Answers about prophecy

What does the number 666 mean?

The number 666 is the number of the beast in Revelation, the last book of the Bible:
This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Revelation 13:18)
The “beast” in Revelation is a symbol for a [...]

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From a Jewish perspective, is Matthew’s use of the word “virgin” correct, since Isaiah doesn’t use the specific word for “virgin” but only the word for “maiden”? (Isa. 7:14; Mat. 1:23)

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [1].
ESV footnote [1] Immanuel means God is with us
Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” which means, God [...]

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Where in the Old Testament does it say Jesus will be called a Nazarene? (Matthew 2:23)

Matthew 2:23: And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
This is not a direct quotation from the Old Testament but is more likely to be an example to the 1st Century Jewish practice of seeking allegorical meaning [...]

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Doesn’t the name “Immanuel” show that Jesus is God, and therefore proves the Trinity? (Isa. 7:14, Mat. 1:23)

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [1].
ESV footnote [1] Immanuel means God is with us

Isaiah 8:8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and [...]

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In what sense did the slave girl of Acts 16:16 have “the spirit of Python”?

Q. What do you think about the slave girl who was able to foretell the future? The easy answer is that she had some form of mental illness, but this doesn’t seem to fit with the way it reads given that her owners were able to make profit from her illness…  it seems to be [...]

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Who are Gog and Magog?

Gog and Magog are mentioned together in two Bible passages. The first is from Ezekiel:
Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech  and Tubal, and prophesy against him (Ezekiel 38:2)
Ezekiel 38 and 39 contain a prophecy about some nations that would attack Israel but be [...]

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What is Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Dan. 2 about?

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream involves a statue of a man made from different materials (Dan. 2:31-33). A stone then hits the statue, destroys it, turns into a mountain, and fills the earth (Dan. 2:34-35). Like lots of other prophecies, these aren’t literal things; rather the items represent other things. In this prophecy Daniel tells us (Dan. 2:36-45) [...]

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What does “coming forth from ancient days” mean? (Micah 5:2)

Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
The verse is one of the few verses in the Old Testament (along [...]

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Why were Satan and the angel fighting over the high priest? (Zechariah 3)

The first question, before answering why Satan and the angel were fighting over the high priest, is to ask, what is a vision? Is a vision a view into real events happening in heaven? Or is a vision a kind of symbolic parable told by a prophet to illustrate a point.
Of course the answer is [...]

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Did the Bible foretell the holocaust?

In a general sense, God promised the Jews that if they didn’t obey him, then:
The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers … You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where [...]

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