Doug Shaver

In the context of Christian apologetics, a prophecy is an instance of foreknowledge not explicable by natural human abilities.

Magdlyn

And just as an aside, in Judaism, a prophet is one who speaks for God. Pro-for, phet-speech.

A prophet is not one who (necessarily) tells the future. This function is minor.

(BTW, the book of Daniel is not considered one of the prophetic books in Judaism, but is used as one by xians.)

definition of prophet:

1. a person who speaks for God or a deity, or by divine inspiration.
2. (in the Old Testament)
a. a person chosen to speak for God and to guide the people of Israel: Moses was the greatest of Old Testament prophets.
b. (often initial capital letter) one of the Major or Minor Prophets.
c. one of a band of ecstatic visionaries claiming divine inspiration and, according to popular belief, possessing magical powers.
d. a person who practices divination.
3. one of a class of persons in the early church, next in order after the apostles, recognized as inspired to utter special revelations and predictions. 1 Cor. 12:28.
4. the Prophet, Muhammad, the founder of Islam.
5. a person regarded as, or claiming to be, an inspired teacher or leader.
6. a person who foretells or predicts what is to come: a weather prophet; prophets of doom.
7. a spokesperson of some doctrine, cause, or movement.

shirley knott

That would make a prophecy rather difficult to distinguish from a lucky guess, a coincidence, extremes of induction, etc.
For any case of a future-referencing statement that turns out to be correct, how could we ever determine that it was or was not a genuine prophecy on this definition?
And what definition might let us do so?
[Yes, I'm arguing that there's no such thing as 'prophecy' in any useful sense of the term.]

hugs,
Shirley Knott

Calilasseia

Surely for a statement to count as a 'prophesy' with the meaning attached to that word that Dave intends us to take on board, it has to be a statement that claims an event will happen at a future date? Then, for that prophesy to be regarded as in some sense 'true', that later event has to take place?

So, if you find instances of events specified in older books, and the evidence says that those events did not take place, it's QED? Prophesy shot down?

Perhaps that's why Dave is afraid of visiting this thread. He'll have his assertions about the "wonderfully prophetic" nature of the bible torpedoed beneath the waterline the moment people start citing actual evidence?

Probably the reason he's avoiding my "flood deposit" thread as well.

Magdlyn

Failed Bible prophecies:

http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/prophecies.html

* Some prophecies were accurate because, quite simply, they were written after the event it purports to have foreseen. The Book of Daniel is a good example of this. It pretends to have been written during the time of the exile, that is around the sixth century BCE. Today, it is has been shown that Daniel was actually written around the second century BCE.
* Other prophecies were not prophecies at all, but have readings forced into them by believers. The “virgin birth” prophecy of Jesus found in Isaiah 7:14 is one such case.
* Still other prophecies fulfilled events that never occurred! In fact the supposed events were constructed purely from the Old Testament through a method called midrash. Many of the messianic prophecies supposedly fulfilled in Jesus' life are of this type.

Mikael

Looks like God is not worth his words.

J.F. Gaul

Most if not all of the claimed prophecies of Jesus are either liberties taken in biblical translation or taken out of context. The character of Jesus also fails Jewish prophecies that actually DO talk about a messiah.

http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/jews-j...sus-index.html

Constant Mews

There are no legitimately fulfilled prophecies in the Bible. None.

And I'm a Christian.

Silent Dave

"What have you been reading, the Gospel According to Saint Bastard?!?" --Eddie Izzard

ck1

Seems Dave has chosen not to participate in this thread.

Why not, Dave?

You keep making the statement that one of the reasons you hold the bible in such high regard is the incredible accuracy of its prophesies.

So here is your chance.

Give us an example or two to think about.

You have the floor.