecessary.
If an atheist wants to tackle the mental issues...
tell me this, why cannot anyone imagine the concept of nothing..picture nothing, a black void is something..the reason nothing cannot be imagined is because God has always been..
Lots of words about math and not much math. I’m guessing this guy flunked algebra in school because he never showed his work nor his proof.
in the 60’s there was a convention of scientists in chicago where it was determined scientifically and mathematically that evolution was impiossible- these were not ‘Christian scientists’ these were the top scientists of their time- Of course sicne hten htey’ve been ridiculed, ostracised, and mostl ikely harrassed for buckign hte faith of eviolution- but recent scientists liek Demski have also concluded that mathematically, evoltuion is impossible, and not just by a little bit- but rather by such a large margin that there is no possible way it coudl have happened (and demski coems to htese conclusions DESPITE beleiving that evolution is how we came to be... unless he’s changed his mind recently- but liek ehe- I think he still beleives we evovled despite hte evidnece agaisnt it)
Proof of the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ? That's what people need to be shown.
Do you have a link with more information about the convention? It sounds really interesting!
Amen on all 300! I find these fascinating, some 600 years before Christ was born, yet he is the speaker in these Zechariah passages:
I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price...So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver, 11:12. Thirty pieces of silver, exactly Judas' "price," Matt. 26:14, 15.
And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, 12:10. "Me" he said, they shall look upon "me," and who was it that was pierced but Jesus Christ? John 19:34 quotes this passage as a prophecy of Christ's crucifixion.
And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends, 13:6.
Amazing, simply amazing. Proof positive for Christianity.
I find this to be a very good argument.
Atheists however, would try to debunk it by pointing out that the person of Jesus would know these prophecies, and some could be fulfilled by him through conscious action (riding the donkey).
They would also dispute that many of these events, such as the purchase of the Potter’s field, are only confirmed by the Bible itself, therefore it cannot be trusted.
In short, atheists and others will assert that Jesus would have actively tried to fulfill prophecies, and any he didn’t fulfill, could have been embellished by the disciples.
I would say the best argument for Christ is the resurrection. The phenomena of the empty tomb, from all of the background facts we can ascertain from the information we do have, is very hard to explain. If I’m not mistaken, most historians have concluded there was indeed an empty tomb, and they have no explanation as to why that was.
If we can prove that the resurrection was probable, everything else simply falls into place, since Jesus’ claims would have been vindicated.
Personally, the Shroud of Turin has always been my favorite piece of evidence. Scientists are still scratching their head with that one.
Can you or somebody tell me why the Jews are not convinced that Jesus fulfills these prophecies?
What are their alternative explanations?
There must be a definition of the word “mathematical” that I am not familiar with.
I believe in elements of evolution, but you’re 100% right. Evolution is so mathematically improbable, I heard one person describe the situation as follows.
Even if EVERY planet in the universe was covered with “primordial soup”, it would require impossible variable alignments for life to occur anywhere.
This feeds in to the “fine-tuning” argument, that says that it is impossible this happened by chance, pointing to a conscious, designing mind.
I would guess their aversion to Christ comes from the deep-seated Jewish belief that the messiah would be a warrior king who would destroy Israel’s enemies. For the messiah to end up murdered and humiliated by his own people, this just does not make sense to them.
Then again, I would recommend you ask a rabbi.
evoltuionists liek to say that ‘even if hte number is very small (severely understatign how small then umber actually is), then it ‘coudl have happened’ however, the event of one protein happenign by chance is so small it is not even a possibility, but let’;s say it did happen somehow- we then have hte problem that 2,000,000 morew impossible events owuld have had to occure as well in order forl ife to be a viable reality
[[the mathematical probability that a human protein could accidentally arise from random combinations of those 20 possible amino acids into a specific human protein is 1 chance in 20 to the 100th power, or well beyond 1 in 10 to the 100th power.
Carl Sagan estimated this probability to be approximately 1 in 10 to the 130th power (Carl Sagan, Encyclopaedia Britannica).
So, since Borel’s Law indicates that it’s ridiculous to consider probabilities with odds of less than 1 in 10 to the 50th power, that what does that tell us about whether or not a protein could “create itself” accidentally?]]
http://www.religiouslyincorrect.com/Articles/ChemicalEvolution5.shtml
[[1 chance in 10 to the 2,000,000,000 power is so absurdly unlikely that it’s trillions upon trillions of times less likely than science’s definition of “mathematical impossibility.”]]
of coursem sot iwll simply dismiss all this based o nthe fact that it was posted on a ‘religious’ site- however, these numbers were used durign hte cofnerencei n chicago back i nthe 60’s as well, and demski has also come up with much of hte same- but none of htis matters because Chirstians are ‘ignorant of science’ and therefore aren’t capable of understanding thta nature is so brilliant and supernatural that it coudl do the impossible
You really need a new keyboard.
[[I believe in elements of evolution]]
Micro evoltuion, or rather adaptaTION is a biologically proven fact- however, mega-evolution- or rather evoltuion as described by Darwin, is not possible-
[[This feeds in to the “fine-tuning” argument, that says that it is impossible this happened by chance, pointing to a conscious, designing mind.]]
Last i heard peopell ike demski beleive Nature is that ‘mind’ which created and directed INFORMATION- Yet I’m not sure how he beleives nature is a conscious calculating ‘force’ capable of irreducibly complex arrangements- but whatever, He’s close ot hte truth, he just unfortunately misses the whole truth by 10 to the 2,000,000th power
I’m looking ofr it now- but also check out Demski’s site (just be aware that he is rabidly attacked by diehard evoltuionists for his mathematical conclusions-) I think his full name is bill demski if I remember right
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