I can not think of a single event in all of history (including creation) that offers a greater foundation for resilience than the birth of Christ.
Through creation, we can discover that there is a Creator – but be yet unable to distinguish “god” from an impersonal creative energy. In Christ we see the heart of God revealed — if we can truly know that Jesus Christ was who he said he was.
Pause to reflect. If Jesus was who he said he was…what would that mean?
A few years ago I discovered some mind-blowing evidence to this end. Rather than try to summarize my finding, I offer it to you as an excerpt from Science Speaks by Professor emeritus, astronomy and mathematics, Peter Stoner.
Source: http://sciencespeaks.dstoner.net/Christ_of_Prophecy.html
“There are more than three hundred prophecies dealing with Christ’s first advent. Now these prophecies were either given by inspiration of God, or the prophets just wrote them as they thought they should be. In such a case the prophets had just one chance in 1017 of having them come true in any man, but they all came true in Christ. This means that the fulfillment of these eight prophecies alone proves that God inspired the writing of those prophecies to a definiteness which lacks only one change in 1017 of being absolute.”
“Let us try to visualize this chance. If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all of the tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far s he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.”
“Sometimes we weigh our chances in the business world, and say if an investment has nine chances in ten of being profitable, and only one chance in ten of being a failure, it is safe enough for us to make the investment. Whoever heard of an investment that had only one chance in 1017 of failure? The business world has no conception of such an investment. Yet we are offered this investment by God. By the acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Saviour we know, from only these eight prophecies which lack only 1 chance in 1017 of being an absolute proof, that that investment will yield the wonderful dividend of eternal life with Christ. Can anyone be so unreasonable as to reject Jesus Christ and pin his hope of eternal life on such a slim chance as finding the right silver dollar among this great mass, covering the whole state of Texas two feet deep? It does not seem possible, yet every man who rejects Christ is doing just that.”
“Given that there are more than three hundred prophecies dealing with Christ’s first advent, you could set your estimates ridiculously low on the whole three hundred prophecies and still obtain tremendous evidence of inspiration.”
“For example you may place all of your estimates at one in four. You may say that one man in four has been born in Bethlehem: that one of these children in four was taken to Egypt, to avoid slaughter; that one in four of these came back and made his home in Nazareth; that one in four of these was a carpenter; that one in four of these was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver; that one in four of these has been crucified on a cross; that one in four was then buried in a rich man’s tomb; yes, even that one in four rose from the dead on the third day; and so on for all of the three hundred prophecies and from them I will build a number much larger than the one we obtained from the forty-eight prophecies.”
“Anyone who rejects Christ as the Son of God is rejecting a fact proved perhaps more absolutely than any other fact in the world.”
There are many opinions of Christ. Some call him a “good man” or a “prophet” – but he can be neither, for if he was not who he said he was, he was a fraud.
Just a few of His bold declarations are: “I am the way, the truth and the life…the light of the world…the Father and I are one…the resurrection and the life…”
If he was who he said he was, what difference would this make to our foundations of resilience?
If He is who He says He is, then He is the visible source of life. Sometimes I forget the magnitude of this Truth. I am thankful for the opportunity within the season of Christmas to remember.
If you’ like a bit more paradigm challenge regarding the identity of Jesus Christ an His true significance to Christmas, check this out:
What’s all the fuss about Christmas?
Merry Christmas
