I stopped going to meetings completely two years ago, and I was pretty irregular for year or so before that. How hard are they pushing this 120 years/Noah/2034 line of reasoning now? I don't remember the official publications pushing this at all. I do, however, remember a few JWs that made the connection by themselves.
Do you think the society will abandon 1914?
by B_Deserter 37 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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nvrgnbk
How hard are they pushing this 120 years/Noah/2034 line of reasoning now? I don't remember the official publications pushing this at all. I do, however, remember a few JWs that made the connection by themselves.
The Watchtower December 15, 2003 page 15
It's a thinly-veiled suggestion in this Watchtower study article.
They want the connection to be made, while not stating it directly.
When it doesn't pan out, they can say it's the fault of those that "read too much into" for feeling disappointed.
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neverendingjourney
Thanks. I think I remember that article. I don't recall the 120 years ever coming up in the publications during the 90s. In fact, one elder explained the 120 year verse in Genesis to me to mean that men would not live to be over 120 years after the flood, in contrast to the several-hundred year life spans people supposedly enjoyed before the flood. Obviously, he was mistaken about the proper, JW-authorized explanation of that verse, and he was not slacker. He studied the Watchtower publications just as much if not more so than any JW I ever met. I'm sure many JWs will be able to connect the dots without the society having to explicitly draw a picture for them.
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hamsterbait
There is no record of even a murmur when they dropped the 1874 date for the presence, and 1799 for the time of the end in 1943. SEVENTY years later.
Of course by then most of the 19th century gofers were too old, senile or dead to create much fuss, including Boozey Joe (d. 1941)
They will reinterpret 1914.
In the meantime, they are paving the way to quietly drop the 607 date. This has to go first.
Notice how in the newer books they don't spend much time on the tree and seven times in Daniel? They just cut to the chase and say "all the evidence shows Christ began his rule in 1914" Then quote Matt. 24 - even though Jesus is saying these things DO NOT show that he is here or the end is coming.
Witlesses read that old litterature and are not disturbed that almost everything in them is no longer true. I guarantee that in forty years witlesses (if they can read to such a high standard then) Will just think "oh 1914 - wonder where they got that from?"
HB
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B_Deserter
Well they can't really push the 2034 reasoning officially yet. If they did, you'd see scores of people leaving as well as service time and meeting attendance plummeting. Giving witnesses 27 years until Armageddon will probably bankrupt the society.
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the dreamer dreaming
1914 is based on the 7 times of the gentiles
that is based on 607bce and 360 day years...
if they change it to 365 days as we all know or 365.25 we get to 1949 or 1951 which gives them till 2019 and 2021 respectively... plenty of time for a few great fear mongering campaigns.
if they scrap 607 for the 587 or whatever, cant remember right now.. well you do the math.
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greendawn
The smart JWs that will go out and search their history will quickly realise that things don't add up. At first 1914 was supposed to be the armageddon date with 1878 being the date of the supposed invisible return (wasn't Jesus always invisibly present?). They then changed the dates to try and make good their failure. And 1914 was purely an adventist calculated date and not a Russell one.
They also made many people follow a course of action through the last generation doctrine that proved to be futile and even damaging to their best interests. How can the authors of such dubious actions be trusted? They never once apologised or compensated their deceived victims for putting off childhood, putting off marriage, university education, savings for the future, living under the constant stress of a vengeful God that was about to act, having to waste time to warn others about a non existant imminent danger. Having futile dashed expectations for the future.
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SPAZnik
They might, but it won't change anything. Apparently they can make as many false prophecies as they want, then change their collective mind, but if anyone amongst their follows steps outta line.... Seems more like a dictatorship than a "theocracy" (or monarchy) to me.