Evidence for Jesus

In the women’s Bible study I am involved in, we have been discussing the book Evidence for Jesus by Ralph Muncaster. This is a very interesting book, which presents a solid, historical case for the accuracy of the Bible, and the stories contained in the Bible. I have learned a lot in reading this book, although, whether I can retain what I’ve learned remains to be seen! I think it will be helpful in explaining that the Christian faith is not a “blind faith”; it is based on real events, which have been documented in history (even non-Christian history!)

Honestly, attendance at the Bible study has dropped off since we began discussing this book, and I am fairly sure it is because it is somewhat dry, and while the facts contained within are amazing, it is difficult to carry a conversation about them. (I am really missing the leader guide in the back of most of the books we have done with pre-prepared, leading questions!). This is not a great book for a small group study, but I think it is a must-read.

The chapters we were to discuss this week were especially interesting, I thought, and I wanted to share some of what I learned. This list below of prophecies fulfilled by the life and death of Jesus is certainly not exhaustive, these are just a few of those mentioned in the book.

Jesus was born exactly where the God said he would be born, and to whom He would be born. In Micah 5:2we are told that Bethlehem Ephrathah would produce the Messiah. Randomly fulfilling just this one prophecy has odds of about 1 in 100,000,000 based on the population of the world at the time of Jesus’ birth.

Jesus’ ancestry was prophesied in:

Genesis 22:17-18 (would descend from Abraham) and the fulfillment was explained in Galatians 3:16

Genesis 21:12 (would descend from Isaac) and the fulfillment was explained in Luke 3:23,34

Numbers 24:17 (would descend from Jacob) and the fulfillment was explained in Luke 3:23,34

Genesis 49:10 (would descend from Judah) and fulfillment was explained in Luke 3:23,33

Isaiah 11:1-2(would descend from Jesse) and the fulfillment was explained in Luke 3:23,32

Jeremiah 23:5 (would descend from David) and the fulfillment was explained in Luke 3:23,31)

The odds of randomly fulfilling all of the above prophecies is about 1 in 1.3824 trillion!

Amazing to me was the prophecy of “passing the scepter”. In Genesis 49:10, it says “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.”

“This was a promise to the Jews that they would retain control of their laws until the Messiah arrived. However, when the Romans usurped the Law of Moses by forbidding them to carry out the ultimate sentence for blasphemy (death by stoning), it was regarded as the passing of the scepter.”

So, the Messiah had to be born before the scepter was passed according to this verse, and the death of the Messiah had to happen after the passing of the scepter, since the Messiah was prophesied to be pierced, not stoned. The Jews would have used stoning for blasphemy, instead Jesus was crucified. This limits the lifespan of the Messiah to a very short time period.

“Jesus fulfilled these 2 criteria by being born sometime from 7 B.C. to 2 B.C. (Scholars dispute the date, although the most commonly accepted date if 4 B.C.). Furthermore, Jesus was crucified sometime around A.D. 32, fulfilling the second criterion.”

Amazing!

Also, it was prophesied that Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, which would be thrown on the Temple floor, and would be given to a potter

Zechariah 11:11-13

Matthew 26:14-16
Matthew 27:5
Matthew 27:6-10

I mean, this almost sounds to me as if God is saying, “just so you aren’t confused…just so you know exactly who I am sending to you…”

And finally, In Psalm 22:16, Isaiah 53:5 and Zechariah 12:10-11, it was prophesied that the Messiah would be “pierced”. What I found amazing is that the Romans did not even invent crucifixion until around 400 B.C. – hundreds of years after these prophecies were written. And of course Jesus fulfilled these prophecies because he was pierced – crucified.

Of course this is a case that has been built through 14 chapters before these, so maybe it is not as amazing to everyone else, but I am in awe of my God that
#1) He would make these prophecies available to everyone...if He was wrong even one time, it would be found and publicized, making any error widely known. I pretty big risk, in human terms.
#2) He made these prophecies available to make it crystal clear to those earnestly seeking the truth that the Messiah has come!
#3) As painful as it must have been for Him, He allowed His son to fulfill these prophecies (and many, many others), even though they were isolating, even terribly, terribly painful.