I think this is another case of expecting the gospels to say something—like prophesy about the future—when in fact that is what the Watchtower taught us.
The gospels were not written to foretell the future or give detailed clues about exactly how eschatological history is to unfold because Jesus taught his followers that this was not something they should concern themselves with as much as being ready for the time whenever it did come. It is due to the Adventists’ obsession with dates that claims like these became part of the Watchtower tradition, but there isn’t that type of prophecy in the gospels.
Even the destruction of the temple is not necessarily a prophecy in itself. The synoptic gospel accounts were written either alongside or just after the Temple’s destruction in Jerusalem. This was more of a way of saying that Jesus was right, and that’s why the Christians didn’t perish who were living in Jerusalem around the time the Romans surrounded the city. Nothing was written for them before that event, but it was the oral catechesis of Jesus’ sayings that were taught by word of mouth that got the Christians to leave Jerusalem when the Romans appeared to back down.
The gospels seem to mention the event as having just happened or being a well-established event in history. It is merely part of the narrative of a prophetic speech, but not a “crystal ball” that was merely waiting for JWs to come along and pick it from ‘it’s shelf in the Ministry of Magic.’
As for other “prophecies” in these texts, Jesus gives very few, most in apocalyptic eschatological terms, and then generally as a lessons in preparation, but far from being given any specifics of the end.
Even the reading of the Matthew 24 and Luke 21 passages as “prophecy” as done by the Jehovah’s Witnesses is highly suspect. While the Witnesses claim Jesus is saying that the parousia and the end of the world will be accompanied by ‘wars, earthquakes, famines,’ Jesus is actually saying taht these things do not make up a composite sign of prophecy of the end. These are normal historical events. Jesus then tells them not to have any fear therefore because these things “must happen” but that “the end is not yet.”
So there is little actual prophecy intended to be a timetable or roadmap like the Witnesses teach. We need to unlearn this particular Watchtowerism so that even if we come to the opinion that the Bible is not God’s word, it isn’t based on searching in the Gospels for earmarks like literal histoical forecasts by “prophecy.” That is not something these written accounts are known for having.
Thus when I hear that same old song, “The Gospels aren’t authentic because their prophecies were written after the fact,” I always wonder, “There’s an actual prophecy in them? Where?”
