The Year 1914 and the “Seven Gentile Times”

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9 July 2008

8 Comments
Author: Moxie
Tags: 1914, Gentile Times, Watchtower

The year 1914 and the Watchtower’s doctrine on the “Seven Gentile Times” was the really the first issue that stood out to me and made me start to question the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. From an early age though, I dismissed my confusion, regarding it as something the Witnesses call “solid food”. That term is applied to deeper and more complex issues/doctrine that Watchtower generally reserves for its more mature/advanced members. So since I was young I thought that I would eventually grow to understand the teaching more fully. Yet even as years passed I could never reconcile the reasoning behind the doctrine and that to get to the year 1914, one had to jump here and there and make funny little diagrams to explain it. I couldn’t understand the seemingly arbitrary connection between the verses used to create the mathematical equation; an equation that really sets the foundations for the entire religion. Ironically I eventually did come understand the teaching in later years, only understanding did not equal acceptance. Rather it lead me to have serious doubts about the Watchtower Society and its teachings.

I found the following article on the site Memoirs of a Godless Heathen and feel that it really hits the nail on the head in terms of accurately explaining the Watchtower’s views and calculations, while also offering up a fair and equally accurate criticism of it. Kindly, the article’s author Brian, has allowed me to republish the article. The original post can be found here.

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Deconstructing the “Seven Gentile Times” of the Watchtower Society

1914 is an important year for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their main source of doctrine–the Governing Body of the Watchtower Society–rests many of their other beliefs on this date. Currently, the witnesses believe that 1914 is the year Jesus began to rule the heavens invisibly, signifying that mankind is in it’s last throes before Jesus defeats the kings of the earth and assumes rulership of it for himself, imprisoning the Devil for 1000 years. Before we examine the flaws in the Watchtower’s reasoning, we must first understand the reasoning that is used to arrive at this date.

The biblical justification relies heavily on the book of Daniel, especially chapters 2-4, which they believe prophesies the end of the world. Specifically, in chapter 4 verse 25 the author of Daniel writes that seven “times” shall pass between the destruction of Jerusalem and Armageddon. A “time” is considered to be 360 days, thus seven “times” are 2,520 days. However, the Witnesses believe that Numbers 14:34 indicates that because there is “a day for a year,” that must mean the seven times are 2,520 years, not days. Thus, 607 B.C.E. (the supposed destruction of Jerusalem) plus 2,520 years equals 1914 C.E., the date of Christ’s return.

The first problem with this bizarre calculation is the date of Jerusalem’s destruction by Babylon. The Watchtower society is the only entity that contends that it was destroyed in 607 B.C.E. All other scholarly sources point to 586 B.C.E., some twenty years later, as the correct date. When confronted with this, the Witnesses will claim the Bible as a higher authority, and thus the scholars and archaeologists are mistaken. However, they are unable to provide any compelling evidence other than scripture to support their contention. This attitude goes against sense and reason, as Witnesses use their conclusion as proof of their conclusion, a quagmire of circular logic.

Jerusalem’s destruction aside, the “day for a year” principle is also shoddy at best. There is nothing indicated in Daniel that the author really means years instead of days. Numbers 14:34 is completely unrelated, and discusses the fact that Israel was forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, one year for each day the 12 spies were in Canaan. The days and years in Numbers were literal. The spies spent a literal 40 days in Canaan, while Israel spent a literal 40 years in the wilderness. There is absolutely no basis for either interchanging the terms or applying them to the later text of Daniel. It is with blind faith the Witnesses accept this connection of two completely unrelated scriptures. The link is completely arbitrary, a result of chronocentric wishful thinking on the part of the Watchtower Society who wants to believe the “end” is just around the corner.

I can string arbitrary unrelated biblical passages together, too. If the seven times are indeed 2,520 days, and I combine that with the words of 2 Peter 3:8 which says that to God 1 day is equal to 1,000 years, I can postulate that the 2,520 days are not literal 24-hour days, but millenniums. Thus, if I add 2,520,000 years to the year of Jerusalem’s destruction, 586 B.C.E., I arrive at the year 2,519,414 C.E. as the year of Jesus’ return. My Biblical interpretation methods make just as much sense, if not more sense, than that of the Watchtower society, yet, I was able to arrive at a completely different date in the extremely distant future.

The Witnesses string together unrelated passages quite regularly for many different doctrines. Their relationships are usually completely arbitrary, dictated by the Governing Body. Anyone not under the spell can see this “reasoning” as ludicrous, yet Jehovah’s Witnesses are held captive by the belief that loyalty to the “organization” is more important than the accuracy of belief.

Original Author: Brian, Memoirs of a Godless Heathen

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8 Comments »

Lance said:

1914 is what started me out of the Watchtower trap also. I just wish more JWs would think about how meaningless the 1914 prophecy is and how much of their theology is wrapped up in it.

# 9 July 2008 at 7:49 pm

Danny Haszard said:

1874,1914,1918,1925,1975…..

Hmmmm.ALL the Watchtower dates are LIES!
The REAL DEAL
Jehovah’s Witnesses Millerite/Adventist sect spin-off American war of 1812 army captain William Miller is ground zero for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
There is nothing that made me gasp in horror of all WT/JW falsehoods more then this finding that it all came from the Millerite movement.

Yes,the “great disappointment”of Oct 22 1844 has never died out… it lives on in the Seventh day Adventist (who admit it) and the Jehovah’s Witnesses who deny it. The central CORE doctrine of the Watchtower,yes the reason the Watchtower came into existence was to declare Jesus second coming in 1914.When the prophecy (derived from William Miller of 1842) failed they said that he came “invisibly”.

Ergo,no 1914 then there can be no 1918 inspection and sealing of the ‘anointed’ so the entire Watchtower Bible and Tract Society doctrinal superstructure comes crashing down like a house of cards

WILLIAM MILLER http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/132920/1.ashx
THE BEGINNING of it ALL

Jesus second coming aka ‘return to power’ aka ‘establishment of his heavenly kingdom’ aka ‘invisible return to power’ all mean the same thing.There are thousands and thousands of pages of evidence that this false 1914 date is the CORE CREED of the Watchtower.

# 9 July 2008 at 10:48 pm

Wayne Rogers said:

This is the issue that opened my eyes. I started doing more research into the 1914/607 date….with the intention of affirming that the WTS had the correct date. I was in for shocking disillusionment.

# 11 July 2008 at 8:21 pm

Mike.e said:

I’m with you on this one. The whole 1914 thing is completely without merit. The problem is, its one of the core doctrines of the Watchtower. And if the Watchtower were to change this one, the implications would be far more serious than any other Watchtower doctrinal change in its history.

# 14 July 2008 at 2:53 pm

Kurt Bethel said:

Originally it was Charles Taze Russell, an apostate Adventist who formed his own group of “Bible Students”, who calculated that Jesus came back invisibly and skulked around for 40 years of harvest. This concluded in 1914. In one of his study books, The Time is at Hand, he calculated the 1914 date by measurements of pyramid inches and detailed the method in that book. For years he insisted in the Watchtower that 1914 would mark the “conclusion of the system of things” with the churches and governments being destroyed and swept away by Armageddon. It was a couple of decades after this failed prognostication that Watchtower writers contrived the explanation that Jesus came invisibly in 1914, and Daniel predicted that date. They had 1914 as a hard date, so they had to work backwards and the best they could do was make the 607 date fit 1914 and not fit any facts or evidence. Had they been a bit more creative, like perhaps have the prophecy clock suspend during Jesus’ life from age 12 to the crucifiction, uh, I mean impalement, it could close up the gap and match the actual destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.

# 17 July 2008 at 8:27 pm

George Bravakis said:

The way the Society got to the 607 BC date was to count 70 years back form 537 BC thinking the 70 years of desolations eneded which is entirely incorrect. Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to rebuild the temple but only two tribes returned (see Ezra). Throughout Isaiah, Jeremiah etc….God made it clear that both the house of Judah and Jacob would return and this did not occur until the temple was rebuilt and more importantly….rededicated and this dedication did not occur until 513 BC. The Jews of the 2nd temple mirrored what Solomon did at the first temple….He waited 11 months after it was built until the year of Jubilee in 1003 BC. 490 years later (10 jubilees) takes you to 513 BC which can be proven through Josephus and the Priest Record. Josephus calculates the 70 years of desolation from 583 BC (when Nebuchadnezzar took the last Jewish captives to Babylon which is detailed in Jeremiah) to the dedication at Jubilee 513 BC. This proves the Society’s error for the 607 BC date. Nebuchadnezzar was not even in power in 607 BC. Their 2520 year date is formulated on the felled tree in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. They (the society) equate the tree with the Davidic line of kings which is totally ignorant. The tree represents world rule. How does one know this? Simple, Daniel interprets the dream for the king and tells him he is the tree. When did God ever give the Jewish kings starting with Saul world rule? The answer is never hence the Society is just another cult ruining the lives of many people.

# 24 July 2008 at 10:18 am

freziggity yo said:

I do not think I need to recap on how the watch tower society comes to their interpretation of the 7 times, So this part will be brief.

12 months of 30 days times 7 = 2520 days, from 607 B.C.E. 2520 years into the future is the year 1914 C.E. However,every 7 years is a sabbath year, in which an extra month is added to the Jewish lunar calendar, to keep up with the cycling of the moon, which is very important in Jewish life. So, add an extra month of 30 days to 2520 and you get 2550. The year of 1944 the year of the ending of world war 2, and shortly thereafter, the reestablishment of the Jews in the Land of Cannan, or modern day Palestine. I’m afraid to suggest that there is a way to ascertain the times and seasons that God has reserved for himself alone, as Jesus Christ himself admitted. What perplexes me most of all is how the Society claims to come to that conclusion, by interpreting scriptures that were written before the earthly life of Jesus of Nazereth. This suggests that Charles Taze Russell could see and interpret the word of God even better than Christ ,the Son of God. Unless, it’s suggesting that Jesus was withholding information, or lying to the disciples when they questioned him. So this question is fairly simple. But there are others. How could the watchtower society calculate the seven times and accidentally omitt the 30 days of the extra month that is added every seven years to complete a cycle of times?

# 18 December 2009 at 5:22 pm