This post is going to seem erratic to some, but I'm afraid it's the best I can do. I can only write on this board during the spare moments I have when my mother is not in the home. So I need to get as much info in per thread as possible given the time constraints. I can't always regularly check the board either, except for a few minutes a day at the most if I'm lucky (oops can't use that word...I mean "fortunate"...oops that means the same thing as "lucky" lol).
I've made some progress with her regarding 607 BC not being the actual date for the fall of Jerusalem, but she still insists that we're living in the last days, and she still believes that the Governing Body are God's mouthpiece, although she always has a selective memory about certain claims they make. I need my argument to be clearly articulated, linear, easy to follow, and hole proof. I need evidence for all the secular sources used to establish that Jerusalem DID not fall in 607 BC. As of now, all I have are claims that I make to her verbally based on the reasearch I've done, but if she asks for sources, I obviously can't point her to an "apostate" source. She also buys into the "light getting brighter" excuse for changed doctrine. Yet the light getting brighter excuse cannot be used for doctrinal flip-flops. So I need a list of flip-flops, along with watchtower/publication articles as sources for those flip-flops. I also need to establish the errancy of the bible. So if anyone has a list of conclusive self-contradictions, copyist errors, numerical mistakes, logistical or temporal impossibilites, and unfillfilled bible prophecies (like the 40 year desolation of Egypt), that would help tremendously as well. I would also like to know if there is a Watchtower publication (name and date of article) which clearly states that there has always existed a "faithful and discreet slave class that continually passed on "spiritual food" from one generation to the next", as that will aid in establishing that Russell did not receive spiritual food from any predecessor and thus undermine the credibility of the FDS doctrine.
So in summary...I need help with the following: (Please consider this a joint research project, or for those of you who already have the information readily available, if you share it, I would be most thankful.)
- List of secular evidence proving that 607 BC is a false date (the cunieforms, Ptoelmy, business records, etc...-but I need sources or website names that I can reference that can't be traced to an apostate website)
- List of doctrinal flip-flops and revised interpretations made only subsequent to the failure of predictions that never materialized as well as major doctrinal reversals or changes
- List of Biblical errors (unfulfilled prophecies, logistical and numerical impossibilities, so-called "copyists errors", internal self-contradictions, etc)
- Information on the FDS doctrine - ie. - Watchtower quote or quotes which state that the FDS has always existed since the time of Jesus...and has always provided spiritual food to each succeeding generation
I know this is a lot to ask, but perhaps if this thread takes off, it will also provide a wealth of information to all future lurkers and newbies as well. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.