The NEW Atheist Nightmare!

Don't turn out the lights and don't fall asleep. Something terrifying is coming and it's...IT'S....oh wait, it's just another harmless Christian argument.

SOURCES:
00:27 - ibid. (1:12:19)
01:03 - ibid. (1:17:19)
00:50 - ibid. (2:19)
01:58 - Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period, Longenecker, (pg. 17)
02:03 - ibid. (pg. 30)
02:19 - ibid. (pg. 18)
02:33 - BEitAP (pg. 24)
02:40 - ibid.
02:45 - ibid. (pg. 26)
02:56 - ibid. (pg. 28)
03:07 - ibid. (pg. 29)
03:13 - ibid. (pg. 28)
03:19 - ibid. (pg. 29)
03:39 - ibid. (pg. 120)
03:49 - ibid. (pg. 61)
04:51 - Matthew 13:11, 34
10:34 – BEitAP (pg. 129)
11:05 - ibid. (44:57)

[daviddupoise]

I got a good chuckle out of the D&D reference. Nice one. Great work here and it takes me back to my Hebrew Bible and New Testament studies. Eisegesis and frequently exegesis on the Hebrew Bible renders such lunacy; like attempting to read Homer's Odyssey as a travel guide.

[SaintRawman]

soooo... foreshadowing in a novel is now called prophecy. got it

[Cecile]

Yeah, even William Lane Craig doesn't use the prophecy apologetic because he knows how easily it can be refuted.

[mikeyvester]

What makes all biblical prophecies complete and utter nonsense, the text describing them was written after the so called prophecy.

[october]

It's great to see that you've posted after such a long time.

[Trillion]

When I hear the phrase "problem for atheists", I can actually feel brain cells dying in my head.

[Aeoringas]

When I hear of people declaring they are a theologian that equates to me as someone who reads Marvel comics and has studied every single timeline of every super hero ever invented. The Bible is a book of stories that have been translated 100's of times to the point that the original stories bear little relation to the one found in the King James version. Anyone arguing over the contents of the Bible is no different to someone who takes issue with how Thor fought Loki with a shovel in Issue 235 circa 1978. I'm making that Thor thing up by the way, I don't know anything about Marvel comics!

[heywoodjablowme]

In one of the Harry Potter books, we hear of a prophesy in which a marked child will defeat Voldemort, then a few books later, Harry kills Voldomort!
What amazing and strong evidence that Harry Potter is real!!

[joshbeaty]

So a prophecy in a book came true later in the same book, I wouldn't of dignified that with a response other than laughter.

[Yoseqlo]

"I suffer for your sake, dear viewer."
Much appreciated.

[ChipArgyle]

Ooooh, prophecies came true, therefore God. Turns out nobody writes about the mountains of forecasts made by failed prophets that were completely wrong. Instead, we love to be amazed by the ones who guessed correctly, as if they had some kind of divine insight. Spooky!

[aido]

The biggest problem with fulfilled prophecy is actually finding any that stand up to even the most cursory examination.

[Torvar]

Wasn't there a prophecy that the messiah was to be a war leader?

[pcbacklash_]

Long time, no hear, Number One!  Glad to have you back!  Just when I finally stopped fearing the dreaded banana, now I have a new "fear" to confront!  :-P

I always chuckle a bit when I hear some apologist casually assert that there are "hundreds" of fulfilled "prophecies" in the Bible, when I have yet to see ONE convincing, "prophecy" that has supposedly been fulfilled.  As you pointed out in some of your examples, the Old Testament "prophecies" that supposedly refer to Jesus often CLEARLY refer to someone else -- if one bothers to read beyond the cherry-picked verse.

The rest are obvious attempts by the New Testament writers to adapt their story to fit some OT narrative (for example, the "Immanuel/Emmanuel" story -- which, again clearly refers to someone else).  Or they're so vague that they could be applied to practically ANYTHING.

If there's a "problem" with biblical "prophecies, " it's a problem for believers, not skeptics and atheists.  The dilemma they must face is the fact that Jesus is mentioned NOWHERE in the Old Testament.  And there are many references to the fact that Yahweh is the ONLY power in Heaven (emphasis mine):

Isaiah 43:11 -- "...I, even I, am the Lord; and BESIDE ME THERE IS NO SAVIOR..."

Indeed, in every reference to Heaven or vision of Heaven in the OT, there is not a single reference to Jesus -- or even some generic significant second party who could be presumed to be Jesus.  He is simply NOWHERE to be found in the OT.  AT ALL.  Here's a bit more comprehensive summary of the problem:

[tetheredhands]

You're so good at this. I don't even watch these any more, but if I see that you made them, I do!

[SokhomChhim]

Cool story with the tape. We had a similar experience of finding things that we thought were lost. Ours was my wife's jewelry box and a bunch of movies and other stuff. We had kept it at my brother's house before we moved to Korea for two years. After we came home my brother gave me back most of the movies but couldn't find the jewelry box and a couple of other things. We had spread a whole bunch of stuff between my mother in law's house, my brother's house and long term storage and we couldn't find it. That was back in 2011. We had resigned ourselves that it was lost forever until my brother called me while I was visiting my parents and texted to tell me that he found it. We were already atheists at this point so we just chalked it up to him rearranging his house and finding a box of stuff that he didn't recognize and remembering that it was probably ours. Glad you found the thing that made you so happy, I think we've all experienced the elation of finding something you thought was lost forever.

[ledribbon]

just found your channel, awesomeness! I hope you tackle more prophesy stuff in the future, I have it brought up to me all the time in discussions. this video was fantastic!

[ChilledfishStick]

"I like turtles" was enough for me to like :)

Edit: I'm Israeli, therefore I obviously speak Hebrew, and had a bible class, yet I've never heard of the word "pesher" used in this way, nor did I find anything using google. It does mean: meaning, but as far as I know there were literalists a long time ago, and now there are only interpretations, learned in "midrashot" (plural for "midrasha"), payed for with tax money obviously.

[Corn_Pone_Flicks]

What I want to know is exactly how he calculated the odds of fulfilling a certain number of prophecies. Just what methodology could possibly be used for such an evaluation? I could prophesy that tomorrow the sun will come up, that water will be wet in the future, and that the next Michael Bay Transformers movie will suck, and not lose a minute's sleep over whether or not those would come true. On the other end of the stick, I could, for example, read a prophecy saying that the Messiah will ride in on a donkey, and think to myself, "Guess I'll ride in on a donkey and announce myself as the Messiah." Basically, that's proof that Jesus knew how to read, and little else.

And yet, it's actually worse. I mean, the fact that Harry Potter fulfilled the prophecy that he would destroy Voldemort surely must be proof that he was the chosen one, right? You can't just invoke some kind of "But none of that shit actually happened" rebuttal, can you?

[modelmajorpita]

Entertaining and educational, as always.