COPYRIGHT WARNING

365 Prophecies: Prophecy 17

The Messiah will be called Shiloh, the One sent.

Old Testament Prediction:

Genesis 49:10a “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes…”

New Testament Fulfillment:

John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Application:

The multiple prophecies of Genesis 49:8-12 are a delight to those who study the Bible. As you go through your own examination of these 365 Old Testament Prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, you will notice many occasions in which a verse or chapter of scripture has several specific prophecies within that text. For example, Isaiah Chapter 53 contains 37 various prophecies from Prophecy 233 through Prophecy 270.

I believe that the Old Testament prophecies which describe the coming Messiah are the primary proof of His Identity. It is the obvious intention of the author of the Bible, the Holy Spirit, that He intends that we are able to identify the Messiah by His fulfillment of such a large number of predictions.

If we would consider the likelihood that one person in all of human history could flawlessly fulfill these 365 Old Testament prophecies, we would have to be intellectually honest and admit that it would be impossible. Dr. Peter Stoner computed the odds of one person fulfilling just 48 of these 365 prophesies. The number that resulted from his computations is staggering.[1]

Peter Stoner was the Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College until 1953; Chairman of the Science Division at Westmont College, 1953-57; and Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College; as well as Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Astronomy, at Pasadena City College. His credentials that qualify him to accurately calculate these probabilities are stellar.

Dr. Stoner computed the probability of one person fulfilling 48 of these prophecies during the past 2,000 years at: 1 in 10¹⁵⁷, that is a 10 with 157 zeros behind it. To give you an idea how unlikely that this would be possible is: The number 10¹⁵⁷ is almost double the total estimated number of atoms in the entire universe (10⁸⁰).[2]

It is generally accepted by mathematicians that any probability greater than 10⁵⁰ is beyond the possibility of chance. This gives us an idea how impossible it would be for one person to fulfill just 48 of the entire 365 Old Testament prophecies that Jesus accomplished in the New Testament.

The odds of any one person fulfilling all 365 of the prophecies described in this book would be greater than 1 in 10¹⁰‚⁰⁰⁰ This is number so immense that there is no illustration or comparison that could allow us to understand the immeasurable size of this probability. What this means in practical terms is that there is no possibility that Jesus is not the Messiah.

The science of probability is a well known and tested method for accurately determining the likelihood of certain outcomes, based on facts. This method is widely used today for many different applications, such as determining insurance rates, by the use of statistical probability. The methods used by Dr, Stoner, are true and tested, verified by the science of mathematical probability. To reject Jesus as the Messiah after being presented with this incontrovertible, empirical evidence, leaves no room for excuse, controversy, impeachment, or dispute. The facts are: the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled were predicted far in advance of His birth, many of which were recorded over 1,000 years before He was born.

The fulfillments of these prophecies are a matter of history, being attested to by some of the most highly regarded documents of antiquity, the New Testament Gospels. There are no other documents of ancient history that are better attested to than the writings of those who saw with their own eyes, heard with their own ears, the things that Jesus has said and done. According to Dr. Simon Greenleaf, one of the founders of the Harvard School of Law, and author of a Treatise on The Law of Evidence, the evidence contained in the four gospels is of the highest degree of authenticity and reliability as genuine accounts of the actual events that took place,

In an article regarding Dr. Greenleaf from the New York Courts Government web site, the following is the description given for Dr. Greenleaf’s Treatise on The Law of Evidence.

“Greenleaf on the law of evidence has been the principal treatise on that branch of the law in the United States since 1842. It has been and is the standard in that branch as Kent and Blackstone are in the Common Law. Professor Greenleaf’s treatise must always be the text book of the student of the law of evidence.”[3]

“Greenleaf’s Evidence is as complete a commentary on the law of evidence as can be found in any book in this country or Europe. No student of the law, who desires to know the law of evidence of the United States, and who desires at the same time to know the reasons and philosophy of it, can afford to be without the completed edition of Greenleaf on the law of evidence.”[4]

Moreover, Dr. Greenleaf states that the New Testament documents are “entitled to an extraordinary degree of confidence.”

“The persons, moreover, who multiplied these copies, may be regarded, in some manner, as the agents of the Christian public, for whose use and benefit the copies were made; and on the ground of the credit due to such agents, and of the public nature of the facts themselves, the copies thus made are entitled to an extraordinary degree of confidence….”[5]

The courts of the United States have frequently had to deal with documents that are copies of earlier records that have been lost or destroyed. In the case of the four gospels of Jesus life, death and resurrection, they would all be received in any court of law as valid and accurate; without the slightest hesitation.

“If any ancient document concerning our public rights were lost, copies which had been as universally received and acted upon as the Four Gospels have been, would have been received in evidence in any of our courts of justice, without the slightest hesitation.”[6]

This is precisely what we find when we investigate the writings of the New Testament. They have been used in the Christian Church for nearly 2,000 years. They have never been successfully impeached, or considered an invalid record of the events they describe, in the history of the church.

The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are events that today are also verified by the record of secular history. For more information in this subject, please see The Resurrection of Jesus.

Dr. Alfred Edersheim calculated that Jesus actually fulfilled 456 Old Testament prophecies. I chose 365 of the clearest and most applicable prophecies as the subject of this book.

These prophecies are very detailed, specific and complex. In order to fulfill them all, it would require a person who has the ability to control time and every event that surrounds the prophecies they describe. This person would need to be able to have complete knowledge of every detail surrounding these events as well as what the outcome would be. Remember that there are many detailed prophecies about the time of Jesus birth, the place of His birth, manner of His death, and what people would say and do to Him during these events. Even if we concede that a person might be able to control some of the events that these prophecies speak of by manipulating people and events, they could not determine the final outcome of anything that they were not directly in control of. How would a person cause his own birth by certain details such as the time, the place, the specific family, and then cause someone to say the specific words and do the specific actions that these prophecies call for?

Faced with these impossible odds multiplied by 365 specific prophecies, the probability that any one person could fulfill them all is categorically impossible. The fact is that Jesus Christ did fulfill every single prophecy, and He did so with absolute precision—we are left speechless. The only possible explanation for the fact that Jesus did fulfill all of these predictions in their entirety is that He is the eternal God who created the universe, who pierced time to become a man, and then fulfilled each prophecy with perfection.

One of the amazing details of this 17th prophecy in Genesis 49:10 is that the Messiah will be known as “Shiloh.”

Genesis 49:10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

In Hebrew Shiloh means One sent.

Specifically, this term means “one” (singular) “sent.” God will send one person to be the Savior of the world. There will not be many Saviors, or many ways to God— just one. When we arrive at the New Testament, we find that Jesus claimed to be this One sent, and He confirmed this by His statement that He is the way (singular) to heaven.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

In John Chapter 17, Jesus prays to the Father that we might be able to know Him and see His glory. He asks the father that we might all be one in Him and He in us. The overall point of Jesus’ prayer is that all people who are born on the earth might have the opportunity to know that Jesus is the One Sent by God for the salvation of all people.

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

God provided one very simple, extremely clear way to make it to heaven when our life here on earth is concluded: Receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and live for Him every day of your life. The promise of God is that if we will do this, He will save us from the future judgement of our sins.

It is of no consequence to God if a person stubbornly refuses to acknowledge Jesus, or if he should make the decision to reject this one way to heaven. Even if the whole world should reject Jesus, it will not diminish God, nor His rule or power over the universe at all. In fact, all the rest of God’s creation are clearly aware that this one way that God has provided for the Salvation of all people is well beyond all reasonable measures that God could have taken.

Romans 8:20-22 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Even when the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation Chapter 20 has been concluded, and all those who have appeared before this final judgment for their sins is at an end, God will be exonerated of any claim that He is not fair. All those who appear at the Great White Throne are at this final place of judgment because There was no other place found for them (Revelation 20:11). They have rejected God’s only plan for salvation; therefore, there remains no other place for them to go. They will stand before God and give an account as to why they did not believe that Jesus was the only Savior, since God personally testified that Jesus is the Messiah, as proven by the fulfillment of these 365 Old Testament prophecies. One of the reasons that God has given us so many prophecies to validate His Messiah is so that everyone will be without any excuse on the day of judgment. If God speaks something one time, this should merit our attention and action. If He speaks to us 365 times on the same subject and we ignore His request for acknowledgment and action, we have only ourselves to blame for the consequences of our inaction. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me 365 times, shame on me.

In sending His only Son to die for crimes that all of us have committed, Jesus’ propitiation for sin fulfilled all the justice of God to punish sin and allowed for abundant mercy and grace from God to freely pardon all those who take Jesus as their Savior. If we miss the “One whom God sent,” it is our own fault. God has done everything that He could possibly do to save us. He has clearly made these things known so that—we are without excuse. To Him be the Glory forever.

1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

NOTES:
[1] Dr. Peter Stoner, “Science Speaks”, Chapter 3, “the Christ of Prophecy ”Science Speaks was originally published, in 1952, by Van Kampen Press Dr. Stoner is the past Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College until 1953; Chairman of the science division, Westmont College, 1953-57; Professor Emeritus of Science, Westmont College; Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Astronomy, Pasadena City College.
[2] Ibid, Peter Stoner
[3] A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, by Simon Greenleaf, From a Book Review of A Treatise on the Law of Evidence by Simon Greenleaf, “Greenleaf on Evidence,” 5 Michigan Law Journal 106 (1896)
[4] http://www.nycourts.gov/library/queens/Lincoln/greenleaf.shtml
[5] Ibid, Simon Greeleaf.
[6] Ibid, Simon Greenleaf.