How a Christmas song would lead me to believe that our 1914 teaching must be right after all.

[JW Insider]

I hadn't talked about 1914 in a while, and although I have been critical of the teaching, I was trying to think of scriptural reasons that one might accept it as correct.

Just a couple days before the Memorial, I heard a dumb theory on a local station that tried to make a rationale for why Christianity has an Easter bunny and colorful eggs. It was crazy but it reminded me that I had also vaguely remembered something like this with the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" so I looked up the lyrics on Google to see if the lyrics actually could lend themselves to some kind of religious rationale. Google provides a section called "People Also Ask:"

 

 

I didn't bother to look up the rest. But this got me to thinking that maybe this song is nearly as old as the KJV (1611) and I wondered whether the KJV Bible had even translated the birds of Genesis 15 correctly calling them "a turtledove and a pigeon." The NWT uses the same language, so I figured there was probably a good basis.

(Genesis 15:9, KJV) And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

So what's that got to do with 1914, you might be wondering?

So, my mind wandered again, and I realized that I might have been wrong about doubting 1914. It was just too much of a coincidence that Genesis 15:9 actually points to the year 1914 in the context of the Abrahamic Covenant - through a dream - just as 1914 is pointed to in the context of the Davidic Covenant according to our understanding of Daniel 4, also through a dream.

I think this is pretty amazing, maybe more than just coincidence. So I'll explain why in the next post. But first the context of Genesis 15 for anyone who might not remember:

(Genesis 15:5-16) ⁵He now brought him outside and said: “Look up, please, to the heavens and count the stars, . . . “So your offspring will become.” . . .⁷ Then he added: “I am Jehovah, who brought you out of Ur of the Chal·deʹans to give you this land as your possession.” ⁸ To this he said: “Sovereign Lord Jehovah, how will I know that I will take possession of it?” ⁹ He replied to him: “Take for me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” . . . ¹²... a deep sleep fell upon Aʹbram and a great and frightening darkness descended on him. ¹³ Then He said to Aʹbram: “Know for certain that your offspring will be foreigners in a land not theirs and that the people there will enslave them and afflict them for 400 years. ¹⁶ But they will return here in the fourth generation . . .

[JW Insider]

So here in Genesis 15 we have a verse of the Bible, which in context is about the Abrahamic Covenant and is also a very clear discussion of chronology. It points out the time, the actual number of years, when the heirs of Abraham would inherit the land promised to him and his seed. It not only speaks to the chronology in years, but mentions the number of generations that would overlap until the time had reached its full measure!

Note first of all that the number of years of age of each animal is mentioned, so it must be important. 3 years + 3 years + 3 years. The age of the birds is not so specified, but the word "young" is mentioned indicating that they are about 1 year old each. So we have 3 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 11 years of age total. 11 times 360 prophetic days in each year is a total of 3,960 days, therefore 3,960 years.

So when did this covenant with Abraham's go into effect? The Insight book gives us the starting point:

*** it-1 p. 29 Abraham ***

Sojourn in Canaan. Now 75 years old, Abraham began to move his household out of Haran to the land of Canaan, where he lived out the remaining hundred years of his life in tents as an alien and migratory resident. (Ge 12:4) It was following the death of his father Terah that Abraham went out from Haran in 1943 B.C.E. and crossed the Euphrates River, evidently on the 14th day of the month that later became known as Nisan. (Ge 11:32; Ex 12:40-43, LXX) It was at that time that the covenant between Jehovah and Abraham went into effect, and the 430-year period of temporary residence until the making of the Law covenant with Israel began.—Ex 12:40-42; Ga 3:17.

So we start with the year 1943 BCE. But we also make a necessary adjustment, the same one made by C.T.Russell, as mentioned in our book "God's Kingdom of a Thousand Years - Has Approached!" (ka):

*** ka chap. 11 pp. 206-208 “Here Is the Bridegroom!” ***

THE CORRECTING OF A MISUNDERSTANDING

…  The above chronology followed the suggestion that was made in Wilson’s The Emphatic Diaglott, in its footnote on Acts 13:20, which verse read: “And after these things, he gave Judges about four hundred and fifty years, till Samuel the prophet.” The footnote on this reading of the verse said:

A difficulty occurs here which has very much puzzled Biblical chronologists. The date given here is at variance with the statement found in 1 Kings 6:1. There have been many solutions offered, but only one which seems entirely satisfactory, i.e., that the text in 1 Kings 6:1 has been corrupted, by substituting the Hebrew character daleth (4) for hay (5) which is very similar in form. This would make 580 years (instead of 480) from the exode to the building of the temple, and exactly agree with Paul’s chronology.

⁵¹ Accordingly, on page 53 of the book entitled “The Time Is at Hand,” author C. T. Russell wrote, referring to 1 Kings 6:1:

It evidently should read the five-hundred-and-eightieth year, and was possibly an error in transcribing; for if to Solomon’s four years we add David’s forty, and Saul’s space of forty, and the forty-six years from leaving Egypt to the division of the land, we have one hundred and thirty years, which deducted from four hundred and eighty would leave only three hundred and fifty years for the period of the Judges, instead of the four hundred and fifty years mentioned in the Book of Judges, and by Paul, as heretofore shown. The Hebrew character “daleth” (4) very much resembles the character “hay” (5), and it is supposed that in this way the error has occurred, possibly the mistake of a transcriber. I Kings 6:1, then, should read five hundred and eighty, and thus be in perfect harmony with the other statements.

Thus, by inserting 100 years into the Bible chronology during the period of the Judges, man’s creation was pushed back 100 years . . .

So there we have it: 1945 BCE + 100 years = 2045 BCE. 3,960 years from 2045 = 1915 and since there was no zero year, that brings us exactly to 1914.

Please let me know what you think. Let me know if I have made any mistakes or false assumptions.

[Pudgy]

I tried to follow all of that, but my eyes glazed over, and my fur caught on fire.

[Pudgy]

…. Reminds me of a grand exposition I ran across while researching the meaning of the lyrics of the song “Lord Love A Duck”.

[TrueTomHarley]

42 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

I hadn't talked about 1914 in a while, and although I have been critical of the teaching, I was trying to think of scriptural reasons that one might accept it as correct.

WHAT!!?? After I have overhauled my entire theology?!

Thanks a lot, bub! I’m sending Pudgy over to pee on your leg.

[Pudgy]

Cartoon dogs are completely lacking in rear end “equipment”. Oh sure! … we eat, and drink, but after that nothing happens. 
This became the norm after the defeat that ended the 1870’s French Poodle Cartoonists Rebellion.

[Witness]

4 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Please let me know what you think. Let me know if I have made any mistakes or false assumptions.

You've nullified all the scriptures you have used in the past to prove Jesus was ruling as King in the first century.

[Anna]

Wow! Well here's me fussing over whether the "slave" has all the scriptures interpreted correctly and all the while we had a prophet among us! 

Of course Tom has to make a joke of all this lest he was struck down by lightning if he admitted that this is ingenious. 

Seriously though, I will have to re-read this properly tomorrow!

[Pudgy]

14 minutes ago, Anna said:

Wow! Well here's me fussing over whether the "slave" has all the scriptures interpreted correctly and all the while we had a prophet among us! 

Of course Tom has to make a joke of all this lest he was struck down by lightning if he admitted that this is ingenious. 

Seriously though, I will have to re-read this properly tomorrow!

 

[TrueTomHarley]

2 hours ago, Anna said:

Of course Tom has to make a joke of all this lest he was struck down by lightning if he admitted that this is ingenious. 

I did a quick skim and kind of assumed that it was a joke only because I can’t imagine JWI doing a 180. Was it not? I may have to read it through to find out.

[Anna]

4 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I did a quick skim and kind of assumed that it was a joke only because I can’t imagine JWI doing a 180. Was it not? I may have to read it through to find out.

I hear you!

I am 50/50 about whether this is a joke or not....this is why I've got to read through it properly as well....

[Pudgy]

I saw it as satirizing the logic and reasoning that went into many of the things we were taught, making up all kinds of things and adding and subtracting them to fit.…. Sorta like the long standing and famous “Question from Readers” essay “Are cats for True Christians ?” or the equally famous David Splane “Overlapping Generations” chart … and just as good!

And of course, some things are merely coincidence, enhanced by the conclusion involving invisible wars, invisible presences, and other things completely without verifiable hard evidence.….. but then again, I completely believe in the “Rainbow Bridge”, without any Scriptural support or evidence of any kind.

 

which of course brings me back to my question on another thread about the nature of things ……

“Where is “Point A”?”