A
Different Future
Prophetical books were presumably included
in the Bible to offer the reader insight into the days of supernatural extravaganzas
yet to come. Fortunately, the test of time has shown the majority of these
bleak prophecies to be total bunk. In fact, there hasn’t been a single
verifiable prophecy fulfillment outside of those incredibly obvious to predict.
As a few notable zealots have often altered clear meanings of specific terms or
taken passages out of context in order to create biblical intent in lieu of
their agendas, we’ll take a realistic approach toward studying the fulfillments
in question so that you can better understand why the apologetic methods of
interpretation aren’t reliable.
Even Jesus was among those guilty of
making false prophecies. The most condemning of such prophetic statements were
his predictions of a return to earth during the long-passed era that he
designated. Even though you’ve no doubt been repeatedly told that the Bible
doesn’t indicate when Jesus is going to make his return, such statements are
demonstrably false. The truth is that Jesus failed to follow through on the
promises unambiguously included in the text as his own words. I imagine such a
bold declaration may be difficult to swallow at first for two primary reasons:
you’ve received an overwhelming wealth of information to the contrary, and it
seems that Christianity would crumble at Jesus’ failure to reappear. Probably
for these very same reasons, early Christians found a way to circumvent the
problem and convince their associates not to renounce his imminent return.
Prophecies
Yet To Be Fulfilled
We’ll initiate our discussion of the
future according to the Bible by looking at prophecies very unlikely to be
fulfilled due to a variety of current circumstances. Isaiah predicts, “
Isaiah also warns, “for the nation and
kingdom that will not serve [God] shall perish” (60:12). I agree 100% with his
assessment, but to reiterate, nations and kingdoms won’t perish based on their
refusal to worship Isaiah’s interpretation of God. Nations and kingdoms will
eventually fade from existence because it’s the nature of a dynamic global
society. Countries are established, conquered, and reconquered in continuous
cycles. If we leave the verse alone in its obvious intention of conveying a
causal relationship between the downfall of a region and its refusal to worship
God, we should note that this prophecy remains unfulfilled.
Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah offer an
additional geographical speculation by guessing that the
Ezekiel also expresses that a time will
arrive when the people of
Jeremiah predicts, “…at that time they
shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be
gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem” (3:17). To paraphrase,
every country will come together and worship the Hebrew god one day. Barring a
return of the universe’s creator to set the record straight on which religious
interpretation is, indeed, correct, there will certainly never be only one religion. Every passing year produces a growing
and diversifying number of beliefs, sects, denominations, and cults. Even if
God did appear before us, as I proposed
before, many countries and religious groups would absolutely refuse to accept
the truth because it’s [insert the local evil spirit here] trying to tempt them
away from the true god(s).
Prophecies
That Cannot Be Fulfilled
The prophets
of the Old Testament also offer several predictions that are either provably
false or unattainable due to the constraints placed upon them. In addition,
there are several still-outstanding prophecies that cannot be fulfilled due to
cultural changes that have taken place since the prophets recorded their
predictions.
Isaiah and Jeremiah both speculate that
Jeremiah declares Hazor to be a region of
enduring desolation while it serves as a dwelling place for dragons (49:33). As
common sense told you before reading contrary information in the Bible, there’s
no reliable reason to accept the existence of mythological dragons at any point
in the past. Furthermore, Citadels remained in Hazor until the first century
BCE. Nevertheless, as I’ve mentioned before, predicting that a city will
undergo desertion is as easy as predicting that the sun will shine tomorrow.
Nature will eventually satisfy these vague and unconditional predictions.
Jonah also enjoyed a short six-verse stint
as a reliable prophet. In 3:4, he says
A few verses later, Isaiah alludes to a
coalition among
Isaiah also informs
Ezekiel purports God making claims that
the Ammonites will be “no more remembered” (
Amos and Ezekiel claim that the Israelites
will enjoy a permanent place of residency while God protects them from
encroaching enemies (
A common underlying theme of false
biblical prophecy is the prediction that all these events are to take place
sometime in the immediate future. Joel, Obadiah, and Zephaniah claim that the
day of reckoning is “near” (2:1,
Isaiah
7:14
The Old Testament contains a seemingly
endless list of scriptures that Christians point to as references for the
foretelling of Christ. Since there’s no reliable evidence that anyone can
predict the future to a respectable degree of accuracy, the burden of proof is
on those who assert that people capable of this gift once existed. As you
should already be able to tentatively conclude that the Old Testament prophets
were void of this talent, you might have quickly deduced that apologists have
taken these verses out of context or ran some translatory manipulation on them
in order to make the upcoming proposals feasible.
From my experiences, I’ve noted
approximately fifty passages consistently used to support the quasi-reality of
a fulfilled prophecy. Since debunking all these claims would require a retort lengthy
enough to lose the majority of the audience’s attention, we’ll analyze what I
feel are the ten most popular claims that biblical apologists offer in defense
of prophecy realizations. Unless you wish to do some independent research on
the validity of these reports, you’ll have to trust me again when I say that
not one of the overlooked passages has any more foundation in reality than the
ones discussed at length in this chapter.
We’ll begin with the verse that I believe
Christians most commonly cite as a prophecy fulfillment. Isaiah
Let us consider the content of Isaiah 7:14
first. In this passage, the English word virgin
was translated from the Hebrew word almah.
However, the most accurate term in the Hebrew language for conveying a sexually
untouched woman is betula. Almah is a general term for a young woman,
not necessarily a virgin. If Isaiah wanted his audience to believe that a
virgin was going to give birth to a child, he had a much better word at his
disposal. One would do well to think that he should utilize this more specific
term for such a unique event so that his contemporaries wouldn’t first have to
know that he was invoking the much less anticipated, potentially vague meaning of almah. Furthermore, Proverbs 30:19 is extremely detrimental to the virgin translation of almah: “The way of an eagle in the air;
the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea;
and the way of a man with [an almah].”
Since the term doesn’t necessarily mean
virgin, one must look for the obvious connotation of the original Hebrew word.
With this responsibility in mind, virgins don’t have children. In all
reasonable likelihood, almah refers
to a young woman in this passage. Even so, Matthew 1:23 may have tried to
relate the Immanuel birth to Jesus by altering the obvious content of the Old
Testament prophecy. Ironically, even the Greek word parthenos used in Matthew doesn’t necessarily mean virgin, as repeatedly demonstrated in
Homer’s Iliad.
A second and seemingly more overlooked
clue in the passage’s content is the name of the child, Immanuel. To put it in
the simplest of terms, Jesus’ name wasn’t Immanuel. The fact that Immanuel
means “God with us” doesn’t make one iota of difference because hundreds of
Hebrew names have references to God. For example, Abiah means “God is my
father,” which, in my opinion, would have been slightly more impressive. The
verse plainly declares that she “shall call his name Immanuel,” but the
so-called Messiah’s mother called him Jesus.
As for the contextual misapplication of
Isaiah 7:14, one must read the chapter in its entirety since this supposed
prophecy is part of a larger story. Within this passage, a battle is about to
begin in which Rezin and Pekah are planning to attack Ahaz. God informs Ahaz
that he may ask for a sign as proof that this battle will never ensue. Ahaz is
reluctant to put God to a test, but Isaiah interjects and declares that there
will be a sign. God will reaffirm his reliability on the issue when a young
woman gives birth to a son named Immanuel who will eat butter and honey. Before
this boy can choose evil over good, the land will fall out of the grip of Rezin
and Pekah.
We can continue studying context by
reading ahead to Isaiah 8:3-4, where we find a prophetess who has recently
given birth to a son. This is immensely more likely to be the child that Isaiah
wanted us to believe he predicted, especially when you figure in the fact that
Isaiah 7:14 uses the more specific term ha-almah,
translated as the woman, to specify a
particular woman most likely known by the author and his audience.
When you consider the most accurate
translation of almah, the actual name
of the child, the context of the message, and the contiguous birth of an
ordinary child, this passage is in a different ballpark from reports of Jesus’
birth from his virgin mother. Even though the case for Isaiah 7:14 appears
solidly shut, we should consider two more questions. If Isaiah wanted to
predict a virgin birth story, wouldn’t he have drawn more attention to the most
important and unique event in human history? If God were truly interested in
convincing more people of Jesus’ authenticity, wouldn’t he have Isaiah make a
more direct and less disputable prophecy?
More
Alleged Prophecy Fulfillments
A
lesser-known prophecy made by Isaiah reads, “for unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace” (9:6). This sounds like the version of Jesus we’ve all heard,
but where is the textual evidence of a link between him and this verse? The
Jews have always maintained that this passage, full of usual praises given to a
King, refers to King Hezekiah. Furthermore, the following verse says that this
individual will run the government with great power while sitting upon the
Throne of David. Jesus never sat upon a throne or ran a government “upon his
shoulder.” Since a plethora of circumstances could make bits and pieces of a
prophecy come true, a divinely inspired prediction for the future should be
clear and accurate in all of its details if we are to accept the legitimacy of
such a bold statement.
We can also find another supposed
reference to Jesus as the subject of Isaiah 53. In the last part of Chapter 52,
God mentions one of his servants who will be exalted, only to be later
despised, rejected, oppressed, afflicted, imprisoned, judged, acquainted with
grief, wounded for our sins and transgressions, and loaded with iniquities. The
man in question was sans deceit or violence. On the surface, there seems to be
a strong correlation with Jesus; once we vigorously inspect all the facts, the
analogy once again fails. One of the poorest translations possible fuels the
misdirection. The grief acquainted with this servant is actually sickness, from
the Hebrew word choli. God “putting
our iniquities on him” is better translated as “hurting him with our sin,” as
if to punish him. Furthermore, this superior translation parallels better with
the physical injuries he sustained in the previous verse. The children this man had (Hebrew word zera) are direct descendants, not a
spiritual family as it has been suggested in order to add credence to
apologetic claims. Finally, Isaiah claims that the oppressed and afflicted man
never opened his mouth. How can such a statement apply to Jesus who did a lot of preaching and correcting? Can we
honestly state with reasonable certainty that this was a divinely inspired
passage referring to Jesus Christ?
The delusional author of Matthew would
like for the reader to believe that Jeremiah correctly predicted the timeframe
of Jesus’ birth by asserting that a girl named Rachel crying for her dead
children is a reference to King Herod’s alleged child massacre in the era of
Jesus’ birth (Matthew 2:17-18 referring to Jeremiah 31:15). First and foremost,
no historian contemporaneous with Herod’s reign ever mentioned this incredible
act of brutality. In addition, if you continue to read the passage Matthew
referenced, as all honest researchers should, you’ll discover God telling Rachel
that their deaths were not in vain because the people will return to their
homeland (31:16-17). With a modest background in Ancient Middle Eastern
history, one can easily surmise that the passage in Jeremiah refers to the
Babylonian captivity, not the time of Jesus’ birth. Since there are no true
prophecies of Jesus’ arrival, apologists must resort to grasping straws that
appear increasingly remote.
Daniel 9:24-27 proclaims that in seven sets
of seventy weeks (490 weeks), a ruler will arrive and reconstruct a city. The
Hebrew word for week, septad,
actually means sevens, but the
Israelites commonly used the term to refer to a set of seven days. In order for
the upcoming prophecy to fit, disingenuous apologists must alter the obvious
meaning of septad to seven years in quintessential post hoc fashion. Nevertheless, even if
we give the benefit of the miniscule doubt to the apologists and assume that septad refers to a set of seven years,
the arrival of this ruler would take place in 55 BCE. We know the starting
point of the time in question because the passage refers to Cyrus’ order of
cleansing the city in 545 BCE. Thus, prophecy inventors must once again alter
the obvious intent of the passage and claim that Cyrus’ heir, Artaxerxes, was
the one who gave the order. This puts the new date of arrival around 39 CE,
approximately seven years after the presumed death of Jesus. Next, the
apologist must shorten the length of a year by averaging the length of a solar
year and the length of a lunar year in order to make the prophecy fit nicely
with the year of the crucifixion. Even when you allow all of these absurd
leniencies, there’s no potent evidence to support the notion that this passage
refers to Jesus in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Jesus wasn’t a ruler, and
he didn’t rebuild any cities. Even so, a few Christian zealots would like the
world to believe that this is a fulfilled prophecy. Would these same apologists
bend over backwards to support the text if such statements were found in the
Qur’an?
Hosea 6:2 reads, “after two days will he
revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his
sight”. This might seem to be another loose reference to the death and
resurrection of Jesus if you haven’t read the passage in its proper context.
The preceding verse, an important piece of the whole picture, concerns a group
of people who will return to God in order to be restored through him. After two
days, God will revive the people; on the third day, they’ll arise so that they
can live in his sight. When a more thorough analysis replaces the shallow one,
the reader will discover that the verse has nothing at all to do with Jesus.
This claim of a prophecy fulfillment is just another use of a passage out of
context in order to meet an apologetic agenda.
Hosea has another supposed Jesus prophecy
in the first verse of Chapter 11: “When Israel was a child, then I love him,
and called my son out of Egypt.” This is supposedly an allegory for Mary and
Joseph fleeing the country. In this case, Jesus would be represented in the
verse by “Israel.” If the reader takes time to review the next verse, as it
would only be responsible to do so, the lack of merit in the apologetic
interpretation becomes obvious. In 11:2, we learn that Israel sacrificed to
Baalim (Baal) and “burned incense to graven images.” The Jesus of the
scriptures certainly wouldn’t be guilty of observing this blasphemous ceremony.
A realistic investigation would lead us to believe that the verse is a certain
reference to the Israeli Exodus from Egypt. As authors often refer to groups
and countries in the singular form throughout the books of prophecy, this
conclusion is far more sensible than the apologetic stretch.
Micah offers another Jesus foretelling of
great popularity in the Christian crowd, but it fails to hold the
aforementioned qualities of valid prophecy fulfillment for several reasons. The
passage in question says, “but thou, Bethlehem Ephratah though you be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that
is to be ruler of Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from
everlasting” (5:2). Once again, a quick sweep across the surface might lead the
reader to believe that this verse is about Jesus’ birth. Such an assertion is
especially convincing with the inclusion of his hometown, Bethlehem, but you
might wonder what role “Ephratah” serves in this passage. We can find the
answer all the way back in 1 Chronicles 4:4. There, we learn that Bethlehem
Ephratah was a person: Bethlehem, the son of Ephratah. In essence, the prophecy
refers to the line of descendants from that individual. Even if we blindly
assume that Ephratah was a more specific location within Bethlehem rather than a
people, apologists still have the problem of Jesus never having ruled Israel.
The authors of Matthew and John both conveniently leave Ephratah out of their
references to this prophecy (2:5-6 and 7:42, respectively). This disingenuous
act can only be the result of a desire to add credibility to an otherwise
convincingly weak case. Furthermore, if the ones making this claim read to
verse six, they would discover Micah predicting that this same individual will
lead a battle against Assyria in order to deliver people out of slavery. No
record of Jesus ever performing this noble deed exists, nor would we expect one
to.
Zechariah informs us that a just King will
arrive in Jerusalem riding upon an ass and a colt (9:9). In fact, Jesus did ride into Jerusalem on an ass and a
colt according to the account given by Matthew (21:1-7). The primary problem of
claiming a miraculously fulfilled prophecy in this instance is the awareness of
Matthew and John (12:14-15) that Zechariah had made the prediction. The others
involved, including Jesus, were almost certainly aware of the Old Testament
passage as well. In fact, Matthew 21:4-5 says, “all this was done, that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by saying…thy King cometh unto thee, meek,
and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” To paraphrase Matthew,
the disciples had Jesus ride into Jerusalem using this method just so that they
could fulfill the prophecy. You must forgive me if I personally deem this
quasi-actualization unimpressive. Had the group honestly been unaware of the
forecast, there might be the slightest hint of some underlying validity for
those presenting this claim.
For the final investigated prophecy, we’ll
switch gears away from Jesus for a moment. The author of Mark implies that the
arrival of John the Baptist satisfies Malachi’s prophecy of God sending
Elias/Elijah forth “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord” (Mark 8:28 referring to Malachi 4:5). He makes this erroneous proposal
because the observers thought John was the reincarnation of Elijah. Making
people think something has happened
isn’t the same thing as the event actually taking place. Since John himself
even denies being Elijah (John 1:21), we can safely assume that he’s not
involved with Malachi’s prophecy.
I hope that these passages will be
beneficial toward demonstrating the absence of a verifiable prophecy
fulfillment concerning Jesus’ birth or any other futuristic happenings. The
fact that Jesus and the Gospel writers deceitfully invented their own prophecies
and fulfillments, a charge we will now investigate, lends a hand to this
assessment.
Jesus makes the claim that his
persecution, death, and resurrection are realizations of an Old Testament
prophecy (Luke 18:31-33). I assure you that there is no such statement in the
Old Testament; I challenge anyone to find it. Jesus also claims that Moses
foretold his arrival (John 5:46). Not only is it highly unlikely that Moses
wrote any part of the Pentateuch, there’s no mention of Jesus in that text
either; I challenge anyone to find it. The author of Matthew says Jesus “dwelt
in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene” (2:23). Not only do the prophets fail
to offer such conjecture, there’s not a passage in the Old Testament that
includes a single word related to Nazareth
or Nazarene; I challenge anyone to
find it. Finally, the author of John claims that a prophecy was fulfilled when
the bones of Jesus remained unbroken throughout the crucifixion (19:36). Again,
there is no such prophecy in the Old Testament; I challenge anyone to find it.
No one has brought forth and verified any information with the potential to
lend credence to these fortune-telling products for obvious reasons.
The Return
Prophecies
This is the part you’ve probably been
anticipating. Did Jesus truly put a timeframe on when he would reappear? When
he instructs his disciples to preach the good news on all their ventures, Jesus
warns, “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth
to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye
into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye
shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come”
(Matthew 10:22-23). In comprehensible modern English, Jesus is saying that
he’ll return to earth before the disciples finish their journeys to all of
Israel’s cities. The word of God has long completed its travel throughout the
region, but Jesus continues to fail Promise Keeping 101.
When Jesus’ disciples beg him to avoid any
actions with fatal consequences, he comforts them by proclaiming, “For the Son
of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall
reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not
taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom”
(Matthew 16:27-28, also see Mark 9:1 and Luke 9:27). In this instance, Jesus
unambiguously informs his followers that there were people living on the earth at that time who would still be alive
when he made his ultimate return.
While preaching to his disciples, Jesus
says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from
heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear
the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the
earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of
a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other…Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled”
(Matthew 24:29-34, Mark 14:24-30). Aside from projecting scientifically
erroneous notions, Jesus yet again gives a proclamation that includes his
return during that generation.
In a scene involving Jesus with the high
priest, “the high priest arose, and said unto him, ‘Answerest thou nothing?
what is it which these witness against thee?’ But Jesus held his peace. And the
high priest answered and said unto him, ‘I adjure thee by the living God, that
thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.’ Jesus said unto him,
‘Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you
Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven’” (Matthew 26:62-64, also see Mark
14:60-62). Jesus informs the priest that he will personally witness the
imminent return of the son of God and gives clear indication that these events
will transpire while the high priest is still alive. The high priest is long
dead, and Jesus has been truant for nearly 2000 years.
Speaking to a crowd of Pharisees, Jesus
preaches about a series of events destined to come upon them that inevitably
conclude with their damnation to Hell (Matthew 23). When will these scenarios
play out? “Verily I say unto you, All
these things shall come upon this generation” (Matthew 23:36). The
connotation is clear: the events mentioned throughout the chapter were to take
place during the lifetimes of those living in that generation. In order to defend Jesus’ statement, some
Christians claim that the makers of the KJV Bible should have translated the
Hebrew word genea as age or race. While modern lexicons may support this translation for the
very same reason that Christians believe it, what evidences contemporaneous
with the era do they have to support this assertion? Nowhere in the New
Testament did the translators interpret genea
to be anything other than generation.
The obvious choice of translation is also consistent with all other failed
return prophecies. Again, they begin with the faulty premise of inerrancy and
search for the most likely way to maintain this quality. What religion wouldn’t survive an infallibility test
given such luxurious leniencies?
The celebrated Paul was also convinced
that the arrival of Jesus was drawing near. In his letter to the Romans, he
says, “now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand”
(13:11-12). In his first letter to the Corinthians, he says, “the time is short”
(7:29). In his letter to the Philippians, he says, “The Lord is at hand” (4:5).
In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul reminds them that “the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord”
(4:16-17). Paul clearly held an unwavering belief that some of those living at
the time would serve as witnesses to these divine occurrences. As you will see
in the upcoming chapter, however, Paul was making predictions for Jesus’ primary visit to the earth, long after
his alleged crucifixion during a prehistorical era. Nowhere did Paul mention a
“return” because nowhere did Paul claim any knowledge of Jesus’ earthly
residency as told in the Gospels.
A variety of other New Testament authors
also believed that Jesus was returning soon. “The day of Christ is at hand” (2
Thessalonians 2:2). “God…hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son”
(Hebrews 1:1-2). “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the
will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that,
shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10:36-37). “Be ye also
patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James
5:8). “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was
manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20). “The end of all things is
at hand” (1 Peter 4:7). “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have
heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby
we know that it is the last time” (1 John 2:18). “The Revelation of Jesus
Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must
shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his
servant John…Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy,
and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand”
(Revelation 1:1-3). “I come quickly” (Revelation 3:11, 22:7, 22:12, 22:20).
Jesus wasn’t the only one on a train bound for misdirection.
The second book of Peter, penned around
120 CE and probably the last of the New Testament Epistles to be completed,
came at the heel of the generation promise allegedly made by Jesus. His
followers were no doubt starting to become impatient, and they demonstrate a
hint of restlessness by inquiring, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (3:4).
In order to settle doubts and downplay the “generation” claims, Peter says, “be
not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day” (3:8). Unfortunately, Peter’s
explanation satisfies absolutely nothing. Not once did Jesus offer a return
date in terms of days and years. However, Jesus does give us a rough timeframe in reference to generations and
lifetimes. Jesus did not satisfy the conditions that he personally established
in order for all his future worshippers to appreciate. Peter’s speculative
assertion is an incredibly futile attempt at solving Jesus’ perpetual absence.
Looking At
The Fortune Tellers
This chapter demonstrates several important
points: prophets of the Old Testament made predictions that have yet to come
true; predictions made by those same prophets are either erroneous or
impossible to fulfill; there are no prophecies from the Old Testament truly
satisfied by the alleged arrival of Jesus Christ; Jesus and the Gospel writers
invented supposed prophecy fulfillments; Jesus failed to return within the
timeframe he promised; and it was commonly believed that Jesus was going to
return about 1900 years ago. These factors inevitably subtract even more credibility from the authors’
claims of divine inspiration.
While we shouldn’t honestly expect a
self-proclaimed prophet to have the ability to predict the future with any
appreciable accuracy, there should be an elevated level of expectation for
those who Christians claim that God divinely inspired. The Old Testament
prophets are nowhere near meeting this reasonable expectation. What we do see is a Nostradamus-like post hoc set of poor explanations and
analyses of old scriptures undoubtedly designed to invent prophecy
fulfillments. Thus, we can conclude that not one of the prophets truly mentions
anything interpretable as the supposed arrival of Jesus. Bits and pieces
extracted from here and there do not add up to a verifiable resolution of this
indispensable difficulty.
Jesus Christ did not satisfy any
prophecies made in the Old Testament, and some of the prophetical forecasts
that he and the Gospel writers claim as fulfilled weren’t even included by any
known preceding authors. If we are to consider Jesus’ biblical proclamations
accurate, he undeniably made several statements requiring him to return within
the century. As further evidence in support of this conclusion, there was a
consensus among the alleged divinely inspired authors that Jesus would be
returning extremely soon. When people thought that the earth was only 4000
years old, “soon” did not mean 2000+ years later, nor will it mean 20,000+ or
200,000+ years later when those times inevitably arrive undisturbed. In short,
Jesus defiantly broke his promise of returning. This brings us to wonder how
many of Jesus’ quotes and workings we can actually consider for the realm of
historical plausibility. Consequently, we will explore this essential
consideration of utmost importance in the next shocking chapter.