Bible Prophecies?

[Yahweh]

Today, I recieved this in the mail:

Its a 124 page booklet titled "Warning! Revelation Is About To Be Fulfilled" and a small pamplet reading "Asteroid Impact! Scientific Lunacy or Bible Prophecy".

The booklet all but discredits itself when the author states he believes dinosaurs died as a result of Noah's flood nearly 4000 years ago.

(Note: The reason why people believe the Earth is 6000 years old is because they've done no outside reading. The figure's origins comes from a scientifically uneducated Archbishop James Ussher's sixteenth-century calculation of about 6000 years. This was the same guy who predicted the end of the earth in October of 1996. He calculated the age by summing the lifespans of the patriarchs listed in the Book of Genesis, refined that sum by making some theological assumptions, and deduced that the biblical god had created Earth on October 23 - my birthday - in the year 4004 BC. [satire]So mark your calendars kiddies, on October 23, 2004 at precisely 6:00 PM GMT, the universe will be 6000 years old! And I'll be 17 years old![/satire] Source.)

The pamphlet describes the coming of the Revelation in the form of 2 killer asteroids (the author makes various leaps between symbolic, metaphoric, and literal interpretations of Revelation).

The book describes how the coming of Revelation is supported by scientific facts (while simultaneously ignoring the science that makes the Earth several billion years old), the 7 Trumpets, Tribulations, etc. etc. etc.

Apparently Revelation is the final prophecy to be fulfilled by God.

And to ask the most vague question I can possibly think of: What specifically should I know about biblical "prophecies"?



And, for the sake of sacriledge...

Look! Its Jesus reincarnated as a kitty! He walks on water!

 

[sparklecat]

Uhm... some happened, some didn't. Those that didn't just haven't happened "yet." You can find lists... and stuff.

Did the furby come in the mail too?

edit: *coos at the miraculous kitty*

 

[pgwenthold]

(Note: The reason why people believe the Earth is 6000 years old is because they've done no outside reading. The figure's origins comes from a scientifically uneducated Archbishop James Ussher's sixteenth-century calculation of about 6000 years. This was the same guy who predicted the end of the earth in October of 1996. He calculated the age by summing the lifespans of the patriarchs listed in the Book of Genesis, refined that sum by making some theological assumptions, and deduced that the biblical god had created Earth on October 23 - my birthday - in the year 4004 BC. [satire]So mark your calendars kiddies, on October 23, 2004 at precisely 6:00 PM GMT, the universe will be 6000 years old! And I'll be 17 years old![/satire]

If the earth were created in 4004 BC, then it would be 6007 years old in 2004 A.D (there is no year zero)

HTH

 

[Filippo Lippi]

Flippant post, just to keep my eye in

there is no year zero

Tell that to a Cambodian

 

[Brown]

[satire]So mark your calendars kiddies, on October 23, 2004 at precisely 6:00 PM GMT, the universe will be 6000 years old! ... [/satire]

In 1996, an evangelist with a popular radio program started to become quite noticeably nervous on the air. He began telling listeners that 1996 was the six thousanth year since creation, and that they could expect that Christ would return in 1996. Probably in October.

Now, this guy (I forget his name) was a rather low-key fellow, and though I disagreed with his theology on moral grounds, I thought he was a likeable and sincere gentleman. There was no question in my mind that he was really worried about Christ's return and was wondering whether he would be ready or not. (According to his theology, a minor slip-up for which forgiveness had not been requested could send his soul to hell forever. So if he committed a minor sin and Jesus happened to return in the brief interval between commission of the sin and the request for forgiveness, then eternal damnation awaited.)

As October approached, he became more urgent in his warnings. He was interviewed for television. When asked whether he might be wrong, he candidly responded that he very well might be wrong (a rarity!) ... but he felt that it was important to get his message out just in case he was right.

He was wrong, of course, as have been all previous predictions (including those supposedly made by Jesus Christ himself). I do not know whether the failed prediction had anything to do with it, but I have not hear him on the air since then.

 

[Craig]

Look! Its Jesus reincarnated as a kitty! He walks on water!

Not just that, he turned that frog on the left into a pillar of salt...or stone!

 

[triadboy]

And to ask the most vague question I can possibly think of: What specifically should I know about biblical "prophecies"?

It is very easy to make someone prophesize, when one is writing the words that prophet spoke - hundreds of years later.

It's as if someone wrote a passage about Lincoln slipping into a trance and speaking about Kennedy's assasination. A hundred years from now, that passage would seem to show Lincoln predicting the future - when in reality the 'future' is already past.

 

[Brown]

Re: Re: Bible Prophecies?

It's as if someone wrote a passage about Lincoln slipping into a trance and speaking about Kennedy's assasination. A hundred years from now, that passage would seem to show Lincoln predicting the future - when in reality the 'future' is already past.

This "technique" appears in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

 

[pupdog]

I think a lot of people forget that the prophets were talking to people of their day, about their immediate future, not playing fortune teller with predictions for hundreds or thousands of years in the future. But those who can't tell the difference between a simile and a smilie and have a superstitious nature, are likely to take those passages out of context.

 

[triadboy]

I think a lot of people forget that the prophets were talking to people of their day, about their immediate future, not playing fortune teller with predictions for hundreds or thousands of years in the future. But those who can't tell the difference between a simile and a smilie and have a superstitious nature, are likely to take those passages out of context.

I understand your point about telescopic predictions - however I am saying the prophets were NOT talking to the people of their day. Their words were created for them hundreds of years later.

 

[pupdog]

Nevertheless, I think that a number of people developed reputations and had followers or students, who probably (eventually) recorded at least the general tone and basic ideas of their mentors. There may be some cases of putting words in the mouths of prophets to match events, but there are probably also cases where "God's anger" was not visited upon the people, or events may not have turned out as dire as prophesied. Also, some prophets may have been ignored or forgotten.

Two types of prophets are active today. The first type, like the Biblical prophets, rail against what they perceive as a sinful society that had better change its ways. Some of these prophets, like those of old, have political agendas. There are lots of people who listen, and feel that these prophets reflect the mind of God. (There may also be people who agree that society has a lot of problems that need correcting, without concern for the participation of or pleasing of God.) The second type seem more concerned with fulfillment of "predictions" made more than 2000 years ago, not realizing that, if those events did not take place at that time, they simply aren't going to happen. Such people, I think, are more likely to be of a superstitious bent and to make up the ranks of fundamentalists.