As our world gets increasingly smaller due to technology, we are encountering many different things including religions. Every belief system has its own set of exclusivities, those things that make their constituents right and others wrong. So there are people raised in particular belief systems that are completely satisfied with their religion, or should I say have no interest in examining its veracity. However, there are those who may be questioning that system and are looking for genuine evidence. Evidence that either supports their beliefs or the lack therefore that makes them open to change. But where does one begin to look?
I remember a few years back I was part of a one-day missions excursion to Niagara Falls, Canada. A group of us decided to do some street preaching and not being familiar with Canadian free speech laws we used the hit-and-run tactic. That is, we preached for a very short time at one spot, and then moved to a different location before the authorities could catch up with us. What I did experience was seeing many different people of many different nationalities and religions everywhere. My thoughts whirled around in my head. Where do I begin with people who have no Judeo-Christian background? Why am I different than the Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, etc.? How can I present Jesus Christ as more than just a cultural or ethnic supposition?
In the world we live in today, where it seems to many that one religion is no better than the other, that the “whatever works for you” pragmatism is all we need, Christians need to set the context. By setting the context I mean that we need to look at the whole picture, to set every religion and belief system side by side and through contrast and comparison, see if any of them stand out as credible. Therefore, we must be ready and competent to put Jesus Christ into the arena with Buddha, Confucius, Krishna, Joe Smith, Richard Dawkins, and the rest. I think the outcome will not be surprising, all bias excluded.
Why the Jewish claims are significant.
When we look at the claims of the various leaders of religious groups, it should be noted that the source of Jesus Christ was not Christianity. The source of Christ is Judaism. So when we begin to examine the claims of Christ, it’s to the sacred writings of the Jews we have to look. Hence, our primary source document will be the Old Testament and the miraculous prophecies found in the Old Testament.
“The Old Testament contains a complete ID kit so that the people of Israel can recognize the Messiah and put their faith in Him. Even the Sages admitted: ‘All the prophets prophesied only towards the Messianic era’” Tractate Sanhedrin 99a quoted by Dr. Eitan Bar1
What is the ID kit? Well for one thing, Messiah can be traced from Adam to Noah to Shem to Abraham to Judah to David to Mary and Joseph to Jesus Christ. There is no question as far as Messiah’s genealogical record is concerned.
Old Testament prophecy.
Alfred Edersheim2, a Jewish convert to Christianity, listed 456 specific prophecies of Christ’s first coming. Peter Stoner’s research into these prophecies is of significant interest.
Peter Stoner’s work3 Who was Peter Stoner? His credentials are somewhat impressive. He was the Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College until 1953; Chairman of the science division, Westmont College, 1953-57; Professor Emeritus of Science, Westmont College and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Astronomy, Pasadena City College.
The students carefully weighed all the factors, discussed each prophecy at length, and examined the various circumstances which might indicate that men had conspired together to fulfill a particular prophecy. They made their estimates conservative enough so that there was finally unanimous agreement even among the most skeptical students. However, Professor Stoner then took their estimates and made them even more conservative. He also encouraged other skeptics or scientists to make their own estimates to see if his conclusions were more than fair. He submitted his figures for review to a committee of the American Scientific Affiliation. Upon examination, they verified that his calculations were dependable and accurate in regard to the scientific material presented. What did Dr. Stoner’s research find? That for eight specific prophecies to be fulfilled the odds were 1 x 1017. That’s 1 x 1,000,000,000,000,000,000! Those odds have been described in this way: If the state of Texas was covered with silver dollars three feet thick with one colored black, the odds of a person blindfolded finding that black silver dollar the first attempt are the same odds!
It even gets more inconceivable when the forty-eight prophecies were calculated. The odds are 1 x 10 157! Instead of the silver dollar example, we have to use electrons. The odds of taking all the 1 x 10157 amount of electrons, marking one black, blindfolding a man, and hoping he can find that one marked electron the first try would be the same odds! Needless to say, I don’t have the time or space in this brief treatise to go over many of the messianic prophecies. For a more in-depth look at them, I recommend Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands A Verdict or go to Eitan Bar’s website oneforisrael.org.
However, let’s look at a couple of them. We’ve already looked at Messiah’s genealogy and he clearly fits the bill there. But what about where he would be born? Is there a prophecy about that? That is a great question because the world is a pretty big place and if one could narrow down his birth location as prophesied, that would carry considerable weight. And we do have that!
Predicted in Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
Furthermore, we have the time of His death. Dan. 9:25-27 gives us the time down to the year, some have even calculated it to the day! Although these verses need to be “unpacked”, suffice it to say that the weeks are prophetic weeks of years and when calculated correctly there are 483 years. These years equal 173,880 days and when these days are made into solar years there are 476 years. Now it’s simply a matter of counting the years starting at the year the command was given to rebuild Jerusalem, c. 445 BC. Add the 476 years and the year is AD 31! Now, who could fit the role of Messiah who died in Jerusalem around AD 31?3
So what conclusions can one draw from this? I think it’s quite evident that Jesus Christ is already “ahead of the pack.” Way ahead! I challenge anyone to show me another religious leader whose birthplace was predicted 759 years before it happened. I challenge anyone to show me another religious leader whose death was predicted 568 years before it happened! Furthermore, which religious leader can trace their genealogy back to the first man and woman on earth? (See Lk. 3:23-38).
There are two more prophecies about Christ that are startling and yet corroborative. In the prophecy of Isaiah 53, the Messiah would be rejected by his own people. Not because of the lack of credibility but due to the “politics” among the Jewish leadership.
Yet in another prophecy in Isaiah, chapter 42, verses 1-6, there is the remarkable statement that Messiah would have a global Gentile following.
Once more, which religious leader had 456 specific prophecies concerning his coming, including the location of his birth and time of his death, was rejected by his own people, and now finds himself with a global Gentile following? No one was other than Jesus Christ!
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
1 Dr. Eitan Bar, a native Jewish-Israeli, was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. Eitan currently serves as One For Israel's Director of Evangelism & Apologetics.
2 Jewish convert to Christianity and a Biblical scholar recognized especially for his book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883).
3Science Speaks, Peter Stoner
4 For further discussion see Evidence That Demand A Verdict by McDowell or Daniel’s Seventy Weeks by Chuck Missler.
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