Jesus became king over the sons of the ICC on 1914Tishri15. The previous king, Jehoahaz, was the last king over the sons of Jacob and their proselytes, to rule as a vassal of God. He was deposed on 608Chislev10 and the first agricultural year of God not ruling over his people began on 607Tishri1. Now Jesus had authority to appoint a vassal (who must be a son of the JAC) to rule on his behalf over the sons of the JAC and their proselytes the sons of the ICC on 1914Tishri15. Russell, being Jesus' flesh and his 12th apostle and the head of the WTBTS, immediately became Jesus' earthly vassal the very same day. But what power did Russell exercise in his capacity as vassal king that Peter or John or Paul were not able to exercise over the first century churches?
Well if the Watchtower had purchased Barbados, and moved all the JWs over there, then it would be obvious that they were running a kingdom. But today with modern communication technology we can achieve the same end without putting everyone in the same geographical location. Russell could command JWs to go to war or not and they would obey him, rather than the secular authorities. So he was a king. If Peter had tried that, the war would have been over before the donkey carrying his commands got to the battlefield!
Furthermore in the last century and before that, the governments of the West started to permit freedom of worship, so that churches became free to be run as they like. This was no coincidence. It was necessary for the Gentile Times to end. The Watchtower has therefore been free to exercise its authority over its people in harmony with what it perceives to be the scriptural mandate from the bible. FDS1 was not an officially permitted religion either in Israel or in Rome. In fact once the Roman state had taken over the first church which by that move became the Roman Catholic church, it had to be a false church or the Gentile Times would have ended then. Today since the Watchtower and the Lords' Witnesses are both permitted churches, we do have a secular authority over our congregations. Both the JWs and the LWs could tax their congregation if they wanted to, the state would permit it, and many churches do this with 'tihes'. At no time was FDS1 or FDS2 an officially permitted religion. The Roman state permitted Catholicism, but not any other Christian church.
The more one studies the history of mankind's interpretations and calculations for the Gentile Times, the more one sees the hand of God in his works, making up for our mistakes. Charles Russell originally had the date of 606Tishri for the start of the Gentile times and what he supposed was the Fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, by counting 70 years backwards from 536Tishri, the month when he reckoned that the Jews headed by Zerubbabel built an altar in Jerusalem having returned earlier in that year.
1
When the 7th month arrived, the sons of Israel were in [their]
cities. And the people began to gather themselves as one man to Jerusalem. Russell has Cyrus' first regnal year running from 536Nisan to 535Nisan:
2
And
Jeshua the son of Jehozadak and his brothers the priests and Zerubbabel the son
of Shealtiel and his brothers, proceeded to rise up and build the altar of the
God of Israel, to offer burnt sacrifices upon it according to what is written in
the law of Moses, the man of the true God (Ezra 3).
1
And in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, that Jehovah's
word from the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah roused the
spirit of Cyrus the king of Persia, so that he caused a cry to pass through
all his realm, and also in writing saying: The
history of the development of the Gentile Times prophecy appears to be
accurately, if rather laboriously, described on: www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6040/606a.htm.
And whilst you are there: www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6040/matt23.htm
is a hysterically funny and brilliant application to the spiritual Jews of the
Watchtower of Jesus' words to the physical Jews! These words have almost
precisely the fulfillment upon the spiritual Jews that the web page describes.
2
This is what Cyrus the king of
Persia has said: All the kingdoms of the earth, Jehovah the God of the
heavens has given me, and he himself has commissioned me to build him a
house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
3
Whoever there is among you of all his
people, may God prove to be with him. So let him go up to Jerusalem, which
is in Judah, and rebuild the house of Jehovah...... (Ezra 1).
The original calculations were mostly based on dates from John Aquila Brown, who in 1823 published The Even-Tide in which he claimed that the "seven times" of Daniel 4 were a period of 2520 years running from the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in 604 B.C.E. to 1917 C.E. While Brown never equated the 2520 years with the "Gentile Times," other writers soon did. Eventually Nelson H. Barbour picked up the torch and put the finishing touches on what became Charles Taze Russell’s (the founder of the Watchtower) chronology. Barbour published his final calculation of the Gentile Times in the September, 1875 issue of his monthly paper Herald of the Morning, starting them in 606 B.C.E. and ending them in 1914 C.E. In January, 1876 Russell read Barbour’s paper, got together with him, and apparently accepted all of Barbour’s time calculations, even becoming a co-editor of Barbour’s paper. These calculations included one that said Christ’s presence began in 1874 and the "day of the Lord" began in 1873. Shortly thereafter, Russell published a similar calculation in the October, 1876 issue of a publication called The Bible Examiner. This paper was published by George Storrs, who was generally influential on Russell and had been a major leader in William Miller’s movement. Storrs was active in Adventist related movements when Russell began publishing. In The Bible Examiner Russell said, on pp. 27-28, concerning his belief that the Gentile Times were a period of 2520 years:
At the commencement of our Christian era, 606 years of this time had passed, (70 years captivity, and 536 from Cyrus to Christ) which deducted from 2520, would show that the seven times will end in A.D. 1914.... We will ask, but not now answer, another question: If the Gentile Times end in 1914, (and there are many other and clearer evidences pointing to the same time) and we are told that it shall be with fury poured out; a time of trouble such as never was before, nor ever shall be; a day of wrath, etc.
Russell wrote in the December 1 Watchtower of 1912:
Many of our readers will recall our reference to this subject in a sermon preached at Allegheny, Pa., January 11, 1904, and published in the Pittsburgh Gazette. We make an extract from that sermon as follows:
We find, then, that the Seven Times of Israel’s punishment and the Seven Times of Gentile dominion are the same; and that they began with the captivity of Zedekiah, and, as will be seen from the Chart, they terminate with the year 1915. According to the best obtainable evidences on the subject, synchronized with the Scriptural testimony, Zedekiah’s captivity took place in October, 605 1/4 years before A.D. 1. If we will add to this 1914 1/4 years, we will have the year, October, 1915, as the date for the end of Gentile supremacy in the world — the end of the lease of 2,520 years, which will not be renewed. Instead, he whose right the kingdom is, shall take possession of it. This, therefore, marks when the Lord himself shall assume control of the world’s affairs, to end its reign of sin and death, and to bring in the True Light.
There surely is room for slight differences of opinion on this subject and it behoves us to grant each other the widest latitude. The lease of power to the Gentiles may end in October, 1914, or in October, 1915. And the period of intense strife and anarchy "such as never was since there was a nation" may be the final ending of the Gentile Times or the beginning of Messiah’s reign.
Later, the 4th President Franz, during the presidency of the 3rd president Nathan Knorr, corrected the start date to 607Tishri, he proposed that the period started with the assassination of Gedaliah in Jeremiah 41.
The History of mankind's understanding of the Gentile Times
| 1823 | Rev John Brown realises that the period is 2520 years long and believes it started in 604BC at the accession of Nebuchadnezzar. He correctly calculates that the 2520 years would end in 1917AD if they started in 604BC. |
| 1875 | Barbour calculates that the 2520 years start in 606, this being 70 years before 536 when the Jews rebuilt the altar he thought. He miscalculates that the 2520 years end in 1914, he was one year out. He forgot that there was no 0 BC, it went 1 BC then 1 AD ! |
| 1876 | Russell publishes the same in his Bible Examiner |
| 1904 | Russell realises that he may be one year out and the Gentile Times might actually end in October 1915 |
| 1914 | Gentile Times ends (Russell thought on Tishri10, but actually on Tishri15) |
| 1943 | Franz adjusts the start date to 607Tishri in the book: 'The truth shall set you free'. The date for the rebuilding of the altar by Zerubbabel, 70 years after 607Tishri is now 537Tishri, a correct date. But the date for the burning of Jerusalem by Nebuchanezzar of 607 is wrong. And the start of the Gentile Times being the assassination of Gedaliah is also wrong. |
| 1988 | Ed Schnopp, collates overwhelming evidence that 604 was the 1st regnal year of Nebuchadnezzar and therefore Jerusalem was burned in 586 BC. John Brown knew this in 1823, he had the first year of Nebuchadnezzar as 604 !! Ed shows that there are two 70 year exiles, one for Israel and one for Judah. Israel's exile ends in 539Tishri at the fall of Babylon and starts he thought in 609 with the Babylonian conquest of Nineveh or the fall of Assyria to Babylon. |
| 1992 | Gordon thought he had proved that the Gentile times were 2520 years long from Leviticus 26 (something Franz had suspected but could not prove). But in fact he proved that the Law carried a 2520 year malediction on the physical sons of Israel. This 2520 year period is not the Gentile Times, we call it Balfour's Times it runs from 604 the first fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar to 1917 and the Balfour declaration a Jewish homeland in Israel. |
| 1999 | Gordon reads Ed Schnopp's web page, realises that Ed is right as regards the date of the burning of Jerusalem being 586, but knows that the 607 date is also right for the start of the Gentile Times. He then recalculates the whole history of the Kings and finds out that 607Tishri was the accession of Jehoiakim the vassal not of Jehovah but of Pharaoh Necho. Jehoiakim was appointed and chosen by Pharaoh, not by God. He realises that this was the true start of the Gentile Times. He then synchronises the Babylonian Chronology known to Rev Brown, with Biblical, Assyrian and Egyptian Chronology. |
The above is an astonishing tale. Rev Brown knew how to add 2520 years to 604BC but Barbour and Russell did not know how to add them to 606BC. But by making this mistake they got the right date for Jesus' first coming in the second presence!!
Franz correction was wrong because Gedaliah was a Levite, so he could not have sat on God's throne over Israel, and he was killed not in 607Tishri but in 586Tishri, 21 years too late. This is because the Watchtower have the 19th regnal year of Nebuchadnezzar II, the year he burnt the temple, as being 607 BC, when in fact it was 586BC. His first regnal year was 604 BC, something which John Brown knew in 1823. The Watchtower chronology is 21 years out as compared to Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian chronology for this period. The Watchtower quite simply has this wrong, this is very well explained by Ed Schnopp on www.freeminds.org/history/gentile.htm. Basically the Watchtower fudged it.
So the 70 year land sabbath exile period of the Watchtower - see sections [122], [150]), cannot have fitted in this now reduced 49 year period between 586 and 537BC!! In fact there were two 70 year land sabbaths, one for Israel which ran from 609Tishri at the end of the last missed land sabbath, until 539Tishri, when Babylon fell, and the other for Judah, which was a sabbath on the existence of a functional temple, and ran from 586Tishri until 516Tishri if it was experienced in Secular, land years, or from 585Nisan until 515Nisan if it was experienced in sacred years. The last agricultural year before Zerubbabel's temple was inaugurated ended in 516Tishri, the inauguration was in 516Veadar we believe - see [122]. So C. T. Russell was really nowhere, and yet he got the correct start date for the Gentile Times, because what happened in 607Tishri, was that Pharaoh Necho appointed Eliakim the son of Josiah as his vassal king and changed his name to Jehoiakim as a deception to make him sound a bit more Jehovahesque if you will ('El' meaning God being replaced with 'Jeho' being the start of the name of the true God). But Jehoiakim did not sit upon Jehovah's throne, because he was chosen not by God or by his people but by Pharaoh, and because all of the people of the land paid taxes to Pharaoh in his reign. So Caesar, the administrative king, was Pharaoh not God. Because we all remember the famous response of Jesus to the Pharisees:
17
Pay back Caesar's things to Caesar, but God's things
to God (Mark 12).
Furthermore Jeremiah tells us that at least Jeconiah was not a vassal of his
saying...
24 'As I am alive,' is the utterance of
Jehovah, 'even if Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, happened to
be the seal ring on my right hand, from there I would pull you off! [but
actually neither Jeconiah nor Jehoiakim were seal rings on God's right hand -
they were vassals of Pharaoh - hence the wording] For a fuller explanation of this see section [91].
So Russell got the wrong 70 year period which was not even a 70 year
period, it was actually a 49 year period, and he got the wrong start
date of 606Tishri, but he got the right end date of 1914Tishri!!
Basically he made or accepted from Barbour a whole catalogue of errors and yet he got the right
answer. He got the date of the first coming in the second presence of the
Christ absolutely correct, it was 1914Tishri. One cannot in all fairness
just say well done brother Russell to him! Because it is quite obvious that
the holy spirit was making up for all of his mistakes. He got this date
right because he was the leader of God's people at that time and God's
people are defined as those who recognise the comings of his son. So the
holy spirit had to make sure that he got it right. And it did! We can only
hope and pray that the holy spirit has been and will continue to be as kind
to us as it was to him! At this point we must say that we do not condemn
anyone who has made a mistake in trying to find out the truth about this 2520
year period. On the contrary we are indebted to and we praise first of all the true father of the Gentile Times who
must be Rev John Aquila Brown. Then we praise Barbour Russell and Franz, for
their respective parts. We praise Ed Schnopp and all of the other Ex witnesses
who have seen the fundamental flaws in the Watchtower's construction, and published
them on the web - these are their works for God and for the truth which we all
want to know so that we can be set free. Finally, we praise God, who may just
have finally sorted the whole mess out through all of us. Let the reader
decide. However once we have the correct time for the destruction of Jerusalem,
namely 586 BC, we are in a position to harmonize the bible with all of the
other credible national chronologies of that period.
25 And I will give you into the hand of
those who are seeking for your soul and into the hand of those of whom you are
scared and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and into the
hand of the Chaldeans.
Today if you search Wikipedia for the word Megiddo, you find the following...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Megiddo_%28609_BC%29
In the Battle of Megiddo of 609 BC, the forces of Egypt fought those of the Kingdom of Judah, Egypt under Necho II was allied with the Assyrians against the Babylonians. Rushing to help the Assyrians, the Egyptians were blocked on Megiddo's Via Maris (way of the Sea) by the army of Judah, led by its king Josiah. The Egyptians prevailed over Judah, and Josiah was killed. However, Egypt was not able to prevent a Babylonian victory over the Assyrians four years later at the Battle of Carchemish.
So the Kingdom of Judah and its King fell to Necho in fact in 608 BC. And Necho appointed Jehoiakim as his vassal on 608Chislev10 - see U97. So the first whole agricultural year after the fall of Judah began in 607Tishri.