The year 1925 was notable as the year when the WTS for the first time proclaimed the importance of the name Jehovah, although the Watchtower followers were not called Jehovah's Witnesses until six years later in 1931.
This is claimed by the WTS (see Proclaimers book, page 152) to be a name given by "divine providence".
This is the teaching given in the Knowledge book on page 94, paragraph 12.
A question: Since there's much conjecture about the 'proper' name and pronunciation of God's name, some believing that Yahweh is the most appropriate, why did an all-knowing God not impart to his F&DS the correct pronunciation. If He wanted His followers to be named after Himself, then why did He tell them to be called by an erroneous name?
Interestingly, the Proclaimers book itself gives an alternative explanation of the origin of the name Jehovah's Witnesses:
"Author Chandler W Sterling refers to this as "the greatest stroke of genius" on the part of J F Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society. As that writer viewed the matter, this was a clever move that not only provided an official name for the group but also made it easy for them to interpret all the Biblical references to "witness" and "witnessing" as applying to Jehovah's Witnesses." pages 151,152
Interesting, eh?
Cheers,
Ozzie
"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Anonymous