EZEKIEL'S

PROPHECY ABOUT TYRE

Ezekiel 26.  "Son of man, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, 'Aha the gate of the peoples is broken, it has swung open to me; I shall be replenished now that she is laid waste', therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you as the sea brings up its waves.  They shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers; and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock.  She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for the spreading of nets; for I have spoken, says the Lord God; and she shall become a spoil to the nations; and her daughters on the mainland shall be slain by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.  For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and with horsemen and a host of many soldiers. He will slay with the sword your daughters on the mainland; he will set up a siege wall against you, and throw up a mound against you, and raise a roof of shields against you.  He will direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.  His horses will be so many that their dust will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen and wagons and chariots, when he enters your gates as one enters a city that has been breached.  With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people with the sword; and your mighty pillars will fall to the ground.  They will make a spoil of your riches and a prey of your merchandise; they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses; your stones ad your timber and soil they will cast into the midst of the waters.  And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more.  I will make you a bare rock; you shall be a place for the spreading of nets; you shall never be rebuilt; for I the Lord have spoken, says the Lord God." Revised Standard Version.

McDowell’s revolting book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict asserts that this prophecy of Tyre, a prosperous city that was built on an island and also on the coast near the island, was fulfilled long after the book of Ezekiel was written.  McDowell claims that Ezekiel predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would lay siege to and invade the city and slay many of the citizens and that Alexander the Great would attack Tyre after and throw the ruins his attack would leave into the sea and destroy Tyre thoroughly forever and ever.  It will become a bare rock and fishermen will spread nets there and the debris will be thrown into the water and it will never be rebuilt and never be found again.  

First, the Nebuchadnezzar bit could have been written after the event for there is no evidence that the book was written earlier for scholars believe that the book was written by people who respected Ezekiel (Bible Concordance, Ezekiel, Book of, NAB).  Secondly, all seaside cities in those days had trouble from other nations at some stage.  Thirdly, if Tyre was to be destroyed it was only natural that it would be like a bare rock for it was hard to rebuild when it was on a rocky island.  It was a fishing area so there was no need for prophetic ability to see that nets would be spread there.  Then we are told that it will never be rebuilt.  True but only to a point for a town stands in its place today.   Fourthly, the prophecy says nothing at all about Alexander. 

The fact that the prophecy makes a few predictions anybody could have made for they would have had to happen anyway proves that the prophet was only guessing.  Even if he did make some good hits in the other things he was still only guessing and was just lucky. 

Ezekiel stated that Tyre would never be found again and then we find references to the town of Tyre in the New Testament!  Jesus was there.  

The Evidence says that the baring of the rock was not fulfilled until the time of Alexander the Great despite the fact that the prophecy never hints that it meant anybody other than Neb would do it.  McDowell is twisting what Ezekiel said to make it fit the facts.  The believers say Alexander threw the debris in the water to make a causeway which is supposed to be another thing the prophecy predicts.  The prophecy says nothing about that but only mentions the debris.  Since the prophet said that the rock the city was on would be bared he had to say the debris would go into the sea so he did not necessarily have to have a causeway in mind.  It has been forgotten that Alexander did not leave the rock bare for he built towers and forts on it (page 275, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Vol 1). 

Steven Carr has pointed out this lie that the Christians like McDowell tell, which is that Alexander fulfilled the prophecy about the debris of the city part built on the rock being thrown into the sea when he made a causeway of the debris.  The prophecy says the garbage thrown into the sea will be made of the walls of the city meaning the metropolis on the rock for it will be made bare after this operation but Alexander used the debris of the mainland city.  Obviously he had to for it was easier to transport and move.  The mainland is where he would have to work from.  Contrary to the prophecy that Tyre would never be rebuilt, Tyre was rebuilt.  McDowell answers that this does not refute the prophecy because it was built down the coast inferring it was too far away from the original site that Ezekiel was thinking of.  But it’s only 200 yards down the coast! (Critique of Josh McDowell’s Non-Messianic Prophecies).

Steven Carr informs us that the modern town there of 15,000 people at most shows Ezekiel was wrong to say Tyre would be lost forever.  He is right that the town shows that Ezekiel was wrong to predict that Tyre would not be rebuilt.  I would add that that amount of people would mean that Tyre is now better than ever for it would have had less people in it than that in Ezekiel’s day.  What are towns nowadays were cities then.

The Evidence argues that the prophecy that Tyre will be sought but never be found again (v21) really means that Tyre will never again be restored to its former glory, the old Tyre is lost forever (page 279).  I wonder.  It is argued that the location of the city could not be lost as it was by the sea in a popular spot so the prophecy did not mean that it would be lost forever or anything like that.  But it probably did mean just that when it said about the bare rock and the remains of the city being lost in the sea.  When a person says a city is lost they will mean that its location cannot be found.  The Christian interpretation is not straightforward and cannot be correct.  Also, who would want to seek to rebuild Tyre when a lump of it was way out to sea?  It would have been too expensive.  So the prophecy means look for by seek not seek to restore.  They are twisting the prophecy to make it fit what happened after it was made.

Tyre was a city that was on the rock and on the mainland.  The mainland part was only a suburb while the city itself was on the rock and was untouched so Ezekiel was indeed a false prophet for predicting that Neb would get the whole city.  The fact that verse 8 says that Neb will slay the daughters of Tyre on the mainland does not refute this.  People think that it does for it is saying what will happen on the mainland part of the city and does not say it has only the mainland part in mind.

The Christians will not tell you that Nebuchadnezzar was predicted to trample the streets of Tyre (26:11) meaning the city and since the city was on the rock Ezekiel got it all wrong.  Several years later Ezekiel makes God say that Neb will have to attack Egypt for the crusade against Tyre failed for it was impregnable even after several years of siege (29:18 – read page 204-5, Theodore Parker’s Discourses).  It also proves that Ezekiel was not predicting before the event except where he was guessing.  At least he admitted his prophecy about the city was wrong.  Neb never even captured the part of Tyre on the rock though the prophecy says he will tumble its mighty pillars.  However, he did capture the part on the coast.  Carr noted how McDowell pretended that the destruction of the mainland city is being described as what Neb will do because the part of Tyre on the mainland for the part on the rock thrived for many centuries after Ezekiel had turned to dust.  So he pretends that Alexander would come many years after Neb to fulfil the rest of the prediction. 

The fact that only part of the city was destroyed by Neb makes the prophecy a failure for Ezekiel was only guessing for all cities then had parts destroyed at some stage. 

Dishonestly, the Christians say that the destruction of the rebuilt Tyre by the Moslems in 1291 AD fulfils the prophecy that says it will be destroyed forever.  But verses 11-15 give the impression that Nebuchadnezzar will do this.  Christians argue that the they in verse 12 refers to Alexander and Co but that flouts the rules of grammar completely.  When we are not told who they is they has to be the gang led by Neb mentioned in the previous verse.  This tells us that the prophecy failed.  Christians are interpreting the prophecy by the future and that is not on for they are forcing it to fit what happened.  In the bit that is supposedly about Alexander and his attack on the city we read that God says the lyre will never be heard there again or their songs.  And then we read that Tyre will be a naked lump of rock.  The order is very important.  This tells us that the site will be desolate forever from the time Nebuchadnezzar will attack it.  But Tyre was rebuilt though it was somewhat less powerful and wealthy after the destruction by Alexander (page 276).  What we are not told by McDowell is that the city did become great in material goods and leadership after that conflagration (Prophecies: Imaginary and Unfulfilled).  So even if you do pretend that it said that Alexander would bare the rock the prophecy was certainly wrong to say the city would be lost forever and never be found.

Ezekiel 12:21-28 presents God as saying that anything Ezekiel predicts in the name of the Lord God will be rapidly fulfilled and the delays in fulfilment are over.  Hardly anything this prophet predicted came true that fast and most of his prophecies have not come true yet.  So Ezekiel is shown to be false prophet.  The revelation in 12 proves that the Christians have no business pretending that the prophecy about Tyre being attacked by Nebuchadnezzar implicitly refers to the later attack by Alexander as well which they only support because the old Neb never did half of what the prophecy said he would do leaving the rest of it for Alexander the Great.  Isaiah 17:1 which predicts the everlasting destruction of Damascus and the Nile drying up in Isaiah 19:5 have not happened yet so it is certain that because of that Isaiah can by no means be considered to be a true prophet.  If the world goes on long enough Damascus will be destroyed and the Nile will dry up one day.  False prophets will find it easy to make prophecies that will come true if the events they refer to could be thousands of years ahead.  We can take it then that Isaiah meant for Damascus and the Nile to meet their end long before now which would indicate he was a false prophet.

Ezekiel was not a convincing prophet and yet his prophecy is touted by Christians as conclusive and one of the best proofs that God speaks and knows the future.

BOOKS CONSULTED

Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible, John W Haley, Whitaker House, Pennsylvania, undated

Are There Hidden Codes in the Bible?  Ralph O Muncaster, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 2000

Attack on the Bible, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1965

Bible Dictionary and Concordance, New American Bible, Catholic Edition, CD Stampley Enterprises, Charlotte Enterprises, Inc, North Carolina, 1971 

Encyclopaedia of Bible Difficulties, Gleason W Archer, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1982

Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Vol 1, Alpha, Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks, 1995

God’s Word, Final, Infallible and Forever, Floydd C McElveen, Gospel Truth Ministries, Grand Rapids, 1985

In Search of Certainty, John Guest, Regal Books, Ventura, California, 1983

It Ain’t Necessarily So, Investigating the Truth of the Biblical Past, Matthew Sturgis, Headline Books, London, 2001

Jesus Hypotheses, V Messori, St Paul Publications, Slough, 1977

Science and the Bible, Henry Morris, Moody Press, Bucks, 1988

Science Speaks, Peter W Stoner, Robert C Newman, Moody Press, Chicago, 1976

The Bible Code, Michael Drosnin, Orion, London, 2000

The Case for Jesus the Messiah, John Ankerberg Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1989

The Hard Sayings of Jesus, FF Bruce, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1983

The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsay, Lakeland, London, 1974

The Signature of God, Grant R Jeffrey, Marshall Pickering, London, 1998

The Truth Behind the Bible Code, Dr Jeffrey Satinover, Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1997

The Truth of Christianity, WH Turton, Wells Gardner, Darton & Co Ltd, London, 1905

The Unauthorised Version, Robin Lane Fox, Penguin, Middlesex, 1992

The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, Raymond E Brown, Paulist Press, New York, 1973 

Theodore Parker’s Discourses, Theodore Parker, Longmans, Green, Rader and Dyer, London, 1876

Whatever Happened to Heaven, Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1988

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THE WEB

www.awitness.org/essays/levjer.html, A Levite Scribe Pretends to be Jeremiah

www.geocities.com/Nashville/Opry/2092/False.html, Was Jesus Christ a False Prophet?

www.awitness.org/lostmess/fprophet.html, False Prophecy in the Prophets of the Bible

www.hotcc.com/users/shagbark/daniel.html, Kyle Williams, Daniel is False Prophecy

http://cs.anu.edu.au./~bdm/dilugim/secrets.html, Secrets of the Bible Code Invented, Brendan McKay

www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/indef/4d.html, When is a Prophecy Miraculous? Richard Carrier

www.mindspring.com/~bab5/BIB/lessons.htm What the Heck is a Jesus Code?  This tells us that the Bible Code has a lot of phrases of Satan, His Name is Jesus all through Isaiah 53.

www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1995/3/3proph95.html

All Prophets Were False! Stephen Van Eck

www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/prophecy.html  

False Prophecies, Broken Promises, and Misquotes in the Bible

www.infidels.org/library/modern/steven_carr/non-messianic.html, Steven Carr, Critique of Josh McDowells Non-Messianic Prophecies This Site cannot be overly recommended.  It is superb.

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