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The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

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place."--Jeremldi 29 : 10.<strong>The</strong> historic record of fulfillment of seventy yewsdesolatio~l rs plainly stated in the Bible, as well as 111Jewsh hlstory : "As long as she [the l<strong>and</strong> of Palestme]lay desolate sllc kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore <strong>and</strong> tenyearsJJ.-2 Chronicles 36: 21.It would he a qulbble to assert that this does notmeail seventy years of sabbath rest in desolation.<strong>The</strong> ante for the begmalng of the seventy years'desolation of Jeremiah's propllecy was not understoodclearly at the tlnle by ee'ther the Prophet or tlie people.It was not until the first year of Darms the Meder (539B. C.) that Danlel began first to underst<strong>and</strong> from astudy of the Books of Jeremiah <strong>and</strong> Leviticus that theseventy years of desolation were then up: ''In the firstycar of his [Darius', 538 B.. C.]reign, I Daniel understoodbv books the number of the vears, whereof theword oi the Lord came to erem mi ah" the *pophet, thathe xron.lcl accomplish seventy years in the clesolations ofJerusalem". (Daniel 9 : 2) As usual, the propIlecy masnot understood ul~til its fulfillment.Daniel, as a wise <strong>and</strong> successful governor, came atonce into high favor with Dari~is the Mede (Cyarases11-538 B. C.) <strong>and</strong> then with Cyrns (536 B. C.), <strong>and</strong>doubtless did something toward influencing the Persi'mmonarch's mind favorably toward the Jews, in bringingto an end the seventy years' empty desolateness of theirWATCH TOWERretyuircment was desolafzoa, not c~ptivity or serv~tucle- l<strong>and</strong>. Cyrus permitted part of the Jews to returnde~olatco9a conbb ifred w~tlb capt WL~YM L servztude ~ was that ycar. Part of the111 rernalned cnptlve <strong>and</strong> did notthe dlvlllc penalty. 1'0 lnmt that thls seventy year leturn till the se~eilth )ear of the relgn of Artarerses[JY~~P~CC) means lturle without desolat~ot~ of the l<strong>and</strong> (Exla 7-467 6. C.) <strong>and</strong> others trll the tu-eutleth ]earis tc, ~gllore the \Yortl of Goil g ~~cn thiough 3hoses, <strong>and</strong> of the same klng. (Nehell~lnh 2-454 PI. C.) So longno such 1dt.a call be true uor call those atlherlng to it {--crc fionle st111 in cnpt~vlty that, according to laterhake C:od's hlcss~iig on thelr course. As w111 he shown, hlstory, they wondeled ~f the "seventy years" were nottlus llotio~i letti nImu pagan <strong>and</strong> dcrnon~stlc' support figurntrvc, <strong>and</strong> zliany never retnrned from captlvlty. Ifan(] lcods lnta other elarol*s, a 11101~1~ of doubts, <strong>and</strong> the cept~~ity of solne of the Jews <strong>and</strong> not the desolationultimately nlto higher cr~tlclel~l <strong>and</strong> mli(lc11ty. of Jesu~alem a11d of Juilea constltutecl the chlef featilrein the seventy-years prophecy, then the qnestlon mightPROPHECY AVl) FULFILLhlEXTbe properly askccl, Bas the perlod yet ended?-for someAs the appo~~:tcci t1111e for the cle.solatlon <strong>and</strong> sah- never returlled to their 01~11 laud. Such co11srcleratlonsbtlc rest of tile l<strong>and</strong> ,lpprosched, the Lord, In harmony sho~v how the neglect or perversion of some part of thewztll h~s pohcp of ~nforniltlg of cvlls to come, revealed Biblical statements both mal;cs the Word of God ofthrough Jerenilah. n lthout' statlng nl~en. that tlie period none effect <strong>and</strong> leads off ~nto entlless doubts <strong>and</strong> confusofcoi~te~l~porltaeons dcsolatlon, sc.r\ltuiIe. <strong>and</strong> captlvlty ing questioils. This is chal.ncteristlc of the deceptivewas to be seventy years, Ihuc: nlho 111c11catlng the total niethods of demons.lengtll of the juh~lee sgstcm as 50 s SO, or 3,500 years:"And thls whole lnild shall be a clesolatto~~, a<strong>and</strong> anNO CAPTIVITY UNDER JEHOEAKIMastonishmeut; <strong>and</strong> these ~~atiolls sl~nll sene the klng of Blsllop Usher, <strong>and</strong> others following his lead, lla~leBabylon seventy years. And ~t shall colile to pass. wheu fathered an unscrlptural ~dea that there was a captlvltyse-\cnty years are accomplished. that I wlll pnmsh theking of Bahylon, <strong>and</strong> that ~~at~on, saith the Lord, forthelr iniq~uty, <strong>and</strong> the l<strong>and</strong> of the Chnldeans, <strong>and</strong> willmake ~t perpet~~aI [Instlncl-] desolations" - as Mesopotamlastdl is.-Jc~erniah $5 : 11,12.of the Jews hy Nehnchadnezzar in the fourth (or thlrd)year of Jellolnklm (625 B. C.) 18 (or 19) years beforethe seveuty years' desolatloa begail at the fall of Zedeklah(606 U. C.). <strong>The</strong>y unagine that the seventy years'desolatloli were seventy yearsJ captlvlty, clatlng from the"After seventy years be accon~pIished [by the entire fourth (or tllird) )-car of Jeho~aklm, <strong>and</strong> consisting ofnation] at Babylon I will v~sit you, <strong>and</strong> perform my 18 (or 19) years' captivity alone plus 52 (or 51) yearsJgood ~{*ord tow-arc1 you, in causlng you to return to th~s captlvlty <strong>and</strong> desolat~on combmed. <strong>The</strong> fact is, as seenfrom the above mel1tloned Scrlptnres, that there wereseventy years of eaptn aty coinezdmt wlth seventy years'desolation.'file efTect of this misconcept~on upon the chronologyof the Bible would be to show that the desolation wasl~metcen years shorter than ~t really was, or that wecount the nineteen year period twice, <strong>and</strong> thus make theperiod of time prlor to the desolation nlneteen yearstoo long.NO CAPTIVITY NOR VASSALAGE IN 625 B. C.A doctrine should nex7er be based on a passage ofdoubtful meaning, reacllngJ or authenticity. This erroris based upon the reaihllg of a passage which is mharmonious(1) with the rest of the Scripture record ofthe attaclcs by Nebuchadnezmr upon Judea <strong>and</strong> Jerusaiem,<strong>and</strong> (2) with other Scriptures.A little scrutiny of Danlel 1: 1, 2 shows that there issometlnng the matter with it. <strong>The</strong> passage in our CommonVersion reads: "In the third year [626 B. C.] ofthe reign of Jehoiakim king of Jntlah came Nebuchadnezzarkzng of Bal~ylon unto Jerusalem, <strong>and</strong> besieged it.And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into hish<strong>and</strong>, n-ith part of the vessels of the house of God,which he carr~ed into the l<strong>and</strong> of Shinar, to the houseof his goc?; ad he brought Ihe vessels into the treasurehww of his god."

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