Have you ever seen a STOP sign?
Sure you have.
What if it were a "Decelerate until stationary!" sign, instead?
I think you know already.
Not as pithy and .....ridiculous conflation of meaning!
If you have an extremely important bit of information to communicate you use impactful precision, do you not?
You know those office signs? KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!
Does the Watchtower Society keep it simple for the stupid?
Do they have a very important set of facts to get across or not?
END TIMES prophecy is the foundation of Jehovah's Witness theology.
They either know what they are talking about or they are hopelessly confused.
If they know what they are talking about they should be able to KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Watchtower Chronology suffers from weak logical links. After all, they start with an unproven premise and begin linking and linking and linking and suddenly they produce the rabbit out of the hat. 1914 is the rabbit
WEAKEST LINKS logically in the Watchtower Society's chronology of end times.
In Daniel's chapter four prophecy he uses the expression: "seven times". This expression is applied to Nebuchadnezzer. This king of Babylonia would become a werewolf (lycanthrope) for seven years.
Watchtower application:
1.There is a latter day application to the prophecy in Daniel.
2.The application points to the destruction of Jerusalem.
3.That event happened in 607 B.C.E.
4.Those Gentile Times end in 1914 C.E.
5.Seven Times means seven years of 360 days each.
And don't forget that although in point 5 the Seven Times means seven years of 360 days each, in point 8 the WTS uses 365.2422 days per year.
If the Gentile times began in 607 BC then why did Jesus say: "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near... and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."
So why link the start to 607 BC when, according to Jesus' words above, it is more logical to start at 70 AD?
6.A "day for a year" applies to these 360 days.
7. Seven times 360=2,520 days for Nebuchadnezzer's werewolf mania.
8.A day for a year in the latter day fulfillment gives us 2,500 years for Gentile domination
(Never explain Watchtower chronology late at night after two glasses of wine!)
Weak link: The Daniel account says the tree represents Nebuchadnezzar.
Weak link: Nowhere in the account does it mention the words "in the final part of the days .."
Times don't mean times, but years.
Years don't mean years, but days.
Days don't mean days either, but years.
Calculations using 360 days from an ancient calendar = a prophetic date in a modern 365 day calendar.
A 360 day year?
Throughout human history the year has been 365 and a quater days
What has differed is the MEANS of calculation of how long a year was.
In times past when the length of a true year was unknown different nations had different lengths of years and leap years were incerted every now and then according to how far behind the true year they were falling.
The Baylonians at some points in history used a 360 day year but used leap years of longer length as well to make up time when they fell behind.
Why doesn't the Bible writer ("Daniel") simply say what he means? It has the makings of an amateur's attempt to plot a murder mystery with "clues" everywhere.
The Creation "days", we are told, are not literal days at all. But, the scripture talks about an "evening and a morning" over and over. The retreat into REDEFINITION of simple everyday words smacks of desperation.
Daniel's SEVEN TIMES means what, exactly? Why pose the prophecy as a multiplication problem? In Hebrew, Greek it was positively difficult backbreaking work to multiply large numbers--because.......why?
Because they HAD NO NUMBERS! The letters of their alphabet did double-duty for numbers.
Imagine if we had to do that in English! A=1, B=2, C=3 etc. Could you even balance your checkbook? (Can you anyway? :)
Writing a spooky prophecy and making the whole business seem "divine" must have provoked the wording and the folderol. Hocus-Pocus and little else!
How would the prophecy be any different if Daniel simply said, "Nebuchadnezzer is going to be a werewolf for seven years" ?
Why interpret the years as days? Why force the days to be multiplied?
Why view this as a minor fulfillment and apply it to Messianic computations?
If it isn't given to man to understand God's timetable; it seem there are a lot of timetable redherring clues being planted!
Stuff and nonsense, I say!
Consider:
The JW interpretation, the "greater" fulfillment of the "prophecy" actually begins before the prophecy has even been given.
The JW's believe the greater fulfillment of the Dream of the Tree began in 607 BC when Jehovah allowed the "tree" of Davidic kingship to be cut down.
607 BC was well before Nebuchadnezzar had even had the dream and well before Belteshazzar had interpreted it.
Consider:
Russell taught the "last days" began in 1799 and the WTS teaches that they began in 1914, but BOTH Russell and today's WTS teach that the Times of the Gentiles ended in 1914, based upon Daniel's prophecy.
What's the problem with that? The problem is that Russell put forth a teaching in 1876 (that is still taught today), that in effect, "unsealed" the book of Daniel. Yet, the author of Daniel said that book could not be unsealed until the "time of the end," which began a full 38 years AFTER Russell unsealed the werewolf "prophecy."
This means that IF Russell unsealed Daniel 38 years before the book COULD be unsealed, then the statement in Daniel about its unsealing is a lie.
Therefore in the JW interpretation, the prophetic fulfillment actually starts before the prophecy is given.
Consider:
Can somebody out there tell us when a day=day?
when a day=1 year ?
when a day = 1000 years ?
and the diffrence of when a day = 7000 years?
The ONLY link the Watch Tower Publishing Corporation has to 1914 is their claim that Charles Russell predicted the right events for the right date.