Originally Posted by dameedna

The later part of the bible was written in accordance with the prophecies, not because they actually came true.

The people who experienced the life of Jesus, felt they had met divinity in him. The Jew's believed a Messiah would come and save them.

Tie the two together, and you have gospel writers, who described Jesus life in accordance with former phrophesizes as a way of convincing people as to who he was, not because that was actually his life. In other words, they made up details of his life, so it appeared he was the messiah predicted by the Jews.

Obviously, Jesus meant a great deal to them but divine, and a fullfillment of prophecies he was not. There is no respected theologian that does not realize this, and all of the "full-filled" prophecies in the old and new testemant follow this pattern.

What I find amazing, is that it never crosses people's mind that a book written thousands of years ago, may have be written "after" the fact, or changed to accomodate a situation, rather than the more dubious claim that some-one prophesized.

Some of us, just aren't that gulliable I guess.

The only way, in which you can see a phrophesy as being correct, is if some-one TODAY gives it to you, and it happens in YOUR future.

A prophesy in a book that say's "3000 years ago, someone said xxx..and 2000 years ago, it happened" is meaningless.