You know, I was actually planning on starting a thread about Jesus' failure to fulfill any biblical prophecies, and was even going to challenge DOC to cough up any prophecies he feels are convincing which haven't yet been debunked. Having read over most of these a while back, I can say with little remaining doubt that NONE of the alleged prophecies have been fulfilled at all. Posting a link to some Christian site with a tedious list of "fulfilled prophecies" doesn't prove squat, because I could easily counter by posting a link to a skeptic site that debunks every last one of them.
I see that DOC has already posted some of his favorites. Even though they've already been shredded by Abe_The_Man, This Guy, and Ocelot, I just felt like driving the final nail in the coffin. I should point out that anyone can make a prophecy and be correct, provided that there is no specific time or place given. If there were a real prophecy about Jesus, I would expect to see at least some mention of details such as virgin birth, son of God, prophet, miraculous powers, crucifixion, sacrificing himself for sins, resurrection, or ascension into heaven. All of these prophecies are disappointing in this respect, to say the least.
Well here are 3 out of the 13 he listed. He also said about 2000 out of 2500 have been fulfilled so far.
(1) Some time before 500 B.C. the prophet Daniel proclaimed that Israel's long-awaited Messiah would begin his public ministry 483 years after the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (Daniel 9:25-26). He further predicted that the Messiah would be "cut off," killed, and that this event would take place prior to a second destruction of Jerusalem. Abundant documentation shows that these prophecies were perfectly fulfilled in the life (and crucifixion) of Jesus Christ. The decree regarding the restoration of Jerusalem was issued by Persia's King Artaxerxes to the Hebrew priest Ezra in 458 B.C., 483 years later the ministry of Jesus Christ began in Galilee. (Remember that due to calendar changes, the date for the start of Christ's ministry is set by most historians at about 26 A.D. Also note that from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. is just one year.) Jesus' crucifixion occurred only a few years later, and about four decades later, in 70 A.D. came the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.
(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 105.)*
All we have here is the supposed time of death of this king. "Masiach" or "Messiah" means "anointed one" as in an anointed prince of Israel. The obvious problem with this prophecy is that Jesus was never an anointed monarch. Now let's look at the timing.
Daniel 9:25-27 NIV
The 7 weeks and 62 weeks are two different periods of time. The Jews, from whom the scripture originated, never add these two periods together. So when do we start counting down the prophecy? There are four possible dates, as shown by this
Christian website.
539 BC - Cyrus permitted Jews to return to the land and rebuild their Temple.
520 BC - Darius permitted Jews to complete the rebuilding of the Temple.
457 BC - Artaxerxes allowed Ezra authority to lead the nation in the Laws of God.
445 BC - Artaxerxes gives Nememiah permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Adding 434 or 483 years to each of these dates (because I'm being generous) gives us:
539 BC = 105 BC or 56 BC
520 BC = 86 BC or 37 BC
457 BC = 23 BC or 26 AD
445 BC = 11 BC or 38 AD
For an alleged prophecy with such specific figures, these still miss the date of the crucifixion, and notice that the closest match uses the erroneous 69 years. (There must be something about that number that Christians like.) So this prophecy contains only one detail that could apply to any ruler, and Jesus was never an anointed king. Whoops.
(2) In approximately 700 B.C. the prophet Micah named the tiny village of Bethlehem as the birthplace of Israel's Messiah (Micah 5:2). The fulfillment of this prophecy in the birth of Christ is one of the most widely known and widely celebrated facts in history.
(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 105.)
Way to ignore the rest of the chapter. (Yes, it's relevant.) You can read the part of Micah 5 that you leave out
HERE.
First of all, these passages clearly describe a military ruler, which Jesus clearly was not. Secondly, there's no way this prophecy could ever refer to Jesus unless he somehow managed to defeat the Assyrians some 600 years after they ceased to exist. Third, Israel was defeated by the Romans about 40 years after the death of Jesus, which could hardly be construed as living securely or in peace.
(3) In the fifth century B.C. a prophet named Zechariah declared that the Messiah would be betrayed for the price of a slave—thirty pieces of silver, according to Jewish law-and also that this money would be used to buy a burial ground for Jerusalem's poor foreigners (Zechariah 11:12-13). Bible writers and secular historians both record thirty pieces of silver as the sum paid to Judas Iscariot for betraying Jesus, and they indicate that the money went to purchase a "potter's field," used—just as predicted—for the burial of poor aliens (Matthew 27:3-10).
(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 1011.)
http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/prophecy.shtml
If you'd bothered to read the whole of
Zechariah 11:4-15, you'd realize that this is a
curse from Yahweh, and not a messianic prophecy by any stretch. Besides that, how can we rule out the possibility that the author of Matthew, knowing of the passage in Zechariah, wrote the story in just to make it look like a fulfilled prophecy? We can't. It's the same circular argument as before.
Probability that DOC will stick his fingers in his ears and start singing loudly now: 100%
