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Biblical Prophecy Fulfilled
Ya know, I hate to do a "JIA thread," but we were talking about it today in church and there's a book out that claims that over 2,000 biblical prophecies have been fulfilled.
A tad skeptical, I went looking online.
http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/bible-prophecies-fulfilled.htm
A better site is here:
http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/prophecy.shtml
(Now, don't ask me where in the hell they got the probabilities, but that's not really the point.)
Originally posted by Alliance
There's also books that claim that the Holocaust didn't happen and that George Bush is an alien come to take over the world.Why should we view these as any mroe than mere contrivances inorder to justify a particular faith?
Originally posted by Darth Revan
That might be meaningful if the only prophecies that had been fulfilled historically were Biblical ones. Many of Nostradamus' prophecies, for example, are widely believed to have been accurate.
Originally posted by FeceMan
Because they aren't mere contrivances, as they fit with what is written in the Bible?
The bible blatantly ambigous. I haven't examend specific claims specifically, but things like dates are out of the question.
They are contrivances, as all prophecies have been shown to be.
I will summarize the problem with this:
How do we know that Bible is accurate?
Over 2000 Biblical prophocies have been fulfilled.
How do we know that over 2000 Biblical prophecies have been
fulfilled?
It says so in the Bible.
And how do we know that the Bible is accurate?
(repeat 1000 times)
This is especially a problem regarding OT prophocies in the NT. It appartently hasn't occured to the author of this site, for example, that the authors of the Gosples might claim that Jesus was sold out for thirty pieces of silver because it was claimed that the Messiah would be, and they wanted to pain Jesus as the messiah.
Originally posted by FeceMan
Even those who aren't prophets of God can predict the future. Also, if I recall correctly, many of Nostradamus' prophesies were extremely vague.
I know... I'm not saying I agree with those people, just that there are a lot of other so-called "prophets" who many believe to be able to see the future. So the fact that it shows up in the Bible isn't all that special. Neither site gives much in the way of actual passages from the Bible. I'm not sure that I trust them that the Bible isn't extremely vague with these prophecies, either.
Besides which, the Bible is just another book and we really have no way of knowing whether so-and-so son of whoever actually said the things it claims they did.
The validity of prophecies are often exaggerated. Prophecies are indeed often vague, allowing them to be applied to many possible future events.
(Nostradamus' writings have frequently been misquoted and, in some instances, even deliberately altered in order to prove that he supposedly predicted various events.)
The prophet Isaiah foretold that a conqueror named Cyrus would destroy seemingly impregnable Babylon and subdue Egypt along with most of the rest of the known world. This same man, said Isaiah, would decide to let the Jewish exiles in his territory go free without any payment of ransom (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1; and 45:13). Isaiah made this prophecy 150 years before Cyrus was born, 180 years before Cyrus performed any of these feats (and he did, eventually, perform them all), and 80 years before the Jews were taken into exile.
Mighty Babylon, 196 miles square, was enclosed not only by a moat, but also by a double wall 330 feet high, each part 90 feet thick. It was said by unanimous popular opinion to be indestructible, yet two Bible prophets declared its doom. These prophets further claimed that the ruins would be avoided by travelers, that the city would never again be inhabited, and that its stones would not even be moved for use as building material (Isaiah 13:17-22 and Jeremiah 51:26, 43). Their description is, in fact, the well-documented history of the famous citadel.
The exact location and construction sequence of Jerusalem's nine suburbs was predicted by Jeremiah about 2600 years ago. He referred to the time of this building project as "the last days," that is, the time period of Israel's second rebirth as a nation in the land of Palestine (Jeremiah 31:38-40). This rebirth became history in 1948, and the construction of the nine suburbs has gone forward precisely in the locations and in the sequence predicted.
The prophet Moses foretold (with some additions by Jeremiah and Jesus) that the ancient Jewish nation would be conquered twice and that the people would be carried off as slaves each time, first by the Babylonians (for a period of 70 years), and then by a fourth world kingdom (which we know as Rome). The second conqueror, Moses said, would take the Jews captive to Egypt in ships, selling them or giving them away as slaves to all parts of the world. Both of these predictions were fulfilled to the letter, the first in 607 B.C. and the second in 70 A.D. God's spokesmen said, further, that the Jews would remain scattered throughout the entire world for many generations, but without becoming assimilated by the peoples or of other nations, and that the Jews would one day return to the land of Palestine to re-establish for a second time their nation (Deuteronomy 29; Isaiah 11:11-13; Jeremiah 25:11; Hosea 3:4-5 and Luke 21:23-24).This prophetic statement sweeps across 3500 years of history to its complete fulfillment—in our lifetime.
Jeremiah predicted that despite its fertility and despite the accessibility of its water supply, the land of Edom (today a part of Jordan) would become a barren, uninhabited wasteland (Jeremiah 49:15-20; Ezekiel 25:12-14). His description accurately tells the history of that now bleak region
Jesus definitely fulfilled a lot of prophecies. Those which were vague he explained pretty well as to how he fulfilled them.
"I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles" Isaiah 42:6
Jesus definitely fulfilled that one.
"Just as there were many who were appalled at him- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness- so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him" Isaiah 52:14-15
That one too.
"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We, all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" Isaiah 53:4-6
That's a difficult one to fulfill, but Jesus did.
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times" Micah 5:2
Fulfilled.
"See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey" Zechariah 9:9
Fulfilled.
"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced..." Zechariah 12:10
Fulfilled.
"Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand" Psalm 16:9-11
Fulfilled.
It is undeniable that fulfilling even these few scriptures in combination is not very easy, in fact, very improbable.
Originally posted by FeceMan
Which, of course, will be touted as him knowing he wasn't actually the Messiah but making it look like he was.