Does Mathematics Disprove the Bible?
Can anyone know the future? Many try to predict future events; like sorcerers, fortune tellers, mystics, and nearly, if not all, religious texts. Did you know that the Bible also claims to know the future? Yes! Nearly one-third of the Bible is prophetic, so it should be easy to test whether it’s up to snuff.
Can you predict what will happen to the Tower of London 500 years from now? Will there even be a Tower of London in 500 years? For that fact, can you foretell what will happen to just 1 of the 8 gates of Jerusalem 1600 years in advance? Well, Ezekiel did just that!
The Prophet Ezekiel, who lived some 600 years before Christ, prophesied that the Eastern Gate would be sealed shut.
Ezekiel 44:1-2 – Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary (Golden Gate, Gate of Mercy) which faces toward the east, but it was shut. And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.”
Terms:
The Lord must enter by the Golden Gate.
Then the Golden Gate, 1 of 8 gateways into the Old City of Jerusalem, shall be shut and not opened.
Fulfillment:
30 AD Jesus Christ, the Lord and the Son of God, came from the Mount of Olives and entered into the Temple by the Eastern Gate.
The Muslims closed the gate in 800 AD, but the Crusaders opened it in 1102 AD.
But in the year 1541 AD, Ottoman Sultan Suleiman rebuilt the walls and gates and for defensive purposes sealed the Golden Gate and only that gate, and it has been sealed ever since.
This prophecy is closed! Fulfilled in detail.
But a broken clock is right twice a day, so let’s look at another. Let’s look at the prophecy great city of Petra.
The city of Petra, or Sela in the Bible, was the capital city of the Edomites (The descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother.) The trade routes from the East to Greece and Italy passed through the city for centuries expanding its strength and affluence. But for their sinfulness and the betrayal of their brethren, the Israelites, God pronounced judgment on them.
Obadiah 3-4 – The pride of your heart has deceived you,
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Whose habitation is high;
You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
Though you ascend as high as the eagle,
And though you set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down,” says the Lord.
(The whole book of Obadiah is about this topic but these verses cover it.)
In time, enemies did not attack them, nor did God pummel them with supernatural powers. Their fall came in the simplest of ways. The trade routes, their life’s blood, shifted to Palmyra, a city in the north, and Petra withered like an arm whose circulation has been cut off, and only ruins remain.
Prophecy fulfilled!
Again, a broken clock is right twice, can it be right three times?
The Weeping Prophet, Jeremiah, who was born in 650 BC, was told by God that Babylon, the reigning champion empire of that day, would be wiped out and left desolate.
Jeremiah 25:12 – Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.
According to the Book of Daniel, chapter 5; During a feast on an October night, 539 BC, God wrote on the wall and saying that Babylon’s days were numbered.
That very night, the Medes and the Persians entered the city and killed the King.
Cyrus absorbed the empire into his own, and the great city of Babylon, no longer the capital, fell into ruins and to this day can be seen as such.
Prophecy fulfilled!
Let’s look at a fourth: The Prophecy of Tyre’s Desolation.
Again Ezekiel lived approximately 600 years before Christ.
Ezekiel 26:3-14 – “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord God;
…Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, with chariots, and with horsemen, and an army with many people. He will slay with the sword your daughter villages in the fields; he will heap up a siege mound against you, build a wall against you, and raise a defense against you. He will direct his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers… They will plunder your riches and pillage your merchandise; they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses; they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water… I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets, and you shall never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken,’ says the Lord God.”
Terms:
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon will besiege Tyre.
He will destroy their walls.
Many nations will be brought against them.
Tyre’s stones, timbers, and soil will be cast into the sea.
Tyre shall be leveled like the top of a rock.
Tyre shall be a place to spread nets.
Tyre shall never be rebuilt.
Fulfillment:
In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre.
He smashed through their walls and demolished the city. But the residence retreated to the nearby island and Nebuchadnezzar was halted because he had not any ships.
333 BC, Alexander the Great came against the people, who still lived on the island.
Because of the network of underwater stone barriers, the Greeks could not attack by sea. Alexander took the rubble of the old city of Tyre and used it to make a causeway to the island. Every stone and timber of the city was cast into the sea. And when that was not enough, they used the dirt of the city to finish it.
After removing all the rubble and even scraping the floor clean, Tyre is now as flat as a rock, just like God predicted.
I cannot speak for today, but according to sources in the 1950s fisherman used the beach where Tyre once sat to launch their boats and spread their nets.
Tyre was never rebuilt. Now you might say, “Tyre is in existence today!” Indeed, New Tyre or Tyre 2.0. The people moved to the island and built a new city and called it Tyre. Over time, the geography changed and the island became a peninsula and the new city spread back across. The old city was never rebuilt and some of its ruins stand as a testimony to that fact.
Part Two: Loosing the mathematical dogs.
What are the probabilities that these prophecies could be fulfilled by coincidence?
Professor Peter W. Stoner had 12 different classes, representing sum 600 college students, and they produced these estimates concerning these prophecies. Note: These are only crude estimations.
The Eastern Gate Prophecy:
The probability of the Golden (Eastern) Gate prophecy coming true is 1 in 1,000.
Petra Prophecy:
Petra being conquered was 1 in 10.
The probability that it would remain desolate was 1 in 50.
Or that it was never going to be reinhabited was 1 in 100.
The total of this prophecy coming true as the Bible describes is 1 in 50,000.
Babylon Prophecy:
The probability that Babylon would be destroyed was 1 in 10.
That it would never be reinhabited was 1 in 100.
The total: 1 in 1,000.
Tyre prophecy:
The chances that Tyre would be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar was 1 in 2.
That other nations would join in the destruction was 1 in 5.
That its stones, timbers, and dust would be cast in the ocean was 1 in 10.
That Tyre being made as flat as a rock was 1 in 2,000.
That it would be a place for fishermen to spread nets was 1 in 10.
That Tyre would never be rebuilt was 1 in 20.
The total: 1 in 40,000,000 or one chance in forty million.
So the chance that the Bible would just happen to predict the 4 prophecies to the letter is 1 in 2x1018 or 1 in 2,000,000,000,000,000,000 or one in two quintillions.
Because our mind clocks out after the second zero, Stoner uses this illustration:
Suppose you take two quintillion silver dollars and mark just ONE. Then you spread them all over the State of Texas, which would cover the land to a depth of approximately 35 feet.
Then you blindfold a man and send him to collect that ONE, marked silver dollar. He may wander as far as he pleases or dig as deep as he wishes, but he has only ONE guess to pick up that very marked, one silver dollar.
These are the chances of Human wisdom just happening to get these four prophecies correct to the letter.
And that’s not even touching on the hundreds of First Advent Messianic prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in his Earthly-lifetime, even at times when was an infant and could not purposely do so.
First Question:
So do you believe that God wrote the Bible and knows the future or that some men just happened to… walk the entire State of Texas that is covered in coins and just happened by pure coincidence to pick up the right marked coin?
It takes more faith to deny Bible prophecy than it does to believe. God wrote the Bible, and everything in it is true!
Second Question(s):
The Bible says that ALL men have sinned and are on the bullet train to Hell and eternal damnation.
And God says, that Jesus is God’s Son and God in the flesh and that He loves you so much that He suffered your punishment long before you were born. So that if you confess Jesus as Lord and repent of your sins, He will wash you clean of all your guilt.
And when the inevitable Afterlife comes, Jesus will take the judgment stand in your place and God will declare you, “NOT GUILTY” and you will walk into Heaven at Jesus’ side.
So here are the questions:
Do you want to surrender your life to the perfect Creator of all things? Do you want to embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and repent of your sin?
Or do you want to continue your rather short life as the enemy of God?
You have only one choice before you: Choose God. (By default you were born choosing death!)
Just pray,
“Jesus, I accept you as my Lord and Savior. I repent of my sins and I surrender my life to you.”
God knows your heart. If you prayed this and meant it then you have just made the best decision of your entire life.
Maranatha! (Come quickly, Lord Jesus!)
Source:
Moody Science Video - The Professor and the Prophets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s5yRMDyQh8
