by JH 55 Replies latest jw friends
When YOU see THIS, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD shall be known to His servants, and His indignation to His enemies
so, when do you expect the other events mentioned in this scripture to take place? (especially his indignation being known to his enemies) the scripture speaks of it happening at the same time (present tense) that the reader would see "this."
I find it hard to believe that only people with the intellect of a MENSA candidate, are clever enough and smart enough to figure out the "mystery" of the "truth" and thus get to live forever. The "creator" either should have made us smarter or His "message" more clear.
Exactly. One would think that an "omnipotent" creator would have sufficient communication skills so as to make his purposes known to all in a clear and concise manner. But after so many centuries of stupidly groping through the bible people still can't agree on what exactly it means.
If I displayed such communication skills in my workplace my ass would be fired out of here so fast my head would spin.
Walter
Matt 24:36
"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the Angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but the father alone."
Matt 24:42
"Therefore for be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.:
1 Thessalonians 5:1-2
"Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night."
What's everyone getting excited about. It all seems pretty clear.
When the apsotles asked Jesus what the sign would be, he named things such as earthquakes and wars, things that have happened in every single century. Had Jesus said "A black arch will appear in the sky and stay there for 2 weeks", that would have been a lot more clear, no? As with everything in the bible, this scripture about the signs left one heck of a lot of room for different interpretations.
"Therefore for be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming
Hondo -- I wonder why an all knowing God would tell His creation to "be on the alert" and then tell them it's useless because "you do not know"? It's about like GM making a car with breaks, but saying "you'll never be able to figure out how to use them, so be on the alert.!"
f] I beleive that the Borg paints a rosy picture of the past before the 1st World War . It ignores the tyranny of bad government, social injustice , grinding poverty and poor health of the greater number of the poor , of which there were many. Nowadays we are better educated about the past and harder to fool than were our parents who accepted the Watchtower statements as fact.
Blues, you are so right. I have heard a million talks about life before 1914. No one locked their doors, almost no crime, very little war. Then in 1914 everything changed, almost overnight. Now in hindsight, I can?t believe I bought all that?.
Michelle,
I'm inexperienced with Bible, but is the Gospel message anything to do with timing ? Isn't Matthew 24 about NOT being overly concerned with the timing, UNTIL the tribulation.
The practice of applying ?a year for a day? formula to Bible time periods was first done in the first Century, by Jewish rabbis. By the 9 th century, a succession of rabbis began making calculations and predictions for the time periods of 1,290, 1,335, and 2,300 days found in Daniel?s prophecy (but they applied their results to the appearance of the Messiah).
The practice started amongst professed Christians in the 12 th century with the Roman Catholic abbot, Joachim of Floris who also used the ?year for a day? method to the 1,260 days mentioned in Revelation (11:3 & 12:6). Many dates started to be predicted eg 1260, then 1364, then a spate in the 16 th century. Through the decades and centuries, as one date after another passed without the foretold events taking place, changes, either to the dates, or to the interpretations of events, became necessary.
Breakthrough?
Then eventually, a breakthrough (or coincidence?). In 1796 George Bell predicted the fall of the Antichrist (in his view the Pope) in either 1797 or 1813. Shortly after this prediction the Pope was taken captive by the French and forced into exile. This was seen as a remarkable fulfilment of Bible prophecy proving that 1798 was the end of the prophetic 1,260 days and 1799 marked the beginning of the ?last days?.
In 1823 John Aquila Brown published that 1844 would mark the end of the 2,300 days of Daniel. Second Adventist pioneer, William Miller supported this conclusion. Brown also originated the interpretation of ?seven times? in Daniel 4 that gave the 2,520 years still used today by the Watchtower Society and several other religious groups. This method was first published in 1823, 29 years before CT Russell was born and 47 years before he began his independent Bible study group.
All these facts were uncovered in research during the 1970s by a respected Jehovah?s Witness elder and scholar, and were brought to the attention of the Governing Body. The same elder also presented overwhelming evidence that the 1914 date was in error by 20 years, but for some reason the Governing Body decided to stand by the dates already widely published. However, the details of the origins of the 1914 date were published by outside sources in
If these time prophecies and dates, had been around for so long, I wonder how did they seem to originate with Jehovah?s Witnesses & the Watchtower?
After failed expectations about 1844, the Adventists split into several groups each predicting new dates for Christ?s return. One of them, N H Barbour used the Brown method but used 606BC as the starting point & came up with an ending of 1914 for the ?end of the gentile times?. (mis-calculated as this is only 2,519 years not 2,520) Adventist Barbour published these dates in 1873 and by 1878 Russell had joined Barbour and become assistant editor of the Adventist ?Herald of the Morning?.
In the Watchtower of Russell tells the story. Before meeting Barbour he had despised time prophecies, but after a visit from Barbour he changed his mind. Thereafter time prophecies dominated Russell?s writings and those of the Watchtower he soon founded.
Both Barbour and Russell taught:
The key date of 1874 marked the end of 6000 years of human history. But the year turned out to be just another date that passed without incident, but then another Adventist B W Keith noticed one version of Scripture could be translated Christ?s ?presence? instead of His ?coming? so they ?knew? their date was correct but reasoned that his presence to carry out judging work in 1874 was invisible. Other Christians were sure the date was false, simply because of Christ?s teachings. However, an invisible presence was, and is, a difficult thing for Christians to disprove.
From reading Watchtower publications it appears that for nearly 50 years the Watchtower leadership, in their role as ?prophet?, heralded that the invisible presence of Christ began in 1874. They were still teaching this in 1929, fifteen years after even the 1914 date. It seems that for decades they also believed and published the following:
All these were based on ?parallels? from Scriptural ages. What if all this man-made methodology of parallelism which has been around for centuries, is flawed, or just plainly the wrong approach? In 2,000 years has one visible prediction come true?
jaffacake,
sorry I don't put any faith in any date formulas, regardless of WHO expounds them.
doogie,
as a servant of God the fact that there is a state of Israel NOW brings joy to my heart, refreshes my soul and strengthens my bones, so to speak, because I think that it is fulfillment of prophesy for the last generation. As far as the rest of the scripture quoted, when Israel was recognised as a nation, her neighbours were enraged. Look at the continuing conflict, their sole aim is to push Israel into the sea. Perhaps her enemies don't see the Lords hand in her rebirth, but they have GOT to be scratching their heads wondering why and how on earth?
michelle
I can see clearly now, the white tiddy's are gone!!!
It's the end of the world as we know it
and i feel fine.
