I remember when I was young an article we studied that stated something to the effect that, religions or other people have at times set dates or tried to set dates using chronology but that those were deemed false prophets.... can anyone point me to any or multiple articles or quotes that can help me in my fight with my parents? I'm battling the 1914 generation change at the moment.
False prophets with other religions
by lostsheep82 8 Replies latest watchtower bible
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sir82
JWFacts website as tons of stuff, including WT "literature" references.
Here is the section on "Generation": https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/generation.php
One of my favorite arguments:
Even the masthead of the Awake! changed with this new teaching. Until 1995, it said: "This magazine builds confidence in the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 pass away."
This was changed in November 1995 to: "This magazine builds confidence in the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure new world that is about to replace the present wicked, lawless system of things."
The Watchtower published, 24 times a year, for literally decades, that the "creator's promise..." would occur "...before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passes away."
Obviously anyone who "saw the events of 1914" would have to be at least 110 years old today. There are estimated to be 150 - 600 such persons alive on earth today. Another couple of years and the number will be in single digits, or all will be dead.
Ask your debating opponent, "The magazine said Jehovah promised a new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passed away. The new world is not here. So did Jehovah break his promise?" Of course they have to answer "No".
Follow up with "So, Jehovah didn't make such a promise. What should Jehovah do to an organization that printed, literally hundreds of times across many decades, words that made it look like the creator broke his promise? They spoke lies and attributed them to Jehovah. That is the definition of a false prophet. What should happen to a false prophet?"
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Vanderhoven7
@ Sir
I happen to have the Awake magazines for both October and November 1995. Great little tool to show visiting JWs.
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Vanderhoven7
Having trouble posting a JPG
The Watchtower Oct. 15, 1958, p.613
"Sometime between April 15 and 23, 1957, Armageddon will sweep the world! Millions of persons will perish in its flames and the land will be scorched." So prophesied a certain California Pastor Mibran Ask, in January 1957. Such false prophets tend to put the subject of Armageddon in disrepute.
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BoogerMan
From the WT CD ROM:
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lostsheep82
thanks guys I have a huge struggle ahead of me!!! that article from 1958 is great because it shows how they compare OTHER people who set dates, yet dismiss their own. Thank you!
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Doug Mason
Remember that the organisation was set up on the basis that the Parousia had taken place in 1874 and that this date was still being taught as late as 1930.
https://jwstudies.com/The_Watch_Tower_Society_Reveals_Itself.pdf
Also
https://jwstudies.com/Changed_MD_and_SS_words.pdf
Doug
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Doug Mason
"1914" and "this generation" represent two of the problems facing the WTS.
They are dishonest when they present their method for arriving at October 1914. They reject secular chronology yet they completely depend on secular chronology for their year 539 BCE; they do not know when Jews assembled at the site of the destroyed temple; they do not start their 70 years at the moment Jerusalem's temple was destroyed; they cannot prove when Jews went into Egypt nor can they prove that this event marked the start of the 70 Years, as on on and on. The WTS ends their 70 Years in October, the Jews' seventh month, yet Jerusalem was destroyed in the 5th month, corresponding with August.
Regarding "this generation", contemporary Advent groups apply these words to these times. They start with the conclusion and then look for evidence (this is called "begging the question"). At every time in every age there have been people saying the Divine Intervention would take place in their generation. Russell, for example, dated the Second Coming to take place in the 1870s.
When you read "this generation" in the "synoptic" gospels, you are reading words being addressed to each of their respective communities. Writing about 50 to 70 years after the Jesus-event, they were telling their own community that the Divine Intervention would take place during their time, and that some would still be alive when it takes place.
They were no different than today's "second-comers" or any of the people who lived between their time and ours.
Even Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonians, comforted them by saying it was about to happen during their lifetime.
Doug
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Finkelstein
There are two important elements to the WTS's setting of dates one that in doing so they made themselves apostate false prophets as Jesus condemned his faithful followers to set a time upon god's own sacred time, also that not even he did not know of the time.
The other is these date setting were devised to be advantageous toward proliferating the literature the WTS published.
Besides the chronological date setting the WTS used to create 1914 is false for its well supported in the bible and secular knowledge that ancient Jerusalem did not fall in 607 BCE.
