by Inquisitor 11 Replies latest jw friends
Hi all,
Quick question, what book are the witnesses studying at their book study these days? I got the impression that it is the Daniel's Prophecy book. But hadn't they already gone through that book? And does anyone know what book they will consider after (given that Daniel's isn't really thick)
Cheers
INQ
Yes, they went through the Daniel book before, but the WTS says repetition is good. Some of their books have been studied 3 times. I think the new book What Does The Bible Really Teach? released this summer might be next on the agenda.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/103751/1.ashx
I think the week of April 10, 2006, is the last one in the Daniel book.
Blondie
I don't really want to go see....
Thanks for that feedback, Blondie.
You still attend the bookstudies?
INQ
Here we are still in the Daniel book. Starting next week about the prophesy of the King of the North and the King of the south. :(
next on the list is indeed the book: "what does the bible really teach?"
Hi DannyBloem
Excellent feedback there. Was wondering where in the Daniel book. I didn't get the bookstudy schedule and am completely out of the loop.
Cheers
INQ
This is what we are studying next week
***
dp chap. 13 pp. 211-218 Two Kings in ConflictTwo
Kings in ConflictTWO rival kings are locked in an all-out struggle for supremacy. As the years pass, first one, then the other, gains ascendancy. At times, one king rules supreme while the other becomes inactive, and there are periods of no conflict. But then another battle suddenly erupts, and the conflict continues. Among the participants in this drama have been Syrian King Seleucus I Nicator, Egyptian King Ptolemy Lagus, Syrian Princess and Egyptian Queen Cleopatra I, Roman Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, and Palmyrene Queen Zenobia. As the conflict nears its end, Nazi Germany, the Communist bloc of nations, the Anglo-American World Power, the League of Nations, and the United Nations have also been involved. The finale is an episode unforeseen by any of these political entities. Jehovah’s angel declared this exciting prophecy to the prophet Daniel some 2,500 years ago.—Daniel, chapter 11.
2
How thrilled Daniel must have been to hear the angel reveal to him in detail the rivalry between two forthcoming kings! The drama is of interest to us as well, for the power struggle between the two kings stretches into our day. Seeing how history has shown the first part of the prophecy to be true will strengthen our faith and confidence in the certainty of fulfillment of the last part of the prophetic account. Paying attention to this prophecy will give us a clear view of where we are in the stream of time. It will also fortify our resolve to remain neutral in the conflict as we patiently wait for God to act in our behalf. (Psalm 146:3, 5) With keen attention, then, let us listen as Jehovah’s angel speaks to Daniel.AGAINST
THE KINGDOM OF GREECE3
"As for me," said the angel, "in the first year of Darius the Mede [539/538 B.C.E.] I stood up as a strengthener and as a fortress to him." (Daniel 11:1) Darius was no longer living, but the angel referred to his reign as the starting point of the prophetic message. It was this king who had ordered that Daniel be taken out of the lions’ pit. Darius had also decreed that all his subjects should fear Daniel’s God. (Daniel 6:21-27) However, the one for whom the angel stood up as a supporter was, not Darius the Mede, but the angel’s associate Michael—the prince of Daniel’s people. (Compare Daniel 10:12-14.) God’s angel provided this support while Michael contended with the demon prince of Medo-Persia.4
God’s angel continued: "Look! There will yet be three kings standing up for Persia, and the fourth one will amass greater riches than all others. And as soon as he has become strong in his riches, he will rouse up everything against the kingdom of Greece." (Daniel 11:2) Just who were these Persian rulers?5
The first three kings were Cyrus the Great, Cambyses II, and Darius I (Hystaspes). Since Bardiya (or perhaps a pretender named Gaumata) ruled for only seven months, the prophecy did not take his brief reign into consideration. In 490 B.C.E., the third king, Darius I, attempted to invade Greece for the second time. However, the Persians were routed at Marathon and retreated to Asia Minor. Though Darius made careful preparations for a further campaign against Greece, he could not carry it out before his death four years later. That was left up to his son and successor, the "fourth" king, Xerxes I. He was the King Ahasuerus who married Esther.—Esther 1:1; 2:15-17.6
Xerxes I did indeed "rouse up everything against the kingdom of Greece," that is, the independent Grecian states as a group. "Urged on by ambitious courtiers," says the book The Medes and Persians—Conquerors and Diplomats, "Xerxes launched an assault by land and sea." Greek historian Herodotus, of the fifth century B.C.E., writes that "no other expedition compared to this seems of any account." His record states that the sea force "amounted in all to 517,610 men. The number of the foot soldiers was 1,700,000; that of the horsemen 80,000; to which must be added the Arabs who rode on camels, and the Libyans who fought in chariots, whom I reckon at 20,000. The whole number, therefore, of the land and sea forces added together amounts to 2,317,610 men."7
Planning on nothing less than a complete conquest, Xerxes I moved his huge force against Greece in 480 B.C.E. Overcoming a Greek delaying action at Thermopylae, the Persians ravaged Athens. At Salamis, though, they met with terrible defeat. Another Greek victory took place at Plataea, in 479 B.C.E. None of the seven kings who succeeded Xerxes on the throne of the Persian Empire during the next 143 years carried war into Greece. But then there arose a mighty king in Greece.A
GREAT KINGDOM DIVIDED INTO FOUR8
"A mighty king will certainly stand up and rule with extensive dominion and do according to his will," said the angel. (Daniel 11:3) Twenty-year-old Alexander ‘stood up’ as king of Macedonia in 336 B.C.E. He did become "a mighty king"—Alexander the Great. Driven by a plan of his father, Philip II, he took the Persian provinces in the Middle East. Crossing the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, his 47,000 men scattered the 250,000 troops of Darius III at Gaugamela. Subsequently, Darius fled and was murdered, ending the Persian dynasty. Greece now became the world power, and Alexander ‘ruled with extensive dominion and did according to his will.’9
Alexander’s rulership over the world was to be brief, for God’s angel added: "When he will have stood up, his kingdom will be broken and be divided toward the four winds of the heavens, but not to his posterity and not according to his dominion with which he had ruled; because his kingdom will be uprooted, even for others than these." (Daniel 11:4) Alexander was not quite 33 years old when sudden illness took his life in Babylon in 323 B.C.E.10
Alexander’s vast empire did not pass to "his posterity." His brother Philip III Arrhidaeus reigned for less than seven years and was murdered at the instance of Olympias, Alexander’s mother, in 317 B.C.E. Alexander’s son Alexander IV ruled until 311 B.C.E. when he met death at the hands of Cassander, one of his father’s generals. Alexander’s illegitimate son Heracles sought to rule in his father’s name but was murdered in 309 B.C.E. Thus ended the line of Alexander, "his dominion" departing from his family.11
Following the death of Alexander, his kingdom was "divided toward the four winds." His many generals quarreled among themselves as they grabbed for territory. One-eyed General Antigonus I tried to bring all of Alexander’s empire under his control. But he was killed in a battle at Ipsus in Phrygia. By the year 301 B.C.E., four of Alexander’s generals were in power over the vast territory that their commander had conquered. Cassander ruled Macedonia and Greece. Lysimachus gained control over Asia Minor and Thrace. Seleucus I Nicator secured Mesopotamia and Syria. And Ptolemy Lagus took Egypt and Palestine. True to the prophetic word, Alexander’s great empire was divided into four Hellenistic kingdoms.TWO
RIVAL KINGS EMERGE12
A few years after coming to power, Cassander died, and in 285 B.C.E., Lysimachus took possession of the European part of the Greek Empire. In 281 B.C.E., Lysimachus fell in battle before Seleucus I Nicator, giving Seleucus control over the major portion of the Asiatic territories. Antigonus II Gonatas, grandson of one of Alexander’s generals, ascended to the throne of Macedonia in 276 B.C.E. In time, Macedonia became dependent upon Rome and ended up as a Roman province in 146 B.C.E.13
Only two of the four Hellenistic kingdoms now remained prominent—one under Seleucus I Nicator and the other under Ptolemy Lagus. Seleucus established the Seleucid dynasty in Syria. Among the cities he founded were Antioch—the new Syrian capital—and the seaport of Seleucia. The apostle Paul later taught in Antioch, where the followers of Jesus first came to be called Christians. (Acts 11:25, 26; 13:1-4) Seleucus was assassinated in 281 B.C.E., but his dynasty ruled until 64 B.C.E. when Roman General Gnaeus Pompey made Syria a Roman province.14
The Hellenistic kingdom that lasted the longest of the four was that of Ptolemy Lagus, or Ptolemy I, who assumed the title of king in 305 B.C.E. The Ptolemaic dynasty that he established continued to rule Egypt until it fell to Rome in 30 B.C.E.15
Thus out of four Hellenistic kingdoms, there emerged two strong kings—Seleucus I Nicator over Syria and Ptolemy I over Egypt. With these two kings began the long struggle between "the king of the north" and "the king of the south," described in Daniel chapter 11. Jehovah’s angel left the names of the kings unmentioned, for the identity and nationality of these two kings would change throughout the centuries. Omitting unnecessary details, the angel mentioned only rulers and events that have a bearing on the conflict.
No, inquisitor, I am free at last. But I do have access to the schedule.
Blondie
the King of the North and the King of the south
Soooo.... who are they this year?
J
South is still the Anglo-American World power. Officially at the moment there is no King of The North but rumors have abounded that it is militant Islam
