The Bible and Supposed False Prophecy

What About New Testament Prophecies?

THE HUMANIST'S CLAIMS: Jesus also erred in predicting the amount of time he would be in the tomb. At Matthew 12:40 he teaches: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Mark 15:42-45 shows that Jesus died on a Friday afternoon. But Mark 16:9 and Matthew 28:1 tell us he left the tomb sometime on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Either way, the amount of time was less than three nights.

This may be one of the most difficult of the supposed failed prophecies in the Bible. Not because it is actually a contradiction, but because of cultural differences affecting how we think about time. Our Euro-American culture is linear and precise when it comes to time. However, if you have traveled in Africa, South America, Asia or the Middle East you cannot help but notice that, even today, time has different levels of importance depending on where you are. Not everybody thinks about time the same way.

What Was A Day?

For Jews in Jerusalem, a day began at sunset. Each day was 24 hours, beginning at sunset. For Jews in Galilee a day began at sunrise, and each 24-hour day began at sunrise. In most cases in the Bible the Jerusalem method was used to count days.

How Were Days Counted?

Days were counted as 1, 2, 3... etc. HOWEVER, as we do today, they used idioms when talking about time, and they were more flexible in accounting for time than we are today. However, even today we are not precise in how we count days:

For example, if you drive to a National Park and start a hike on Friday afternoon, then hiked all day Saturday, and finished your hike and returned to your car early Sunday afternoon, what is that called? A three-day hike. You do not need to hike for all 24 hours of all three days for it to be called a three-day hike.

Motels charge by the night. If you arrive at your motel at 5:30 PM, and check out at 3:15 PM the next day, how many nights do you pay for? You stayed less than 24 hours, but you left after the 11:00 AM checkout time. So you will be charged for two nights.

Are these contradictions? No. It is just that our normal language can be somewhat "loose" when talking about time. That is not a problem; we understand what is said based on the context. It was the same in Jesus' day... except that time was even less important than it is in our American culture today, so they were even more flexible in their language of time.

For example, saying "three days and three nights" was a common idiom similar to the present-day example of a three-day hike. It generally meant part of a day, a full 24-hour day, and part of another day.

Here are some examples from scripture provided by Apologetics Press:

Jonah In The Belly of the Big Fish

Humanists like to apply literal standards to the Bible, that are not used anywhere else. Three days means exactly and precisely 72 hours, for example. Just as the Bible is, a newspaper is intended to be read literally. Yet, when applied to a newspaper (and the Bible), we do not mean “literal” in a strict sense.

So to wrap up, what would have had to have happened to Jonah if we take "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly;" (KJV) strictly and literally... when did Jonah enter the whale's belly and when did he leave?

Assuming at new day starts at sunset, 6:00 PM, Jonah would have had to enter the whale's belly at exactly 6:00 PM to start the night of the first 24-hour day. He would then have to leave the whale's belly at exactly 5:59:59 PM 72 hours later. If he entered and left the whale's belly at any other time, he would have been there for a partial day/night. Then we could not say he was in the belly of a whale for precisely three days and three nights.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it. That is not how we normally speak. If a man was swallowed by a giant fish sometime Friday afternoon, and came out at 11:55 AM Sunday morning, the news would correctly report, "Man Spends Three Days in The Belly of A Giant Fish!"

Conclusion

The Bible was written using the ordinary way people spoke at the time. There is no error here.

Next Prophecy:

Another significant false prophecy is at John 14:13-14. Jesus promises: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” Everyone knows there have been millions of instances where Jesus failed to respond to Christians who asked for things in his name. And the graveyards are full of people who prayed to him for health.

As is the case with other incorrect statements in the Bible, false prophecies cast doubt on all biblical claims. If one verse in the Bible is wrong, it’s possible for many verses to be wrong.

What did Jesus actually mean when He said this? Should we take the time to find out? Click here...

/div>