Failed Bible Predictions - What say you?

by TheListener 18 Replies latest watchtower bible

TheListener

I ran across a website that has the following on it. It seems really interesting to me. Any comments? Anybody already researched this stuff?
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Ezekiel predicted Babylon would conquer Egypt and was wrong.
Ezekiel predicts that Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon will conquer Egypt utterly destroying it, slaying and scattering it's people, and that it will stay uninhabited for 40 years.
In 568 BCE Nebuchadrezzar tried to conquer Egypt and Egypt survived with no apparent damage.
Aahmes ruled for another generation over a prosperous Egypt and lived to see Nebuchadrezzar die. No Egyptians were scattered or dispersed.
(Ezek 29:10 NRSV) therefore, I am against you, and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia.
(Ezek 29:11 NRSV) No human foot shall pass through it, and no animal foot shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years.
(Ezek 29:12 NRSV) I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated countries; and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries.
(Ezek 30:10 NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt, by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.
(Ezek 30:11 NRSV) He and his people with him, the most terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.
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Ezekiel predicts the destruction of Tyre (Tyrus) by Nebuchadrezzar and is wrong again.
Ezekiel incorrectly predicts that the island of Tyre (Tyrus) will be utterly destroyed and "made a bare rock" which will "never be rebuilt".
At the time of the prediction, it seemed like to be a sure thing, but 13 years of seige later Nebuchadrezzar gives up. The Island of Tyre is not destroyed or even conquered. It is not made "a bare rock" that will "never be rebuilt".
Ezekiel admits his error in Ezek 29:17
(Here the conquest of Trye looks like a sure thing so Ezekiel makes his prediction)
(Ezek 26:1 NRSV) In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me:
(Ezek 26:7 NRSV) For thus says the Lord GOD: I will bring against Tyre from the north King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, king of kings, together with horses, chariots, cavalry, and a great and powerful army.
(Ezek 26:14 NRSV) I will make you a bare rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets. You shall never again be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken, says the Lord GOD.
(Ezek 27:32 NRSV) In their wailing they raise a lamentation for you, and lament over you: "Who was ever destroyed like Tyre in the midst of the sea?
(13 years of futile effort by Nebuchadrezzar later...)
(Ezek 29:17 NRSV) In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me:
(Here Ezekiel admits he was wrong)
(Ezek 29:18 NRSV) Mortal, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had expended against it.
(So he then predicts that God decides to give Egypt to him instead, another Ezekiel prophecy that completely failed)
funkyderek

A good rule of thumb is that the only non-trivial predictions in the Bible that came true were those that were written after the fact.
peacefulpete

Egypt, back from the dead?
greendawn

The dubs will try to find a symbolic or spiritual fulfilment of the failed prophecies they won't admit they are wrong since they were inspired by god according to their belief.
TheListener

Peaceful Pete, thanks so much. That was an excellent thread. I appreciate you posting it.
TheListener

I'd like to say that as a fading dub, I've never crossed the line of not believing in God or the prophetic ability of the bible. This is the first time I've ventured into this territory. It's scary yet exhilarating.
DannyBloem

This is VERY interesting. Never knew this.
Does anybody know what the WTS says about it? Or do they ignore it?
Danny
TheListener

I don't know what the WTS says but you can bet I'll be CDRoming this tonight.
Tyre - 70 years destruction
Egypt - 40 years destruction
Hmmmm????
Qcmbr

In 606-605 BC the Egyptians captured the strong-point of Kimukhu and defeated the Babylonians at Kuramati, both places situated on the Euphrates south of Carchemish. There, according to the Babylonian Chronicle, Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabopolassar,

crossed the river to go against the Egyptian army which lay in Carchemish...fought with each other and the Egyptian army withdrew before him. He accomplished their defeat and beat them into non-existence.As for the rest of the Egyptian army which had escaped from the defeat and no weapon had reached them, the Babylonian troops overtook and defeated them in the district of Hamath, so that not a single man escaped to his country. At that time Nebuchadrezzar conquered the whole area of Khatti-land.

or, as 2 Kings xxiv. 7 says,

the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

The great battle of Carchemish took place in 605 BC and Nabopolassar died a month or two later. After Nebuchadrezzar's speedy return to Babylon to assume the kingship he returned to Syria to carry on his campaign against that country. In 604 BC the Babylonians attacked and sacked Ashkelon, an event which may have given rise to an appeal to the Pharaoh for help by a coastal city. We have the authority of the above Old Testament statement for believing that the appeal remained unanswered. Nebuchadrezzar seems never to have given up hope of securing the Egyptian border. In 601 BC, according to the same Babylonian Chronicle, he deliberately marched against Egypt, but was driven back with heavy loss and retired to Babylon. This ended direct hostilities between the two countries for several years to come. The defeat of the Babylonians was probably the cause of Jehoiakim's defection and alliance with Egypt despite the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah. When Neko II died in 595 BC he was succeeded by his son Psammetichus II, whose relatively short reign of six years has frequently been underestimated. In point of fact, the number of monuments naming himself or his officials is considerably greater than that of his two predecessors. Also a much-discussed expedition to Nubia lends it a special interest. Knowledge of this expedition is mainly derived from the longest of a group of Greek inscriptions carved upon one of the colossi of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel.
Qcmbr

Tyre was situated on the coast about halfway between Carmel in Israel and Beirut in Lebanon.

But it was a peculiar geographic feature of Tyre that gave it its most remarkable prophetic destiny. Merrill F. Unger noted that Tyre “once consisted of two parts—a rocky coast defense of great strength on the mainland, and a city upon a small but well-protected island, about half a mile from the shore” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, s.v. “Tyre,” p. 1121).

Ezekiel predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would lay siege to Tyre (see Ezekiel 26:7–11), but a skeptic like Korihor might say that this prediction was not remarkable since Nebuchadnezzar was conquering nearly every major city in the area, and Tyre was a particularly ripe plum because of its wealth. But “before a generation had passed away, according to Josephus, Philostratus, and Seder Olam, Nebuchadnezzar came up, as had been predicted [Ezekiel 26:7–15], making a fort, casting a mount, and lifting up the buckler. At the end of thirteen years [about 605 B.C.] he took the city, at least that on the mainland, and Tyre was forgotten seventy years, as had been foretold by Isaiah [23:15].” (Samuel Fallows, ed., The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia and Scriptural Dictionary, s.v. “Tyre,” p. 1682.)

Some of Ezekiel’s peculiar promises seemed to be unfulfilled, including the following:

“I will also scrape her dust from her” (Ezekiel 26:4).

Tyre will become “like the top of a rock” (Ezekiel 26:4).

“It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea” (Ezekiel 26:5).

“They shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water” (Ezekiel 26:12).

“Thou shalt be built no more” (Ezekiel 26:14).

For nearly three hundred years these prophecies appeared to be inaccurate. Nebuchadnezzar conquered the mainland city but was unable to subdue all of Tyre because of its strategic position on the island. After a few decades Tyre regained her wealth and splendor, though the ruined city on the shore was not rebuilt, and the island fortification became the central city.

Then in 332 B.C., Alexander the Great swept out of the northern Mediterranean world. He moved south with his forces and camped on the ruins of ancient Tyre, isolating the inhabitants on the island offshore. Tyre had supposedly made a peaceful alliance with the Greeks, but when Alexander requested permission to bring his troops into Tyre to worship their gods and was refused, he laid siege to Tyre—a difficult task since the city lay on an island a half mile off the shore.

James Hastings described what followed: “The memorable siege began. Alexander built a mole [causeway] 200 ft. wide out towards the island. It was repeatedly destroyed. The defense was desperate and successful, till Alexander invested the city with a fleet of 224 ships. Tyre was stormed, 8000 of her inhabitants massacred, 2000 crucified on the shore, and 30,000 sold into slavery. Tyre ceased to be an island, and henceforth was permanently joined to the mainland. Only a blunt headland to-day suggests the existence of the former island fortress. The mole is now ½ mile broad.” (A Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. “Tyre.”)

Fallows noted how Ezekiel’s prophecy that Tyre would be scraped clean and made like the top of a rock was fulfilled: “So utterly were the ruins of old Tyre thrown into the sea, that its exact site is confessedly undeterminable, although the ruins of nearly fifty cities near Rome, which perished almost 2,500 years ago, testify that the extinction of every trace of a city is a sort of miracle.” (Bible Encyclopedia, s.v. “Tyre,” p. 1682.)

Today there is no island opposite Tyre, but a close examination of the coastline in that vicinity will show a small peninsula jutting into the sea. Because of its configuration and the prevailing breezes, local fishermen come to the barren, rocky outcrop to spread their nets to dry.

Failed Bible Predictions - What say you?

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