Is the Watchtower stubbornly holding onto the 70 year exile figure within the Old Testament?

by sabastious 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Alfred
    Alfred

    I hate to repeat what has already been said here, but here it goes again...

    The WT has no choice but to keep saying "desolation" (instead of servitude) or face having to explain which Bablilonian king the jews were serving between 539 and 537 B.C.E..

    As the WT knows all too well, there was no Babilonian king... he was killed in 539 B.C.E... so it's best that they stay away from even mentioning that 70-year "servitude" thing... the brothers might stumble (the smart ones anyway)... besides, Jehovah will clear things up in his own due time...

  • Dutch-scientist
    Dutch-scientist

    here we go again. :)

  • Dutch-scientist
    Dutch-scientist

    Jer 29:10 For this is what Jehovah has said, ‘In accord with the fulfilling of seventy years at Babylon

    Besides At or For in the translation it ended when Babylon reign ended.

    No Judah or Jarusalem or 537 what so ever.

  • St George of England
    St George of England

    Don't confuse the issue by looking at facts.

    The only thing of any importance to JW's is that the date plus 2520 years must end up at 1914.

    The fact that the 1914 prophesy has failed is also ignored by JW's

    George

  • Witness My Fury
    Witness My Fury

    Just don't mention 1914 is the same thread as one discussing 607 or old egg gets all huffy about it for some reason. ...oh that's right, ...it's embarrassing.

  • Dutch-scientist
    Dutch-scientist

    yep 1914 must stand for all cost by jw's.

    Even there is no zero year or Jarusalem was destroyed in a other year or the 70 yeard ended and started in a other year then JW's believed.

    THEY (JW) HAVE 0.0% PROOF BUT THEY ARE ATTACKING PROOF THAT THEY ARE WRONG.

  • Hoping4Change
    Hoping4Change

    Here's a plug for Doug Mason's work on this:

    http://www.jwstudies.com/babylonian_captivity.html

  • Kensho
    Kensho

    70 yrs. exile, 586 or 607 1914, 1975, overlapping generation yada yada yada....

    These type of debates and arguments about dates, time tables,prophecies, and when the end will come etc. etc. whether they are promoted the WT religion or any other man made religion is all a waste of time.

    WHO CARES? The GB just uses this stuff to make the R&F think they are spirit-directed and because they have all the time (and your money) in the world to sit around and conjure up this crap they get away with it! The R&F are to busy trying to make a living,preaching and going to all the meetings, so whatever the GB says is just dandy with them.

    The Bible and all the other “holy books” claim their source is from God and that we should pattern our lives after them and then command us to convert other people to do likewise.

    The very fact that the “truth” is not plain and understandable by everyone proves these books are not from the Creator of the universe.

    This is evident from the order in the universe, the Creator would never give his creation a jigsaw puzzle with several key pieces missing and then tell us to just figure it out especially if it meant your life. The Creator would certainly not expect us to let the likes of Russell, Rutherford, Franz and the gang hand the missing pieces out either, just look at how many WRONG pieces they have handed out over the last 100+ yrs.

    These books are fairy tales from superstitious people who lived thousands of years ago to give them some sort of direction in their miserable lives. I mean come on goat herders, nomads,and tent dwelling tribal butchers are the ones chosen to record the word of God..give me a break.

    Today in the 21 st century Christian’s, Muslims, Hindus etc.….... and especially JW's have locked up their God given gift of REASON and are trying to live in a fairytale in a modern day that easily dispels fairy-tales and at the point of human evolution that these things defy reason

    I for one choose to watch my fairy-tales on the movie screen and deal with the reality of this life we have been given, we are in the here and now let's make the best of it and leave the rest to the Creator, and unite our belief in God with our gift of reason.

    Peace

    Kensho Satori

  • sd-7
    sd-7

    I just finished reading that October 1, 2011 WT article on this subject. Wow. Unbelievable. The reasoning used there is entirely dependent on the ignorance of the reader, both of the Bible and of secular history, not to mention just devoid of the capacity for logical analysis.

    The BIBLE ITSELF says in Jeremiah that Nebuchadnezzar took further inhabitants from the land of Judah in his TWENTY-THIRD YEAR, which is SIX YEARS after Jerusalem was destroyed. Oops! Guess the land wasn't completely emptied out, even if it was destroyed in 607 BCE. 70 year exile debunked...BY THE BIBLE. Jeremiah 52:30. Jews taken into EXILE in that verse had to be taken from Judah, or else it's a redundant thing to say.

    WT and friends just continue to believe what they want to believe, since none of them apparently bothered to actually read Jeremiah for the sake of anything but supporting a preset belief system.

    ...And did eggnog say "for Babylon"?? Doesn't he mean "AT Babylon"?? Shhh! Don't say anything, unless you want him to sue you for "plagiarizing the Bible"...

    --sd-7

  • sabastious
    sabastious
    Recall, too, that Jesus said (1) that his disciples are "no part of the world," so we don't much care what the world says if what they should declare our God to be a liar, and (2) that God's word "is truth." (John 17:16, 17)

    Here's the whole part of the beautiful scripture you have turned into a soulless tagline:

    John 17: 6-19 - 6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

    13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

    Here Jesus is soulfully thanking his father for allowing him to save us. If anything this scripture empowers the individual to continue being the beautiful individuals they are. It has an encouraging "help is on the way" tone of which is lost when quoted out of context and referred to by a tagline.

    From Jesus' perspective it was the individuals of his world that needed protection from it since most were corrupt. When he speaks of people "not of this world" he is speaking of his observations of a profound difference in heart condition between the small amount of good people who lived in his day and the corrupt masses of the "world."

    Jesus saw what anyone with eyes could see. The Hebrews, a once proud (albeit violent) nation, suddenly found themselves under feudal rule by the Roman empire. Many friends must have became traitors and enemies to save their own skin and the rest became severely oppressed. Yet even in the midst of darkness Jesus found people who didn't deserve it. They deserved redemption. He knew that there was injustices that stifled their true potential. He saw Martin Luther King Jr and Ghandi types in the lower and middle classes of his time and knew that if they could just be given hope they could and would change the world. He hated the rich even so much as to develop what psychologists today would call dysfunctional prejudice. He looked within the ranks of the lower and middle classes to find his heroes.

    What you're doing here, DJEggnog, is using the Bible outside of the scope of it's purpose. You are doing this by taking a snippet from a general principle within, in this case that there is always good worth saving no matter how much evil looks like it has taken over, and turning it into something quite different. You have ignored a whole set of scriptures for what they are truly conveying, quite beautifully I might add, and misuse an except to further an organizational agenda. Shame on you and stop living and breathing for a fraudulent human organization.

    -Sab

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit