Posts by AddaGirl

48

It is becoming a cult.

by Lex Talionis in

i am a jehovahs witness.

my family are all witnesses.

i am convinced it is not the religion it once was.

AddaGirl

If its proved that 1914 does not exist, anything like 1919 also does not exist. This is one of the main reasons they protect 607 BCE and 1914.

Their growth rate is low.....but how about the average exit rate wihich is statistically the highest of all religions at 32% . I checked with my teacher and an elder. That 7,000,000 number includes all who have ever been baptized including those who are disfellowshipped and all who have chosen to leave of their own accord. That 7,000,000 number becomes 4,760,000 really fast. The Mormans are almost 3 times the size at 13,000,000.

73

The 70 years of devastation--as revealed by the Bible

by AddaGirl in

watchtower teachings say this period is from 607 bce to 537 bce.

most of the documentation relating to the seventy years indicates that period to be 609 bce to 539 bce, the rule of the babylonian empire.

i wrote to headquarters, because as a bible study student i knew i could ask questions about certain doctrines that those baptized cannot without consequence and some of the information i received from them was very helpful especially when it was used to verify the chronology of the kings of judah and israel through the bible.. the bible says there are actually (2) 70-year periods.. the first being one of servitude to the babylonians of both israel & judah from 609 bce to 539 bce.

AddaGirl

scholar,

I haven't figured out where you are coming from yet. I believe there is a component of servitude to Babylon, backed up by both Bible Scripture, Antiquities of the Jews X and Flavius Joseph Against Apion. I do realize that the final edict against Babylon did occur after the fall of Babylon but when the final edict of Babylon occurred, there was no king of Babylon. Nabonidus, or his son Belshazzar was the last king of Babylon and Jeremiah 27:6-7 clearly states that "and now I myself have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant and even the wild beasts of the field I have given him to serve. And all the nations must serve even him and his son and his grandson until the time even of his own land comes, and many nations and great kings must exploit him as servant. The sovereign rule of Babylon was 609 BCE, (the last Assyrian king Ashur Urbilitt II fell to Babylon) until their own defeat by the Medes and Persians in 539 BCE.

The 10 tribes of Israel became servant when Assyria fell, Zedekiah was a vassal king for Nebuchadnezzar, serving him 11 years before the revolt that felled Jerusalem, and allowed to stay on his land if he did not revolt.

(Antiquities of the Jews X Chapter 7 paragraph 3) Jeremiah prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar would take Judah if they revolted and they would serve him and his posterity for 70 years having their servitude ended when the Medes and Persians overthrew Babylon. It says they will be exiled only if they revolt.

I get that you think I am incorrect but you do not state what you believe to be correct for me to understand your point.

Adda

26

I Feel Lost

by insearchof in

jw
friends

i'm a jw in good standing.i was born a jw.my dad was an elder for about 15 years but he stoped going to the hall about 3 years ago.but i have doubts about the org.basically i don't think that we are living in the end,i don't think the earth will ever be a paradise.it really don't seem logical to me.anyway i feel like i'm having an inner fight between what i was raised to be and what i now believe.the only reason why i still go to the meeting is because of my mom and husband.i came here because i think that everyone here can help me.

AddaGirl

Welcome insearchof,

I too am a newbie. Circumstances differ because I am an unbaptized almost former student looking for the truth but dealing with the confusion that the JWs teach and perpetuate is the same. I have found just by reading the posts, saying nothing, that this group of people listens very well and when you ask specific questions that are really bothering you, you will get responses meant sincerely to help you find information that may get you on the right track or help you find your own thoughts just by venting your confusion. Keep coming back. You'll find a certain peace in that you are not alone. There are many of us looking for "the truth."

73

The 70 years of devastation--as revealed by the Bible

by AddaGirl in

watchtower teachings say this period is from 607 bce to 537 bce.

most of the documentation relating to the seventy years indicates that period to be 609 bce to 539 bce, the rule of the babylonian empire.

i wrote to headquarters, because as a bible study student i knew i could ask questions about certain doctrines that those baptized cannot without consequence and some of the information i received from them was very helpful especially when it was used to verify the chronology of the kings of judah and israel through the bible.. the bible says there are actually (2) 70-year periods.. the first being one of servitude to the babylonians of both israel & judah from 609 bce to 539 bce.

AddaGirl

JCanon,

Regarding Zechariah 1:7--Zechariah is prophesying.

Zechariah 1:16 Therefore this is what Jehovah has said, "I shall certainly return to Jerusalem with mercies. My own house will be built in her......" Completed in the 6th year of Darius

73

The 70 years of devastation--as revealed by the Bible

by AddaGirl in

watchtower teachings say this period is from 607 bce to 537 bce.

most of the documentation relating to the seventy years indicates that period to be 609 bce to 539 bce, the rule of the babylonian empire.

i wrote to headquarters, because as a bible study student i knew i could ask questions about certain doctrines that those baptized cannot without consequence and some of the information i received from them was very helpful especially when it was used to verify the chronology of the kings of judah and israel through the bible.. the bible says there are actually (2) 70-year periods.. the first being one of servitude to the babylonians of both israel & judah from 609 bce to 539 bce.

AddaGirl

Narkissos,

Leviticus does not elude to 70 years at all for the desolation to pay its sabbaths.

2Chronicles 36:21-23 clearly show that the land being desolated was to fulfill 70 years not for 70 years

1Chonicles 4:21--right scripture?

JCanon,

I don't know what to say. Maybe Isaac Newton knew more that all the expert historians, the Bible and even the JWs who state that Darius the Mede never existed as a king. Gobryas, the general that took charge for Cyrus initially (born in 601 BCE) was 62 at the time Cyrus overthrew Babylon. Darius was 19 at the time. Also Darius the Mede means "Holder of the Sceptor", a position that Gobryas held for Cyrus.

Daniel 5:30-31 In that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed and Darius the Mede himself received the kingdom being about 62 years old.

73

The 70 years of devastation--as revealed by the Bible

by AddaGirl in

watchtower teachings say this period is from 607 bce to 537 bce.

most of the documentation relating to the seventy years indicates that period to be 609 bce to 539 bce, the rule of the babylonian empire.

i wrote to headquarters, because as a bible study student i knew i could ask questions about certain doctrines that those baptized cannot without consequence and some of the information i received from them was very helpful especially when it was used to verify the chronology of the kings of judah and israel through the bible.. the bible says there are actually (2) 70-year periods.. the first being one of servitude to the babylonians of both israel & judah from 609 bce to 539 bce.

AddaGirl

Narkissos,

Could you consider that the land was paying for its sabbaths with no house of Jehovah on the land for 70 years?

73

The 70 years of devastation--as revealed by the Bible

by AddaGirl in

watchtower teachings say this period is from 607 bce to 537 bce.

most of the documentation relating to the seventy years indicates that period to be 609 bce to 539 bce, the rule of the babylonian empire.

i wrote to headquarters, because as a bible study student i knew i could ask questions about certain doctrines that those baptized cannot without consequence and some of the information i received from them was very helpful especially when it was used to verify the chronology of the kings of judah and israel through the bible.. the bible says there are actually (2) 70-year periods.. the first being one of servitude to the babylonians of both israel & judah from 609 bce to 539 bce.

AddaGirl

bennyk,

I agree with you 100%. None of the Bible Scripture ever says that the desolation of Jerusalem was for 70 years. It actually was desolate for only 50 years.

Jeremiah 25:11-12 And all this land must become a devastated place, an object of astonishment, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years. And it must occur that when 70 years have been fulfilled, I shall call to account the king of Babylon.....

The devastation of Jerusalem is actually 70 years, with no house for Jehovah. (586-516 BCE) Cyrus was commissionsed by Jehovah to build him a house. That did not start until after the Jews were released in 537 BCE. They were allowed to return to Jerusalem for the construction. The devastation ended when the temple was rebuilt 20 years later under Darius.

73

The 70 years of devastation--as revealed by the Bible

by AddaGirl in

watchtower teachings say this period is from 607 bce to 537 bce.

most of the documentation relating to the seventy years indicates that period to be 609 bce to 539 bce, the rule of the babylonian empire.

i wrote to headquarters, because as a bible study student i knew i could ask questions about certain doctrines that those baptized cannot without consequence and some of the information i received from them was very helpful especially when it was used to verify the chronology of the kings of judah and israel through the bible.. the bible says there are actually (2) 70-year periods.. the first being one of servitude to the babylonians of both israel & judah from 609 bce to 539 bce.

AddaGirl

2 Chronicles 36:21-23 to fulfill Jehovah's word by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had paid off its sabbaths. All the days lying desolated it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years. And in the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia, that Jehovah's word by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah roused the spirit of Cysrus the king of Persia, so that he caused a cry to pass through his knigdom, also in writing saying: This is what Cyrus the king of Persia has said, 'All the kingdoms of the earth Jehovah the God of the heavens has given me, and he himself has commissioned me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, Jehovah his God be with him. So let him go up.'

50 years of desolation at the time Cyrus released the Jews. The foundation was laid and there was a 16 period where no construction was done on the temple. In the 2nd year of Darius, the construction began again and in 516 BCE the temple was complete.

73

The 70 years of devastation--as revealed by the Bible

by AddaGirl in

watchtower teachings say this period is from 607 bce to 537 bce.

most of the documentation relating to the seventy years indicates that period to be 609 bce to 539 bce, the rule of the babylonian empire.

i wrote to headquarters, because as a bible study student i knew i could ask questions about certain doctrines that those baptized cannot without consequence and some of the information i received from them was very helpful especially when it was used to verify the chronology of the kings of judah and israel through the bible.. the bible says there are actually (2) 70-year periods.. the first being one of servitude to the babylonians of both israel & judah from 609 bce to 539 bce.

AddaGirl

Darius the Mede did not rule in Babylon. After Cyrus conquered Babylon, he ruled for 9 years from 538 BCE to 529 BCE. Cambyses ruled from 529 BCE to 521 BCE. Darius the king did not begin his rule until 521 BCE and ruled for 36 years until 486 BCE.

In Darius first year Daniel discerned the 70 years. In his second year the temple construction resumed. In his 6th year the temple was complete. His 6th year being 516 BCE. The desolation of Judah was the lack of a temple for 70 years...there was no house of Jehovah.

Zechariah 1:16 clearly states therefore this is what Jehovah of armies has said. "I shall certainly return to Jerusalem with mercies. My own house will be built in her,' is the utterance of Jehovah of armies, "and a measuring line itself will be stretched out over Jerusalem."

Ezra 6:15 And they completed this house by the third day of the lunar month Adar, that is, in the 6th year of the reign of Darius the king.

If you refer back to 1Kings 9:3-9 And Jehovah went on to say to him: "I have heard your prayer and your request for favor with which you requested favor before me. I have sanctified this house that you have built by putting my name there to time indefinite; and my eyes and my heart will certainly prove to be there always. And you, if you will walk before me, just as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and with uprightness by doing according to all that I have commanded you, and you will keep my regulations and my judicial decisions, I also shall indeed establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel to time indefinite, just as I promised David your father, saying not a man of yours will be cut off from [sitting] upon the throne of Israel. If You yourselves and Your sons should definitely turn back from following me and not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have put before you men, and you actually go and serve other gods and bow down to them, I will also cut Israel off from upon the surface of the ground that I have given to them; and the house I have sanctified to my name I shall throw away from before me, and Israel will indeed become a proverbial saying and a taunt among the peoples. And this house itself will become heaps of ruins. Everyone passing by it will stare in amazement and will certainly whistle and say "For what reason did Jehovah do like that to this land and to this house? And they will have to say, "For the reason that they left Jehovah their God who had brought their forefathers out from the land of Egypt, and they proceeded to take hold of other gods and bow down to them. This is why Jehovah brought upon them all this calamity.

73

The 70 years of devastation--as revealed by the Bible

by AddaGirl in

watchtower teachings say this period is from 607 bce to 537 bce.

most of the documentation relating to the seventy years indicates that period to be 609 bce to 539 bce, the rule of the babylonian empire.

i wrote to headquarters, because as a bible study student i knew i could ask questions about certain doctrines that those baptized cannot without consequence and some of the information i received from them was very helpful especially when it was used to verify the chronology of the kings of judah and israel through the bible.. the bible says there are actually (2) 70-year periods.. the first being one of servitude to the babylonians of both israel & judah from 609 bce to 539 bce.

AddaGirl

It is my understanding that after the destruction of the temple, those that were not removed fled to Egypt....Jerusalem was desolate. Nebuchadnezzar then advanced on Egypt and brought those Jews to Babylon.

2Kings 25:22-26 As for the people left behind in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had left behind, he now appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan. When all the chiefs of the miliatry forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they immediately came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, that is Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and Johaman the son of Kareah and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Nethophathite and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men. Then Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them: "Do not be afraid of [being] servants to the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and all wll go well with you." And it came about in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama of th royal offspring came, and also ten men with him, and they got to strike down Gedaliah, so that he died, and also the Jews and Chaldeans that happened to be with him in Mizpah. After that all the people, from small to great, and the chiefs of the military forces rose up and came to Egypt; for they had beome afraid of the Chaldeans.

As for Josephus, his writings confirm both the servitude and the desolation of 70 years:

Antiquites of the Jews X, Chapter 7, Paragraph 3 But Jeremiah came among them, and prophsied what contradicted those predictions, and what proved to be true, that they did ill, and deluded the king; that the Eqyptians would be of no advantage to them, but that the king of Babylon would renew the war against Jerusalem, and besiege it again, an would destroy the people by famine, and carry away those that remained into captivity, and would take away what they had as spoils and would carry off those riches that were in the temple; nay, that, besides this, he would burn it, and utterly overthrow the city, and that they should serve him and his posterity seventy years; that then the Perians and the Medes should put an end to their servitude, and overthrow the Babylonians;"'and that we shall be dismissed, and returned to this land, and rebuild the temple, and restore Jerusalem"

Jeremiah 25:12 And it must occur that when seventy years have been fulfilled I shall call to account the king of Babylon and against that nation, is the utterance of Jehovah, their error, even against the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it desolate wastes to time indefinite.

With the fall of the Babylonian empire in 539 BCE the 70 years of servitude to Babylon has been completed.

Jeremiah 27:6-7 And now I myself have given all these lands into the hand of Nubuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and even the wild beasts of the field I have given him to serve him. And all the nations must serve even him and his son and his grandson until the time even of his own land comes, and many nation and great kings must exploit him as a servant.

Nabonidus is Nebuchdnezzar's son-in-law, Belshazzar his grandson.

Antiquities of the Jews X, Chapter 9, Paragraph 7 ....placed no other nation in their country, by which means all Judea and Jerusalem, and the temple, continued to be a desert for seventy years; but the entire interval of time which passed from captivity of the Israelites, to the carrying away of the two tribes, proved to be a hundred thirty years, six months.....

716 Israel falls to the Assyrians, 586 Temple is destroyed. The interval is 130 years.

Against Apion #19...Nabolassar, who was king of Babylon, and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the act of this king, he describes to us how he set hi son Nabuchodonosor againt Egypt,and against our land, wih a great army, upon his being informed that they had revolted from him; and how, by that means, he subdued them all, and set our temple that was at Jerusalem on fire; nay, and removed our people entirely out of their own country, and transferred them to Babylon; when it so happened that our city was desolate during the interval of seventy years, until the days of Cyrus king of Persia.

The temple destruction in 586 BCE is confirmed above. Cyrus released the Jews in 537 BCE. At this point Jerusalem had been desolate for 50 years.

Against Apion #21 These accounts agree with the true hitories in or boks; fo in tm it is written that Nebuchadnezzar, i the eighteenth year of his reig, laid our temple desolate, and so it lay in that state of obscurity for fifty years; but that in the second year of the reign of Cyrus its foundations were laid, and it was finshed in the second year of Darius.

In Darius' second year, 520 BCE, temple reconstruction was resumed and finished in the 6th year of his reign 516 BCE. This ended the 70 years of devastation for Jerusalem

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Ireneus Against Heresies, BookIV, Paragraph 4 If any one, however, advocating the cause of the Jews, do maintain that this new covenant consisted in the rearing of the temple which was built under Zerubbabel after the emigration to Babylon, and in the departure of the people from thence after the lapse of seventy years, let him know that the temple constructed of stone was indeed rebuilt....

Daniel 9:2 In the first year of his reigning I myself, Daniel, discerned by the books the number of years concerning which the word of Jehovah had occurrd to Jeremiah the prophet, for fulfilling the devastations of Jerusam, [namely] seventy years.

The first year of Darius was 521 BCE. Daniel had never returned to Jerusalem

The temple was completed in the 6th year of Darius, 516 BCE. The period of devastation confirmed with Josephus was 586 BCE - 516 BCE

Excuse any typos. My keyboard is freezing on me.....time to reboot

AddaGirl