The view of Jehovah's Witnesses about 607 BCE. Is it correct?

Just say for arguments sake the JWs are correct about the date 1914 having bible support -- this still doesn't explain their theory on how Christ came back invisibly to earth in 1914 to set up his kingdom reign.

The JWs own corrupt NWT debunks this and even the date setting.

(Mat 24:36 NWT) "Concerning that day and hour NOBODY knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but ONLY the Father.

*So how did Russell know what year (actually day and hour) for Christ's return to earth when only the Father knows ?

*The JWs might try and weasel out of this by saying 1914 is a date for Christ's invisible return to set up his kingdom while (Matt 24:36) is about his visible return !

*They never give up ! So which scriptures speak of his secret return ?

*The JWs actually believe God revealed a SECRET revelation about Christ's return to Charles Russell alone.

(John 18:20 NWT) Jesus answered him: I have SPOKEN to the WORLD PUBLICLY...I SPOKE NOTHING in SECRET.

*The JWs own NWT betrays them on this rubbish 1914 teaching in the first place ! Its 'doctrines of devils' (1Tim 4:1 KJV) right ?

*Nearly 2000 years before 1914 Paul told the holy ones and faithful brothers (Col 1:1 NWT) this:

(Col 1:13 NWT) He delivered us from the authority of the darkness and transplanted us into the KINGDOM of the Son of his love.

hi there

wrong wrong wrong

it is as wrong as their story about the invisible paraousia of Christ dating from 1874 which required "spiritual eyes" to see.

it is as wrong as their story about being made "faithful and discreet slave" in 1919, which they now had to change.

look at their history. wrong wrong wrong.

sincerely believing the deception will not make it correct.

No it is wrong. It is one of the more foolish and embarrassing teachings of the JWs due to the mountains of historic evidence proving that the correct date is actually 587/586 BCE.

The reason that the Watchtower continues to teach this blatant lie is that the authority of the leadership is tied to the 1914 date which, in turn, is tied to the false 607 BCE date.

So Watchtower and JWs are willfully burying their heads in the sand and willfully denying and ignoring mountains of evidence that show that they're wrong. That makes them just as foolish as the young earth creationists that they like to point their finger at.

edit:

Wow, four thumbs down for asking people to think for themselves.

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For an in-depth review of the which date is correct please read:

*** w11 10/1 p. 26 When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part One ***

When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part One

Why It Matters; What the Evidence Shows

and

*** w11 11/1 p. 22 When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part Two ***

When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part Two

What the Clay Documents Really Show

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011736

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011810

Then decide for yourselves.

It's not correct

And we know it's not correct because decades after that teaching was published by Witnesses the exact date (dated to the lunar month) of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple were discovered in Babylonian records.

The problem is that Witnesses adopted a date published by historians prior to the discovery of these Babylonian records. The historical records that historians used to arrive at the date 607 B.C.E. were unreliable but they were also the ONLY thing that historians had to go on before the discovery of the Babylonian records. SO: before the discovery of the Babylonian records (in the 1950s, I believe), the date proposed by scholars was 607 B.C.E.

Jehovah's Witnesses based their 1914 prediction on that date.

Then, more than 50 years later, scholars discovered that the 607 date was wrong - by **10 years**.

By that time, the 1914 date prediction had become **central** and *integral* to Jehovah's Witness doctrines. Apparently because of that, the leaders could not bring themselves to simply admit, "Russell's prediction was off by ten years, through no fault of his own, but because of an error published by the scholars of his time." Instead they have taken the alternate route of claiming that the scholars (now, not then) are mistaken and the new evidence is faulty and that [descriptive, not a quote] "We were right all along, no matter what the logically-conclusive evidence indicates".

That being said, the "70 years" prophecy - and its accuracy - have been challenged and disputed and interpreted in very many different ways for a very long time. Historically we can't see exactly 70 years, either with the "old" 607 date or the "new" 597 date.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity...

When did the counting of the seven times begin? After Zedekiah, the last king in the typical Kingdom of God, was removed from the throne in Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Ezek. 21:25-27

by early October of 607 B.C.E. the last vestige of Jewish sovereignty was gone. By that time the Jewish governor, Gedaliah, who had been left in charge by the Babylonians, had been assassinated, and the remaining Jews had fled to Egypt. Jeremiah, chapters 40-43

Reliable Bible chronology indicates that this took place 70 years before 537 B.C.E., the year in which the Jews returned from captivity; that is, it took place by early October of 607 B.C.E. Jer. 29:10; Dan. 9:2

Cyrus had not been born when the prophecy was written. The Jews were not taken into exile to Babylon until 617-607 B.C.E., and Jerusalem and its temple were not destroyed until 607 B.C.E. In detail the prophecy was fulfilled starting in 539 B.C.E.

Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians under Cyrus. Thereafter, Cyrus liberated the Jewish exiles and sent them back to Jerusalem with instructions to rebuild Jehovah’s temple there.

The Encyclopedia Americana, Light From the Ancient Past, “All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial”

You have focused on one point in Jonsson's argument against the JW 607 BCE date. But that point is based on particular interpretations of how the Hebrew scriptures record events. The Bible does not give the actual date for starting the calculation of the 70 year period in question! That has to be worked out from events in history. The JWs claim 607 is the crucial date as they say this was when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians.

Problem - 605 was the first deportation to Babylon. 597 was the second deportation to Babylon. 586 was the final deportation along with the destruction of Judah. Nowhere do historians reckon 607 in all of that!

Let me give the JW explanation as in their book below. It starts with Daniel 4:10-37 – a giant tree felled and its stump bound with two metal bands. This means the king of Babylon being forced to know that God rules and gives the kingdom to whoever He wills. This right had been given to the nation of Israel, but Ezekiel 21:25-27 said the last king on Jehovah’s [earthly] throne was Zedekiah and that throne would not be re-established “until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.”

JWs says this symbolic tree was cut down in 607 B.C. [even though Zedekiah was killed and the nation went into captivity in 586]. They say that Daniel chapter 4 shows 2,520 years would pass till the Gentile times would end. Luke 21:24 is tied up with this "end of the Gentile times". They count 2,520 years from 607 BC and end up at 1914 AD.

This calculation for arriving at 1914 has problems. The starting point for the JW count is wrong. The first president, Pastor Russell, calculated that the end of those 'Gentile times' with the Kingdom of God established at Christ's inauguration as King happened in 1874 (invisibly, in Heaven). After Russell's death, recalculations came out with 1914, but still the starting point was wrong. It was said to be October 607 BC. Historians say the historic event of Israel's 'dethronement' was July/August 586.

This puts the JWs at odds with historians by 21 years. If they adjusted for that, the due date for the restored Kingdom of God would be July/August 1935. Nothing significant happened in 1935 and Christianity makes no claims for Jesus' invisibly starting to rule either then or in 1914. The JWs take (with hindsight) the start of World War I in 1914 as 'proof' that that was when the newly enthroned Jesus cast Satan and his demons down to earth, the World War being proof of Revelation 12:12 - Satan's fury. Unfortunately for that idea, World War I started in the summer of 1914, not October. So how could Satan find himself cast down to Earth prior to summer 1914 and goad the nations into war in June, if he wasn't cast down till after October?

It's no use picking one little point out of Jonsson's book. You have failed to face up to the total clash between JW's claiming 607 was the date when history shows it should have been 586. THAT is why the JW view about 607 is wrong!

No, it is not correct. JW is a junk religion and a glorified doomsday cult