by berrygerry 52 Replies latest watchtower bible
There were major wars and conflicts happening well before 1914 and of course continuing after - if you read through history without the JW inspired 1914 mention detector engaged then it really doesn't stand out.
The 1914 date was something they plucked out of the air in the mid 1920's. Prior to that they were still talking about 1874 as "the date of Christ's return" and they had a list of "evidence" including (I kid you not):
Its easy to see how people could fall for the " The End Times " dogma, such as having two great wars and other large catastrophes occurring around the world, but the reality is that all these certain things to which were spoken about in the bible actually occurred then and continuously throughout human history.
The WTS leaders used false and misleading information to heighten interest to their literature and probably they themselves might have subsequently believed in these expressed theological teachings.
Imposing fear combined with ignorance has away of creating emotional thought processes to look for answers to acquire relief from that potential threat to ones own survival and well being.
Charles Russell's 1914 prediction was based upon his belief that the establishment of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine would be the "New Jerusalem" and as such would be a fulfillment of God's Promise and the end of "this system of things".
Russell was a Zionist and his prediction about 1914 was rooted in the political events surrounding the establishment of a Jewish State.
Its interesting to think that there is still a majority of C T Russell's theological teachings held within the WTS/JWS
to this day, when he just drew much of the Adventist theology which was present at the time. Even back then he able to easly create public interest as most of the population were Christian bible believers.
The drawing catch was these men used the bible to support their assertions.
You can imagine what kind of public interest was created by an advertisement in the local news papers
such as this one.
There were always two pressing concerns for the WTS. one being getting as many of its own publications as possible into people's hands and secondly to look for people who inherently believed in what the WTS was teaching, so they can be manipulated and exploited into publicly distributing those publications themselves.
You might say the WTS was a publishing house run by charlatans, who were more faithful to themselves and the publishing house which they ran and directed.
Disposing people who objected to those structured doctrines or wouldn't follow inline to the designing personal appearance by the WTS. leaders as their designated sales representatives was also stridently enforced.
They just love to play both sides of things. Leading up to 1914, they surely published lots of quotes about how bad things were and how we couldn't make it past 1914. There were many people at the time predicting that a huge war would break out in the mid 1910s. Of course there's always people on both sides of any issue, so cherry-picking quotes in order to paint a false consensus isn't difficult to do at all, but it's all anecdotal.
Just imagine, if WWIII had broken out in 1975, they'd probably be saying something similar - that they predicted a turning point that no one else saw coming. Meanwhile, their publications pre-1975 would still be riddled with quotes saying how things couldn't possibly make it past the mid 1970s.
1914 is over 100years on now. That year is seeming to become less and less significant all the time.
In hind site, I'll have to say there was no actual year to pinpoint, but a series of years or a decade in time which seems significant.
I'd have to say the ''Industrial Revolution'' with the onset of the Cold War, and the end of the Cold War were the most significant periods in History.
1914 is over 100years on now. That year is seeming to become less and less significant all the time.
Yes and the WTS will drop that year as something significant as well one day, they have to if they are to stay in business if you know what I mean.
There are only so many generations one can milk out from 1914.
The WTS has also exploited 1914 as a vehicle of support about themselves as an organization as they self proclaimed that they are the only true preachers of God's Kingdom to come.
