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posted 03 March 2006 ***
The Watchtower, 1 July 2004 On page 8
we read a statement that is made fairly regularly: "… since 1914 he
has had authority over God's newly established Kingdom" We have not
written on this for a while and so here again is the clear evidence
that 1914 cannot be a marked date in Scripture and anyway Russell did
not point forward to 1914 as the starting point rather it was the finishing
point.
From the beginning the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society has been fascinated
with dates. Although the dates may have changed, and, indeed what was
supposed to have happened on those dates, one has remained constant
- 1914. This becomes the pivotal point of their belief covering both
the 'return' of Jesus Christ and the starting point to date the 'end
of the world'. But there are no dates in the Bible and so how do the
Society arrive at this number? The answer is chronology, and an understanding
of it is helpful when talking with a Witness about these things.
In summary the Watchtower chronology goes like this:
An absolute date - an event in the Bible and in secular history - is
decided upon. The Watchtower chose the fall of Babylon in 539 BC.
Now, using the Bible alone, they say two years later, 537 BC, Cyrus
decreed that the Jews could return to Jerusalem. Thus, 537 is the end
of Jerusalem's seventy years of desolation, which therefore began, at
its fall, in 607 BC.
Daniel's dream in chapter 4 and the 'Bible rule' that a day equals a
year, show that the Gentile Times, which began at Jerusalem's fall in
607 BC, would be 2,520 years long, ending in 1914.
We'll look at each step in detail.
Step 1: The Absolute Date
To date an event with a 'BC' date, you must accept scientific chronology.
The Witnesses say that they are using biblical chronology, but that
only places events in their right order with the correct interval of
years in between. Their article in The Watchtower, 15 August 1968, entitled
The Book of Truthful, Historical Dates, showed that to establish the
absolute date of 539, they must use secular historians. They quote twenty-five
reliable authorities to fix 539 but at least twenty-two of these also
conclude that Jerusalem fell in 586/587 BC, not 607 as claimed by the
Society.
If these authorities are reliable over 539, surely they are reliable
over 586? In any case, why choose 539 as the starting point when we
could equally use 586 as the absolute date and miss out the first two
calculations? Sound scholarship means that we must either accept both
539 and 586 as reliable or reject both. This is further shown by the
basis for fixing 539. The Watchtower article mentioned above explains:
"... a stone document... (which) gives precise
details... This, in turn, enables modern scholars, with their knowledge
of astronomy, to translate these dates into terms of the Julian or Gregorian
calendars." - p. 490.
Similarly, we can fix the absolute date for the fall of Jerusalem as
586 BC, based on a clay tablet with precise details that can be translated
into terms of our modern-day calendar by the same accurate astronomical
tables used for 539.
The Witnesses must have realised they were skating on thin ice because
a few years after the article in The Watchtower they changed their mind:
"... the co-relation of astronomical data
with human events in the past is subject to various factors and human
interpretation, allowing for error." Insight on the Scriptures, Vol.1,
p.454.
This means that 539 is not an absolute date and there is no reliable
Watchtower chronology!
Step 2: From 539 To 537
Once 539 is accepted, Jehovah's Witnesses will proudly tell you that
only the Bible is used to establish their chronology, the first step
being from 539 to 537, the two years between the fall of Babylon and
the decree of Cyrus. Where are these years found mentioned in the Bible?
The answer is nowhere! Even the Society agrees: "... It is very probable
that the decree was made by the winter of 538 or toward the spring of
537." - Insight on the Scriptures, Vol. l, p.458 (emphasis added). There
is not enough information in the Bible about these events to be exact.
Starting from 539 and using the Bible alone, all we could say is that
the people returned to the land somewhere between 538 and 536.
Step 3: 70 Years of Desolation
The Watchtower is adamant that 70 years of complete desolation took
place after the fall of Jerusalem in 607. The Society's article on Chronology
reads:
"From 607 BCE to return from exile. The length
of this period is fixed by God's own decree concerning Judah, that 'all
this land must become a devastated place, an object of astonishment,
and these nations will have to serve the king of Babylon seventy years'
- Jer 25:8-11. The Bible prophecy does not allow for the application
of this 70-year period to any time other than between the desolation
of Judah... and the return of the Jewish exiles to their homeland...
2 Chronicles 36:20,21 states: 'Furthermore, he carried off those remaining
from the sword captive to Babylon... to fulfil Jehovah's word by the
mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had paid off its sabbaths'... Jerusalem...
fell in... Nebuchadnezzar's 19th year of actual rule (counting from
his accession year in 625 BC)... However, 'some of the lowly people
of the land' were allowed to remain... they fled into Egypt, finally
leaving Judah completely desolate (2 Kings 25:9-12,22-26). This was
in the seventh month... Hence the count of the 70 years of desolation
must have begun about October 1, 607 BCE ending in 537 BCE." - Insight
on the Scriptures, Vol.1, p.463.
The term '70 years' appears 6 times in Scripture. 3 times in Jeremiah;
once in Daniel; once in Zechariah and once in 2 Chronicles 36:21. The
key to this period is the prophecy of Jeremiah. First, what did he say?
Jeremiah 25:11, 12
This message came in the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar (25:1). For 23 years,
the Lord had spoken against the inhabitants of Jerusalem and His patience
had run its course (v. 3). Now the Lord says, "I will bring the King
of Babylon against you" (v. 9). After preaching the same message for
23 years without response and now telling the people what would happen,
do you think the Lord would wait another 18 years (till Nebuchadnezzar's
19th year) to fulfil the judgement? Probably not. However, this is not
conclusive by itself.
Jeremiah 29:10
Verse 1 says that Jeremiah spoke these words while he was still in Jerusalem
but some had already been taken captive to Babylon. For thus says the
Lord, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit
you and fulfil My good word to you, to bring you back to this place'
(29:10). Jeremiah was talking about the 70 years having already started,
before the final destruction of Jerusalem; proof that the 70 years cannot
start from that event. Do other Scriptures support this?
Daniel 9:2
Daniel mentions the desolations of Jerusalem. In the Watchtower's chronology
article they mention one group being taken captive at the destruction
of Jerusalem, but Daniel mentions at least two devastations. The Society's
article on Nebuchadnezzar (Insight on the Scriptures, Vol. 2, p.480),
mentions that Nebuchadnezzar comes to Jerusalem earlier, when quoting
from the Babylonian Chronicles.
"In this his ascension year he returned to
Hattu and... he took the vast booty of Hattu to Babylon."
Hattu is Judah and this becomes clear when the Chronicles mention the
destruction of Jerusalem, [Hattu]. Nebuchadnezzar, on the Society's
own admission, had been to Jerusalem before and taken away booty in
his first or ascension year, the very year in which Jeremiah made the
prophecy. Daniel expected the 70 years to be tied in with the devastations
of Jerusalem, that is the period would start from its first devastation,
but from where did he draw this conclusion? Jeremiah the prophet. We
therefore need to go back to Jeremiah 25:11,12 to see what led Daniel
to that conclusion:
"These nations will serve the king of
Babylon seventy years."
Jeremiah did not prophesy, and therefore Daniel could not deduce, that
the 70 years would start when Jerusalem fell. He said, and Daniel correctly
understood, that the 70 years would begin when Jerusalem first came
under the servitude of the King of Babylon. History and the Bible tells
us that this was in the first year of his reign not his nineteenth.
It is only by ignoring historical evidence, and even worse by ignoring
God's Word, that the Society can conclude that the 70 years ran between
607 and 537.
Step 4: `The Times of the Gentiles'
The dream of Nebuchadnezzar recorded in Daniel 4 is the basis of this
calculation. The tree in the dream represents 'divine rulership... through
the kingdom of Judah' and the seven periods that elapsed after it was
cut down are the 'Gentile Times'. The kingdom being restored to Nebuchadnezzar
after these seven periods represents the Lord Jesus taking His seat
on the throne vacated by King Zedekiah.
Unlike other dreams recorded in Daniel, the fulfilment is also recorded.
It is not for the 'end times' as others are. The word used for 'fulfilled'
in verse 33 means 'to have an end of'. The tree represents Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon, which is difficult to equate with the understanding
of the Society that it represents divine rulership.
"What was really meant was... domination
exercised by the kingdom of God." - Babylon the Great has Fallen, 1963,
p.177.
It is a foolish man who seeks to correct God.
Luke 21:24 mentions the 'Time of the Gentiles' and it explains that
during this time Jerusalem will be trampled down. That could not possibly
have ended in 1914, but the Jehovah's Witness will try to wriggle out
of this by saying it is the heavenly Jerusalem that was trampled down
until 1914. However, the trampling started on earth and therefore must
finish there. Is it scriptural to say that the heavens were trampled
down until 1914? See Ephesians 1:20-23 (past tense in AD 60!).
According to the dating of the Society, Daniel was taken to Babylon
in 617 and the fall of Jerusalem was ten years later in 607 BC. In addition,
this dream is a prophecy concerning the fall of Jerusalem. However,
these two statements cannot be reconciled. The dream indicated a future
event, to take place at least one year later (Dan 4:29). If that event
is the fall of Jerusalem, then the dream must have been received at
the latest in 608. That is impossible because the dream in Daniel 4
comes after the dream in Daniel 2 (compare 2:48 with 4:9); and the Watchtower
date Daniel 2 (albeit falsely) as 605, two years after the fall of Jerusalem.
The word for 'time' here is only found eleven times in the Old Testament
and all are in the Book of Daniel. It is against sound biblical exegesis
to isolate this one instance and compare it with Scriptures in Revelation.
Daniel speaks of seven 'times', these were times when there was no king
of Israel ruling. Instead, God's people were dominated by a foreign
power that did not recognise the God of the Jews. Rev.12:6,14 shows
another time of testing for the people of God where three and a half
'times' equals 1,260 days. This translates into the fact that seven
'times' equals 2,520 days. Revelation is talking about a specific period
of trouble for God's people that lasts seven years. This, of course,
is not enough and therefore has to be linked with the next step.
Step 5: Day-years
The Society need to transfer days into years and call upon the year
for each day theory, or as they say a 'Bible rule'. Edmund Gruss deals
with this matter in detail in his book The Jehovah's Witnesses and
Prophetic Speculation. In summary, we should note that this 'rule'
actually appears only twice in Scripture. First, we read in Numbers
14:34 of the guilt of the children of Israel. Because of their disobedience
they would bear the guilt for forty years - a year for every day. The
second example is found in Ezekiel 4:6 which, very interestingly, speaks
again of the guilt of God's people. Ezekiel was a 'visual aid' to the
people for forty days - a day for every year.
There is no historical or biblical evidence to use a calculation of
2,520 years as the period of the Gentile Times. In addition, both Scriptures
called on to turn days into years speak of the same matter, the guilt
of God's people. The rule is not general but specific. In any case,
the verses do not say the same thing: Numbers 14:34 is a year for a
day but Ezekiel 4:6 is a day for a year.
Summary
The fall of Jerusalem in 607 BC is disproved by scientific chronology.
The date of 586 BC for the fall of Jerusalem is established both by
scientific and biblical chronology.
Starting from an absolute date of 539 BC it is impossible, solely using
the biblical record, to show that Jerusalem fell in 607 BC.
The way the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society use Scripture is not sound
interpretation but a taking of individual passages at random to prove
a point that has been determined beforehand.
The result of these conclusions is that 1914 is not proven as the significant
date of Christ's invisible return. And the claim that since 1914 Christ
has had authority over God's newly established Kingdom has no justification
whatsoever.
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