In your own orthodox Bible, it is written "when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you need not be afraid of him." Deu 18:22 (RSV)
20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?”
22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
If a prophecy does not come true, the prophet is to be put to death. So the notion of a far-future prophecy makes absolutely no sense in this context. If far-future prophecies are allowed, then any prophet sentenced to death for producing a failed prophecy will just claim it is a far-future prophecy, rendering this portion of scripture useless. If far-future prophecies are allowed, literally
anyone could say anything as long as it is not in the name of a false god and as long as it is sufficiently vague, and absolutely no harm would come to them. This is partly why most prophecy is vague, but there are other contributing factors as well.
The purpose of prophecy:
1. A prophet makes a correct prediction of the future
2. This establishes that he has contact with God
3. He then relays messages from God
The actual purpose of a prophet is to relay messages from God. Prediction of the future is merely the means by which he establishes his credibility.
At what point do you declare that an unfulfilled prophecy is only delayed, rather than that it is a failed prophecy?
I am reminded of prophecies such as "Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done." Rev 22:12 (RSV), "So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place." Mark 13:29-30 (RSV), etc.
Among the many things that indicate there is no divine plan in the Bible, we see the understanding of prophecy shift from the Old Testament to the New Testament. In the OT, prophecy is as I described. In the NT, suddenly we have prophecy from the OT being fulfilled...? So... we are to believe that a prophecy had gone for hundreds of years without being fulfilled, with the prophet being long dead and presumably considered to be a false prophet at least by some, and yet, in an era when literacy is extremely rare and books are prohibitively expensive, we have a book about a potentially false prophet being preserved and reproduced for hundreds of years? Some Christians actually pitch that idea, while others say that sometimes a prophecy might have an immediate and far-future aspect to it. They, of course, absolutely fail to establish this groundwork anywhere in the OT or even the NT. It's just assumed that the gospel authors knew they were taking things out of context, even though they don't acknowledge doing so.
Basically, Christians make claims they know they can't back up.
Jesus is real because he fulfilled countless prophecies from the Old Testament.
(After you take them down the road of facts...)
Well... ok, yes it's true that the NT writers took things out of context from the OT and applied them to the NT. But, see, there's a beautiful theme there, which I suppose ultimately proves nothing but I find it to be pleasing.
And then there's this one:
We can trust the gospel accounts because the eyewitnesses died and refused to recant.
(Another trip down the road of facts...)
Well... ok, we actually know of no one from history who was an eyewitness to the resurrection, and then was given the chance to recant and go free, but chose to die. It's not really until the second and third generation of Christians that we see them being given the chance to recant and go free. But the point is that there was persecution... here and there. Sporadically.
