The Prophets: Volume 2

Bona Fide prophecy. This is prophecy which has generally been fulfilled. Highlights are; Abraham, c., 1,800 BC, God will provide a sacrifice (Gen. 22:12-18). Moses c., 1400 BC, God would send a prophet into the world who was to be 'listened to' (Deut. 18:15-19). David c., 1000 BC, depicts Messiah's sacrificial death on the cross (Psalm 22:1-31). The Passover Feast (Exodus 12:3-10), speaks of the sacrificial offering made by Messiah on the Passover.

Ex Post Facto Prophecy. This is prophecy added after the fact. During the Babylonian captivity, c., 597-538 BC, Ezra claimed that the Torah had been burned with the destruction of Jerusalem, and saw the need to rewrite their foundation documents (2 Esdras 14:19-22). Facing the threat of losing their national identity, the Jewish priests rewrote their foundation documents (2 Esdras 14:19-22) with a survivalist agenda and wrote scores of ex post facto prophecy into their rewritten foundation documents to support their strategy.

Speculative Jewish Apocalypticism. Research has clearly revealed that Amos coupled a bona fide prophecy concerning Messiah's crucifixion (Amos 8:7-10), with his expectations regarding the anticipated Assyrian attack, c., 722 BC. He wrote of God purportedly returning to earth with fire to destroy the idolatrous Israelites and to judge their enemies. We show how Amos' apocalyptic model became the prototype for subsequent prophets.

The alleged 'prophetic' curses of God. It was regarded to be the duty of prophets to curse the enemies of the Israelites. That many of these curses did not come to pass shows that these were not from God. Examples; Damascus will cease from being a city (Isaiah 17:1-3), the Nile would dry up (Isaiah 19:5-8), and Tyre, which at present is the fourth-largest city of the Lebanon, would be eternally destroyed (Ezekiel 26:7-14).