by besty 30 Replies latest watchtower bible
Just for newbies, lurkers and as a reminder for all
Mary undertook a huge compilation of critical analysis of many of the key Watchtower doctrinal points
It can be downloaded as a 150Mb pdf - only 2Mb so won't kill your Internet connection
Almost 1000 downloads from Freeminds in the past few months :-)
I have sent out 59 copies.....It is a very much requested book
Good for Mary!!!!!!!!
Wonderful, can't wait to start reading!
Thanks to Mary
Thank you Mary
Looks pretty good except she follows Olof Jonsson's propaganda about the 70 years of desolation being servitude to Babylon which is totally dismissed by the Bible. It proves how effective scholarship can fool so many people. Here's a statement in her treatise
" Jonsson did indeed investigate the matter and found that there was not one piece of evidence to back up the Society's date of 607 BCE for the destruction of Jerusalem."
2 Chronicles 36 alone would be sufficient to establish the 70-year desolation. Josephus in Ant 11.1.1 confirms exactly when the 70 years historically take place in Jewish history which is 70 years of desolation ending the 1st of Cyrus. On that the WTS and Josephus agree. However, Josephus and the Bible begin the 70 years at the time of the last deportation in year 23 of Neb2, whereas the WTS mistakenly begin the 70 years in year 18 of Neb2, a year before Jerusalem falls per the Bible. So 607 indeed is a false calculation, but to say that there is not "one piece of evidence" to back up that calculation I wouldn't consider accurate.
This demonstrates that even those who dismiss or oppose the WTS for so many reasons related to their false teachings, that others come with their own agendas as well to promote things that others would not agree is Biblical. Jonsson ends up being an ant-Biblicalist for some of his conclusions. Strict Biblicalists veer from this and establish their own dates based on other evidence.
It would seem, therefore, that many XJWs who see the light to leave the WTS get misled by other false prophets, but maybe that's the best they can do under the circumstances. Thus only a few, perhaps just the JIOR elect would have the complete understanding of many doctrines by the time Armageddon gets here. Thus the small doctrinal details don't matter as much as their honesty and integrity to God, unfortunately, something that many XJWs end up losing.
LS
It would seem, therefore, that many XJWs who see the light to leave the WTS get misled by other false prophets,
Pot calling Kettle black - c'mon Lars the twoddle you come up with sometimes can only be false prophechy.
BibleTwit,
:It proves how effective scholarship can fool so many people.
Yeah. Effective scholarship sure fooled you.
Farkel
Saved to my computer. Thanks Mary!
Thank you, Besty! Mary mentioned it on a thread very recently, and I thought it was time for a bump! Thanks for beating me to it!
Also I didn't realize it was available with a link... that's AWESOME and Mary won't have to worry about emailing all of the requests!!!
Hooray, KUDOS, and thanks again to our Dear MARY!!!
While the WTS clearly has false teachings, they fundamentally claim to always go by the Bible when there is a conflict between the Bible and secular history. That is a position of a "Biblicalist." Olof Jonsson is not a Biblicalist. So some who have left the organization and been impressed with his evidence against 607 BCE don't realize this simply reflects revised documents that promote a false timeline.
In this sense this is a very Freemasonry type scenario where two false teachings are set up against each other while the one true scenario is not part of the debate. Thus in this case it seems the WTS and Olof Jonsson are on opposite sides of the fence but they both agree on one false date, which is 539 BCE, the fall of Babylon. This is not in agreement with the Biblical dating for that event in 462 BCE.
So in the Bible vs Jonsson vs WTS debate, the WTS is going to win some and Jonsson is going to win some. For instance.
1. Jonsson is absolutely correct that Daniel was deported in the accession year of Neb2, whereas the WTS tries to create a complicated timeline reference denying this chronology. I'm not sure why.
2. Jonsson promotes the VAT4956 as a key text in dating the NB Period and year 37 of Neb2 to 568 BCE. But in this case the WTS is correct in noting that this document is over 200 years past this event and is created during the Seleucid Period and thus whiel the astronomical information is accurate for 568 BCE, the historical reference to year 37 of Neb2 cannot be trusted. That's absolutely correct. A text like the VAT4956 cannot be used to challenge contemporary materials.
3. But Jonsson is correct as well in noting this same dismissal of the VAT4956 by the WTS would apply to their own astrotext cited, the Strm. Kambyses 400 to date the return from Babylon in 455 BCE and the fall of Babyon in 539 BCE. Jonsson is correct that if you legitimately dismiss the VAT4956 as noncontemporary the same would apply for the WTS promoted SK400.
4. The Seventy years of desolation. The WTS has a firm basis in 2 Chronicles 36 to establish a literal 70-year period ending the 1st of Cyrus when the land was desolate. Likewise, Jewish history via Josephus acknowledges this well-establish 70-year desolation period. Jonsson has to dismiss both the Bible and Josephus regarding this historical period so he fails to overcome this Biblical reference though his attempts reach near desperation to have this applied to Babylonian servitude. If the Jews themselves interpret the 70 years to be literal there is little you can do to overtrun that, academically.
LS
