Well, it's December 21st and we're all still here. You can just hear somebody say, "What are the odds!" Even as they may have said that as a turn of phrase, it begs the question. How does anyone know the future? Who could possibly predict it with certainty? I suppose it would help if the person who was the "predictor" had a track record of success, right?
Consider the following:
# of prophecies in a given ancient book = 2500.
# of those prophecies which have been fulfilled to the letter with no error = 2000.
Statistical probability of those coming to pass = 1 in 10 to the 2000th power. (That's a ten with 2000 zeroes behind it.)
Let's put that in perspective:
From the Harvard School of Public Health:
-- Dying from a bee sting: 1 in 6.1 million.
-- Dying from a lightning strike: 1 in 3 million.
From U.S. Hole in One, which insures golf prizes for holes in one:
-- An amateur golfer making a hole in one on a par-3 hole: 1 in 12,500.
-- A golfer hitting a hole in one on consecutive par-3 holes: 1 in about 156 million.
From a 2011 State Farm study on collisions between vehicles and deer:
-- Hitting a deer with a vehicle in Hawaii, the state where State Farm says deer-vehicle collisions are least likely: 1 in 6,267.
From the National Weather Service:
-- Being struck by lightning over an 80-year lifetime: 1 in 10,000.
Now let's refresh: the chances of an ancient book, containing 2500 predictions of which 2000 have already come to pass, to the letter with no errors is 1 in 10 with 2000 ZEROES behind it. Seems to me like this book's author knows a little something about what's gonna happen, right? It also would suggest that the remaining 500 predictions, let's call them prophecies, will certainly come to pass as well.
The best selling author of all time wrote this book. No, it's not Socrates, Ernest Hemingway or even Tom Clancy. It's God Himself Who has chosen to provide prophecy as an air-tight case of His plan (and heart) for mankind.
Why is it that so many freaked out over the Mayan prediction and yet blow off the Bible as fairy tales? Could one reason be that the Author of the Bible has some moral requirements for His creation and all the Mayans had to offer were similar to the band R.E.M., "It's the end of the world as we know it?" It's as if to say, "there's nothing you can do about it." Here comes a classic Doris Day tune, "Que sera, sera ... whatever will be, will be." Is life just one big gamble with no guiding purpose or determining factor?
The fact that the Author of this Book also gave us some personal predictions as well, should at the very least pique our interest. If He can predict the rise and fall of dictators hundreds of years before it happened, I think I can trust Him when He says that if I do such-and-such, certain things WILL happen and that these things are for my benefit.
Perhaps billions of Christians are actually on to something. Perhaps there's a reason the Bible remains the bestseller of all time. Perhaps there's a reason that those who believe what it says and then do what it says, have incredibly similar experiences across the span of time.
Probability of the Mayan prophecy coming to pass? Absolute Zero.
Probability of trusting the God of the Bible's end times prophecies coming to pass? Probability of trusting God in terms of His good and precious promises coming to pass? Absolute-ly!
2 Corinthians 1:20: "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us."
Numbers 23:19: “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"
Still stressed about tomorrow and the next day and the next year? Listen to the answering given by the universe's premier prophetic Author:
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:1-6)
Here's the prescription and the plan in Matthew 6:31-33: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Statistical Data sources:
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