How does the Society refute the 607/1914 discrepancy?

by ithinkisee 42 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia
    Christ did not return and does not rule "invisibly" for the last 91 years doing nothing. What has he done? ... If Jesus came back 91 years ago what is he waiting for? The Bible didn't say he'd return and then do nothing!

    Apparently you didn't see my scholarly post on this very issue. Everything explained!

    http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/71297/1.ashx

  • VM44
    VM44

    Remember the witness physicist Alton Williams who wrote that when he first came into contact with the JWs, that he was going to check the mathematical accuracy concerning the calculation of the year 1914?

    Here are the quotations from Dr Williams story:

    From: "Why I Believe the Bible, A Nuclear Scientist Tells His Story" http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2004/1/22a/article_01.htm

    I told the Witness that I would be at home for the next Bible discussion.
    I wanted to check the mathematical accuracy of what she was going to discuss
    about the year 1914.
    Nevertheless, I was still skeptical about the teachings of the Witnesses,
    and I was looking forward to doing a mathematical check of the Bible
    prophecy concerning the year 1914.
    I thought that this approach would no
    doubt intimidate the Witness and, hopefully, help my wife to see the error
    of the beliefs taught by the Witnesses.

    The following week the Witness returned accompanied by a man who was one
    of the elders in the local congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. The elder
    conducted the Bible study. He considered the prophecies found in chapters
    4 and 9 of the Bible book of Daniel, concerning the appearance of Jesus
    as Messiah and King. My mind was set on finding mathematical inconsistencies
    in the presentation, but I found none
    . On the contrary, I was again
    impressed by the logic of the information contained in the Bible

    This raises a serious question about what sort of check Dr Williams did concerning the 1914 year calculation. I don't think he did any research at all! If he did, then he would have immediately found the mathematical inconsistency between the years 607 BCE and 587 BCE, and that all secular evidence points to the year 587, and hence the 1914 year calculation would be off by 20 years!

    Instead, Dr Alton Williams just accepted everything the elder told him, without question!

    I am sure that Dr WIlliams knows about the 587/607 conflict, and for him not to mention it in his story is being dishonest!

    Of course, the WHOLE purpose of the article is an attempt by the Watchtower to make good propaganda use of Dr. William's Ph.D. degree. They also prominently state that William's is a "Nuclear Scientist" because that sounds more prestigious than "Optical Scientist," because while Williams did write a dissertation on classical nuclear scattering theory , most of his professional work has been in the optical field, an area of science which has nothing to do with the Bible, and hence Dr WIlliam's statement later in the article that he has found no conflict between the Bible and his scienctific work is vacuous.

    I am lead to believe that there might be other reasons Dr Williams became a Jehovahs WItness. Perhaps due to the influence of his wife, I do not know.

    --VM44

  • Liberty II
    Liberty II

    Thanks for the link Leolaia! Your explaination is much clearer than anything the WT Society has ever come up with.

  • AlanF
    AlanF

    Good observations on Alton Williams, VM44. About six months ago I emailed him (found his email address from his professional online info) about the Creation book and challenged him to support the claims he made in the Awake! article. He didn't respond.

    I agree that the Society was simply using his scientific credentials to give the impression that their teachings have some scientific backing. It's all about authority with them, of course. I'm sure that the article was heavily edited to include as much propaganda as possible, so it's not clear just how much of the article is due to Williams and how much to the Awake! writer.

    AlanF

  • mkr32208
    mkr32208

    What they do is they stick their fingers in their ears scrunch their eyes shut and scream

    "I AM A SCHOLAR I AM SMARTER THAN YOU SO I KNOW, I AM A SCHOLAR I AM SMARTER THAN YOU SO I KNOW, I AM A SCHOLAR I AM SMARTER THAN YOU SO I KNOW, I AM A SCHOLAR I AM SMARTER THAN YOU SO I KNOW, I AM A SCHOLAR I AM SMARTER THAN YOU SO I KNOW, I AM A SCHOLAR I AM SMARTER THAN YOU SO I KNOW,"

    Idiotic, its cognitive dissonance at it's finest...
    The really funny thing to me is, what will happen if they change their toon? Scholar will of course change his view immediately and of course not apologize for being dumb but will he be arrogant enough to keep calling himself scholar?? Five bucks says yes!

  • GetBusyLiving
    GetBusyLiving

    I remember reading that Awake! article and thinking that something sounded really fishy with this guy. I feel so stupid for being a part of such a crock of shit now. You can't go to school because of the empty reasonings of Satan's system but, hey, heres a SCIENTIST who thinks our chronology is bang on!! Now arent you glad you don't have to think for yourselves? What a joke.

  • scholar
    scholar

    City Fan

    Your reply was typical of apostate thinking, avoiding the hard issues by focussing purely on trying to undermine our biblical chronology. I set out seven examples which illustrate that secular chronology is far from perfect and that there are issues that scholars dispute. In other words, issues where more than solution is held.

    WT chronology to quote that emenent chrounologist Edwin Thiele "is a broad chronological scheme" which allows all the biblical and some secular data to be allocated therein. Apostates do possess such a scheme . Why do not you post a chronology of the OT? You cannot because you have done but in many reference works such a chart or list is available.

    scholar emeritus

    BA MA Studies in Religion

  • Liberty II
    Liberty II

    Hi scholar,

    I am still confused. What if I buy your chronolgy 100%. I am still left with a big SO WHAT. What difference does it make since 1914 is rendered meaningless by the passage of time. Do you really think Christ rules invisibly for 91 years but does nothing? Surely, even you don't believe this? 1914's relationship to the "Last Days" is as meaningless as 1814 or 1492 if the "Last Days" stretch on for hundreds of years. The Watchtower cult simply ran out of time. This is FACT not opinion. You really don't see this?

  • GetBusyLiving
    GetBusyLiving

    He really doesn't see this.

  • Liberty II
    Liberty II

    Hi Getbusyliving,

    Even if I were still a hard core JW I'd be having a hard time understanding how 1914 could have any meaning 100 years after the fact. If this was the start of the signs of the "Last Days" then the warning is of no use to the several generations who have lived and died since then. If the weather service issued a tornado warning a year before it is to occur at some unknown date then the warning is meaningless. How long can you stay is a storm celler on the off chance it might hit in a year or so? Why would God play such a silly game? It all makes no sense. But you maybe right, he just doesn't get it.

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