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#1457535
Tony
what about the failed prophecies in ekizel
10/11/2012 6:44:02 PM
#1458125
Ash
China?! Another one who hasn't read teh Babble?
10/14/2012 5:00:43 AM
#1458133
Filin De Blanc
The existence of the EU doesn't mean that the whole of Europe is one big country, you know.
10/14/2012 5:20:31 AM
#1458134
Robespierre
Would you care to make specific predictions about the future whithin a closed timeframe, rather than bizarre rationalizations ex-post-facto?
Don't tell me how past events somehow fit into a vaguely biblical worldview, stretched and cherrypicked; tell me, on the base of the Bible, what will happen in the next 10 to 50 years. then we'll talk.
10/14/2012 5:20:40 AM
#1458136
Arctic Knight
"... there has never been a case when one of its prophecies has not come to pass."
Tyre is still inhabited as a bustling little city. That is just one (of many) failure which makes your Bible unreliable.
10/14/2012 5:21:53 AM
#1458137
Swede
Europe has about 50 states, the EU has only 27. We all have our own governments, who send representatives to the EU parliament.
There has been a struggle over who should control Jerusalem for thousands of years, stupid, and China has been a world power for thousands of years, longer than your Word of God has existed anyway.
The Bible doesn't mention the Americas, does it? The ancient goat herders in the Middle East didn't know it existed, sure, but God ought to have known...
10/14/2012 5:33:01 AM
#1458138
Dr.Shrinker
"...and there has never been a case when one of its prophecies has not come to pass."
Oh really?
"But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God."
- Luke 9:27 (KJV)
All too easy
10/14/2012 5:37:40 AM
#1458142
John_in_Oz
My favourite prophecy is the one that Jesus will return before his listeners have died.
10/14/2012 5:39:46 AM
#1458152
ScrappyB
I remember seeing a documentary on the death and supposed resurrection of Jesus on the History Channel a long time ago. This was before it degenerated into the Reality Show and Woowoo Channel.
It talked about early Christian beliefs from the time before the New Testament was written down and was still passed on as an oral tradition. They interviewed a bunch of historians, and the consensus about Jesus (provided he ever existed as a real person) returning in the lifetime of his followers probably meant he was alive when he was sealed in the cave and had arranged for some of his followers to break him out.
Sorry raptards, you're about 2,000 years too late.
10/14/2012 6:02:52 AM
#1458153
MK
Not only does the bible not actually mention China, Europe, or a "diplomatic" struggle over Jerusalem, there is no single government in Europe, the global market is FAR from "integrated," and the rebirth of Israel predicted in the Bible is supposed to coincide with the arrival of the Messiah - whether you believe in the Jewish version of the Messiah or Christian.
So no. Bible fails.
10/14/2012 6:03:47 AM
#1458157
Atheissimo
The Tyre prophecy. It was predicted that Tyre would be destroyed and remain forever desolate. It was never completely destroyed and remains a thriving city to this day.
Israel was re-created BECAUSE of Biblical prophecy. People actively set out to fulfill the prophecy, which isn't really the same thing.
The Bible says nothing at all about China, beyond some bizarre apologetic mental gymnastics that I'm sure you've come up with.
Europe hasn't formed a single government, not that that's even in the Bible. Not only is a large amount of Europe not in the EU, but the 'government' you refer to has very little say in anything the individual national governments do.
There was diplomatic struggle over Jerusalem when the Bible was written too. hardly a massive leap of imagination.
10/14/2012 6:08:57 AM
#1458160
gravematter
With hindsight, you can fit tons of world events vaguely with Biblical predictions. That's because the Bible is extremely vague. So people spend months trying to make these tortuous links between modern events and some throwaway comment made by some prophet. You certainly can't use the Bible as a guide to future events. The best you can do is point to something after the fact, and claim some tenuous connection.
10/14/2012 6:12:42 AM
#1458162
louislois
"The Bible makes clear predictions, and there has never been a case when one of its prophecies has not come to pass."
O rly?
Ever hear of Tyre, Lebanon? Your precious Buybull states:
"And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her...and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water...And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD" (Ezekiel 26:4,12,14)
Thou shout built no more on it, huh?
Oh, yeah! Sure looks like a crumbling ruin that no one has built on ever again, to me....
Dumbass.
10/14/2012 6:16:39 AM
#1458175
Mr. Bigglesworth
People say the same thing about Nostradamus and his quatrains.
I love how fundies go through all these mental gymnastics to prove the Bible true.
Don't you think if the Bible was really true that you wouldn't have to work so hard to prove it; wouldn't it be obvious to everyone?
10/14/2012 6:37:02 AM
#1458183
Justanotheratheist
If the bible had for instance foretold the dismantling of Yugoslavia in the 1990s I'd be mightily impressed. However, what you have listed is either bullshit, easily predictable, or a concerted effort by human beings to fulfill prophecy (i.e. the creation of Israel). As another poster has already noted, that is hardly the same thing as a prophecy per se.
10/14/2012 6:54:21 AM
#1458185
Horsefeathers
"The Bible makes clear predictions, and there has never been a case when one of its prophecies has not come to pass."
Tyre. That's all I really need to say.
"The Good Book has been so successful at foretelling the future, I believe people who scoff at it are making a "Sucker's Bet." They fail to realize that 87 percent of end-time prophecy is already in an advanced state of fulfillment."
Really now, 87% you say? By my calculations it's precisely 0% and I trust my math more than I trust yours.
"The accurate prediction of the rebirth of Israel is Bible prophecy’s most stunning achievement."
Yeah, right. Since nobody involved in it was at all aware of the "prophecy" in any way at all.
"The Word of God also said that China would rise to be a world power"
Your Wholly Babble doesn't mention China. It doesn't mention anything outside the immediate area it was written in, Egypt, and vaguely the Roman Empire (which the writers probably weren't even aware of the extent of).
"Europe would form a single government"
It said no such thing, and Europe doesn't truly have a single government. All members of the EU still govern themselves.
"the world would someday have a globally integrated financial market"
Cite that one for me, please.
"and that there would be a diplomatic struggle (which we’re seeing today) over who should control Jerusalem."
Yeah, because that wasn't happening at the time or anything.
"There is no need for blind faith in what God has said in His Holy Word. I trust in the Bible because it has proven itself through prophecy."
No, it hasn't.
10/14/2012 6:55:39 AM
#1458203
Papabear
"The Bible makes clear predictions, and there has never been a case when one of its prophecies has not come to pass."
First, the Bible is often anything BUT clear. Second, bunches of supposed predictions in the Bible have failed. Thou art a lying sack of s*it. Look at all the events which were supposed to attend the coming of the Messiah.
10/14/2012 7:20:09 AM
#1458214
Thinking Allowed
I can think of one prophecy that hasn't come to pass.
10/14/2012 7:51:41 AM
#1458217
Drax
Well, sure, there's stuff in the Bible that can -with a little creativity - be interpreted as referring to China, the EU, globalised capitalism, etc. But just because it's possible to interpret it that way with hindsight, doesn't mean the original text actually was referring to these things. Nostradamus said a lot of stuff too that people have retrospectively tried to make fit various events, but it doesn't mean he really could see into the future, only that people want to believe that he could.
10/14/2012 7:54:47 AM
#1458220
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc
at its finest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc
10/14/2012 8:07:52 AM
#1458226
They fail to realize that 87 percent of end-time prophecy is already in an advanced state of fulfillment
Of course, none of your 'predictions' came to pass, but that 87% is interesting. Either you're all going to shoot up ino the sky or you're not (you're not by the way). Are you hovering a few feet up or something?
10/14/2012 8:33:36 AM
#1458231
the_ignored
to louislois at #1458162
I've heard them try to dodge the Tyre prophecy example below, too long for a quote:
http://rr-bb.com/archive/index.php/t-119894.html
However, it seems that what is said in that first post there is shot down here.
http://etb-biblical-errancy.blogspot.ca/2012/04/ezekiels-prophecy-of-tyre-failed.html
Tyre, as obvious reasoning would suggest, and we may include some archeological exploration here, lays beneath the modern city on the island and, more generally, beneath centuries of ruble on the old, island portion due to a more or less continuous occupation. Wind-blown sand has also contributed to the burial of parts of the old city. That parts of the old, southern ("Egyptian") port may be observed by divers, and that some artifacts may have been cast into the sea, can hardly be interpreted to mean that Tyre, itself, has sunk into the depths of the waters! Tyre most certainly has not! The debris for Alexander's causeway came from the abandoned, mainland settlement--which was not Tyre. Wind-blown sand and later landfills widened the original causeway so that the whole resembles a peninsula today.
Oh well.
10/14/2012 8:43:00 AM
#1458232
Raised by Horses
Ah, yes, that humorous bit in the Bible where Jeebus and his merry band dig their way to China, get their hands caught in finger traps, and then subsequently have to flee all the way across east Asia to escape the wrath of Fu Manchu. Right next to the part where the J-man patiently explains quantum theory to Pontius Pilate.
10/14/2012 8:43:56 AM
#1458242
The Crimson Ghost
I guess Strandberg here is one of those people that enjoys being wrong most of the time.
10/14/2012 9:23:30 AM
#1458253
nazani14
Living under the Roman empire, it would be no great stretch to imagine Europe with one government, or a globally integrated financial market. Except that the Bible doesn't actually say this, not does it say squat about China. The writers of the Babble were stunningly ignorant of geography.
10/14/2012 9:44:02 AM
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