The Historical Errors Of The Bible - Ezekiel By Peter Murphy

Deut. 18: 21-22, "21 And you may say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the Lord God has not spoken?' 22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken ...."

Num. 23: 19, "19 God in not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent: has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will not make it good?"

I Sam. 15: 29, "29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind."

Many have heard these passages read in their churches, and have read it for themselves in the bible. This is the measure to use in measuring any statement, because it is apparent that God would not inspire a vain pronouncement. Unfortunately, there are such vain pronouncements and prophecies in the bible. We will look at the false pronouncements of the Book of Ezekiel. The pattern I will follow is to quote the verses in question, and provide an observation based on easily attainable historical information, and provide a conclusion based on the truth. I have no reason to lie about what follows, the bible itself proves its own unreliability. I have even incorporated several apologetics, and pointed out their mistakes; judge for yourself.

Ezekiel 26: 1-13, "Now it came about in the eleventh year ... that the word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 son of man, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem ... 3 therefore, thus says the Lord God, 'Behold I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up many nations against you, ... 4 and they will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers' ... 7 for thus says the Lord God, 'Behold I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings ... 9 and the blow of his battering rams he will direct against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. 10 ... when he enters your gates as men enter a city that is breached, 11 with the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets. He will slay your people with the sword; and your strong pillars will come down to the ground. 12 Also, they will make a spoil of your riches and a prey of your merchandise, break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses,  and throw your stones and your timbers and your debris into the water. 13 So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more. 14 ... for I the Lord have spoken,' declares the Lord God."

Apologetic: Several. The most bizarre is the appealing that the Persian Empire forced Tyre to submit.
Rebuttal: The prophecy had nothing to do with Persia, it was about Nebuchadnezzar, a specific Babylonian king. Persia would have yet to arise.
Observation: This passage clearly has God saying that Nebuchadnezzar would move against Tyre and successfully lay siege to the city and sack it so completely that it would be utterly destroyed; but that never happened, Tyre withstood Nebuchadnezzar siege for years, and in the end the Babylonian king withdrew. Check out an encyclopedia for more information on Nebuchadnezzar failure to sack Tyre. Even for those who refuse to look outside the bible for information on the ancient world, cannot change the FACT, that even the bible does not admit that the prophecy came true.
Conclusion: According to the measure of Moses, this is a false prophecy.

Eze. 29: 18, "18 Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare. But he and his army has no wages from Tyre for the labor that he had performed against it."

Apologetic: Few. The most common is that Nebuchadnezzar changed his mind, after Tyre submitted to him.
Rebuttal: The prophecy had stated that he would destroy Tyre, not come to an agreement with it. The prophecy has the population of Tyre destroyed in the streets by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, that never happened.
Observation: This is a direct contradiction of the previous passage. God supposedly prophesied all kinds of horrors for Tyre and its population at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, and now God cannot make it come to pass! This passage proves the prophecy of Ezekiel 26: 1-13 to be errant, and therefore the bible errant. This passage supports the information that can be found in any good encyclopedia.
Conclusion: According to the measure of Moses, the previous was a false prophesy.

Eze. 29: 1-19, "In the tenth year ... the word of the Lord came upon me saying, 2 'son of man, set your face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against Egypt ... 9 and the land of Egypt will become a desolation and waste.  Then they will know that I am the Lord ... 11  ... and it will not be inhabited for forty years. 12 So I shall make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of cities that are laid waste, will be desolate for forty years, and I shall scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands ... 15 It will be the lowest of the kingdoms; and it will never again lift itself up above the nations' ... 19 Therefore, thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I shall give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will carry off her wealth, and capture her spoil, and seize her plunder; and it will be wages for his army.'"

Apologetic: None offered to date.
Rebuttal:
Observation: This prophecy has several major problems: v. 9 is false, Egypt was never turned into a desolate waste: v. 12 is false, Egypt was not made desolate, and her people were never scattered among the nations; v. 15 is false, Egypt would know great power and wealth under the Ptolemies, and Egypt would be the grain basket for the ancient world, and its city of Alexandria was the greatest city in the Hellenistic world; v. 19 is simply untrue, Nebuchadnezzar never got into Egypt, never carried off her wealth, or her spoil, or plundered her to pay his army.  Read up on it is any encyclopedia. Even for those who refuse to look outside the bible for information on the ancient world, cannot change the FACT, that even the bible does not admit that the prophecy came true.
Conclusion: According to the measure of Moses, this is a false prophecy.

Eze. 30: 10-12, "10 Thus says the Lord God, 'I will also make the multitude of Egypt cease, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 11 He and his people with him, ... will draw their sword against Egypt and fill the land with the slain. 12 Moreover, I will make the land desolate, and all that is in it, by the hand of strangers; I the Lord have spoken.'"

Apologetics: Prove he did not destroy Egypt.
Rebuttal: There is no evidence that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Egypt, such a major event could not have been hidden from history. Read up on Egyptian history and check under the history of Egypt during the NeoBabylonian period. Even the bible does not admit to the fulfillment of this prophecy, and considering that the Greeks were trading in Egypt, they make no mention in any of their writings to such an event.
Observation: Nebuchadnezzar never butchered off the Egyptian population, he never managed to get into Egypt, his army was not strong enough for the task. Egypt was never made desolate. Read up on it in any encyclopedia. Even for those who refuse to look outside the bible for information on the ancient world, cannot change the FACT, that even the bible does not admit that the prophecy came true.
Conclusion: According to the measure of Moses, this is a false prophecy.

So who are you going to believe? Your preacher? Your bible? Moses? The facts? That I leave to you, it is sufficient that the bible was proved to be in error, that prophecies attributed to God, were false words put into His mouth. The bible itself fails to admit that any of the above actually came to pass, and in the case of Ezekiel chapters 26 and 29, a direct contradiction between prophecy and event is established. If these prophecies reflect the type of information prophets like Ezekiel preached, it is no wonder they ended up dead when the prophecy was shown to be false. According to Moses, false prophets were to be stoned, and if Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel preached errors like this, Moses himself would have stoned them as frauds.