FRDB Archives

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.


Go Back   FRDB Archives > Archives > Religion (Closed) > Biblical Criticism & History
Welcome, Peter Kirby.
You last visited: Today at 03:12 PM

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 01-20-2008, 03:53 PM   #11
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Latin America
Posts: 4,066
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Skeptic View Post
If God really wanted people to believe that he can predict the future, he was have made indisputable prophecies thousands of years ago.
Wrong again, if God wrote down in a book exactly (step by step, like a history book) what was going to happen we would have a lot of false prophets fooling the people. The way God wrote prophecy without a doubt proves it is divinely inspired since no man could have predicted the future. I guess your now going to claim that bible prophecy that came true was written after the fact, huh?

Quote:
One important principle about biblical prophecy is that you cannot purposefully fulfill it nor can you use it to predict God. Prophecy is written so that we are prepared and so we can have confidence in God and when we see these things fulfilled we know God's word is true and that God is in control. There are over 300 prophecies concerning Christ and many seemed contradictory thus making it impossible to self-fulfill. For example, Jesus' parents lived outside of Bethlehem but they were forced by the Roman Empire to go to Bethlehem to register for a census and to be taxed, Jesus was born there, they fled to Egypt to escape Herod's order to kill male children 2 years and younger, moved back and settled in Nazareth. This action fulfilled seemingly contradictory prophecies that said that Christ would be born in Bethlehem, God would call His son out of Egypt and the Christ would be called a Nazarine. This is just a sampling but proves an important point. God inspires prophecy and interweaves them with events making it completely impossible for anyone to design a self-fulfilling plan in order to fulfill by forgery. Therefore when you see these things fulfilled – such as Ezekiel's prophecy – you know that surely, only God could have known beforehand.
http://www.exchangedlife.com/skeptic/ezekiel.htm
arnoldo is offline  
Old 01-20-2008, 04:01 PM   #12
Banned
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Florida
Posts: 19,796
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Skeptic
If God really wanted people to believe that he can predict the future, he would have made indisputable prophecies thousands of years ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo
Wrong again, if God wrote down in a book exactly (step by step, like a history book) what was going to happen we would have a lot of false prophets fooling the people.
That is false. No false prophet can predict when and where natural disasters will occur years in advance. Obviously, based upon the historical record, neither can God.
Johnny Skeptic is offline  
Old 01-20-2008, 04:20 PM   #13
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Latin America
Posts: 4,066
Default

Ok so from your POV every prophecy that has historicaly come true was either a self-fulfilled prophecy or forged after the fact, right?
arnoldo is offline  
Old 01-20-2008, 04:25 PM   #14
Banned
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Florida
Posts: 19,796
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo
Prophecy is written so that we are prepared and so we can have confidence in God and when we see these things fulfilled we know God's word is true and that God is in control.
Obviously not since Ezekiel did not say anything about Alexander.

A moral God would use his ability to predict the future to predict when and where natural disasters would occur.

[quote=arnoldo There are over 300 prophecies concerning Christ.......[/quote]

But none of them is convincing. Please start a new thread on messianic prophecies that Jesus fulfilled.

Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo
For example, Jesus' parents lived outside of Bethlehem but they were forced by the Roman Empire to go to Bethlehem to register for a census and to be taxed. Jesus was born there.
There is not any credible historical evidence that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo
They fled to Egypt to escape Herod's order to kill male children 2 years and younger, moved back and settled in Nazareth. This action fulfilled seemingly contradictory prophecies that said that Christ would be born in Bethlehem, God would call His son out of Egypt and the Christ would be called a Nazarene.
Not a chance. Matthew dreamed up the story of the magi in order to try to validate Micah 5:2. Micah 5:2 says "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Aside from the fact that that verse does not refer to Jesus, which I will be happy to debate with you in a new thread if you wish, there is no way that a loving God would have sent the wise men to Herod when he could have used the star to lead the wise men directly to Bethlehem, thereby preventing the needless deaths of young children. If the wise men did go to Herod, since no claims about Jesus came about until decades later, many Jews must have worried that Herod might have been able to kill the messiah, or that the messiah had not been born after all.

Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo
This is just a sampling but proves an important point. God inspires prophecy and interweaves them with events making it completely impossible for anyone to design a self-fulfilling plan in order to fulfill by forgery.
On the contrary, I have reasonably proven that the partition of Palestine is a self-fulfilled prophecy. I recently started a new thread on that topic.

Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo
Therefore, when you see these things fulfilled – such as Ezekiel's prophecy – you know that surely, only God could have known beforehand.
But you have not reasonably proven that the Tyre prophecy was made before the events, or, that if it was made before the events, that it was not revised.
Johnny Skeptic is offline  
Old 01-20-2008, 04:43 PM   #15
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Latin America
Posts: 4,066
Default

You obviously believe all prophecy is either self fulfilled prophecy or it is forged, how convenient, since you obviously have absolutely no proof that one single "prophecy" was written after the fact.
arnoldo is offline  
Old 01-20-2008, 04:55 PM   #16
Banned
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Florida
Posts: 19,796
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo
You obviously believe all prophecy is either self fulfilled prophecy or it is forged, how convenient, since you obviously have absolutely no proof that one single "prophecy" was written after the fact.
I don't need any proof since the Bible is the claimant. As I said before, all that I have to do is provide reasonable plausibilities. You have not adequately disproven my plausibilities. It is not likely that Ezekiel would say that "a king of kings" (Nebuchadnezzar) would down the streets of Tyre, and tear down its towers, and fail to defeat Tyre, but it is likely that after Nebuchadnezzar failed to defeat Tyre that the "many nations" part of the Tyre prophecy was added. It is reasonably possible that Ezekiel knew about Nebuchadnezzar's plans to defeat Tyre in advance.

Arnoldo: You do not have any proof that one single Bible prophecy was written after the fact.

Deist: You do not have any proof that deism is false.

Arnoldo: Well, er, uh.......
Johnny Skeptic is offline  
Old 01-20-2008, 05:10 PM   #17
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: The temple of Isis at Memphis
Posts: 1,484
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by sugarhitman View Post
I did not plan on writing on this again, but the critics are still bringing this up, so let us go back to this accurate prediction of Ezekiel. Now the critics says that Ezekiel has Nebby attacking Island Tyre. But there is something funny about this because all the weapons used by Nebby are land based, and there were no causeway connecting the island with the mainland.
1. This was already addressed in the previous thread. You failed to respond to it.

2. Please present evidence that all of Bablyon's weapons were land-based.


Quote:
So how did Nebby "siege island Tyre?" History it seems is silent about this.
No it isn't. Historians quite plainly tell us that Babylon sieged Tyre - yet failed.

Quote:
They say he sieged it but does not tell us how. Critics have made up their own history on how Nebby acomplished this, but were they there to witness this event? certainly not.
Personally witnessing it is unnecessary.

Quote:
Ask them why would Tyre surrender to Nebby or pay tribute to him, they say things like because Nebby would have used a economic embargo on them and other such rubbish.
No, because he was sieging the city and continued the siege for 13 years. They were at a stalemate, and both sides wanted a face-saving way to call it a draw.

Quote:
If that was true then why did they resist Greece, who had this same power and who actually had ships?
Why did *who* resist Greece? When?

Quote:
Well lets take a CLOSE look what Zek says:
It won't do much good; you don't know enough about the history to even being discussing this intelligently.


Quote:
"Behold , I am against you O Tyrus, and will cause MANY NATIONS to come up against you, as the sea cause his waves to come up...." Here God says MANY NATIONS will come against Tyre like the waves of the seas. Waves ofcourse comes at different times.
No, they come one right after another. In fact, military planners refer to waves of bombers or waves of cavalry, all happening during the same battle.

Quote:
"Behold I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings..." Now here critics claims that the army under Nebby are the many nations predicted that would come against Tyrus. But look at the text Nebby's army is considered one army.
No, it isn't.

Quote:
A multi-national force is a coalition of soveriegn nations that are not under a single command (like the forces in Iraq) But this army is considered the army of Babylon under one command. Look at what Zek says:
Except that is not what the Babylonian army was. Each of the tribute nations was required to send a certain number of soldiers, horsemen and chariots as part of their tribute payment. It may have been one army, but it was still an army of "many nations".

Quote:
With HIS AXES (his not theirs)
HIS HORSES (not theirs)
Wrong. When are you going to learn not to argue scripture with people who know it better than you do?

The text says both - in typical Hebrew poetic fashion, it repeats the theme twice:

EZE 26:3 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
EZE 26:4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
[...]
EZE 26:9 And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.

Verses 1-6 lay out the destruction in general terms. Then at v7, Ezekiel repeats the destruction mentioned earlier, but now he names the agent of destruction: Nebuchadnezzar and the armies of Babylon.

So unless you are stupid enough to think that Nebuchadnezzar himself was wielding an axe in this battle, it's obviously a figurative usage that encompasses the entire army.

Not that it helps much, since the target of the prophecy was the island city, not the suburbs on the mainland. And "he" (Nebuchadnezzar) failed to conquer that.

Quote:
island because how can engines of war be set against walls that has no land outside of them? How can a physical siege be employed against a island fortress without ships...especially ships that did not have battering rams?
How laughable. What proof have you given that they did not possess battering rams? What evidence have you given that they did not have ships (or that some of the tribute allies had ships)?

I asked you this before - you lacked the courage to answer it - here's another chance to see if you have any spine:

You have yet to prove that Nebuchadnezzar didn't understand the need for boats when conquering an island. You really think that he marched tens of thousands of soldiers six months from Babylon, and didn't realize that boats would be needed to conquer an island city?

You also seem to forget that a causeway existed. REmember? You misidentified the author of my source as being a co-author of the Da Vinci code? :rolling:

So not only have you brought zero evidence to support your claim of no ships and no battering rams, but you have never dealt with the fact that a causeway existed.

The rest of your drivel is like the above: repetition of already-refuted points.
Sheshonq is offline  
Old 01-20-2008, 05:12 PM   #18
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: The temple of Isis at Memphis
Posts: 1,484
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Skeptic View Post

Since the Bible is the claimant, not skeptics, all that I need to do is provide reasonable plausibilities.

What evidence do you have that the Tyre prophecy was not recorded after the events, or revised after the events?
The Dead Sea Scrolls have absolutely proved that Daniel wrote about Greece/Alexander the Great two hundred years before these events happened.
No, they did not.
Of course, if you think otherwise, then feel free to show us your evidence.

Quote:
Sorry, not buying that "prophecy is a forgery" rubbish.
And nobody around here is buying wishy-washy claims that have no factual foundation. Until you learn the difference between "claim" and "prove", you're going to be running in circles chasing your own tail.
Sheshonq is offline  
Old 01-20-2008, 05:22 PM   #19
Contributor
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: nowhere
Posts: 15,747
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo View Post
The Dead Sea Scrolls have absolutely proved that Daniel wrote about Greece/Alexander the Great two hundred years before these events happened.
Please explain how.


spin
spin is offline  
Old 01-20-2008, 06:43 PM   #20
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Latin America
Posts: 4,066
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by spin View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldo View Post
The Dead Sea Scrolls have absolutely proved that Daniel wrote about Greece/Alexander the Great two hundred years before these events happened.
Please explain how.


spin
The entire book of Daniel fortells the rise and fall of the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great, oops, I forgot it was written after the fact, er, it was a self-fulfilled prophesy... either way by your own admission the the prophect Daniel & Ezekiel is 100% accurate for one reason or the other, right?
arnoldo is offline  
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:35 PM.

Top

This custom BB emulates vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2015, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.