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Originally posted by nightcrawler Interesting. I appreciate all of your comments, but no one seemed to attempt explaining the fact that the Bible saw the forthcoming of Alexander the Great, and the fact that the Earth was said to be a "circle" in the Bible long before man knew it was round. So now I will get more detailed.
I'm still waiting to hear your Alexander explanation...
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Isaiah 40:22
"There is One who is dwelling above the CIRCLE of the earth"
In ancient times the g eneral opinion was that the earth was flat. It was not until over 200 years after this Bible text had been written that a school of Greek philosophers reasoned that the earth likely was sperical, and in about another 300 years a Greek astronomer calculated the approximat radius of the earth. But the ideea of a sperical earth was not the general view even then.
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This is a case of you reading what you want from a text. It does not say "sphereical" it says a "circle", a circle being a flat, two dimensional shape.
EVERYONE in ancient times thought the World was a circle. The Horizon is shaped like a circle, after all, as is the Sun and the Moon, and a circle is the perfect shape. So saying the World is a circle wasn't revolutionary.
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Luke 21:10
"Then he went on to say to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, 11. and there will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another pestilences and food shortages, and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs."
War has marred life on the earth for thousands of years. International wars and wars within the nations have been fought. But beginning in 1914 the first WORLD war was fought. This was not merely a conflict between two armies on the battlefield. For the first time, all the major powers were at war. Entire nations-including civilian populations-were mobilized to support the war effort. As foretold at Revelation 6:4, "peace was taken away from the earth." Thus the world has continued to be in a state of upheaval ever since 1914. World war II was fought from 1939 to 1945. According to retired Admiral Gene La Rocque, as of 1982 there had been another 270 wars since 1945. Is more required in order to fulfill this aspect of the prophecy?
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Wow, war...that's really a new and unexpected condition to human life. Because there were never any wars in Mesopotamia, Greece, Persia and Egypt. There have been lots of wars, actually, involving every Major Power on Earth, it's just WWI was the first time that that happened when there were major powers on multiple continents. The Punic Wars could be interpreted as a World War since all the major powers of the World were involved at the time.
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"There will be food shortages...in one place after another."
There have been many famines in human history. To what extent has the 20th century been afflicted b y them? World war led to widespread starvation in Europe and Asia. Africa has been stricken by drought, resulting in extensive food shortages. Late in 1980 the Food and Agriculture Organization estimeated that 450 million people were hungry to the point of starvation.
Is anything different about these food shortages?
The problem is no longer local, but global.
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Again, this is a case of something that's been a constant in the human condition for countless centuries. Hunger isn't new. If anything, it's far less at this point in time than any other in history. Next...
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Luke 21:11
"There will be GREAT earthquakes"
It is true there have been major quakes in centuries past. It was calculated though that there had been 856 of such earthquakes during during the 2,000 years before 1914. The same tabulation showed that in just 69 years following 1914 there were 605 earthquakes. That means that, in comparison with the previous 2,000 years the average per year has been 20 times as great since 1914
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Prior to the 20th century, the only earthquakes that were detected and recorded were ones that caused massive damage. Since then, we've recorded ones that ants wouldn't feel. Is this sinking in?
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Luke 21:11
"In one place after another pestilences"
At the close of the first world war the Spanish flu swept around the globe, claiming upwards of 20 million lives at a rate unparalleled in the history of disease. Despite advances in medical science, a heavy toll is exacted every year by cancer, heart disease, numerous sexually transmitted diseases, multiple sclerosis, malaria, river blindness, and Chagas disease.
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"In a rate unparalleled in the history of disease"??! What the Hell are you smoking and where can I get some? Ever heard of the Black Plague, y'know, the one that killed
one third of the European population??! Not to mention the dozens of recorded plagues in ancient China, Egypt, and India that claimed upwards of a quarter of their population? There have been diseases in specific countries that claimed more than 20 million lives, kid, much less across the entire globe. There have been more diseases cured in the past century than the millenium prior to it.
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There now you cannot say that the prophecy does not depict a specific civilization.
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I can say that with great ease and confidence, thank you.
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These things are world wide. Continue with your arguments.
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I'm done with this, thank you. I'm beginning to understand how the Psychic Friends Network thrives...