Human finger-prints and Biblical prophesy (part 1)

 I’ve heard it said that there are 1,800 fulfilled prophecies in the Bible. This, supposedly, points to the full divinity of the Bible. 

Such claims generally make my eyes roll. They generally fake ambiguous statements in the Bible, find something in history, and in retrospect claim that the ambitious statement was actually a prediction. Or, there might be a partially correct prophecy.

This post is about the latter involving several a famous partially correct prophecy.

Now, a partially correct prophecy is still a very big deal. That’s impressive. That gives weight to the divine inspiration behind the message. However, it also reveals the human fingerprint at play.

“Not one stone on another” 

From Mark 13:1-2, we read the following “As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!””Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

This is usually understood as a prediction of the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. This occurred several decades later in 70 A.D. The temple itself was completely destroyed. However, a portion of a retaining wall on the temple mount remains today, and goes by the name Western Wall. 

So, this prediction by Jesus is pretty accurate if we strictly narrow it to “buildings” and not expand that to mean anything with stones. An expansive interpretation is suggested by Jesus saying “not one stone here will be left on another.”

But here is the plainly inaccurate part. Jesus also predicts that the destruction of Jerusalem will coincide with a greater world changing apocalypse. This will all happen during “this generation” as stated in verse 30, “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”

So, what are the things that we’re supposed to have happened during “this generation?” The list is long, but I’ll focus on the things that did not happen before A.D. 70:

Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. (V. 6)

And the gospel must first be preached to all nations (V. 10)

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (V. 22)

But in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkene and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky   and the heavenly bodies will be shaken (v. 24-25), (note, this appears to be a quote from Isaiah 13:10’

At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. (V. 26)

And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heaven (v. 27)

These events did not occur before the passing of “this generation.”

So, either Jesus got it wrong or the Gospel of Mark recorded Jesus’ words wrong. 

Now, people trying to save Biblical inerrancy try to separate the predictions in the passage into two. This is the destruction of Jerusalem and the End Times. The former occured before the passing of “this generation”, while the latter did not.

The problem with that is that the passage does not separate these into two separate predixctions. Instead, they are complelty intertwined and V. 30 has a clear declaration from Jesus that all these things must occur before “this generation” passes.