False Prophecy of the Euphrates River in the Bible The Euphrates River today is currently drying up, and as you would expect many Christians will quote Revelation 16:12 to show that this is actually a prophecy that has been fulfilled 👇 “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.” (Revelation 16:12) I love this verse too, but for the exact opposite reason because this verse actually shows that it’s actually a false prophecy. How so you may ask? Well one has to read Revelation 16 from the beginning, and they will see that other events are supposed to happen before the drying of the Euphrates River. —— Let’s examine Revelation 16:1-11: “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, ‘Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.’ The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died. The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: ‘You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, you who are and who were; for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.” And I heard the altar respond: ‘Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.’ The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.” (Revelation 16:1-11) —— Notice how in this chapter, there are 5 other events that are supposed to happen before the Euphrates River dries up. Sores (Revelation 16:2) Sea becomes like blood, and everything in the sea dies (Revelation 16:3) Rivers become blood (Revelation 16:4) The sun striking at certain people with its heat (Revelation 16:8) The Anti-Christ/Beast’s kingdom is plunged into darkness (Revelation 16:10) Now some questions for the Christians: When did any of these 5 events happen before the drying of the Euphrates River? Why haven’t I or any Non-Christian received the mark of the beast yet, and gotten the sores? Why hasn’t the ocean turn to blood, and how come all the sea creatures in the ocean haven’t died yet? Why haven’t the rivers turn to blood yet? Why is the Sun not striking people with its heat? Where is the Anti Christ and his kingdom? Why hasn’t he shown up yet? —- If you say that these things will happen after the Euphrates River drying up, then your contradicting the Bible. Revelation 16 gives a specific chronological order of what will happen, so if the Anti Christ is suppose to come in the far future for example, why is your God getting the order of events wrong? Another problem with Revelation 16:12 that’s a bit unrelated, but still exposes an error in the Bible is that what modern day army will be worried about a river? Since we have airplanes, and fighter jets, and all sorts of technology, why would a modern army be held back by a river? It follows that the author was referring to his own time, not thousands of years in the future. Ancient armies could be held back from geographical obstacles like rivers and lakes. The Based Beast — 03.05.2023 21:12 False Prophecy in Ezekiel 26 Credit to Quran and Bible Blog “…therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves…For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a great army. He will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you. He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons. His horses will be so many that they will cover you with dust. Your walls will tremble at the noise of the warhorses, wagons and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city whose walls have been broken through. The hooves of his horses will trample all your streets; he will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. They will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea. I will put an end to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more. I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 26:3, 7-14) —— This prophecy, allegedly made by the Prophet Ezekiel (peace be upon him), speaks of coming calamities to befall the city of Tyre. The first part of the prophecy foretold that Tyre would be the target of “many nations,” while the second part stated that the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar would destroy the city to such an extent that it would “never be rebuilt”. However, while Nebuchadnezzar did lay siege to Tyre for 13 years, the city actually never fell, though it did agree to capitulate to Babylonian rule. Whereas the prophecy stated that Tyre would never be rebuilt, it escaped relatively unscathed from the Babylonian assault. Indeed, it has survived thousands of years of history to become a modern city, being the fourth largest city of modern-day Lebanon. http://tyros.leb.net/tyre/ The irony is that the book of Ezekiel confirms elsewhere that Nebuchadnezzar did not destroy Tyre, as had been prophesied earlier! Ezekiel 29:18 states: “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon drove his army in a hard campaign against Tyre; every head was rubbed bare and every shoulder made raw. Yet he and his army got no reward from the campaign he led against Tyre.” Here, it was admitted that Nebuchadnezzar received “no reward” for the siege against Tyre, yet Ezekiel 26:12 specifically prophesied that his army would: “…plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise…” Obviously, this did not happen. How could Nebuchadnezzar simultaneously
“plunder” Tyre’s wealth and yet receive “no reward”? Some apologists have tried to get around this difficulty by claiming that the prophecy was fulfilled not in Nebuchadnezzar’s time, but in the time of Alexander the Great, who captured the city and destroyed it. See for example: http://www.tektonics.org/uz/zeketyre.php But even if this argument could be successfully defended, the fact remains that Tyre was supposed to have been destroyed completely and never rebuilt. Yet, even after Alexander the Great destroyed Tyre, he eventually rebuilt it! Apologists try to get around this difficulty by foolishly comparing it to the “ancient use of hyperbole”, as seen in the boasts of the Pharaohs claiming that they had completely destroyed their enemies. But surely, to compare what is supposed to be a divinely-inspired prophecy to the ramblings of tyrannical and polytheistic kings is absurd. Why did a divinely-inspired prophet have to resort to “hyperbole” like the foolish kings of antiquity? Should we not hold the supposed “word of God” to higher standards? In fact, the prophecy was literally the “word of God”, having come upon “Ezekiel”: “…the word of the Lord came to me…” (Ezekiel 26:1) So, it was actually God speaking through the prophet! Are the apologists really expecting us to believe that God was speaking like some petty human king, by exaggerating the destruction of Israel’s enemies? We must conclude that this argument is a desperate and dishonest attempt to deny the clear fact that the “prophecy” did not succeed. Instead of admitting the truth, the apologists are willing to live in denial and to blaspheme God by comparing Him to petty kings who liked to exaggerate their victories. False Prophecy in Ezekiel 29 Credit to Quran and Bible Blog “I will make the land of Egypt a ruin and a desolate waste from Migdol to Aswan, as far as the border of Cush. The foot of neither man nor beast will pass through it; no one will live there for forty years. I will make the land of Egypt desolate among devastated lands, and her cities will lie desolate forty years among ruined cities. And I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them through the countries.” (Ezekiel 29:10-12) The book of Ezekiel claims that Egypt would suffer a great catastrophe, which would cause it to be uninhabited for a period of 40 years. Once again, it is Nebuchadnezzar who would be the instrument of God’s vengeance: “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will carry off its wealth. He will loot and plunder the land as pay for his army. I have given him Egypt as a reward for his efforts because he and his army did it for me, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 29:19-20) Yet this prophecy also failed to come true. Nebuchadnezzar did indeed attack the Egyptians, although the exact details of what actually happened are not known. As Professor Bill T. Arnold of Asbury Theological Seminary states: “The scope of Nebuchadnezzar’s imperial aspirations may be seen in his thirteen-year siege and apparent victory at Tyre (Josephus, Ag. Ap. 1:21; Ezekiel 26:7-14) and his invasion of Egypt in 570 B.C.E. However, it should be noted that historical evidence from the latter part of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign is sparse and that the evidence of his Egyptian invasion is open to other interpretations.” Source: Bill T. Arnold, Who Were the Babylonians? (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2004), p. 96. What is known is that there has never been any period in Egyptian history when the land was not occupied. No evidence exists for this extraordinary event. If it indeed happened, then there should be evidence for it, given Egypt’s prominence in the geopolitics of the time. If it had been rendered unlivable for 40 years, it would have been a momentous event which people would not have forgotten, especially the Egyptians themselves. ——- False Prophecy in Isaiah 13 Credit to Quran and Bible Blog “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.” (Isaiah 13:19-20) —- In this prophecy, Babylon’s destruction was foretold. However, Babylon is warned not only that its doom was imminent but that the destruction would be so severe as to leave this “glory of kingdoms” uninhabited. In short, it would be left as a ruin, never again to be inhabited by people, but rather wild beasts. —- According to some translations of Isaiah 13:21-22, among the “wild beasts” that would dwell in the ruins of Babylon would be “dragons” and “satyrs”. Obviously, these mythological creatures have never inhabited Babylon or any other place. Yet, it is established history that Babylon continued to be inhabited even as late as the 2nd century CE, as evidenced by the so-called “Theater Inscription”. The fact is that even though control of Babylon passed from conqueror to conqueror, it remained a vibrant city for almost a thousand years after the alleged prophecy was made by Isaiah (peace be upon him). When the Persian king Cyrus the Great captured Babylon in 539 BCE, it remained an important center of culture, and when Alexander the Great conquered the city from the Persians in 331 BCE, he simply annexed it and established it as an important center of his empire. http://www.livius.org/place/babylon/ What the prophecy stated would happen and what actually happened to Babylon are polar opposites. To deny this would be futile. Of course, some apologists may argue that this prophecy can be applied to modern times, either in the sense that Babylon is now just crumbling ruins or that it somehow refers to a future conflict between the Arabs and Israel. However, in either case, the apologists would be wrong. Desperate in their attempts to salvage the prophecy, they make absurd suggestions which actually contradict the Bible itself. It is clear from the Bible that the prophecy against Babylon was to be fulfilled during the time of the Babylonian empire. According to Jeremiah 50:41-43, Babylon’s destruction would occur soon and not thousands of years later: “Look! An army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are being stirred up from the ends of the earth. They are armed with bows and spears; they are cruel and without mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, Daughter Babylon. The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and his hands hang limp.” (Jeremiah 50:41-43) In this passage, it was stated that an army was coming from the north (see also verse 3), which the Jewish commentator Rashi identified with the Persians and the Medes. http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16047#showrashi=true The prophecy in Jeremiah also stated that the king of Babylon was fully aware that this mighty army was coming for his kingdom and that he was fearful of it. What this shows is that the prophecy was expected to be fulfilled in a very short amount of time. Moreover, if even the king of Babylon knew that the end was coming, then it means that this “prophecy” was simply restating what was already known to many people at the time. The author was obviously aware of the geopolitics of the time and knew that a conflict between Babylon and other nations was imminent. Hence, it was hardly a “prophecy” of an event that no one was expecting. False Prophecy in Isaiah 17 Credit to Quran and Bible Blog “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.” (Isaiah 17:1) The book of Isaiah makes a false prophecy regarding the destruction of Damascus. Even in the modern age, Damascus has remained an important and vibrant city, despite the tragic Syrian civil war which continues to rage and which has claimed over 200,000 lives since 2011. It has never been a “ruinous heap” in the approximately 2,700 years that have gone by since the prophecy was allegedly made. And should the apologists try to argue that this prophecy is to be fulfilled in modern times, they need to be reminded of the context of the prophecy, which shows clearly that it was supposed to be fulfilled thousands of years ago. Verse 8 of the same chapter shows this context and proves that it cannot be applied to modern times: “They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.” (Isaiah 17:8) The reference to “Asherah poles” shows that the prophecy was made during a time when the worship of the pagan goddess Asherah was very common, even among the Israelites. Yet the cult of Asherah, and indeed most of the other pagan cults (like those of Molech, Chemosh, etc.) have long been extinct. Certainly, no one in modern-day Damascus still worships Asherah, for it is a majority Muslim city! —— False Prophecy in Psalm 89 Credit to Quran and Bible Blog “You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’” (Psalm 89:3-4) In this verse, the psalmist claimed that God made a covenant with David (peace be upon him) promising to establish his bloodline forever and to secure his kingdom for all time. This prophecy hardly came true. Neither David’s line nor his kingdom has survived. Even if David’s bloodline has survived into the present day, there is no way to prove that it exists. On the other hand, it is an undeniable fact that his kingdom has not existed for more than 2,500 years, when it ended with the removal of Zedekiah from the throne and his death in a Babylonian prison. http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112328/jewish/Zedekiah.htm The only possible way for believers to salvage this prophecy is to interpret it as referring to Messianic times, when the Messiah, who would be a descendant of David (peace be upon him), would re-establish the Davidic kingdom. From that point on, the Davidic line and throne would be established forever. But this argument fails since the psalm is very clear that David’s line and throne would be “firm through all generations”. In fact, verses 35-37 of the same psalm repeat the promise, and refute the claim of the apologists that the prophecy refers to the Messiah: “Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness—and I will not lie to David—that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.” (Psalm 89:35-37) The apologists must be honest and admit that this simply did not happen. The sun has continued to “endure” and the moon has continued to be a “faithful witness in the sky” since David’s time, but his line and his kingdom have not. False prophecy in the Torah in the Story of Joseph Genesis 37:9-10 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” —— According to this passage, Joseph’s prophetic dream was that BOTH his parents, and his brothers will bow down to him. However if we go back a couple of chapters, we find this Genesis 35:16-19 Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t despair, for you have another son.”As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath that is, Bethlehem Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb. Joseph’s mother died after giving birth to the youngest son Benjamin LONG BEFORE Joseph made his prophecy. Jacob asks in Genesis 37 if he and his wife will bow down to Joseph even though she’s already dead which makes this a demonstrably false prophecy. Also if this prophecy is not talking about Jacob and Rachel bowing down to Joseph, then why was Jacob acting, and talking as if Rachel was still alive? The Quran corrects this story however Quran 12:100 Then he raised his parents to the throne, and they all fell down in prostration to Joseph, who then said, “O my dear father! This is the interpretation of my old dream. My Lord has made it come true. He was truly kind to me when He freed me from prison, and brought you all from the desert after Satan had ignited rivalry between me and my siblings. Indeed my Lord is subtle in fulfilling what He wills. Surely He ˹alone˺ is the All-Knowing, All-Wise.” False Prophecy in Zechariah 14 Credit to Quran and Bible Blog According to Zechariah 14:16-19 there’s a prophecy where it states that all of the nations will come to Jerusalem to worship God and keep the Feast of Tabernacles 👇 ”Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.” (Zechariah 14:16-19) —— According to Numbers 29:12-15, the Feast of Tabernacles was a religious festival that involved making animal sacrifices to God. 👇 ”’On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the Lord for seven days. Present as an aroma pleasing to the Lord a food offering consisting of a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. With each of the thirteen bulls offer a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with oil; with each of the two rams, two-tenths; and with each of the fourteen lambs, one-tenth.” (Numbers 29:12-15) —- Notice the threat in Zechariah 14 where it says that if the Gentile nations don’t participate in the Feast of Tabernacles, God will punish them by withholding the rain from them. With that in mind there are two ways to interpret the prophecy in Zechariah 14, both of which present a huge problem for Christianity. —— One way to interpret the prophecy is to say that it’s speaking of the future messianic age (the Biblical Jesus’s second coming) where both Jews and Gentiles will offer temple sacrifices. Another way to interpret the prophecy is to say that it was fulfilled before the coming of the Biblical Jesus in the 1st Century CE. This presents a big dilemma for Christians because either scenario disproves Christianity. The first scenario contradicts one of the central doctrines of Christianity which says that the Biblical Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross replaced all of the temple and animal sacrifices forever and did away with all of the festivals in the Old Covenant. 👇 ”Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” (Hebrews 7:27) ”Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” (Colossians 2:16) Now the question is why would these animal sacrifices and festivals be brought back during Jesus’s second coming when according to Christianity there will be no more of that stuff. With regards to the second scenario it cannot be true from a Christian perspective because that would not be the Messianic age. Moreover it would be a false prophecy since there has never been a time before the 1st century CE when Gentile Nations adopted the religion of the Jews, celebrated their festivals and made sacrifices to God in Jerusalem. So this is the dilemma that Christianity faces. The Biblical promise of an idealized messianic age where all nations will worship God by adopting the rituals and festivities of the Israelites actually refutes Christianity no matter which scenario the Christians choose.