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Dear Joseph,
Thank you for writing to the Refiner's Fire! You have sent some very good comments, and I appreciate them.
I'm sure that my letter to Richard Carrier might not have been 100 percent perfect, but I don't agree that it was "incredibly in error". Perhaps from your atheistic viewpoint - but from a Biblical perspective, I was pretty much "right on".
You said: First of all, a genuine prophecy can only be tested if a prediction is made. Using a quote written some 2500 years ago out-of-context is intellectually silly.
Whether or not you believe a 2500 year old quote to be prophecy is irrelevant, especially when those "quotes" HAVE come to pass. Hundreds of verifiable Bible prophecies have already come true, and are continuing to come true, right before our very eyes.
The following is list of just 48 out of MANY prophecies fulfilled by Yeshua. These 48 are "dead-on" accurate. Interestingly, the probability of 48 prophecies being fulfilled in one person is the incredible number 10^157 power. This is according to mathematician and Professor Peter Stoner": 48 Accurate Messiah Prophecies.
Please also check the following links:
Nobody in their right mind could say that ALL of these things were "just a coincidence" or "twisted, misinterpreted" words....
Also check out how Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) has so far fulfilled the first four of the seven Biblical feasts, with the next one being "the Rapture"....
The Bible tells us that, in the end times the WHOLE WORLD will be going up against Israel and the Jews. Take a look at today's headlines and see what's happening. Anti-Semitism has been on the rise (seems nobody learned from the Holocaust), and is again soaring to dangerous levels. The US is just about the ONLY country who is still FOR Israel - and even that is in jeopardy, judging from the way things are going. Many things are falling into place:
You said: For example, the microchip example. The apologetic assertion that the Biblical author didn't has a word for "microchip" hence he used "mark" is simply inserting what one wants to beleive into the passage. Now, if the author had written "microchip" and described it exactly - making statements of fact that would be totally unknown at that time - then one can have a start at calling the passage a prophecy. An implanted microchip is far different from a mark - which can mean nearly anything; e.g. a tattoo.
You're right on several levels. However, the word "mark" was used by a man 2,000+ years ago, and they didn't have "microchip implants" at the time - hence no word to describe it, besides "mark". Can we prove that the microchip implant will have anything to do with "the mark of the beast"? No.
However, we KNOW that "something is coming down the pike". Check this out: the Bible tells us that many believers (in Christ) will be beheaded for their beliefs (Rev. 20:4) . Now, ask yourself: Who are the ONLY people in the world who still behead? It's the Muslims. You can read into this whatever you want, but the bottom line is, it's already happening! The Muslims have already started beheading "infidels" - anyone who doesn't adhere to the Koran. (See Islam: Peace? or Beast?)
The Bank of Islam (which recently changed its name to the more "Western" sounding Arcapita) has started buying up US enterprises such as Church's Chicken, Loehmann's Department Store, and the Caribou Coffee chain. They have also also made it VERY clear that they will NOT be doing business with anyone who doesn't adhere to Sha'ria Law (Koran). Over the course of time, when the Bank of Islam (Arcapita) has merged with other world banks and owns the business of most of the world, what will happen to people like you who refuse to bow down to Allah? Do you really think you're going to keep your job? The Koran ORDERS Muslims to kill anyone who doesn't conform. Don't take my word for it - read it yourself.
God is obviously using the spirit of Islam to make His end time scenario happen. With the availability of the microchip implant, what better way for the world's governments to stem the threat of terrorism. Or - what better way for Islam to keep track of its subjects? Either way, if you don't conform to Islam, your chances of having a job, or buying and selling will be pretty much squelched. I'm not being paranoid here; just realistic.
You said: Folks have been using Biblical prophecy for centuries to foretell the end of the world. But it never happens, and apologist always give some ad hoc rationalization for the non-ocurrence. One can use the Bible to "prophecy" or justify nearly any position one wants -- and have been doing it since the beginning. Using the bible for prophecy is like palm reading - you get what you want out of it. A genuine prophecy has to be absolutely specific and clear, unambigious, and not interpretable in any other way, in order to be meaningful.
Well, how could it happen when ALL that "must happen has to happen"? God has an exact plan that He is NOT deviating from. "The end of the world" couldn't possibly have happened until the prophesied 1948 scenario happened. (That's when one of the major end time prophecies came true about Israel being returned to the Jews - in ONE DAY.) You can say we're "reading into it" or whatever you want. The fact is, the world is turning out EXACTLY as the Bible predicted right down to diseases caused by "beasts of the field"....
You said: And even then some predictions can happen. Events such as war and pestilance occur constantly - to predict such is not enlightening. Again, folks have been claiming for centuries to see the "signs" of prophecy in the Bible. If the authors, or better redactors, of the Bible could only see what people have made of it, they'd laugh their heads off.
Certainly. But HUNDREDS of predictions? What are the odds of that? We've been living in the "end times" for 2,000 years, ever since Yeshua was nailed to the cross.
You said: The Bible wasn't written for such esoteric purposes. It was meant to record a meaningful story and justification about how the Jews came to possess their land, and of their special relationship with Yahweh. The New Testament is totally different, and was written and later conjoined in order to have a single Christianity rather than the many divergent beliefs then held by peoples throughout the Roman Empire.
You obviously don't understand the Bible. You're applying your limited, human intellect to the things of God and coming to "carnal" conclusions.
2 Timothy 3:1-13 tells us that difficult times will come" and Man will simply not listen: 1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant,)revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. 6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes's and Jambres's folly was also. 10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Matthew 7: 13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
The bottom line is, ANYONE can sit there and interpret something according to their own agenda. But facts are facts. Sometimes we must realize that maybe we've been wrong in our assumptions. The Bible speaks for itself. Believe it, or not.
A network of Hebraic Faith rabbis @ The Refiner's Fire
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