Are you able to provide a summary of non-messianic prophecies for which
there is written evidence of them being proclaimed before being fulfilled?
This would restrict prophecy to the Old Testament, as the earliest
‘significant’ copies we have of the New Testament are dated in the 4th
century AD, well after most (if not all) prophecies were fulfilled. Since
Daniel was part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it can be shown that it was
written before several prophecies were fulfilled. How about Isaiah,
Ezekiel, Jeremiah, etc? The earliest written copies of these were around
the 200-100BC date (DSS), so were any of their prophecies fulfilled later
than 100BC? What about other prophets? I want to stick to non-messianic
prophecy, as the skeptic could fall back on the Jesus ‘Myth’ argument to
refute messianic prophecy.

I have a number of articles which could be helpful at the web
site. For instance, one on non-Messianic prophecies. My book, Reasons
For Belief has a pretty good list of non-Messianic prophecies of which we
have manuscripts and which we can be sure were fulfilled. I do not have
a lot to add to the list. The Daniel prophecies are especially
impressive. Have you read my book, “Daniel, Prophet to the Nations?”
There are about five chapters full of fulfilled, non-Messianic prophecies
is there. You can get a copy at www.ipibooks.com, or if not, send to me
and I could forward a copy to you.

About Messianic prophecies, I would say that anyone who
knows even a fraction of the historical background about Jesus and
believes he is a myth is probably not going to be open to any kind of
reasoned argument you throw their way, as one has to willfully decide to
refuse to admit the truth to not accept that Jesus was a real person who
began a religious movement and who was crucified in Jerusalem. Such
people are not worth your time and mental energy to debate. They are
impervious to logic and reason. As Jonathan Swift said, “It is impossible
to reason someone out of something they were not reasoned into in the
first place.” I am not saying to give up on such a person, but to wait
for God to work on their heart before throwing pearls before swine. God
has turned swine into disciples before, and he can do it again, but….

By the way, my new book “From Shadow to Reality” is coming
out at the end of this month. It is absolutely chock full of prophecies,
foreshadows, prefigures and so forth from throughout the Old Testament.
It especially focuses in on Genesis-Deuteronomy. This book will really
boost your faith. .

John Oakes

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