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Why should we believe Jesus is from God? There are a lot of reasons. One is fulfilled prophecy. Over 60 different prophecies were made about Jesus, some hundreds of years before his birth. For many, Jesus did not have control over them, such as where he was born, who his ancestors were and how he died. Yet Jesus fulfills the prophecies. Was it just coincidence? Far from it! The odds of Jesus fulfilling just 48 of the prophecies has been calculated. But before we talk about that, we need to understand the number trillion.
Do you know how big a trillion is? It is the favorite number of the current U.S. government for spending. It seems they always want to spend a trillion or two more. So, how much money is a trillion dollars? If you spent a million dollars every day since Jesus was born, you would not yet have spent a trillion dollars!1 A trillion is a big number!
So, now let’s talk about the odds of Jesus fulfilling 48 of the 60 prophecies about him by chance. That number has been calculated as 1 chance in 10 to the 147th power2. That is 1 chance in 10 million, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion! Talk about a big number! Talk about the odds! Jesus’ fulfillment of prophecy did not happen by chance! God made it happen!
- Scott Leonard, “Leonard: Why I believe Jesus rose from the dead,” Vail Daily, April 20,2019, <https://www.vaildaily.com/opinion/leonard-why-i-believe-jesus-rose-from-the-dead/, quoting from Josh McDowell, More Than a Carpenter.
- Amit Agarwal, “Visualizing a Trillion: Just How Big That Number Is?” Digital Inspiration, March 9, 2009, https://www.labnol.org/internet/visualize-numbers-how-big-is-trillion-dollars/7814/.
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Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.