Biblical Prophecies written BEFORE fulfillment

by brotherdan 64 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  brotherdan

  Satan and NVL recommended that I start this thread. I'm not sure anyone will have interest. But one of the things that proves to me that the Bible is accurate is the prophecies that were written before the fullfillment, in detal. I'll start with a complex one, but there are many other basic ones that were fullfilled by Jesus.

  Daniel's prophecy of the 70 weeks:

  While Daniel was being held captive in Babylon (which was around 538 BC) God revealed to him when the Messiah would come. The "Seventy Weeks" (Hebrew word: shabuwa) were to take place between the tim that there was the command to build Jerusalem til Messiah would take away sin. This is recorded in Daniel 9:24-26. In this prophecy there was a sequence of events that would occur.

  1. There would be a command to rebuild Jerusalem which the Babylonians had destroyed years earlier. This was fulfilled in 445 BC by Artaxerxes, the king of Medo-Persia. Interestingly this occured nearly a century after the prophecy of Daniel 9 was given. Nehemiah 2:1-8 talks about the experience.

  2. From giving this command til the appearance of Messiah, it would be 69 weeks after which the Messiah would be killed. This was fulfilled in 32 AD, exactly when it was said to happen.

  In order to calulate the lenghts of time mentioned, we have to know what Daniel meant as "week". The Hebrew word shabuwa means a period of seven. This could be seven days, seven months, or seven years. You have to tell by the context which one it is. Genesis 29:27,28 shows that "shabuwa" means seven years.

  When calculating the 69 seven year periods, a shabuwa is a period of seven yeras, and seven times 69 is 483 years. From Revelation we know that these years are 360 days each (see Revelation 12:14). Moving from the 445 BC date (the command to rebuild Jerusalem), we come to spring of 32 AD, the year when Jesus was crucified. (Also remembering that there is no year 0.

  3. The next prophecy of Daniel's 70 weeks is that the people of the prince which is to come will destroy Jerusalem and the temple. This was fulfilled by Titus and the Roman empire in 70AD.

  When this prophecy was given in 538, Jerusalem and not even been rebuilt yet.

  This prophecy accurately predicted the time of Jesus crucifixtion, more than 500 years BEFORE it happened. It sandwiched his death between the 2 future events (rebuilding Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans) which have both been very well documented in history.
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  sabastious

  For a weak first argument I believe that if you make enough predictions some will come true:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Cayce

  There are numerous prophecies that were not fulfilled (of course apoligists find ways around them). As well as blatent historical inaccuracies in the Bible such as Herod not dying when the Gospels said he died.

  -Sab
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  brotherdan

  This wasn't a vague case of what would happen. There were specific events described, Sab. 1: The order to rebuild Jerusalem, 2: The death of Messiah. Not vague like Nostradomus.
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  sabastious

  While Daniel was being held captive in Babylon (which was around 538 BC) God revealed to him when the Messiah would come.

  There is a compelling theory that the Messiah never did come. We have very little historical evidence of Jesus:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_myth_theory

  -Sab
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  sabastious

  I didn't link to Nostradomus.

  -Sab
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  sabastious

  Also Brotherdan, can you prove that Daniel was written before the events?

  -Sab
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  Satanus

  Good for you, dan. I will not participate in this thread because of lack of interest, and my own reasons for disbelief were not related to this prophecy. There are others who are well versed in the subject you present. Perhaps, they will comment, perhaps not.

  You brother, Satan.
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  sabastious

  This is an interesting link:

  http://books.google.com/books?id=NyGyGyhUtIEC&pg=PA42&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

  -Sab
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  notverylikely

  Regarding Daniel....

  The book presents itself as the work of a prophet named Daniel who lived during the 6th century BCE. [40] Modern critical biblical scholarship dates the Book of Daniel to the 2nd century BCE, [2] [41] There is general agreement among scholars that Daniel's revelations are actually vaticinia ex eventu or prophecies after the event

  This prophecy accurately predicted the time of Jesus crucifixtion, more than 500 years BEFORE it happened. It sandwiched his death between the 2 future events (rebuilding Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans) which have both been very well documented in history.

  There is no evidence that those prophecies were written before the events happened. Since you are using accepted documented history we can stick to that rather that use interpretations of prophecy since there are so very many interpretations.
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  notverylikely

  This wasn't a vague case of what would happen. There were specific events described, Sab. 1: The order to rebuild Jerusalem, 2: The death of Messiah. Not vague like Nostradomus.

  Agreed, but since there is no evidence that Daniel was written or compiled before the events happened, that doesn't mean anything. There would need to be some verifiable copy of Daniel that can accurately be dated to prior to the events it describes. We don't have that.