Jesus's Prophecy Of His Gospel

BTW, Holmes, I'd tend to agree with your added criteria for bonafide prophets/prophesy.

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esus's prophesies of several of the events in his Olivet Discourse were good examples such as the Gentiles occupying Jerusalem and then being booted in the end times

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And someone present in China after the Mongolians were booted out of ancient China (the nation you randomly chose) could have made this exact same claim. Virtually every ancient society has had this happen. If a prophecy applies to everywhere, it is worthless.------------------
"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."

I should have been more clear, I meant a general restatement of that requirement. A couple of the terms were somewhat vague that I wasn't sure if I actually agreed or not, let me rephrase it and see if this is what you were getting at...The prophecy should NOT involve common or naturally occuring events people are likely to see, so that their observation would indicative that something out of the ordinary has occured, and further that the prophet was unlikely to have known or guessed that it would happen in advance.I understand your limitation that "out of the ordinary" means "improbable" and not "impossible".Does this capture what you were after?------------------
holmes

I'm glad to hear this, but then I submit to you that the prophecies so far given have failed based on criteria 1 (my more generalized definition), 2, 5, and 6.The prophecy of his gospel being taught across the inhabited world is neither uncommon, nor (and this is more important) coherent and constrained. Even with the "generation" issue removed, this particular prophecy occured hundreds of years ago, unless "across the inhabited world" is an incoherent characteristic. If its occuring hundreds of years ago is still allowed as point of prophecy for events today, then its temporal contraint is too "loose".I realize this is not the "Israel prophecy" thread, but I might as well address the prophetical constraints here. The fall of Jerusalem was certainly not an uncommon "vision", and the idea that its inhabitants would make a come back at some point was not really bizarre. I'll admit it was optimistic, but hardly improbable. I would have agreed its prediction would have been amazing if it occured in short order (within a "generation") as such comebacks in that time period were more uncommon.However the temporal constraint has opened to nearly two millenia. And what's worse, the fulfillment of the prophecy was so wholly common due to its being conducted by devotees of both Judeo and Xtian sects (only once they had become superpowers and the land desired a 3rd world nonnation) that it is purely self-fulfilling prophecy. It was desired to make the prophecy finally happen, and having it within their power to do so, they did so.I would like to see something with much greater coherence, temporal constraint, and of an uncommon nature (certainly not pure self-fulfillment).------------------
holmes

That it was fulfilled in conjunction with other end time prophecies given at the same time, such as the gospel being published among all nations after "wars and rumors of wars" and earthquakes and such in many places, etc would be remarkable indeed. The wording of the whole discourse indicates a far off future fulfillment and for the gentile nations to be ousted after all that time would be highly unlikely.

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The prophecy should NOT involve common or naturally occuring events people are likely to see, so that their observation would indicative that something out of the ordinary has occured, and further that the prophet was unlikely to have known or guessed that it would happen in advance.

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I understand your limitation that "out of the ordinary" means "improbable" and not "impossible".

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Does this capture what you were after?

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It does not matter if all of the prophecies were given at the same time. A temporal constraint is on the fulfillment of the prophecies. It could certainly take place "years from now", but the spacing should not be centuries apart or as I have stated, the prophecy is meaningless.And let me just say this, if I predicate fulfillment of prophecy on wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes in many places, that would be just about every 10-20 years. All of these are so common as to be meaningless. You might as well say "after it rains." Well someone has already pointed out that gentile nations have not been ousted anywhere. But I have yet to see anything which suggests supernatural (uncommon) attributes, much less unlikely uncommon attributes. Everything gets less unlikely when the prophecy stands openended for millenia.------------------
holmes