Posted on by wrote in General, General Apologetics, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Science and the Bible.

Question:

Are there any examples of failed Prophecies in the Bible and scientific contradictions in the bible as claimed by some books?

Answer:
No, there are not.
Of course, there are people who say that there are, and I have heard such claims.
For example, in a debate held last June in Chicago, the claim was made by the Rabbi and scholar Shmuley Boteach that Jesus failed to fulfill the prophecy that the Messiah will bring in a period of peace and political victory for the Jews.  Although he did not mention a specific prophecy, more than one comes to mind.  For example Isaiah 2:2-4 says of the Messiah that because of his ministry, "They will turn their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives.  Nation will not take up the sword against other nations and they will never again train for war."  Boteach claimed that the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth did not fulfill this prophecy.  I disagree.  Boteach misinterprets the prophech and misunderstands the Kingdom of God.  Jesus said "my kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36)  He also said that the kingdom of God is not something observable with physical boundaries (Luke 17:20).  Isaiah 2:2-4 is about the spiritual kingdom of God.  In God’s kingdom, as ushered in by Jesus in a new and living way, is a place where rich and poor, black and white, male and female, Gentile and Jew, educated and not educated, Republican and Democrat come together in unity.  The Jews who expected the Messiah to set up a physical kingdom in Jerusalem misunderstood the Old Testament.  As far as I know, the only examples ever used to claim that prophecies have failed are ones where the claimant has rather obviously misunderstood the prophecy.
About the second part of your question, I have heard innumerable claims that the Bible has scientific contradictions.  The problem with this claim is that I have read the Bible a number of times.  I have a PhD in chemistry and physics and have studied all the natural sciences extensively.  To date, I have not found a single clear scientific error in the Bible.  Again, claims of scientific error usually involve rather obvious misinterpretation.  For example, some say Genesis One contradicts the Bible, but if we do not impose a literalist interpretation on the "days" but instead allow for these to represent eras over which God created the heavens and the earth, then the description in Genesis is remarkably accurate.  I go into all this in great detail in my book "Is There a God?" (available at www.ipibooks.com).
People say that there are failed prophecies and science errors in the Bible.  I challenge such people to deliver a single example which holds up to reasonable analysis.
John Oakes, PhD

You May Also Like:

  1. Analysis of a Jewish claim that Jesus failed to fulfill several messianic prophecies.
  2. Do you have examples of non-messianic prophecies which definitely written before they were filfilled?
  3. Are messianic prophecies taken out of context by Christians? What about a claimed mistranslation of Psalms 22:16? What about Matthew 27:9-10 and Jeremiah vs. Zechariah?
  4. How do you see the fulfillment of the prophecies of Nebuchadnezzar conquering Egypt and the Nile drying up? If the Bible's prophecies are not reliable, then is that not like the Koran or rhe Book of Mormon?

Comments are closed.