Sven

In the thread "Why the Christian God?", Jim Larmore was confronted with the failed prophecies about Tyre. He decided to use an argument by hyperlink and provided this here:

Have fun!

Sven

OK, I'll start myself - apparently nobody is interested. Is it too easy?

First, Ezekiel 26 quite clearly states that not Alexander, but Nebuchadnezzar shall achieve all this. A prophecy about a destruction of Tyre several hundred years in the future anyway doesn't make sense.

Second, the article conventiently ignores verse 21: " 21 I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD." We have found Tyre again, even the remains of the ancient settlements. The prophecy failed. Period.

Third, verse 14 simply says "thou shalt be built no more". There's no mention that only the "mainland city of Tyre [would be] never [...] rebuilt" as the article claims. Rather than a fulfillment of the prophecy, it's a failure of the prophecy. This kind of twisting of words is only believed by the most desparate for whom the failure of a biblical prophecy simply isn't allowed mentally.

I'll let others continue - hopefully someone steps up.

Shameless Hussy

Well, I can only tell you what I think makes sense in terms of Jewish prophecy. Don't know why the Christians would be concerning themselves with this stuff about Israel's military squabbles... well yeah, I guess I do.

Ezekiel had a pretty political context, IIRC. Given that, "Yet shalt thou never be found again" and "built no more" were not statements about archaeology or urban renewal projects - it was talking about the Tyre's power and prominence passing, while Israel would prevail and rise again. Destiny will prevail, etc.

If you look at it that way, it DID kinda come true. Israel is a nation once more. How's it going with the Phoenicians?

Jayhawker Soule

They were broken up into the Baby Bellicose.

Sven

Well, when you abandon a literal interpretation of the verses, this is of course a possibility. But since the apologetic used a literal interpretation, it's quite legitimate to show that it fails this way.

offa

Which "Tyre" are we talking about?

Ant 12-233 Moreover, he built courts of greater magnitude than
ordinary, which he adorned with vastly huge gardens. And
when he brought the place to this state, he named it
Tyre. This place is between Arabia and Judea, beyond the
Jordan, not far from the country of Heshbon.


Flavius Josephus tells us that names of locations are often
misleading (Strato's Tower, for instance). A search engine will
reveal about fifty instances (or more) when Josephus mentions
"Tyre". A scrutiny will reveal the fact that he probably is
referencing a pseudo Tyre in Judea at least 95% of the time.

King Ahab probably never viewed the Mediterranean let
alone resided in that Tyre.

offa