I see how the process works:
1) observe current events
2) rearrange interpretations to fit facts
3) assert to everyone that "prophecy" has been fulfilled!!!
I think I've won the lottery many times this way - but somehow the authorities won't give me the money because they refuse to understand
that the numbers I picked symbolized those picked in the winning draw. Some people just don't have faith...
metatron
Nice try, metatron, but this doesn't work with CHRONOLOGY. Numbers, math, are absolutes! For instance, we know the 70 weeks ends in 36 CE. Nobody doubts that. If you count periods of 490 years down to our day to discover when the 70th week during our time is, it is an ABSOLUTE date. It is from 1989-1996. So if you think the messiah is supposed to arrive in time for the mid-week passover, then you are stuck with Jesus appearing within a year of April 6, 1993. That's your only choice. You can't move anything around or adjust or anything else. It is absolute and final based upon the 36 CE date. Now this is challenged one more degree because the messiah has to appear 45 years after the "end of the gentile times" when that is applied to 1290 days. We know the official Jewish exile and gentile times ended in 1947. That's when the Jews regained their homeland that was prophesied. This is recognized by many as the end of the 1290 days! If that's the case, then, the 1335 days, which is when the messiah arrives is LOCKED IN. It's absolute. It is 45 years after this. So you have a one-time shot to harmonize these two prophecies to within a year, with actual historical events. Well? Well, you still get 1992. 1947 isn't going to ever change and neither is 29 CE, the year of Jesus' baptism and the beginning of the 70th week. The matching 70th week for the second coming is 1989-1996. So it works, because it's TRUE and precise. So some thinking when things work they are manipulated after the fact. But that's not the case. Some things are absolute before the fact. 1947 has to occur on a jubilee year in line with the jubilee of 36 CE or 455 BCE. It does! The Exodus is the first jubilee in a week of 70 weeks, 70 jubilees. The last jubilee is 1947.
http://www.geocities.com/siaxares/jcovwk1996G.GIF (Jewish Covenant Week Chart)
So if you don't know chronology, there is a possibility you think that there is lots of flexibility in interpretation and thus any interpretation that fits the new circumstances will work and you can deny the Bible actually predicted anything. But that doesn't work with chronology. The Bible does predict things but some things have to happen simultaneously the very same year!
Now the other prophecy of focus is the "7 times" prophecy. The VAT4956 hides the true original dating for year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar which is 511 BCE. The academic world doesn't want to acccess this and most people don't understand this reference in this text. But having noted that it reflects the true original date for the NB Period, it should match up with 1992 as the year of the second coming, to match the other two prophecies! Remember, the VAT4956 is not a document that you can just manipulate any way. It is an astronomical text with specific astronomy for 568 BCE and 511 BCE. It is cryptic but absolute. You have only two choices; really only one because the cryptic date, the hidden date, is always going to be the original date. But taking that dating directly from the VAT4956, year 19 of Nebuchadnezzar falls in 529 BCE. That means the messiah needs to arrive 2520 years later than 529 BCE based upon this text's reference that 511 BCE was the original year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar. Year 37 in 511 means year 19 falls in 529 BCE. And what do we get? 1992! 2521-529 = 1992.
Ooops!
So you have three prophecies pointing to the year of the second coming that must match up with actual historical events and still match the same year. That is ZERO flexibliity. You have to match the dating or the Bible is not fulfilled. Period.
So the idea that anybody can manipulate non-prophecies and make them work after the fact is not accurate.
Or another good example is Zech 13:8 where two-thirds of the nation of Israel was said to have to pass through the fire and one third would survive and be restored to their homeland!
“And it must occur in all the land,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “[that] two parts in it are what will be cut off [and] expire; and as for the third [part], it will be left remaining in it. 9 And I shall certainly bring the third [part] through the fire; and I shall actually refine them as in the refining of silver, and examine them as in the examining of gold. It, for its part, will call upon my name, and I, for my part, will answer it. I will say, ‘It is my people,’ and it, in its turn, will say, ‘Jehovah is my God.’”
Now we can interpret this in various ways, perhaps, but if this is about the "great tribulation" then it is specifically dated in the Bible. The great tribulation happens during a 7-year period after 62 weeks into the final 490 years. We know when the final 490 years is, ending in 1996 and thus beginning in 1506 around the time Martin Luther became a monk and subsequently started the Protestant Movement, which was the beginning of the rebuilding of the temple. At any rate, 62 weeks do not end until 434 years later. 1506 + 434 brings us to 1940. So that 7-year tribulation where 2/3rds of the Jews were to be exterminated, not just soilders mind you, but the entire population, must ocur between 1940-1947. Think about that. This is a Christian world in 1947, a modern world, and this prophecy requires the entire general population to be deminished by two thirds. What other population during wartime would this have happened to? Usually the tragedies of war are the soldiers, right? Well it happened! Six million out of nine million were killed during this period to fulfill this prophecy. There was no other time when this could have happened to fulfill the chronology, and this event didn't happen at any other time. To fulfill the prophecy it had to happen absolutely between 1940 and 1947. Then in 1947 the Jews had to be be restored to their homeland and the "gentile times" end. That is EXACTLY what happened, and there are no alternative dates for these events. These events are all linked to ancient events and when Jesus was baptized at the beginning of the 70th week.
So I can understand if you don't know about chronology or understand it, one might think there is a lot of flexibility. But the more detailed you understand about Bible prophecy and chronology the more you know there is ZERO flexibility for these prophecies to line up. The only conclusion is that the Bible does have prophecies written thousands of years in advance that have now come true.
One would have to be in denial at this point to ignore all the fulfilled prophecies...
JC
