In the last few weeks, I’ve had to delve back into a subject that I haven’t spent much time researching since my initial deconversion. Ezekiel’s prophecy of Tyre, which can be found in Ezekiel 26-28, was a major piece of evidence for me in showing that the Bible was not as accurate as I had always thought. I’ve written about it twice before: first in a rather matter-of-fact manner, and later with a touch of sarcasm. The blog Thomistic Bent has recently done a 3-part series on Ezekiel’s prophecy of Tyre (1, 2, and 3), and my own posts on the subject have seen a lot of recent activity as well, so I think it’s time that I do a new series on the prophecy in as thorough a fashion as I know how. This will be a lengthy study, so I’ve decided to break it up into several parts.
At Face Value
I think it’s important to state up front that this prophecy simply fails at face value. To me, that’s significant, since God would be powerful enough to ensure that no matter what the prophecy stated, events would unfold exactly as predicted. In the prophecy, Ezekiel states that Tyre would be destroyed:
3 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. 4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock. 5 She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. And she shall become plunder for the nations, 6 and her daughters on the mainland shall be killed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
— Ezek 26:3-613 And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more. 14 I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the Lord; I have spoken, declares the Lord God.
— Ezek 26:13-1421 I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more. Though you be sought for, you will never be found again, declares the Lord God.”
— Ezek 26:21
And as you can see, in addition to being destroyed, it’s prophesied that Tyre will never be rebuilt or found again. But this is simply not true. We’ll get into the details later, but the simple fact is that once Tyre was finally destroyed, it was immediately rebuilt. Instead of being a bare rock, or even a ruin, it remained an extremely important trade hub in the region for centuries. And it’s the 4th largest city in Lebanon today.
So the events haven’t worked out exactly as the prophecy claimed they would. And for many people, myself included, that’s enough. I view this prophecy as a failure. Nevertheless, there’s much more that can be said by digging into the details of this prophecy, as well as the geography and history of Tyre and its surroundings. A number of people have found ways to claim that this prophecy has been fulfilled by focusing on the minutiae. I don’t find their arguments persuasive, however, and the next several posts will go into my reasons why.
Finding Truth 
http://www.mindspring.com/~marlowe777/af.html/
This link is broken
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“Like I said, God made me a prophet”
I stopped reading after that. This thread is about Tyre, not you. If you really want to rave about you and all *your* special Holy Spirit insights into a prophecy that was actually fulfilled thousands of years ago, I’m sure these people would be glad to discuss it with your at length. I’ve heard all kinds of crazy (and contradictory) theories about the ‘end-times-tables’ made up over here.
http://www.christianforums.com/forums/eschatology-endtimes-prophecy-forum.14/
Right now I think you’re kind of embarrassing the gospel by confirming with all the atheists here that Christians are either gullible, super-subjective, or just make stuff up all the time. For example, what if I replied to you… “OH yeah!? Well the Holy Spirit told me in a dream last night to ignore everything you say!” What then? What would we do then? What if I said I also had a ‘word of knowledge’ or ‘spirit of prophecy’ and completely contradicted all your strange futurist interpretations about an ancient prophecy?
So what do we do? How about actually trusting God’s word when He says it is enough!!
Hebrews 1 says: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,”
2 Timothy 3:16 (yes, another 3:16 to memorise) says we are *thoroughly* equipped to do God’s work through his word.
We don’t need anything else. If the bible doesn’t say it, it’s not that important. Jesus was the ultimate Word of God, doing away with the need for ‘prophecy’. It’s a classic doctrine of the Reformers called Sola Scriptura (Martin Luther) or “Sufficiency of Scriptures”.
“We also stand opposed to any view that rejects the Bible’s sufficiency by claiming access to new or fresh revelation—whether by ecstatic experience, words of knowledge, meditative contemplation, church councils or liturgical ritual.”
http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/information/our-convictions
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Try
http://www.mindspring.com/~marlowe777/af.html
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I saw nothing from the link you provided that proved anything.
Nate is a very nice man. When he gets upset with you, it is time to put up or shut up. Just sayin
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Hi Charles,
please get an account here and tell them all about it. They’ll be *all* ears, and you’ll have a great time!
http://www.christianforums.com/forums/eschatology-endtimes-prophecy-forum.14/
Please STOP posting here, as every time you do I wince.
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I like how Greek letters are actually Arabic letters. Reminds me how Chinese is actually ancient Phonetician Cuneiform.
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eSell, I was enlightened with this revelation too ! 🙂 When I read it, I thought for a moment, then decided , nah , it’s not worth the effort. How do you argue with a Prophet ? 🙂
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“I like how Greek letters are actually Arabic letters. Reminds me how Chinese is actually ancient Phonetician Cuneiform.”
OK, OK, give the guy a break! 😉 He probably forgot his meds. (That’s not real nice, coming from a Christian, but I guess I don’t get to choose who’s in this club with me. You can’t pick family.)
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What Charles is referring to can be read about here and it has illustrations.
http://tulisanmurtad.blogspot.com/2011/04/mark-of-beast.html
But to me, it’s a matter of, “…could be, as long as you turn this word this way or that way, etc”
Still interesting though.
Maybe revelation’s 666 is God inspired but is still just a figurative a poetic way of saying “the wicked will be known” without any more significance being had.
of course, It also may not be true and then still, actually means nothing at all.
Charles, are you the old prophet or the young prophet, and how could we trust you unless God let us know that we should?
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I’m in my 70th year, but what the Bible says is true.
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Sorry, I was referring to the story of the old and young prophet in 1 Kings 13, where the young prophet was killed because he listened to the old prophet.
I was trying to use the reference to ask, “how can we trust that you speak for god on any matter?”
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Charles said… “I’m in my 70th year, but what the Bible says is true.”
But you’re walking all over this passage, and making it say something completely bizarre and alien to Ezekiel’s concerns. So yes, what the bible says is true. But you? That’s something else entirely. Charles, it’s time for you to do some homework.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_scriptura
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Oh, but doncha’ know??? He’s a “PROPHET” … so god talks to him directly. And all those scriptures he keeps posting? From god’s mouth to Charles’ ears.
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William, it has been 35 years since I discussed1 Kings 13. God did not sen me from Judah to prophecy against the King of Israel. And God did not send me from Israel to intercept the prophet from Judah. But God did tell me that his Word will last forever and yours will not.
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“But God did tell me that his Word will last forever and yours will not.”
That’s funny, because God told me the same thing about you.
In his word.
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