How many bible prophecies have been fulfilled and how many have failed?

Eskil: How many bible prophecies have been fulfilled compared to have been failed?
Does the bible have more failed prophecies than fulfilled or is it the other way around? That is as of this moment. Any good numbers on this?
Yea but it doesn’t even predict our modern countries so how can you argue that none have failed?
The bible only talks about Israel so that’s why I’m stating it.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Gregory
there are no failed bible prophecies

there are fulfilled prophecies and those that have not been fulfilled yet

Answer by Biscuit, coming in hot
There are literally thousands of prophecies in the Bible, none of which have failed.

There are some that have not been fulfilled, but there is still time for them to be fulfilled. None has ever failed. And we have even seen some fulfilled in our lifetime: for example, Daniel chapter 4 prophesied the exact year for the beginning of World War I.

Answer by Hannah B.
Fulfilled prophecies:

2 Pet. 1:20, 21: “No prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.”

▪ Prophecy: Isa. 44:24, 27, 28; 45:1-4: “Jehovah . . . the One saying to the watery deep, ‘Be evaporated; and all your rivers I shall dry up’; the One saying of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and all that I delight in he will completely carry out’; even in my saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘You will have your foundation laid.’ This is what Jehovah has said to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue before him nations, so that I may ungird even the hips of kings; to open before him the two-leaved doors, so that even the gates will not be shut: ‘Before you I myself shall go, and the swells of land I shall straighten out. The copper doors I shall break in pieces, and the iron bars I shall cut down. . . . For the sake of my servant Jacob and of Israel my chosen one, I even proceeded to call you by your name.’” (Writing by Isaiah was completed by about 732 B.C.E.)

□ Fulfillment: Cyrus had not been born when the prophecy was written. The Jews were not taken into exile to Babylon until 617-607 B.C.E., and Jerusalem and its temple were not destroyed until 607 B.C.E. In detail the prophecy was fulfilled starting in 539 B.C.E. Cyrus diverted the waters of the Euphrates River into an artificial lake, the river gates of Babylon were carelessly left open during feasting in the city, and Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians under Cyrus. Thereafter, Cyrus liberated the Jewish exiles and sent them back to Jerusalem with instructions to rebuild Jehovah’s temple there.—The Encyclopedia Americana (1956), Vol. III, p. 9; Light From the Ancient Past (Princeton, 1959), Jack Finegan, pp. 227-229; “All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial” (New York, 1983), pp. 282, 284, 295.

▪ Prophecy: Jer. 49:17, 18: “‘Edom must become an object of astonishment. Everyone passing along by her will stare in astonishment and whistle on account of all her plagues. Just as in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and her neighbor towns,’ Jehovah has said, ‘no man will dwell there.’” (Jeremiah’s recording of prophecies was completed by 580 B.C.E.)

□ Fulfillment: “They [the Edomites] were driven from Palestine in the 2nd century B.C. by Judas Maccabæus, and in 109 B.C. John Hyrcanus, Maccabæan leader, extended the kingdom of Judah to include the w. part of Edomitic lands. In the 1st century B.C. Roman expansion swept away the last vestige of Edomitic independence . . . After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. . . . the name Idumæa [Edom] disappeared from history.” (The New Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, 1952, Vol. 11, p. 4114) Notice that the fulfillment extends down to our day. In no way can it be argued that this prophecy was written after the events had taken place.

▪ Prophecy: Luke 19:41-44; 21:20, 21: “He [Jesus Christ] viewed the city [Jerusalem] and wept over it, saying: . . . ‘The days will come upon you when your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side, and they will dash you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you, because you did not discern the time of your being inspected.’” Two days later, he counseled his disciples: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then know that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains, and let those in the midst of her withdraw.” (Prophecy spoken by Jesus Christ in 33 C.E.)

□ Fulfillment: Jerusalem revolted against Rome, and in 66 C.E. the Roman army under Cestius Gallus attacked the city. But, as Jewish historian Josephus reports, the Roman commander “suddenly called off his men, abandoned hope though he had suffered no reverse, and flying in the face of all reason retired from the City.” (Josephus, the Jewish War, Penguin Classics, 1969, p. 167) This provided opportunity for Christians to flee from the city, which they did, moving to Pella, beyond the Jordan, according to Eusebius Pamphilus in his Ecclesiastical History. (Translated by C. F. Crusé, London, 1894, p. 75) Then around Passover time of the year 70 C.E. General Titus besieged the city, an encircling fence 4.5 miles (7.2 km) long was erected in just three days, and after five months Jerusalem fell. “Jerusalem itself was systematically destroyed and the Temple left in ruins. Archaeological work shows us today just how effective was the destruction of Jewish buildings all over the land.”—The Bible and Archaeology (Grand Rapids, Mich.; 1962), J. A. Thompson, p. 299.

Answer by Sandra K
No prophecies of the Bible or Nostradamus have really been fulfilled, no not one. Believers try to make them seem to be fulfilled. Their method is like shooting an arrow and then painting a bullseye around it when it hits something. All have failed and none have been fulfilled is the truth of the matter.

Answer by Guillaume
Most people fail to understand that the bible (and the other “holy” books) were all written by ancesters of nowadays’s masters of the world. Bible is nothing but a Big Agenda, that those masters of the world follows since millenia. Those are not prophecies, it’s a program. Add some unbelievable bullshit in it, and you got an Holy Book. But you believers will never understand that.

Answer by Abdijah
There are only three catagories of Bible prophecies:

1. Those that have been fulfilled as foretold;
2. Those that are currently being fulfilled as foretold;
3. Those that will soon be fulfilled as foretold.

There is are no failed Bible prophecies.

And it does predict our modern countries, though not by name. (Revelation 17:10-12; compare Daniel 2:41 — 44)

Answer by Red Hen
What do you mean hasn’t predicted our modern countries?

Do you not see that Israel and the Middle East are at war?

Israel is the home of the Jews. The Jewish people trace their lineage back to Isaac in the ancient times. Israel became a nation after WWII. That was prophesied in the Old Testament.

The tribes of the Middle East, such as Syria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, etc… are descendents of Ishmael. He is the half brother of Isaac. Ishmael and his mother Hagar were banished to the desert by Abraham.

God took pity on Hagar and said Ishmael would be the father of many nations. And that he would always be at war with the children of Isaac.

Answer by Mystery Owl
The problem with prophecies is that, like any miraculous claim, they make all sorts of assumptions. To be really convincing, a prophecy needs to be written well before the event and for us to have evidence as such; it needs to be highly specific, written in a way that can’t be interpreted several different ways; and it needs to be predicting something that people with a vested interest in the prophecy coming true can’t fabricate.

Predictions about the Babylonian captivity in Isaiah are a good example of the first problem, because we simply have no idea when exactly it was written. The usual way to date ancient texts is to look for references to events which we do know happened, such as the Babylonian captivity. So does Isaiah talking about it prove that he was speaking after it happened, or does it prove that he had foreknowledge? It’s impossible to tell. But not being able to tell makes the prophecy untrustworthy.

Predictions about the end times in the Bible are a good example of the second problem, about specific information. “And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.” In virtually every period of time in the world’s history, people could reasonably believe they were sitting on the edge of history based on predictions like this. There is no supporting information about the nature of these wars- where they will be fought, by who, and so on. So they can be made to fit any given situation.

Predictions about Jesus’ ancestry in the Bible are a good example of the third problem, about the danger of getting your information from people who had a vested interest in it being true. The Jews believe that the messiah will be descended from King David. Obligingly, both the authors of Matthew and Luke have provided their own genealogies tracing Jesus’ family history. Where do they get their information from? They don’t say. A thousand years of information on this one family is an unlikely thing to have lying around. But both authors knew that in order for Jesus to be the messiah, he had to have this link to David. They also knew that no Jewish person would be convinced of their claims of Jesus being the messiah without it. Getting your information from a heavily biased source like the Bible is always a dangerous thing to do, because you have no idea how much of it is made up.

Individually or in combination, these three historical problems make it almost impossible for any reasonable person to believe in any given Biblical prophecy.