Biblical Prohecies That Came True?

by Viviane 250 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • Moses Joe
    Moses Joe

    Bible prophecies that came true are abundant. The prophecy about Babylons fall in one night, and the name of the person who would lead the charge to fell it - Cyrus. The prophecy of Cyrus has been verified as having been written long before his birth as well. You could argue that the name Cyrus was only used AFTER his taking down Babylon - but even that wouldn't change the means of Babylons defeat being prophesied and actually succeeding. To imagine that the Babylons of the time weren't aware of the prophecy is foolish, so even with knowledge of the prophecy against them they still were brought down by it.

    The prophecies about Jesus were all fullfilled by his own chosen actions, true. But the sheer number of them make it improbable that he'd be able to do it, let alone the fact that free will was always a variable - what if they actually acceptd Jesus and didn't put him to death? That absolutely was a possibility because God has never and will never take away a persons freedom of choice.

    The flood is a questionable one I suppose, but when you factor in that every culture in humanity has a legend about a global flood it makes it far less improbable. Why would such a story span across cultures that were even separated by the oceans? Even the religions of old were built around the flood, the tradition of the easter egg comes from the Egyption story that a Goddess was preserved in an egg upon the sea, the traditions involving halloween are tied to the celebrated remembrance of the people who the flood destroyed. The fact that even the ancient pagan cultures held within them the FACT of the flood (in their minds), though from a different opinion of it being a vile evil thing, gives credence to the flood itself.

    The fall of Jerusalem by Rome was foretold, and only those who listened to Christ's direction to, "Flee to the mountains" survived.

    Finally, just as a general point of support for the authenticity of Jesus. Josephus was alive, and saw him in action. I know the watchtower has said this, but I've read Josephus and researched this for myself. He did in fact speak of Jesus and his brother James, the fact that he was called the Christ and the facts of how he was viewed by the men we see in the Bible as hating him. He gives credence to these things because he saw them, he also wrote of, "startling deeds" jesus was able to perform, though that passage is of course a point of contention as to whether ot not it's authentic. Regardless of that last bit, he wrote of a man who did indeed live. And his very life is a prophesided existance - his being born being something he has no control over accomplishing anymore than his bloodline through which he came (also prophesied).

    Further, Daniel had his vision in which he saw the beasts which the angel then identified for him as certain world powers by name - this all came true, even down to the fine details of Alexander dying early and his kingdom being split in four.

    There are numerous Bible prophecies that came true.

    Havign said all that I would also say that the point of the Bible was always and has always been to teach us how to live together in peace and unity. Love was the whole point of the law and the prophets, love was the example Jesus left to follow all the while chastising the desciples for their arguing about, "who is the best among them." Yet, we all still argue about who is the best, be it the best religion, the best intelligence, the best knowledge, etc. Whether prophecy came true or not isn't the point of the writtings, and the point is entirely lost in it's debate.

  • OneEyedJoe
    OneEyedJoe

    Bible prophecies that came true are abundant. The prophecy about Babylons fall in one night, and the name of the person who would lead the charge to fell it - Cyrus. The prophecy of Cyrus has been verified as having been written long before his birth as well. You could argue that the name Cyrus was only used AFTER his taking down Babylon - but even that wouldn't change the means of Babylons defeat being prophesied and actually succeeding. To imagine that the Babylons of the time weren't aware of the prophecy is foolish, so even with knowledge of the prophecy against them they still were brought down by it.

    We've covered this. The book of Daniel was written after the fact. Why would it be foolish to "imagine" that the babalonians where unaware of the prophecy?

    The prophecies about Jesus were all fullfilled by his own chosen actions, true. But the sheer number of them make it improbable that he'd be able to do it, let alone the fact that free will was always a variable - what if they actually acceptd Jesus and didn't put him to death? That absolutely was a possibility because God has never and will never take away a persons freedom of choice.

    I think you're underestimating how montivated someone might be to represent themselves as the son of God. He also was kinda a dick to the powers that be of the time (pharasees and romans) and considering the culture of the day, and how romans treated the folks they conqured, it's not hard to imagine that Jesus could've gotten himself killed if he was under some delusion that he was the messiah. That's all assuming that the Jesus (as represented in the bible) existed at all, which is questionable.

    The flood is a questionable one I suppose, but when you factor in that every culture in humanity has a legend about a global flood it makes it far less improbable. Why would such a story span across cultures that were even separated by the oceans? Even the religions of old were built around the flood, the tradition of the easter egg comes from the Egyption story that a Goddess was preserved in an egg upon the sea, the traditions involving halloween are tied to the celebrated remembrance of the people who the flood destroyed. The fact that even the ancient pagan cultures held within them the FACT of the flood (in their minds), though from a different opinion of it being a vile evil thing, gives credence to the flood itself.

    This has been covered numerous times here on the forum, and if you'd like to do some more reading, there's a great article on jwfacts about it too. The bullet points are that most ancient civilizations where situated around a body of water, because that was the easiest place to live (there's fish, you can get around on a boat, and in the case of freshwater rivers/lakes there's water for people, livestock and crops). Floods happen periodically around essentially all bodies of water, so it's not shocking that everyone has their own flood story. The details of a great many of these flood stories diverge almost immediately once you look at anything beyond the fact that it's about a flood. There's also evidence that many civilizations (the egyptians being the best known example) lived right through the time of the flood without noticing. How dare they! Then when you consider that the flood story in the bible is essentially a point-by-point retelling of the epic of gilgamesh (which, incedentally, was actually written prior to when the biblical flood was supposed to have happened) it seals the deal. The flood is bunk.

    The fall of Jerusalem by Rome was foretold, and only those who listened to Christ's direction to, "Flee to the mountains" survived.

    This has already been addressed in this thread.

    Further, Daniel had his vision in which he saw the beasts which the angel then identified for him as certain world powers by name - this all came true, even down to the fine details of Alexander dying early and his kingdom being split in four.

    Again, written after the fact.

    There are numerous Bible prophecies that came true.

    We're still waiting for one....

  • Moses Joe
    Moses Joe

    Thank you, you made the final point of my post exactly as I expected someone would. You are a very loving and tolerant person, I bow to your superior intelligence and all around betterness. If everyone was just like you, the world would be... just like it is! Thanks.

  • Coded Logic
    Coded Logic

    The problem with Daniel's "prophecies" about the nations is they are so vague and poetic you could pick any century and make them work. Since Daniels time there have always been world leaders, conquerors, wars, new governments coming into power, old governments falling out of power, etc. And there are litterally thousands of ancient cities that are uninhabited to this day. In fact, many more cities of the ancient world are uninhabited then are still around. Fading into history is the norm - not the exception. There is nothing special about Babylon.

    The city of Tyre, on the other hand, is something special. It's amazing for a city that was prophecied to be "completely destroyed and never inhabited again" almost 2,500 years ago, it seems to be A.) Not completely destroyed and B.) still inhabited. Weird.

  • Viviane
    Viviane

    Moses Joe, were you being facetious or serious?

  • OneEyedJoe
    OneEyedJoe

    I think he was saying that my reply had an air of arrogance.

  • Theredeemer
    Theredeemer

    Many of the "prophecies" Jesus "fullfilled" were pretty easy to accomplish, like riding a donkey, your mom simply claiming to be a virgin (did anyone physically check?) and other ones.

  • Theredeemer
    Theredeemer

    Hmm...Is it just common sense to flee a city when its about to be attacked or when facing a disaster? Obviously not everyone does like Katrina but that can be stupid people problems. So that prophecy Jesus gave can just be people being smart at the obvious choices, flee to the mountains or stay and face the Roman army.

  • Viviane
    Viviane

    The prophecy of Cyrus has been verified as having been written long before his birth as well.

    Citation required.

    The prophecies about Jesus were all fullfilled by his own chosen actions, true. But the sheer number of them make it improbable that he'd be able to do it, let alone the fact that free will was always a variable - what if they actually acceptd Jesus and didn't put him to death?

    What specific prophecy that mentions Jesus by name are you referring to?

    The flood is a questionable one I suppose, but when you factor in that every culture in humanity has a legend about a global flood it makes it far less improbable. Why would such a story span across cultures that were even separated by the oceans?

    That's not the point, but a decent guess would be because early civilizations had to live very close to water. They all also had gods that weren't Jehovah and Jesus. The evidence, in any event, says no global flood.

    The fall of Jerusalem by Rome was foretold, and only those who listened to Christ's direction to, "Flee to the mountains" survived.

    Where specifically, was the fall of Rome foretold, with specific details?

    Finally, just as a general point of support for the authenticity of Jesus. Josephus was alive, and saw him in action.

    Specifically where did Josephus say he "say him in action"?

    Further, Daniel had his vision in which he saw the beasts which the angel then identified for him as certain world powers by name - this all came true, even down to the fine details of Alexander dying early and his kingdom being split in four.

    This didn't exist in earlier versions of text (written in a different language and style by an unknown author, BTW). Not a prophecy but a clear later addition.

  • Viviane
    Viviane

    Many of the "prophecies" Jesus "fullfilled" were pretty easy to accomplish, like riding a donkey, your mom simply claiming to be a virgin (did anyone physically check?) and other ones.

    There is no physical test that can reliably test for virginity.

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