Bible Questions and Answer

Skeptics point to several prophecies that don't seem to have happened as stated, and believers have answers. Jonah announced that Nineveh would be overthrown in forty days, and it wasn't. But that prophecy was conditional, and the city repented. Jeremiah said King Jehoiakim would have no one to sit on David's throne, yet his son Jehoiachin reigned for three months. Defenders say three months hardly counts as a reign. Ezekiel 29 said Egypt would be desolate for forty years, and there's no clear historical record of this, though our records of that period are incomplete. The prophetess Huldah said Josiah would be buried in peace, but he died in battle. Many read "in peace" as meaning before the disaster fell on Jerusalem. Christians generally respond that some prophecies were conditional, some used poetic language, and our historical knowledge has gaps. Honest readers on both sides admit some passages are harder than others and deserve careful study rather than quick answers.