John Bevere - You Can Stake Your Life on the Bible

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People spend more time on social media today than they do on Scripture. They spend more time reading blogs than they do on Scripture. So, can we talk about Scripture for a few minutes? Sixty-six books of the Bible, written over a 1,500-year time span. Do you understand how long 1,500 years is? If I go back 1,500 years and right now we are at 515 AD, there hasn’t even been a British Empire yet; that’s a long time ago! Okay, 1,500 years. So, 66 books are written by over 40 writers from three different continents in three different languages. We have kings, prisoners, soldiers, military men, shepherds, farmers, a physician, and a tax collector who is a mafia guy.

You put all these guys' books together over 1,500 years, and many of them lived in different generations and didn’t know what the other guy wrote. You put them all together, and you get a perfectly harmonized book! Dude, that’s like looking at 40 different writers over the last 1,500 years and saying, «Write a chapter of a novel,» then putting the whole thing together after 1,500 years and having it make any sense. But not only that; it gets even better. If you look at the Old Testament, the 39 books were written over 1,100 years, and the last book of the Old Testament was written 400 years before Jesus was even born. I mean, go back 400 years from right now—there are no Atlanta Braves, you don’t even have the Falcons yet, and you don’t have the United States. I mean, the Pilgrims just got on the boat. That’s a long time! The last book was written 400 years before Jesus was even born.

Now you have these 39 books written by all these different authors over 1,100 years, many of them living in different generations and not knowing what the other guy wrote. Another thing, guys, is that they made predictions about the Messiah—things like He would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, He’d be betrayed by a friend, He’d be born in Bethlehem, He’d call out of Egypt, He would be sold for 30 pieces of silver, and He would be crucified. They made over 300 predictions, with the last one being made 400 years before Jesus was even born. And you know Jesus fulfilled all 300 of those predictions! So, there’s a scientist named Dr. Peter Stoner, who has since gone to heaven, but he was an expert in probability.

Do you know what probability is? If I have a five-gallon paint bucket with nine white tennis balls and one yellow tennis ball, and I shake them all up and blindfold somebody and say, «Reach in, grab one ball,» the chance of picking out that one yellow tennis ball is 1 in 10. Well, he’s an expert in this, so Dr. Stoner wanted to know what the probability is that any individual could fulfill these prophecies. So he doesn’t do the work himself; he employs 600 science students from 12 different classes. They spent months conducting research; the American Scientific Council reviewed their work and said not only was their work accurate but it was conservative. So what I’m about to share with you is conservative; please remember that. They said, «Alright, what are the chances that any human being from the time of the birth of Christ until the end of the second millennium (2,000 years) could fulfill just eight of the prophecies?»

So, here are the eight prophecies they chose: Christ would be born in Bethlehem (that was written by Micah), Christ would be preceded by a messenger (Isaiah and Malachi, who were in different generations, wrote that), Christ would enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah wrote that in a completely different generation), and Christ would be betrayed by a friend (the psalmist, in a completely different generation, wrote that). The eight are listed. So, what’s the chance any human being over 2,000 years could fulfill those eight prophecies? After all their calculations, you know what the chances are? 1 in 10 to the 17th power. Now, what in the world is that? 10 to the 17th is 1 with 17 zeros after it.

I have an engineering degree, it’s not inconceivable to think of a billion; I got news for you, okay? But I can illustrate that number: if I have that many silver dollars, I have no place on Earth to store them. I have to spread them out all over the ground, and if I do, I will cover the entire state of Texas two feet deep with those silver dollars.

Now gather them all in, mark one of the silver dollars, shuffle them all up, and redistribute them all over Texas. Blindfold a guy in Oklahoma, put him in a helicopter, and start flying over Texas. Remember, it takes two days to drive through Texas. At any point, he can say, «Let down!» Then he gets out of the helicopter, still blindfolded, and the chances of him picking up that one silver dollar are 1 in 10 to the 17th power. That means that is the chance that any human being could have fulfilled eight of those prophecies. Yet, Jesus fulfilled all eight prophecies.

So, Dr. Stoner said, «What about sixteen prophecies?» They did all these hours of calculations, and he and the 600 science students said that the chances of a man being able to fulfill sixteen prophecies was 1 in 10 to the 45th power. That’s a 1 with 45 zeros behind it. Don’t even ask me to write that number down. Now, if I have that many silver dollars, I can’t store them on Earth; it’s too many. I gotta make a big ball of silver dollars. I’m going to make a sphere of them, okay? The diameter of that sphere would be 60 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

If you want mileage, that’s 5.5 billion miles. Now mark one of those silver dollars, shuffle them all up, blindfold a guy, and put him in a jet plane; it will take 400 years of nonstop flight just to fly around the ball. At any point, he could say, «Let down!» Now remember, he might have to dig 2.75 billion miles into the center because the marked one might be in the center, but the chances of him picking up that one silver dollar are 1 in 10 to the 45th power. That is the chance that a human could have fulfilled 16 of the prophecies, yet Jesus fulfilled all 16. So, can I blow your mind? Can I really blow your mind one more time? Can I blow it?

So, Dr. Stoner said, «What about 48 prophecies? What are the chances anybody could fulfill 48 prophecies?» So they did hours and hours of calculations, and you know what they found out? It’s 1 in 10 to the 157th power. Now how big is that number? I can’t use the silver dollars; it’s too big. I’ve got to go to a smaller item: I’ve got to go to an electron. Now, do you know how small an electron is? Let me just tell you: if you have a one-inch line of electrons in a straight line, and I start counting tonight without going to sleep, if I count 250 per minute, it will take me 19 million years to count that one-inch line of electrons.

Now, if I have that many electrons (1 in 10 to the 157th power), I’m going to make a sphere of electrons. You know, the sphere would be as far as man has ever seen into space, 13 billion light-years. Now mark one of those electrons, blindfold the guy, put him in a space shuttle, and send him into space. At any point, he can say, «Stop!» The chances of picking out that one marked electron is the chance that any human being could have fulfilled 48 of those prophecies. Yet Jesus fulfilled all 48. So can we review here? Can we review? Okay, we’ve got 39 books written over 1,100 years by all these guys, many of whom don’t even live in the same generation. They made these predictions about the Messiah, with the last one being 400 years before He was even born, and Jesus fulfills all 300. And you tell me the Bible doesn’t apply to today? You’re mistaken.