Examples of Watchtower flawed interpretation of Bible passages?

by Vanderhoven7 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Dave500

  (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17) because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. 17 Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord.

  Christ descends, the dead chosen ones are resurrected, and then they and the living chosen ones "will, together with them, be caught away in clouds".

  If he returned in 1914, that is when the dead and the living would have been "caught away."
  

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  (Matthew 24:45-47) “Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Happy is that slave if his master on coming finds him doing so! 47 Truly I say to you, he will appoint him over all his belongings.

  The GB say that Christ returned in 1914 and appointed them to feed his sheep at that time, but those verses say that the master returns, identifies who had been following his command to feed his domestics while he was away (Mt 28:19; Mt 21:33) and appoints them over all his belongings. (Mt 28:18)

  Since the Governing Body do not exercise authority over heaven and earth, over angels and governments (Mt 28:18), he must not have returned and appointed them over all his belongings yet.

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  (Revelation 7:3, 4) saying: “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until after we have sealed the slaves of our God in their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel

  That happens at Armageddon. And what does it mean to be sealed?
  

  (2 Corinthians 1:22) He has also put his seal on us and has given us the token of what is to come, that is, the spirit, in our hearts.

  (Ephesians 1:13) But you also hoped in him after you heard the word of truth, the good news about your salvation. After you believed, you were sealed by means of him with the promised holy spirit,

  (Ephesians 4:30) Also, do not be grieving God’s holy spirit, with which you have been sealed for a day of releasing by ransom.

  So the chosen ones are sealed (anointed) at Armageddon, not before. The GB claim to be anointed.

  Is there a way to tell if someone has been anointed with holy spirit? Yes:

  (Acts 1:8a) But you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you,

  That verse says that when someone is anointed they "receive power". What power?

  (Acts 2:4) and they all became filled with holy spirit and started to speak in different languages, just as the spirit enabled them to speak.

  (Acts 10:44-46) While Peter was still speaking about these matters, the holy spirit came upon all those hearing the word. 45 And the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the free gift of the holy spirit was being poured out also on people of the nations. 46 For they heard them speaking in foreign languages and magnifying God.

  (Acts 19:6) And when Paul laid his hands on them, the holy spirit came upon them, and they began speaking in foreign languages and prophesying.

  Those three verses tell us that anointed ones are given the "power" to speak in foreign languages. That is how Peter knew they had received the Holy Spirit, "for", or because they began to speak in foreign languages. (Ac 10:46) Have the GB been given the power to speak in foreign languages? No.

  
  

  :^)
  Dave
  
• 

  Vanderhoven7

  Their entire 1914 chronology is established by a series of eisegetical assumptions.

  Picked this litany of assumptions up somewhere:

  Assumption 1: Nebuchadnezzar’s tree-stump dream in Daniel chapter 4 has a fulfillment beyond his day.

  The book of Daniel makes no mention whatsoever of any fulfillment beyond his day. There is no indication that what happened to Nebuchadnezzar is some type of prophetic drama or minor fulfillment to a major future antitype.

  Assumption 2: The seven times of the dream are meant to represent 360 day years each.

  When this formula applies elsewhere in the Bible, the year-for-a-day ratio is explicitly stated or clearly implied. Here we are assuming that it applies.

  Assumption 3: This prophecy applies to the enthronement of Jesus Christ.

  The point of this dream and its subsequent fulfillment was to provide an object lesson to the King, and mankind in general, that rulership and the appointment of a ruler is the sole prerogative of Jehovah God. There is nothing to indicate that the enthronement of the Messiah is indicated here. Even if it is, there is nothing to indicate that this is a calculation given to show us when that enthronement takes place.

  Assumption 4: This prophecy was given to establish the chronological extent of the appointed times of the nations.

  There is only one reference to the appointed times of the nations in the Bible. At Luke 21:24 Jesus made no connection whatsoever between this phrase and anything contained in the book of Daniel.

  Assumption 5: The appointed times of the nations began when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were taken into exile in Babylon.

  There is nothing in the Bible to indicate when the appointed times of the nations began, so this is pure speculation.

  Assumption 6: The 70 years refers to 70 years in which Jerusalem would be destroyed.

  Based on the wording of the Bible, the 70 years could refer to years in which the Jews were under the rule of Babylon. This would include the servitude when the nobles, including Daniel himself, were taken to Babylon, but the rest were allowed to stay and pay tribute to the King of Babylon. (Jer. 25:11–12)

  Assumption 7: 607 B.C.E. is the year Jerusalem was destroyed and Judah’s king slain and the appointed times of the nations began.

  Scholars agree on two years: 587 B.C.E. as the year of Jerusalem’s destruction, and 539 B.C.E. as the year in which Babylon fell. There is no more reason to accept 539 B.C.E. as valid then there is to accept 607 B.C.E. for Jerusalem’s destruction.

  Assumption 8: 1914 marks the end of the trampling of Jerusalem and therefore the end of the appointed times of the nations.

  There is no evidence that the trampling of Jerusalem by the nations ended in 1914.

  Assumption 9: Satan and his demons were cast down in 1914.

  Witnesses contend that Satan caused the First World War out of anger for being cast down. However, he was cast down in October of 1914 according to WTS interpretation, and yet the war began in August of that year and preparations for the war had been going on for a considerable time before that, as early as 1911. That would mean he had to get angry before he was cast down and the woe to the earth began before he was cast down.

  Assumption 10: The presence of Jesus Christ is invisible and is separate from his coming at Armageddon.

  There is strong evidence in the Bible that the presence of Christ and his arrival at Armageddon are one and the same. There is no hard evidence to indicate that Jesus would rule from heaven invisibly for over 100 plus years before manifesting himself visibly prior to the destruction of this old system of things.

  Assumption 11: The injunction against Jesus’ followers getting knowledge of his installation as king as stated at Acts 1:6, 7 was lifted for Christians in our day.

  This statement of Jesus would mean that the apostles of his day had no right to know when he would be enthroned as king of Israel–spiritual or otherwise. The meaning of Daniel’s prophecy of the 7 times was supposedly hidden from them. Yet, the significance of the 2,520 years was revealed to William Miller, the founder of the Seventh Day Adventists in the early part of the 19th Century? That would mean the injunction was lifted for Christians in our day. Where in the Bible does it indicate that Jehovah has changed on this position and granted us foreknowledge of such times and seasons?

  In Summation

  To base the interpretation of a prophetic fulfillment on even one assumption opens the door for disappointment. If that one assumption is wrong, then the interpretation must fall by the wayside. Here we have 11 assumptions! What are the odds that all 11 are true?