Johnny Skeptic

I noticed that a Christian and a skeptic in another thread got off topic and were debating the Tyre prophecy. The prophecy is one of my favorite debate topics. I invite any Christian who finds the prophecy to be convincing to post his arguments in this thread, and of course, that includes Lee Merrill.

spin

Don't you think there is just so much weaseling room for the die-hard prophecy adherent to render any attempts to pin the person down clear reasoning destined to peter into waffle? The prophecy must be fulfilled, so either you don't understand, we don't understand the text clearly enough, or the fulfilment has happened somehow though perhaps a little unclear to the non-believer. It's a very closed circuit. The adherent is resilient to logic and evidence and will keep on weaseling and I don't think is even dishonesty, but you Johnny Septic are obviously wrong because you don't believe god's word. How do you penetrate such walls of self-deception?


spin

Johnny Skeptic

If your argument is valid, would it not also apply to all other Bible topics as well? Both sides are essentially trying to influence the undecided crowd, not each other. The same is true in politics. Hardliners on both sides seldom change their minds. The last two presidential elections were decided mainly by only a few votes among independent voters. I do not expect to change Lee Merrill's opinion of the Tyre prophecy, but I do expect to prove to Lee that he will not convince very many of the undecided crowd of his position.

Jack the Bodiless

I still don't understand why some fundies seem to actively revere the Tyre prophecy. It was clearly made at a time when Nebuchadnezzar was preparing to attack Tyre: indeed, as Ezekiel later mentions the aftermath of the attack, it was actually completed after the event. There is no evidence of any supernatural insight here. The only notable feature of this "prophecy" is its failure!

...And the inerrantists can't even get their excuses straight. Tyre is now a bare rock (it isn't), it's underwater (it isn't), it's inhabited only by a handful of people living in the ruins (population 20,000+), it "will be finally destroyed when Christ returns"... and bfniii insists that the "permanent destruction" only refers to the kingdom of Tyre (ignoring the descriptions of physical destruction, the prophesied end of Tyre as a mercantile power, and the fact that the kingdom was peacefully absorbed into the Persian empire and was never forcibly ended by anybody).

Johnny Skeptic

I have found out from personal experience at the Theology Web that it is much better to ask Christians what about the Tyre prophecy indicates divine inspiration than to claim that the prophecy was not fulfilled. I was hoping that some Christians would be willing to debate the Tyre prophecy some more, but I guess that they learned their lessons in the other thread. I wish that I had been a member of this forum when that debate was going on.