I Am Challenged -- I answer

I received an anonymous comment today linking to a nonsense story about America using either nukes or dirty bombs in Iraq. (If we had used either the press and especially the left would be all over it -- it would be a major scandal, but apparently no one with any sense wants to touch it.) I attempted to find out what was really going on, but all I found was a few scattered references in the most paranoid conspiracy sites on the net. (The pictures on the page were horrible and heartbreaking but I don't think America is responsible for them.)

What got me was a challenge to prove that 3 "prophecies in the Bible do not predict Mohammed and Islam. I think it is predicted there, but I don't think it's predicted in the way that Muslims want it to be.

Tonight I will answer only the first one.
He quotes part of Deuteronomy 3: 2
"And he said, The LORD came from Si'-nai, and rose up from Se'-ir unto them; he shined forth from mount Pa'-ran [Mecca in Arabic], and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them. (From the King James Version Bible, Deuteronomy 33:2)"

He then says that it points to the "liberation" of Mecca by 10,000 Moslems.

Note that he says that Paran = Mecca. Not true at all.

The Holman Bible Dictionary says
PARAN
(pay' ruhn) 1. Wilderness area south of Judah, west of Edom, and north of Sinai. Israel camped there after leaving Sinai during the Exodus and sent spies to scout out the Promised Land from Kadesh, a location in Paran (Numbers 10:11-12; Numbers 13:3,Numbers 13:26). Chedorlaomer turned back his military campaign at Padan (Genesis 14:5-7). Ishmael made his home there after Abraham was forced to send Hagar and him away (Genesis 21:21). King Hadad of Edom eluded Joab by going through Padan to Egypt (1 Kings 11:17-18). 2. Mount Paran appears as a poetic parallel to Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy 33:2; compare Habakkuk 3:3) as the place of revelation. If not the same place as Sinai, the location is not known.


Here is a map that shows the location of Paran, which is duplicated above in the post. As you can see, it is nowhere near Mecca, which is a little south of the southern edge of the map near the eastern shore of the Red Sea.

The Paran of the Old Testament is equated with Mecca only in the fevered imaginings of a false prophet. The author attempts to prove the Paran is Mecca and not Sinai, but his proofs are nothing more then quoting Islamic fables.

His first challenge is refuted by a simple geography lesson. I will answer the second, hopefully tomorrow or Monday.