All of us would like to know what the stock market is going to do tomorrow. Each of us would like to know where the most profitable moves would be. Few of us do.
Similarly, all of us would like to be able to predict where the ball on a roulette wheel will land, which cards are face down in front of the blackjack dealer, and what our poker opponents’ hole cards are. We are usually unable to predict such things with a degree of accuracy that makes us richer than we were.
So, when a Zechariah predicts that “God is coming to earth, will ride into town on a donkey, will be sold for thirty pieces of silver, and that those who pierced Him will look upon Him”, and does so five hundred years before He comes to earth, rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, is betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and is looked upon by those who pierced Him, again, five hundred years before it happens, we can take it seriously.
He could, after all, have sent someone else in His place, ridden into town on an ox-cart, been sold for thirty one pieces of silver, and been stoned.
When we consider all the variables in just four prophecies from just one prophet, we are struck with a knowledge and power so far beyond our own abilities that extrapolating from that to belief in the whole structure may, upon serious consideration, make more sense than not believing.
However we consider it, we must include the possibility that making, and taking seriously such an extrapolation, is a way to separate sheep from goats that may have been a crucial part of The Program from the time it was written and downloaded.
