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a completely different book about bible prophecy

BIBLE PROPHECY
Failure or Fulfillment?
by Tim Callahan

Publication Date: March 23, 1997
ISBN: 0-9655047-0-0
$21.00 (U.S.) $29.00 (Canada) Cloth
275 pages; illustrations

As the year 2000 rapidly approaches many claim we are living in the end times. Are we? Is our world coming to an end as described in the Book of Revelation? No!, says author Tim Callahan, whose new book Bible Prophecy lays bare the fatuousness of such claims.

Many best sellers have been written about Bible prophecy, and their influence is sure to increase as the millennium approaches. Their authors first claim that many accurate predictions were made by the prophets of ancient times, and then insist they themselves have the same ability, using the Bible like a crystal ball to predict the usually apocalyptic future. Rarely have their methods of interpretation, their logic, or their historical accuracy been questioned. Tim Callahan rises to the challenge with wit and clarity.

How accurate were the Bible prophets? Are modern events fulfillment of things described in the Book of Revelation? What compelling messages did the ancient prophets deliver to their contemporaries that are still relevant today? Tim Callahan investigates the claims of fundamentalist ministers that the fate of Egypt, the Philistines, the cities of Tyre, Nineveh and Babylon, among others, were foretold in accurate detail by such prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel; and that the future history of the world was foretold in such apocalyptic literature as the Book of Daniel, the Olivet Discourse from the Gospels and the Book of Revelation.

By comparing the predictions to actual history, as well as to each other and by noting evidence of historical anachronisms and faulty scholarship on the part of fundamentalist apologists, Callahan subjects the prophecies of the Bible to four rigorous questions:

  1. Is the prophecy true, false or too vague to be specifically interpreted?
  2. If the prophecy is true was it written before or after the fact?
  3. If it was written before the fact, was its fulfillment something that could be predicted based on a logical interpretation of the events of the prophet's day?
  4. Was the prophecy directive or deliberately fulfilled by someone with knowledge of the prophecy?
In the final chapters of the book Callahan dissects modern scenarios of the end of the world by such authors as Hal Lindsey, and examines the connections between these millenarian paranoias and secular conspiracy theories of black helicopters and the New World Order.

Of particular interest to the media for interviews is Tim Callahan's extensive knowledge of modern conspiracy theories connecting Bible prophecy with the New World Order, the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati, the Council on Foreign Relations, and other entities feared by militias and others on the extreme right.

The publication date of Bible Prophecy is March 23, the day the author will appear for a lecture at the prestigious Skeptics Society Lecture Series at the California Institute of Technology. All are invited to attend the lecture.

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