Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Matthew 5:18

What chance is there when it comes to the laws of probability?  If you answer, “Not much!” you are right, because the laws of probability are carefully defined and calculated mathematically.  There is no real element of chance whatsoever.  For example, take a coin and toss it in the air.  If the coin is perfectly balanced, it has a one-in-two chance of coming up heads, right?  Now, what chance is there in its coming up heads twice in a row?  The odds are one in four.  Again, what chance is there of the coin coming up heads three times in a row?  If you answer, “A chance in eight,” you are right, and I suspect you have given this matter some thought on previous occasions.

Now, with this in mind, let me ask you another question‑‑one which you may not have considered.  Have you ever applied the laws of chance or probability to the remarkable prophecies which were made prior to the coming of Jesus Christ to earth?  Have you ever considered the fact that there were well over 300 prophecies made before Jesus ever came?  What chance was there that these could just have happened?   There were three prophecies, at least, over which Jesus Christ had absolutely no control‑‑the place where He was born (Micah 5:2), the time of His birth (Daniel 9:25), and the manner in which He was born (Isaiah 7:14).  The chance of these three being fulfilled, if it were as simple as tossing a coin in the air, would be one in 8, but the chances of these three prophecies just happening are astronomical.

For example, have you ever considered the element of chance in Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem, as Micah predicted 500 years before Jesus was born?  The scenario of this event came many years before, when Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. and his grandnephew, Augustus, became Caesar.  When Augustus wanted to beautify the empire, he decided to tax the citizens of the empire, and, as Luke tells us, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed” (Luke 2:1, KJV).

The timing of Jesus’ birth includes the pace at which the wind blew the ship carrying the centurion across the Mediterranean, the speed at which the order was posted in Palestine, and even the pace at which the donkey moved, which brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.  All of this, of course, had to be coordinated with the timing of her pregnancy.  Had any of these events which I mentioned taken only a few days sooner or longer‑‑say, for instance, had the winds which bore the ship blown a bit more sharply‑‑Jesus would have been born in Nazareth, where Joseph lived, rather than in Bethlehem.  You begin to see immediately that the chance of just three of these prophecies happening is remarkable; yet I said that there were well over 300 prophecies relating to the life of Jesus Christ, and according to the laws of probability, it just couldn’t have happened.  You see, when God detailed the circumstances relating to the coming of His Son, He was making the odds so great that it was absolutely impossible for them to have “just happened.”

In the Old Testament, God said that if a prophecy wasn’t fulfilled in every detail, that prophet was a false prophet and forfeited his right to live.  God viewed false predictions as a very serious matter.  When Jesus was here, He made it plain that every detail of prophecy had to be fulfilled.  “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18).  The probability of these things “just happening” is an absurd impossibility.  Think about it.

Resource reading:  2 Peter 3:1-9