detail in prophesy...

ChasKlu@aol.com ChasKlu@aol.com
Sun, 22 Nov 1998 22:00:35 EST (00911811635, da131c46.3658cfd3@aol.com) 

In a message dated 11/22/98 11:15:16 AM Eastern Standard Time,
blackfoot@mail.utexas.edu writes:

<< I've reviewed my thoughts on the need for shocking detail
 in prophesies.  Without addressing wether the prophesies
 are true or not, let me make not of some of the aspects
 of OT prophesy.
 
 The prophesies against Tyre & Egypt in the OT are
 EXTREMELY detailed.  Verse after verse is laid out
 before us, describing the utter destruction to befall
 these abominable locations.
 
 So God inspires these intricate prophesies for the
 annihilation of dozens of societies, but gives us some
 vague, "second-way-fulfilled", prophesies to usher in
 the Savior of the World.  God seems to spend more time
 describing more mundane things like where to put
 human excrement, how to make hair-oil, and how to make
 sure that a man's sacred genitalia avoid harm.
 
 If the Bible actually said, "The messiah of messiahs
 shall be born of a virgin, his name shall be Yeshua,
 and he shall be unknown to his own people, till the
 day all is revealed, and then those that made him the
 greatest of all sacrifices will have their eyes opened
 and will see him as what he is, the anointed, the Son
 of God, ushering in the New Israel in his Father's
 kingdom, as prophesied by scripture."
 
 Gee...I would be a fool to refute something as this,
 but I'm sure there would be some who would do it, in their
 stubborn selfishness.  A holy book that stood on its own
 without the need of swarms of interpretation & apologetics, miraculously
 holding its own, because of God's divine
 intervention in all scripture production, replication,
 and translation would save many and damn only the few
 that were hopelessly depraved.
 
 --
 chief blackfoot
  >>
Charlie
Even so, it would be hard to get a really believable prophesy.  The people of
the "fulfillment" time would have read the prophecies and striven to fulfill
them.  The name "jesus" and the claim of virginity could all follow from
attempting to fulfill even a legitimate "prophesy" (that is, one that was
actually put into words previously).

A more believable would be one such as Vesuvius will blow in the last year of
Julius Caesar's reign--something outside the purview or care of the Jewish
community.  Then they could say "40 years later, in Bethlehem ... ".  Or
better yet, make a prediction of some non-humanly controllable event, and say
that the person born a year *before* that, in a certain place, would be the
one.  That could not be manipulated by pretenders.