THE UNFORESEEN FRAUD, JESUS FRAUDULENTLY PRETENDED TO FULFIL OLD TESTAMENT PREDICTIONS

Christians claim that God can see what is going to happen in the future. He is a celestial fortune-teller. They also claim that in order that we might be able to show that Jesus was his Messiah, Prophet and Son that God foretold things about him in the Old Testament. For that argument to deserve any consideration, it is necessary for Jesus to fulfil the prophecies in a way that cannot be humanly explained. The trouble is that not one prophecy from Jesus can be proven to have been written down before the event. That in itself is enough to justify dismissing the whole thing as an imposture. The gospellers are liars that is for sure.

Jesus told Peter to open the fish's mouth to get the coin. Fish can have anything in their mouths so this is read as Jesus accurately predicting that Peter would get the coin this way not that Jesus magically put it there. Why would Jesus magically put it in the fishes mouth instead of Peter's wallet? The trouble is that it is writing a prediction down after the alleged event. That is cheating - loud and clear. If there was cheating going on with Jesus or by Jesus' gospellers then imagine what they would have got up to with older prophecies!
 
Nearly everything Jesus did reminds us of something in the Old Testament. It is as if the gospel writers mined those texts to invent stories. Mark is the first gospel. Eugene Boring reads the start of Mark as essentially saying, “The gospel of Jesus Christ, and the following narrative, are in accord with what God spoke through the prophet Isaiah.”

One is struck by the importance that the biblical Jesus attached to fulfilling what the prophets of the Old Testament allegedly foreseen about him (Matthew 5:17; Luke 24:27; Luke 24:44; Matthew 26:56; Luke 4:20,21; Acts 3:18; Luke 22:37; Acts 10:43; 1 Corinthians 15:3,4; Matthew 2:4-6; Acts 13:29; Acts 17:2,3). The biggest problem with this is that it is men writing about Jesus and not Jesus himself who make this claim. What is wrong with that is that the men were biased towards promoting Jesus and could have written his story to fit the Old Testament. It would be different if we could get Jewish or Roman records that could not have been falsified that backed up say the gospel assertion that Jesus disappeared from the tomb, a major alleged fulfilment of the prophecies. And if we could have a book written by Jesus himself that was provably not known until after the New Testament was written so that we could hear the man himself. If Jesus had been the Son of God, God would have left proof that Jesus did the things that the Old Testament allegedly predicted and it would be up to us to decide if he really fulfilled them or rigged events to fit them.

The other problem with this doctrine that Jesus was foreseen is that the Old Testament made predictions meant to serve as credentials for Jesus is that they were too easy to deliberately fulfil. They are not very specific which makes it easier again to fulfil them deliberately. Many Christians who believe in Jesus still admit that many of the prophecies about Jesus were not about him at all and some of them can be proved to have concerned somebody else (page 34, Jesus Hypotheses).

Many men could fulfil the prophets the way Jesus supposedly did. Any firstborn Jew from Bethlehem – not necessarily born there for the prophecy only says the Messiah will come from Bethlehem – could have claimed to be the Messiah spoken of by the prophet who said that he would be conceived of a virgin. He could say that he had the royal blood of David in his veins. And preach in Galilee awhile. And claim to be God and that the evil he did was for mysterious purposes so that he could allege that it was really good to get people to buy his pretensions to divinity. And claim to have sent a precursor and if that precursor does not seem to recognise him (as the Messiah like John did in his last days with regard to Jesus) he could say he sent him by means of a heavenly decree and he has betrayed him or he is being secretive about what he knows. Who was betrayed by his friends. And tell parables. And call himself a priest like Melchizidek. And do what he called miracles. And ride a donkey into Jerusalem. And be the stone rejected by the builders or leaders. And be spoken against by lying witnesses. And be slapped and mocked. And get beaten or hurt so that he is cut all over and get wounded hands and feet which he says were wounded to show the thugs thought he should not be working for God with his hands and his feet. He could pierce his own hands and feet to fulfil the prophecy. He could arrange for a gang to cast lots for his clothes. He could be allegedly stabbed. The person could have got someone to pretend to stab him, the fake superficial wound having been marked on before the hoax. He could claim that when he dies in his bed or wherever it will be for the sins of others. He could arrange that he would be buried in a rich man’s tomb. If he had been dumped in a common grave he could have been removed later. Who predicted that he will be raised from the dead but not say when just like the scriptures don’t. It is easy enough to get a conspiracy of deceit up to get these things done. And he could ascend into Heaven spiritually after his death. There will always be somebody to have dreams or visions to conform that he is there. The fact that some if not all the corresponding prophecies were not real prophecies makes it easier to fraud. The less a man fulfils the better when most are not prophecies. If Jesus hadn't fulfilled all the alleged prophecies that would make no difference to the Church. It simply ignores any prophecy or anything that resembles a prophecy that doesn't fit. This method makes it so much easier for somebody to match Jesus in seeming to fulfil the seeming prophecies.

Even Psalm 22 which is supposed to refer to the crucifixion could be fulfilled easily by arranging to be beaten up and having your hands and feet pierced. It is even easier again when the real translation is “like the lion my hands and my feet” which would seam to mean anything.  That could mean injuries from fighting like a lion.  That is what I think it means.  So it rules Jesus out.

When a man claims that such easy deeds prove that he is from God that man is a fraud.

Anybody who tried to fulfil the prophecies but failed could say he will have another life in which the rest will come to pass. The texts that are taken to mean that the Messiah will be resurrected from the dead might as well be interpreted as promises of a reincarnation. Or a recovery from temporary death which lasts a few seconds or near-death. Jesus has not brought the kingdom of light and happiness to earth yet and there are more prophecies about that than there are alleged or real prophecies about the Messiah.

If one reads the prophecies it will be seen that they never say the public will be able to prove the things they say will happen happened. How do you prove a virgin conception for example?

There was no miracle in Jesus fulfilling the predictions. His keenness to argue that they proved he was who he said he was only proves that he was a man of lying lips. Anybody today who manages to fit the requirements of the oracles would have more right to be adored as God or the Son of God than Jesus for we can know them better. We would be sure they existed too!

The Seventy Weeks Prophecy was interpreted as messianic by the Jews who believed that the Messiah was around at the time of Christ but was anonymous. This prophecy from the Book of Daniel allegedly stated what time the Messiah would be on earth.

When a prophecy can be fulfilled by anybody it is not a prophecy at all. It cannot be taken seriously as a forecast or a proof for anything. This means we can eliminate the notion of supernatural fulfilment of prophecy by Jesus.

Christians take many bits of the Prophets and Psalms as predictions of Christ though one has only to read them in full to see that they are not even presented as predictions. There is nothing easier than fulfilling prophecies that are not prophecies and anyone could do it. It is unfair to take the line, “I will speak in parables”, as predicting that Jesus would do this and then take the vindictive bits that crave revenge on enemies as the sentiments of the author and not as predictions of Jesus. For instance, “Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity” (Psalm 51:2) is not taken to be a forecast about the sins of the Christ though if the parables line should be, so should it.
 
Luke's claim that Jesus took a scroll in the synagogue and read a piece of text is lies because Jesus could not move all around the scroll to do the reading for it was actually not a reading but selections from texts that were quite far apart in the scriptures which would have been in a very clumsy scroll form. The reading is a mix of Isaiah 61:1,2 and 58:6.

The Gospellers gave body to Jesus’ life-story using the Old Testament plots. This made it extra easy for them to say Jesus fulfilled this prophecy and that one.

A man who claims to be God’s final revelation and his Son and declares prophecies that do not exist to be his credentials is certainly a fake.

Jesus made too many mistakes to be really God or his promised prophet and this was one major one. According to the Bible a man who tells lies about God’s message is not his prophet (Deuteronomy 18). This means the promises of the Old Testament were not promises to send Jesus no matter how closely he fits the bill. For example, in the name of God, Jesus preached that one sincere prayer was as good as several and that all prayers were to be made in a spirit of submission to the will of God and accepting his right to do what he wanted and later he told the apostles to pray for this and that so one prayer was not enough.
 
The only proof that one needs that Jesus did not fulfil the Old Testament is this. In Luke 24 Jesus did not say “I am the Son of God and his prophet because I have risen from the dead and been seen”, but said that he was to rise for the prophets said it and the prophets’ words verified the resurrection. Therefore whatever Jesus would say about the meaning of the resurrection would be true just because he rose as the prophets said and not just because he rose. The function of the witnesses is to say that the prophets have been fulfilled with regard to the resurrection more than to say that the resurrection happened but they were only allowed to believe in the resurrection because they saw it predicted (Luke 24:45-48). In the Dives and Lazarus parable Jesus teaches that even a resurrection will not convince those who will not listen to the prophets and the Law of Moses. This puts his own resurrection below the writings of the biblical prophets in importance. If the prophets did not prophesy a resurrection then it never happened. The Old Testament prophecies of the resurrection are ambiguous at best and are too scarce of detail to give us confidence in Christ. Jesus stressed prophecy as his credential and said that his resurrection would only be a credential for him if it were prophesied. But his prophecies of the resurrection could have been written after the event. Even if Jesus fitted all the other prophecies the fact that the major one was not there and he thought it was, would prove that he was not the subject of the prophecies at all. Only a false prophet makes mistakes like that for there is no point in making prophecies if the subject of the prophecies who has to show that they are fulfilled misinterprets for he would only be the subject if he were a prophet himself and able to see what the prophets meant.

The Catholic book, The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus confesses that Jesus was not foreseen by the Old Testament and gives Isaiah’s prophecy about the young woman giving birth to a son called Emmanuel as an example of something that was supposed to predict Jesus and does not (page 15-16). The Bible never predicted the virgin birth of Jesus.

To become a Jesus is easy. All you need to do is put your best foot forward in public and pretend to be deaf or something so that if you sin you can blame your disability and say it was not a sin but a mistake. You can say that if people pray to God in your name they will be cured and inevitably there will be some who will say this worked. You can fake your death. The only thing missing is prophetic evidence. You need proof that you were predicted by God years before. To do this you need witnesses who will lie and testify to a man who has golden plates or something that he has miraculously translated or transcribed that he is telling the truth and hey presto you are a real rival to Jesus. At least the evidence for your existence would be better than that for Jesus for you would have been on radio and CCTV cameras! This shows the utter worthlessness of the Christian evidence that Jesus should be our boss and Lord and should be submitted to.