velvetfinger

I am having an interesting discussion at another *gasp* forum that I frequent. I seem to be the lone atheist combatting several christians (a couple of creationists, a liberal, one in between ), and another theist who is a believer in the Baha'i faith (as well as being a Universalist Unitarian).

The discussion has been civil and, while I have had no problems so far, it is beginning to get quite in depth. The subject of fulfilled prophecies has been brought up, by the Baha'i believer, no less.

Using google, I quickly searched for 'zoroastrian prophecy', as this was mentioned by the Baha'i believer, and found this page. I was shocked that it was very similar to what the Baha'i believer had posted.

From the link:

"Christians await the return of Christ and the coming of "another comforter." The Jewish scriptures foretell the coming of "another Prophet" like Moses. They also foretell the return of Elijah from heaven. Those Moslems who have not forgotten the promises of Muhammad look for God Himself to come down from heaven and some await the appearance of Mahdi and Meseeh. Krishna said that he personally returns from age to age. Buddha said that he was not the first Buddha ever to appear and that another "supremely enlightened" Buddha was still yet to come. The Prophet Zoroaster promised his followers that God was going to raise up another Prophet from the family line of the Persian kings sometime in the mid-1800s. Native American prophecies foretell the coming of a bearded white man from the east who will bring teachings which will restore the hoop of unity. Each religion, in it's own way, has foretold the coming of a great 'religion restoring', 'world uniting', 'peace bringing' Messiah."

And a paragraph later:

"Members of the Baha'i Faith believe that in the middle of the last century these prophecies actually were fulfilled and that the Promised One truly did appear.

Baha'u'llah, the Prophet founder of the Baha'i Faith, explicitly claims to be the Promised One whose coming was explicitly foretold, not only in the Old and the New Testaments.... but also in the prophecies of the Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Islamic and other religions."

I am not too familiar with many of these other religions, let alone their 'fulfilled prophecies'. Has anybody else been presented with this argument before and, if so, how did you refute it?

I think one of the best ways of refuting the 'fulfilled prophecy' claim is to show other prophecies that haven't been fulfilled. Is this a wise approach? Of course, I could be accused of taking the prophecy out of context, so maybe not. Hm.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Invisible Insanity

I think you can tell him that as far as Buddhism is concerned this is not the case. The Buddha to be would be named Maitreya and would only appear after the current dharma has disappeared. basically, Buddhism as we know it would be gone in order for Maitreya to appear. We, according to Buddhists, are still in the age of Shakyamuni Buddha. As for the return of Christ, this should be easy to refute. Christ was to come again in a very drmamtic way which has not happened. The Messiah for the Jews must rebuild Solomon's temple. Since this has not happened, you can rule that one out (Note, this is one of the reasons why Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah) I think if you look at the specifics in the prophecies you will find them unfulfilled. Be prepared to get a strong reaction. Because the Bahai believes that his prophet is legit, any criticism will be taken as an attack on the foundation of his religion.

Al

edit:
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Maitreya is to be make an appearance in about 30,000 years.
link