“The Bible is Myth and Fairytale”: Response to Religulous, Part 5
Author: Andy Robbins
In continuing with our discussion on rebutting Bill Maher’s assertions on Christianity and religion in general, let’s take a look at just a few issues pertaining to the veracity of scripture.
The Bible claims to be the only inspired Word of God. But so do many other religious writings. From the Book of Mormon to the Koran, pretty much all religious writings claim to be divinely inspired. So what makes the Bible unique?
One of the most compelling evidences of the Bible’s divine origin is the fact that it contains hundreds of prophecies about future events. Consider the fact that including prophecies in a religious writing is a foolish thing to do if the person(s) compiling the writings are concerned at all about maintaining a following. If any of those prophecies ever prove to be inaccurate or false, the religious writing has just been soundly invalidated. However, not one of the prophecies ever written in the pages of the Bible have ever found to be inaccurate. Hundreds have already come true in uncanny accuracy, and more are unfolding before our eyes at this very moment.
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Since my last post dealt with the Lordship of Jesus Christ, let’s visit the prophecies concerning the Messiah in order to prove the point.
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The Old Testament was written hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. The Old Testament contains about 300 prophecies concerning the birth, life, and death of the promised Messiah. Many of these prophecies were things that someone could never have arranged themselves. For example, someone who read that the Messiah would move from one place to another could easily go from that one place to the other and proclaim that he had fulfilled that prophecy. But many of the prophecies concerning Jesus were things that He never could have arranged, such as what town He would be born in, what family line He would be born into, the fact that He would be betrayed for a specific amount of money, the fact that none of His bones would be broken at His crucifixion, soldiers gambling for His clothes at His crucifixion, etc. In all, there were more than 300 detailed prophecies that spoke of the coming Messiah.
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A few years ago a team of over 400 mathematic professors and students at Westmont College analyzed the prophecies concerning the Messiah in order to determine the mathematical probabilities of someone coming along in history who could have by chance fulfilled even six of the prophecies concerning the Messiah. They determined that it would be one chance in 10…..to the 27th power! That’s a number with 27 zeroes behind it. There’s not even a name for a number that big. Then they analyzed 48 of the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and determined that for someone in history to come along and fulfill just that many was one chance in 10 to the 157th power!!!
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Now, Jesus didn’t fulfill just 6 or 48 of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. He fulfilled every single one of the over 300 prophecies down to the last detail. The odds of someone just accidentally fulfilling even 6 of those prophecies is mathematically impossible, yet Jesus fulfilled every one!
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In an attempt to demonstrate the chances of that happening by accident, author Josh McDowell offers this scenario:
Imagine the state of Texas blanketed from one end to the other with a covering of silver dollars four feet high. One of those trillions and trillions of silver dollars has a distinguishing red mark on it, but no one knows where it is. Now imagine someone parachuting into the state of Texas blindfolded and picking up the silver dollar with the red mark on the first try. There’s a better chance of that happening than for someone to come along who could by random chance fulfill just six of the prophecies concerning the Messiah. Again, a careful review of history against Old Testament prophecy reveals that Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of the prophecies, more than three-hundred of them!
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If there is any fairy tale here, it is the fairy tale that Jesus is just one of the many paths that lead to God and the Bible is a book of myth and folklore. Any reasonable person can see that Jesus was no ordinary man, and that the Bible is no ordinary book. The Bible is the only collection of religious writings that is clearly divinely inspired, and Jesus is the only religious leader Who is clearly divine. It is foolhardy to bet your eternal destiny on the Bible not being true and Jesus not being your only hope of salvation.
I’m not brave enough to bet against odds like that and stakes that high. Are you?