TD
Fast forward the clock 40 years and it is clear that an adjustment is on the horizon.
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How so? An adjustment to What?
scholar JW
i'm sure this has been discussed, but 1914 has to go away.
instead of, the overlapping generation teaching, they should have just ditched 1914. .
they should have done that a long time ago with 1975. it's the last of the teachings in the charles taze russell era.. i'm thinking they just will stop talking about it, and it will be out of the mind of the rank and file loyal witnesses .
TD
Fast forward the clock 40 years and it is clear that an adjustment is on the horizon.
--
How so? An adjustment to What?
scholar JW
i'm sure this has been discussed, but 1914 has to go away.
instead of, the overlapping generation teaching, they should have just ditched 1914. .
they should have done that a long time ago with 1975. it's the last of the teachings in the charles taze russell era.. i'm thinking they just will stop talking about it, and it will be out of the mind of the rank and file loyal witnesses .
TD
You can call it bright flash of light if you want. I would call it a rip in the fabric of JW theology that must needs be fixed. The idea that the proximity of the end justified the identification of the great crowd in 1935 might have made sense 50 years ago, but it just doesn't work anymore.
Salvation, the Ransom and the two Christian hopes are not trivial doctrines and modifying the significance of 1914 might actually be easier than tinkering with them.
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No, it is a validated doctrine of Biblical Theology rightly espoused by Jehovah's people in keeping with the inspired utterance in Rev.1:1. Despite the passage of time our understanding is validated by the passage of time consistent with the nature of the fulfilment of biblical prophecy so the Lord's people are nourished by faith and the Christian hope for a New World.
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Salvation, the Ransom and the two Christian hopes are not trivial doctrines and modifying the significance of 1914 might actually be easier than tinkering with them.
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Indeed, such key doctrines have always from the time of the Bible Students been taught by God's people as no other group has done in conjunction with prophecy or eschatology inaugurated by the events of 1914 CE.
scholar JW
i'm sure this has been discussed, but 1914 has to go away.
instead of, the overlapping generation teaching, they should have just ditched 1914. .
they should have done that a long time ago with 1975. it's the last of the teachings in the charles taze russell era.. i'm thinking they just will stop talking about it, and it will be out of the mind of the rank and file loyal witnesses .
Fisherman
Regardless of mistaken conclusions about the proximity of the end, the eyewitness testimony and the events believed to fulfill Bible prophecy substantiate 1914 —as JW see it. What to say now, nothing happened in 1914? The date is written in stone for JW.
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Absolutely. The outbreak of the Great War, a fact of modern history which marked the end of the 'Gentile Times' and inaugurated God's Kingdom along with the fulfilment of the Sign of the Parousia confirm the Bible as God's written Word and can properly be termed as 'cast in stone' as a venerable witness.
scholar JW
i'm sure this has been discussed, but 1914 has to go away.
instead of, the overlapping generation teaching, they should have just ditched 1914. .
they should have done that a long time ago with 1975. it's the last of the teachings in the charles taze russell era.. i'm thinking they just will stop talking about it, and it will be out of the mind of the rank and file loyal witnesses .
TD
I also think it's a little blasé by implication if nothing else. How would you explain to a survivor of Auschwitz that what they were told in 1935 was wrong?
Realistically, I don't suppose you could (Not without repercussions) as the JW's (As recently as 2019) were still hailing the 1935 convention as a bright flash of light.
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The year was a major milestone in Biblical Theology, especially in the field of Eschatology whereupon we received an understanding concerning the modern-day identity of the 'Great Crowd' described in Revelation 7:9 which has proved to serve as nourishing spiritual food for successive generations of God's people right up to the present day.Indeed the brightest of all flashing lights!!!
scholar JW
i'm sure this has been discussed, but 1914 has to go away.
instead of, the overlapping generation teaching, they should have just ditched 1914. .
they should have done that a long time ago with 1975. it's the last of the teachings in the charles taze russell era.. i'm thinking they just will stop talking about it, and it will be out of the mind of the rank and file loyal witnesses .
TD
Quibbling over exegeses and chronology will not remedy the passage of time or undo its damage to teachings that sprang from the 1914 chronology and the alleged proximity of the end.
Where, for example are the people who where told point blank in 1935 that they were the great multitude?
The last person I knew who was there and remembered that event died of old age in the late 1970's
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True we have to deal with the passage of time and many generations have come and passed without seeing the fulfilment of events prophesied and that is really part of Salvation History. However, Jesus Christ admonished His disciples to 'Keep on the Watch' and gave them work to do and that is what the Witnesses since 1919 have been doing- the Lord's work and being ever watchful and the said scholar intends to do likewise!!
scholar JW
i'm sure this has been discussed, but 1914 has to go away.
instead of, the overlapping generation teaching, they should have just ditched 1914. .
they should have done that a long time ago with 1975. it's the last of the teachings in the charles taze russell era.. i'm thinking they just will stop talking about it, and it will be out of the mind of the rank and file loyal witnesses .
There is no need to ditch the 1914 teaching as it is based on solid exegesis of relevant biblical texts fulfilling Bible prophecy such as the historic and prophetic 'Gentile Times' and the inauguration of God's Kingdom with the latter doctrine thematic throughout the Bible.
Further, 1he 1914 teaching is firmly established on wondrous Bible Chronology which proved beyond doubt that Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BCE rather than the secular dates of 586/587 and 588 BCE all of which have been proposed by various scholars
The 1914 teaching forms part of an eschatological triennium: 1914, 1918 and 1919 CE all of which are descriptive of the development and existence of God's people during the 'time of the end' according to Daniel the Prophet and the Apostle John the Seer.in Revelation and Lukan Eschatology.
In short, the 1914 teaching is firmly founded, enshrined by leading expositors in the past and validated by the fulfilment of Bible Prophecy pertaining to the Sign of the Parousia.
scholar JW emeritus
this is quite an interesting blog post - somethings i find to be "ehh" and some with fundamentally flawed arguments.
but an interesting point of view and worth looking into (not sure if this person is a jw):https://jimspace3000.blogspot.com/2021/01/answers-to-10-questions-answers.html.
Excellent JW Apologetics
scholar JW
happy birthday 2 me!!.
sunday is my 76th birthday and i know that you want to know how it "feels" to have outlived my usefulness, to have lost my natural beauty (being reduced to wrinkles and flab), and constantly walking into a room not knowing why i'm there.
you also are curious as to how i can continue to find a reason to live since none of my kids think my opinions have any possible value, most of my facebooks friends i wouldn't recognize if i tripped over them on my way into starbucks, and my monthly expenditure on bird treats exceeds u.s. spending on the military.
Terry
Happy Birthday!
scholar JW
if anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.
estephan.
Jeffro
Entirely invalid response (and there actually wasn't any special decree just for the Jews, Cyrus just had a general policy of allowing conquered people to follow their religious beliefs in order to quell civil unrest). Giving attention to their return before the end of the 70 years directly contradicts the direct statement at Jeremiah 29:10. But thanks for confirming once again that JWs don't really care what the Bible actually says when it disagrees with Watch Tower Society doctrine.
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There was such an instrument as the Decree of Cyrus. The direct statement or prophecy at Jeremiah 29:10 validates the date of the Return at the behest of Cyrus' Decree and fulfilling the prophetic word of Jeremiah that the 70 years marked the end of the Exile at the Reurn in 537 BCe. Everything fits together like a jigsaw puzzle.
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It is not necessary to believe a text is true in order to assess what it says. However, the descriptions in Jeremiah of 70 years as a period during which the nations were subject to Babylon does nicely fit the period from the fall of Assyria in 609 BCE until the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE. And Jeremiah's further description of attention being given to the Jews' return after Babylon's 70 years also nicely fits the fact that some of the Jews returned to Jerusalem in 538 BCE after Persia began to reign and began work on the temple foundations in Cyrus' second year, 537 BCE.
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Utter nonsense for credibility is everything for why would a person trust another's disbelief or scepticism for only a fool does that. Your thesis that the Fall of Assyria in 609 BCE? marks 70 year period and ending in 539 BCE with the Fall of Babylon is correct but that has nothing to do with Jeremiah's 70 years which commenced with the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 BCE and ended with the Return of the Jews in 537 BCE consistent with the fact that this 70 year was of servitude-desolation and Exile as detailed and foretold in the biblical record.
scholar JW
if anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.
estephan.
Jeffro
otta love JW 'logic'...
But some people making a 4-month trip in a 6-month period? 'Impossible' says the non-scholar.
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JW logic which is Bible-based is better than your logic.
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The 40 years in relation to Egypt is in the Bible so it must have happened.
The 20 yr Babylonian Gap exists because of the difference between NB History and Bible History in relation to the Late Judean Period.
Your co-called compression of events pertaining to the Return in 538 is implausible.
scholar JW