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Seven Times : 607 : 1914
Daniel's prophecy of the Seven Times is key to the existence of Jehovah's Witnesses. This is used to determine that Jesus started ruling in 1914 and subsequently chose the Watchtower organization in 1919 to be his sole means of salvation before the battle of Armageddon.
This section is divided into sections, each proving from a different angle that Daniel 4 cannot be used to show Jesus started ruling in 1914.
Jerusalem did not fall in 607 B.C.
Watchtower 2011, Oct 1 & Nov 1
The October and November 1st 2011 Watchtower attempt to prove that Jerusalem fell in 607, rather than the historically accepted 587. Download in PDF format Part 1 and Part 2 of Carl Jonsson's brilliant examination of these Watchtower articles, which show the intellectual dishonesty of Watchtower by including inaccurate information and misquotes.
For the seven times to end in 1914, the Watchtower is forced to claim Jerusalem was destroyed and completely desolate in 607 B.C. However, it is universally accepted that Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 B.C. This section shows that the evidence is conclusive that Jerusalem did not fall in 607 B.C.
The Watchtower claims secular evidence regarding 587 is incorrect because it disagrees with Bible Chronology. In reality, secular evidence does not contradict Bible chronology, but rather the flawed Watchtower interpretation of Bible chronology.
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Inconsistent Methodology
Discussion of the Watchtower interpretation of the Seven Times generally focuses on 607 or 587. The starting point really should be that Daniel 4 is not an end time prophecy. Since each prophecy in Daniel had only one fulfilment, there is no reason to believe Daniel 4 should contain two prophetic messages.
Recognising that Daniel 4 is not an end time prophecy makes the rest of the information presented somewhat redundant. However, for Jehovah's Witnesses intent on insisting that there should be a secondary application, examination of the Watchtower's interpretative methodology reveals it to be illogical and grossly inconsistent. This section dissects how the prophecy is calculated and the methodological flaws.
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When were the 70 years?
The Watchtower claims historians are wrong regarding 587 B.C. because the year 607 B.C. is necessary to reconcile the Bible's claim of a 70 year period of desolation. This is incorrect, as it can be shown that the 607 B.C. fabrication is not required for the 70 year period to hold true.
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Historical development of the prophecy
It is a common Witness misconception that the Watchtower was miraculously guided by holy spirit to understand that the last days were to start in 1914. In actual fact, the Watchtower interpretation of the Seven Times was taken from 19th century Second Adventist preachers. Furthermore, the prophecy was originally used to predict the world would end in 1914.
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Did the Last Days Start 1914?
The Watchtower attempts to support its claim that the Last Days started in 1914 by presenting information to prove there are substantially more earthquakes, wars, famine and sickness since the start of the twentieth century. This article shows how inaccurate and dishonest such information is.
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A person should be realistic about the ability of the Watchtower Society to interpret prophecy. To date there has been a proven time prophecy failure rate of 100%. As shown in the Dates section, the Watchtower used Bible prophecy to explain that the following dates were of significance; 1780, 1799, 1829, 1844, 1846, 1872, 1874, 1875, 1878, 1880, 1881, 1891, 1906, 1910, 1915, 1920, 1921 and 1925. Every single one of these interpretations is now admitted as wrong. Even 1914 and 1918 were not fulfilled as expected and subsequently reinterpreted after the event. This does not inspire confidence that Holy Spirit guides Watchtower prophetic interpretation, or that current understanding of 1914 is correct.
Paul Grundy 2005 - 2016