Merlyn wrote:
Not to interrupt, thomas malloy wrote:
As for prophecy, that's all in the interpretation,
Oh, dear, you're being much too nit-picky here.
Check out the book of Isaiah, which, one could argue, is the most important OT book (that's Old Testament, not Off-Topic) for most liturgical Christians.
But first, note well that scholars and Christians agree that Isaiah lived and died a number of decades _before_ the Exile. OK so far?
Now let's look at Isaiah 45:1 (NRSV):
"Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their robes, to open doors before him -- ...."
This verse NAMES CYRUS, specifically, and designates him the instrument to be used in ending the Exile. Cyrus was born perhaps 150 years after Isaiah died. No way this was just a lucky guess!! And it's not open to much "interpretation".
So, if we accept that the book of Isaiah was written by Isaiah (which, surely, all those who accept the entire Bible as being 100% divinely inspired and accurately transmitted and properly attributed must agree is the case), this seems to prove, in one easy step, the miraculous nature of Biblical prophecy. And whatever it is, it's certainly not just a matter of interpretation!
Of course, the more skeptical among us might feel this example could be taken to indicate that parts of Isaiah were not correctly attributed, but such an absurd and heretical viewpoint can surely be safely dismissed. After all, if we accept that parts of Isaiah were mis-attributed and anachronistic, then we might have to consider that some other parts of the Bible could have been similarly mis-dated, which could affect the interpretation of other examples of highly inspired prophecy, perhaps even some in the New Testament itself...
If I didn't think the Bible was a truly fine text I would not have read it a second time. But I make no attempt to "explain away" the anachronisms, peculiarities (e.g., the incident of Melchizedek), 4-legged insects, or strange fate(s) of Judas.
which never seems to happen until after the event has
occured. If you want to convince me, you are going to
have to find a very specific prophecy, something that
says "on this day this will happen to these people" and you are going to have to find it before that date
and have it witnessed in some fashion.
Merlyn Magickal Engineer and Technical Metaphysicist
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