CHRIST IN THE PROPHETS
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studied the law of simple and compound probability. When a simple prediction is made, about which there is but one feature, it may or may not prove true ; there is therefore one chance in two of its being fulfilled. But if a second feature is introduced in the prediction, the region of compound probability is entered. Each prediction has a half chance of fulfilment, the two combined have only a quarter chance, i.e. there is one chance in four that both predictions will be verified. Every new feature added makes the fraction of probability smaller. The various events prophesied in the Scriptures, whether it be the destiny of the surrounding nations or of the Jewish people, are given with a precision and variety of detail which reduce the probability of their fulfilment to a minimum. The prophecies concerning Christ Himself, above all others, are so definite, and such a number of distinct features are given, that the probability of fulfilment apart from Divine foreknowledge, and as a matter of accidental coincidence, is reduced to a fraction too small for figures to represent. 1 Fulfilled prophecy is one of the greatest miracles the world has seen. And these fulfilled prophecies are woven into the text of the Scriptures throughout. INSTANCES OF F U L F I L L E D P R O P H E C Y.
The whole work of
Redemption was outlined in that first brief prediction which Adam heard from the voice of God Himself. " N o a h sketched in three inspired sentences the great features of human history." The tenth chapter of Genesis contains a summary of the distribution of the race which is in perfect accord with the latest theories of ethnology. " T o Abraham was revealed the history of the descendants of his two sons Ishmael and Isaac; the four hundred years' affliction of his posterity; the blessing of all nations through his seed, etc. Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, all saw Christ's day and were glad; Isaiah and Jeremiah revealed not only the proximate judgments and deliverances of Israel, but also incarnation and atonement. The visions of Daniel present not only a comprehensive, but an orderly and consecutive prophetic narrative of leading events from his own day to the end of all things : a miniature universal history. The fall of Belshazzar ; the rise of Cyrus, his conquests, the greatness of his empire; 1 See Many Infallible Proofs, p. 55, by A. T. Pierson, D.D., who shows that the twenty-five distinct predictions given by our Lord respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, by the law of compound probability reduce the chance of fulfilment to one in nearly twenty millions/ Yet every one of these predictions was fulfilled in that event.