by brinjen 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
1914 serves these 4 purposes (for JW's only):
1. The last days began in this year.
2. Satan was thrown out of heaven in this year.
3. Jesus' kingdom was established in this year.
4. 1914 is used to get to 1919 to establish that Jesus picked them as the one true "channel". I doubt any JW could use the bible to prove this point.
The WTS selectively relies on secular dates.
*** si p. 85 pars. 2-3 Bible Book Number 15—Ezra ***Disaster befell Babylon on the night of October 5, 539 B.C.E. (Gregorian calendar), as the Babylonian king Belshazzar and his grandees were drinking toasts to their demon gods. Adding to their pagan debauchery, they were using the holy vessels from Jehovah’s temple as their cups of drunkenness! How fitting that Cyrus was outside Babylon’s walls that night to fulfill the prophecy! This date 539 B.C.E. is a pivotal date, that is, a date that may be harmonized with both secular and Biblical history.
*** si pp. 282-283 pars. 27-28 Study Number 2—Time and the Holy Scriptures ***
PivotalDates. Reliable Bible chronology is based on certain pivotal dates. A pivotal date is a calendar date in history that has a sound basis for acceptance and that corresponds to a specific event recorded in the Bible. It can then be used as the starting point from which a series of Bible events can be located on the calendar with certainty. Once this pivotal point is fixed, calculations forward or backward from this date are made from accurate records in the Bible itself, such as the stated life spans of people or the duration of the reigns of kings. Thus, starting from a pegged point, we can use the reliable internal chronology of the Bible itself in dating many Bible events.
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PivotalDatefortheHebrewScriptures.A prominent event recorded both in the Bible and in secular history is the overthrow of the city of Babylon by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus. The Bible records this event at Daniel 5:30. Various historical sources (including Diodorus, Africanus, Eusebius, Ptolemy, and the Babylonian tablets) support 539 B.C.E. as the year for the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus. The Nabonidus Chronicle gives the month and day of the city’s fall (the year is missing). Secular chronologers have thus set the date for the fall of Babylon as October 11, 539 B.C.E., according to the Julian calendar, or October 5 by the Gregorian calendar.
More important. The guy in the video. OK then girls….Is he hot or not………..?????
what the hell?...where'd that come from?
lisa<---off to get tissues to wipe the coffee off the screen.
Jeremiah assigns 70 years to the Jews captivity under Babylon.(Jer.25:9-11)
No it doesn't. This JW needs to read the rest of chapter 25 and (s)he will see Jeremiah assigns 70 yrs captivity to the entire world. 70 years applies to Babylonian domination.
There are no dates in the Bible. The closest to dates is "in the third year of so-and-so's reign, blah, blah, blah..."
539 is not in the Bible, 537 is not in the Bible, 607 is not in the Bible, 587 is not in the Bible, 1914 is not in the Bible.
Any dates established uses a combination of secular records and the Bible record of reign of kings and similar references. The Society admits that 539 is set by secular authorities and accepts their authority. The same historians that used the same criteria to set the 539 date also set the other dates that the Society refuses to accept. If you can't accept secular authority for one date, then how can you accept it for another?
Another point...even if 539 is Biblically correct and 607 is Biblically correct, where in the Bible does it say that it took the Jews two years to return to their homeland and then the 70 years was ended? If they were released in 539 wouldn't that count as the end of their captivity? Then that would mean only 68 years, not 70.
If you can't accept secular authority for one date, then how can you accept it for another?
Dontcha know?
Jesus whispers in their ear..."This date is good....that date is bogus....good...good...bogus....good....way bogus...."
(Jeremiah 25:8-14) . . ."Therefore this is what Jehovah of armies has said, ‘"For the reason that YOU did not obey my words, 9 here I am sending and I will take all the families of the north," is the utterance of Jehovah, "even [sending] to Neb·u·chad·rez´zar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of astonishment and something to whistle at and places devastated to time indefinite. 10 And I will destroy out of them the sound of exultation and the sound of rejoicing, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the hand mill and the light of the lamp. 11 And all this land must become a devastated place, an object of astonishment, and these nations will have to serve the king of Babylon seventy years."’ 12 "‘And it must occur that when seventy years have been fulfilled I shall call to account against the king of Babylon and against that nation,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘their error, even against the land of the Chal·de´ans, and I will make it desolate wastes to time indefinite. 13 And I will bring in upon that land all my words that I have spoken against it, even all that is written in this book that Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. 14 For even they themselves, many nations and great kings, have exploited them as servants; and I will repay them according to their activity and according to the work of their hands.’"
Tell your dub friend he/she is all wet. We don't even need any secular proof to show 607 is NOT the date of the destruction of Jersulam.
Your friend uses 539 BC as an anchor date. Fine, let's use that date:
539 BC - Babylon fell to during the rule of Nabonidus. Nabonidus ruled 17 years.
539 + 17 = 556 BC. Start of Nabondus reign, end of Labishi-Murduk reign. Labishi-Murduk reigned 9 months, or say 1 year.
556 +1 = 557 BC. Beginning of Labishi-Murduk reign, end of Neriglissar reign. Neriglissar reigned 4 years.
557 + 4 = 601 BC. Beginning of Neriglissar reign, end of Evil-Merodah reign. Evil Merodach reigned 2 years.
601 + 2 = 603 BC. Beginning of Evil Merodach reign, end of Nebuchadnezzar reign. Nebuchadnezzar reigned 43 years and Jersusalem was destroyed in the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign.
43 years of reign for Nebuchadnezzar - 19th year of his reign when Jerusalem was destroyed = 24 years of reign AFTER Jerusalem destroyed.
603 - 24 years of reign AFTER Jerusalem was destroyed = 587 BC. When Jerusalem was destroyed.
Sources: the Bible, Aid to Bible Understanding in Insight on the Scriptures.
This is so simple and solidly documented in scripture and WTS references, even a dumb dubbie should be able to understand it. Nah!
Full explanation and sources:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/74549/1.ashx
Farkel
I was a rough and tumble JW for quite awhile. I memorized the "proof" of 1914 and was just itching to use it. Years passed; no takers.
After being disfellowshipped I was in a conversation with somebody at a pary once who, himself, was an EX-JW.
He turns to me (in the course of conversation about what JW's swallow as gospel) and said: "I never met a Jehovah's Witness who could prove 1914."
Well, heck....if ever I was going to use my threadbare and timeworn memorized clump of litany---it was now!
I got a pencil and a piece of paper while the host of the part got out his encyclopedia Britannica.
After ten minutes of erasures and stops and starts I gave up! I had lost my one opportunity!
The host turned to the E.B. and read the date out loud. It certainly was not 607!
It was in that little space of time the full magnitude of time wasted in my life surfaced to consciousness and I became very, very angry with myself!
The average JW is just happy that somebody somewhere can "prove" what he believes. The fact it is a Rube Goldberg explanation makes it all the more convincing. E=MC2. That sort of thing.
