Right now I am re-reading Crisis of Conscience, and am going through the chapters regarding the dates. How many witnesses actually understood how they came up with the dates.
I'm embarassed to say: yes, I understood how they came up with that date. Even more embarassing, I can still recite it:
"When Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about the tree being chopped down and banned, Jehovah said "let 7 times pass over it, until he who has the right" would become King. The tree represented God's Kingdom. These 7 times were 7 years. Each year had 360 days. If you multiply 360 x 7 = 2,520 day. However, we're talking prochey here, so lets turn to another scripture (can't remember where it is), it says "a day for a year", blah, blah, blah. So now we have proof that the 7 times is actually 2,520 years. Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BCE and if you add the 7 times, or 2520 years to that, you come up with the date 1914 CE."
PRETTY FREAKING SCAREY THAT I CAN STILL RECITE THAT EH??!!!!