Everyone wants to find meaning and purpose in their life. People who have been taught to believe in the Bible seek stuff in the Bible to give them meaning in their life. Some people make up stuff supposedly based on the Bible to give them meaning in their life.
The Watchtower society goes one step further: they make up stuff supposedly based on the Bible to give their CORPORATION meaning and importance in life.
Far too many true believers have a difficult time accepting what should be obvious to any rational human: the Bible meant exactly what it said. It didn’t mean what it didn’t say, and it didn’t say what it didn’t mean.
For those who believe the words in the Bible are true, why is it so difficult to understand that:
If God did something horrible and gory to humans, then God did something horrible and gory to humans.
If God said something would happen in “x” years, then something happened in “x” years.
If Jesus told a story that was designed to teach a life-lesson, then Jesus told a story that was designed to teach a life-lesson.
If Ezekiel had a vision, then Ezekiel had a vision. “Thank you for sharing your vision, Ezekiel, now go sober up.”
Anyway, we are going to talk about making stuff up, since the WTS is the hands-down world-champion religion in making stuff up.
The WTS find it impossible to accept what most Christian religions accept, namely: with very, very few exceptions almost ALL prophecies in the Bible were already fulfilled thousands of years ago. They were fulfilled to show future ages of people that the Bible can be trusted, and that the VERY FEW prophecies left unfulfilled will also be fulfilled. NO! The WTS has to have nearly ALL prophecies fulfilled TWICE. The first fulfillment occurred in ancient times and the “modern” fulfillment occurred in the 20th Century, with the WTS as the centerpiece recipient of nearly all of those fulfillments!
In order for this to happen, there has to be some creative and imaginative exegetical gymnastics.
The “a year for a day” rule is one of the WTS favorites and without it, the Gentile Times/607-1914 chronology goes right into the toilet where it belonged in the first place.
Actually, it is not a “rule” at all. The WTS made up that part, too.
Note to dummies: the 1914 chronology (based on Daniel 4) and the phrase “Gentile Times” are nowhere shown to be interrelated in the Bible. But then again, the WTS is famous for plucking a verse from one part of the Bible and then plucking a verse from another part of the Bible written a thousand years later and cementing them together with some sort of spiritual “super glue.”
Much material has been written proving that 607 B.C. is a bogus date made up by the WTS to justify their 1914 chronology. Not much has been written on the other issue that is every bit as critical to that chronology as 607 B.C. For 1914 to work, a “time” has to equal a “year” and a “year” has to equal a “year of days” and those "days" have to equal "years." If that notion is bogus, then 1914 falls on yet another critical count.
In the hundreds and hundreds of references to the so-called “day for a year rule” in WT publications, you will never see more than TWO verses supporting this “rule.” It would do us well to look at them. The first one is found at Ezekiel 4:8.
But first a bit of background. If what you think what I’m about to relate is weird, then read the material in Ezekiel preceding chapter 4. That Ezekiel was smoking some serious shit!
Ezekiel is called “The Son of Man” in the book carrying his name. Interesting. So was Jesus. Using WatchtowerThinking, this brings up an interesting observation:
Ezekiel = “Son of Man.” Jesus = “Son of Man”. Therefore, Jesus = modern-day Ezekiel
The Watchtower Society is also the “Ezekiel CLASS.” Therefore, the Watchtower Society = modern-day Ezekiel = "Son of Man" = Jesus = “Son of Man CLASS!” The Society is the modern-day fulfillment of Jesus Christ himself! Wow! That’s DEEP!
But I digress. God had interesting dietary habits for his ancient prophets, namely, he made them eat books. He also made them cook with human shit. No one said being a prophet of God was a cake-walk. Ask Jesus.
*** Rbi8 Ezekiel 2:8 - 3:3 ***
8 “And you, O son of man, hear what I am speaking to you. Do not become rebellious like the rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”
9 And I began to see, and, look! there was a hand thrust out to me, and, look! in it there was the roll of a book. 10 And he gradually spread it out before me, and it was written upon in front and on the back; and there were written in it dirges and moaning and wailing.
3 And he proceeded to say to me: “Son of man, what you find, eat. Eat this roll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”
2 So I opened my mouth, and he gradually made me eat this roll. 3 And he went on to say to me: “Son of man, you should cause your own belly to eat, that you may fill your very intestines with this roll that I am giving you.” And I began to eat it, and it came to be in my mouth like honey for sweetness.
Well, at least it was a sweet-tasting book. Sigh.
First example of a “day for a year:”
*** Rbi8 Ezekiel 4:1-8 ***
1 "And you, O son of man, take for yourself a brick, and you must put it before you and engrave upon it a city, even Jerusalem.
Ok, so we have this guy who is supposed to take a brick and draw a picture of Jerusalem on it. Why does he have to take a brick and engrave a picture of Jerusalem on it? Beats me! The scripture doesn’t explain that part.
2 And you must lay siege against it and build a siege wall against it and throw up a siege rampart against it and set encampments against it and put battering rams all around against it.
Ok, so here the guy has to lay a siege against “it.” Does that mean he is to lay siege against Jerusalem? Or lay siege against the brick with the picture of Jerusalem on it? Hard to tell.
3 And as for you, take to yourself an iron griddle, and you must put it as an iron wall between you and the city, and you must fix your face against it, and it must get to be in a siege, and you must besiege it.
Ok, so now we have this griddle that faces the unfortunate fate of being besieged. Where I come from, griddles are used for making pancakes, not for besieging.
“..It is a sign to the house of Israel.”
Engraved brick + besieged griddle = “sign to Israel.” Ok, fair enough. I prefer plagues, and worldwide floods myself. They are a heck of a lot more dramatic and make their point a lot better than bricks and griddles. Two guys are walking along minding their own business and one of them says to the other, “Hey, look! There’s a brick with a drawing of Jersusalem on it! And right beside it is a griddle. What do you think that means?” Second guy, “well, either some guy lost all his marbles, is having a yard sale, or it must be a “sign.” Yeah, it definitely must be a sign.”
Right.
4 "And as for you, lie upon your left side, and you must lay the error of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you will lie upon it you will carry their error. 5 And I myself must give to you the years of their error to the number of three hundred and ninety days, and you must carry the error of the house of Israel. 6 And you must complete them.
This is definitely a cruel thing to do, but doing cruel things to poor, helpless schmuck humans never stopped God before. God tells Ezekiel to lie on his left side for a total of 1 year and one month. I can’t even lie on my left side for a single NIGHT, let alone a YEAR.
Ezekiel definitely ended up with some serious bed sores.
"And you must lie upon your right side in the second case, and you must carry the error of the house of Judah forty days. A day for a year, a day for a year, is what I have given you. 7 And to the siege of Jerusalem you will fix your face, with your arm bared, and you must prophesy against it.
This is the KEY verse the WTS uses for its major predictions, most notably 607-1914. For every day that Ezekiel lies on his right side, Jerusalem will be sieged for a year.
8 "And, look! I will put cords upon you that you may not turn yourself from your one side to your other side, until you will have completed the days of your siege.
God wants to make sure Ezekiel doesn’t roll over. God didn’t trust Ezekiel very much. No wonder. Ezekiel was a stoner.
It gets worse. Not only does God make Ezekiel lie on his side for 390 days, he makes him eat food cooked with shit. God, you are such a prankster!
9 “And as for you, take for yourself wheat and barley and broad beans and lentils and millet and spelt, and you must put them in one utensil and make them into bread for you, for the number of the days that you are lying upon your side; three hundred and ninety days you will eat it. 10 And your food that you will eat will be by weight—twenty shekels a day. From time to time you will eat it.
11 “And water you will drink merely by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you will drink.
12 “And as a round cake of barley you will eat it; and as for it, upon dung cakes of the excrement of mankind you will bake it before their eyes.” 13 And Jehovah went on to say: “Just like this the sons of Israel will eat their bread unclean among the nations to which I shall disperse them.”
14 And I proceeded to say: “Alas, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! Look! My soul is not a defiled one; neither a body [already] dead nor a torn animal have I eaten from my youth up, even until now, and into my mouth there has come no foul flesh.”
Ezekiel: “please God! Don’t make me eat food cooked with people's shit!”
God: "shut up!"
15 Accordingly he said to me: “See, I have given you cattle manure instead of the dung cakes of mankind, and you must make your bread upon it.” 16 And he continued saying to me: “Son of man, here I am breaking the rods around which ring-shaped loaves are suspended, in Jerusalem, and they will have to eat bread by weight and in anxious care, and it will be by measure and in horror that they will drink water itself, 17 to the intent that they may be lacking bread and water and they may look astonished at one another and rot away in their error.
There you have it, one of only TWO verses that give us the Bible “rule” for time-prophecies: “a day for a year.” That little gem is hidden among brick-engraving, griddle sieging, left-side lying and shit-cooking. Therefore, it MUST be the truth.
The second and only OTHER example for the “day for a year” theory.
*** Rbi8 Numbers 14:31-35 ***
31 “And YOUR little ones who YOU said would become plunder, these also I shall certainly bring in, and they will indeed know the land that YOU have rejected. 32 But the carcasses of YOU yourselves will fall in this wilderness. 33 And YOUR sons will become shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and they will have to answer for YOUR acts of fornication, until YOUR carcasses come to their end in the wilderness. 34 By the number of the days that YOU spied out the land, forty days, a day for a year, a day for a year, YOU will answer for YOUR errors forty years, as YOU must know what my being estranged means.
35 “I Jehovah have spoken if this is not what I shall do to all this evil assembly, those who have gathered together against me: In this wilderness they will come to their end, and there they will die
Both examples in the Bible show God’s anger for Israel being jerks, and in both examples, for every day they were jerks, he would punish them for a year. To put this in human terms, for every day their child was bad, parents would ground them for a year. “If you’re bad for five days children, you are grounded for five YEARS! Parents like that would be in jail in a New York minute. But God didn’t just do that. He KILLED his bad children just to emphasize his point.
Well, that’s it, folks. That is the ENTIRE evidence the WTS offers for using a “day for a year” in their prophecies, most notably their chief prophecy and the one that gives them their entire basis for spiritual authority: 1914.
The only two examples in the Bible involve God’s er, rather strict punishment for wickedness and rebellion, and no reference is made to those examples applying to other prophecy and especially a “modern-day fulfillment” prophecy.
Note to alert readers: did you catch a very important piece of evidence I haven't discussed in this article related to the "year for a day rule?" Well, in the only two Bible examples there are, for every day the Israelites were bad boys, God punished them for a year. That's it. That's all the evidence. But the Watchtower society twists this all over the place and says that YEARS have to be FIRST converted to DAYS, which are then converted BACK to YEARS OF DAYS. It would be a big enough stretch to take Bible examples where a number of days are mentioned and then say they represented not days, but years. However, that would at least be CLOSE to the two examples the Bible gives for a "day for a year." But it is a gigantic stretch to take a situation where "times" are mentioned, and convert those "times" to "years" then to convert those years into "days", and turn those "days" back into "years" to make a prophecy work.
Furthermore, in their most important interpretation of prophecies where DAYS are actually mentioned in those Bible verses (e.g. 1,260 days in Revelation 12, and 1,335 days and the 2,300 days which I will discuss in Daniel 8 For Dummies III) the WTS does NOT follow its very own rule and convert them into years. NO! They treat them as literal days!
But I'm not surprised. Making "gigantic stretches" and total inconsistency is a hallmark of Jehovah's Witness leaders and their Bible chronology.
To you dubbies reading this: do you want to base every important decision for the rest of your LIFE based upon THAT kind of scripture-stretching nonsense?
Farkel