The Mathematical Impossibility of Christmas
And somehow, it is that time of year again. The last 20 months have been a whirlwind, leaving many lacking hope as we face all sorts of tribulation from every angle of this worldly life. Fellow Christians, let’s use this season as a time to remind one another of why we celebrate Christmas! And to that end, let us be the light in a darkened world, equipped with a historical basis of who this baby in a manger is. What Christmas is really all about comes down to a historical understanding of who Jesus is and the Scriptures that point to Him throughout the entirety of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
“What Christmas is really all about comes down to a historical understanding of who Jesus is and the Scriptures that point to Him throughout the entirety of the Old Testament and the New Testament.”
Pointing to fulfilled prophecies is a good place to start, one of many defenses of historic Christianity we will explore in upcoming blog posts. In Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell & Sean McDowell, they cite the work of Peter Stoner, a mathematician who took 8 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus in the Bible and the mathematical impossibility of all 8 being fulfilled by one person. Keep in mind there are over 300 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus concerning the Messiah, 8 of them being:
Being born in Bethlehem
A messenger would come before him (his cousin John)
Arriving in Jerusalem on a donkey
He would be betrayed by a friend
The friend that betrayed him (Judas) would be paid 30 pieces of silver
That silver would be used to buy a potter’s field
Though innocent, He would be silent while being accused
He would be pierced in His hands and feet and die among criminals as one of them
With these prophecies alone, according to Stoner, it would take 1 in 10¹⁷ (that is 10 with 17 zeros after) for any of these to all happen to one person. A skeptical objection is that somehow Jesus orchestrated these things to be having known the Old Testament. However, how does one cause himself to be born in a specific place (Micah 5:2)? How does one orchestrate the manner of his own death (Psalm 22:16), guarantee his bones would not be broken after he died (Exodus 12:46), or pre-planned to be buried with the rich (Isaiah 53:9)?
“In Stoner’s illustration, fulfilling 8 prophecies alone would mean laying 10¹⁷ silver dollars across Texas, which would stack 2 feet high, marking one of those coins, and then asking a blind man to find it. “
Keep in mind these prophecies were predicted hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, the start of the Common Era (CE), or for hundreds of years what was called Anno Domini (AD), “the year of our Lord.” In his latest book Person of Interest, atheist-turned-believer and cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace meticulously documents the historic evidence of Jesus without using the New Testament. He outlines the dates for the prophecies of the Messiah:
Pre-1400 BCE (Before Common Era aka BC, “Before Christ”), Moses and Job predicted a male human would be born of a woman with the specific bloodline of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah.
1060-1015 BCE, 400 years later, Psalmists David, Solomon, and Asaph made predictions pointing to Jesus such as the manner in which he would die, the kings (or magi) visiting Him at His birth, His silence before his accusers, and His resurrection from the dead.
931-710 BCE, prophets Samuel, Joel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Micah emerge to speak of the coming Messiah, including his descent from David, being born in Bethlehem, being called out of Egypt, and being called the “Son of God.”
700-681 BCE, Isaiah predicts the vast majority of the coming Messiah such as Jesus’ descent from Jesse, healing the sick, being scourged for our healing, and Him being the King of Kings.
There are other prophets, whom, to reflect his own work as a detective, Wallace refers to as “informants” in his book, including Ezekiel and Jeremiah writing 600 years before Christ; Daniel writing 500 years before Christ; and Zechariah, Ezra, and Malachi predicting the final pieces like being preceded by Elijah, being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and entering Jerusalem on a donkey.
In Stoner’s illustration, fulfilling 8 prophecies alone would mean laying 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10¹⁷) silver dollars across Texas, which would stack 2 feet high, marking one of those coins, and then asking a blind man to find it. The probability of him finding that one coin is so staggeringly improbable, it could reasonably be considered impossible. Now stack up 48 fulfilled prophecies of the Messiah. That becomes 10¹⁵⁷! Now imagine 300 prophecies being fulfilled by one man! Statistics show us sure, it’s possible, but realistically, is it really probable? Probably not! This can only point to the careful planning of the Grand Director's divine production of history.
Jesus undoubtedly is the prophesied Messiah, come to earth as the Lord in flesh, born in Bethlehem, to then die for His people on the hill of Calvary. Let us indeed rejoice this season knowing the Messiah has come and, according to Scripture, will surely come again!