Page 14 - Eschatology - Masters revised

At the time of Isaiah’s writing, the city of Jerusalem was fully built, and the entire temple was standing.
Not until more than 100 years later would the city and temple be destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in
586 BC.

After Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians, it was conquered by the Persians in about 539 BC.
Shortly after that, a Persian king named Cyrus gave the decree to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. This
was around 160 years after the prophecy of Isaiah!

Thus, Isaiah predicted that a man named Cyrus, who would not be born for about 100 years, would give
the command to rebuild the temple which was still standing in Isaiah’s day and would not be destroyed
for more than 100 years. This prophecy is truly amazing, but it is not isolated.

There are, in fact, literally hundreds of prophecies which predict future events. The idea that the
fulfillment of the predictions is a result of coincidence or chance is absurd, in light of the evidence. God
has given sufficient evidence of His existence and of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures by means of
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fulfilled prophecy.

Could it be that he’s just one of many throughout history who have coincidentally fit the prophetic
fingerprint?

“Not a chance,” comes the response of Louis Lapides, a Christian convert from Judaism. “The odds are
so astronomical that they rule that out. Someone did the math and estimated that the probability of just
eight prophecies being fulfilled is one chance in one hundred million billion. That number is millions of
times greater than the total number of people who’ve ever walked the planet!

“That same person calculated that if you took this number
of silver dollars, they would cover the state of Texas to a
depth of two feet. If you marked one silver dollar among
them and then had a blindfolded person wander the whole
state and bend down to pick up one coin, what would be
the odds he’d choose the one that had been marked? The
same odds that anybody in history could have fulfilled just
eight of the prophecies.”

Scientist Peter Stoner estimated that the probability of fulfilling 48 prophecies was one chance in a
trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion! Our
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minds can’t comprehend a number that big.

According to the laws of probability, if the chance of an
50
event occurring is smaller than 1:10 , then the event will
never occur (this is equal to 1 divided by 10 and is a
50
very small number). The probability of Jesus Christ
fulfilling 48 prophecies from the Old Testament would be
1:10 ! In other words, not possible!!! He was and is the
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fulfillment of what the prophets foretold of Him.

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