Drum's list of prophecies :)

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Isaiah 27:6
Isaiah said Israel's fruit would fill the world
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What percentage of the world populatin do you think Jews account for? I found an estimate at 13 million. That works out to somewhere between .00216 and .0026 of the global population. Do you truly consider this to be "filling the world?" Come on, think about this stuff.

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Well, as Max Dimont puts it
"If a man views Jewish achievement through materialistic eyes, seeing only insignificant minority in possession of a little land and a few battalions, this will seem improbable. It will not seem improbable if man discards the blinkers of prejudice and views the world not as a "thing" but as an "idea". Then he may see that two thirds of the civilized world is already governed by the ideas of Jews. The ideas of Moses, Jesus, Paul, Spinoza, Marx, Freud, Einstein".(to name a few!)Isaiah says that the "friut" will fill the world, not Jews. So what if the whole world is filled with the "fruit" of Jews? As Isaiah puts it "Peace, Peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near"

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Clearly fruit is metaphor for progeny and certainly the ancient Israelites would have interpreted it that way

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Are you aware that with that statement you just prove me right? Open Dictionary (or just go to http://www.dictionary.com) and look up word Progeny, you'll see the following:1. One born of, begotten by, or derived from another; an offspring or a descendant. Offspring or descendants considered as a group.2. A result of creative effort; a product.What is a result of creative effort? Might it be an idea or thought? A product of a nation might indeed be it's descendants, however it's not limited to that. Do Nations produce ideas, belife structures, moral codecs, etc.? I certainly think so.

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I don't think they interpreted this passage that way

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To say more, it really doesn't matter how ancient Isreailites, or early Christians, or Mideval Knights interpreted this passage. The fact is that Jewish creative process lead to many ideas in different fields of knowledge. This ideas play huge role in western civilization at this time, be it religious or scientific. Isaiah wrote what he proficised, only he knows for sure what it all means. Ancient Israelites and everybody else including us, few thousand years latter can only interpret. Nothing is certain here!And again, if you take materialistic aproach, you interpret the profecy as decendants, if you disregard materialism, you might open your mind to other possibilities....[This message has been edited by TheOne, 04-14-2003]

John,I was not instrucing anybody to do anything, I was just suggesting to check out a pretty cool thing. However, you are right, lets pick up the Good Book and see what we can dig up in there...I the book of Proverbs (2800 years ago) King Solomon wrote:
"A word well spoken is like apples of gold in bowls of silver" (Prov. 15:11)
Maimonides (a gread Torah scholar, sort of like an Einshtein of theology) explains this passage like this:
Seen from a distance, only the silver bowl and its beauty are noticed. Whith closer inspection the more valuable apples of gold are discovered within. What is the bowl of silver about which Prov. speaks? It is the literal text of the Bible. Even with a superficial reading, seen from a distance, as it were, it is beautiful. But only close inspection, deep study of the text, reveals the golden apples, the subtleties, held within. As gold is more valuable, so these subtleties, the quite truths, expand the meaning far beyond a litteral reading.Since the profecy was written 300 years after Proverbs could it be that Isaiah wrote down his vision in the style of the Bible according to Prov.? trying to conseal the true insight in litteral meaning?But once again you are right. We can debate for eternity and not know for sure. It's all a matter of your belief.

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When the e best one can do is conclude that 'maybe or maybe not' it is best not to hold that example as evidence of a fulfilled prophecy, yes?

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Yes, without a doubt.
But evidence is a subjective thing here. In this case, evidence is based on one's perception of the world and interpretation of the Bible which can't be the same across the board. So what's solid evidence for me, is jibberish to you and both of us are right at the same time... go figure...As I said before, it depends on your belief.

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Btw, are you a native speaker of English?

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???[This message has been edited by TheOne, 04-14-2003]

Taken metaphorically, as you wish, the prophecy is too fuzzy to be meaningful.In your perception.Your spelling is atrocious.Sorry. Sometimes I'm at work and in a hurry to reply, sometimes I'm at home but smoked too much pot, sometimes it's my ESL (English as a Second Language) classes failing on me.