Expert: Irulan Serena - 8/13/2005

Question
My question regards prophecy in literature.  In most religious texts prophecies are vague.  However, a friend was showing me in the bible prophecies that are cuttingly specific.  
I was wondering how you explain the prophecies in the bible that were fulfilled?  Are any of the documents actually old enough to verify them?

Thanx

AZ  

Answer
Greetings Amir,

Let me clarify my statements by telling you this, although I do believe in a higher power, by whatever name all humans choose to call Him / Her, I do not subscribe to a formalized religious group such as Christians, Catholics, etc.  

To me the bible is not the revered word of God.  The bible,  in my opinion as well as the opinions of a myriad of philosophers and thinkers more adept at explaining this than I, the bible is a  book written by multiple men to  inspire faith / fear / respect / communal agreement / etc  to others of future generations of  men with the purpose for which the bible was written, to maintain control of the masses ….  as a restraining guide it was useful then, but in my and many other's opinions, the  bible is not applicable to modern times.

WHAT IS THE BIBLE:  To many, the origin of the Bible can be summed-up as follows: "A mere translation of a translation of an interpretation of an oral tradition" - and therefore, a book with no credibility or connection to the original texts. The topic of whether the contents of the bible are veridical of not is a question that not even the greatest theologians can answer because there are NO primary sources or even secondary sources…therefore the bible is a compendium of interpretations of translations…not  a very definite response, I know, but the only one I can give you.

Historically speaking here is what happened:

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THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE: 313-476    

SOURCE:  http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/cea.stm

After the Edict of Milan, many more people became Christians. Most were not Jewish and were ignorant Judeo-Christian scripture, tradition, and theology. With more converts from multiple geographical, language, and other cultural contexts, additional variations of Christianity developed.

Conflict and controversy were not new to Christianity; however the Christian Empire experienced some substantial disputes. When Constantine I became the ruler of Rome in 313, the Donatist controversy was raging in North Africa and Numidia. A soldier and a statesman who liked order and agreement, Constantine tried to quell it but not very successfully. Constantine was not a theologian, but he took steps during his rule to try to make Christianity less conflictual by calling the Council of Nicea to settle the Arian controversy. One result of the the council was the drafting of a version of what we now call the Nicene Creed.
Ultimately creeds such as the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed were affirmed as "orthodox" -- right teaching. Those teachings not considered orthodox, such as Gnosticism, were defined as heretical.

The process of canonization continued during the era of the Christian Empire. Those communities that became known as orthodox came close to agreeing on an authoritative collection of scriptures. As far as we know, Athanasius was the first person to name in 367 the 27 books of the New Testament accepted by most Christian groups today.
Constantine played a significant role in the canonization of the Bible. His desire for and actions to create unity and uniformity contributed to the process of deciding upon a fixed canon. In addition, he financed fifty copies of the scriptures to be produced for use in Constantinople. The production of these manuscripts were supervised by Eusebius of Caesarea, who tells about of the request in his book Life of Constantine. Presumedly, these scriptures were the complete New Testament but some scholars think they consisted only of the four gospels.   

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The gospels which were not included have been found,
By order of Eusabius all other gospels not included in the bible were burnt, however, some survive and have been found.
Aming them are:

The Gospel of St. Thomas
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
The Lost Gospel of St. Peter

....and many others

These gospels -- many of which were not unearthed until A.D. 1945 in the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi -- took on the task of questioning the essentials of sin, death and the nature of Jesus Christ. Even more astounding was one text which told of the Garden of Eden from the serpent's viewpoint, while another spoke in the voice of a female divinity. Small wonder that the early church fathers went slightly ballistic when confronted by such alternative viewpoints!


The Gospel of Mary, the Acts of John, the Gospel of Peter, the Homilies of Clement, the Gospel of Thomas, the Origin of the World, and the Gospel of Truth are all early Scriptures which in A.D. 350 were declared heresy by the Roman Catholic Church. Given the opportunity, it is clear that the Catholic Church would also declare the Gospel according to Daniel heresy as well – which would place the latter in excellent company. It is also clear that the issues of atonement and sacrifice played a significant part as well.


WHO WROTE THE BIBLE:  The bible, written by at least 40 authors over a period of at least 1,500 years, is comprised of 66 books. These 66 books claim to contain over 1,000  prophecies. In the translations and rewritings and interpretations events can and were probably changed to ‘suit the purpose' of prophecy, that is to make sure the readers of future generations were inspired by the supposed events prophesied to engender faith in the readers.  As you know humans, whether religious persons or not, have their own agendas and in their writings they do change and inject their agendas and purposes, thus the prophecies are part and parcel of these goals…whether true of not, we shall never know.  

CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE:  The bible, as a product of many writers had a plethora of contradictions.  See the following links for explanations….some believe in the bible as the true word, divinely inspired, of God, others do not.

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/b08.html
http://www.christiananswers.net/menu-at1.html
http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/nov_2000/bible_con.htm
http://www.countercult.com/b08.html
http://www.rationalchristianity.net
http://www.truthbeknown.com/biblecontradictions.htm
http://www.truebm.org/content.php?article.cat.93
http://www.apologeticspress.org/rr/abdiscr/abdiscr.htm
http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/bible-a.htm
http://www.allabouttruth.org/bible-contradictions.htm
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/b08ac.html
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/
http://p.webring.com/hub?ring=theheresychronic&list
http://vanallens.com/exchristian/wallet_bible.htm
http://debate.org.uk/topics/apolog/contrads.htm
http://www.krysstal.com/contradi.html

Now, to answer your question,  

Are any of the documents actually old enough to verify them?  No, there are no primary or secondary sources to the bible therefore the veracity of these ‘fulfilled prophecies'  is impossible to determine.

I was wondering how you explain the prophecies in the bible that were fulfilled

I cannot answer  simply because I am not a biblical scholar I am a historical scholar.   

You must, after reading and studying what I have sent you and then researching more, reach your own conclusion….. however, know that this is not a question with an easy response….many have studied for many years and are still dubious of what the bible contains.

Regards,


Irulan