Watchtower, February 1, 1955, Questions from Readers.
(1976 IS THE CORRECT DATE INSTEAD)
Questions from Readers
• What are the reasons for changing the date of Adam’s creation first from 4028 B.C. to 4026 B.C. and now recently in the book “New Heavens and a New Earth” to 4025 B.C.?
Because of the wide interest in Bible chronology, we here publish some notes on the subject that go beyond those needed merely to answer this question.
Bible chronology is an interesting study by which prophetic and historic events of the Bible are placed in their order of occurrence along the stream of time. There are problems in connection with Bible chronology which either straighten out only when the time comes for the fulfillment of Jehovah’s respective prophecies or are solved by reason of increased Bible scholarship or archaeological discoveries or because of better Bible translations which convey more clearly the original-language records.
At this point, too, it must be admitted that there are still several knotty chronology problems in the Bible of a minor nature that have not as yet been resolved. Generally, however, the Watch Tower Society has endeavored to keep its associates abreast with the latest available scholarship on Bible chronology consistent with the internal historic and prophetic events recorded in the Scriptures.
Reliable Bible chronology requires the determination of certain Absolute dates. Absolute dates are starting points coinciding with proved secular historic dates from which a series of Bible dates can be reckoned forward and backward with certainty. For the Greek Scriptures portion of the Bible we have the Absolute date of August 19, A.D. 14, Julian calendar (or August 17 Gregorian calendar) when Augustus Caesar died and was succeeded at that time by Tiberius Caesar to become the next emperor of Rome. This is an established date in Roman history. Thus when it is written at Luke 3:1-3 (NW): “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,” we know for a certainty that John’s ministry here referred to must have started in the spring of A.D. 29 and further that Jesus’ ministry, which followed John’s by about six months, must have commenced in the fall of A.D. 29.
Another illustration of an Absolute date for the Greek Scriptures is that of Nisan 14, A.D. 33, the date for the impalement of Jesus. The Scripture, at John 19:31 (NW), definitely indicates Jesus died on what to us is Friday, because the next day (Nisan 15) was said to be ‘a great sabbath,’ meaning that two legal sabbaths happened to fall due on the one Saturday, namely, (1) the regular weekly Jewish sabbath day according to Exodus 20:10 and (2) by the law of Moses, no matter on what day of the week it fell, the 15th of Nisan was always to be an additional day of rest, according to Leviticus 23:6, 7. Such a double sabbath falling legally due within the same twenty-four hours occurs only once every several years, thus emphasizing that Jesus died on a Friday afternoon according to the Scriptural accounts.
The accuracy of astronomy tables containing the eclipses of the moon away back to 1207 B.C. establishes such an Absolute date. These tables prove that an eclipse of the moon occurred Friday, April 3, A.D. 33, Julian calendar (or April 1 according to our present Gregorian calendar), at six minutes past 3 p.m., Greenwich time. Since an eclipse of the moon always means a full moon and a full moon always occurs for a Nisan 14, this makes certain that Friday. April 1, A.D. 33 (Gregorian calendar), is the Absolute date for Jesus’ impalement.
Still a third example of an Absolute date for the Greek Scriptures of the Bible. Archaeologists in the latter part of the nineteenth century discovered an important inscription at Delphi, Greece, which in part says, when translated into English: “Claudius Caesar [Roman Emperor A.D. 41-54], Pontifex Maximus, of tribunician authority for the 12th time [12th year as Emperor] . . . greets the city of the Delphians . . . as Lucius Junius Gallio, my friend, and the proconsul of Achaia wrote . . . ” The 12th year of Claudius’ emperorship would be in the early part of A.D. 52, inasmuch as the number “12th” is ordinal, meaning eleven full years plus some months; eleven years plus the extra months being counted from A.D. 41 when he began to rule, the result is A.D. 52. The above-mentioned Gallio is the Roman judge who heard the complaint made against Paul in Corinth, the capital of the southern Roman province of Greece known as Achaia. In the Bible it is recorded: “Now while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up with one accord against Paul and led him to the judgment seat.”—Acts 18:12, NW.
The impression given by the book of Acts is that Gallio had arrived in Corinth only shortly before the time when the Jews brought Paul into his presence. Since Dio Cassius reports a decree of Claudius requiring new officials to start from Rome for their assigned provinces by the first day of June, Gallio must have started his proconsulship in Corinth around July 1, A.D. 51. This then establishes the sure date of the summer of A.D. 51 for Paul’s closing stay in Corinth. This Absolute date enables us to fix the chronology for all of Paul’s stirring ministry and for most of the book of Acts.
The outstanding Absolute date for the B.C. period of the Hebrew Scriptures is that for the fall of Babylon as the capital city of the third world power at the hands of Cyrus, king of the Persians, October 13, 539 B.C., Julian calendar (or October 7 by our present Gregorian calendar), which event is referred to at Isaiah 45:1. This date is made Absolute by reason of the archaeological discovery and deciphering of the famous Nabunaid Chronicle, which itself gives a date for the fall of Babylon and which figure specialists have determined equals October 13, 539 B.C., according to the Julian calendar of the Romans.
From this known date we are then able quickly to understand Ezra 1:1, that the year 537 B.C. was the time when the decree was issued by King Cyrus for the return of the Jews to Palestine and that the temple was begun to be rebuilt in the fall of this same year 537 B.C. How is this calculated? In Assyria, Babylon and Persia, when a king first came to the throne, the year was usually called the king’s accession year, and not until the first day of the first month of the next year did the king begin counting events in his own first regnal year. Cyrus as a Persian ruler counted his regnal years from spring to spring or from Nisan to Nisan. From October, 539 B.C., to the spring of 538 B.C. would be his accession year as the ruler of the fourth world power with the collapse of Babylon as the third world power. Therefore, his first regnal year as “King of Babylon and King of Lands” ran approximately from April, 538 B.C., to April, 537 B.C. Actually, a clay tablet has been found dated what amounts to our April 4, 538 B.C., indicating Cyrus’ first regnal year. Therefore Cyrus’ issuing of the decree for the return of the Jews must have taken place before April, 537 B.C., and this would give the Jews plenty of time to travel back to Jerusalem by the fall of 537 B.C., to rebuild the altar as the first step in rebuilding the temple.—See Ezra 3:1, 2.
Jehovah’s witnesses from 1877 up to and including the publishing of “The Truth Shall Make You Free” of 1943 considered 536 B.C. as the year for the return of the Jews to Palestine, basing their calculations for the fall of Babylon on secular histories that were inaccurate, not up to date on archaeological evidences. This meant that Jeremiah’s seventy years of desolation for Jerusalem ran back from 536 B.C. to 606 B.C., instead of more correctly as now known from 537 B.C. to 607 B.C. (2 Chron. 36:21; Jer. 25:12; Zec. 1:12) With the above Absolute date for the fall of Babylon, the date 607 B.C. is on solid ground for the fall of Jerusalem, when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon terminated the reigning Davidic dynasty by taking Jerusalem’s last ruler, King Zedekiah, captive. This leads to the important modern date of 1914, which marks the end of the “seven times” of 2,520 years of Gentile domination since the first fall of Jerusalem 607 B.C. (Dan. 4:9-16; Luke 21:24) This adjustment of one year for Jerusalem’s fall to 607 B.C. was acknowledged in the book “The Kingdom Is at Hand” of 1944, footnote of page 171, and also in The Watchtower of 1952, page 271.
Undue concern seems to be manifested as to the date of Adam’s creation and some ask, What are the reasons for changing the creation date of Adam first from 4028 B.C. to 4026 B.C. and now recently in the book “New Heavens and a New Earth” to 4025 B.C.? Let us examine the advancements made in Bible chronology that have warranted the above adjustments as we have moved forward to newer positions of light as to God’s Word.—Prov. 4:18.
While preparing in 1944 the book “The Kingdom Is at Hand” a two-year error was detected by internal Bible scholarship. In the following quotation from this 1944 publication of the Society, full explanation is offered: “In the book ‘The Truth Shall Make You Free’, published in 1943, the chronology on pages 150, 151 concerning the kings of Jerusalem, from Solomon’s successor to Zedekiah, is based on the book of 2 Chronicles, chapters 12 to 36. This appears to show the reigns of those kings as successive, end to end. Actually, however, this was not so, as is plainly shown in the books of 1 and 2 Kings, which books give us a countercheck on the successors of Solomon by a comparison of these kings of Judah with the neighbor kings of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel. . . . Measured by 2 Chronicles, the period of kings from Saul to Zedekiah was 513 years. Measured by the more precise and detailed books of Kings, the period was actually 511 years, or 2 years less. This fact affects the chronology as a whole and pulls man’s creation 2 years closer to A.D. 1 and gives it the date 4026 B.C., not 4028 B.C.”—Footnote, page 171.
In 1953 in preparing the chart that appears in the book “New Heavens and a New Earth” a one-year error was brought to light. By the aid of the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures the difference between the two numbers appearing at Genesis 7:6 and Genesis 7:11 became apparent, especially since there are two different Hebrew words here maintaining a distinct difference. At Genesis 7:6 the number 600 referring to Noah’s age means 600 full years, being what is generally termed a cardinal number. Whereas at Genesis 7:11 the number “600th,” an ordinal number, means 599 full years plus a portion of another year. For example, this is said to be the twentieth century, meaning there have been nineteen full centuries in the past and we are now fifty-four years along in the next century. To reconcile these two different numbers properly translated from the Hebrew text, the position clearly appeared that Noah must have entered the ark in November upon the beginning of the flood when he was 599 years old plus some months. But that while he was in the ark some months later with the deluge waters still occurring upon the earth, Noah had a birthday rounding out his full 600 years.
Inasmuch as previously our chronology considered Noah as 600 full years old when he entered the ark, instead of the actual 599 years and some months, as we now see, this has meant that the preflood dates must be shrunk by one year, this bringing Adam’s creation for the fall of 4025 B.C. Incidentally, Jesus, who became the second or “last Adam,” was born in the fall of the year around the first of October.—1 Cor. 15:45, NW.
It is well to understand that all Bible chronology dates for events prior to 539 B.C. must be figured backward from the Absolute date of 539 B.C. In the sure date of 607 B.C. for the fall of Jerusalem we have an anchor for the chronology establishment of the important year of 1914. By an overwhelming number of physical facts occurring since 1914, this great turning-point year in man’s history, 1914, has been abundantly confirmed.
According to Genesis 1:24-31 Adam was created during the last part of the sixth creative-day period of 7,000 years. Almost all independent chronologists assume incorrectly that, as soon as Adam was created, then began Jehovah’s seventh seven-thousand-year period of the creative week. Such then figure that from Adam’s creation, now thought to be the fall of 4025 B.C., why, six thousand years of God’s rest day would be ending in the fall of 1976. However, from our present chronology (which is admitted imperfect) at best the fall of the year 1976 would be the end of 6,000 years of human history for mankind, 6,000 years of man’s existence on the earth, not 6,000 years of Jehovah’s seventh seven-thousand-year period. Why not? Because Adam lived some time after his creation in the latter part of Jehovah’s sixth creative period, before the seventh period, Jehovah’s sabbath, began.
Why, it must have taken Adam quite some time to name all the animals, as he was commissioned to do. Further, it appears from the New World Bible Translation that, even while Adam was naming the animals, other family kinds of living creatures were being created for Adam to designate by name. (Gen. 2:19 footnote d, NW) It was not until after Adam completed this assignment of work that his helpmate Eve was created. Since God created nothing new whatever on the seventh day, Eve must have been created on the sixth day; and this the divine record confirms in its account of the sixth day: “God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.”—Gen. 1:27, NW.
The very fact that, as part of Jehovah’s secret, no one today is able to find out how much time Adam and later Eve lived during the closing days of the sixth creative period, so no one can now determine when six thousand years of Jehovah’s present rest day come to an end. Obviously, whatever amount of Adam’s 930 years was lived before the beginning of that seventh-day rest of Jehovah, that unknown amount would have to be added to the 1976 date.
Pickled
JoinedPosts by Pickled
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75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
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Pickled
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75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
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Pickled
Watchtower, October 15, 1966, 628-629
THRILLING DISCOURSES
Think of building people! That is what Jehovah’s witnesses are doing. “Jehovah’s witnesses are making Christians out of people who already exist as humans,” conventioners in Toronto and other assembly cities heard President N. H. Knorr of the Watch Tower Society say in the keynote address, “Building on a Right Foundation with Fire-Resistant Materials.” (1 Cor. 3:9-15) “Jehovah’s witnesses are building on the right foundation, Jesus Christ,” Knorr said, “and they are making true Christians with fire-resistant materials,” which the Bible compares with gold, silver, corals and precious stones. This means that “the persons whom we are striving to make disciples of Christ we must educate, train, discipline in the godly qualities of heavenly wisdom, spiritual discernment, appreciation of integrity, devotion to Bible principles, respect for the laws, commandments, orders, reminders and judicial decisions of Jehovah God, faith in his written Word, sticking to the theocratic organization of God’s people, love of God’s ‘sheep’ that are in the care of the Fine Shepherd Jesus Christ, unbreakable attachment to God’s Messianic kingdom and a fearless willingness to bear witness to it.” This will result in our own everlasting life and that of others on whom we do building work, the speaker assured his listeners.
Only a liberated people can preach a release to captives, conventioners were told in the speech “Preach a Release to the Captives,” which thrilled them with its hopeful outlook. “Jehovah, the God of freedom and liberty, has freed his people from Babylonish bondage and has given them a work of liberation to do. That work of liberation and salvation must go on to the finish! To give aid today in this critical time to prospective sons of God,” announced President Knorr, “a new book in English, entitled ‘Life Everlasting—in Freedom of the Sons of God,’ has been published.” At all assembly points where it was released, the book was received enthusiastically. Crowds gathered around stands and soon supplies of the book were depleted. Immediately its contents were examined. It did not take the brothers very long to find the chart beginning on page 31, showing that 6,000 years of man’s existence end in 1975. Discussion of 1975 overshadowed about everything else. “The new book compels us to realize that Armageddon is, in fact, very close indeed,” said a conventioner. Surely it was one of the outstanding blessings to be carried home!
“Liberty is to know Christian truth,” the eager audiences at a number of the assemblies heard F. W. Franz, the Watch Tower Society’s vice-president, say in his discourse “Liberty-giving Worship and Freedom of Worship.” “It is those who worship the one living and true God Jehovah through his Son Jesus Christ that are set free. Jehovah’s witnesses strive to keep the liberty that their practice of pure worship gives to them,” declared Franz.
Among the more thought-provoking talks at the 1966 “God’s Sons of Liberty” District Assemblies was the speech “Making Grateful Use of a Penny.” (Matt. 20:1-16) The assembled crowds learned that in the first century the symbolic “penny” was the privilege that went with the receiving of the holy spirit, namely, the privilege of being a member of spiritual Israel, authorized to prophesy in fulfillment of Joel 2:28, 29, anointed to preach the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom. The “penny” today is likewise the honor of serving as anointed ambassadors of God’s newborn Messianic kingdom from 1919 on till the coming “battle of the great day of God the Almighty” at Armageddon. The “penny” has been used in gathering the “great crowd” of sheeplike persons foretold in Revelation 7:9-17. What a reward this has already been to the anointed Kingdom ambassadors!
Human freedom or liberty is inseparably linked with the kingdom of God. The public address on Sunday, therefore, aroused great curiosity, for the subject was “What Has God’s Kingdom Been Doing Since 1914?” Over 386,600 present for this discourse in the twenty assembly cities heard proof that the kingdom of God is a reality. What has that kingdom done since 1914? It has gone into action against its enemies in heaven (Rev. 12:12); it has made its influence felt in the worldwide proclamation of the Kingdom in all the earth for a witness today; it has protected and preserved its anointed ambassadors through unspeakable trials; it has acquired subjects of whom about a million have dedicated themselves to God and his Messianic kingdom. ‘Let everybody become alive to the reality of 1914, as well as to the reality of the heavenly kingdom!’ appealed the speaker. -
75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
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Pickled
“All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial”, Reprint 1990, Original 1963, Page 286-287
Adding 1,656 years to our previous date of 2370 B.C.E., we arrive at 4026 B.C.E. for the creation of Adam, perhaps in the fall, since it is in the fall that the year began on the most ancient calendars.
13 Of what significance is this today? The first edition of this book, published in 1963, stated: “Does this mean, then, that by 1963 we had progressed 5,988 years into the ‘day’ on which Jehovah ‘has been resting from all his work’? (Gen. 2:3) No, for the creation of Adam does not correspond with the beginning of Jehovah’s rest day. Following Adam’s creation, and still within the sixth creative day, Jehovah appears to have been forming further animal and bird creations. Also, he had Adam name the animals, which would take some time, and he proceeded to create Eve. (Gen. 2:18-22; see also NW, 1953 Ed., footnote on vs. 19) Whatever time elapsed between Adam’s creation and the end of the ‘sixth day’ must be subtracted from the 5,988 years in order to give the actual length of time from the beginning of the ‘seventh day’ until [1963]. It does no good to use Bible chronology for speculating on dates that are still future in the stream of time.—Matt. 24:36.”
14 How about scientific claims that man has been on this earth for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years? None of them can be substantiated by written records from those early times, as Biblical events are. The fantastic dates given to “prehistoric man” are based on assumptions that cannot be proved. Actually, reliable secular history, together with its chronology, extends back only a few thousand years. The earth has undergone many changes and upheavals, such as the worldwide Deluge of Noah’s day, which have greatly disturbed rock strata and fossil deposits, making any scientific pronouncements on dates prior to the Deluge highly conjectural. In contrast to all the contradictory hypotheses and theories of men, the Bible appeals to reason through its explicit, harmonious account of the origin of mankind and its carefully documented history of Jehovah’s chosen people.
15 Study of the Bible and contemplation of the works of the Great Timekeeper, Jehovah God, should make us feel very humble. Mortal man is small indeed in comparison with the omnipotent God, whose stupendous act of creation, performed countless millenniums ago, is so simply stated in Scripture: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”—Gen. 1:1. -
75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
-
-
Pickled
Watchtower, January 1, 1975, Page 9
Will You Live to See Christ’s “Coming”?
WE HAVE all heard it said many times that Christ is going to come again to judge the earth, to destroy the wicked and reward the good.
But when something momentous is mentioned, it is human nature to think, ‘It can’t happen to me.’ So, many who claim to believe in Christ’s coming admit that it must take place in someone’s day. Yet they say, ‘It won’t happen in my time.’
These people overlook the fact that Jesus Christ said that there would be ample evidence when that time approached. More than that, it would take faith to recognize the nearness of that time—the time of his coming to hold an accounting with earth’s inhabitants. It would require a sincere heart, with awakeness and watchfulness as to Bible prophecies and world events. Jesus put us on the alert with his question: “When the Son of man arrives, will he really find the faith on the earth?”—Luke 18:8.
Despite the doubts of so many, from what Jesus said about his coming, it can be said with confidence that most persons who read this article, and millions of others, will live to see that earth-shaking event take place. Why so?
DEFINITE TO GOD BUT UNCALCULABLE BY MAN
It is certain that God has a definite time for Christ’s coming to execute judgment on the earth. Man, made in God’s image, has a sense of timing of matters. For this reason God provided a way for man to keep count of years, months and days. (Gen. 1:14-16) In the Bible an accurate chronology from the creation of man onward is provided. An outstanding instance of such chronology is the Biblical count of the “seven times” of Gentile domination of mankind without divine interruption, which ran from 607 B.C.E. to 1914 C.E. This count even had a prophetic nature. It was chronology in advance.
But nobody should get the idea that, simply by chronology, he can calculate the time of that “coming” of Christ for executing judgment. Christ himself told his apostles: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.”—Matt. 24:36.
Now, we know that Jesus Christ had been in heaven with his Father at the time of earth’s creation. (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:13-17) He knew the exact time of the creation of both Adam and Eve. (Gen. 1:26, 27) He knew precisely when 6,000 years of human history would be completed. He knew exactly when God’s seventh creative day, his great “rest” day began and when it would end. (Gen. 2:1-3) Yet, with all his perfect knowledge of chronology, when he was on earth he did not know the day and hour of his execution of judgment on this world, prior to when his thousand-year reign begins. (Rev. 20:4-6) How, then, could any human today possibly figure it out?
“AS THE DAYS OF NOAH WERE”
However, Jesus did not mention that specific incident for nothing. In the early part of his comments (in Matthew 24:4-35) he prophetically foretold many world conditions that would serve as warning that he would be about to take action, and he counseled awakeness as to this event, saying: “For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.”—Matt. 24:37-39.
Here Jesus, in referring to “the days of Noah,” evidently meant a time period during which Noah built the ark. The ark was something for the people to take note of, but they went on ignoring this divinely provided warning.
According to Jesus’ prophecy, the social conditions among men and women on earth, along with the other things spoken of by Jesus, constitute a warning for all people today. The accuracy of this forecast is made more evident by the reading of the parallel account in Mark chapter 13 and Luke chapter 21, along with the apostle John’s vision described in Revelation chapter 6.
What do these things show as to the likelihood that people now living will see, yes, and even live through, “that day and hour”? This: Some, though only a few, took note of God’s warning, saw the Flood and were preserved through it. So today, people are hearing the warning and many, though few as compared with earth’s population, will hear and survive. (Rev. 7:9-17) This period from the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E. Jesus designated (in Matthew 24:36-39 quoted above) as his “presence.” During this time he would, invisibly, be making inspection of the earth. He would also direct the work of warning the people and gather together those who are not the ‘scoffer’ type, but who take heed and exercise faith. Then he would ‘come’ with destructive power against God’s enemies. This warning is indeed being sounded verbally now, in the preaching of this good news of the Kingdom earth wide.—Matt. 24:14.
As to Jesus’ being “present” for a time before he ‘comes’ against this system of things, consider the length of the period during which Noah built the ark. He was 500 years old when he began to have sons. (Gen. 5:32) These three sons all grew up and married, by which time Noah was probably around 550 years of age. At that time God gave him instructions to build the ark. (Gen. 6:18) The Flood occurred when Noah was 600 years old. (Gen. 7:6) This would allow fifty years, more or less, as the period before the Flood, in which the people could observe and take warning. But the people were too involved in the everyday affairs of life, showing no faith in Noah’s message from God.
NO ADVANCE DATE TO BE GIVEN
In Noah’s time he was told, one week before the floodwaters fell, to take into the ark the specimens of the various animals that were to be preserved. (Gen. 7:1-16) But this does not prove that there would be advance notice in our time as to the exact day of Christ’s “coming” to destroy this present system of things. Back there Noah obviously had to know when to begin taking the animals into the place of safety. If he took them in too soon, when, perhaps, it seemed according to his calculation that the end was immediate, it would draw unduly on the stock of foodstuffs he had stored in the ark. On the other hand, if the flood came suddenly without warning, Noah could not have gathered the animals into the ark in time. The advance notice God gave him was very short, but necessary, and sufficient to accomplish God’s purpose.
That even the disciples of Jesus Christ, true Christians on earth, will be unaware beforehand of the precise time of Christ’s “coming” in this executional sense is shown by what he said as recorded at Matthew 24:42-44. Note that these words were not directed to the world in general. They were addressed directly to Christ’s disciples: “Keep on the watch, therefore, because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know one thing, that if the householder had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have kept awake and not allowed his house to be broken into. On this account you too prove yourselves ready, because at an hour that you do not think to be it, the Son of man is coming.”
NOT KNOWING THE DAY CONSTITUTES A TEST
What is God’s purpose in leaving Christians uncertain as to the precise time of the Lord Jesus Christ’s coming to execute the vengeance of Jehovah? It is to require all who claim to be Christ’s disciples to prove whether they are genuine Christians all the time. They cannot become careless and involved with worldly pursuits and practices and then, just before the last minute, put on a form of godliness. Of course, they could not deceive Jesus Christ by such a course. But God wants it plain to all people that there is a clear-cut distinction between those who really serve God and those who do not. (Mal. 3:18) They prove by their fruits what they are at heart.—Matt. 7:17-20.
In view of all these facts, along with Jesus’ prophetic words, millions of people now living will see the “day” of Christ’s coming to mete out justice upon this system of things, religious, political, commercial and social. But to survive that execution of judgment is another matter. Said Jesus: “Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken along and the other be abandoned; two women will be grinding at the hand mill: one will be taken along and the other be abandoned.” (Matt. 24:40, 41) Weeks earlier Jesus had made a similar statement, prompting the disciples’ question, “Where, Lord?” He answered, “Where the body is, there also the eagles will be gathered together.” (Luke 17:37) The ones “taken along” are spiritually sharp-sighted, like eagles, who gather to the one whom they discern to be the Messiah, for the spiritual feast that Jehovah provides within his place of safety. They will gather together with God’s congregations on earth, under his true Messiah. Those “abandoned” will be those who do not keep spiritually awake and who consequently get swallowed up in a selfish way of life, as did the people in Noah’s day. Such are “abandoned” to destruction along with the world system of things in which they are involved.
Yes, to survive the executional work that begins on that “day” requires faith. This can be obtained only by a study of the Bible. We must “keep on the watch” that our actions are based on the Bible’s right principles, knowing that that day for executional work to begin is surely coming, in fact, is near. (Hab. 2:3) In “keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah,” God’s time period for meting out justice, we do not become careless. We let all features of our lives be spiritually influenced so that we can “be found finally by him spotless and unblemished and in peace.”—2 Pet. 3:12-14. -
75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
-
-
Pickled
Watchtower, August 15, 1968, 499
6,000 YEARS FROM ADAM’S CREATION
26 In a similar manner it is only necessary to add up the following years involving ten pre-Flood generations to get the date of Adam’s creation, namely:
From Adam’s creation
To birth of Seth (Gen. 5:3) 130 years
To birth of Enosh (5:6) 105 “
To birth of Kenan (5:9) 90 “
To birth of Mahalalel (5:12) 70 “
To birth of Jared (5:15) 65 “
To birth of Enoch (5:18) 162 “
To birth of Methuselah (5:21) 65 “
To birth of Lamech (5:25) 187 “
To birth of Noah (5:28, 29) 182 “
To beginning of Flood (7:6) 600 “
Total 1,656 years
27 Adding this figure 1,656 to 2,370 gives 4026 B.C.E., the Gregorian calendar year in which Adam was created. Since man naturally began to count time with his own beginning, and since man’s most ancient calendars started each year in the autumn, it is reasonable to assume that the first man Adam was created in the fall of the year.
28 Thus, through a careful independent study by dedicated Bible scholars who have pursued the subject for a number of years, and who have not blindly followed some traditional chronological calculations of Christendom, we have arrived at a date for Adam’s creation that is 22 years more distant in the past than Ussher’s figure. This means time is running out two decades sooner than traditional chronology anticipates.
29 After much of the mathematics and genealogies, really, of what benefit is this information to us today? Is it not all dead history, as uninteresting and profitless as walking through a cemetery copying old dates off tombstones? After all, why should we be any more interested in the date of Adam’s creation than in the birth of King Tut? Well, for one thing, if 4,026 is added to 1,968 (allowing for the lack of a zero year between C.E. and B.C.E.) one gets a total of 5,993 years, come this autumn, since Adam’s creation. That means, in the fall of the year 1975, a little over seven years from now (and not in 1997 as would be the case if Ussher’s figures were correct), it will be 6,000 years since the creation of Adam, the father of all mankind!
ADAM CREATED AT CLOSE OF “SIXTH DAY”
30 Are we to assume from this study that the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then? Possibly, but we wait to see how closely the seventh thousand-year period of man’s existence coincides with the sabbathlike thousand-year reign of Christ. If these two periods run parallel with each other as to the calendar year, it will not be by mere chance or accident but will be according to Jehovah’s loving and timely purposes. Our chronology, however, which is reasonably accurate (but admittedly not infallible), at the best only points to the autumn of 1975 as the end of 6,000 years of man’s existence on earth. It does not necessarily mean that 1975 marks the end of the first 6,000 years of Jehovah’s seventh creative “day.” Why not? Because after his creation Adam lived some time during the “sixth day,” which unknown amount of time would need to be subtracted from Adam’s 930 years, to determine when the sixth seven-thousand-year period or “day” ended, and how long Adam lived into the “seventh day.” And yet the end of that sixth creative “day” could end within the same Gregorian calendar year of Adam’s creation. It may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years. -
75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
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Pickled
Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom (1993), 104
“The Jehovah’s Witnesses had long shared the belief that the Thousand Year Reign of Christ would follow after 6,000 years of human history.” -
75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
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Pickled
“Life Everlasting in FREEDOM OF THE SONS OF GOD”
COPYRIGHT, 1966 by WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY
OF PENNSYLVANIA
CHAPTER 1, Pages 26-30
SIX THOUSAND YEARS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE CLOSING
The time is fast drawing near for the reality that was foreshadowed by the Jubilee of liberty to be proclaimed throughout the earth to all mankind now oppressed by many enslaved things. In view of the earth-wide situation and the world’s condition, it appears most urgent for the liberation like that of the Jubilee to come soon. Most certainly the near future would be the most appropriate time for it. God’s own written Word indicates that it is the appointed time for it. Here we are well along in the twentieth century of our Common Era. How long before our Common Era began was it that man was created and placed in his paradise home in what is now southwest Asia? The Holy Bible, which gives us the authentic account of man’s creation, gives us a timetable running way back to his creation. The Bible runs this timetable or chronology all the way back from the year of release of God’s people from Babylon in the first year of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king. –2 Chronicles 36:22, 23; Ezra 1:1-4.
Thus we can connect up the Bible’s count of time with the world’s count of time down to this date. By doing this it becomes evident that man is nearing the end of six thousand years of his existence and the beginning of the seventh period of a thousand years of his existence. The year of man’s creation is generally spoken of as the Year of the World or Anno Mundi and symbolized by the letters A.M. Now if we take a copy of the popular King James Version of the Bible, equipped with marginal references, we find that it gives the year of man’s creation as 4004 B.C.E., which is according to the Bible chronology figured out by the eminent Irish Anglican prelate, Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656). If we accept that date, then if we add 1,996 years, it gives us the total of 6,000 years. Then the seventh period of a thousand years of life for man would begin in the year 1997 C.E.
Since the time of Ussher intensive study of Bible chronology has been carried on. In this twentieth century an independent study has been carried on that does not blindly follow some traditional chronology calculations of Christendom, and the published timetable resulting from this independent study gives the date of man’s creation as 4026 B.C.E. According to this trustworthy Bible chronology six thousand years from man’s creation will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human history will begin in the fall of 1975 C.E.
So six thousand years of man’s existence on earth will soon be up, yes, within this generation. Jehovah God is timeless, as it is written in Psalm 90:1, 2: “O Jehovah, you yourself have proven to be a real dwelling for us during generation after generation. Before the mountains themselves were born, or you proceeded to bring forth as with labor pains the earth and productive land, even from time indefinite to time indefinite you are God.” So from that standpoint of Jehovah God these passing six thousand years of man’s existence are but six days of twenty-four hours, for this same Psalm (verses 3, 4) goes on to say: “You make mortal man go back to crushed matter, and you say: ‘Go back, you sons of men.’ For a thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch during the night.” So in not many years within our own generation we are reaching what Jehovah God could view as the seventh day of man’s existence.
How appropriate it would be for Jehovah God to make of this coming seventh period of a thousand years a Sabbath of rest and release, a great Jubilee sabbath for the proclaiming of liberty throughout the earth to all its inhabitants! This would be most timely for mankind. It would also be most fitting on God’s part, for, remember, mankind has yet ahead what the last book of the Holy Bible speaks of as the reign of Jesus Christ over earth for a thousand years, the millennial reign of Christ. Prophetically Jesus Christ, when on earth nineteen centuries ago, said concerning himself: “For Lord of the Sabbath is what the Son of man is.” (Matthew 12:8) It would not be by mere chance or accident but would be according to the loving purpose of Jehovah God for the reign of Jesus Christ, the “Lord of the sabbath,” to run parallel with the seventh millennium of man’s existence.
The Jubilee year of God’s ancient law was a “shadow of the good things to come.” The substantial reality that it foreshadowed must yet without fail be introduced for the good of all the groaning human creation. The blessed time for its introduction is fast approaching. Shortly, within our own generation, the symbolic trumpet will be sounded by divine power, proclaiming “liberty in the land to all its inhabitants.” (Leviticus 25:8-10) God foresaw the need for this and had it foreshadowed in his ancient law given through the prophet Moses. As his law foreshadowed this coming great worldwide Jubilee, he has laid the full legal basis for its full, glorious realization. Consequently there is now every reason why the human creation will yet be set free, not by men, but by Almighty God. The long-awaited time for this it at hand! -
75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
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Pickled
Jaguarbass, you wrote... "so stay in the Ark."
That's interesting because that sounds like another version of the bird in the cage thing with the look what happens when it tries to leave the cage scenario.
The interesting thing about Noah's Ark, to me, is that nowhere does it indicate that the design included a steering wheel. This Ark you referenced is not the same kind of Ark that houses a group completely at the mercy and direction of God alone, and wherever He decides to have them land....and more importantly, when.
This present Ark is more like the Titanic whose builders boasted loudly that it was absolutely unsinkable. -
75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
-
-
Pickled
wingCommander, before you fall asleep at the stick.... :-) I agree with your view about the kind of tactics that all cults use more or less. But since this isn't a Welcome Ex-Moonies forum I think it would be really helpful to share experiences that might cause potential new converts of the JW to rethink what they are currently learning. The goals are the same, but aren't the methods and message a little different from those who might be convinced that they should sell flowers in an airport?
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75
Why Guess About Dates At All?
by Pickled ini posted this on another thread and realized that it was really off topic, so i made it a separate topic because i would really like to read your thoughts about this... .
does anyone know if any reasons are given by the wtbts about why they feel it is such an important part of their teachings to keep guessing about dates and the years things are going to happen?
it seems that it adds nothing to whatever they believe about the bible, and it has only served to create such confusion among their members over the years.
-
-
Pickled
NEJ, what jumps out at me in your writing style and your clarity I am sure are the same qualities that were noticed and praised while you were a JW. In case you were wondering, you still seem to have all the same talents and gifts you had before. The part that has made you struggle is the part where you tried so hard to use those qualities to perpetuate a lie that, at the time, you didn't know was a lie.
You are not the one who created the lie. As a matter of fact, you had no role or power at all beyond the way that you were encouraged and "allowed" to function as a mouthpiece. No one in the audience blames the puppet when the show is bad. It's the writers and the puppeteer who are responsible.
The WTBTS can't have it both ways. They can't insist that their followers only follow a script, and then blame the believer when the script is poorly written and filled with inconsistencies.
For a time you followed a script and I am sure when you made the decision to no longer do that, you were faced with some very costly losses that included family, friends, and self-esteem.
But others have done it and you can do it too, only in your case you have some really tremendous assets that are obvious and which you might be able to focus on as a way to build back up what others attempted to manipulate.
I have enjoyed your perspectives and insight very much.