[ol][*]
God says that if Adam eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then the day that he does so, he will die. But later Adam eats the forbidden fruit (
3:6) and yet lives for another 930 years (
5:5).
2:17[*]As a punishment for killing Abel, God says Cain will be "a fugitive and a vagabond." Yet in just a few verses (
4:16-17) Cain will settle down, marry, have a son, and build a city. This is not the activity one would expect from a fugitive and a vagabond.
4:12[*]God promises Abram and his descendants all of the land of Canaan. But both history and the bible (
Acts 7:5 and
Heb.11:13) show that God's promise to Abram was not fulfilled.
13:15,
15:18,
17:8,
28:13-14[*]How long was the Egyptian captivity? This verse says 400 years, but
Ex.12:40 and
Gal.3:17 say 430 years.
15:13[*]"In the fourth generation they [Abraham's descendants] shall come hither again." But, if we count Abraham, then their return occurred after seven generations: Abraham, Isaac (
Gen.21:1-3), Jacob (
Gen.25:19-26), Levi (
Gen.35:22-23), Kohath (
Ex.6:16), Amramn (
Ex.6:18), and Moses (
Ex.6:20).
15:16[*]God promises Abram's descendants the land of Canaan from the Nile to the Euphrates. But according to
Acts 7:5 and
Heb.11:13 God's promise to Abram was not fulfilled.
15:18[*]God promises to make Isaac's descendents as numerous as "the stars of heaven", which, of course, never happened. The Jews have always been, and will always be, a small minority.
26:4[*]God renames Jacob twice (
32:28,
35:10 ). God says that Jacob will henceforth be called Israel, but the Bible continues to call him Jacob anyway (
47:28-29). And even God himself calls him Jacob in
46:2.
32:28,
35:10[*]God calls Jacob Jacob, though he said in
Gen.32:28 and
35:10 that he would no longer be called Jacob but Israel.
46:2[*]The tribe of Judah will reign "until Shiloh," but Israel's first king (Saul) was from the tribe of Benjamin (
Acts 13:21), and most of the time after this prophecy there was no king at all.
49:10 God promises to bring Jacob safely back from Egypt, but Jacob dies in Egypt (
Gen.47:28-29)
46:3[*]Contrary to the prophecy in
48:21, Joseph died in Egypt, not Israel.
Gen.50:[*]
Exodus
[*]God promises to cast out many nations including the Canaanites and the Jebusites. But he was unable to fulfill his promise.
33:2
[*]In this verse God says he will write on the stone tablets, but in
34:27 he tells Moses to do the writing.
34:1
Numbers
[*]"If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will ... speak unto him in a dream." Now
there's a reliable way to communicate with someone!
12:6
Deuteronomy
[*]God promises to cast out seven nations including the Amorites, Canaanites, and the Jebusites. But he was unable to fulfill his promise.
7:1
[*]God says that the Israelites will destroy all of the peoples they encounter. But according to Joshua (
15:63,
16:10,
17:12-13) and Judges (
1:21,
27-36,
3:1-5) there were some people they just couldn't kill.
7:24
[*]Those who do as God says will never be infertile (neither will their cows!) and will never get sick.
7:14-15
[*]Prophets and dreamers are to be executed if they say or dream the wrong things.
13:1-5
[*]False prophets are to be (you guessed it) executed. How do you know who is a false prophet? By whether or not their predictions come true. (Watch out Jehovah's Witnesses!)
18:20
[*]
Misquoted in
Rom.10:8.
30:14
[*]God promises to "destroy these nations before thee." That he didn't keep his promise see
Jos.15:63,
16:10,
Jg.1:21,
1:27-36, and
3:1-5.
31:3-6
Joshua
[*]God promises to give Joshua all of the land that his "foot shall tread upon." He says that none of the people he encounters will be able to resist him. But later we find that God didn't keep his promise, and that many tribes withstood Joshua's attempt to steal their land.
1:3-5
[*]Joshua tells the Israelites that God will "without fail" drive out the Canaanites and the Jebusites. But later, the Bible tells us that he could not drive them out.
3:10
[*]This verse says that Ai was never again occupied after it was destroyed by Joshua. But Nehemiah (
7:32) lists it among the cities of Israel at the time of the Babylonian captivity.
8:28
[*]God promised the Israelites that he would drive out all the inhabitants of the lands they pass through. But this verse shows that he didn't keep his promise since he couldn't drive out the Jebusites.
15:63
[*]"And they drave not out the Canaanites." Once again God fails keep his promise to destroy all the people the Israelites encounter.
16:10
[*]The Israelites, contrary to God's promises to them, could not drive out the Canaanites.
17:12-13
[*]Joshua tells Manasseh that he will be able to drive out the Canaanites, but it turns out (see Jg.1:27-28) that he couldn't do it.
17:17-18
[*]According to these verses, God fulfilled his promise to give the Israelites all of the lands that they encountered. But in several places the Bible tells us that these promises were not kept.
21:43-45
Judges
[*]God promised many times that he would drive out all the inhabitants of the lands they encountered. But these verses show that God failed to keep his promise since he was unable to drive out the Canaanites.
1:21,
27-30
[*]God promised many times that he would drive out all the inhabitants of the lands they encountered. But these verses show that God failed to keep his promise since he was unable to drive out the Canaanites.
3:1-5
2 Samuel
[*]God says that Solomon's kingdom will last forever. It didn't of course. It was entirely destroyed about 400 years after Solomon's death, never to be rebuilt.
7:13, 16
1 Kings
[*]God puts a "lying spirit" in the mouth of his prophets.
22:22
2 Kings
[*]God promises Josiah that he will have a peaceful death. But Josiah's death was anything but peaceful. (
2 Kg.23:29-30,
2 Chr.35:23-24)
22:20
[*]In Jeremiah (
34:4) God tells Zedekiah that he will die in peace and be buried with his fathers. But this verse and
Jer.52:10-11 say that he died a violent death in a foreign land.
25:7
2 Chronicles
[*]That Solomon was the wisest and richest king to ever live is undoubtedly an exaggeration. Therefore it is also a false prophecy.
1:12
[*]God puts lies into the mouths of his prophets and speaks evil about people.
18:21-22
[*]Josiah died from an arrow wound in battle, not "in peace" as is promised in
2 Kg.22:20.
35:23
Psalms
[*]
Misquoted in
Heb.10:5-6.
40:6
[*]Misquoted in
Eph.4:8, which says: "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."
Paul changed the words and meaning of the psalm from "received gifts" to "gave gifts".
68:18
[*]
Misquoted in
Mt.13:35.
78:2-3
[*]"I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations." But the Davidic line of Kings ended with Zedekiah; there were none during the Babylonian captivity, and there are none today.
89:3-4, 34-37
Isaiah
[*]God told Isaiah to tell Ahaz, the King of Judah, not to be concerned about Rezin (the king of Syria) or Pekah (the king of Israel). But according to
2 Chr.28:5-6 "God delivered him [Ahaz] into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter."
7:3-7
[*]The King James Version mistranslates the Hebrew word "almah", which means "young woman" as "virgin". (The Hebrew word, "bethulah", means "virgin".) In addition, the young woman referred to in this verse was living at the time of the prophecy. And Jesus, of course, was called Jesus -- and is not called Emmanuel in any verse in the New Testament.
7:14
[*]These verses falsely predict that Babylon will never again be inhabited.
13:19-20
[*]Dragons will live in Babylonian palaces and satyrs will dance there.
13:21-22
[*]This verse prophesies that Damascus will be completely destroyed and no longer be inhabited. Yet Damascus has never been completely destroyed and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities.
17:1
[*]The river of Egypt (identified as the Nile in RSV) shall dry up. This has never occurred.
19:5
[*]"The land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt." Judah never invaded Egypt and was never a military threat to Egypt.
19:17
[*]This verse predicts that there shall be five cities in Egypt that speak the Canaanite language. But that language was never spoken in Egypt, and it is extinct now.
19:18
[*]These verses predict that the Egyptians will worship the Lord (Yahweh) with sacrifices and offerings. But Judaism has never been an important religion in Egypt.
19:18-21
[*]These verses predict that there will be an alliance between Egypt, Israel, and Assyria. But there has never been any such alliance, and it's unlikely that it ever will since Assyria no longer exists.
19:23-24
[*]"The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink." You can't even trust a drunken prophet anymore.
28:7
[*]
Misquoted in
Rom.9:33.
28:16
[*]"The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold." Well, this is one prophecy that will never come true. Since the moon has no light of its own, but only reflects that of the sun, it could never shine like the sun. And the sun will not, at least not while there are humans to see it, shine 7 times as bright as it does now.
30:26
[*]"Henceforth there shall no more come into thee [Jerusalem] the uncircumcised and the unclean." But many uncircumcised people have visited and occupied Jerusalem after this prophecy was made.
52:1
[*]Nations that do not serve Israel will perish.
60:12 [/ol]
False Prophecies, Broken Promises, and Misquotes in the Bible
