A back in October I did a few posts on the question of, “Is there a God?” I got bored with it, but it’s time for another installment.

Biblical literalists, such as Seventh-day Adventists, are big fans of prophecy. They believe that prophecy proves that the Bible is the inspired, authoritative word of God. Thus, Biblical prophecies could prove the existence of God. The canned sermons I had to preach for the evangelistic series I tried to do in Mexico in July 2007 started with Daniel 2. Prove prophecy, prove the Bible. It wasn’t convincing.

According to this view, Daniel 2 is a 6th century BCE prophecy of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires. It would be quite impressive for someone to predict the Roman Empire a good 500 years before making it to that part of the Mediterranean, and that would provide some evidence for divine inspiration. However, the more likely explanation is that it was written around 150 BCE and described history from the Babylonian conquest to the Maccabean Revolt. The legs of iron are the Ptolemies and Seleucids and the stone is Judas Maccabee The oldest extant manuscript is from the Dead Sea Scrolls which would fit equally with both dates. Considering that there is no evidence that Daniel was written prior to the events foretold, it is much more likely that it is it’s merely an artful telling of history.

In Matthew 24 Jesus foretells the destruction of Jerusalem. That destruction took place in 70CE. If Jesus actually said that in 27CE, then that would be impressive. However, the gospel of Matthew was written shortly after 70CE, so again, it is much more likely that it’s history than prophecy.

Just a few verses later in Matthew 24, we have signs of the end of days, such as wars, rumors of wars, famines, and earthquakes. You know what, that perfectly describes right now. Of course, it also perfectly describes the time that the Matthew was written, and just about the entirety of the history of human civilization. It doesn’t count as prophecy if its so vague and general that its something that always happens.

What about the Old Testament prophecies that foretell Jesus’s birth and life? These are generally very poor and loose paraphrases of the OT prophecy and they don’t even fit what the original passage was saying. Even more problematic with these is that the Jesus Character was written to fulfill the prophecies. It seems pretty obvious that when the author of Matthew was writing his gospel he had to make up a lot of detail, especially about Jesus’ early life, so he looked to Old Testament prophecy to provide that detail.

Revelation contains a lot of very cryptic prophecies. If someone tries to use Revelation on you, just ask why and “how do you know that” a lot and if that doesn’t derail the person you’re talking to, then start offering alternative explanations. What little in that book that actually makes any sense describes what was the current events in the Roman Empire at the turn of the second century, the rest of it looks more like the rants of a mad man. Let’s look at one Adventist favorite, the 1260 days of papal supremacy. It ends with the French deposing Pope Pius VI in 1798, an event which did temporary reduce papal power. Where it gets murky is the beginning, 538 CE. This was during a Goth siege of Rome. Vigilius was the pope and he had recently been put in place by an order from Justinian, the Byzantine Emperor. Adventists claim that the pope caused the end of the siege by buying off the Goths, but what actually ended it was a Byzantine military victory. Vigilius was a week and ineffective pope who deserves no special mention. He certainly wasn’t the start of papal supremacy.

I’ve only given a few examples, but these are some of the favorites. Each one was easily debunked and you can do the same with any prophecy.

• If it was written after the event foretold, then it’s not prophecy.
• If it describes things that are common routine events, then it’s not prophecy.
• If it’s so vague or cryptic that almost anything will fit, then it’s not prophecy.
• If someone offers a proposed fulfillment, but it doesn’t fit with history, then it’s not prophecy.

Yes, prophecy could prove the authority of the Bible and thus the existence of God, but it fails miserably to do so.