First world war....the end of the world as we know it..maybe they could have got away with that
Question about 1914
by serotonin_wraith 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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IP_SEC
JWs never believed that Arma would come in 1878, or 1914. They did not exist in 1914.
A man by the name of C T Russel came up with these cock&ball beliefs but they werent even original to him.
The book publishing company of WBTS that splintered out of Russel's following after his death (c '16.. or 17?) did not become JWs until '35. By that time they had revised their history so that they appeared (and still do) to be directly desended from Russel's group. In the years following Russels death the small splinter group (WBTS) dropped nearly everything that was from Russel's era. (from beards to birthdays)
LOL the current org known as JWs could say "We never said Arma was coming in 1914" because literally they didnt.
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nvrgnbk
LOL the current org known as JWs could say "We never said Arma was coming in 1914" because literally they didnt.
LOL you're spot on with this IP_SEC.
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emptywords
LOL the current org known as JWs could say "We never said Arma was coming in 1914" because literally they didnt.
I was never led to believe that 1914 was suppose to be the end, as you say that was never taught....long time ago and forgotten.
We were taught in 70's that the end of the gentiles ended in 1914 and that Christ was crowed king took his heavely position and cast out Satan and his followers (fallen demons) never to enter heaven again, cast down to the vacinity of the earth....the heavens cleansed and we have the devil full on...what the... so we have to put up with the ar*shole.
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garybuss
What Jehovah's Witnesses believe is very time relevant, sort of like a snapshot.
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Narkissos
I remember when I attended one of the first "pioneer schools" in the late 70's one of our instructors (a rather smart CO btw) mentioned the August-October gap and pointed to an old Watchtower explanation using Revelation 12:4, that the dragon was expecting the child to be born and so took the initiative of WWI before the end of the Times of Gentiles...
In that case the WT owes one of its best propaganda arguments to the devil...
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Terry
1.From about the time of Messianic enthusiasms on the part of Jews__"somebody"__was expected to come and set things straight. Radical Jewish revolutionaries couldn't wait and started pushing Roman authority around. The Romans wiped out Judaism physically by the year 70 A.D. in response.
2.With the influence of rabbinical and reactionary authority gone; messianic stories began to catch fire with a different sort of twist: A Jew named Yeshua (Jesus) had ACTUALLY BEEN the Messiah. He was executed--but--that was only the BEGINNING of his messianic role! Jesus was returning shortly to FINISH what he started.
3.A church grew up that gained secular and military power under Constantine. It formalized beliefs and marginalized anybody who disagreed. Hundreds of sects had variant ideas.
4.For centuries various "great thinkers" in the church (and outside) postulated crackpot theories about WHEN Jesus would return.
5.Any unusual or frightening event would trigger waves of Messianic or 2nd Advent theories and predictions.
6.By the 1800's in America the Puritan ethos was seen to have failed to make the world perfect and secular progress too had failed to create a paradise.
7.William Miller, a self-taught Baptist preacher, spent 2 years combing his bible and local libraries to discover what was going to happen and when.
8.Miller's movement motivated thousands of regular churchgoers to leave their churches and prepare themselves for Jesus 2nd Advent, but, Miller's predictions proved false leaving those disenfranchised believers high and dry. Many could not face returning to their churches and admitting being fooled. They variously splintered into groups with different ideas, theories and notions as Adventists.
Jesus did not appear as expected. Following this Great Disappointment, although many adherents returned to their native traditions, a number of followers continued to believe in the accuracy of Miller's date, or recalculated to arrive at a new date. Sometimes with the help of visions and visitations by angels, or reformers whose message was identified with Bible prophecy, post-Disappointment Millerites arrived at various reinterpretations of the meaning of the Disappointment. Followers constructed alternative history, theology, politics and science, sometimes showing openness to rejected knowledge and conspiracy theories.
9.C.T.Russell became convinced that Adventist ideas were true (up to a point) and added ideas of his own along with Pyramid "proofs" that the Time of the End was upon the world.
10.Russell had to change his "understanding" several times as things didn't play out according to schedule.
11. 1914 was the outside date Russell settled on for the actual END at Armageddon. The beginning of the World War I seemed to support his notions at first, but, as the war dragged on the date obviously wasn't exactly what Russell had hoped.
12. By 1916 Russell was still changing his mind and revamping predictions when he died.
13.J.F.Rutherford seized the organized Watchtower Society and began reshaping it. At first he kept all of C.T.Russell's ideas intact until they proved themselves silly or worthless, then, he changed them.
From the earliest times one date after another was presented for multitudinous "reasons" which always failed to be true. Undaunted, new dates and reasons followed
What 1914 "meant" depends on which year it was being EXPLAINED!
Today's Watchtower Society wants people to believe that what they currently teach is very, very close to what C.T. Russell taught. But, they are deceptive and deliberately distorting facts.
Overview of Jehovah's Witnesses' Eschatology Historical Year 1880–1919 1920–1925 1926–1965 1966–1975 1976–1995 1996–2007 Start of "Last Days" 1799 1799, then 1914 1914 Christ's Invisible Return 1874 1874, then 1914 1914 Christ's Kingship 1878 1914 Resurrection of 144,000 1878 1878, then 1918 1918 onward Armageddon 1914, 1915, 1920 1925 "months" left 1975? imminent -
serotonin_wraith
Thanks for the information and links, much appreciated!
justhuman:
What a brilliant scientist was Carl Sagan...Watch the film 'Contact'...In the film, at the end, the Scientist she believe's in God. In a very nice way Carl he tells us that God exists.
This is my favourite film, and I can tell you with 100% certainty there is nothing at the end that makes it seem Elanor (the main character) believes in God.
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unbaptized
By inspiration the scriptures were written. Not interpreted. So the Org is not inspired, the scriptures were written by men who were inspired.
I'm pretty sure that Jehovah will forgive them for the minor miscalculation. But what about the religious atrocities that were committed by other so-called christian organizations. What about the so called crusades, christian nazi's, catholic churches role in supporting wars on both sides of the battle lines. What about the false trinity doctrine and the acceptance of homosexuality. What about the embezzling of millions of dollars from billions of followers. What about the false healings and predictions they published. What about the false after life teachings that are still being taught till this day. These things have yet to be addressed by those organizations who support them, yet a few miscalculations made regarding some dates and times of events is being used to discredit an organization that has made public it's misinterpretations and miscalculations. Also this organization does not hesitate to say publicly that they made errors in judgement.
I would rather be guilty of following an organization who made a few date miscalculations regarding the end, then follow organizations who are blood guilty and who support the domination of his fellow human brothers on earth. Check this link out!
http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/yugoslavia_catholic_church.htm
This link is just an example!