Does the Bible include some of God's prophecies?

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Paul of Tarsus
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Does the Bible include some of God's prophecies?

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Post by Paul of Tarsus »

I'd say that we can know that a prophecy is from God if a human cannot have come up with the prediction. Although people can predict future events, doing so becomes more difficult if the prediction has certain characteristics. These characteristics include but are not limited to:

1. The span of time from the prediction to the predicted event should be long.
2. The prediction should be clear and easy to understand so that the event it predicts can be readily identified as the predicted event.
3. If the predicted event has already taken place, then we should know that the prophecy was uttered before the event it has supposedly predicted.
4. The prophet could not have come up with the predicted event by extrapolating current events.
5. The predicted event should not be a self-fulfilling prophecy (the prophet or other people cannot simply take action to make the predicted event happen).
6. The probability that the predicted event can happen by chance should be very low (any person can predict that which is inevitable).
7. The time of the prophecy's fulfillment should be specified.
8. The prophecy should include important details like the names of people involved in the predicted events and places where the events are to happen.

The tougher these criteria are, the less likely a person can get a prophecy correct, but an omniscient God can presumably make the predictions despite the height of these hurdles.

So does any Biblical prophecy qualify as one readily recognized as God's prophecy?

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Re: Does the Bible include some of God's prophecies?

Post #31

Post by AgnosticBoy »

[Replying to Paul of Tarsus in post #1]

Does the return of the Jews to their homeland count as one (1948)? I'd think if Israel is once again destroyed by an invading army, then we can say that Bible prophecy is wrong on a major level.
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Re: Does the Bible include some of God's prophecies?

Post #32

Post by Paul of Tarsus »

AgnosticBoy wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 4:38 pmDoes the return of the Jews to their homeland count as one (1948)? I'd think if Israel is once again destroyed by an invading army, then we can say that Bible prophecy is wrong on a major level.
Good example!

That prophecy has characteristics 1, 3, and 4. It looks like it falls short of characteristics 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8. The Jews made a point of getting back to their homeland and fulfilled their own prophecy through their own effort. In that regard it's not much more impressive than showing up at the dentist at your appointed time.

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