From: rpitts@emperor.gatech.edu (Richard Pitts)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Tyre still exists today (was: I'm God.)
Date: 5 Oct 92 14:03:06 GMT
Organization: CERL-EE, Georgia Institue of Technology

In article <13673@pogo.wv.tek.com> daveb@pogo.wv.tek.com (Dave Butler) writes:
|Richard Pitts tells us how his convictions are strengthened by Dr. D. James
|Kennedy's book: _Why_I_Believe_.  Specifically Richard tells us that he is
|greatly impressed Mr. Kennedy's evidence on the successful prophesy about
|Tyre:

Correct.

|> [1]Why I Believe the Bible:
|> The Bible gives many predictive prophecies. ...
|> 
|> Examples: The cities of Tyre and Sidon, two great cities on 
|> the Mediterranean Sea.  Exekiel prophesied that Tyre would 
|> be destroyed and never be rebuilt nor inhabited.  Sidon was 
|> to be brought down, but continue to be inhabited.  Sidon was 
|> attacked and many killed, but still exists to this day.
|> 
|> Tyre on the other hand was at its height at the time of the 
|> prophecy.  It was to be destroyed, made like a rock, have 
|> its building stones thrown into the sea, and be built no 
|> more.  Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon fought against the city for 
|> thirteen years and took it.  Many former inhabitants fled 
|> for an island and made a new city of Tyre.  Two hundred and 
|> fifty years later the city walls still stood, but Alexander 
|> the Great came and took the old buildings and dumped them 
|> into the sea to build a bridge to the new Tyre, in order to 
|> take it.  He did - the old city was stripped.  Today the old 
|> Tyre is like a rock and a place to spread fishing nets to 
|> dry.
|
|Now I want to make clear Richard, that I am not attacking either your theology
|faith in your god, but I am greatly offended by Mr. Kennedy's playing fast and
|loose with the truth.  You see Tyre's name has been slightly altered over two

Your concern is understood.

|millenia and is now called "Sur"; it is now a coastal Lebanese city of about

Are you disputing that the costal city was attacked and the inhabitants
fled to the island and rebuilt Tyre?  You say it was renamed, correct?

Let me suggest the following.  Suppose I had a house and so was attacked.
I and my whole family fled down the road and over the hill and across the
river and built a new house.  My old house is left.  Someone comes in
later and clears this house down to the ground.  Even if someone else
later came and built on my old lot, it can be safely said that the house of 
Pitts was not rebuilt.  

|10,000 to 15,000 people.  It has prospered repeatedly since Biblical times
|(eg: Under both Roman and Muslim Rule), and there was a significant Christian
|population even in the 2nd century.  In fact the Church father Origen is
|buried there.  These fact is easily checked in any Encyclopedia Britannica,

I will check this as soon as I can.  It will be a few days or even the 
weekend before I can do this.  If you'd like, please relate how the EB
covers the old and new Tyre and the island deal. 

|and thus it would seem that Mr. Kennedy does not expect his audience to check
|his "facts".  If Mr. Kennedy is so blatantly wrong where one can easily check
|his "facts", then I would have to ask why should one have any trust in him in
|his more obscure assertions, or why he should have any credibility at all?
|Thus I would conclude that, if this is representative of level of his
|scholarship, then he is no better than Josh Mcdowell, and is thereby a fraud
|and a charlatan. 

If some history presents one approach and other presents another, whose
is really to say that Dr. Kennedy is wrong.  Is the other one infallible.  I
think Dr. Kennedy says he or one of his friends has stood at the site
of the old Tyre and has seen the bald ground and I think, even 
seen the fisherman drying their nets there.

|				Dave Butler

For Christ and His Kingdom,
Richard Pitts
-- 
rpitts@cerl.gatech.edu       |    
Atlanta, GA                --|-- 
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