Failed Biblical Prophecies
October 18, 2012 at 12:16 pm
(This post was last modified: October 18, 2012 at 12:55 pm by Darkstar.)
So, the Ask, Seek, Knock thread was getting seriously derailed and Drich asked me to start a new thread, so here I am. Some biblical prophecies predict that something will happen, and others that it will not. Oftentimes, we are told that the reason the prophecy has not been fulfilled is that he haven't waited long enough. The rapture is probably the most well known prophecy of this kind. However, when a prophecy says that something will not happen, the prophecy is putting itself in hot water. Just as you can wait millenia for a prophecy to be fulfilled, you can do the same in reverse, waiting for a negative prophecy to be disproven. Then there a prophecies that things will happen at a certain time and they do not. This thread is not reserved exclusively for 'prophecies', per se, but for any supposedly divine claim that has been refuted.
For example:
Joshua 3:7-10 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.
Joshua 15:63 Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah.
Here, god states "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses." In other words, god is with him. Then god says "This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites." Therefore, if god is with them, these peoples will be driven out. But then it goes on to say "Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah." There are only three possibilites: god lied to him and was not with him; god was incapable of stopping the Jebusites; or this is a biblical contradiction.
Well, we can rule out god's failure as he is omnipotent and could not possibly fail at anything. As for god's lying:
Hebrews 6:18 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.
and
Numbers 23:19-20 19 God is not human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?
20 I have received a command to bless;
he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
So god lying is out of the question. Therefore, the only remaining choice is that this is a contradiction.
For example:
Joshua 3:7-10 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.
Joshua 15:63 Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah.
Here, god states "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses." In other words, god is with him. Then god says "This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites." Therefore, if god is with them, these peoples will be driven out. But then it goes on to say "Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah." There are only three possibilites: god lied to him and was not with him; god was incapable of stopping the Jebusites; or this is a biblical contradiction.
Well, we can rule out god's failure as he is omnipotent and could not possibly fail at anything. As for god's lying:
Hebrews 6:18 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.
and
Numbers 23:19-20 19 God is not human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?
20 I have received a command to bless;
he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
So god lying is out of the question. Therefore, the only remaining choice is that this is a contradiction.
John Adams Wrote:The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.