Prophecy Writing Pro Tip#57: Don’t promise that a beautiful beach will never be inhabited by man again.
Tyre (Sur in Lebanese) is a very old inhabited city in the South of Lebanon. It has one of the most beautiful beaches in the world that is enjoyed both by tourists and its almost 175,000 residents, making it about the same size population-wise as Providence, RI. It’s a short drive away from Beirut and about 12 miles from Palestine.
Ezekiel 26 speaks of god’s utter destruction of Tyre. So complete is this destruction that god promises that Tyre will never again be inhabited. “And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock…I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD.”
Here’s what god’s destructive power and predictability look like today:
In the image above a man stands on a harbor in Tyre. In the background stand several Mediterranean style buildings of the modern era. Here’s another picture:
These images don’t look anything like what we’d expect to see on an uninhabited “bare rock.” Indeed, I know personally how beautiful Tyre is. Here’s a photo of me from a few years ago on the beach in Tyre:
In other words, god’s prophecy about Tyre is wrong. The city sure as hell rebuilt itself. In fact, it must have rebuilt itself by Jesus’ time; it’s mentioned in the New Testament when Jesus visited the city. See also Mark 7:24 and Acts 21:3.
I’ve read some rebuttals about the Ezekiel prophesy of Tyre. Actually, there’s really only two, and both are convoluted attempts to change the meanings of words such as “they.” No, it seems merely that the people who wrote the bible didn’t realize the power of a city with beaches that compel tourists to take their clothes off.
The Atheist Papers 
You mean like the ketchup?
“In fact, it must have rebuilt itself by Jesus’ time” Maybe his father forgot to tell him not to allow the city to stand. We Lebanese are used to this, we have built our cities more than 10 times already after god’s or followers of god’s destructive hands…
All I see here is that Ezekiel, sure wanted Tyre to be destroyed. Praying for destruction of the enemies is not uncommon in the Bible (http://www.o-bible.com/BiblicalInformation/PRAYER-AGAINST-THE-ENEMY.html). I find it curious that these passages are rarely preached in churches although I’ve heard a pastor mentioning some of these Psalms and chuckling about them. Christians know about this stuff, but, I guess, they tend to overlook such things in the Bible like a man who overlooks a loved one cursing him. After all, the Bible is a picture of our internal world with all the hate and weaknesses. It would be incomplete or false if such moments were absent there.
It was always a puzzle for me, how did those prophets know that their visions are from God? How did Abraham know that the command to kill his son was from God? How did Joshua know that the command to exterminate a few nations in Canaan was from God? I guess, the moral is don’t do such things unless you see the water of Jordan stopped to let you pass :-).
Pingback: 6 Things about Christians I learned by living in a Muslim country | The Atheist Papers
Pingback: 6 things about Christians I learned by living in a Muslim country
Pingback: The Prophesy of Tyre: New video! | The Atheist Papers
Apparently “god” didn’t foresee Google Earth.