This might look like your typical city street, but don’t be fooled. This city street doesn’t really exist. Confused? Let me explain.
This city street has the misfortune of being built in a spot that the Bible says would remain desolate forever. Ezekiel 26 and the next two chapters prophesy that the city of Tyre would be destroyed and never be rebuilt. This is why we can’t be misled by pictures like these. Despite their seeming undeniable hold upon reality, Tyre can’t really be there. After all, many Bible apologetics books have stated that Tyre is just a bare rock where fishermen spread their nets. That’s all fine and good, but we probably shouldn’t tell that to the people living there. Imagine how disorienting it would be to find out your city isn’t there!
How do we explain this anomaly? I can only think of two possibilities. Perhaps we are witnessing a tear in the fabric of reality. This might simply be a glimpse of a reality in which Ezekiel did not prophesy that Tyre would never be rebuilt. Somehow we’re able to see it, but it’s obviously not our reality, because Ezekiel said Tyre shouldn’t be here.
However, there is another possibility. There’s a remote chance that Ezekiel was wrong about Tyre. A ludicrous proposition, I know, but technically, it is a possibility.
We may never come to a true resolution of this ambiguous issue. Is it really there, or isn’t it? It seems that each individual will have to come to his or her own conclusion. One thing is certain, however. The apologists have definitively staked out the position that Tyre doesn’t exist, while the residents of Tyre disagree.
If you’d like to learn more about this issue, you can read this article.
Finding Truth 
Nate, I don’t want to drag this out any longer, but I think it is worth while outlining the process I think we can (should?) follow, with references to where I’ve set each point out at greater length.
1. Treat the Bible as any other historical text. It is a good historical text – Are the gospels historical>.
2. From this, because there are so many independent texts, scholars conclude Jesus was a real historical figure and we can know quite a bit about him. Of course not all agree, but this is a reasonable consensus.
3. Using parts of the gospels that are well attested, a good case can be mounted that Jesus claimed to be divine.
4. Likewise using ‘facts’ agreed on by a majority (but not all) scholars, a good case can be made that the resurrection actually occurred (unless one rules it out on non-historical grounds).
5. If we study the NT, we find a Jesus who is somewhat different to that proclaimed by most churches.
I think the evidence stacks up, and I think that historical Jesus is someone I can believe in.
I’m sorry to use your blog for blatantly christian purposes, but it seemed an appropriate way to conclude this part of the discussion. Thanks for the opportunity.
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No problem unklee. I’m glad you posted all the links. They should be helpful to anyone else who’s interested in this issue.
Like I’ve said, I didn’t find the historical evidence strong enough to make me think an actual resurrection took place, but I do plan to go through all of it again soon. When I do, I’ll use these links you’ve provided and try to approach everything with an open mind.
Thanks again!
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@unklee
Well said. I’ll try to take your advise and look back into it.
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Cheers guys! : )
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Err… I think a pretty compelling case has been made for understand the city in the pictures above to be a new city that was built on top of Tyre. Phoenician Tyre was obliterated. See here: http://treesearch.org/tyre/tyre-rebuilt
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Sorry, Blake, but I have to disagree. I left a fuller comment here.
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I’m being lazy, and cant recall, but was it ever mentioned that Jeremiah made a similar false prophecy of the Medes destroying Babylon?
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There is actually a third possibility. The prophets saw all of history at once, as we may look at a mountain range from a far distance,we are able to see many mountains when far away and describe what we see, but if we were standing on a particular mountain our view would be more limited. We live in that limited view and we err when we try to discern their description from our vantage point; so the third possibility is that the full completion of this prophecy is not YET fulfilled. A perfect example of this is when Jesus was reading in the synagogue from Isaiah 61. Though the Torah portion was supposed to be that whole portion, and when we read through it we could be tempted to lump all of it together as ONE prophecy, Jesus stopped in the middle and said, “Today, in your hearing, this prophecy has been fulfilled” This is when they then wanted to stone him, but the relevant part to our conversation, is that Jesus knew in his first coming that his mission was to, “bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (this was all accomplished through the cross for those who will receive) he stopped there- in the middle of the verse and essentially the beginning of the prophecy -because it is not until his second coming that the day of vengeance of our God and the rest of the prophecy will be fulfilled.
Plus it is not uncommon for prophesies to have multiple fulfillments, in deed the Eastern culture and mindset thinks this way…and the Bible is an Eastern book. I would expect a future fulfillment where it’s completion is carried out exactly as it states.
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Hi Heather,
Thanks for the comment. I suppose your suggestion is a possibility, but it requires people to assume Christianity is true from the outset, even if the evidence doesn’t support it. I have a hard time thinking God would operate that way. Doesn’t seem fair to those who are raised outside of Christianity.
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Just an FYI. The Bible is correct. It must re-exist but it can’t be rebuilt so there is only one true way around that. Place a lie out there, to fool the masses while the Truth occurs without those witnessing it. This is how Tyre will come back to be without being rebuilt.
First of all it will be in an unobvious place. It will come from a city with a similar name, but will be changed once a destruction of parts of the world and remapping is done. The Day of destruction to start Tribulation and release Satan from the pit, the city of Tyler Tx, will be spared from an upcoming destruction that will tear up the USA, and create a sea from the exploding oil well Deepwater Horizon and it’s nearby trigger points causing the greatest tsunami the world has seen. This tsunami will be around 2000 feet high and create a great sea from Parts of Texas, Louisiana and a lot of the Gulf Coast passing up towards parts of the central but then angling then towards the Great lakes. This great tsunami will carve the land and make some deep seabeds. Also quakes in Texas, Oklahoma, New Madrid area’s and such will cause the land to sink even more. Now for me, Tyre will be spared from one destruction, by the parting of the Waters around it as the man of God in the New Testament is the Restrainer and will hold and part those waters around it. The City of Tyler had the image of the 7 headed dragon Satan embedded in it’s layout from looking from above as a spiritual or an aerial view. This is the key that releases Satan, as I found the key, and its almost complete. Then on that eventful day will be created the widows that will have lost husbands and families if they came into town to work or if other family went out of town to work. Also around this area is where the White Horseman, the son of perdition garden of eden serpent have been found on maps. I am not kidding. This stuff is real. You can see fr yourself on my community page if you dare to want to see the Truth. Amen. https://www.facebook.com/TheLostFlockOfJesusChrist/
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yeah, It reminds me that any contradiction or error or falsehood can be supported, defended and upheld if one has the imagination and fortitude to press on.
No one likes a quitter, I suppose.
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TMS — are you serious??!!?
Amazing how individuals can come up with stories/events/happenings and attempt to put them all together to “confirm” what they think the bible says. SMH
Fantasy at its best.
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I keep wanting to read Tim’s comment as satire, but after skimming over his FB page, I’m not really sure…
For the record, if it is satire, it’s pretty great. Some of the most imaginative I’ve ever seen!
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And they are allowed to breed.
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“HEAVEN’S 7TH AND FINAL MESSENGER TIMOTHY”
Oh. My. Gawd.
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You are not understanding but the world history vouches for the bible. World history will tell you that Alexander took all of the stones, the ruble and the timber of the land tossed it into the ocean, just as the bible said (and he did this to build a bridge, and he called upon many nations to help him) Just as the bible said “I will send many nations against you”
atheist think that it is a failed prophecy because they think it is the city of tyre but actually the entire city of tyre is buried under sand and water just like the bible said, the new city that they are look at is on a different piece of land and is an entirely different city.
It is confusing, for atheist to understand this as they are historically illiterate, but any history book will tell you the same thing, the entire city of tyre was burried underwater and sand.
just last century you would have been able to see the entire city and its streets just a stones throw away from the entirely new city that they built that is not the city of tyre that God destroyed, the one that God destroyed is irreperable, the new city that they built are not a rebuilding of the ruins that are buried under the water, it is an entirely different city made at an entirely different time on the other half of the piece of land. but other wise the entire city of tyre is resting on the bottom of the ocean.
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@William that is another fulfilled prophecy, not a failed prophecy and it wasnt jerimiah it was Isaiah during the time of king Uzziahs death (roughly 400 years before it happens)
Babylon was prophecied to be destroyed by the medes, Alexander the Great was the macedonian king (A.K.A. the Medes) silly willy.
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Neither the prophecy of the City of Tyre, nor the prophecy of babylon are failed prophecies, both of the prophecies are fulfilled prophecy, the history will tell you so. City of Tyre, and babylon prophecy is some of bibles most notorious fulfilled prophecy.
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“It is confusing, for atheist to understand this as they are historically illiterate”
“Alexander the Great was the macedonian king (A.K.A. the Medes) silly willy.”
Statements like these don’t make you any more credible. Just sayin ………..
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I think another blogger Kris Johnson got it right, “The prophecy is unambiguous. Tyre will be barren, like the top of a rock. Tyre will be a place to spread nets on. This never happened. Tyre shall never be re-built. Even if you are able to argue that Tyre was destroyed (it wasn’t), there is no way to argue that Tyre was never re-built. And the destruction was to be carried out by Nebuchadnezzar. With the constant repetition of “he will…”, “he will will…”, it is clear that the prophecy will be done by Nebuchadnezzar, not by another leader long after Nebuchadezzar’s death. Some apologists claim that Alexander the Great fulfilled the prophecy some 200 years after Nebuchadrezzar’s death. While Alexander the Great conquered Tyre and in the process razed parts of the city, even he did not fulfill the specifics of the prophecy. And Alexnader the Great is clearly not Nebuchasrezzar. The prophecy does not allow room for any leader besides Nebuchasrezzar. Nebuchadrezzar did lead a siege on Tyre for 13 years, but withdrew his forces in failure.”
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Hi Jesse,
Thanks for your comments. I honestly appreciate your interest in this, and I think it’s admirable that you’ve researched it. However, you should know that the evidence doesn’t stack up as neatly for the Bible as you might think. This particular post is something I wrote as a bit of satire — it’s not my most serious treatment of the topic. If you have time, check out the series I did on the prophecy of Tyre. It starts here:
https://findingtruth.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/an-examination-of-ezekiels-prophecy-of-tyre-part-1/
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Btw, the bottom of each post has a link to the one that comes next, but you can also easily reach each post if you refer to my home page.
Thanks
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@Jesse Sao,
Look at Jeremiah 51. Jeremiah is saying that the Lord will Bring the Kings of the Medes to destroy Babylon. Interestingly, there’s similar language in Jeremiah 51 against Babylon as there is in Ezekiel against Tyre; both reference being covered with water, wave after wave, and that it will remain desolate forever, etc, etc.
Maybe it was the cool thing to say back then?
But the Macedonians weren’t Medes. The Median Empire wasn’t in Greece, but the Middle East, northern Iran area, and the Medes were conquered by the Persians and the Persians conquered Babylon (without burning it), and Alexander the Macedonian, leader of the Greeks, overthrew the Persians. Alexander’s kingdom split after his death into 4 parts (just thinking of Daniel there).
And a thing to note regarding Ezekiel saying nations would attack Tyre is that Nebuchadnezzar’s army was composed of multiple nations since he and the Babylonian’s had conquered and conscripted multiple nations, being an Empire and all.
The only way that someone can actually argue that these prophecies were fulfilled, is by saying that the prophecies cant be taken literally. The thing with that is, is that you can make a case for anything, you can defend anything by saying, “well, he didn’t literally mean that, but now, only after it happened differently than what he said, he must have meant this…”
It seems like precision may be important in validating prophecies – or is that only when it comes to prophecies that are in religions other than your own?
If a similar prophecy came from the Koran, or some other religion, you wouldn’t be saying it was fulfilled, you’d be doing what I’m doing now, and point out the obvious problems with it.
And as Tyre is today, the north harbor is one of the ancient harbors. Alexander’s causeway just added landmass to the city – the entire ancient land area for ancient Tyre is not buried and again, the old north harbor is still in use and is not buried by water or sand.
You may as well say that Jerusalem was destroyed, is desolate and was never rebuilt, since it has newer buildings now and all the inhabitants from ancient times don’t live there anymore – if that’s what the prophet meant, then there’s no need for prophets, since that’s just what happens every where.
Even Jesus is quoted as referencing Tyre a few times, and never once said, “well, you call yourself Tyre, but you’re not really Tyre, since Tyre was destroyed forever, so you’re just a city with the same name, in the same location, but still not really Tyre…” No, he just said Tyre.
But don’t take my word for it. Read Jeremiah 51, use google to search for the Median Empire, the Persian Empire, Macedonia and Greece and Alexander the Great, also use google maps to view the city that was never rebuilt, the city that would forever be a desolate, bare rock, the infamous city of Tyre – it’s surprisingly populated and developed to be non-existent.
Signed,
silly willy
I cant sleep at night because I’m too busy giggling with silliness
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