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Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, created an eschatology that foresaw a time of unprecedented peace coming to the world under the Zionists in 1914. Before that time, his true followers were to be transformed and taken to heaven, perhaps by as early as 1910.
To calculate his terminal date of 1914, Russell employed methods such as the dimensions of the pyramids in Egypt.
When Russell died in 1916, the movement splintered into numerous groups. J. F. (“Judge”) Rutherford, who was not named in Russell’s will as a member of the initial Editorial Committee, used interesting methods to take over the legal rights of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Splinter groups remain to this day, although Rutherford’s is by far the largest.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Rutherford totally reshaped the organisation and its teachings to the extent that the current Watchtower Society owes its existence and characteristics to Rutherford.
Under Rutherford, the critical date of 1914 became the time that God’s Kingdom was set up, but in heaven, and the Watch Tower Society was its sole voice on earth.
To arrive at this critical date in October 1914 (two months after the Great War commenced), Rutherford and his successors employed several interesting interpretations, including a unique application of the prophecy at Daniel 4.
The Society says there was to be a period of 2520 years from the time that the Kingdom’s representative was removed from earth until the Kingdom was reinstated in 1914, in heaven.
They say that the representative of God’s Kingdom was removed from earth when God had Nebuchadnezzar destroy Jerusalem. Today, the Society says this happened in 607 BCE.
Unfortunately for the Society, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem about 20 years after the Society’s incorrect date.
Also unfortunately for the Society, although God had decreed his people would have to serve Babylon for 70 years, at no stage did he say this required the removal of the representatives of his kingdom from humankind.
During the Jews’ captivity in Babylon, much of their early Scriptures were collated and penned. Centuries later, the contemporary presence of the Kingdom was Jesus’ main message. And the Society would have us believe that the meeting recorded at Acts 15 was of the earthly governing body.
And the people could have served Babylon for the whole of the 70 years while they remained in their own land, just as the surrounding nations did. They could have served out their full 70 years of servitude to Babylon without Jerusalem being destroyed.
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Description
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Refuting the Society’s history and exegesis of the 70 years of servitude by the the Jews to Babylon
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Seventy Years of Servitude
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When Nebuchadnezzar made the Jews his servants, did this mean God removed the visible representation of his Kingdom?
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What did Nebuchadnezzar Destroy?
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Why is so much effort spent exposing the Watchtower Society’s neo- Babylonian chronology?
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Significance of chronology
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A simplified explanation of the key elements of 6th century neo- Babylonian chronology
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The neo-Babylonian chronology
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To calculate the date when Jerusalem was destroyed, the WTS must first be able to accurately pinpoint the year that the Exiles returned from Babylon. Can the Watchtower Society do this?
This is such a crucial yet largely ignored subject.
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The Jews return home
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If you are looking for the simplest picture that shows how the WTS calculates that Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BCE, and basic problems with their method, this might be what you want.
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The WT's false reasoning for 607 BCE
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The WTS accepts the date 539 BCE for the Fall of Babylon. But they do not accept the Absolute Date that is used to calculate the date of the Fall.
Here is a picture that illustrates the WTS’s problem.
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Why historians know Babylon fell in 539 BCE
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Do you want to understand what the Scriptures say about the “70 years”?
Here is a picture-based explanation.
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70 years of servitude
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Did you know that the WTS lists the Babylonian kings correctly and gives each the correct length of their reign?
Make certain your PDF reader is set to “full page”.
There are 6 pages in the attached PDF file.
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WTS support for the Babylonian king-list
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At Jeremiah 29:10, the WTS persists in using the rather obsolete and little used “at Babylon” rather than the more modern and correct “for Babylon”.
The WTS says that “at” Babylon indicates that the Jews were located at Babylon for seventy years (607-537 BCE).
The correct phrase is “for” Babylon, which means that Judah and the nations served the Babylonians “for” 70 years, and when those 70 years “for Babylonian supremacy” were over, Jehovah punished Babylon and began the task of rehabilitating his people to their homeland.
The Danish NWT of 1985 reads “for” Babylon at this point, and the new revised Swedish NWT of 2003 reads “for” Babylon instead of the earlier 'in Babylon'.
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Jer 29-10 Danish 1993 NWT
Jer 29-10 Swedish 2003 NWT
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Here is the story of the “70 years” with no dates!
First, see the picture at “Outline Decay and Fall of Judah”
Then read the book at “Decay and Fall of Judah”.
This story has everything that would make a good movie. Set against the powerful nation of Egypt with its famed pyramids and the glory of Babylon with her renowned Hanging Gardens, is the story of a small agrarian nation of Judah, deeply influenced by the wicked practices of its surrounding neighbors.
The story has everything – murder, child sacrifices, cannibalism, male prostitution, power politics, spiritualism, and religion. What else would a movie want?
At the same time, the story shows that the Watchtower Society starts its analysis of the “70 years” at the wrong end, and that it then travels along the wrong path. Even more intrigue.
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Outline Decay and Fall of Judah
Decay and Fall of Judah
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BONUS! Extra reference material
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Description
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Download
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For the WTS, the fate of Judah following the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar has to be a totally complete removal of all people from a devastated land.
Archaeological research shows this is completely wrong. The community that remained on the land included not only poor villagers but also artisans, scribes, priests, and prophets.
An important part of the prophetic work of the time, particularly the books of Haggai and Zechariah, was compiled in Judah.
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Those Who Remained from Bible Unearthed
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Upon his death in 1916, Russell’s organisation splintered. Several still exist.
Some splinter groups realised Jerusalem had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar some 20 years after the date that had been taught by Russell (and was still being taught by Rutherford).
The download file is the brief acknowledgement of this error in a 1921 publication by one group that succeeded Russell.
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A Chronological Error People's Paper 1 July 1921
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Professor Jack Finegan discusses whether Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 BCE or in 586 BCE.
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Light from the Ancient Past re 587 586
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