Thread: Jehovah's Witnesses. Is this a correct understanding of Ezekiels prophecy?

Ezekiel 4:4-8.
Ezekiel is commanded by God to lie on one side for 390 and the other side for 40 days. Each day represented a year that Israel would be punished for their sins, a total of 430 years.

We know that 70 years were accomplished under Babylon, leaving 360 to go.

We know that Israel was smashed again. Yet, history records no regathering after the 360 remaining years had elapsed! What happened? Did the prophecy fail?

Absolutely not. We find in Leviticus 26 that if they remain unrepentant, God will multiply his judgements 7 times.
So if we multiply the remaining 360 x 7 and convert to our modern calendar, we find that it comes to 1948.

Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948. God began to gather the Jews out of all lands from which he scattered them.
For a fuller explanation please go here -
http://www.hebroots.org/hebrootsarchive/9808/9808_m.html


What do you think? Does this rescue Ezekiels prophecy from failure?
Is there another way it could be understood?

Are there any errors in the calculation? (please see the link provided for the full working out).
Are any of the dates wrong? Can we confirm them all from history?

Please keep on topic, avoiding tu quo que and ad hominem attacks. Please read and understand the link posted and do not argue from ignorance based on my summary.

Final question. Is this a stronger argument than that put forward by the Watchtower for 1914, which we can't confirm through history, archaeology or the Bible?
Hi Rick.

I treat it as a prophecy because it specifically says it is a prophecy. even in what you posted.

Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm already aware of your "Nations" book.

Isn't it the one that claims the JWs are "commissioned to serve as the mouthpiece and active agent of Jehovah" and have a "commission to speak as a prophet in the name of Jehovah"? pages 58 - 62.

It then goes on to tell us that "Shortly, within our twentieth century, the "battle in the day of Jehovah" will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom." page 216.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, is it now the 21st century?
So somehow, I feel that the book you refer me to might not be entirely accurate.

I think that you are trying to turn a judgment message into a prophesy.


(Ezekiel 4:4-7) 4*“And as for you, lie upon your left side, and you must lay the error of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you will lie upon it you will carry their error. 5*And I myself must give to you the years of their error to the number of three hundred and ninety days, and you must carry the error of the house of Israel.

6*And you must complete them. “And you must lie upon your right side in the second case, and you must carry the error of the house of Judah forty days. A day for a year, a day for a year, is what I have given you. 7*And to the siege of Jerusalem you will fix your face, with your arm bared, and you must prophesy against it.

This is from the "The Nations Shall Know I am Jehovah" - How?


*** kj chap. 6 pp. 97-98 pars. 13-14 The Days of Christendom Are Numbered ***

13 That the destruction of Jerusalem was to be in punishment for the religious error of his chosen people, Jehovah directly stated to Ezekiel, who was depicting the siege of Jerusalem, saying: “And as for you, lie upon your left side, and you must lay the error of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you will lie upon it you will carry their error. And I myself must give to you the years of their error to the number of three hundred and ninety days, and you must carry the error of the house of Israel. And you must complete them.”—Ezekiel 4:4-6.

14 By this Ezekiel was to indicate, not the length of the coming siege of Jerusalem, but the exact year in which the city was to be destroyed, at the end of its siege. The expression “the house of Israel” here stands for the Northern Kingdom of ten rebellious tribes of Israel, which did not recognize Jerusalem as its capital. Nevertheless, Jerusalem was held accountable for the religious error of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, because, from the closing years of King Solomon, that city had given all twelve tribes of Israel a bad religious example, toward idolatry.

Please contact a local Witness and ask to see Chapter 6 of the above book.

The times he laid sides marked the number of years from the start of their apostasy to their judgment. The 40 days pointed to the time when the desolation of Jerusalem would start, which was after Ezekiel completed the drama.