Why does every prophecy has to have two (or more) completions?

by teel 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  teel

  You know the standard JW doctrine, Babylon the Great, fall of Jerusalem, kingship of David, Jonah's life you name it, it has to have a "bigger completion" later. Some of these are actually mentioned in the Bible - Jesus being the bigger Jonah, Revelations mentioning the fall of Babylon the Great many years after the actuall Babylon fell, Jerusalem falling to Babylon was just a precursor to Jerusalem falling to the Romans, which was just a precursor to... (what now? meh... is old age creeping upon me? ) etc.

  So does history really repeats itself? Did the oriental view of the history being a circle creeped its way into the Bible, or there is really something to it? Or let me put it this way: what was first, the idea of Babylon the Great in God's head and He directed the world to make a smaller completion of that idea, or He saw the history of man and thought "neato, I'll make things similar later at Armageddon"? Either way it seems the history was manipulated. If God's idea was first, then he interfered with mankind just to make a prophetic precursor, if the history happened first, then it seems like God changed His plans to coincide with a bigger completion.

  Or this is just my problem of viewing things, and history actually provides so many parallels that one can pick any event in history and find a "bigger completion" later? But this is again the oriental circle of history... (sorry 'bout my ramblings)
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  MissingLink

  Any wack-job can see prophecy "fulfilled" once. It takes a special kinda crazy to see multiple fullfilments. JW leaders are that "special".
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  bohm

  link: Especially when you write the prophecy after the fact...

  teel: I think the problem is that the second 'greater' fullfillment allows the interpreter an even GREATER wiggly room in interpreting exactly what 'greater' mean, for example all prophesys fullfilled by the WTS.

  IMHO history seem to repeat itself because the nature of humans remain the same. Try to pick any ancient city and read about it on wikipedia. Chances are it has been invaded and detroyed a couple of times.
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  behemot

  The multiple fulfillment thing is not something the JWs came up with. It has involved the interpretation of "holy" writings since long ago (a fter all, their basic ambiguity makes it an easy exercise).

  Typological exegesis was already a fundamental feature of the pesher literature from Qumran; indeed, the word pesher, “prophetic meaning”, suggests the belief that a text from the biblical period (previous "fulfillments" notwithstanding) anticipates events that would transpire much later (mostly in the Qumran community own time, of course).

  For pesher, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesher

  The early Christians did something similar when they "saw" ancient prophecies (or events) as referring to their Messiah and "saw" the OT as the preparation of the NT (i.e. apostle Paul - in Ephesians 5:31,32 - claiming that the union between man and woman in Genesis was a mysterious reference to the union between Christ and his Church).
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  WTWizard

  The first time was written, fact or fiction. The second time, it was used as a scam--it happened then, it will happen again (which is a blatant lie). So, you need to join our organization so you can survive it when it has its second fulfillment (which never comes).

  All scam.
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  leavingwt

  Typology is theory of history.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typology_(theology)
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  AllTimeJeff

  Jehovah's Witnesses have been typologists, and they are far from the first to use it to their own ends... Here is Wiki's definition.

  Wikipedia Typology

  Typology (a.k.a. figura in Latin) in Christian theology and Biblical exegesis is a doctrine or theory concerning the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. Events in the Old Testament (a term linked with Supersessionism, see Hebrew Bible) are seen as pre-figuring events or aspects of Christ in the New Testament, and, in the fullest version of the theory, that is seen as the purpose behind the Old Testament events occurring. The theory began in the Early Church, was at its most influential in the High Middle Ages, and continued to be popular, especially in Calvinism, after the Protestant Reformation, but in subsequent periods has been given less emphasis. [ 1 ]

  Typology, derived from the Greek word for "mark", posits that Old Testament events or statements are the "types" pre-figuring an aspect of Christ and his revelation, who is the "antitype" to each type. The Early Christians, in considering the Old Testament, needed to decide what its role and purpose for them was, given that Christian revelation and the New Covenant might be considered to have replaced it, and many specific Biblical rules and requirements in books like Leviticus were no longer being followed. See also Leviticus 18.

  One purpose of the Old Testament for Christians was to demonstrate that Christ's first coming had been prophesised and foreseen, and the Gospels already contain many passages that explicitly and implicitly link Jesus to old Testament prophecies. Typology greatly extended the number of these links by adding to those based on phrases in the Old Testament others based on the similarity of Old Testament actions or situations to an aspect of Christ.

  Typology is also a theory of history, seeing the whole story of the Jewish and Christian peoples as shaped by God, with events within the story acting as symbols for later events - in this role God is often compared to a writer, using actual events instead of fiction to shape his narrative. [ 2 ]

  To answer your question would be to assume that the bible is considered authoratative, which in my opinion, I do not believe it is. (in viewing it as a prophetic and inspired holy book, that is) It was eye opening at Gilead to realize that the course is basically a JW typology course. I have commented on this frequently in other threads, but as you are alluding to, the GB teaches that most major OT characters were prophetic of the existence of the first 3 presdients of the WTBTS, the faithful and discreet slave, and the governing structure that JW's promote today.

  Any group could do this. I could claim my life and existence were "typified" by Noah for example. Ridiculous, but true.
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  AllTimeJeff

  Sorry leavingWT... You beat me to it... :)
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  BluesBrother

  Amos 3 :1 &2

  “Hear this word that Jehovah has spoken concerning YOU, O sons of Israel, concerning the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 ‘YOU people only have I known out of all the families of the ground. That is why I shall hold an accounting against YOU for all YOUR errors.

  WT 04 11/15 p19

  Second, the execution of divine judgment upon the apostate kingdom of Israel makes it certain that God will bring destruction upon Christendom, the most reprehensible part of “Babylon the Great,” the world empire of false religion.

  Really ? The Bible does not say so. I do not recall Amos writing down that there would be a second anti typical fulfillment.

  If you are going to make one up, you could make up whatever you want to apply it to..
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  DrJohnStMark

  The more fulfillments the better the prophecy. Or how was it... remembering the oracle of Delphi...