Saturday, December 8, 2007

Crazy Quotes # 2, 1,600 Furlongs


Jehovah's Witnesses believe they are special and that much of the Bible is talking about them. For example, the Watchtower Society said that the 1,600 furlongs mentioned in Revelation 14:20 was a reference to the publishing of the book The Finished Mystery. Work on the book was done in Scranton, Pennsylvania and it was then sent to the Bethel headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. Using questionable math, they go to great lengths to show that the distance between these sites is a prophetic fulfillment of Revelation 14:20.


First, they calculate the 1,600 furlongs as being equal to 137.9 miles. Then they use railroad time tables to show that the "Shortest distance from place where the wine press was trodden by the Feet Members of the Lord, Whose Guidance and help alone made this volume possible. (John 6:60, 61; Matt. 20:11.) mi., 137.9" (The Finished Mystery, 1917 edition, p.230)


See also this page at Watchtower Quotes.

2 comments:

Ronald Day said...

Charles Taze Russell was not the author of the book, "The Finished Mystery".

DT said...

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. You are correct, although it was posthumously attributed to Russell and supposedly based on his writings.

The quote couldn't have been from Russel because he was already dead when the book was published. I edited the post to remove the error and replaced the broken links while I was at it.