I have read lots of lies in the Watchtower publications, but this is worse. Am I missing something?

by never a jw 6 Replies latest jw friends

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  never a jw

  I get the feeling that this subject has been discussed ad nauseam before, but I had to show you the following quote that I found in page 239 of “The Truth Shall Set You Free”, a book published in 1943 by our favorite publishing company. The title couldn’t be more ironic.

  By the same rule the "seven times", or "times of the Gentiles", amount to 2,520 years. In Nebuchadnezzar's time the year began counting from the fall of the year, or about October 1, our time. Since he destroyed Jerusalem in the summer of 606 B .C., that year had its beginning in the fall of 607 B .C. and its ending in the fall of 606 B .C. Inasmuch as the count of the Gentile "seven times" began its first year at the fall of 607 B .C., it is simple to calculate when they end. From the fall of 607 B .C. to the fall of B .C. 1 is exactly 606 years. From the fall of B .C. 1 to the fall of A.D. 1 is one year, do not forget. Hence from the fall of B.C. 1 to the fall of A .D. 1914 is 1,914 years. Add now 606 years and 1,914 years, and the sum total is 2,520 years, ending in the fall of A.D. 1914.

  Here the Watchtower not only is it lying (Babylonian years started in March or April, never “about October 1, our time”, but also the WTS is counting on their readers’ intelligence to be below average. And, since there was no indication of massive quitting in the 1940’s, then the average intelligence of JW’s was below average, or most never read the book. As late as 1943 the WTS still uses 606 B.C. as the year of the fall of Jerusalem, and tries to correct their zero error in calculating 2,520 years of the “Gentile Times” by explaining that to calculate the time between two events you go back one year from the starting point and then subtract this new date from the end date. It’s as if I were saying “I was born in Sept. 1965, but to figure out my age in Sept 2012 you start counting from Sept. of 1964. Therefore I am 48 years old” What????!!!!
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  Phizzy

  The whole 1914 thing is totally looney-tunes, from its beginning in Russell's day it never made any sense, and did not fit with the then known year for the destruction of Jerusalem, 587/6 was what all reputable publications were going for.

  Russell was determined that 1914 was to be the year that this weird calculation should end up at, so when it was realised that the sums did not get to 1914 because he had not realised that there was no year nought (!) he shifted his start time by one year, to 607 BCE.

  Of course, whatever year Jeruslem was destroyed has no relevance to anything in Daniel, the 2520 days or years are simply not there.

  You are right that this is their worst lie, not just because it does not contain a scintilla of truth, but because they know it is a lie. In the 1960's the WT was given definitive proof that their start date was wrong, since then they have had letter after letter showing that the whole doctrine is wrong.

  The problem is, they are compelled to keep the lie going, no 1914 = No choosing in 1919 = the Governing Body are self appointed men.

  Which in turn=Jesus Christ and God have nothing to do with them in any way.
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  Quendi

  Phizzy is right about the most important point of all with respect to JW eschatology: nowhere, absolutely nowhere, does the number 2520 ever appear in the Bible, let alone the book of Daniel. Seen from that viewpoint alone, the date of Jerusalem’s destruction then becomes irrelevant. When I challenged a friend to find the number in the New World Translation, his failure to do so caused him much consternation. Nevertheless, he still believed it because it was official Witness teaching.

  Actually, using that number to calculate the length of the Gentile Times didn’t even originate with C.T. Russell. Others had beaten him to it, notably William Miller and his followers. Aquila Brown was another advocate. In what would later become the Witness modus operandi, Russell appropriated the doctrine and passed it off as the results of his own Bible reading and research. That practice didn’t end with his death. Fred Franz did likewise, borrowing from the Ante-Nicene Church Fathers for some of his theology that appeared anonymously in the columns of The Watchtower and the pages of other WTS publications.

  Since prior sources were not credited, it was easy for readers like myself to believe the lie that these findings came from promptings by the holy spirit. They reinforced the teaching that the WTS was a spokesman for “the faithful and discreet slave.” It was only after leaving the WTS for good and doing my own research into hermeneutics and biblical exegesis that I learned where these doctrines came from and how ancient some of them were. As Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes: “There is nothing new under the sun.”

  Quendi
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  Refriedtruth

  The CORE CREED of Jehovah's Witnesses, the doctrine the Watchtower Society 'trumpets' with willful pride IS 1914. It is everything about JW that makes them a unique religion,it is all we used to ever talk about and it turns out it is DOUBLE DEMONIC as part of Charles T. Russell1914 apocalyptic algorithm is measurements taken from the grand hall of the great pagan pyramid. Google images-Charles Russell burial pyramid,it made me recoil in horror

  Oh,the latest archaeological opinion on those prophetic score marks of the pyramids grand hall is that they are simply tracked grooves made by ancient hoisting apparatus to get the stones up.
• 

  JeffT

  Remember also that their whole "year for a day" business is based on a misreading of scripture. There are a couple of specific instances (the Isrealites wandering for forty years) where we are told that a day corresponds to a year. No where are we told that that is a "rule," to use the Watchtowers terminology, for deciphering prophecy.

  So the date is bogus, the number is bogus, and the interpretation is bogus. Not a very well constructed foundation for your religion.
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  sd-7

  Since he destroyed Jerusalem in the summer of 606 B .C.,

  Inasmuch as the count of the Gentile "seven times" began its first year at the fall of 607 B .C., it is simple to calculate when they end.

  --Whoa there. Shouldn't the count begin in 606 B.C. if that's when Jerusalem was destroyed, not in the fall of 607? So that's a little mindfrak there, jumping back to 607 seamlessly without any actual explanation as to why. I hope this isn't the 'additional research' they talked about in the Revelation book that helped them arrive at 607...

  --sd-7
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  Tooz

  to prove that something was a "lie" you have to prove that the intent was to deceive

  otherwise, the misinformation was just an error