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Old 08-24-2006, 12:05 PM
Heidi Guedel
 
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Opinions Regarding Biblical Prophecy

I've been studying the subject of biblical prophecies - whether they are really accurate or not. I found the following website, which takes an even-handed approach to this subject. I appreciate that fact, and I want to share it with this forum.

My personal opinion is that the "liberal Christian and skeptic" argument is consistently more rational, more logical, and more factual, and is therefore more believable.

What do you think?:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_proi.htm

Quote:
Overview:

Prophecies are predictions of future events. There are literally hundreds of them scattered throughout the Bible. Two books: Daniel from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and Revelation from the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) are perhaps the most important prophetic books in the Bible.

There is no consensus about the accuracy of Bible prophecies:

Many conservative Christians believe that hundreds of Bible prophecies have precisely come true in exact detail. The remainder will be fulfilled in our future. None have actually failed. 1

Some religious liberals and skeptics maintain that no "real" biblical prophecy has ever come true. 2


The gap between these two positions appears unbridgeable.

Future plans:

This is an important topic that we will try to examine in depth. Josh McDowell has written that 61 prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures were fulfilled in the life of Jesus. 3 Campus Crusade for Christ estimates over 300. 4 We would like to describe many of these from both the conservative and the liberal / skeptical point of view. There are hundreds of other prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures that are not directly related to the life of Jesus. We hope to cover the most important ones here as well.

***
PRECISELY WHAT IS A SUCCESSFULLY-FULFILLED, SUPERNATURALLY-INSPIRED PROPHECY?

Criteria of a "real" prophecy:
In order for a prophecy to be considered a truly supernaturally inspired prediction, one might argue that it should meet a number of criteria.

In the text below:

"Prophecy" refers to a prediction of the future, and
"Event" is the happening that is said to fulfill the prophecy.

Six suggested criteria are:

The prophecy must be clear and unambiguous. It must not allow for a multitude of possible events.

For example, Ezekiel 39 fails this test. It makes a prediction involving two military powers: Gog and Magog. "Gog has been interpreted as Gyges, king of Lydia, the Goths, and even a modern or future leader of Russia. Magaog has been interpreted as the Scythains, the Chaldeans, the Huns and modern-day Russia among others." 1 Almost any military conflict in history could be cited as a fulfillment of this prophecy.

The event must be a fulfillment of the prediction. That is, the prophecy and the event must be related. Some feel that Isaiah 7:14 predicts the virgin birth of Jesus. It is commonly quoted at Christmas time. But it can be argued that Isaiah's prediction describes a birth which happened centuries before Jesus, and may or may not have been fulfilled in the 8th century BCE. Jesus was born circa 4 to 7 BCE.

The event must have actually happened. Countless predictions of the end of the world have failed; the world continued as normal afterwards. Ideally, there should be historical or archaeological evidence that the event really occurred.

The prophecy must have happened before the event. The book of Daniel describes a Jewish hero, Daniel, who many believe lived at the beginning of the 6th century BCE. It discusses the rise of various empires in Daniel's future. But religious liberals generally believe that the book was written about 166 BCE. If the liberals are correct, then most of the predictions in the book about the rise of various empires were not predictions of the future inspired by the Holy Spirit. They were actually historical recollections of the past written after the events really happened.

The event must not have been artificially created by a person who knew of the prophecy, with the intent of fulfilling it. For example, during a crucifixion by the Roman army, the legs of the victims were generally broken. This hastened their death by asphyxiation. But the Gospels record that Jesus' bones were not broken. When the Roman guards came to break his legs, they found that he had already died. There are a number of possible scenarios about this event. Three are: As John 19:31-37 states, this happened "... that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken..." In this case, the prophecy came true in spite of the odds against it happening.

Jesus might have been physically exhausted as a result of his scouring and blood loss. He may have died on the stake or cross earlier than expected. Thus the Roman soldiers had no need to break his legs. Jesus' intact legs were correctly reported by the Gospel writer(s).
The guards might have followed standard procedure by breaking his legs. But the author(s) of the Gospel of John may have ignored this event, and written that it did not happen, in order that a prophecy from the Hebrew Scriptures would be fulfilled.

In this example, it would be impossible to tell if the prophecy: Came true because it was divinely inspired.
Came true by chance, due to an accidental occurrence.
Did not come true, but was fraudulently reported as having happening. Reporting of the event was falsified in order to make it appear as if the prediction in the Hebrew Scriptures came true.

The prophecy must not have been a logical guess. For example, a person in mid-1939 who prophesized that a European war would break out before 1950 would simply have been describing the inevitable outcome of pre-existing Nazi expansion plans and activities. Hundreds of millions of people at that time expected a European war. A psychic might predict a major volcanic eruption and a serious earthquake rated at over six on the Richter scale somewhere in the world during the current year. But these events are so likely to occur each year that the prophecy would be a sure thing. Similarly an ancient prophet might notice the Assyrian army approaching Israel from the East, conquering country after country in its path. He might quite logically guess that Israel was next.

Reference:
Tim Callahan, "Bible prophecy: Failure or fulfillment?," Millennium Press, (1997), Page 6.
***
Continued next post...

Last edited by Heidi Guedel : 08-24-2006 at 12:38 PM.
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  #2  
Old 08-24-2006, 12:06 PM
Heidi Guedel
 
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Quote:
Analysis of important prophecies: Isaiah 7:14: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."

This prophecy is perhaps the best known of all the predictions in the Bible. It is often read at Christmas time:

Isaiah 7:14-17: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. " 1

***

Isaiah 7:14 according to many religious conservatives:

Their belief is grounded in the concept that the Bible is inerrant -- it is free of errors. Thus, if one passage of the Bible predicts an event, and one or more later passages state that the event actually happened, then both the prediction and the fulfillment actually occurred as stated. The prophecy is true. In this case, a virgin conception is such a miraculous event, that if the prophecy came true, one could conclude that the prediction was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

In Isaiah 7:14, the writer is recorded as predicting in 734 BCE that a "a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."

In Matthew 1:18-20, the author describes the birth of Jesus which had happened in 4 to 7 BCE -- many decades in his past. He stated: "...When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost...that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost..." In Matthew 1:23, the author quotes Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, 'God with us.' "

Probably within ten years after Matthew wrote the above passage, the author of the Gospel of Luke wrote in Luke 1:26-35: "...the angel Gabriel was sent...To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary...behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS...The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

Isaiah prophesized, during the 8th century BCE, the miraculous event that a virgin would conceive. The event happened circa 6 BCE and was infallibly recorded during the first century CE by two independent Gospel writers. The prophecy came true -- one of many dozens of prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) which predicted elements of Jesus' life and which were verified by the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) as having actually happened.

The Bible cannot have any internal conflicts that cannot eventually be harmonized. The writers of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew both state that Mary was a virgin when she became pregnant. So this must have been true. Thus the prophecy made over seven centuries earlier came true.

***

Isaiah 7:14 according to some religious liberals:
Many religious liberals would interpret the passage, as follows:

The author of Matthew quoted the Septuagint (Greek) version of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Septuagint contains a translation error made when the Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 was converted into Greek. Isaiah used almah to describe a young girl who would give birth. In Hebrew, an almah is a young woman of marriageable age. If he wanted to refer to a virgin, he would have used the word bethulah. The creators of the Greek translation, the Septuagint, mistranslated the Hebrew almah into the Greek parthenos, meaning virgin. The authors of Matthew and Luke were probably unable to read Hebrew; they would have relied on the Septuagint translation. They based part of their writing on the error in the Greek. They were obviously creating a story in order to make the prophecy come true.

Isaiah's prophecy was that the child Immanuel was to have been born in 742 BCE, the first year of King Ahaz's reign. Ahaz, the king of Judah, faced the combined armies of Syria and Israel. Isaiah explained to Ahaz that he should not form an alliance with Assyria. In support of this advice, God would provide a sign: a young woman would conceive and bear a child who would be named Immanuel. 2 The sign would have only have been effective if it happened almost immediately. It would not have given a lot of support to Isaiah's prophecy if more than seven centuries passed before it was fulfilled, over 700 years after King Ahaz' death.

Isaiah was clearly not referring to some event that would occur centuries later. When he referred to the far future, as in Chapter 11, he typically used a phrase such as "In that day."

The translation of the Hebrew name Immanuel, (Greek Emmanouel) as "God with us" in Matthew 1:23 implies that the name-holder is divine. The name really means "God is with us," meaning that God will support us. The name makes perfect sense if the child's name was to indicate to King Ahaz that God is on their side.
Luke 1 states that Mary would call her son Yeshua (Jesus in Greek). He is called Yeshua throughout the Christian Scriptures -- not Immanuel.

This analysis shows that Jesus, born to a virgin, was not prophesized by Isaiah. Rather, Isaiah must have been referring to a young woman who gave birth to a son circa 742 BCE -- a very normal occurrence. He predicted that she would call his name Immanuel. Many births to young women would have probably happened at that time. But, there is no mention either in the Bible or in the historical or archaeological record that positively refers to an Immanuel having been born. It may or may not have come true. But the prophecy certainly was unrelated to Jesus' birth.

***

References

King James version of the Bible

Tim Callahan, "Bible prophecy: Failure or fulfillment?," Millennium Press, (1997), Page 6.

"Who is Jesus - Preview: What were people saying before he was born," Campus Crusade for Christ Online, at: http://www.ccci.org/whoisjesus/
B.M. Metzger & M.D. Googan, Eds.,

"The Oxford Companion to the Bible," Oxford University Press, (1993), Page 789 to 790.

Copyright © 2000 & 2001 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2000-JUN-30
Latest update: 2001-MAR-21
Author: B.A. Robinson

*** Continued next post

Last edited by Heidi Guedel : 08-24-2006 at 12:27 PM.
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  #3  
Old 08-24-2006, 12:16 PM
Heidi Guedel
 
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Continued from posts 1 and 2:

Quote:
THE BOOK OF DANIEL
IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES (OLD TESTAMENT)


Daniel's Life:

In 605 BCE, as a teenager, Daniel was captured by the Babylonian army, during its first attack on Jerusalem. He had been a member of the royal house or of the nobility. Daniel survived a castration operation and spent the rest of his long life in the city of Babylon, in the service of the royal court. He went by two names: Daniel and Belteschazzar.

That city was generally regarded as the most beautiful in the known world. Ancient authorities, not known for accuracy, claimed that its walls were 60 miles long, 300 feet high and 80 feet thick. The Euphrates river divided the city in to two roughly equal parts.

Isaiah 13:17-22 described it as "Babylon, fairest of kingdoms, proud beauty of the Chaldeans" It contained one of the seven wonders of the world: the hanging gardens of Babylon, which Nebuchadnezzar build for his Queen. Both a passage in Isaiah and Jeremiah 51:37-43 prophesized that Babylon would be destroyed and never occupied again. The prophecy was partly correct: the city was destroyed. But part of it has been inhabited in recent years. It is now being rebuilt by the Government of Iraq.

Daniel is described as living in Babylon for the entire duration of the Babylonian empire, a period of 72 years. He arrived during the last year in the reign of Nabopolassar, stayed through the entire 45 year reign of Nebuchadnezzar, assisted 5 succeeding kings, survived through the occupation by the Medes and into the occupation of the Persians. He was present as Israel was taken into captivity; he died two years after a fragment of the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem.

Overview of the Book of Daniel:
The first part of the book, chapters 1 to 6, contains five well known stories:

Daniel's interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream: The king demanded that his magicians, exorcists, sorcerers, etc. describe the dream to him, and to interpret its meaning. He might have withheld information about the dream from them in order to test their psychic abilities. Alternatively, he may not have been able to recall the details of the dream. (Many people are unable to recollect dreams after wakening.) Understandably, they failed. Daniel then described the dream, and explained that the metals that the king dreamed of (gold, silver, bronze and iron) each represented one earthly kingdom: his own and three to come in the future.

The attempted execution of Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace: The king had made a gold image, some 90 feet tall and ordered the people to prostrate themselves and worship the image whenever certain music was played. Any who refused was to be thrown into a blazing furnace. Three Jewish friends of Daniel: Shadrach, Meschach and Aben-nego, refused to worship the statue and were thrown into a fiery furnace that had been heated "to seven times its normal heat." Not only were they unharmed, but they were accompanied by a fourth figure who "looks like a god" and was later identified by Nebuchadnezzar as an angel.

Nebuchadnezzar's madness: He has a dream in which he is overcome by a mental illness and roamed like an animal through the parks surrounding the palace for 42 months. Daniel interprets the dream, which comes to pass a year later. The king was restored to his right mind after 42 months of living with wild beasts and feeding on grass like oxen. At the end of that time, he acknowledged the sovereignty of Jehovah and was made whole.

The handwriting on the wall of King Belshazzar's banquet hall: Nebuchadnezzar had stolen the gold and silver vessels from the temple at Jerusalem. When his son, Belshazzar, became king, he ordered that the vessels be brought out and used at a party by the nobility, himself and his concubines and courtesans. Suddenly, the fingers of a hand appeared, and wrote a message on the wall of the palace. The king's magicians, sorcerers, etc. were unable to decode the words. Daniel translated the message as saying that God has brought his kingdom to a close. That night, Belshazzar was killed and "Darius the Mede" took over. The Babylonian empire ended and the Medes occupied the land.

Daniel surviving in the den of lions: "Darius" appointed Daniel as one of three chief ministers of the new kingdom of the Medes. Some jealous ministers and satraps conspired to kill Daniel. They persuaded the king to write an edict stating that anyone who petitions any god or human being other than the king during the following 30 days would be thrown into the lions' den. The conspirators caught Daniel praying to God, and presented him to the king for execution. The king tried to think of a way to avoid executing Daniel, but was unsuccessful. (He probably didn't think too hard, because there was a simple solution to the problem. If the lions were over-feed, they would have lost interest in munching on Daniel). Daniel was thrown in to the pit, but survived. He credited an angel with shutting the lions' mouths.

The remainder of the book deals mainly with Daniel's visions:

A dream of 4 beasts (lion with eagles' wings, bear, leopard with four wings like a bird, and a terrible beast with 10 horns, which later became 8 horns). Again, these four animals each symbolized an earthly kingdom.
The vision of a powerful ram and a male goat who fight each other. The goat conquers the ram.
A prayer of confession to, and trust in, God.
A momentous vision of Israel's future, leading to the end of the age some 1,335 days later. Some of the dead will awake "to everlasting life and some to the reproach of eternal abhorrence. The wise leaders will shine like the bright vault of heaven, and those who have guarded the people in the true path will be like the stars for ever and ever." This implies a resurrection of the dead, a judgement and transfer of the resurrected Jews to heaven or hell.
*** Continued next post

Last edited by Heidi Guedel : 08-24-2006 at 12:27 PM.
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  #4  
Old 08-24-2006, 12:18 PM
Heidi Guedel
 
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Continued from previous posts:

Quote:
Author and Date of the Book:

Conservative Christians generally believe that the book was written by Daniel himself in the 6th century. This is confirmed in a number of verses. e.g. Daniel 7:1: "Then he wrote down the dream. and here his account begins."

Daniel 7:28: "...as for me, Daniel, my thoughts dismayed me greatly...."
Daniel 8:1: "...a vision appeared to me, Daniel, following my earlier vision."
Daniel 9:2: "I, Daniel, was reading the scriptures..."
Daniel 10:2: "At that time I, Daniel, mourned for thee whole weeks..."
Daniel 12:5: "I, Daniel, looked and saw two others standing..."

Jesus verified that the book was written by Daniel. In Matthew 24:15, he states "So, when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' of which the prophet Daniel spoke, standing in the holy place...then those who are in Judea must take to the hills."

The early Christian church generally accepted the authorship of Daniel in the 6th century without question. Essentially all Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians believe the same today.

Many Liberal Christians believe that the book of Daniel was really written many centuries after Daniel's time, during the Maccabean revolt against the Greek occupying forces in 168-164 BCE. They regard the book as pseudepigraphic - written by an anonymous author or authors and attributed to Daniel. They conclude this for a number of reasons: The text contains a number of Greek words; yet the Greek occupation of the area did not occur until the 4th century BCE.

One of the musical instruments mentioned in Daniel 3:5 and in subsequent passages did not exist until developed in 2nd century BCE Greece.

Daniel 1:4 refers to the "Chaldeans" as a priestly class in Babylon. This term did not attain this meaning until much later than the 6th century.

About 180 BCE, Jeshua ben Sira listed the heroes of the Jewish faith, including "Enoch, Noah and Abraham through to Nehemiah;" 2 Daniel is not mentioned - presumably because Jeshua is unaware of him. This would indicate that the book of Daniel was written after that time.

Chapter 12 discusses the dead being resurrected, judged, and taken to either heaven and hell. At the time of Daniel, the Jews believed that all persons went to Sheol after death. The concept of heaven and hell was introduced centuries later by the Greeks. It did not appear in Israel until the time of the Maccabean revolt.
Daniel 11:31 (and elsewhere) refers to "the abominable thing that causes desolation." This appears to refer to the ******** of a statue of Zeus in the Jerusalem temple in 167 BCE, and would indicate that the book was written later than that date.

Prior to Daniel 11:40, the author(s) has been recording past events under the Babylonian, Median, Persian and Greek empires. In Daniel 11:40-45, he really attempts to predict the future. He prophesizes that a king of the south (of the Ptolemaic dynasty) will attack the Greeks in Palestine, under Antiochus. The Greeks will win, will lay spoil to all of northeast Africa, and return to Palestine where Antiochus will die. The end of history will then occur. The author(s) appeared to be a poor psychic because none of these events actually happened. Antiochus did die in 164 BCE, but it was in Persia. Thus, the book was apparently completed before 164.

Many liberal Christians believe that the Book of Daniel is a work of fiction. Fables and myths about a non-existent ancient hero, Daniel, were passed down orally for centuries, and then finally written down by an unknown author(s), sometime between 167 and 164 BCE. At the end of the book, the author(s) then unsuccessfully attempted to predict the future.

Interpretation of the Dreams, Visions and End of the World:
Conservative Christians generally believe that the 4 earthly kingdoms mentioned in different places in the book represent the empires of:
Babylon (represented by the lion/eagle symbol and gold)
Medo-Persia (considered as a single empire; represented as the bear, and silver)
Greece (represented as the leopard and bronze)
Rome (represented as the terrible beast, and iron). Since the end of the world and resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12 has not happened yet, then it must be in our future. Most conservative Christians look upon the fourth empire as existing in two parts: the first is the historical Roman Empire;
the second phase has not yet risen to power. It will be the Kingdom of the Antichrist. Many conservative Christians believe that the Antichrist will be a European and that the revived Roman Empire will evolve out of the European Community.

"Pre-millenialist Christians" believe that this second phase of the Roman Empire will come to an end at the second coming of Christ and the war of Armageddon. Many conservative Christians interpret the book of Daniel and describe the end of the world as happening in our immediate future - perhaps about 2000 CE. This book is one of the most important sections of the Hebrew Scriptures because of the prophecies based on 4 earthly kingdoms.

Many Liberal Christians point to the actual foreign countries which occupied Palestine between the 6th century and 2nd century BCE:
Babylon (represented by the lion/eagle symbol and gold). They attacked the Southern Kingdom in the 580's BCE

The Median empire under (bear and silver). Daniel 5-31 records how "Darius the Mede" conquered Babylon and killed king Belshazzar. This belief probably arose out of many predictions in Isaiah and Jeremiah that Babylon would fall to the Medes. In reality, the Median and Babylonian kingdoms coexisted until the Medians were conquered about 550 BCE and the Babylonians were conquered in 539, both by the Persians. Darius was not a Median king. Apparently the later Persian king "Darius the Great" was confused by the author(s) with Astyages, the last Median king.

The Persian empire (symbolized by a leopard and bronze)
The Greek empire (terrible beast and iron). They conquered Judeah in 332 BCE. Daniel 2:41 and 11:3 described it as a kingdom ruled by a warrior king that is divided into 4 sections after his death. None of the 4 sections will be ruled by his descendents. This fits precisely with the structure of the Macedonian-Greek empire of Alexander the Great. After his death, it was divided among four of his generals, none of whom were his sons. Daniel 2:43 refers to the mixing of families by intermarriage, and mentions that these arrangements would not be stable. Again, this fits well with the attempts that the Seleucid (the King of the North in Daniel 11:7) and Ptolemaic (the King of the South in Daniel 11:5) dynasties to achieve peace and stability through intermarriage. The attempts were unsuccessful.
At the time of the writing of the book of Daniel, circa 164 BCE, the Greek empire occupied Palestine. Since the book was written after the rise of the final empire, the author had the advantage of hindsight. The book is mainly a history of past events, not a prophecy of the future. The author wrote the book almost a century before the Roman Empire invaded Palestine. Since he had no knowledge or expectation of this invasion, it was not mentioned in the book.

In the final chapter of Daniel, the author describes the "end of history" - a resurrection of the dead, judgment and transfer the resurrected dead to heaven or hell. According to Daniel 12:12, these events would happen during approximately three years following the "abomination of desolation" (the ******** of a statue of Zeus in the Jewish temple in 167 BCE). Some Bible scholars have interpreted this period of time as occupying many millennia. But this is clearly not a valid interpretation, because Daniel 12:12 refers to people who "wait and live to see the completion of the interval."

If the author(s) could have accurately predicted the future after 164 BCE, he would have prophesized some additional earthly empires which controlled Palestine:

5. The Roman Empire (from 63 BCE)
6. Byzantine Empire (from 313 CE)
7. Arab conquest; control of Palestine by Muslim groups (from 636 CE)
8. Christian Crusaders from Europe (from 1099 CE)
9. Mamluks under Saladin reinstate Muslim rule (from 1291 CE)
10. Ottoman rule (from 1517 CE)
11. British Empire rule (from 1917 CE)
12. The State of Israel (1948 CE to the present time)

From the time of Daniel to the present day, Palestine has been controlled by 11 foreign empires until Israel finally attained independence in 1948 CE. The author(s) of the book of Daniel, apparently writing about 166 CE, was unable to predict this future.

Many religious liberals classify this book as apocalyptic literature. This writing style was quite common in Israel from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. The book of Revelation in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) is perhaps the best known example. The writings are often attributed to a famous historical hero in order to give them credibility.

References
Farrell Till, "Bible Inerrancy: A Belief Without Evidence," available at: http://www.infidels.org/library/maga.../4evide92.html
G.A.F. Knight, "The Book of Daniel," part of "The Interpreter's One-volume Commentary on the Bible," Abingdon Press, Nashville TN, (1991).
A.E. Hill & J.H. Walton, "A Survey of the Old Testament," Zondervan, Grand Rapids MI, (1991), Pages 349 to 356.
H.H Halley, "Halley's Bible Handbook," Zondervan, Grand Rapids MI, (1997) Pages 336 to 352.
J.D. Douglas, Ed., "New Commentary on the Whole Bible, Old Testament Volume," Tyndale, Wheaton, IL, (1990), Pages 1165 to 1204.

Copyright © 1998 to 2006 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update 2006-APR-16
Author: B.A. Robinson

An intelligent and level-headed discussion of any/all of the above would be extremely interesting and worthwhile, IMHO.

Last edited by Heidi Guedel : 08-24-2006 at 12:35 PM.
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Old 08-24-2006, 12:41 PM
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David Merrill David Merrill is offline
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prophecy by definition

I was telling people there would be violence on top of the Temple Mount on September 28, 2000 for three weeks or more prior. Some of them believe I am a prophet for that.

I sat for a few hours going over this with a skilled professional astrologer a couple days ago. The universe is definitely holographic in model so things will follow astronomical cycles. He warned me that the Babylonian artform depends on a model that excluded the outer planets but otherwise it is fairly predictable.

http://ecclesia.org/forum/images/sui...elCalendar.jpg
Daniel's Calendar

The predominant cycle is the Week or as Daniel would have it, 360 x 7 = 2,520. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN - the Writing on the Wall, is actually that number in gerahs, 1/20 of a shekel.



Regards,

David Merrill.
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Old 08-24-2006, 01:07 PM
Heidi Guedel
 
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Guidance and prophetic visions

Hello David,

I do believe that people experience guidance and prophetic information in the form of visions and/or words. I can believe this because I've experienced it personally - not about anything of world-wide significance, like your example, though...just personal significance... like a caring friend was advising me, and that friend was always right. In one instance it was probably life-saving. In many other instances it was distinctly helpful and beneficial.

Have you seen the latest version of "What the Bleep? Down the Rabbit Hole" yet? We just got our DVD last weekend. The new Director's cut includes many more interviews with scientists and Quantum Physicists. More and more evidence that everything in the universe is connected. This newly discovered info places psychic experiences into the realm of natural phenomina.

http://www.whatthebleep.com/rabbithole/

Quote:
In the century now dawning, spirituality, visionary consciousness, and the ability to build and mend human relationships will be more important for the fate and safety of this nation than our capacity to forcefully subdue an enemy. Creating the world we want is a much more subtle but more powerful mode of operation than destroying the one we don't want.
- Marianne Williamson
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Old 08-24-2006, 02:22 PM
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Akira Akira is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David Merrill
I sat for a few hours going over this with a skilled professional astrologer a couple days ago.

I have been a professional astrologer for almost thirty years, and have been told I'm quite gifted. If I don't 'knock your socks off' then your birth time is wrong... lol

I'll post more info in the Service Providers section.

For HIS Glory,
Akira
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Old 08-24-2006, 08:34 PM
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charlesa6 charlesa6 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Akira
I have been a professional astrologer for almost thirty years, and have been told I'm quite gifted. If I don't 'knock your socks off' then your birth time is wrong... lol

I'll post more info in the Service Providers section.

For HIS Glory,
Akira
Good to know, Akira.
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