by Pleasuredome 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
DJ--it is what I was told all my life. BC was Before Christ and AD was Anno Dominus and that was as unacceptable to JWs as Christmas and Birthdays. On a more sinister note---having a different calendar or way of time keeping form everyone else also tends to isolate you and this feeds into the whole cult mentality--it is elitist and socially controlling, it even changes your language.
Ravyn
There was a gradual changeover in The Watchtower magazine between the 2/15/64 and 8/15/64 issues. In the 2/15/64 issue the "C.E." designation was first used, and in the 8/15/64 issue the "A.D." designation was last used. This is according to the WTS CDROM.
AlanF
Pleasuredome,
: i need to know when the WTS started to use BCE/CE instead of BC/AD.
I asked myself this question many times when I was a dub. The WTS gives virtually NO reason for their different way of expressing what most people understand to be the difference between BC/BCE and AD/CE.
Therefore, I can only guess that the WTS wanted to set itself aside in some sort of unnamed and mystical way as having some sort of "secret knowlege" that the rest of the world didn't know about. In other words, they tried "Voodoo." They used "Common Era" instead of "Anno Domini" and "Before the Christian Era(tm)" instead of "Before Christ" as if those different definitions actually meant something. They didn't and they don't .Those definitions meant EXACTLY the same thing as the ones they were designed to replace.
The only thing that little trick by Fred Franz did can be explained for the five reasons as outlined below:
1) To make dubs feel special and feel like they had some sort of "spiritual" insight into time-keeping, when in fact it was just smoke and mirrors and did not mean anything except using new terms to replace old terms. That's it!
2) See #1
3) See #1
4) See #1
5) See #1
That about sums it all up.
Farkel
I don't think that the use of the term B.C or B.C.E. has any effect on the date, I think it's just a different way of saying the same thing.
The society always try and sound scholarly, so if the trend was to change to B.C.E. in the universities etc then I think they would change just to keep up with the jones'.
The change from AD to CE didn't affect the WTS chronology:
C. T. Russell wrote an article entitled "Gentile Times: When Do They End?," which was published in the magazine Bible Examiner, October 1876. On page 27, the article said: "The seven times will end in A.D. 1914."
So, 1914 was 1914 AD or 1914 CE...
Oh, wait; was that counting from 606 BC, or 607 BCE? Or, was it 587 AC/DC? Those smoky mirrors make it awfully hard to figure this stuff.
Craig
Good Research AlanF.
CE/BCE are references that are comonly used by Liberal Christ denying bible scholars who teach that the bible is full of crap and do not submit to it's authority or it's inerrency. Athiests liberal scholars, huminists and Jevovahs Witnesses use the CE/BCE in Lue of the traditional BC/AD before Christ and Anno Dominea that give respect to the Lordship of Christ which the Watch Tower and Jehovah's Witnesses dispieses along with other evil forces in this world.
cheers,
jr
Farkel, you hit the nail on the head! ``Special insight" my foot... it's all about bidding for cheap brownie points by being different simply for the sake of attracting notice; calling Jesus' cousin ``John the baptiser" instead of ``John the Baptist" is another such affectation.
And these are the great scholars that someone had to tap on the shoulder and point out `` there's no such thing as a zero year... better go back to the drawing board!"
**LAUGH**
y'all are killin' me here. I especially liked the following:
clash_city_rockers said:
CE/BCE are references that are comonly used by Liberal Christ denying bible scholars who teach that the bible is full of crap and do not submit to it's authority or it's inerrency. Athiests liberal scholars, huminists and Jevovahs Witnesses use the CE/BCE in Lue of the traditional BC/AD before Christ and Anno Dominea that give respect to the Lordship of Christ which the Watch Tower and Jehovah's Witnesses dispieses along with other evil forces in this world.
Good point. I also have heard athiests use the CE/BCE terminology. It's really quite rediculous when you think about it. Just a bunch of people trying to sound high and mighty. I see a pretty good parallel here: If you ever worked at a gas station, on your resume instead of writing "gas pump attendant", you could say something like "Petrolium Transfer Engineer". Now that sounds pretty puffed up and important! Forget about those lame gas station flunkies, I want a real Engineer putting gas in my car!
Farkel:
1) To make dubs feel special and feel like they had some sort of "spiritual" insight into time-keeping, when in fact it was just smoke and mirrors and did not mean anything except using new terms to replace old terms. That's it!
2) See #1
3) See #1
4) See #15) See #1
HAHAHAHAHAH!! Well said, especially in reasons #2 through #5. Have we ever seen the wt give a long list of reasons for something, but each subsequent answer says EXACTLY the same thing as the first one in the list? No of corse not!
onacruse:
Oh, wait; was that counting from 606 BC, or 607 BCE? Or, was it 587 AC/DC? Those smoky mirrors make it awfully hard to figure this stuff.Ok that's just pure comedy. Of corse the question has to be asked about how excatly the wt is generating all this smoke. Well I think the answer is simple: either lighting farts, rolling fattys, or a combination of both. You decide which. (Ok I know that was a little harsh, sorry if that offended anyone.)
BCE is more of the formal industry standard and JWs may have just been going "conventional" with this. BAR (Biblical Archaeology Review), for instance, insists upon BCE and CE because it is non-demonational. Basically Jews would have a problem with "before Christ" rather than "Before Common Era".
The witnesses didn't invent the term, nor do I think they have qualms about using either since they are Christian-based, Christ believers, etc.
J-
humanists are evil forces?
