by scotoma 45 Replies latest jw friends
They dare not risk the political world changing and making them look stupid again. But rest assured that if we are asking where the king of the north has gone... so will the seat warmers @ the kingdom hall.
Besides... there is only one King of The North silly.....
The WTS has always played with people's fears, insecurities and ignorance as a means of exploitation.
Russia was once symbolized as being the king of the North, if Russia once again makes some strong armed political push into the future
you can bet the WTS. will exploit that situation as well.
Well its a publishing house they have to use whatever they can to keep the publics attention don't they.
Russia because of its massive border area surrounded by so many countries with different ways of life and religions always has had a massive security problem.
I recently re watched Dr. Strangelove the comedic film that summed up the situaion between Russia and America during the cold war .There is one particular bit amongst many in it which I found amusing was when the the Russian Ambassador and the American top General start fighting in the millitary operations room and Peter Sellers as the President of the USA says "gentlemen you can't fight in here this is the war room."
Russia because of its massive border area surrounded by so many countries with different ways of life and religions always has had a massive security problem.
I recently re watched Dr. Strangelove the comedic film that summed up the situaion between Russia and America during the cold war .There is one particular bit amongst many in it which I found amusing was when the the Russian Ambassador and the American top General start fighting in the millitary operations room and Peter Sellers as the President of the USA says "gentlemen you can't fight in here this is the war room."
Good topic. I remember being a kid (&JW) during the 60's terrified Russia was going to us blow us up.
Cedars: appreciated your comment about x becoming y illustration. No wonder I could never keep that BS straight. You got it all figured out in one chapter and then they flip it around in the next. So glad it wasn't just me who had questions about that
mP
We are talking about different eras :)
No. You're not. You're talking about retrospective fictionalising.
Cedars: I failed to notice the mixed identity of the successor to Rome.
The questions of the successor to Rome would have been easier if JW's weren't looking at things from a western bias.
So what if Britain was a Roman colony. It was basically anti-rome. The belief that there would be a third Rome is a theme that has been used quite a bit. The Russians have a strong tradition even today of a claim to being the third Rome. Even though the Western Roman empire collapsed that wasn't the end of the Roman empire. Constantine set up New Rome which was later called Constantinople. The Russians believe that Moscow is the Third Rome - C-zar, Romanoff family, the double headed eagle which the Russian olympic contestants proudly displayed. The double headed eagle goes back to Byzantium and represents the Roman empire facing East and West.
Also, if Russia was recognized as the extension of the Roman empire they would have a perfect explanation for the iron mixed with clay. Russia's biggest problem has been the over 100 nationalities that make up its population. Putin is given credit for stopping the disintegration of Russia. First it broke up into the CIS countries. Next it started breaking up into smaller nations like Chechnya. The Chechens ought to be able to claim independence just like Georgia and Ukraine. Putin leveled Grozny the capital of Chechnya. It was a city of about 700,000 people. So Russia still has some of the Iron like characteristics to hold the clay/iron together.
It would then be easy to make Daniel and Revelation parallel. The seventh head of the beast would be Russia. Russia (Soviet Union) appeared slaughtered to death. Has Russia's death blow been healed? It looks like Putin is in the process of doing just that. Then Babylon the Great would easily be the United States which has hegemony as the dominant power in the world. It's a lot easier to understand Babylon the Great as the richest entity with its shameless luxury floating the worlds economy.
Oh, well. Apparently their God has other interpretations he wants fed to his domestics.
You need a lot of talent to come up with this types of interpretations. I always had my doubts about this, same as with the Apocalipse book. Never delved too deep into it.
scotoma,
I am amazed at your passioned and somewhat believable argument.
There is just one little sticky problem. You neglected to mention the very real possibility that the "prophesies" of "Daniel" are all bullshit.
I've written a half dozen essays on other chapters of Daniel that show THEY are total bullshit. If some of Daniel is bullshit, why should we believe the rest of Daniel including the King of the North story? Or if some of Daniel is bullshit but other parts are not bullshit, how can we know which is bullshit and which isn't? Why would God allow bullshit in a Holy Book and also allow "true" prophecy right next to the bullshit? How will we know what is what?
Just asking.
A good psychedelic reference is the classic 1958 book entitled "Your Will Be Done in Heaven and Brooklyn." It's out-of-print, though, but you can probably find a copy in head shops. They would probably be right beside the nifty bongs.
They released a whopping SEVEN books at that book-promotion gathering in NYC, including the wonderful and comforting children's book, "From Paradise Lost to Paradise Renamed." They too, are out-of-print. Had the lawyers in the Candace Condi case introduced that book into evidence and nothing else, the court would have hung the perp up on the yard arms, together with the GB.
Farkel
I've written a half dozen essays on other chapters of Daniel that show THEY are total bullshit. If some of Daniel is bullshit, why should we believe the rest of Daniel including the King of the North story? Or if some of Daniel is bullshit but other parts are not bullshit, how can we know which is bullshit and which isn't? Why would God allow bullshit in a Holy Book and also allow "true" prophecy right next to the bullshit? How will we know what is what?
There's no 'rule' that says something has to be all true or all false (or "total bullshit"). It is certainly the case that none of Daniel bears any relevance at all to any period after the time the book was completed (2nd century BCE). It is no great stretch of the imagination that the author threw in details from available historical records to give it a Neo-Babylonian setting. It's plausible that the 'court tales' (chapters 1 to 6) were adapted from older fables written earlier, possibly loosely based on events in Babylon. The inclusion of Daniel among 'the Writings' (Ketuvim) rather than 'the Prophets' (Nevi'im) indicates that even at the time it wasn't considered to be 'prophetic'.
