Henke 2022bv

Bad Analyses of False Prophets in Lundahl (2022L)

Kevin R. Henke

September 15, 2022

In Henke (2022b), I said the following:

“In his second essay, Lundahl (2022b) complains that when I rank a supernatural event as ‘highly unlikely’, I’m taking my worldview ‘as a test of historic facthood.’ Actually, I’m ranking supernatural events as highly unlikely because I see absolutely no evidence of the supernatural. I think that it’s far more probable that someone just made up the supernatural story and that enough gullible people believed it, so that it was recorded for future generations. Recently, I saw TV “prophets” frequently making demonstrably false prophecies about covid disappearing in March 2020 and false claims of miraculous healings and other miracles. In recent history, Joseph Smith Jr. made numerous well-documented false prophecies. Ancient people also made up numerous far-fetched stories about gods and goddesses that few people now believe and no one should believe. I have seen no evidence that magic existed in the past any more than it does in the present. I don’t see any evidence to believe any of these present and past miraculous stories, including Genesis 3. So, Mr. Lundahl, I challenge you to refute my worldview by giving me the evidence of the Talking Snake that I’ve been asking for. In contrast, we have plenty of artifacts and videos of WWII and even a few WWII veterans are still alive. My dad experienced that war. WWII deserves a high ranking based on the evidence, the Talking Snake does not. Theology and political and personal desires have no role in judging the validity of history.” [my emphasis]

In several points, Lundahl (2022L) analyses the above bolded section of Henke (2022b):

“And here is the analysis, bit by bit:

(3) Kevin R. Henke: ‘I think that it’s far more probable that someone just made up the supernatural story and that enough gullible people believed it, so that it was recorded for future generations.’

Let's see how he tries to examplify this:

(4) Kevin R. Henke: ‘Recently, I saw TV “prophets” frequently making demonstrably false prophecies about covid disappearing in March 2020 and false claims of miraculous healings and other miracles.’

I do not know or claim to know if the claims of healings are false or true. Let's stick with the demonstrably false prophecy: "covid will disappear in March 2020" - is it anywhere near likely that future generations, however gullible, will remember this as "covid disappeared in March 2020, as pastor so and so predicted?”

Well, after demonstrably false prophet Kenneth Copeland incorrectly “predicted” in a March 13, 2020 video on YouTube (also see this article here) that Covid would immediately disappear, months later thousands of people still attended his convention. There are still thousands of people that forget about Copeland’s failures and still proclaim that he is a “true prophet” and a man of God. This is how any cult grows: “Ignore the evidence and just believe.” Yes, it’s very possible that Copeland will be viewed as a “true prophet of God” for many generations. His cult following could actually increase after his death and perhaps even reach into the millions – we’ll see.

Joseph Smith Jr.’s false claims and prophecies are also well-documented (e.g., Fitzgerald 2013). Yet, more than 16 million Mormons ignore Smith’s failures and still proclaim him as a prophet of God. Skeptics point out the false prophecies about Jesus’ “soon” Second Coming in Revelation 1:1-3, 3:10-11, 22:6-7, 22:10, 22:12, and 22:20 (Price 2007; 2018, pp. 214-259) and the false prophecies about Tyre and Egypt in Ezekie1 (Bowen 2021). Yet, believers continue to make up excuses or ignore these blatant failures. Sadly, too many people believe what they want to believe despite the evidence. So, they make up pitiful excuses to convince themselves and others that Kenneth Copeland and the Bible writers were not false prophets. Lundahl (2022L) fails to recognize this.

References

Bowen, J. 2021. The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament: Volume One: Digital Hammurabi Press, Mechanicsville, Maryland, USA, 428pp.

Fitzgerald, D. 2013. The Complete Heretic’s Guide to Western Religion Book One: The Mormons, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 336 pp.

Price, R.M. 2007. The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church Was Left Behind: Prometheus Books: Amherst, New York, USA, 390pp.

Price, R.M. 2018. Holy Fable III: The Epistles and the Apocalypse Undistorted by Faith: Mindvendor: Coppell, Texas, USA, 259pp.