What Does Bible Chronology Indicate About the Year 1914?

The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society (commonly called Jehovah's Witnesses) believe that Jesus established God's kingdom in Heaven in the year 1914. They arrive at this number based on a misapplication of Daniel 4, a few absolutely made up hermeneutical tools, and a gross misunderstanding of who Jesus is, and the nature of God's Kingdom.

Jerusalem Didn't Fall in 607 B.C.

There are about a million places you could start with an article like this. The place I'm choosing to start, however, is with their idea that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 "B.C.E."¹ The reason we start here is because it is a core claim of the Watchtower Society and it is the single claim upon which most all of their theology rests (which is, truly, astounding).

Scholars today agree that the actual sack of Jerusalem by Babylon happened about 20 years after the Watchtower Society claims, some time around 586/587 B.C. This is backed up by the Biblical account in 2 Kings 25.

The Biblical account isn't all we have on this, though! We also have access to the Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle, a tablet dated to 595 B.C. which details the military campaigns and other details of the first 11 years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. You can literally just read it, if you want. It explicitly records Nebuchadnezzar capturing Jerusalem and deporting Jehoiachin in his 7th year (March 16, 597 B.C.). When you line that up with Jeremiah and the rest of the Babylonian records, the final destruction of the city and temple lands squarely falls in his 18th/19th year—587/586 B.C.

In fact: All Biblical scholarship and historical evidence points to a date between 586 and 587 B.C. for the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. That means that the Jehovah's Witnesses stand completely alone in their using of the 607 B.C. date.

How did they end up with 607 B.C. anyway?

To understand the 607 date, we have to understand the 1914 date. Because, as you'll soon see, the 1914 date (when they say God's Kingdom began) is the more important of the two.

The date of 1914 was arrived at by adding 2,520 years to the date 606 B.C., which was arrived at by their founder who believed the 70 years of desolation (the Babylonian exile) ended in 536 B.C., and so he just counted back 70 years. While Russell abandoned this date early on, he still kept the 606 B.C. date.

This gets us our base date of 606 B.C. From there, some prophetic significance is read into the "Seven Times" mentioned by Daniel. To this is added some dubious numerology, and the Jehovah's Witnesses end up with a number: 2,520 years. They then add these 2,520 years to 606 B.C. and voila!

Except there is no year between 1 B.C. and 1 A.D.

Which means that adding 2,520 years to 606 B.C. will land you in 1915, and not 1914. Unfortunately this error wasn't widely known until 1943. You see, everyone assumed a zero year between 1 B.C. and 1 A.D. that doesn't actually exist.

December 31st, 1 B.C. rolled over to January 1st, 1 A.D.

Unfortunately by this time the Witnesses were pretty well in bed with the 1914 date. So they just simply moved their starting date back a year to 607 B.C. (Remember, B.C. dates count down, and A.D. dates count up). Yup, they just moved their starting date back a year. While they did admit their mistake with calculation in an edition of their magazine, they never offered any real explanation for moving the start date back a year.

This, however, isn't really an anomaly. As we go on, you'll notice how the Jehovah's Witnesses are comfortable moving and fudging any number necessary, as long as their end date stays at 1914.

“Seven Times” Is Not 2,520 Years

Let's dive a bit deeper into the numbers games the Jehovah's Witnesses are playing here.

The first thing they do is take verse 16, reproduced for you below from the Modern English Version, and play with "periods of time."

Let its heart be changed from that of a man, let him be given the heart of an animal. And let seven periods of time pass over it.
- Daniel 4:16, MEV

The word for "periods of time" here is עִדָּן which is likely a loan-word, but appears to mean "definite time." In this case, it means either seasons or literal years. Reading the rest of Chapter 4 will clue you in to this because, in verse 33, we are told the prophecy is fulfilled, and the Nebuchadnezzar went mad and ate grass for 7 times (either seasons or years), and then at the end of that very specific time period, he regained his senses. The closest numerology we get here is the number 7 being the number for completeness.

Despite being told that the prophecy is fulfilled in verse 33, the Jehovah's Witnesses take that 7 periods of time, and say that there is a second fulfillment of it.

They say that this second fulfillment is the end of the gentile age, which must be determined with more shaky numerology. The first thing they do here is take two passages, Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:4-6, and use these passages to determine that God marks time in some weird way, wherein days to us are years to God.

I actually like the creativity and niche referencing of this, because most people who try to calculate how God marks the passage of time use 2 Peter 3:8. But their lack of using of this passage, which probably more clearly shows God marking time than any other, shows that they really are starting with the end goal (1914 A.D.) in mind, and working back.

These passages show two different times where God translates days to years and vice versa. Unfortunately this is two different symbolic actions that God takes to teach a lesson to people. They are not a universal rule to interpret all years and days and days and years.

God is not, in these passages, providing us with a conversion table where we're able to see how He reckons time. In fact, the Peter text mentioned earlier, shows us that God doesn't reckon time in any way at all like us. He is outside of time. An hour, a minute, a day, a year, etc. - they are all nothing to God, and everything to God.

God probably reckons time less like you do (chronologically) and more like you reckon files in your Downloads folder (volumetrically). That is, He can approach any moment and spend an eternity there, if He so wishes, before moving to another.

Anyway, they break it down this way:

• A year is 365 Days.
• A day to us is like a Year to the Lord.
• 7 years to days 2557
• Therefore, 2557 days is... oh... oh wait

That's right! If you take the number of days in 7 solar years you actually end up with 37 more years they claim! Remember when I said earlier that the Jehovah's Witnesses were totally happy to just fudge any inconvenient number?

Well, here we are!

The Jehovah's Witnesses claim that we have to convert these 7 human years into mystical prophetic years. You see, this is important because prophetic years only have 360 days!

So now, if we multiply 360 times 7 we get 2,520 days. And a day is a year, so that's 2,520 years.

Yeah, so this is the big problem we run in to with this kind of reckoning. There is simply no such thing as a prophetic year. They are completely made up. What they do is they take the "time, times, half a time" bit and do a little bit more of their fun math.

So they say that the tribulation in revelation is 7 years, which is 84 months. Time, times and half a time is obviously 3.5 years, right? So let's take 84 months and divide by 2.

So that gets us 42 months. That is then calculated out to 1,260 days. This, of course, only accounts for 30 days a month. It also tends to read a literal meaning into a symbolic number in Daniel.

There Is No “Second Fulfillment” of Daniel 4

Daniel 4 is unfortunately (for the Jehovah's Witnesses) not structured to contain a "Second Fulfillment." God shows in Scripture that the prophecy is fulfilled 12 months after it is made. In this act, God shows His power over the prideful (note Nebuchadnezzar's claim that kicks off the fulfillment), and His power over Earthly rulers (HINT: This is going to be important in just a bit).

We should also note that if there is a greater fulfillment in Christ, it is achieved at the Cross and resurrection. However, a greater fulfillment in Christ does not mean a second literal fulfillment like we saw with Nebuchadnezzar, which is what the Jehovah's Witnesses claim. Daniel Chapter 4 isn't about some mystical age of Gentiles, but about the providence of God over all the earth.

To insist that there must be "greater fulfillment" is closer to Gnosticism than Christianity. What they've done is taken the clear text of Scripture, hijacked it, and insisted that it is actually some secret code that they have deciphered. They've added a hidden layer of meaning where God has not.

The Kingdom of God Was Not Established in 1914

Another error made by the Jehovah's Witnesses is in saying that the 1914 date was the Establishment of God's Kingdom. Except the Bible tells us in Mark 1:15 that God's Kingdom is established at Christ's first advent. Furthermore, St. Paul tells us in Colossians 1:13 that we are now delivered into God's Kingdom.

To deny this is to make a mockery of Christ's life and work, and especially his victory at the Cross.

Furthermore, when you read Daniel 4 and the book of Revelation in context, both seem to proclaim that God is always ruling and reigning, and that He is sovereign over all the rulers of the Earth. He does not need to wait until some future time to have His own kingdom delivered to Him.

Daniel's prophecies point not to some heavenly coup in 1914, where Satan is kicked out of Heaven and God takes the throne. It points to God's eternal, unshakable dominion! Whether it's the Babylonians, the Persians, the Romans, or the Germans that are trying to rule the earth, God is still the one who is ultimately in charge.

The Doctrine Distracts from the Gospel

Speculating over chronologies and timelines only servers to foster anxiety over dates. This diverts the Christian away from repentance and faith. Even Christ Himself warns against a fixation with the end-times.

They undermine assurance and faith by demanding adherence to strict calendrical timelines. Rather than hoping in Christ, you're left despairing over false predictions. Our Hope is in Christ's return, which is loud, visible! It is not in some secret second coming or secret kingdom establishment that we cannot know, or must speculate about.

Comparison Table

I've taken the time to put together a table of Jehovah's Witness claims regarding this doctrine, with the historical Christian truth about each claim.

Ultimately, Dear Christian, Jesus is Enough. In Christ, every prophecy finds its true end. The Kingdom of God is present, and Jesus is the sovereign king right now. We are free from speculative timelines so that we may look at the cross.

We do not have to wonder, "When will Christ do... ?" Rather, we have only to say, "Look what Christ has done." The Gospel invites us rest in Christ's eternal reign, rather than be anxious over His potential future actions.