I have been reading a book by Karen Armstrong entitled: The Battle For God. In this book she relates the history of the big three religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism from about the 1400's to our day. I highly recommend this book for everyone here to read. She covers this topic from a unique perspective that I hadn't considered before. There was a point that I felt compelled to share because it makes Charles Taze Russell into a liar.
Russell pointed to 1914 as the end of all things. When 1914 did arrive and Russell's expectations weren't realized, he just put another spin on things. We didn't get all the details right, but something significant did happen in 1914. The Wt even quotes a magazine article which referred to this extraordinary prophecy of Russell's that supposedly came true. You know, Russell et.al, were continually pointing to 1914 and saying watch out for that year. Their claim was that everything was hunky dory in the world prior to 1914 and that the world's atmosphere was one of optimism and good tidings for the future. Then, shock of all shocks, The Great War breaks out suddenly and unexpectedly to a horrified world. This is the scenario that the WT would like us to believe, but what are the facts.
On pages 136, 137 of Karen Armstrong's book, The Battle For God, she brings out an astonishing point that demolishes the WT's claim that the Great War was a sudden and shocking, unexpected cataclysm visited on the world. Here is what she writes. I quote:
"After the Franco-Prussian War, the nations of Europe began a frantic arms race which led them inexorably to the First World War. They appeared to see war as a Darwinian necessity in which only the fittest would survive. A modern nation must have the biggest army and the most murderous weapons that science could provide, and Europeans dreamed of a war that would purify the nation's soul in a harrowing apotheosis. (Here is the key point) THE BRITISH WRITER I.F. CLARKE HAS SHOWN THAT BETWEEN 1871 AND 1914 IT WAS UNUSUAL TO FIND A SINGLE YEAR IN WHICH A NOVEL OR SHORT STORY DESCRIBING A HORRIFIC FUTURE WAR DID NOT APPEAR IN SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRY. THE NEXT GREAT WAR WAS IMAGINED AS A TERRIBLE BUT INEVITABLE ORDEAL: OUT OF THE DESTRUCTION, THE NATION WOULD ARISE TO A NEW AND ENHANCED LIFE. At the very end of the nineteenth century, however, British novelist H. G. Wells punctured this utopian dream in The War of the Worlds (1898) and showed where it was leading. There was terrifying images of London depopulated by biological warfare, and the roads of England crowded with refugees. He could see the danger of military technology that had been drawn into the field of the exact sciences. He was right. The arms race led to the Somme and when the Great War broke out in 1914, the people of Europe, WHO HAD BEEN DREAMING OF THE WAR TO END ALL WARS FOR FORTY YEARS, entered with enthusiasm upon this conflict, which could be seen as the collective suicide of Europe. Despite the achievements of modernity, there was a nihilistic death wish, as the nations of Europe cultivated a perverse fantasy of self-destruction."
Contrary to Russell's claims that the nations of Europe were filled with optimism and oblivious to the collision course with a World War, for forty years the nations of Europe were gearing up for this very thing. I. F. Clarke makes it plain that from 1871 to 1914 there were short stories and novels that pointed forward to the inevitability of a catastophic World War. The arms race was gearing up the European nations for this very conflict that Russell claimed they didn't see coming. So, the conditions of the world at the end of the nineteenth and into the early twentieth century were actually pointing inevitably toward a great conflict. The Great War was not a shocking and sudden surprise, but was a war that had been expected for forty years. Russell just put an effective spin on things so that some people would be duped into believing that he had uttered a prophecy that was fulfilled in 1914. Later generations could then be manipulated into believing that Russell was indeed a prophet from God. Yet, if those people had just read the history of that period, they would see the truth of the matter. Russell and the Watchtower counted on the gullibility of their adherents. My advise for all lurkers out there is to investigate for yourselves. Don't rely on individuals that have as their aim your devotion and adulation.
Mr. Shakita