in 1823, john aquila brown (a man who is not mentioned in any wt publication) came up with a bizarre mathematical calculation which totalled 2,520 years (in an unauthorized attempt to predict the end of the gentile times).... several religions recycled this bizarre calculation, including the adventists and the bible students... when armageddon didn't come on the variety of early 20th century dates predicted by several "dooms-day" religions of that time (including charles taze russell's bible students who predicted that the big a would start in 1914), they all finally realized that this 2,520-year calculation was nothing more than arbitrary mathematical speculation derived from erratic biblical extrapolation.... except for the bible students who continued to move up the date for armageddon 2 more times (1918, 1925) and then decided to use wwi as the starting point for the "last days".. all the while, one thing that seems to remain intact is the october 2, 1914 date.
oddly, for the watchtower bible & tract publishing cult, this particular date still marks the end of the 2,520-year period (that john aquila brown referred to in his bizarre 1823 book "the even tide")... again, no mention of this in any watchtower publication.
but, for jws, that date still remains the starting point for the period of time often referred to as the "last days" or even "the generation that shall not pass".. because of this, the governing body has been forced to change the definition of "the generation that shall not pass" countless times since the early 1970's.
I wonder what they'll be saying in 60 years time when the 'overlapping generation' idea is no longer feasible. At what point does 1914 stop looking like 'The Last Days', and more like 'The Last Months'?
I've heard a lot of JW's talk about 2014 being the year, and I'm going to have a smug grin on my face come January 1st 2015.
according to the watchtower's interpretation of the bible, we live in a time of unprecedented importance.
the current system is likely to end in our lifetime, and as the end draws closer the need to for the world to accept the bible becomes more urgent.. we are also in a unique time in that billions of people have the risk of eternal destruction upon death.
as i understand it, the billions who have and will die before armageddon will get an 'auto-resurrection' after armageddon (save a few in god's bad books) but those who die at armageddon are gone forever.
There's no logical way to ignore how vague those statements are. The Isrealites didn't know anything about germs or quantum theory, or plate tectonics. Nothing that people couldn't have discovered on their own. And in fact, other people did. The Greeks were pretty well up on these things and figured out the Earth was spherical, because of the shape of shadows cast in two different locations, but at the same time of day. They even managed a rough estimate of the Earths total area.
But all that time, the Jewish writers said nothing? They didn't even try to learn more, even though they had been gifted with this knowledge that no one else had?
You also have to take into account that Language is not static, it evolves. When something new is created or discovered, a new word has to be invented for it. Just because the Jews didn't have a word for 'sphere' at the time of those writings, doesn't mean they couldn't have made one. But it becomes apparent that sphere was not what they had in mind. Later on in the same book, they use the word 'ball'. Now out of 'ball' and 'circle', which do you think describes the Earth better?
Jews didn't have a clue.
with todays public talk being about the global flood as a real event, please give any information/views that you have on this topic.
evidence either for or against is more than welcome.
thank you..
Already some fantastic posts here, but they're right. The flood is absolutely ridiculous and flies in the face of all modern science. It's absolutely impossible, unless you imbue an 'all powerful' God. But if that were the case, I'm sure there'd have been a much easier way for him to get rid of nasty people and nasty angels, that didn't require such a giant leap of faith.
I believed until I read the talkorigins Flood FAQ.
Also watch some of these videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sD_7rxYoZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfSvktyxVYA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIlWKp44T50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5svTzxVa-xQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Vq2hoIfJ4
I hope these are of benefit to you.
that's all i have to say about that.. okay, one gratuitous jesus joke.... .
'Happy' weekend, everyone.
i haven't been able to actually talk to any "apostates" yet, haha.
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i'm not much of a poster, mostly read alot, but would like to have a good conversation..
I have a shirt on, dont worry Sulla. Though I'll be going to bed very soon.
i haven't been able to actually talk to any "apostates" yet, haha.
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i'm not much of a poster, mostly read alot, but would like to have a good conversation..
I suggest we all add each other.
I'll just save the trouble of sending round PM's. If you want to have a chit-chat my username is andyman36. Most forums allow a profile section to add stuff like emails and skype/msn so I don't see the problem posting it here.
i haven't been able to actually talk to any "apostates" yet, haha.
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i'm not much of a poster, mostly read alot, but would like to have a good conversation..
go get it, dinah! It's free to download/use and like I said, you dont need a mic or a webcam :)
just a little experience i had a while back.
thought it was funny so here we go.
(there's also a couple of links you might want to use for your own reference).
Very nice graph, rebel8. I was going to do something similar after I also found the USGS centennial for earthquake listings from 1900 onwards, but I guess that saves me some time.
I'd like to say I'll use this graph only for good, but apparently i'd just be stimulating cult personality. Woe is me! :c
i haven't been able to actually talk to any "apostates" yet, haha.
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i'm not much of a poster, mostly read alot, but would like to have a good conversation..
sent you a message as well, cantleave.
i haven't been able to actually talk to any "apostates" yet, haha.
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i'm not much of a poster, mostly read alot, but would like to have a good conversation..
btt because I thought it was a good idea.
I have skype. I've sent you a pm thinking_1
Anyone who'd like my skype can send me a message :) Remember folks, Skype is a text chat program too, you don't need to have a mic/webcam to use it!
