Supplies: 1 or 2 silver dollars (optionally a dry-erase board or something large to write on)
Goal: To show that Jesus uniquely and supernaturally fulfills the Old Testament prophesies regarding the Messiah.
Set-up/Introduction: This morning we are going to have a lesson in math. We are going to talk about probability. Probability refers to the odds that something will happen, or not happen.
Activity:
Demonstration 1:
If I flip this silver dollar, what are the odds that it will come up heads? 1/2
If I flip two coins, what are the odds that both will be heads? 1/4 (one chance right, three wrong)
If I flip three, the odds are 1/8. Each time I add a coin, the chance are twice as unlikely.
At 100 coins the odds are 1/1,267,650,600,228,230,000,000,000,000,000 (1 nonillion or a trillion, trillion, billion).
Would you say that is pretty much impossible? I know something even more impossible.
Demonstration 2:
What if I were to have child close his/her eyes and give this silver dollar to someone in this class. What are the chances she could guess who has it? (1/size of class).
What if I were to give it to anyone in Ennis? (~1/16,000)
The state of Texas? (~1/24,000,000)
The whole county? (~1/305,000,000)
The world? (~1/6.7 billion)
Would you say that is pretty much impossible? I know something even more impossible.
Demonstration 3:
What if I were to cover the floor with silver dollars, mark just one of them, and have a child walk around blindfolded then bend down and pickup one coin. How likely would it be that he would pick out that one coin? (an Eisenhower silver dollar is about 2"x2", so you would have to calculate the number of square inches and divide by 4)
What if I were to cover the whole building? (estimate)
The whole state? (if in Texas, see below, otherwise estimate)
Would you say that is pretty much impossible? I know something even more impossible.
Conclusion: You would have to cover the entire state of Texas with silver dollars two feet deep, to match the odds that one person would fulfill just eight Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. That is one in one hundred million billion (1 followed by 17 zeros). This is millions of time greater than the total number of people who've ever lived.
If you consider 48 prophesies, the chances that one person would fulfill all of them is one in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion. If you take the number of atoms in our entire universe, it would take a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, billion (1 followed by 57 zeros) universes to have that many atoms.
"The odds alone say that it would be impossible for anyone to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies. Yet Jesus – and only Jesus through out all of history – managed to do it."
Source: Prophesy probabilities from The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel (p. 183)
Goal: To show that Jesus uniquely and supernaturally fulfills the Old Testament prophesies regarding the Messiah.
Set-up/Introduction: This morning we are going to have a lesson in math. We are going to talk about probability. Probability refers to the odds that something will happen, or not happen.
Activity:
Demonstration 1:
If I flip this silver dollar, what are the odds that it will come up heads? 1/2
If I flip two coins, what are the odds that both will be heads? 1/4 (one chance right, three wrong)
If I flip three, the odds are 1/8. Each time I add a coin, the chance are twice as unlikely.
At 100 coins the odds are 1/1,267,650,600,228,230,000,000,000,000,000 (1 nonillion or a trillion, trillion, billion).
Would you say that is pretty much impossible? I know something even more impossible.
Demonstration 2:
What if I were to have child close his/her eyes and give this silver dollar to someone in this class. What are the chances she could guess who has it? (1/size of class).
What if I were to give it to anyone in Ennis? (~1/16,000)
The state of Texas? (~1/24,000,000)
The whole county? (~1/305,000,000)
The world? (~1/6.7 billion)
Would you say that is pretty much impossible? I know something even more impossible.
Demonstration 3:
What if I were to cover the floor with silver dollars, mark just one of them, and have a child walk around blindfolded then bend down and pickup one coin. How likely would it be that he would pick out that one coin? (an Eisenhower silver dollar is about 2"x2", so you would have to calculate the number of square inches and divide by 4)
What if I were to cover the whole building? (estimate)
The whole state? (if in Texas, see below, otherwise estimate)
Would you say that is pretty much impossible? I know something even more impossible.
Conclusion: You would have to cover the entire state of Texas with silver dollars two feet deep, to match the odds that one person would fulfill just eight Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. That is one in one hundred million billion (1 followed by 17 zeros). This is millions of time greater than the total number of people who've ever lived.
If you consider 48 prophesies, the chances that one person would fulfill all of them is one in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion. If you take the number of atoms in our entire universe, it would take a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, billion (1 followed by 57 zeros) universes to have that many atoms.
"The odds alone say that it would be impossible for anyone to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies. Yet Jesus – and only Jesus through out all of history – managed to do it."
Source: Prophesy probabilities from The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel (p. 183)
2 comments:
Hi. I like that, it's very interesting. - Bob
I am glad you enjoyed it. The kids weren't too sure yesterday when I first started the object lesson, but it picked up momentum. I think they all got it in the end.
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