by RULES & REGULATIONS 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Come on, guys! Quit bullying the GB!
They are just imperfect men who, although "empowered by Holy Spirit; assisted by angels; and guided by God's Word" might err in matters of doctrine or organizational direction. (Feb 2017 WT Par 12)
Aren't they allowed to screw up on occasion?
[Sarcasm Alert for our slow learners]
The analogy is wrong. This is not a dog that occasionally barks at the wrong time. The GB claim to be speaking with direct authority from God and lives are ruined by their wrong interpretations of world events. This dog is attacking family members unprovoked, so should definitely be put down!
Adopting the "GB are just humble brothers whose only fault is their excessive zeal and enthusiasm" defense...
Never mind how many lives they ruin in the process.
Never mind how they require all JWs to believe everything they say or get DFd because of their independent thinking.
I'd love to see the judicial committee that accepts "they got excited" as an excuse for sin!
It's not just the JWs, this page on Wikipedia goes over 50 failed past predictions and yet to fail future expectations. Only a few are from the Jws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_and_claims_for_the_Second_Coming
Yet mentally screwed christians, continue to get excited and wet them selves over a fairy story.
Problem was and is, if you don't party with the GB expetations, "know it better then the brothers", you would be excluded out of the social system, excommunicated and lose your loved ones, family and friends.
Just because you were right, you lost everything.
That's how it was and that's why the dog had to be kicked at his butt.
I'm writing this in honour of all those kicked out, because they did not believe in the false doctrine.
G.
About 40 or even 50 years ago I came up with an interpretation of a Scripture different to that of how the G.B interpreted matters, in the Tuesday night Book study. It really was only a minor nuance, nothing big.
The Elder conducting told me in a supercilious way "That is not what the Society says " ( they didn't in those days say G.B or Org.)
I just shrugged, the great thing was later in the year "The Society" published my interpretation exactly, Ha Ha .
That Noo Lite can be a bugger ! for some.
How do they have the GALL to claim they are directed by Holy Spirit ?
@Phizzy
Well, good for you! You've had your satisfaction for a year! I was probably sometime around 2003 having conversations with my brother-in-law on the subject of the 1914 calculation. It wasn't just about the classic doubts surrounding 608 BC or 539 BC, but it was about the history of chronological speculation in general, especially starting with J.A. Bengel (1687-1752), who greatly popularized this "fashion" and gave it a scientific edge... he was already having trouble figuring out how long a year actually is and how to accurately measure it. The question of the length of the Sidereal or Tropical year and its effect on calendrical science (we still have to consider their 2520 highly obscure "years"!!!) is not a concern to JWs, much less the question of which of these methods of measuring the length of the year Christ would follow - if he were to respect Mr. Russell's calculation😁✌️
Nor is the conversion of the 1260 days in Revelation into years theologically warranted.
This is indeed an old tradition, attested as early as Hyppolytus of Rome in connection with his interpretation of 70 weeks as 490 years in Daniel, but nowhere does the obligation(!) to convert days into years arise. If this is consistently done in Revelation, then absurd situations arise, such as that of the day of the Lord lasting a year...and this, in the context of the 1260 days of the same Revelation, already contradicts itself here...
Likewise, it is very doubtful whether "time and times and half a time", is really 3 1/2 times. Just because this time corresponds to 1260 days or 42 months does not define that "time" (καιρος) is "year". Strictly speaking, it only states that it is "time" and the plural "times" and half of "time", this could also indicate a much shorter unit of time, for example 3 months: then the interpretation could be that this phrase could also read "3 months and 3x-months and 1.5 months". But, as I will point out, the uniform length is not fixed in terms of years, months or weeks.
Equally interesting is that the Jews, according to the testimony of Justin Martyr, understood "times and times and half a time" in Daniel to be a period of 350 years...
In the NT text, the καιρος is associated at least with the length of Elizabeth's pregnancy (Luke 1:20), but also only with the "time of the harvest" (e.g., Matt 13:30), but against this also with the eschatological "time" (cf. Rev 1:3), an unknown length, all of which prevents us from knowing how long the καιρος lasts.*
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that we do not know - we only suspect, and at least since the Greek translators of the OT - which translation is correct when they translated the 7 times in the Aramaic section of Dan 4:13 (22, 29), since we have a documented translation of the Aramaic "iddan", at one time as a year and at another time as a time (καιρος).
How long did it take Nebuchadnezzar to grow his hair like feathers and his nails like claws, according to Dan 4:30? According to his own words, it took "days" (Dan 4:31), so the 7 "times" were 7 weeks or 7 months or 7 risings or settings of some star...we don't know...but that it was 7 years is even less certain.
Either way, in every step of the calculation of the chronological speculation for 1914 one can find a problem and evaluate it as very risky, which if proven to be true, then the whole construct collapses. And there are a number of those places...
I described all this to him in detail about 20 years ago. He didn't hesitate to turn me in to the national JW office. Without listening to me, they wrote him a reply saying that they would not go into an analysis of what I had told him, and based on what he had written to them (and I don't know what he wrote to them, I only have their reply), they told him that I was "deep in apostasy". 😁😁😁 Yes, yes, he's deep into apostasy.
So, I give JW another 20, maybe 30 years or so, when they will definitely abandon the chronological speculation on 1914 and also like me, fallen into apostasy😁😁😁
Of course it is clear to all and sundry that even then, if I live to see it, I will be pulling the shorter string, because even if it were the case that by abandoning the dogma of 1914, they would become apostates like me, I was not waiting for Jehovah's chariot, I was getting ahead of myself and all, being disobedient to a faithful and discreet slave who needs decades to do this and not a few days in the library. Which already says the famous Murphy's Law: a few years in the lab, saves us a few hours in the library.
The JW-system is, in my opinion, unbeatable by human power!😁😁😁
* καιρος -see any of the explanatory dictionaries for NT Greek. That aside, I did a little research on the meaning of this word according to extant papyrological texts. The word is used there in the sense of some appropriate period of time, a suitable period for e.g. ship repair. It is typical of the meaning of καιρος that it begins with some change, lasts for some time, and ends with some change. So when the ancient writer used καιρος and applied it to, for example, ship repair, he added that there was nothing to do on the docks at the moment, so it was good to use this καιρος. The meaning of καιρος as a definite, bounded time, as I have found it in papyrological monuments, then corresponds to NT Greek. Both the "silence" of John the Baptist's father and this καιρος were initiated by some change, lasted throughout the pregnancy, and ended with the birth of John. Καιρος, as a time of harvest, has the same meaning: the grain or figs ripen, καιρος begins, lasts through the harvest, and ends after the harvest. The eschatological significance is also subject to the same description, but I need not elaborate on that... it is obvious.
The dates they pulled out of the air are their reason for existing!!
WTC is a charlatan - they can spin it all they want but it won’t change what they are.
