You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
#36 Gods Standard for Mankind (20)
Prophecy points to Inspiration (3)
by Jim Mettenbrink
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In 1999, The Matrix,
although a violent movie, reflects Postmodernistic thought
There is no absolute truth or There are many
ways to truth, or ultimately Everyone finds his own
truth. Homogenization of the values from various
religions appeals to our two youngest generations, commonly called
Generation X (post baby boomers) and Generation Y (cyber generation).
Greg Garrett, professor at Baylor U. and reviewer of the
subsequent film (The Matrix Reloaded), stated that both movies
reflect a combination of Buddhism, Christianity, Existentialism,
Gnosticism, Zen, philosophy of Derrida and Plato. This
second film challenges the possibility of prophecy. Because
the greatest evidence that the Bible comes from God is fulfilled
prophecy, The Matrix Reloaded, in effect, questions the divine
origin of the Bible, relegating it to human origin.
Suppose a book had been written
beginning in AD 1500 and every 20 years another author unknown
to the other authors would add a chapter. The first author
wrote a prophecy of the coming of a great man who would eradicate
a terrible disease. And each successive author predicted
something specific about the man, his ancestry, his birth, where
he would live, events in his life and even details of his death.
In a period of 500 years there would be 25 prophecies.
The chances of all of them being fulfilled accidently are
astronomical, yea impossible! Who would give credence to
such a book? Yet this is the modus operandi of biblical
prophecy regarding Jesus of Nazareth.
The most astounding prophecies
written in all of history are about Jesus. For example,
Micah (770 BC) prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem
(Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1, 6), and born of a virgin (735 BC
Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). Zechariah (520 BC) said Jesus
would ride into Jerusalem on a donkeys colt (Zechariah
9:9; Matthew 21:5). The soldiers gambled for Jesus robe
as foretold by the Psalmist in1000 BC (Psalm 21:18: Matthew 27:35).
Contrary to routine Roman crucifixion in ancient Jewish
Palestine, when Jesus was crucified, His side was pierced and
none of his bones were broken as propesied (Psalm 33:20; 21:16-17;
John 19:36-37). These prophecies were made between 500
and 1000 years before His birth.
Although there are over 330 prophecies
(the earliest was 4000 years BC) about Jesus in the Old Testament,
the odds of eight of these being fulfilled in a singular person
is one in one hundred million billion. This would be like
covering Texas entirely with silver dollars 10 inches deep, marking
one coin and with a blind man picking just one coin with the
hope of selecting the marked coin. Further, the odds of
just 48 of these prophecies being fulfilled in one person is
one in one trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion,
trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion,
trillion (1 followed by 156 zeroes). Fulfillment by accident?
Impossible! These prophecies were not predictive.
Their fulfillment not by happenstance! They were
planned to occur at a particular time in history. God knew
what would occur because He created the prophecies and their
fulfillment in Jesus so that all of mankind could know that He
was the fulfillment of all 330 biblical prophecies that
He is the Divine Savior as He Himself declared. So how
did the Old Testament prophets know to pen the prophecies centuries
before fulfillment? Inspiration is the only reasonable
conclusion.
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