1873 [Six thousand Years of man's existence ends in A.D. 1873] {WR Apr 1880 88}
1873 "Here we furnish the evidence that from the creation of Adam to A.D. 1873 was six thousand years. And though the Bible contains no direct statement that the seventh thousand will be the epoch of Christ's reign, the great Sabbath Day of restitution to the world, yet the venerable tradition is not without reasonable foundation.. If, then, the seventh thousand-year period of earth's history be an epoch specially noted as the period of Christ's reign, we shall, by showing that it began in A.D. 1873, be proving that we are already in it." {TIAH 1915 ed 39-40}
1873 "Thus the Word of God corrects the few slight errors which have crept into it by any means.. God has so guarded his Word that the few trivial errors of copyists are made very manifest, and the full harmony of his Word gives ample foundation for faith .. So, then, whereas Usher dates A.D. 1 as the year 4005 from the creation of Adam, it really was, as we have shown, the year 4129, according to the Bible record, thus showing the year 1872 A.D. to be the year of the world 6000, and 1873 A.D. the commencement of the seventh thousand-year period, the seventh millennium, or thousand-year day of earth's history. {TIAH 53-4}
1873 "The Bible chronology herein presented shows that the six great 1000 year days beginning with Adam are ended, and that the great 7th Day, the 1000 years of Christ's Reign, began in 1873." {TIAH 1916 ed Foreword 2
And, apparently, in 1975 as well!!
Surely, not the work of a False Prophet.
When was the last time any Watchtower publication made mention of this event which stirred so much interest among Jehovah's true servants that they published the same event TWICE and got it wrong both times??
1972 "'They Shall Know that a Prophet Was Among Them' People today can view the creative works. They have at hand the Bible, but it
is little read or understood. So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come? .. IDENTIFYING THE 'PROPHET' .. These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet? .. This 'prophet' was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah's Christian witnesses. They are still proclaiming a warning .. Of course, it is easy to say that this group acts as a 'prophet' of God. It is another thing to prove it. The only way that this can be done is to review the record. What does it show?" {WT Apr 1 1972 197} [An excellent question!]
1972 "Does this admission of making mistakes stamp them [Watchtower] as false prophets? Not at all, for false prophets do not admit to making mistakes." {WT Nov 1 1972 644}
1972 "If it is his purpose to have this beautification of the whole earth accomplished by the end of his seventh creative day - Scripturally a period of seven thousand years, then the time is near at hand for the ruining of the earth by exploiters to be stopped by theocratic power and the blessed transformation to a delightsome garden to begin. Already, nearly six thousand years of man's existence from the close of the sixth creative day have run their dreary course. We must be approaching the threshold of that thousand-year-long reign of Jesus Christ, which must be accompanied by Paradise according to what Jesus promised the sympathetic evildoer on the stake there at Mount Calvary." {PRTM 18}
1972 "Jehovah, the God of the true prophets, will put all false prophets to shame either by not fulfilling the false prediction of such self-assuming prophets or by having His own prophecies fulfilled in a way opposite to that predicted by the false prophets.
False prophets will try to hide their reason for feeling shame by denying who they really are." {PRTM 353-4}
1972 "From Adam's creation to the end of 1943 A.D. is 5,971 years .. We are therefore near the end of six thousand years of human history" {TMYF 152} [so another 29 years, in 1972, would come year 6,000 since Adam]
