This subject is coming up this month in the TMS. I just thought I would start a post for newbies or lurkers. If you have any scans of the Awake inside cover that would be awesome. This would be a great time to review the facts. Plus I thought a nice orderly thread with the facts could be linked to past posts as well.
From the Reasoning book:
False Prophets
Definition: Individuals and organizations proclaiming messages that they attribute to a superhuman source but that do not originate with the true God and are not in harmony with his revealed will.
Have not Jehovah's Witnesses made errors in their teachings?
Jehovah's Witnesses do not claim to be inspired prophets. They have made mistakes. Like the apostles of Jesus Christ, they have at times had some wrong expectations.-Luke 19:11; Acts 1:6.
From Watchman Fellowship: http://www.watchman.org/articles/jehovahs-witnesses/did-the-watchtower-society-predict-2000-for-armageddon/
James K. Walker
The Jehovah's Witnesses entered the year 2000 with a different kind of Y2K problem. Exactly eleven years earlier the Watchtower leaders told Jehovah's Witnesses that the Christian missionary work begun by Paul in the Bible would be completed by the end of the 20thCentury - or did they? It would all depend on which version of The Watchtower you read.
The January 1, 1989 Watchtower clearly pointed to the year 2000as the farthest limit of Christian missionary work and thus the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ. It stated, "The apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century." 1
If that missionary work was to "be completed in our 20th Century" then the door-to-door missionary activities should have ceased no later than December 31, 1999. When the missionary work has ceased, Jehovah's Witnesses know that Armageddon begins followed immediately by the 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth. Those who more accurately measure the 20th Century can give the Society twelve more months - to December 31, 2000. Either way, in 1989 the Society was clearly limiting the remaining time before the end of missionary activity to eleven or twelve years at most.
About a year later, however, the Watchtower Society altered the article in the bound volume version of the publication removing the time limitation.The bound volume of the same article states "The apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our day." 2
Notice that unlike "in our 20th Century," the phrase "in our day" is sufficiently vague as to avoid being tested according to Deuteronomy 18:20-22. 3 It also may be significant to note that the unbound version is the one studied by the Jehovah's Witnesses in their weekly meetings and distributed door-to-door. The bound volumes did not become available until over a year later and are often used as permanent references.
Deut 18:20-22 " "'However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. 21 And in case you should say in your heart: "How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?" 22 when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at him."
How could all the changing teachings, and outright flip-flops be inspired of God? If there is anything you want to contribute, please do, and thanks in advance.
DD