Compton
I just read those two chapters. Interesting.
Is 1914 date flawed?
by badboy 17 Replies latest jw friends
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Flip
I would suspect relatively recent manipulations coupled with limited attention given this subject by the Writing Dept has been sufficient to have gotten loyal Jehovahs Witnesses to the point where the mention of any perceived notion that the Watchtower Corporation once attached significant meaning to 1914 is simply an apostate rant.
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Yerusalyim
The question was (is),
My response is, "Well, duh, do ya think?"Is 1914 date flawed?
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NameWithheld
1914? Huh? What you talkin' 'bout Willus? We never said 1914!
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garybuss
The date 1914 is not the product of the Watch Tower Corporation nor is it the invention of Charles Russell. The date simply came from the followers of William Miller who added 30 years to the date of the Great Disappointment of 1844 to arrive at the date of 1874 for the date of the second advent of Jesus and the accompanying end of the world. When that event failed they decided that 1874 was the date that Jesus returned invisibly and they added 40 years to 1874 to arrive at the date of 1914.
It can be read in abstract in the book Three Worlds Or Plan Of Redemption, by Nelson Barbour and published by Charles Russell. The Second Advent movement has a written history of the dates and events and the strategies developed to deal with the failures so the group could continue. Russell and the magazine and book publishing corporation he founded are products of the Second Adventist movement and he discusses this in detail in his writings. (See Zion's Watch Tower, July 15, 1906 pages 230-231)
Three Worlds reports 6000 years ended in 1873, p. 118; presents events in the context of "present truth", p. 30; and predicts Jesus's physical return on the mount of Olives in 1914, p. 84.
For history of the Pyramid measurements see the work of John and Morton Edgar. The pyramid inch and the British inch were not the same. The pyramid inch was .999 of the British inch. (See page 25 of section The Great Pyramid, It's Scientific Features, Part 1 of 1914 AD And The Great Pyramid by John Edgar)
The Jehovah's Witnesses have absolutely nothing new except maybe the blood medical treatment advise thesis. All the apocalypse dates and failure strategies came from the Second Advent movement from which Barbour and Russell came.
gbThe Way I See it http://www.freeminds.org/buss/buss.htm
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gumby
I always enjoyed(sarcasm here) the society's interpretation of "every eye will see him"
You know the one they use...."the eyes of understanding". Like any one other than a Witness would have a clue. Do they really think anyone ( other than witnesses ) NOTICED JESUS in 1914 with their eyes of understanding?????????????????
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garybuss
It makes no sense to examine the claims of a group that insists it's magazine publishing corporation is directed by God without examining the God and the sacred writings. Can it be demonstrated the God exists without using dogmatism or magical thinking? Are the sacred writings without error and without fallibility?
What does the history of the tribal group that "discovered" the God say about that event? Are the sacred texts reliable without "faith"? and understandable without "inspiration"?
If there is a flaw in the basic authority claim of the group, the elements of the claim are rendered useless and not worth questioning. In the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses, their authority is based on their claim to possessing exclusive access to the invisible god of the Jews even to the exclusion of the Jews themselves.
Just from my armchair research, the history books of the Hebrew people written by them, plainly states that they made up the notion of an invisible god. I have found Karen Armstrong's book, A History Of God, to be a good abstract work on the invention of the personal, conceptual, invisible god by primitive, superstitious people, attempting to explain the world and the life around them and the justices as well as the injustices they saw every day.
I have no problem with any of that. What I do have a problem with is a religious group that demands absolute loyalty to the exclusion of friends, family, education, financial security, health, and even life itself, based on their authority derived from communication with a god that was invented by a literate race of ancient intelligent people.
gbThe Way I See it http://www.freeminds.org/buss/buss.htm