Memorial Date this year, why so far out ?

by Phizzy 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  stillin

  Thank you, señor Viejo, for making my point. Go on the 11th. Nobody will be there. It will be the best observance ever!
• 

  Xanthippe

  I'm told they don't go on about the six inch nails anymore. Or the fact that Jesus slowly asphyxiated. How they normally broke victim's legs to speed up the process but he was already dead. It was all horror and agony when I used to go. The talk was horrible too.
• 

  steve2

  Sounds like a barrel full of laughs. Why wouldn't anyone who is free that night want to go?

  BTW, who gets to drink the leftover wine? Alternatively, given the rise in the number of partakers, have congregations ever run out of wine?

  "Sip the wine slowly, Brother Anointed. There is no scriptural precedent for gulping it down."
• 

  Phizzy

  Thanks guys, I was misled about the date this year, I see the Full Moon here is on April 4th.

  I won't be going again this year, I have more important things to do, don't know exactly what yet.

  This will be the seventh one in a row I've had to miss, what a pity !
• 

  BluesBrother

  For those who really want to know how the dubs calculate the date

  Watchtower 1990 2/15 p 15
  Today, Jehovah’s Witnesses keep the Lord’s Evening Meal annually on the date corresponding to Nisan 14. Some have noted, though, that this may differ from the date when Jews hold their Passover. Why?
  21 The Hebrew day ran from sunset (about six o’clock) to the next sunset. God commanded that the Passover lamb be killed on Nisan 14 “between the two evenings.” (Exodus 12:6) When would that be? Modern Jews cling to the rabbinical view that the lamb was to be slaughtered near the end of Nisan 14, between the time when the sun began to descend (about three o’clock) and the actual sunset. As a result, they hold their Seder after sundown, when Nisan 15 has begun.—Mark 1:32.
  22 We have good reason, however, to understand the expression differently. Deuteronomy 16:6 clearly told the Israelites to “slaughter the passover sacrifice, in the evening, at sundown.” (Jewish Tanakh version) This indicates that “between the two evenings” referred to the twilight period, from sunset (which begins Nisan 14) to actual darkness. The ancient Karaite Jews understood it this way, as do Samaritans down to today. Our accepting that the Passover lamb was sacrificed and eaten “at its appointed time” on Nisan 14, not on Nisan 15, is one reason why our Memorial date sometimes differs from the Jewish date.—Numbers 9:2-5.
  23 Another reason why our date may differ from that of the Jews is that they employ a predetermined calendar, which system was not fixed until the fourth century C.E. Using this, they can set dates for Nisan 1 or for festivals decades or centuries beforehand. Moreover, the ancient lunar calendar needed to have a 13th month added occasionally so that the calendar would synchronize with the seasons. The current Jewish calendar adds this month at fixed points; in a 19-year cycle, it is added to years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19.
  24 However, Emil Schürer says that “at the time of Jesus [the Jews] still had no fixed calendar, but on the basis of purely empirical observation, began each new month with the appearance of the new moon, and similarly on the basis of observation” added a month as needed. “If . . . it was noticed towards the end of the year that Passover would fall before the vernal equinox [about March 21], the intercalation of a month before Nisan was decreed.” (The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, Volume 1) The extra month thus comes in naturally, not being added arbitrarily.
  25 The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses establishes the date for the Lord’s Evening Meal in line with the ancient method. Nisan 1 is determined by when the new moon nearest the spring equinox can likely be observed at sunset in Jerusalem. Counting 14 days from that brings one to Nisan 14, which usually corresponds to the day of the full moon. (See The Watchtower of June 15, 1977, pages 383-4.)

  Would you not know that they "know better " than the Jews? NB it seems to correspond this year though and with Good Friday , too,
• 

  steve2

  Rule Number 1 for Detecting Shonky Thinking:

  When a justification for a protocol requires convoluted reasoning, it most likely consists of 95% special pleading or speculation and only 5% factual premise.

  Reader beware.
• 

  OrphanCrow

  Maybe the WTS still uses the 'Calendar of Jehovah' to figure out the memorial date.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/124676/calendar-jehovah-god?page=1&size=20
• 

  blondie

  I always thought that the WTS was so arrogant saying that the Jews today don't follow the proper calendar. When it comes to time-keeping it has been the WTS that has said 1914, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1940's, 1975, and implied 1984 and 1994, and have been wrong each and every time.
• 

  OUTLAW

  Would you not know that they "know better " than the Jews? NB it seems to correspond this year though and with Good Friday , too,....Blues Brother

  
  

  I always thought that the WTS was so arrogant saying that the Jews today don't follow the proper calendar......Blondie

  

  .........
• 

  Phizzy

  Despite some very special pleading and convoluted reasoning by Bible believers, it is plain that the Gospels do not agree on which day the Last Supper occurred.

  Add to this that if we assume it was in fact a Passover meal, it seems from a proper reading of the O.T that the Passover meal did not take place on the start of Nisan 14, after sundown, but in fact a day later, whichever way we look at it, Jehovah's Witnesses "celebrate" this on the wrong day !