Treasures from God's Word and Digging for Spiritual Gems
Daniel 9:25: The Messiah arrived at the end of the 69th week of years (it-2 900 par. 7)
This reference gives the date of the 20th year of Artaxerxes as 455 BC
Readers should note that mainstream chronology does not agree with this date and places it at 445 BC, ten years later.
However, it appears that—perhaps by chance—this date of 455 BC is correct. More than one chronologist who has investigated this period has found that the data available has been misunderstood and misinterpreted, and can be reconciled, yet gives a date of 455 BC. For those interested in the detail, see Dating the Reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes. (Incidentally, the same author also gives 587 BC as the date of the fall of Jerusalem.)
Daniel 9:24: When was “the Holy of Holies” anointed? (w01 5/15 27)
The conclusion of this "Question from Readers" is: “Hence, at the time of Jesus’ baptism, God’s heavenly abode was anointed, or set apart, as the ‘Holy of Holies’ in the great spiritual temple arrangement.”
Is this truly the case?
In the type, the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies once a year and spattered blood on (anointed) the Ark of the Covenant. Hebrews 9:1-28 discusses the type and anti-type, so we know there is an anti-type. What is that anti-type?
Hebrews 9:11-14 indicates that Christ went through the greater tent and offered his blood (his life) as a ransom sacrifice, going ‘once for all time into the holy place and obtained everlasting deliverance for us.’ This enabled the new covenant to go into effect, for as Hebrews 9:16-18 states ‘for where there is a covenant, the death of the human covenanter needs to be furnished.’ Therefore, these verses indicate that when Jesus died his blood was figuratively spattered on the figurative altar, thereby anointing it, and giving validation to the new covenant. He did that by entering ‘into heaven itself, now to appear before the person of God for us.’
It is therefore more logical to conclude that the “Holy of Holies” of the second tent ‘not made with hands’ was anointed [HEBREW 4886: ‘mashach’ – smear, anoint] on Jesus death' on the torture stake or on his ascension to heaven, rather than at his baptism.
How to become a diligent Student of the Scriptures
‘What should you study?’ This paragraph suggests:
- ‘Researching the weekly Bible reading’. The culture of the organization would imply that you do this with the organization's literature. However, far more can be learned by going outside of the limited research available when one sticks only to what has been printed by the Watchtower society.
- ‘Learning about Bible prophecy’. A good suggestion to start with would be to put together a chronological summary of dateable chapters from Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Then examine the events leading up to and covering the exile of the Jews in Babylon with the aim of proving to yourself the dating of the start and end of the exile, and the destruction of Jerusalem using the universally agreed date of the fall of Babylon in October 539 BC.
- ‘Aspects of the fruitage of God’s spirit.’ This is a good point from the article, tempered however by the fact that any in-depth discussion of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is hard to find in Watchtower literature—especially on how to apply these fruits in our daily lives. So to get the best out of this suggestion you will need to do some personal Bible research, and meditate on what you have find.
- ‘Jehovah’s Creation’. Unknown to most Witnesses, there is much fine material available supporting creation by God and disproving evolution. One fine site is icr.org which regularly contains articles reviewing discoveries in scientific journals and the like. One recent article entitled Another Complex Cambrian Critter describes a fossil that is anything but simple, and has preserved soft tissue allegedly 514 million years old.
- ‘Your next Study Project’. A suggested subject is ‘The Resurrection’. Why not find all resurrections recorded and prophesied in the Bible and put them in chronological order, noting who performs them, where and when? What does the Greek word translated as resurrect(ed,ion) mean? You should find some fascinating facts, such as where do all resurrections take place, and you may well find further questions for scriptural research as a result.
- ‘Where can I find information?’ This paragraph suggests using the options in the video ‘Research Tools for Discovering Spiritual Treasures’.
None of these options include:
- Prayer, asking for Holy Spirit.
- Reading the Bible in context, context, context.
- Looking at other scriptures on the same\related subject via cross-references or word searches (such as the NWT Reference Edition, and other literal translations).
- Use of an app or internet site to access Interlinear editions (both Hebrew and Greek) of the Bible and look up the meaning and root origin of key words in multiple Bible concordances and dictionaries. A good example is BibleHub. (Discover the true meaning of ‘nor give him any greeting’ in 2 John 1:10,11, by looking up the meaning of the Greek word translated ‘greeting’ there.)
- All the options suggested in the video relate to the publications of the Organization.
Congregation Book Study (kr chap. 19 para 1-7)
Paragraph 1 makes the point that the Israelites were generous in the provision of labour and materials for the tabernacle. The point they overlook is that the scripture cited Exodus 36:1,4-7 shows Jehovah commanded they build it. Jehovah did not make the same command through Jesus in respect of building Kingdom Halls, Assembly Halls, Bethel Homes and the like. In fact, the indication of John 4:21-24 is that buildings were no longer required to worship the Father. Rather it was ‘spirit and truth’ that were the important things.
Paragraph 2 again misuses Mark 12:41 to support its agenda. See Seeking Riches that are True. They follow this up by misapplying Hebrews 6:10, where the wording and the context indicate that God appreciated what the Hebrew Christians had done in physically supporting (serving) their fellow Christians (holy ones), not preaching as the implication is in the literature. The Greek word translated in the NWT as ‘ministering’ is ‘diakoneo’ (Greek 1247) which means, to serve the needs of others in an active, practical way, and literally means ‘to wait at a table’.
Then there is the claim in paragraph 4 that ‘Jehovah requires that we meet for worship’ citing Hebrews 10:25 for support. However as mentioned about John 4:21-24 above, buildings were not important, and Hebrews 10 discusses ‘not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together’, so as to keep ‘encouraging one another’. It does not mention anything about formal worship at a meeting place in these verses or their context. James 1:25-27 supports encouraging and helping one another when it says, ‘to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world’ as ‘the form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father’ rather than formal worship in a building. Actions are more important than listening to words. Acts 2:42 and Acts 20:8 show the early Christians met together, but these gatherings were meals and discussions and reports from travelling apostles, not formalized meetings.
It is interesting that paragraph 5 quotes Rutherford as the source of the term ‘Kingdom Hall’. At least that had some biblical basis, unlike ‘JW.Org’ hall. How ironic that while brothers in the US are reading about how the building of Kingdom halls expanded so rapidly that 60 RBC’s (Regional Building Committees) were formed by 1987 which grew to 132 by 2013, today we are in the situation that many Kingdom Halls are being sold off. RBCs have been done away with and LDCs are commissioned to look into downsizing, not expanding. Is this evidence of the ‘rapid expansion now taking place’ that is emphasized so regularly? Sadly, it seems that the facts are at odds with the claims.
Archived Comments
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Comment by Warp Speed on 2017-10-03 17:57:10
Thanks again for such a good review Tadua. So many points to comment on, but I'll try one, the point from the book study on meeting attendance. In all my time in the Org, (about 35 years), meeting attendance was viewed as synonymous with one's "level of spiritual health". If you were a good meeting attender then of course you must be a spiritually strong one.
The reality is that we were just more indoctrinated on a regular basis. Looking back, it seems so clear now. Just another way for the Org to ensure "loyalty to Jehovah". Another misapplied scripture from Hebrews 10.
Comment by Robert-6512 on 2017-10-03 19:59:55
You stated,
"Therefore, these verses indicate that when Jesus died his blood was figuratively spattered on the figurative altar, thereby anointing it, and giving validation to the new covenant. He did that by entering ‘into heaven itself, now to appear before the person of God for us.’
It is therefore more logical to conclude that the “Holy of Holies” of the second tent ‘not made with hands’ was anointed [HEBREW 4886: ‘mashach’ – smear, anoint] on Jesus death’ on the torture stake or on his ascension to heaven, rather than at his baptism."
However, it cannot be correct for it to happen at his death. If Christ anointed the heavenly Most Holy when he entered into heaven, that would have occurred at his ascension, 40 days after he was resurrected, not at his death. Otherwise, doing that on his death would have required Christ to ascend to heaven, do that anointing, come back, then ascend a second time, or something similar of that nature.Reply by Warp Speed on 2017-10-04 17:58:46
Since Tadua stated "on Jesus' death OR Ascension", are you saying you agree with his statement?
Reply by Phelps on 2017-10-05 06:19:19
Traducción de Google :
remember that Jesus resurrected on the third day. Matthew 28:18 says that he received all authority in heaven and on earth. we can conclude that by resurrecting Jesus, and presenting the value of his shed blood on the third day, it was accepted by his father ... thus anointing the saint of the saints once for all. I can be wrong so I receive comments
Reply by Tadua on 2017-10-05 08:41:02
Hi Robert-6512
Thank you for your comments.
The reasons for my stating 'that the “Holy of Holies” of the second tent ‘not made with hands’ was anointed on Jesus death’ on the torture stake or on his ascension to heaven, rather than at his baptism.” were as follows.
The Bible does not categorically say exactly when this event happened. We therefore cannot and should not be dogmatic about the exact time. The timing is clearly is not important enough to be recorded, it is the act of sacrifice and its implication and the results that are. However the event was clearly not at his baptism.
The type \ anti-type pattern is difficult to follow, however his ascension to heaven after 40 days, was when he left the earth, not returning until his future coming and presence. It was not necessarily the first time he left the earth after his resurrection. There is nothing in the scriptures that comes readily to mind that precludes him as having already gone to heaven to offer his life blood before Jehovah.
As Phelps reminds us in Matthew 28:18 not long after his resurrection, and definitely before his ascension he had been given all authority in heaven and earth. On the basis of this scripture it would therefore be reasonable to conclude that he had offered his life blood immediately on his resurrection, but as the bible is silent on when exactly this occurred, we too, would want to be careful and avoid going down the organization's route of being dogmatic, and trying to give a definitive answer for everything, when there is no definitive answer.Reply by Robert-6512 on 2017-10-05 11:19:27
Yes, it seems as though Christ received all authority prior to his ascension. However, "authority" relates to his role as king, while offering the value of his life in the heavenly most holy relates to his role as High Priest. Those are clearly not the same thing. You are correct in saying there is no definitive answer, since the scriptures do not provide enough information. But, it seems reasonable that Christ obtained his "authority" about the time he was resurrected, while anointing the heavenly temple some time after he ascended, which probably was no later than Pentecost when the spirit was poured out on Christ's followers.
Comment by Leonardo Josephus on 2017-10-04 08:34:36
Spot on Tadua. My research into 2 John and Chronology have been the main things which have highlighted how rigidly WT stick with subjects on which it is so hard to justify their stand.