EASTER QUIZ: Where is the missing prophecy Jesus fulfilled?

by Terry 38 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Terry

  Since today is celebrated by Christians all over the world as Easter Sunday...

  Here is sort of a puzzle to solve--if you are interested in things such as this.

  We begin with Luke 24:46. We have a claim being made about a Prophecy.

  Speaking to his disciples on the night of his alleged resurrection, he said, "Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day." That the resurrection of Christ on the third day was prophesied in the scriptures was claimed also by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures ."

  In two different places, then, New Testament writers claimed that the resurrection of the Messiah on the third day had been predicted in the scriptures.

  Your job is to provide THE SCRIPTURE being fulfilled!
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  Ding

  There is no OT scripture that says explicitly, "The Messiah will die and rise from the dead on the third day."

  Paul probably had in mind two things:

  1. The firstfruits being presented to God on the day following the Sabbath after Passover (Leviticus 23:9-14; see the comparison in 1 Corinthians 15:23)

  2. The story of Jonah and Jesus' comparison of that account to his coming resurrection (Matthew 12:38-41).
• 

  Terry

  While we are on the subject of "fulfilled" "prophecy".....

  If the prophecy-fulfillment argument offers wonderful proof of divine inspiration, then, we have every right to demand that bible apologists show us SPECIFICALLY where it was prophesied that Jesus would be called a Nazarene as Matthew claimed in the passage cited from his gospel account. How can there be proof of divine inspiration in a prophecy statement that may never have been made?

  Matthew was seemingly sloppy about citing non-prophecies.

  When Joseph took his family to Nazareth upon their return from Egypt, Matthew said that he did so "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets, that he should be called a Nazarene"(2:23).

  Bible scholars, however, have been unable to find such statement that any prophet ever made that this could be a reference to. As a matter of fact, the Old Testament prophets never referred to Nazareth, period. The word Nazareth, as well as Nazarene, was never even mentioned in the Old Testament. If this is so, how then could the period of Jesus's residency in Nazareth have been prophesied by the prophets?

  In another example, Matthew said that the purchase of the potter's field with the thirty pieces of silver that Judas cast back to the chief priests and elders fulfilled a prophecy made by...

  Jeremiah: "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced, whom certain of the children of Israel did price; and they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord appointed me" (27:9-10).

  The only problem is that Jeremiah never wrote anything remotely similar to this, so how could this be a fulfillment of "that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet"? Some scholars have suggested that Matthew was quoting "loosely" a statement that was actually written by Zechariah (11:12-13) rather than Jeremiah. If this is true, then one can only wonder why a divinely inspired writer, being guided by the omniscient Holy Spirit, would have said Jeremiah instead of Zechariah.

  To offer this as a solution to the problem posed by the passage doesn't do much to instill confidence in the inerrancy doctrine. Furthermore, if Matthew was indeed referring to Zechariah 11:12-13, then he certainly was "quoting loosely," so loosely, in fact, that any semblance of a connection between the two passages is barely recognizable.

  Thanks to Farrell Till and infidels.org
• 

  Terry

  Ding says: Paul probably had in mind two things:

  Well, Ding--what makes it probable? ...and how can we know what is in somebody's mind when they say something specific which has

  no substantiation? In other words, we can certainly use OUR imagination to think up some way to make a thing work--but--that surely

  isn't the same thing as proof.

  The Watchtower Society loves to use the notorious word : "Evidently" in exactly the same way. It is spackle to shore up cracks in a weak argument.
• 

  Brother of the Hawk

  These are the only things we can find...

  Jonah 1:17 Now Jehovah appointed a great fish to swallow Jo′nah, so that Jo′nah came to be in the inward parts of the fish three days and three nights.

  Mt 12:40 For just as Jo′nah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

  Most of the references were in the NT. The NWT cross references are all messed up and take you to scriptures that aren't even connected. So what's the answer Terry? Unless you're not ready to reveal.

  Affectioantely Brother of the Hawk
• 

  Terry

  So what's the answer Terry? Unless you're not ready to reveal.

  The obvious conclusion is that somebody is making it all up!

  There was no internet at the time of Paul or "Matthew" and looking stuff up was impossible.

  Who had a complete set of "scriptures" in their home or who could even read it if they did?

  So--persons who wanted to "PROVE" Jesus was the fulfillment of scriptural prophecy could get away with INVENTING IT pretty easily!

  1.Pretend there WAS a scripture

  2.Point to the bogus fulfilment.

  I know that sound devilishly harsh. That's why I made it a Quiz. So, people would do their best to satisfy themselves it is necessary

  to INVENT an answer that is plausible since you can't actually point to the bogus non-existing scripture Jesus is said to have fulfilled.

  You will see the squirm commence if you corner a JW and ask them about the Society having NGO STATUS with the United Nations.

  They will make up an answer on the spot. The fact that they have condemned "false religion" for consorting with the UN seems to disappear

  as an incrimination for them!

  Faith is pretending to know what you can't prove and denying there is a possibility you can be wrong.

  Add to that intellectual dishonesty and you get a religious assertion of statements, proofs, accounts, arguments and apologia.

  Bottom line: somebody is just lying, that's all. What else CAN they do? Deny it?
• 

  ThisFellowCheap

  Well, @AffHawk, I'd be damned if Friday night to Sunday morning is 3 days and 3 nights! Mehn, that's bloody wonderful arithmetic!! Those guys are just blabbing, and I like how they compare one non-event to the other, proves to me that if one didn't happen, likely neither did the other. I mean Jonah and Jesus- don't you smell something fishy!
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  mP

  Terry:

  Exactly as my other thread about Jesus and OT prophecies, when you examine the Christian claims its just too easy to find holes. Many times the OT scriptures in no way come close as a scientific proof, Chrsitians need to add their secret word definitions to make any sense of the text.

  However back onyour scripture the 3 days reference is to the sun. When the sun dies, it sits still for 3 days before starting its journey into the higher sky and the warmth of summer. Just look at the all main xian and jewish holidays they are all obviously celebrations of the seasons.

  First fruits -> Passover -> Jesus memorial, all the same date, different but the same characters. Interesting passover is also a clever reference to the passing over the spring equinox by the Sun. First fruits is of course celebrating the start of spring. New philosophies require the new to superceed the old.
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  mP

  Ding

  2. The story of Jonah and Jesus' comparison of that account to his coming resurrection (Matthew 12:38-41).

  mP
  Most people dont realise that Jonah means DOVE in hebrew. the DOVE as we know is often a symbol of the holy spirit or sun in ancient cultures. The Egyptians used a falcon but the idea is the same all these birds symbolise the sun.
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  Newly Enlightened

  Unless those scriptures are in what they call the 'Lost/rejected texts of the bible' ????