by sleepy 14 Replies latest jw friends
Metatron,
you miss the essence of the Ezekiel prophecy. Any young unbaptised publisher will educate you that the fulfillment is now; it's spiritual. There's a symbolic temple people are flocking to, with headquarters at Brooklyn, and the attack for Gog is almost being fulfilled. Then, there'll be a greater fulfillment in the future...
Here is a link to a comprehensive sight that pretty much puts to bed the prophecy issue:
link: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theodore_drange/bible.html
Here is an excerpt:
1. According to Ge 2:17, Adam will die the same day that he eats the fruit, but that did not come about, since, according to Ge
5:5, Adam lived to age 930. [Note that the same Hebrew word for "die" is used as elsewhere in the Old Testament, standing
for physical death.]
2. According to Ge 4:12,14, Cain will be a fugitive and a vagabond, and constantly subject to assassination, but that did not
come about, for, according to Ge 4:16-17, Cain had a wife and family, and lived in the same area all his life, and built a city.
3. According to Jos 17:17-18, Ephraim and Manasseh will drive out the Canaanites, but according to Jg 1:27-29, they did not
drive out the Canaanites.
4. Jer 34:5 prophesied that Zedekiah will die in peace, but according to 2Ki 25:7 and Jer 52:10-11, that did not happen.
Instead, he saw his sons killed, was carried off in chains, blinded, and eventually died in prison.
5. Am 7:17 prophesied that Amaziah's sons will die by the sword, but according to 2Ch 26:1,21, Amaziah's son Uzziah died of
leprosy.
6. According to Jon 3:4, Nineveh will be overthrown in 40 days, but then God changed his mind about having Nineveh
overthrown. (See Jon 3:10.)
7. According to Mt 12:40, Christ will be buried for three nights, but he died on a Friday and by Sunday the tomb was empty.
Between Friday and Sunday, there are just two nights, not three.
8. According to Mt 19:28 and Lu 22:30, all 12 disciples will sit on 12 thrones as judges. But actually, not all 12 disciples could
reign, for Judas, who was one of them, was excluded. (See Mt 26:24-25.)
9. In Mt 26:34 and Lu 22:34, it is prophesied that before the cock crows, Peter will deny Jesus three times, but according to
Mk 14:66-68, Peter denied Jesus only once before the cock crowed.
10. According to Lu 23:43, the thief will be with Christ in paradise on that very day. But Christ's body was buried that day
and, according to Ac 2:27,31, his soul went to hell, not to paradise.
More will be said about Biblical contradictions in Sections D.4 and D.5, below. Some other examples that are a little more like
unfulfilled prophecies are the following.
11. According to Ge 15:18, 17:3,8, and Dt 1:7-8, Abraham's descendants will own all the land between the Nile River and the
Euphrates River, but it never happened: they never owned all that land. God broke his promise, as conceded in Ac 7:5 and
Heb 11:13.
12. According to Ge 49:13, the tribe of Zebulun will dwell at a seashore, but, instead, as may be gathered from various later
verses as well as extra-Biblical sources, they dwelled inland, not at any seashore.
13. According to Jos 8:28, the city of Ai will be destroyed forever. In actuality, Ai did have later inhabitants. (See Ezr 2:1,28
and Ne 7:32.)
But these still look a little bit like Biblical contradictions. I think the very best examples of unfulfilled prophecies are ones like the
following.
14. According to Ex 3:8, the Israelites will live in a large land, flowing with milk and honey, and according to 2Sa 7:10, they will
not be disturbed anymore, but as a matter of historical fact Israel (and vicinity) has been a relatively small and mostly barren
land, and the Israelites have been continually harassed from all sides.
15. Many verses prophesy that the throne of David will endure forever and that there will never be a time without a man upon
that throne. But in point of historical fact, the Davidic line of kings ended with Zedekiah. 450 yrs. later, the Maccabeans had a
brief reign. But for 2000 years, there has been no Davidic king.
16. According to Isa 14:23, Babylon will become wet, but that never happened. According to Jer 51:36, Babylon will become
totally dry, but that never happened either. According to other verses, [11] Babylon will never be inhabited by people again,
but in fact Babylon has been continually inhabited by people since that time. [Note 1Pe 5:13.] It is now part of Iraq.
17. According to Isa 17:1, Damascus will be destroyed, but in fact Damascus is one of the few ancient cities that has never
been destroyed. [The fact that so many were destroyed makes prophecies of the future destruction of ancient cities rather
unremarkable.] If Isaiah had predicted that Damascus would never be destroyed, then that would have been remarkable.
18. According to Isa 19:5, Eze 30:12, and Zec 10:11, the Nile River will dry up, and according to Eze 29:9-12, Egypt will
become desolate for 40 years, with no man or animal passing through it and with all Egyptians dispersed, but as a matter of fact
the Nile River has never dried up and in the whole history of Egypt no such calamitous events have ever occurred.
19. According to Isa 19:18, five Egyptian cities will speak the language of Canaan, but linguists and archeologists assure us that
no Egyptian cities have ever spoken the language of Canaan.
20. According to Isa 29:17, Lebanon will become a fruitful field, but that has never happened to Lebanon!
21. According to Isa 34:9-10, Edom (the land between the Dead Sea and Gulf of Aqaba) will become burning pitch: no one
will ever pass through it again. But in truth that has never happened to Edom. People have passed through it for thousands of
years.
22. According to Isa 52:1, the uncircumcised and unclean will never enter Jerusalem, but in fact such people have continually
entered Jerusalem for thousands of years.
23. According to Jer 42:17, Jews who choose to live in Egypt will all die and leave no remnant. But history shows that Jews
continued to live there for centuries, later establishing a cultural center at Alexandria.
24. Zep 3:13 prophesied that the remnant of Israel will not sin or lie or be afraid, but in truth they were never so moral nor so
fearless.
25. Many verses [12] prophesy that Christ's second coming will occur soon. Some of them specifically say that it will be within
his listeners' lifetime, i.e., before that generation (there with Jesus) passes away. But in truth more than 19 centuries have
elapsed since then and the event still has not occurred. Of all the examples of unfulfilled prophecies, this one strikes me as the
one that is clearest and most powerful.
Thanks for the info Running man.
I'll have to spend some time cheaking some of those points out.
I find it interesting to note that when a prophecy hasn't literaly come true then what a person may do is find a hidden meaning or a symbolic fullfllment to the prophecy.
If you have to struggle to make a pophecy work or have to rely on divine guidence then what is the purpose of a prophecy?
How does prophecy help a person to believe that the bible is the word of God if the only way they can understand the bible is through use of their imagination or appeals to divine guidence?
Also it is said that often you cannot understand prophecy untill after the event.Again what purpose does that serve?
Also it is said that often you cannot understand prophecy untill after the event.
That's my father's line. When I ask him "Whatever happened with the King of the North after the collapse of the Soviet Union? Wasn't he supposed to last until Armaggedon?", he says that the King will change his identity but we have to wait for future developments.
Again what purpose does that serve?
The Society can always claim that that they got it wrong the first time because they were running ahead of time.
Thanks for the link Runningman. I bookmarked it. -OM
