Is Prophecy important?

by EA916 74 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Crazyguy

  To answer your question, is prophecy important I would say yes. The fact that I can think of six off the top of my head that did not come true shows me that the bible is not a holy book written by god. The six I speak of are the destruction of Trye by the Babylonians they were unsuccessful and it was later rebuilt after Alexander a Greek destroyed it. 2. Damascus to be destroyed and be a pile or just a heap again didn't happen after the verse was written in Isaiah. 3 the Babylonians were to conquer Egypt again didn't happen. 4 Egyptian's were to find themselves speaking Hebrew or some other Semitic language again didn't happen. 5 Jesus told his followers that some of them would not die before he returned, again didn't happen.

  6 the Davidic line would always rule, again if there was even a Davidic line it stopped after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E.. Yes some will argue that a kingly line did still exist and one even was present after they returned from Babylon (if you believe the Bible) but the Persians did not allow a king on the throne at Jerusalem and no Davidic king was again on the throne until Jesus supposedly showed up over 400 years later.

  I'm sure there is more prophecies that I don't mention like the one in the last chapter of the bible where 5 times its says Jesus would be back very soon, but hey whose counting.
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  Xanthippe

  Indeed, if this phrase wasn't just a one off from a young and fresh CO but a new direction from the GB, it would certainly mean that the society is working on a new take of the end times - Ruby 456

  Well of course they are. The 1914 generation turned 100 last year and guess what - no paradise. Many of them have missed the overlapping generations nonsense if my JW friend is anything to go by. When she writes occasionally she says she thinks we must be near the end because of gay marriage. Many are stil hanging on to the end coming in their lifetime so something's got to give soon. They are using zone to get away from generation. It has no deep meaning, they're just easing people away from any idea the end will come before they die.
  
  
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  Jonathan Drake

  I would say that prophecy is not important.

  its been proven that none of the prophecies in the bible were even prophecies, but instead were written after they happened. I've read there's even much the suggest that rather than Jesus ACTUALLY fulfilling the prophecies of the messiah, the New Testament writers merely wrote him as having done so (as partially evidenced by the apparent mistranslation of the Greek word for "young women" as "Virgin" by Matthew and Luke I believe, while mark and John have no knowledge of a virgin birth whatever).

  prophecy is bunk
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  Half banana

  Prophecy as sold by modern religion has the lure of magic. Prophecy was intended for the illiterate. Prophecy was the tool in trade of soothsayers to give the ignorant a thing to marvel at but like the JW cult, it is just guesswork since nobody can predict the future and nobody ever did.

  In other words it is a complete waste of time.
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  Ruby456

  thanks xanthippe, I agree completely. My interest was aroused because I could see that the young co had spent some time thinking about the outline and his use of the phrase zone of the end indicated how creative he needed to be to grapple with the ideas in the outline.

  Another interesting thing he said (and this is inclining me to believe that these thoughts originate with the co rather than with the GB) was 'you know how narratives build suspense and heighten attention. Shorter sentences and abrupt breaks in sentences'. 'Well' he said 'this is how we should read the signs indicating the zone of the end'.

  additionally he must have siad 'sorry I'm having difficulty getting to grips with this new outline' at least three or four times. Poor chap - he must have had to torture himself to get past any dissonance he was experiencing. The two illustrative factors, space and time - zone and narrative - did it for him imo.