What evidence is there that Jesus is who he really claimed to be? How do we
know he wasn’t some kind of imposter? Let’s take a look at some renowned
imposters and see if that title fits Jesus, or whether there is evidence to
support his claims.
Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. was called the great imposter. Demara held phony
identities of psychologist, university lecturer, college department head, school
teacher, and prison warden. He even performed surgeries, as a bogus doctor.
Some argue that Frank Abagnale was an even greater imposter. Between the ages
of 16 and 21, Abagnale was one of the world’s most successful con artists. He
cashed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in all 50 states and 26 foreign
countries. He also successfully passed himself off as an airline pilot, an
attorney, a college professor, and a pediatrician before being apprehended by
the French police.
If this story sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you watched the
2002 movie
Catch Me If You Can, in which Abagnale was played by
Leonardo DiCaprio (who passed himself off as an actor in
Titanic).
What would it take to top Abagnale’s performance as a con man? Well, if Jesus
Christ weren’t the Messiah he claimed to be, there would be no contest. We’re
not talking about conning thousands, as in the case of Abagnale. If Jesus Christ
were an imposter, his con job deluded billions of people and changed the course
of 2,000 years of history.
So, could Jesus have been a fake Messiah, fooling even the most noteworthy
religious scholars? Is it possible he was groomed by his parents or undisclosed
mentors to become the long-promised king that Israel had been looking for?
In fact, if Jesus was an imposter, he would not be the first person in the
history of Israel to have lied about being the Messiah. Through the centuries
prior to Christ’s birth, and afterward as well, many self-proclaimed messiahs
arose, only to be shown to be cons or lunatics.
Ancient Hebrew prophecies had clearly predicted the reign of a future king
who would bring peace to Israel and be their Savior. A sense of expectancy
filled the land and captivated Jewish hopes and aspirations. In such an
atmosphere as Israel’s, could not someone less qualified have been pressed into,
or conformed himself to fit, the mold of Messiah? The answer to that question
hangs on the Old Testament prophecies pointing to the Messiah.
God’s Mouth Pieces
According to the Scriptures, the God of the Hebrews spoke to his people
through prophets, men and women who were especially attuned to God and who may
or may not have been a part of the religious establishment. Some of the
prophets’ messages were for the present; others, for the future. Either way,
their role was to proclaim God’s declarations and disclosures to the people.
In general, being a prophet ranked up there with working at a meatpacking
plant among the world’s most hazardous occupations. Even when they were telling
the truth, prophets might be killed or thrown into prison by people who didn’t
like what they were saying. (Some kings hated hearing bad news.) According to
historical accounts, the prophet Isaiah was sawn in half.
So consider a prophet’s dilemma: death if he was proved wrong and the
possibility of death if he was right. No true prophet wanted to offend God, and
just as few wanted to be sawn in half. Thus most prophets waited until they were
absolutely convinced that God had spoken, or else they kept their mouths shut.
Kings began to shudder at their words. A true prophet’s messages were never
wrong.
Now here’s a question: how would the accuracy of these biblical prophets
match up with today’s psychics?
Prophets Vs Psychics?
To consider whether modern psychics’ accuracy approaches that of biblical
prophets, let’s take Jean Dixon as a case study. This American psychic seemed to
have a special ability to foretell events. But upon analysis her reputation
seems unwarranted.
For instance, Dixon had a vision that on February 5, 1962, a child was born
in the Middle East who would transform the world by the year 2000. This special
man would create a one-world religion and bring lasting world peace. She saw a
cross growing above this man until it covered the whole earth. According to
Dixon, this child would be a descendant of the ancient Egyptian Queen
Nefertiti.[
1] Where is this guy? Have you seen him? And how about that
lasting world peace-it’s nice, huh?
In fact, an exhaustive search of her prediction yields two indisputable
facts. Her rate of accuracy is equivalent to those guessing the future, and her
most publicized fulfillments were prophecies so intentionally vague as any
number of events could have been hailed as fulfillments.
Even the widely publicized prophecies of Nostradamus have frequently been
proved wrong in spite of his vague oracles, which are difficult to disprove.[
2] For example, here is one of the predictions of
Nostradamus:
“Takes the Goddess of the Moon, for his Day & Movement: A frantic
wanderer and witness of Gods Law, In awakening the worlds great regions to Gods
will (Ones Will).”[3]
This is said to be about the death of Princess Diana. (You were probably
thinking Margaret Thatcher.) Prophecies like this are as nebulous as seeing
images in clouds. Yet some insist this is evidence of a Nostradamus prophecy
fulfilled. Highly suspect, but difficult to disprove.
And this is generally the track record of psychics. When “The People’s
Almanac” researched the predictions of 25 top psychics, 92 percent of the
predictions had proved wrong. The other 8 percent were questionable and could be
explained by chance or general knowledge of circumstances.[
4] In other experiments with the world’s foremost psychics,
their rate of accuracy has been shown to hover around 11 percent, which might
not be a bad average except for the fact that people making random guesses about
the future score at the same percentile. This doesn’t disprove all future
telling, but it certainly explains why psychics aren’t winning the lottery.
The difference between psychics and prophets seems to be more one of kind
than one of degree. Prophets made specific declarations about future events in
relation to God’s unfurling plan-and did it with unwavering accuracy. Psychics
are more mercenary, providing vague sketches of the future to a market willing
to pay for their services. They offer sensational information, but with a flawed
track record.
Religious Prophecy In Perspective
Prophecy can be rather mystical, metaphysical, and-for lack of a better
word-creepy. It conjures up images of séances and other worlds. In
Star
Wars there is the foretelling of one who would bring balance to the
Force.
The Lord of the Rings movies weave their imaginary themes around
scenes of prophetic utterances. But such is the world of imagination.
Regarding the real world, it has been said that if a person knew just one
minute of the future he could rule the world. Think about it. One minute of
knowing every hand dealt at the Trump Casino. You’d become the richest person in
the world and Donald would become a postal worker.
But in the world of religion, prophecy serves an important function. It
becomes one sure way to know if someone is speaking from God or if he is not,
for only an omniscient God could exhaustively know the future. And on this point
the prophecy in the Old Testament stands as unique, for most of the renowned
holy books from other religions are devoid of predictive prophecy. For example,
while the Book of Mormon and the Hindu Veda claim divine inspiration, there is
really no means to corroborate their claims; you’re simply left with “Yeah, that
sounds like something God might say.”
Bible scholar Wilbur Smith compared the prophecies of the Bible with other
historical books, stating that the Bible “is the only volume ever produced by
man, or a group of men, in which is to be found a large body of prophecies
relating to individual nations, to Israel, to all the peoples of the earth, to
certain cities, and to the coming one who was to be the Messiah.”[
5] Thus the Bible lays out its claim for inspiration in such a
way that it can be either substantiated or disproved.
And if you put this degree of accuracy into everyday perspective, you can see
how astounding it is. For example, it would have been miraculous if in 1910 you
had predicted that a man named George Bush would win the 2000 election. But
imagine if you had included some of these details in your prediction:
- The candidate with the most total votes would lose the election.
- All major TV networks would announce the winner and then reverse
themselves.
- One state (Florida) would swing the election.
- The U.S. Supreme Court would ultimately determine the winner.
Had such occurred, there would be churches named after you and dashboard
statuettes bearing your likeness. But you didn’t, so there aren’t. As difficult
(or impossible) as it would have been in 1910 to have accurately predicted this
precise sequence of events, the odds are incredibly more difficult for Jesus, or
any one person, to have fulfilled all the Hebrew prophecies for the Messiah.
Contained within the Old Testament, written hundreds of years before the birth
of Jesus, are 61 specific prophecies and nearly 300 references about the
Messiah.[
6]
According to the Hebrew requirement that a prophecy must have a 100 percent
rate of accuracy, the true Messiah of Israel must fulfill them all or else he is
not the Messiah. So the question that either vindicates Jesus or makes him
culpable for the world’s greatest hoax is, did he fit and fulfill these Old
Testament prophecies?
What Are The Odds?
Let’s look at two of the specific prophecies about the Messiah in the Old
Testament.
“You, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village in Judah. Yet a ruler
of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.”
(Micah 5:2, NLT)
“The Lord himself will choose [a] sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a
child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel-’God is with
us.’” (Isaiah 7:14, NLT)
Now, before considering the other 59 prophecies, you have to stop and ask
yourself how many people in the category of potential Messiah throughout history
were born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem. “Well, let’s see, there’s my
neighbor George, but … no, never mind; he was born in Brooklyn.” In the case of
61 detailed prophecies being fulfilled by one person, we are talking about
virtually impossible odds.
When forensic scientists discover a DNA profile match, the odds of having the
wrong person is frequently less than one in several billion (something for
deviants to keep in mind). It would seem we are in the same neighborhood of
odds, and numbers of zeros, in considering a single individual fulfilling these
prophecies.
Professor of mathematics Peter Stoner gave 600 students a math probability
problem that would determine the odds for one person fulfilling eight specific
prophecies. (This is not the same as flipping a coin eight times in a row and
getting heads each time.) First the students calculated the odds of one person
fulfilling all the conditions of one specific prophecy, such as being betrayed
by a friend for 30 pieces of silver. Then the students did their best to
estimate the odds for all of the eight prophecies combined.
The students calculated that the odds against one person fulfilling all eight
prophecies are astronomical-one in ten to the 21st power (1021). To illustrate
that number, Stoner gave the following example: “First, blanket the entire Earth
land mass with silver dollars 120 feet high. Second, specially mark one of those
dollars and randomly bury it. Third, ask a person to travel the Earth and select
the marked dollar, while blindfolded, from the trillions of other dollars.”[
7]
People can do some pretty squishy things with numbers (especially with a last
name like that), so it’s important to note that Stoner’s work was reviewed by
the American Scientific Association, which stated, “The mathematical analysis …
is based upon principles of probability which are thoroughly sound, and
Professor Stoner has applied these principles in a proper and convincing
way.”[
8]
With that as an introduction, let’s add six more predictions to the two we’ve
already considered, giving us a total of Professor Stoner’s eight:
Prophecy: The Messiah would be from the lineage of King David. - Jeremiah
23:5 - 600 B.C.
Fulfillment: “Jesus … the son of David …” - Luke 3:23, 31 - 4
B.C.
Prophecy: The Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. - Zechariah
11:13 - 487 B.C.
Fulfillment: “They gave him thirty pieces of silver.”
- Matthew 26:15 - 30 A.D.
Prophecy: The Messiah would have his hands and feet pierced. - Psalm 22:16
- 1000 B.C. Fulfillment: “They came to a place called The Skull. All three were
crucified there-Jesus on the center cross, and the two criminals on either
side.” - Luke 23:33 - 30 A.D.
Prophecy: People would cast lots for the Messiah’s clothing. - Psalm 22:18
- 1000 B.C. Fulfillment: “The soldiers … took his robe, but it was seamless,
woven in one piece from the top. So they said, ‘Let’s not tear it but throw dice
to see who gets it.’ ” - John 19:23-24 - 30 A.D.
Prophecy: The Messiah would appear riding on a donkey. - Zechariah 9:9
-
500 B.C.
Fulfillment: “They brought the animals to him and threw their
garments over the colt, and he sat on it.” - Matthew 21:7 - 30 A.D.
Prophecy: A messenger would be sent to herald the Messiah. - Malachi 3:1
- 500 B.C. Fulfillment: John told them, “I baptize with water, but right here in
the crowd is someone you do not know.” - John 1:26 - 27 A.D.
The eight prophecies we’ve reviewed about the Messiah were written by men
from different times and places between about 500 and 1,000 years before Jesus
was born. Thus there was no opportunity for collusion among them. Notice too,
the specificity. This is not the genre of a Nostradamus prediction-”When the
moon turns green, the lima bean will lie cloaked by the roadside.”
Out Of His Control
Imagine winning a Powerball lottery with merely one ticket among tens of
millions sold. Now imagine winning a hundred of these lotteries in a row. What
would people think? Right, “It was rigged!”
And over the years a similar claim has been made by skeptics about Jesus’
fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. They have granted that Jesus fulfilled
messianic prophecies but have accused him of living his life in such a way as to
intentionally fulfill them. A reasonable objection, but not as plausible as it
might seem.
Consider the nature of just four of the messianic prophecies:
- His lineage would come from David (Jeremiah 23:5).
- His birth would occur in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
- He would migrate to Egypt (Hosea 11:1).
- He would live in Nazareth (Isaiah 11:1).[9]
Now, what could Jesus do about fulfilling these prophecies? Neither he nor
his parents had any control over his ancestry. His birth in Bethlehem was the
result of a census mandated by Caesar Augustus. His parents’ move to Egypt was
prompted by King Herod’s persecution. And once Herod died, Jesus’ parents
naturally decided to resettle in Nazareth.
Even if at a young age an imposter Jesus looked at the prophecies he had
accidentally fulfilled and decided to go for it and see if he could make the
rest (like someone deciding to shoot the moon in the card game Hearts), the deck
would still have been impossibly stacked against him. Consider some of the
factors in the prophecies we’ve already looked at: the Messiah would be betrayed
for 30 pieces of silver; he would be killed by means of crucifixion; and people
would cast lots for his clothes. These prophecies all came true for Jesus, yet
what control did he have over the fulfillment of any of them?
Bible scholars tell us that nearly 300 references to 61 specific prophecies
of the Messiah were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The odds against one person
fulfilling that many prophecies would be beyond all mathematical possibility. It
could never happen, no matter how much time was allotted. One mathematician’s
estimate of those impossible odds is “one chance in a trillion, trillion,
trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion,
trillion, trillion, trillion.”[
10]
Bertrand Russell, adamant atheist, was asked in a Look magazine interview
what evidence it would take for him to believe in God. Russell responded, “Well,
if I heard a voice from heaven and it predicted a series of things and they came
to pass, then I guess I’d have to believe there’s some kind of supernatural
being.”
Bible scholar Norman Geisler responded to Russell’s skepticism. “I’d say,
‘Mr. Russell, there has been a voice from heaven; it has predicted many things;
and we’ve seen them undeniably come to pass.’”[
11] Geisler was alluding to the fact that only a transcendent
Being outside of time would be able to accurately predict future events.
Proof In A Jar
We’ve looked at the evidence for Jesus’ fulfillment of messianic prophecies
from every angle but one. What if the Christian scribes who copied scrolls of
Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophetic books altered them to make them
correspond to Jesus’ life?
This is a question many scholars and skeptics have asked. And it seems
possible, even plausible at first glance. It would prevent us from making Jesus
into a lying imposter, which seems highly unlikely, and it would explain the
amazing accuracy of his fulfillment of prophecies. So, how do we know that the
Old Testament prophetic books, such as Isaiah, Daniel, and Micah, were written
hundreds of years before Christ, as purported? And if they were, how do we know
Christians didn’t alter the texts later?
For 1,900 years, many skeptics held fast to that theory, based upon the human
impossibility of accurately predicting future events. But then something
occurred that doused all enthusiasm for such a clandestine conspiracy. Something
called the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Half a century back, the finding of the Dead Sea scrolls provided Bible
scholars with copies of Old Testament books that were far older than any others
known to exist. Extensive tests proved that many of these copies were made
before Jesus Christ even lived. And they are virtually identical to the texts of
the Bible we were already using.
As a result, even scholars who deny Jesus as the Messiah accept these
manuscripts of the Old Testament as having predated his birth and therefore
concede that the prophecies about the Messiah contained within them have not
been altered in order to conform to Jesus.
If these predictions were fulfilled so accurately through the life of Jesus,
it seems logical to wonder why everyone in Israel would not have been able to
see it. But as his crucifixion attests, not everyone did see it. As the apostle
John said of Jesus, “Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not
accepted” (John 1:11, NLT). Why?
Considering the embattled history of Israel, it is not difficult to read into
the definition of Messiah the idea of a political freedom fighter. It is
understandable how a first-century Jewish person might think, How could the
Messiah have come and Israel still be oppressed under Roman occupation?
While Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies, he did so in ways that no one
was expecting. He sought a moral and spiritual revolution, not a political one,
accomplishing his objectives through self-sacrifice and humble service, healing
and teaching. Meanwhile, Israel was looking for another Moses or Joshua who
would lead them in a conquest to recover their lost kingdom.
Of course, many Jews of Jesus’ day did recognize him as the Messiah-the
entire foundation of the Christian church being Jewish. The majority, however,
did not. And it’s not so hard to comprehend why.
To better understand the first-century Jews’ misunderstanding, consider this
messianic prophecy written 700 years before the birth of Jesus by the prophet
Isaiah. Was it referring to Jesus?
“All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow
our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.”
“He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led
as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did
not open his mouth. From prison and trial they led him away to his death. But
who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins-that he was
suffering their punishment? He had done no wrong, and he never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.”
“But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and fill him with grief. Yet
when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have a multitude of children,
many heirs … And because of what he has experienced, my righteous servant will
make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their
sins.” (Portions of Isaiah 53:6-11, NLT)
As Jesus hung on the cross, some understandably may have been thinking, How
could this be the Messiah? At the same time, others may have been wondering, Who
else but Jesus could Isaiah be talking about?
Impossible Imposter
So, what are we to make of Jesus having fulfilled so many prophecies written
hundreds of years prior to his birth? Leonardo DiCaprio … I mean, Frank Abagnale
might be a good imposter, but even he got caught by the time he was old enough
to drink a beer legally.
Jesus doesn’t look anything like a more competent Frank Abagnale. He’s in a
different category altogether. No imposter could ever beat such odds as those
presented by Hebrew prophecy.
And what does that mean? Two conclusions emerge: First, only a transcendent
Being could orchestrate such events. And second, it makes all of Jesus’ other
claims credible and worthy of serious consideration.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus made the claim, “I am the way, the truth and the
life.” Overwhelming evidence seems to indicate that the signature on that check
is not a forgery.
Source and more information:
http://y-jesus.com/
More information about Jesus Christ:
http://israelinenglish.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesus+Christ
That the Jewish People accept the True Moshiach, JESUS CHRIST.
SHALOM!
