Failed biblical Prophecies!

March 1, 2012

Christian claim: “We are talking about over 300 prophecies, each fulfilled in detail.”

The simple answer:

The NT writers simply wrote that fictional jesus fulfilled the OT prophecies. It wasn’t difficult and isn’t evidence. Why don’t the jews agree that he fulfilled 300 prophecies?

The christian claim:

The Bible contains many prophecies that have accurately been fulfilled, proving it is a divine source.

Source:

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. 1985.

Life–How Did It Get Here?

Brooklyn, NY, pp. 216-223.

Response:

There are several mundane ways in which a prediction of the future can be fulfilled:
1. Retrodiction. The “prophecy” can be written or modified after the events fulfilling it have already occurred.
2. Vagueness. The prophecy can be worded in such a way that people can interpret any outcome as a fulfillment. Nostradomus’s prophecies are all of this type. Vagueness works particularly well when people are religiously motivated to believe the prophecies.
3. Inevitability. The prophecy can predict something that is almost sure to happen, such as the collapse of a city. Since nothing lasts forever, the city is sure to fall someday. If it has not, it can be said that according to prophecy, it will.
4. Denial. One can claim that the fulfilling events occurred even if they have not. Or, more commonly, one can forget that the prophecy was ever made.
5. Self-fulfillment. A person can act deliberately to satisfy a known prophecy.
There are no prophecies in the Bible that cannot easily fit into one or more of those categories.
In biblical times, prophecies were not simply predictions. They were warnings of what could or would happen if things did not change. They were meant to influence people’s behavior. If the people heeded the prophecy, the events would not come to pass; Jonah 3 gives an example. A fulfilled prophecy was a failed prophecy, because it meant people did not heed the warning.
The Bible also contains failed prophecies, in the sense that things God said would happen did not (Skeptic’s Annotated Bible n.d.). For example:
- Joshua said that God would, without fail, drive out the Jebusites and Canaanites, among others (Josh. 3:9-10). But those tribes were not driven out (Josh. 15:63, 17:12-13).
- Ezekiel said Egypt would be made an uninhabited wasteland for forty years (29:10-14), and Nebuchadrezzar would plunder it (29:19-20). Neither happened.
Other religions claim many fulfilled prophecies, too (Prophecy Fulfilled n.d.).
Divinity is not shown by miracles. The Bible itself says true prophecies may come elsewhere than from God (Deut. 13:1-3), as may other miracles (Exod. 7:22, Matt. 4:8). Some people say that to focus on proofs is to miss the whole point of faith (John 20:29).

http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CH/CH110.html

Atheist Debates - Matt Dillahunty - Prophecy Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiS4WP48fmY

Newman on Prophecy as Miracle - Richard Carrier

When is Prophecy Miraculous?

Robert Newman contributes a chapter on Old Testament prophecy, with the general idea that certain predictions found there are so uncanny that they are in themselves miracles. He begins by outlining the usual criticisms of this idea and then presents four criteria that establish a prophecy as miraculous (215): there must be good evidence that…

(1) “the text clearly envisions the sort of event alleged to be the fulfillment”

(2) “the prophecy was made well in advance of the event predicted”

(3) “the event actually came true”

(4) “the event predicted could not have been staged by anyone but God”

(5) and the “evidence is enhanced” if “the event itself is so unusual that the apparent fulfillment cannot be plausibly explained as a good guess”

http://infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/indef/4d.html

Prophecy and History

Some good criteria for qualifying a prophecy as a supernatural miracle are:

The prophetic text clearly envisions the sort of event alleged to be the fulfillment. (The prediction should not be so vague that a wide range of events would “fit” the prediction.)
The prophecy was made well in advance of the event predicted.

The event actually happened.

The event predicted could not have been staged by mere humans.

The event should be so unusual that its apparent fulfillment could not be explained as a good guess, and could not have been inevitable.

The source of the prophecy should not have been edited to produce a selection bias. (That is, we should be fairly confident that compilers didn’t just make a hundred predictions and throw away their 99 documents which made false predictions and keep the one that came true.)

http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=4652

Jesus and the Messianic Prophecies - Bart Ehrman

http://ehrmanblog.org/jesus-and-the-messianic-prophecies/

Are the Prophecies Being Fulfilled?

http://ehrmanblog.org/are-the-prophecies-being-fulfilled/

The Prophetic Background of Jewish Apocalyptic Thought

http://ehrmanblog.org/the-prophetic-background-of-jewish-apocalyptic-thought/

~Detailed Answers and Research:

http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Prophecy

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Biblical_prophecies

Failed biblical prophecies - RationalWiki

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Failed_biblical_prophecies

Jesus fulfilled prophecy

http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Jesus_fulfilled_prophecy

http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Messianic_prophecy

Prophecies: Imaginary and Unfulfilled

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/prophecy.html

Messianic Prophecies The Jews took snippets of text and called them prophecies. The christians used them to create a composite of a phantom jesus, but they don’t predict anything.

http://www.usbible.com/usbible/prophecy.htm#prophecy

MESSIANIC PROPHECIES

“Men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.”

-Machiavelli

At the bottom of this page is a table taken from Holman Bible Dictionary which contains 118 OT messianic prophecies that were supposedly fulfilled in the NT. According to their context, none of them have anything to do with Jesus. It wasn’t that the prophecies were fulfilled. It was the other way around. The gospel writers took snippets of text from the Old Testament and created a composite story of Jesus. The story outline in the gospels was based on the motifs of the Zodiac.

http://www.usbible.com/Gospel/messianic_prophecies.htm

Prophecies, Promises, and Misquotes in the Bible

But you ask me what the scariest things are in Christianity: this infatuation with biblical prophecy and this notion that Jesus is going to come back as an avenging savior to kill all the bad people. – Sam Harris, Beliefnet inverview

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/proph/long.html

Failed Prophecies

Christians claim that the Bible has hundreds of fulfilled prophecies, and is proof of its divine inspiration. In actuality, these so called fulfilled prophecies failed, were false or weren’t prophecies at all. Many of these prophecies are so vague, they can be attributed to different events. It’s also a fact that the Bible was written many years after these presumed prophecies and their “fulfillment” took place. It’s also fair to mention that nowhere in the Bible will you find countries such as the United States, Russia, China, Korea, Great Britain prophesied. Oh Christians will tell you that they are, if you know how to interpret the Bible.

http://faithskeptic.50megs.com/prophecies.htm

Atheist Evolution: Top 10 Biblical Prophecy FAILS.

http://atheistevolution.blogspot.com/2011/05/top-10-biblical-prophecy-fails.html

Bible prophecies and myth

http://www.dbskeptic.com/2011/01/02/bible-prophecies-and-myth/

Bible Prophecies? No… - The Atheist Experience 726

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GCwCuVcKec

100 False Bible Prophecies

http://www.freethinkersbooks.com/100fbp.htm

The twelve basic arguments for god #1: Argument from Holy Scripture

http://www.atheismresource.com/2010/the-twelve-basic-arguments-for-god-1-argument-from-holy-scripture

Believers never tire of saying that there is no one in the whole world who could say that two prophecies for the messiah have been fulfilled by him. As a result, they say that Yeshua? A.K.A. Jesus? who fulfilled over 300 of them is the true messiah.

http://www.godmakers.info/documents/en_were_over_300_prophecies.html

Chapter 23 - Was Jesus’ coming Prophesized?

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/god23.htm

1001 bible contradictions (#823-#908)

PROPHECIES - 3 Parts

http://www.1001biblecontradictions.com/VI1%20-%20Prophecies%20%5B823-851%5D.html

http://www.1001biblecontradictions.com/VI2%20-%20Prophecies%20%5B852-881%5D.html

http://www.1001biblecontradictions.com/VI3%20-%20Prophecies%20%5B882-908%5D.html

Prophecy Fulfillment and Probability

http://www.theskepticalreview.com/tsrmag/4prob93.html

Problems with prophecy from the Bible and Koran

http://www.dbskeptic.com/2009/04/26/problems-with-prophecy-from-the-bible-and-koran/