Examining Predictions by Jesus
Question: I believe you have said the exact future is not predictable, even by a master such as Jesus. Can you give examples?
There are a number of statements he made that critics argue did not come true. On the other hand, believers always figure out a way to explain them so they seem true. When considering predictions by Jesus we must take into consideration that his words were not written down until decades after his crucifixion so the wording may not be 100% accurate. Here is one prediction as written:
“When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” Matt 10:23
The towns of Israel have certainly all been exposed to the teachings of Jesus, but he has not come again in the clouds of heaven as expected.
Here is another:
“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matt 12:40
Jesus died on Good Friday afternoon and his resurrection was on Sunday morning. Critics argue this timeline only accounts for two nights (Friday night and Saturday night), making the “three nights” prediction inaccurate.
When Jesus was talking about the temple he said that there would not be one stone left upon another in the temple. Did that come true? Have you ever heard of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem? That is a piece of the temple where there is still one stone upon another. There are seven layers above ground and 17 below ground that been intact since the days of Jesus. So even that prophecy spoken by the Master Himself did not come 100% true. Interesting, is it not?
So this is the secret about prophecy that there is no person on the earth and not even God, no life form anywhere can predict everything that is going to happen. Now all the believers will say that is wrong, If I snap my fingers then they are saying that God knew a million years ago that I was going to do this at this time. Well the big question I have is why in the world would God even want to know that? Why would He want fill His universal mind with such clutter and trivial detail? Who would want to fill their mind with such clutter?
Here was the prophecy made by Jesus: “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Matt 24:1-2
Note that the prediction refers to the “buildings of the temple.” There are a number of these buildings that still have one stone upon another.
My point was that no one, not even God can predict every detail that will happen in the future. The temple was destroyed in 70AD and Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple did come true, just not 100% literally.
Here’s another one: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt 24:14
Christianity has been preached in all the nations of the earth and the end still hasn’t come.
The account of Jesus was written after the fact and if Jesus did give any obviously questionable predictions the faithful followers probably wouldn’t have included them.
The point is that no human being in the flesh is infallible especially in the prediction department. This is why I give predictions very sparingly. Most psychics are only 10% accurate and the best of the prophets are lucky to be at 50%. Even DK was about 50% accurate.
Seeing some fallibility in the great teachers should in no way diminish their value. Only a representative of the beast will demand 100% belief that they are without error.
Here’s some information on the Wailing Wall:
Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives The view of old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives where Jesus would give his teaching in Matthew 24 was beautiful. There is no other place in Jerusalem to view the city like this. The Mount of Olives is to the East of the present Golden Gates. In the days of Jesus and the Apostles a person would look West to view the beloved city. There could be seen the rectangular walls made of large stones perfectly laid one upon another. The walls of the city enclose the Temple, several buildings, many homes, and the tower of Antonia. Around the Temple there are other walls known today as the Haram esh-Sharif [the Noble Enclosure]. The stones of the lower courses in those walls are “STILL” in their exact positions as they were in the days of Jesus. They are STILL one on top of the other and do not appear to have been moved from their original alignments. These lower stones are clearly from the era of Herod’s temple, and in some places on the eastern side the large stones were laid by someone before Herod’s remodel job, perhaps by Nehemiah. It is now known from excavations and archaeological digs that there are more hundreds of these stones still in the SAME place as they were in the time of Herod and Jesus. Did the prophecy of Jesus fail? What then is the interpretation of this?
While the Jewish Department of Antiquity has allowed archaeological research in this area they have not made public the number of these stones still one on top of the other. Part of the problem is that prior to Jerusalem being destroyed, the Romans build dirt ramparts along the side of the walls in an effort to bring their battering rams closer to beat against them. These mounds of dirt covered up a number of courses of the stones that were visible when Jesus made his prophecy. On the inside of the walls, debris from the burned out structures and dirt also piled up and many of the lower concourses escaped being thrown down at that time. With extensive excavations this dirt and debris has been removed and now for the first time in nearly 2000 years most of these stones are now exposed and visible ready for judgment. At the site of the Western Wall [called the “Wailing Wall”] there are seven ancient courses that can be seen. There are about 450 original Herodian stones still there one on top of the other. In addition to this, there are eight more courses of these original stones underneath the ground. The bottom of these reach down to the actual ground level in the time of Jesus. While we cannot count the next stones in the prophecy of Jesus, there are yet nine more courses of foundation stones beneath these. If just one part of the “Wailing Wall” could be laid bare, we would be able to count nearly 1,250 stones still right on top of each other right where they were in the days of Jesus [Meir Ben-Dov, Mordechai Naor, Zeev Aner, “The Western Wall,” pp.61, 215].
Then there was the question that the word should be translated building singular rather than “buildings.”
In the context in which the word was used it has been pretty much unanimously agreed that the translation is “buildings.’ Even the Concordant translation renders it buildings, plural.
A reader adds this:
The writer Earnest Martin that you referenced makes an interesting case for the Wailing Wall not being the location of the temple but instead the temple was built around Gihon Spring some distance away on the southeast ridge of Jerusalem.
It would be interesting if this were true for, if accepted by the Jews, it would open the door to them building the third temple on real estate that is presently accessible to them without disturbing the sacred Muslim shrine – The Dome of the Rock.
It would also give more credibility to the prediction of Jesus that not one stone would be left upon another for the temple buildings.
On the other hand, Martin is far from putting the controversy to rest.
Part of Martin’s argument for the Gihon Spring location is that it was the only source of water for the temple but new archeological evidence proves otherwise. Here is the headline:
Cistern dated to First Temple period found in Jerusalem “Discovery of large man-made reservoir next to the Temple Mount shows city did not solely rely on the Gihon Spring for its water 2,500 years ago.”
Archaelogist, Leen Ritmeyer believes he made a positive identification of the original wall footings, carved in the bedrock of Es Sakhra [“the Rock” in Arabic]. He shows that these cleared areas correspond to the precise dimensions of the walls enclosing the Holy of Holies. Then, in the exact center of this supposed enclosure,
Precisely in the center of the Holy of Holies as laid out by Ritmeyer, is a rectangular cutout in the bedrock measuring 4 ft 4 in x 2 ft 7 in. Based on his measurement of the Biblical “cubit,” Ritmeyer suggests the Ark was exactly this size. Thus, according to Ritmeyer, the Ark once sat at the exact center of the Holy of Holies in this very indentation on es-Sakhra beneath the Dome of the Rock!
Now back to my original point.
Our faith should not rely on the infallibility of any person of flesh and blood, even Jesus. If it becomes necessary for our teachers to become infallible then we will either be disappointed or go into denial and throw up a wall between ourselves and the truth.
If Jesus was literally correct about the prediction about the temple fine and if not, that is fine too. The principles he taught speak to the soul and that is the important thing.
The future depends on what we do in the present. – Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948)
April 6, 2013
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