When you repeat a story enough times, it becomes "a fact" in the minds of those who listen....
So too with the dates and "prophetic fulfilment" the society has proclaimed....
1914—The Turning Point in History - Really?
by berrygerry 52 Replies latest watchtower bible
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truthseeker100
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl
Another hero of mine. Can you imagine the courage it took for her and other members of the white rose to stand up against the religious extremism of their time?
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Jeffro
JW literature has discussed lots of wars. Below are the wars that are featured in their Watch Tower Indexes (there are separate Index sections dedicated to World War I & II), but there's plenty of others that are just mentioned in various articles. But the Balkan wars (1912-1913) and other issues in Europe that led up to World War I are completely ignored by the Watch Tower Society. Causes of World War I, First Balkan War, Second Balkan War.
*** dx86-14 War ***
American Civil War (1861-1865): g95 5/8 13-14
cigarettes: g86 4/8 5
American War of Independence (1775-1783):
Boston Tea Party: g89 9/8 19
Boer War: g86 1/22 20
Caste War (Maya against Spaniards) (1847-1853): w08 12/1 14
Crimean War (1853-1856):
cigarettes: g86 4/8 4
religious factors: w90 12/15 3, 5
English Civil War (Puritan Revolution): g89 9/8 27
Korean War (1950-1953): g 12/08 13; yb88 161-166; g87 5/22 13
experience of captives: w12 12/1 12-13
Opium Wars (1839-1842; 1856-1860): re 263; g89 9/8 19; g88 12/8 6
Christendom’s missionaries back Britain: re 263
Punic Wars (Rome vs. Carthage): g 4/09 18; g01 11/8 16-18
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939):
religious incitement: re 207-208, 262; g90 3/8 7-9
Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648):
coins minted having divine name: w95 5/15 32
Peace of Westphalia (1648): w04 3/15 20-23
pipe smoking: g86 4/8 4
religious motivation: gm 33-34*** dx30-85 War ***
American Revolution: g76 7/8 3-4; g71 5/22 13-14; w62 717; g38 4/20 18; g37 10/6 6
Armageddon: w85 1/1 3-7; w85 1/15 3-7; w85 2/1 3-7; w85 2/15 5-7; su 18-20; w83 11/1 3-7; g74 11/8 7-8; w73 296-297; w71 623-624; kj 363-368, 372-373, 376-377; w66 726-728, 730; w64 624-628; pw 9-19; g64 5/22 7; w61 718, 724-727; g61 11/22 15; pa 204-210; w55 435-436; sr55 337-343; w51 615-616; lt-2-30 55-57
Boer War: w85 8/1 6; w85 11/1 10
Eighty Years’ War: g72 9/22 21-25
Maori wars: w79 9/15 8-9
Napoleonic: qm 295; qm55 295; g54 12/22 10-11; g47 9/8 4, 6; ta 316
Opium War: g75 5/8 9-12
Peasants’ War in Germany (1524): g79 9/8 7
Taiping Rebellion (China): g82 3/22 7
Third Punic War officially ended: g85 5/8 29
Thirty Years’ War: w82 1/1 4; g72 4/22 13; g71 6/22 16-19; qm 295; g66 7/22 17-20; g65 4/22 5; qm55 295; g52 7/8 20; g47 9/8 4, 8; ta 316, 319; g43 2/3 19-21; g40 9/4 9
U.S. Civil War: g61 12/8 19; g47 9/8 4; g43 1/6 26 -
Finkelstein
The overwhelming majority of JWS today do not know that the JWS or IBSA as they were once identified taught under C Russell that 1914 was originally suppose to be the year of Armageddon.
1874 was previously taught as the year that Christ returned invisibly to earth
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Finkelstein
In early January 1876 Russell met independent Adventist preachers Nelson H. Barbour and John H. Paton, publishers of the Herald of the Morning, who convinced him that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874.[13][d][16][e] Russell provided financial backing for Barbour and became co-editor of Barbour's magazine, Herald of the Morning; the pair jointly issued Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World (1877), written mostly by Barbour.[f][19] Various concepts in the book are still taught by the Bible Student movement and Jehovah's Witnesses, including a 2520-year period termed "the Gentile Times" predicted to end in 1914. Deviating from most Second Adventists the book taught that the earth would not be burned up when Christ returned, but that humankind since Adam would eventually be resurrected to the earth and given the opportunity to attain eternal perfect human life if obedient. It also revealed an expectation that all of the "saints" would be taken to heaven in April, 1878.[20][21]
Russell continued to develop his interpretations of biblical chronology. In 1877, he published 50,000 copies of the pamphlet The Object and Manner of Our Lord's Return, teaching that Christ would return invisibly before the battle of Armageddon. By 1878 he was teaching the Adventist view that the "time of the end" had begun in 1799,[22] and that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874[23] and had been crowned in heaven as king in 1878. Russell believed that 1878 also marked the resurrection of the "sleeping saints" (all faithful Christians who had died up to that time) and the "fall of Babylon" which he taught to be God's final judgment of unfaithful Christendom.[24][25] October 1914 was held as the end of a harvest period that would culminate in the beginning of Armageddon, manifested by the emergence of worldwide anarchy and the decline and destruction of civilized society.[26][27]
Russell broke with Barbour in July 1879 over the doctrine of substitutionary atonement and began publishing his own monthly magazine, Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence (now known as The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom), and the pair competed through their rival publications for the minds of their readers.[20][28] (Semi-monthly publication of the magazine began in 1892.)[g][29]
In early 1881, Russell predicted that the churches ('Babylon') would begin to fall apart and that the rapture of the saints would take place that year, although they would remain on earth as materialized spirit beings.[20] In 1882 he outlined his nontrinitarian views concluding that the doctrine is not taught in the Bible.[20]
Readers of Zion's Watch Tower formed thirty Bible study groups in seven states in the United States in 1879–80, with each congregation electing its own elders. In 1880 Russell visited the congregations to conduct six-hour study sessions, teaching each congregation how to carry out topical Bible study.[20][30]
Watch Tower Society[edit]
In 1881, Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was formed as an unincorporated administrative agency for the purpose of disseminating tracts, papers, doctrinal treatises and Bibles, with Russell as secretary and William Henry Conley as president.[29] Three years later, on December 15, 1884, Russell became president of the society when it was legally incorporated in Pennsylvania.[31] (The society was renamed Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in September 1896).[32] Russell wrote many articles, books, pamphlets and sermons, which by his death totaled 50,000 printed pages, with almost 20 million copies of his books printed and distributed around the world.[20] In 1886, he wrote the first of what would become a six-volume Bible textbook series called Millennial Dawn, later renamed Studies in the Scriptures,[33][h] which presented his fundamental doctrines. As a consequence, the Bible Students were sometimes called Millennial Dawnists.
Russell advertised for 1000 preachers in 1881, and encouraged all who were members of "the body of Christ" to preach to their neighbors, to gather the "little flock" of saints while the vast majority of mankind would be given the opportunity to gain salvation during Christ's 1000-year reign.[13] Russell's supporters gathered as autonomous congregations to study the Bible and his writings. Russell rejected the concept of a formal organization as "wholly unnecessary" for his followers and declared that his group had no record of its members' names, no creeds, and no sectarian name.[34] He wrote in February 1884: "By whatsoever names men may call us, it matters not to us... we call ourselves simply Christians."[35] Elders and deacons were elected by congregations and Russell tolerated a great latitude of belief among members. He opposed formal disciplinary procedures by congregation elders, claiming this was beyond their authority,[36] instead recommending that an individual who continued in a wrong course be judged by the entire congregation, which could ultimately "withdraw from him its fellowship" if the undesirable behavior continued.[i] Disfellowshipping did not mean the wrongdoer was to be shunned in all social circumstances or by all Bible Students, though fellowship would be limited.[38] From 1895, Russell encouraged congregations to study his Bible textbook series, Studies in the Scriptures, paragraph by paragraph to properly discern God's plan for humanity. In 1905 he recommended replacing verse-by-verse Bible studies with what he called "Berean Studies" of topics he chose.[13]
The Watch Tower Society opened overseas branches in London (1900),[39] Germany (1903), and Australia and Switzerland (1904).[40] The Society's headquarters were transferred to Brooklyn, New York in 1909.[41]
In January 1914 the Bible Students began public showings of The Photo-Drama of Creation.[42] It presented Russell's views of God's plan from the creation of the earth through to the establishment and administration of God's kingdom on earth. The Photo-Drama represented a significant advancement in film production, as the first major presentation to synchronize motion pictures with audio by use of phonograph records.[43][44] Worldwide attendance in 1914 exceeded nine million
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Vidiot
Mephis - "Trying to be kind to the WBTS writers..."
Why?
Have they been overly kind to you?
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Half banana
October 1914 was held as the end of a harvest period that would culminate in the beginning of Armageddon, manifested by the emergence of worldwide anarchy and the decline and destruction of civilized society.[26][27]
Zion’s Watchtower of July 15 1894 p226 said, “...bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble”. It is easy to find quotes after the event claiming something else.
Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't the photo drama using coloured lantern slides not cinematography?
Remember that Wikipedia is not authoritative...it is only as good as its editors.
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Nathan Natas
The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society has always claimed that what made the year 1914 significant were the events that were taking place in "the realm invisible."
I look forward in eager expectation to the day the lead article in The Watchtower (study edition) is titled, "1914 -- Suddenly, NOTHING HAPPENED."
The is NO "Realm Invisible"!
There are NO "spiritual creatures"!
You do NOT have a "soul"!
Stop letting yourself be misled by retards and con-men!
Don't give control of your life over to neurotic sociopaths!
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Half banana
I agree with your sentiment NN but it could not be said that the WT "always" said that the Kingdom was going to be invisible in the heavens, this was only the excuse when nothing happened.
The rot started when Russell tried to defend the failed Second Adventist prediction of 1874 in which he explained it away by declaring that Christ had come to the Kingdom in glory after all; but invisibly! (pull the other leg) This was how the Watchtower was born along with its demented beliefs. Russell thought he had found the sacred key to unlocking "end times" prophecy by his interpretation of the Greek word parousia.
The same invisibility trick was rolled out again for the true believers after 1914 for which it had been predicted that by then all of God's enemies would have been destroyed and the Kingdom's rule would be visible over the whole Earth.
And so it went on... but the Watchtower beast should have been put of of its misery at birth.
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sir82
“Thoughts and pictures come to my mind, . . . thoughts from the years before 1914 when there was real peace, quiet and security on this earth—a time when we didn’t know fear. . . .
...unless you were black.
Or Asian.
Or a woman.
Or living in a slum.
Or a coal miner, common laborer, factory worker, or similar earning poverty-level wages.
For the other 2% of the human population, well, yeah, the world before 1914 was a pretty nice place.