Prophecy is not proof?

Isaiah 53 talks about Jesus being crucified, and that prophecy was said a few hundred years before Crucifixion was invented. Pretty cool.

Let's see, if I "prophecy" that within the next 100 years a president of the United States will be named James (which is the most common presidential first name I believe) and one becomes one is that prophecy? How do you know that Cyrus wasn't a very common name? So it could be very likely that a Cyrus would have in fact become a king.

You can not adequately argue prophecy in the Bible. For instance, Christians always point out how Christ fufills so many prophecies in the Old Testament, but it is important to keep in mind that they were writing after the event. You can always look back on life and make correlations in your mind.

Either believe in the Bible because you have faith or don't, but expecting to use logic to prove it is completely true is not going to really work. If you do that then you have to accept that God allows slavery (ok in Old Testament), that you must keep kosher, you can't even write on the Sabbath, etc.

Anyway, who knows, maybe life is a dream after all.

In Australia, our former Prime Minister was named John Howard.

If someone predicted 120 years ago that we would have a Prime Minister by the name of John, without laying claims to be as mathematically gifted as you, I'd say the odds would be about 5/1.

John was a very popular name then as it still is.

I'd like to bet Cyrus was not an altogether peculiar name way back then.

Your odds of trillions to one sound somewhat exaggerated

it's proof. the Prophet Isaiah said "a man is coming that I am not worthy of taking his sandals off." as John the baptist preached, "I baptize you in water, he will baptize you with the fire of the Holy Spirit."

Jesus was named to be born in the town of David, in a manger, and that did come true. If you want to know the truth, believe the prophets but watch out for false prophets against God. read this and know the truth. Ecclesiastical history is the scientific investigation and the methodical description of the temporal development of the Church considered as an institution founded by Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Ghost for the salvation of mankind. In a general way the subject matter of history is everything that suffers change owing to its existence in time and space; more particularly, however, it is the genetical or natural development of facts, events, situations, that history contemplates. The principal subject of history is man, since the external changes in his life affect closely his intellectual interests. Objectively speaking, history is the genetical development of the human mind and of human life itself in its various aspects, as it comes before us in series of facts, whether these pertain to individuals, or to the whole human race, or to any of its various groups. Viewed subjectively, history is the apperception and description of this development, and, in the scientific sense, the comprehension of the same set forth in a methodical and systematic manner. The history of mankind may have as many divisions as human life has aspects or sides. Its noblest form is the history of religion, as it developed in the past among the different groups of the human race. Reason shows that there can be only one true religion, based on the true knowledge and the proper worship of the one God. Thanks to the light of revelation we know that this one true religion is the Christian religion, and, since there are different forms of the Christian religion, that the true religion is in particular the one known as Catholic, concrete and visible in the Catholic Church. The history of Christianity, therefore, or more properly the history of the Catholic Church, is the most important and edifying part of the history of religion. Furthermore, the history of religion is necessarily a history of religious associations, since the specifically human, that is, moral—and therefore religious—life, is necessarily social in character. Every religion, therefore, aims naturally at some form of social organization, Christianity all the more so, since it is the highest and most perfect religion. There are three stages in the formation of religious associations:

Now, provide documentation for the claim, and show that these so called prophecies were actually written *before* the events in question.

Next time site all the prophecies that have come true then may be they will listen.

No, prophecy is not proof. Dates for the authorship of the text are fuzzy. Nothing was written down for hundreds of years!

Oh forget it.

And what of all the ones that didn't come true? So they got a lucky guess. People do win the lottery on occasion. Not proof of god.

"What is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

You offer NO evidence in support of your claims. To be considered credible in any courtroom, you would need expert testimony, with supporting evidence, to prove that the writings in question were written BEFORE the events that they claim to describe.

No evidence offered ? Factless case dismissed.

You could say the same for Jeroboam II who was also prophesied by name before his birth.

It is proof. It is best used in combination with other things. Eyewitness testimony of miricles for example in the life of Jesus and the resurection for example.

The enemies of Jesus had criticisms which appeared by their nature to confirm Jesus did miracles and the tomb was indeed empty as well.