Notes on False Prophets

Alan Feuerbacher

Index:

Part 1: JWs Beliefs About Chronology in the Early Days

Overview:

The Watchtower Society says that, in spite of many failed predictions, it is not a false prophet. For example, The Watchtower of March 15, 1986, says on page 19:

.... we might consider what the Society has published in the past on chronology. Some opposers claim that Jehovah's Witnesses are false prophets. These opponents say that dates have been set, but nothing has happened.... Yes, Jehovah's people have had to revise expectations from time to time.... we display our faith in God's Word and its sure promises by declaring its message to others. Moreover, the need to revise our understanding somewhat does not make us false prophets.... How foolish to take the view that expectations needing some adjustment should call into question the whole body of truth! The evidence is clear that Jehovah has used and is continuing to use his one organization, with "the faithful and discreet slave" taking the lead.

The question for this paragraph, 15, says:

Rather than being false prophets, what proves that Jehovah's Witnesses have faith in God's Word and its sure promises?

Apparently the required answer is that Jehovah's Witnesses are not false prophets because they declare the message of God to others, and there is clear evidence that Jehovah is backing the Watchtower Society. But such evidence is not here specified, and as for the relevance of declaring God's message to others, see Deuteronomy 18:20-22. The paragraph does not answer the charge that Jehovah's Witnesses are false prophets.

Reasoning from the Scriptures said on page 134 that

The apostles and other early Christian disciples had certain wrong expectations, but the Bible does not classify them with the "false prophets." -- See Luke 19:11; John 21:22,23; Acts 1:6,7.

That statement is certainly true, but the scriptures referred to show that these expectations were misunderstandings that Jesus cleared up right away. Furthermore the disciples who had the misunderstandings did not force others to believe their expectations by disfellowshipping any of their brothers who did not share those wrong expectations.

Fearless Inquiry

This material has been compiled in accord with the spirit set forth in the Truth book:1

We need to examine, not only what we personally believe, but also what is taught by any religious organization with which we may be associated. Are its teachings in full harmony with God's Word, or are they based on the traditions of men? If we are lovers of the truth, there is nothing to fear from such an examination. It should be the sincere desire of every one of us to learn what God's will is for us, and then to do it.

If one believes these words, one should not fear to examine ideas that may conflict with what the Society says on certain matters. One should not want to be included among those described by Jean-Paul Sartre as ones who, "since they are afraid of reasoning.... want to adopt a mode of life in which reasoning and research play but a subordinate role, in which one never seeks but that which one has already found."2 Nor should one follow the example of the United States Congress, which makes laws that everyone is required to follow, but which often exempts itself from those laws because they are inconvenient.

In similar spirit, the December 15, 1991 Watchtower said on its back cover, in an advertisement for the book Mankind's Search for God,

Most people know only the religion of their parents and that often only superficially. But should your religion be simply the one you were born into, or should you make an intelligent choice after comparing your religion with that of others? The 384-page book Mankind's Search for God will help you to make this comparison.

Likewise, The Watchtower of June 15, 1985, pages 11-12 gives fine counsel for thinking Christians:

Proverbs 2:4,5 states: 'If as for hid treasures you keep searching for it, you will find the very knowledge of God.' The context of that passage speaks of the need to seek out Jehovah's "sayings," "commandments," "wisdom," "discernment," and "understanding." Searching for treasures requires effort and perseverance. It calls for much digging. It is not different when searching for "the very knowlege of God," for "discernment," and for "understanding." This also requires much digging, or penetrating below the surface.... We should be truly thankful for the spiritual digging that the "slave" class does to make clearer and clearer for us "the hidden depths of God's purposes."....

But that does not relieve each individual Christian of the responsibility to dig deeper into God's Word, for the purpose of getting the full depth of the thoughts explained. This involves looking up the scriptures cited. It means reading the footnotes in Watchtower articles, some of which refer the reader to an older publication that provides a fuller explanation of a certain passage or prophecy. It requires digging deeper, putting forth effort to locate that older publication and then studying the pages referred to.

In a different context, the August 15, 1972 Watchtower asked a relevant question:

Do I fully know the history of God's people?

This essay digs deep into the Society's publications and its history in a search for truth. This is appropriate because 1 John 4:1 says:

Test the inspired expressions to see whether they originate with God, because many false prophets have gone forth into the world.

Therefore it is every Christian's obligation to test expressions that claim to be inspired. This material is written in the spirit of digging deep into Watchtower publications, with the object of understanding how the Society can claim to not be a false prophet in spite of its many failed predictions.

Identifying a False Prophet

Let us define our terms. A prophecy, according to Vol 2. of Insight on the Scriptures, pages 690, 691, is:

An inspired message; a revelation of divine will and purpose or the proclamation thereof. Prophecy may be an inspired moral teaching, an expression of a divine command or judgment, or a declaration of something to come. As shown under PROPHET, prediction, or foretelling, is not the basic thought conveyed by the root verbs in the original languages.... yet it forms an outstanding feature of Bible prophecy.... The Source of all true prophecy is Jehovah God.

A prophet, according to Vol 2. of Insight on the Scriptures, page 694, is

One through whom divine will and purpose are made known.

and a true prophet can be distinguished from a false one:

The three essentials for establishing the credentials of a true prophet, as given through Moses, were: The true prophet would speak in Jehovah's name; the things foretold would come to pass (De 18:20-22); and his prophesying must promote true worship, being in harmony with God's revealed word and commandments (De 13:1-4).

So there are three standards which a prophet must meet; failure to meet any one makes a false prophet. A false prophet, therefore, can be one who meets the following criteria:

1. One must first claim to be a prophet.

2. Then one must speak in God's name and make predictions.

3. Then those predictions must fail.

Deuteronomy 18:20-22 gives Jehovah's definition of a false prophet and how people ought to view such:

'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. And in case you should say in your heart: "How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?" 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.'

The Watch Tower, May 15, 1930, pages 153-155, describes a true prophet and a false prophet:

A prophet is a person who professes to proclaim a message from Jehovah God. The Bible reveals the fact that there are both true and false prophets. The true prophet is one who always speaks as God's mouthpiece. His message is the truth, and is designed to be a blessing to his hearers. He is never boastful, and always gives God the credit for the message which he proclaims, and therefore always has the divine approval. A false prophet is a person who claims to be a representative of Jehovah and to speak in his name and to proclaim his message but is in fact the mouthpiece of Satan. A false prophet never has Jehovah's approval, and his message is always intended to deceive the people and to draw them away from God and a study of his Word.

A false prophet speaks that which is contrary to God's will; he sneers at, contradicts and denies the message of God's true prophets. It matters not whether he proclaims his message with deliberate, wilful and malicious intent to deceive, or whether he is the blinded and deluded dupe of Satan and hence unwittingly used of him. In either case he is a false prophet....

Since the Bible was completed, and "inspiration" is no longer necessary, a true prophet is one who is faithfully proclaiming what is written in the Bible.... But it may be asked, How are we to know whether one is a true or a false prophet? There are at least three ways by which we can positively decide: (1) If he is a true prophet, his message will come to pass exactly as prophesied. If he is a false prophet, his prophecy will fail to come to pass.... The difference between a true and a false prophet is that the one is speaking the word of the Lord and the other is speaking his own dreams and guesses.... The true prophet of God today will be telling forth what the Bible teaches, and those things that the Bible tells us are soon to come to pass. He will not be sounding forth man-made theories or guesses, either his own or those of others.... In the New Testament, and in our day, the word "prophet" has a thought similar to that of our word "teacher," in the sense of a public expounder. Hence when the term "false prophet" is used, we shall get the correct thought if we think of a false teacher.

Awake!, October 8, 1968 page 23, in speaking about the Society's contention that the Bible indicates we are living in the last days, said:

Still some persons may say: "How can you be sure? Maybe it is later than many people think. But maybe it is not as late as some persons claim. People have been mistaken about these prophecies before.".... True, there have been those in times past who predicted an "end to the world," even announcing a specific date.... Yet, nothing happened. The "end" did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing?

Compare these statements with the above statements from the May 15, 1930 Watch Tower, and with what the Society said was going to occur in 1914 and 1925 (see below). Continuing,

Missing was the full measure of evidence required in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Missing from such people were God's truths and the evidence that he was guiding and using them.

Paradise Restored to Mankind -- By Theocracy, 1972, pages 353-354 said:

Jehovah, the God of the true prophets, will put all false prophets to shame either by not fulfilling the false prediction of such self-assuming prophets or by having His own prophecies fulfilled in a way opposite to that predicted by the false prophets. False prophets will try to hide their reason for feeling shame by denying who they really are.

Early Predictions: Russell's Chronology

What did Jehovah's Witnesses believe about chronology in the early days?

The earliest Bible Student publications stressed the urgency of the times, stating that in 1874 Christ returned and by 1914 he would have destroyed all the kingdoms of the world. The 1877 book written by N. H. Barbour and financed by C. T. Russell, Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World, contained the basis for Russell's later chronology and many of his doctrines. Note these excerpts:

THE END OF THIS WORLD; that is, the end of the gospel and the beginning of the millennial age is nearer than most men suppose; indeed we have already entered the transition period, which is to be a "time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation" (Dan. 12:1).... [p. 17].

In the world to come, the first, or millennial age, is to be a 1000 years; and is introduced by the "time of trouble," so often referred to in Scripture. There is very conclusive evidence that this time of trouble is to continue 40 years; and has already commenced; and that "men's hearts are [beginning already] to fail them with fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth". [p. 18]

The organizing of capital against labor, the rising of the people in self defense, the overthrow of law and order, the casting down of the "thrones" and governments, and "a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation;" are all clearly foretold in Scripture as events to precede the millennial age of glory. And the signs of great events at hand are so apparent that all are impressed with the dark shadow of coming trouble.

The nations are perplexed, and are preparing for a terrible struggle; huge engines of war are being multiplied by land and sea; millions of men are under arms, and still their numbers are increased, while the people are becoming desperate and alarmed.

When the struggle begins, as soon it must, a ball will be set in motion before which "all the kingdoms of the world, that are upon the face of the earth, shall be thrown down;" and, according to Scripture, one wild scene of desolation and terror will result....

That the millennium is to be ushered in, or preceded, by the most terrible and desolating wars this world has ever witnessed, is so clearly revealed, as to leave no room for the believer in the Bible to call it in question. Many texts might be offered in proof, but a few will suffice: "For they are spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14). [p. 19]

At the present time the kingdoms of this world belong to the Gentiles by a God-given right, and they do not become "the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ," until the "times of the Gentiles are fulfilled;" nor does war and oppression cease till then, for Christ says, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). [p. 20]

The kingdom of God is to be set up before the days of the Gentiles end, for "in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom; and it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms" (Dan. 2:44). And this breaking in pieces, together with the battle of the great day, are some of the events of this forty years of trouble [beginning in 1874]. [p. 26]

Although there is no direct evidence that at the end of six thousand years from the creation of Adam, the "second" Adam should begin the new creation, or restitution of all things; still there is much indirect evidence....

The mass of evidence which synchronizes with the fact that the six thousand years are already ended [in 1873], is absolutely startling, to one who will take the trouble to investigate. [p. 67, 76]

Note how similar this language is to what the Society uses today to describe "the time of the end" and present-day conditions. Also note how similar the reasoning about the end of 6000 years and Adam is to what the Society published beginning in 1966, with respect to 1975. It is easy to see, in the following material, how the opinions expressed in Three Worlds were carried over into Zion's Watch Tower, which C. T. Russell began publishing in 1879.

The very first issue of Zion's Watch Tower, July, 1879, stated on page 1 the object of its publication:

That we are living "in the last days" -- "the days of the Lord" -- "the end" of the Gospel age, and consequently, in the dawn of the "new" age, are facts not only discernible by the close student of the Word, led by the spirit, but the outward signs recognizable by the world bear the same testimony.

The August, 1879 Watch Tower, on pages 2-3 described its view of Christ's "presence" (parousia):

We believe the Scriptures to teach that, at His coming and for a time after He has come, He will remain invisible; afterward manifesting or showing Himself in judgments and various forms, so that "every eye shall see Him.".... We think we have good solid reasons.... that we are now "in the days of the Son;" that "the day of the Lord" has come, and Jesus, a spiritual body, is present, harvesting the Gospel age.

When did Christ's "presence" begin? The October, 1879 Watch Tower stated on page 4:

Christ came in the character of a Bridegroom in 1874.... at the beginning of the Gospel harvest.

The April, 1880 Watch Tower said on page 2, with respect to the parable of the ten virgins of Matthew 25:

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock....".... The presence and knock began in the fall of 1874.

The August, 1880 Watch Tower said on page 2 concerning Christ's "presence":

It was 1841 1/2 years from the commencement of our Gospel age at Pentecost (A.D., 33,) to the commencement of our "harvest" in the autumn of 1874, when our "sure word of prophecy" announces him as again present, but now on the higher plane, a spiritual body unseen, reaping, or harvesting the spiritual house.

This issue, apparently speaking of Russell's break with J. H. Paton, then described on page 3 what happens to those who disagreed with Russell's version of the "light" about Christ's "presence":

These who once rejoiced in the light of "the sure word of prophecy" which shows us the presence of our Lord as the "Bridegroom," "Reaper" and "King," that proves to us that the "times of restitution of all things began in 1874," and that consequently "the heavens" which were to receive Him until that time, now no longer receive Him, but that he is present, and that soon when the separation of wheat and tares is complete, "we shall be changed to His glorious likeness and see Him as He is." All, all this light they have lost, and have now reached the condition of outer-darkness, the condition of darkness on the subject of the Lord's presence that the world and a worldly church have always occupied.

The July, 1880 Watch Tower described on pages 1 and 3 some of what was to happen during the "time of trouble," and when that was to be:

Most of our readers are perhaps aware that our understanding of the word leads us to the conclusion that "The time of trouble" or "Day of wrath," covering the forty years from 1874 to 1914 is in two parts or of two kinds: first a time of trouble upon the church during which she (the nominal church) will fall from her present position of influence and respect with the world, and many will fall from truth and from faith. This trouble upon the church and also the fact that we shall be in it but protected and safe is shown by the xci. Psalm.... The trouble coming upon the world will follow the trouble on the church as a natural consequence and is the second part of the trouble of the "Day of wrath." Will the saints be here during its continuance upon the world? No, we remember Jesus said: "Watch ye that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all those things coming upon the world and to stand before the Son of Man." A glorious anticipation is this, that we are to be gathered together unto our living Head -- Christ, and to enter into His kingdom before the pouring out of the vials of wrath upon the world....

We conclude that the day of wrath is included in the Gospel harvest, and, therfore, that the age and harvest extend to 1914, covering a space of forty years from the Spring of 1875....

Rewriting History

The Society says that no other organization successfully predicted 1914 as a pivotal year in Biblical prophecy and in human history. From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained said on page 170:

In the "Watchtower" magazine of March, 1880, they said: "The Times of the Gentiles extend to 1914, and the heavenly kingdom will not have full sway till then." Of all people, only the witnesses pointed to 1914 as the year for God's kingdom to be fully set up in heaven.

However, this is an incomplete quotation, as the following complete one shows. The March, 1880 Watch Tower, on page 2, said:

"The Times of the gentiles" extend to 1914, and the heavenly kingdom will not have full sway till then, but as a "Stone" the kingdom of God is set up "in the days of these (ten gentile) kings," and by consuming them it becomes a universal kingdom -- a "great mountain and fills the whole Earth."

Clearly the rest of the quotation proves that Russell did not predict that the Kingdom of God would be set up in heaven, in 1914, but would be set up on the earth, by 1914, and that by 1914 everything would be pretty much wrapped up. Material cited below shows that Russell could not possibly have believed God's Kingdom would be set up in heaven in 1914, because he believed it had already been set up in heaven in 1878. This is further shown by the statement in The Time Is At Hand, 1889, page 77, concerning 1914:

.... at that date the Kingdom of God, for which our Lord taught us to pray, saying, "Thy Kingdom come," will have obtained full, universal control, and that it will then be "set up," or firmly established, in the earth.

Further showing this was Russell's view, the July, 1880 Watch Tower, on page 4, was quite adamant that by 1914 the "day of wrath" would be finished:

Will any whose lamps are burning brightly with the light of the truth on the Times of the Gentiles, and the time of trouble or day of vengeance with which those times end, take the ground that the day of wrath extends beyond 1914? They must do all this, and thus ignore the parallelism between the two days of wrath, or admit that Christ receives His crown before the subjugation of the nations in this day of wrath.

The August, 1880 Watch Tower, on page 2, also said that pretty much everything would be wrapped up by 1914. There would be a period of 33 years of trouble -- making with the preceding 7 years the 40 years of trouble or "Day of wrath" ending with the times of the Gentiles in 1914, when the kingdom of God [soon to be set up or exalted to power] will have broken in pieces and consumed all earthly kingdoms.

The issue also stressed the urgency of the times, saying that the churches were very soon to be destroyed, on page 3, in an article entitled "It Hasteth Greatly":

In the October number (1879) of the WATCH TOWER in the article headed "The Day of the Lord" -- and in the November number in the article headed "Babylon is Fallen," we gave expression to our view of the "time of trouble" and endeavored to prove scripturally that it began with the church and would first result in the complete overthrow of the nominal church, Protestant and Catholic, by infidelity and spiritualism, and afterward, it would reach and overthrow national governments. Many were inclined to make light of our statements, etc., and expressed themselves as believing that the trouble upon the nations was the only thing to be looked for by us. Our views then expressed are confirmed in us daily, and we are more than ever convinced of their truth.... We clip the following extracts to show our readers that the storm has already begun, and that others are noticing the fulfillment who never noticed the prophecies: --

Then it listed various quotations to the effect that the churches were already experiencing severe breakdowns.

The November, 1880 Watch Tower said on page 1 that there was "conclusive proof" about Russell's view of Christs' presence. Discussing parts of Revelation it said:

We need not here repeat the evidences that the "seventh trump" began its sounding A.D., 1840, and will continue until the end of the time of trouble, and the end of "The times of the Gentiles," A.D., 1914, and that it is the trouble of this "Great day," which is here symbolically called the voice of the Archangel when he begins the deliverance of fleshly Israel. "At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince [Archangel] which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation." Dan. xii. 1. Nor will we here, again present the conclusive Bible proof that our Lord came for his Bride in 1874, and has an unseen work as Reaper of the first-fruits of this Gospel Age.

The May, 1881 Watch Tower, on page 5, discussed the current beliefs about what might happen in the fall of 1881, and summarized the beliefs about time prophecies:

We believe that all time prophecies (bearing upon Jesus' coming) ended at and before the fall of 1874, and that He came there, and the second advent is now in progress and will continue during the entire Millennial age. We believe that his presence will be revealed to the eyes of men's understandings gradually during this "Day of the Lord," (forty years -- from 1874 to 1914,) as it now is to ours; except that we, discern it through the word of prophecy revealed by the Spirit, and they will recognize his presence by His judgment upon Nominal Zion, and the World.

The January, 1886 Watch Tower stressed the urgency of the times:

The outlook at the opening of the New Year has some very encouraging features. The outward evidences are that the marshalling of the hosts for the battle of the great day of God Almighty, is in progress while the skirmishing is commencing....

The time is come for Messiah to take the dominion of earth and to overthrow the oppressors and corrupters of the earth, (Rev. 19:15 and 11:17,18) preparatory to the establishment of everlasting peace upon the only firm foundation of righteousness and truth.

Most Jehovah's Witnesses understand that the calculations leading to 1914 as the end of "The Gentile Times," and as the year when Christ invisibly established his kingdom in the heavens are unique to the Watchtower Society. On its inside cover, the 1959 book Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose contains these statements:

1870 Charles Taze Russell begins his study of the Bible with a small group of associates.

1877 The book "Three Worlds" is published identifying the date 1914 as the end of "Gentile Times."

The impression given here, as well as in most other Watchtower publications, is that the book Three Worlds (which was written by N. H. Barbour and which Russell only financed) was the first publication to contain this teaching about 1914.

But this is not true at all. In 1823 John Aquila Brown published an explanation virtually identical to the one ultimately adopted by the Society, except that the 2520 years ran from 604 B.C. to 1917 A.D. He foretold that then "the full glory of the kingdom of Israel shall be perfected," but he did not apply the "Gentile Times" to the 2520 years. He also taught that the 2300 days of Daniel 12 would end in 1844. A form of this teaching was taken up by William Miller and his followers, who predicted the end of the world in 1843-1844, and who started the Second Advent movement.

After the failure of the expectations for 1844, Miller's movement split into several sects, one of which eventually formed around N. H. Barbour. Barbour redid Brown's calculations and came up with a period from 606 B.C. to 1914 A.D. (actually this was a miscalculation since this period is only 2519 years. The Society used this calculation until 1943, when 606 was changed to 607 in The Truth Shall Make You Free, pages 238-239, using an incorrect and disingenuous explanation.) Barbour first published the 1914 date in his magazine Herald of the Morning in September, 1875.

In the July 15, 1906 Watch Tower C. T. Russell told how in 1876 Barbour and others convinced him of their 1914 teachings. Russell became assistant editor of Herald of the Morning by July, 1878. This magazine, and later, Russell's Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, also published the year 1873 as the end of 6000 years of human history and 1874 as the start of Christ's invisible presence. Among Adventist related groups, the invisible presence doctrine actually started as a result of the failure of Barbour's and other's prediction of 1874 for Christ's return, as shown below. The doctrine allowed them to say, like William Miller before, that they had expected the "wrong thing at the right time." This explanation was later adopted by the Society to explain the failure of its 1914 predictions.

The Society would like its adherents to believe that C. T. Russell and some others had believed since about 1870 that Christ would return invisibly. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, basing its statements on the above July 15, 1906 Watch Tower article (which was reproduced in the June 1, 1916 issue) said on pages 14-15:

MARIA: Isn't it true, though, that, while most of those looking for the second presence of Christ expected a physical return, there were some who believed that Christ would not be visible at this second presence?

JOHN: Yes. For example, there were George Storrs of Brooklyn, who published a magazine called "The Bible Examiner" and who looked to the date 1870; H. B. Rice, who published The Last Trump, also looked to 1870, and a third group, this time of disappointed Second Adventists, looking to 1873 or 1874. This group was headed by N. H. Barbour of Rochester, New York, publisher of The Herald of the Morning....

Beyond this point in the narrative, nothing is said bearing on Christ's invisible second presence until the following account of the formation of Russell's beliefs:

Thus passed the years 1868-1872. The years following, to 1876, were years of continued growth in grace and in knowledge on the part of the handful of Bible students with whom I met in Allegheny. We progressed from our first crude and indefinite ideas of Restitution to clearer understanding of the details; but God's due time for clear light had not yet come.

It was during this time, the account shows, that these Bible students came to recognize the difference between the Lord as "the man who gave himself" and the Lord who would come again as a spirit creature. They learned that spirit creatures can be present and yet invisible to men. As a result of this advanced understanding --

We felt greatly grieved at the error of Second Adventists, who were expecting Christ in the flesh and were teaching that the world and all in it except Second Adventists would be burned up in 1873 or 1874, and whose time settings and disappointments and crude ideas generally of the object and manner of our Lord's Coming brought more or less reproach upon us and upon all who longed for and proclaimed His coming Kingdom.

These wrong views so generally held of both the object and manner of Christ's Second Advent, led me to write a pamphlet: "The Object and Manner of the Lord's Return," of which some 50,000 copies were published.

Note that these quotations do not state precisely when between 1872 and 1876 Russell arrived at his understanding of Christ's invisible presence. The evidence is good, but inconclusive, that this new understanding did not take place until after the failure of the predictions of the Second Adventists in 1874, of which Russell was very much aware.

To show this, we first note that the October/November, 1881 Watch Tower, on page 3, described how, using the parable of the ten virgins, N. H. Barbour had discerned that Christ was due to return visibly as the "Bridegroom" in 1874, and it described the result when that did not occur:

A brother, Barbour of Rochester, was we believe, the chosen vessel of God through whom the "Midnight Cry" issued to the sleeping virgins of Christ,... proving that the night of the parable was thirty years long, and that the morning was in 1873, and the Bridegroom due in that morning in 1874.... Brother Barbour first began to preach the message, and soon started a paper, which he appropriately called "The Midnight Cry."....

When 1874 came and there was no outward sign of Jesus in the literal clouds and in a fleshly form, there was a general re-examination of all the arguments upon which the "Midnight Cry" was made. And when no fault or flaw could be found it led to the critical examination of the Scriptures which seem to bear on the manner of Christ's coming, and it was soon discovered that the expectation of Jesus in the flesh at the second advent was the mistake.... Soon, too, under critical examination Matt. 24:37 and Luke 17:26, 30 were seen to teach positively that "in the presence" of Christ, "in his days," the world would be ignorant of the fact, and be attending to their affairs as usual....

It was evident, then, that though the manner in which they had expected Jesus was in error, yet the time, as indicated by the "Midnight Cry," was correct, and that the Bridegroom came in the Autumn of 1874, and he appeared to the eyes of faith -- seen by the light of the lamp -- the Word.

So it is clearly evident that the group headed by N. H. Barbour did not expect Christ to come invisibly in 1874, but in the flesh.

Next we attempt to find when Russell began to believe that Christ's return was to be invisible. Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, on page 18, gives the impression that this had occurred sometime before the failure of Barbour's 1874 expectations:

You will recall Russell's study group had come to realize that when Christ returned it would not be in the flesh, as commonly believed and taught by the Second Adventists. Pastor Russell had learned that when Jesus should come he would be as invisible as though an angel had come.

Note that this does not say precisely when Russell came to believe that Christ's return would be invisible. This is because there are no documents available to show it. The Society says Object and Manner was published in 1873, but there is a real question about the true date. No Zion's Watch Tower gives the date. No copies exist that bear a publishing date prior to 1877 when an edition was published by The Herald of the Morning, edited by N. H. Barbour. Furthermore, according to P. S. L. Johnson, who was the leader of a group that broke away in 1918, Russell himself stated that he came to accept the doctrine of Christ's invisible presence in October, 1874. It was about October, 1874 that Barbour's and other groups were expecting Christ's return, and Russell was definitely aware of some of these, having been closely associated with various Second Adventist groups such as those of George Storrs and Jonas Wendell. He was also aware that those expectations had failed.

An additional piece of evidence is seen in a statement contained in Object and Manner itself, which strongly indicates it was not written until after Russell and Barbour got together in 1876, at which time Russell accepted essentially all of Barbour's chronology. On page 62 it said:

But it is not my object in this pamphlet to call your attention more fully to the time of the second advent than I have above, in answering some of the chief objections to the investigation of it. (Those interested in knowing the evidences as to the time, I would refer to Dr. N. H. Barbour, editor of the "Herald of the Morning," Rochester, N. Y.) I simply add that I am deeply impressed, and think, not without good scriptural evidence, that the Master is come and is now inspecting the guests to the marriage. (Matt. 22:11) That the harvest is progressing, the separation (mental) between wheat and tares now going on, and that the two in the field, mill and bed may be bodily separated at any moment, the wise virgins go into the marriage, and the door to the high calling be forever shut.

Since this 1877 edition of Object and Manner is labelled neither a revision nor a reprint, and was published by the "Office of Herald of the Morning," Rochester, N. Y., it seems likely that Russell had not published any earlier versions of it. Another evidence that Object and Manner was first printed well after 1873 is that in it, Russell referred to Barbour's Herald of the Morning. Herald of the Morning did not begin publication until June, 1875, and its predecessor, The Midnight Cry and Herald of the Morning ceased publication in October, 1874. But the most telling evidence that Russell published it no earlier than October, 1874 is that he said that "the Master is come and.... the harvest is progressing," which could not have been said until after the harvest began, "in October, 1874." Had Object and Manner been published in 1873, Russell would have said "the Master is about to come and.... the harvest is about to begin."

Actually, there were many in both Great Britain and America who believed in doctrines such as what is called "the two-stage coming doctrine," the idea of Christ's invisible presence prior to his revelation at the end of the present world, and the teaching of an invisible rapture of the saints during his presence or parousia -- all ideas presented in The Object and Manner. In point of fact, these concepts were originated in 1828 by Henry Drummond, a British Evangelical who, with Edward Irving, was a co-founder of the Catholic Apostolic church or the Irvingites. Later, many of Drummond's ideas were popularized and spread throughout Great Britain and the United States by John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren, and by a number of other preachers. The various groups espousing these ideas came to be known as Dispensationalists. Quite a few famous names in American religion are associated with them: J. B. Rotherham, a Bible translator; the well known Bible commentator W. E. Vine; and the commentator C. I. Scofield of Scofield Reference Bible fame. Their dispensationalist views are clearly evident in their works. See The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism 1800 -- 1930 by Ernest R. Sandeen, University of Chicago Press, 1970.

JWDP continues on page 18:

Then, in 1876, while Pastor Russell was in Philadelphia on a business trip, he happened to come into possession of a copy of the magazine The Herald of the Morning, which, you will recall, was being published by N. H. Barbour of Rochester, N. Y. He was surprised and pleased to note that here was another group that expected Christ's return invisibly and, because of the similarity of their views, he read more of this publication, even though he recognized it as an Adventist paper and even though, up to this time, he had had little regard for their doctrines. But Russell was interested in learning from any quarter, whatever God had to teach. He became interested in the chronology set forth in the magazine and immediately got in touch with Barbour to arrange a meeting at Russell's expense in order to discuss this matter further.

It seems that one of Barbour's group had come into possession of Benjamin Wilson's Diaglott translation of the "New Testament." He noticed, at Matthew 24:27, 37, 39, that the word rendered coming in the King James Version is translated presence in the Diaglott. This was the clue that had led Barbour's group to advocate, in addition to their time calculations, an invisible presence of Christ.

Note how the reader is not told that this 'revelation' did not occur until after the failure of Barbour's original prediction. In fact, no where is the reader told that Barbour's prediction had failed.

Russell had been interested first in the purpose of Christ's return. His realization that it would be invisible led him now seriously to consider the time features. He was satisfied with the evidence Barbour presented.

Compare the above description with Russell's own account of how Barbour's group decided that Christ's return had been invisible, as shown above in the October/November, 1881 Watch Tower. Note also the description in the June 1, 1916 Watch Tower, pp. 170-1, which JWDP just quoted from. The same information appeared in Zion's Watch Tower, July 15, 1906, pp. 229-31:

Anxious to learn, from any quarter, whatever God had to teach, I at once wrote to Mr. Barbour, informing him of my harmony on other points and desiring to know particularly why, and upon what Scriptural evidences, he held that Christ's presence and the harvesting of the Gospel age dated from the Autumn of 1874. The answer showed that my surmise had been correct, viz.: that the time arguments, chronology, etc., were the same as used by Second Adventists in 1873, and explained how Mr. Barbour and Mr. J. H. Paton, of Michigan, a co-worker with him, had been regular Second Adventists up to that time; and that when the date 1874 had passed without the world being burned, and without their seeing Christ in the flesh, they were for a time dumb-founded. They had examined the time-prophecies that had seemingly passed unfulfilled, and had been unable to find any flaw, and had begun to wonder whether the time was right and their expectations wrong, -- whether the views of restitution and blessing to the world, which myself and others were teaching, might not be the things to look for. It seems that not long after their 1874 disappointment, a reader of the Herald of the Morning, who had a copy of the Diaglott, noticed something in it which he thought peculiar....

After this the account given in Jehovah's Witnesses and the Divine Purpose begins to correspond to Russell's again.

The are certain peculiarities with Russell's description of events. He does not describe how he first came upon the idea of Jesus' return as being a "presence" rather than a "coming." Rather, he describes how one of Barbour's associates had found an appropriate passage from Matthew in the Emphatic Diaglott.

So, taking note of all the available information, it is not clear whether Russell advocated the idea of Christ's invisible presence before or after the failure of the Second Adventist's prediction for October, 1874. It is very clear, however, that Russell later believed Christ's presence began in 1874, and he therefore did not expect Christ to return invisibly in 1914. On the the contrary, he expected Christ to manifest himself to the world in 1914, as the following material shows.

The Society kept the 1874 date for the beginning of Christ's presence at least up through 1929, when the last official mention of it seems to have been made in the book Prophecy, on page 65. By 1930 the Society seemed uncertain about the time from 1874 onward, saying in Light I, pages 333-4:

From about 1875 until the coming of the Lord to God's temple [in 1918] was a period of time in which Christ the messenger was preparing the way before Jehovah for the building up of Zion. Then he, the great Judge, came suddenly or straightway to his temple for judgement.

Sometime between 1931 and 1943, without a word of explanation (it is not clear from Watchtower publications just what the official teaching was), the Society began teaching that Christ's presence began in 1914. The Society taught that Christ officially began his Kingdom rule in 1878 until the Cedar Point, Ohio convention in 1922. At that time the date was changed to 1914. The Society also taught until 1929 that the "last days" began in 1799. Before 1914 it taught that the resurrection of anointed Christians occurred in 1881, that the great "harvest" work would run from 1874 to 1914, and that by 1914 the destruction of all human institutions would take place. It taught that the fall of "Babylon the Great" occurred in 1878, with its complete destruction due in 1914 or 1918.

What was responsible for the change in all these major prophetic teachings? The same as in the case of William Miller and the dozens of other prophetic speculators like him -- the failure of their published expectations to be realized.

Are these statements mere assertions? Let us look further into the Society's older publications and see what they say.

Part 2: Statements Concerning 1799, 1874 and 1914

Overview:

Statements Concerning 1799

The book The Time Is At Hand, 1916 edition, page ii, (forward), said:

The Bible chronology therin presented show that the six great 1000 year days beginning with Adam are ended, and that the great 7th Day, the 1000 years of Christ's Reign, began in 1873.

The book The Day of Vengeance (The Battle of Armageddon), 1897, page 621 said:

Our Lord, the appointed King, is now present, since October 1874.

The 1921 book The Harp of God said on page 236:

"The time of the end" embraces a period from 1799 A.D., as above indicated, to the time of the complete overthrow of Satan's empire and the establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah. The time of the Lord's second presence dates from 1874, as above stated. The latter period is within the first named, of course, and in the latter part of the period known as "the time of the end."

After describing the development of Bible Societies, the increase of colleges and all kinds of inventions, the Harp of God, on page 239, says of them:

This is without question a fulfilment of the prophecy testifying to the "time of the end." These physical facts can not be disputed and are sufficient to convince any reasonable mind that we have been in the "time of the end" since 1799.

Note that anything that is "without question" is logically infallible. The word "infallible" is not used, but to all intents and purposes the claim is made. And if any doubt or are not convinced, well, they simply do not have a "reasonable mind."

In a similar fashion the March 1, 1922 Watch Tower said:

The indisputable facts, therefore, show that the "time of the end" began in 1799; that the Lord's second presence began in 1874.

The book Creation, 1927, pages 294, 295, 298 said:

Twelve hundred and sixty years from 539 A.D. brings us to 1799, which is another proof that 1799 definitely marks the beginning of "the time of the end." From shortly after 1799, the date of the beginning of "the time of the end," we should expect to find an increase of knowledge, particularly with reference to the Bible.

There are two important dates here that we must not confuse, but clearly differentiate; namely, the beginning of "the time of the end" and the beginning of the presence of the Lord. "The time of the end" embraces a period from 1799 A.D. to the time of the complete overthrow of Satan's empire and the establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah. The time of the Lord's second presence dates from 1874 and is during the latter part of the period known as "the time of the end."

The book Prophecy, 1929, pages 65-66, said:

.... the second presence of the Lord Jesus Christ began in 1874 A.D. This proof is specifically set out in the booklet entitled Our Lord's Return.

Russell and 1914

Despite what many of Jehovah's Witnesses believe today, C. T. Russell did not believe that 1914 marked the establishment of the Kingdom of God in heaven, because that had already happened in 1878. Neither did he believe that 1914 would be followed by another generation of conflict without any intervention by God. He did expect that in 1914 the saints would be glorified and they would be carried off to heaven to rule with Jesus. At the same time God would cause the break-up of all earthly kingdoms and would substitute theocratic rule during the rest of the Millennium. Russell believed that God would restore mankind to perfection -- he would not destroy them in the Battle of Armageddon, because that had already started in 1874 (see below). These beliefs are evident in what Russell wrote in the first volume of the Millennial Dawn series (Studies in the Scriptures), The Divine Plan of the Ages, first published in 1886. On pages 91 and 95 of the 1903 edition Russell wrote:

.... but when God's Word and plan are viewed as a whole, these will all be found to favour the view.... that Christ comes before the conversion of the world, and reigns for the purpose of converting the world.... They believe that God will do no more than choose this Church, while we find the Scriptures teaching a further step in the divine plan -- a restitution for the world, to be accomplished through the elect Church.

On page 307 Russell described the events that were supposed to lead up to the end of the "Times of the Gentiles" in 1914:

The "Day of Jehovah" is the name of that period of time in which God's kingdom, under Christ, is to be gradually "set up" in the earth while the kingdoms of this world are passing away and Satan's power and influence over men are being bound. It is everywhere described as a dark day of intense trouble and distress and perplexity upon mankind. And what wonder that a revolution of such proportions, and necessitating such great changes, should cause trouble. Small revolutions have caused trouble in every age; and this, so much greater than any previous revolution, is to be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation -- no, nor ever shall be....

It is called the "Day of Jehovah" because, though Christ, with royal title and power, will be present as Jehovah's representative, taking charge of all the affairs during this day of trouble, it is more as the General of Jehovah, subduing all things, than as the Prince of Peace, blessing all....

The phrase "Christ... will be present" is extremely significant, since Russell had been publishing for many years that Christ's "second presence" began in 1874. So the "Day of Jehovah" started in 1874. In The Divine Plan of the Ages this time period is also called the "Day of Vengeance of our God," (p. 308) the "Day of Wrath" (p. 308), the "Day of the Lord" (p. 324, 334, 336, 337), and the "Day of Trouble" (p. 336).

The Divine Plan of the Ages left the discussion of specific dates to the next volume in the series, first published in 1889, The Time Is At Hand, concerning which it said, on pages 336-7:

Another thought with reference to this Day of Trouble is that it has come just in due time -- God's due time. In the next volume of this work, evidence is adduced from the testimony of the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament, as well as from Jesus and the apostolic prophets of the New Testament, which shows clearly and unmistakably that this Day of Trouble is located chronologically in the beginning of the glorious Millennial reign of Messiah.... The trouble of the Day of the Lord, which we already see gathering, confirms the wisdom of God's arrangement.

In the foreword to the 1916 edition of The Time Is At Hand Russell admitted that his predictions had not come to pass (p. x):

The author acknowledges that in this book he presents the thought that the Lord's saints might expect to be with Him in glory at the ending of the Gentile Times. This was a natural mistake to fall into, but the Lord overruled it for the blessing of His people. The thought that the Church would all be gathered to glory before October, 1914, certainly did have a very stimulating and sanctifying effect upon thousands, all of whom accordingly can praise the Lord -- even for the mistake.

Russell believed that he and his followers were God's special servants, referring to them as "saints." He said of them, on page 338:

An important question arises regarding the duty of the saints during this trouble, and their proper attitude toward the two opposing classes now coming into prominence. That some of the saints will still be in the flesh during at least a part of this burning time seems possible....

Note also what Russell said in The Time Is At Hand, pages 40, 100:

If, then, the seventh thousand-year period of earth's history be an epoch specially noted as the period of Christ's reign, we shall, by showing that it began in A.D. 1873, be proving that we are already in it. This calls to mind what we have already noted in the preceding volume, that the Scriptures indicated that the dawn of the Millennium, or Day of the Lord, will be dark and stormy, and full of trouble upon the world and upon the nominal church....

So, in this "Day of Jehovah," the "Day of Trouble," our Lord takes his great power (hitherto dormant) and reigns, and this it is that will cause the trouble, though the world will not so recognize it for some time....

See the quotation from page 101 below for a statement that the setting up of the Kingdom of God had already begun exercising power in 1878, and that (this was written in 1889) "we are in the very midst of" the events of the "Day of the Lord."

More Revisionism

The Time Is At Hand, (originally published in 1889), said concerning the Times of the Gentiles, on pages 76-77 (early 1912 Edition):

God's Kingdom, the Kingdom of Jehovah's Anointed... will be established gradually, during a great time of trouble with which the Gospel age will close, and in the midst of which present dominions shall be utterly consumed, passing away amid great confusion.

In this chapter we present the Bible evidence proving that the full end of the times of the Gentiles, i.e., the full end of their lease of dominion, will be reached in A.D. 1914; and that that date will be the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men. And be it observed, that if this is shown to be a fact firmly established by the Scriptures, it will prove: --

Firstly, That at that date the Kingdom of God, for which our Lord taught us to pray, saying, "Thy Kingdom come," will have obtained full, universal control, and that it will then be "set up," or firmly established, in the earth, on the ruins of present institutions.

Secondly, It will prove that he whose right it is thus to take the dominion will then be present as earth's new Ruler; and not only so, but it will also prove that he will be present for a considerable period before that date; because the overthrow of these Gentile governments is directly caused by his dashing them to pieces as a potter's vessel (Psa. 2:9; Rev. 2:27), and establishing in their stead his own righteous government.

Thirdly, It will prove that some time before the end of A.D. 1914 the last member of the divinely recognized Church of Christ, the "royal priesthood," "the body of Christ," will be glorified with the Head; because every member is to reign with Christ, being a joint-heir with him of the Kingdom, and it cannot be fully "set up" without every member.

Fourthly, It will prove that from that time forward Jerusalem shall no longer be trodden down of the Gentiles, but shall arise from the dust of divine disfavor, to honor; because the "Times of the Gentiles" will be fulfilled or completed.

Fifthly, It will prove that by that date, or sooner, Israel's blindness will begin to be turned away; because their "blindness in part" was to continue only "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom. 11:25), or, in other words, until the full number from among the Gentiles, who are to be members of the body or bride of Christ, would be fully selected.

Sixthly, It will prove that the great "time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation," will reach its culmination in a world-wide reign of anarchy; and then men will learn to be still, and to know that Jehovah is God and that he will be exalted in the earth.

Seventhly, It will prove that before that date God's Kingdom, organized in power, will be in the earth and then smite and crush the Gentile image (Dan. 2:34) -- and fully consume the power of these kings. Its own power and dominion will be established as fast as by its varied influences and agencies it crushes and scatters the "powers that be" -- civil and ecclesiastical -- iron and clay.

Note that the above is from a pre-1912 edition. Late 1912 and subsequent editions edited some of the statements thus:

In this chapter we present the Bible evidence proving that the full end of the times of the Gentiles, i.e., the full end of their lease of dominion, will be reached in A.D. 1914; and that that date will will see the disintegration of the rule of imperfect men.

Firstly, That at that date the Kingdom of God, for which our Lord taught us to pray, saying, "Thy Kingdom come," will begin to assume control, and that it will then shortly be "set up," or firmly established....

Thirdly, It will prove that some time before the end of the overthrow the last member of the divinely recognized Church of Christ....

On pages 98-99 The Time Is At Hand said:

True, it is expecting great things to claim, as we do, that within the coming twenty-six years all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved; but we are living in a special and peculiar time, the "Day of Jehovah," in which matters culminate quickly; and it is written, "A short work will the Lord make upon the earth....

In view of this strong Bible evidence concerning the Times of the Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God, will be accomplished by the end of A.D. 1914.

The post-1912 editions edited the second paragraph to read:

In view of this strong Bible evidence concerning the Times of the Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God, will be accomplished near the end of A.D. 1915.

The Society tends to minimize the certainty with which Russell published statements like these, but his express statement that "we consider it an established truth" clearly shows his intent. On page 101 the 1908 edition of The Time Is At Hand said:

Be not surprised, then, when in subsequent chapters we present proofs that the setting up of the Kingdom of God is already begun, that it is pointed out in prophecy as due to begin the exercise of power in A.D. 1878, and that the "battle of the great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914 [Later editions of The Time Is At Hand changed this3 to 1915] with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already commenced. The gathering of the armies is plainly visible from the standpoint of God's Word.

If our vision be unobstructed by prejudice, when we get the telescope of God's Word rightly adjusted we may see with clearness the character of many of the events due to take place in the "Day of the Lord" -- that we are in the very midst of those events, and that "the Great Day of His Wrath is come."

The Society also tends to minimize the force with which Russell predicted the events for 1914. Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose said on page 52, under the sub-title "Sound Warning Against Speculation":

TOM: You stated earlier that Pastor Russell was not too certain as to exactly what would take place in 1914. Was that the general attitude of the Witnesses at that time?

JOHN: There is no doubt that many throughout this period were overzealous in their statements as to what could be expected. Some read into the Watch Tower statements that were never intended, and while it was necessary for Russell to call attention to the certainty that a great change was due at the end of the Gentile times, he still encouraged his readers to keep an open mind, especially as regards the time element. We might read a number of different excerpts from the Watch Tower over the years to demonstrate this. For instance, as early as 1885 Russell writes in the Watch Tower:

Storm clouds are gathering thick over the old world. It looks as though a great European war is one of the possibilities of the near future.

Apparently the author means that using the word "possibilities" is a warning against speculation.

Then follows a rather drastic picture of the world situation....

The material JWDP next quotes speaks of great changes, but contains no warnings against speculation. However, the picture JWDP paints is somewhat different from what the quoted Watch Tower actually does:

Overproduction has for the moment clogged the wheels of trade the world over, and a halt is called by producers from fear of loss. The result is first felt by the wageworkers, so many of whom live "from hand to mouth." Unrest is now more quickly developed than formerly in this class because of a wider range of knowledge. Large gatherings of men have assembled in London and Paris lately demanding that some public improvements be prosecuted to afford them work....

Thus one thing leads to another and somewhat so only worse and worse it will be throughout the "time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation" until these present governments with their prince... falsely called "Kingdoms of God" shall fall before the true kindgom, and the dominion under the whole heavens shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high God.

The picture painted is that war is a very strong possibility, in the very near future, not some thirty years later, and that the time the article was written, 1885, was right in the middle of the "time of trouble." Remember that The Divine Plan of the Ages had said that the "time of trouble" had begun with the beginning of Christ's millennial reign (p. 336) in 1874. Russell began changing his view on the nearness of war during the early 1890s.

Next, JWDP says:

In 1893 the Watch Tower stated:

A great storm is near at hand. Though one may not know exactly when it will break forth, it seems reasonable to suppose that it cannot be more than twelve or fourteen years yet future.

The idea seems to be that the statement "one may not know exactly when it will break forth" is cautionary. This is from page 194 of the July 1-15, 1893 Zion's Watch Tower, but the Watch Tower Reprints did not reproduce the page. However, the original Watch Tower contained the above quotation under the subtitle "Harvest Work Before the Storm," and this article talked about the time from 1874 through 1914, when Russell claimed that a forty year harvest work was to be done. Sometime well before 1914, i.e., by 1905 to 1907 according to the above quotation, "a great storm" was to break that would culminate in the final overthrow of all human institutions by 1914. So rather than warning against speculation, this quotation was fanning the fires. This is seen even more clearly in another statement on the same page:

Some may be inclined to think that the harvest work is largely done; but probably the larger portion of this work is to be done in the coming six or eight years.

No Chance of Error

The September 1 and 15, 1893 Watch Tower is quite revealing as to Russell's view of what would happen before 1914, and that he did not think his views were speculation of any sort. On pages 282-284 it said (p. 1581 of Reprints):

The question comes from many quarters: "Brother Russell, are you not possibly mistaken by a few years in your calculations, since you expect, upon Scriptural authority, that the great trouble will all be over by A.D. 1914, and that in its severity it will probably not reach us before A.D. 1906 to 1908? Is it not possible that the present financial trouble is the beginning of the great trouble?"

We answer, No; we think there is no mistake.

The July 15, 1894 Watch Tower emphasized that the facts supported its chronology. On pages 224-8 (p. 1675 Reprints) it said:

It is interesting to look back and note the accuracy of the fulfillment of God's Word, so that our hearts may be established with the greater confidence respecting the future -- the things coming upon the earth. For instance, as we look back and note that the Scriptures marked 1873 as the end of six thousand years from Adam to the beginning of the seventh thousand, and the fall of 1874 as the beginning of the forty-year harvest of the Gospel age and day of wrath for the overthrow of all the institutions of "this present evil world [or order of affairs]," we can see that facts have well borne out those predictions of Scripture. We see that the present worldwide distress had its beginning there; that it has been progressing with increasing momentum every year since; and that, as the Apostle Paul declared it would be, so it has been, and so it is -- "As travail upon a woman with child." Each spasm of pain is more intense; and so it evidently will continue to be until the death of the present order of things and the birth of the new.

Next, JWDP quotes from the February 15, 1894 Watch Tower, but the quotation merely refers to great changes, not to avoiding speculation.

The next quotation JWDP offers, from the June 11, 1894 Watch Tower, page 162 (not reproduced in Watch Tower Reprints) does not talk of avoiding speculation. It is surprising that the quotation is reproduced, because it pretty well deflates JWDP's argument.

"As travail upon a woman with child" is the inspired description of the forty-year day of trouble, by which the Millennial age is commenced. The panic of 1873, which affected the whole world, was the first spasm, and since then at irregular intervals the labor-pains of earth have been experienced. Just now, we of the United States are in the midst of one of these throes of the groaning creation.

The Watch Tower was referring to the great depression of 1894, the greatest until the depression of the 1930s. But this again was referring to events that were to take place as part of the final death-throes of humanity, as can be seen in the next paragraph in the article, which JWDP did not quote:

In this land of bountiful crops, many, because of strikes, are almost destitute of food. In this land of liberty thousands of armed and unarmed men in half a dozen states are in a state of war. It is a war of labor against capital, and is the natural result of the competitive system of business, which evidently will hold on until spasm after spasm of increasing severity, resulting in archy [sic] will ultimately give birth to a new order of society based upon the new-old teaching of Christ.

In the light of history it is evident that Russell himself indulged in wild speculation, since nearly all his chronology has been abandoned and all of it has failed. He indulged in this speculation even while claiming to be God's mouthpiece. In the July 15, 1906 Watch Tower, on page 229, he wrote:

Many are the inquiries relative to the truths presented in MILLENNIAL DAWN and ZION'S WATCH TOWER, as to whence they came and how they developed to their present symmetrical and beautiful proportions -- Were they the results of visions? Did God in any supernatural way grant the solution of these hitherto mysteries of his plan? Are the writers more than ordinary beings? Do they claim any supernatural wisdom or power? or how comes this revelation of God's truth?

No, dear friends, I claim nothing of superiority, nor supernatural power, dignity or authority; nor do I aspire to exalt myself in the estimation of my brethren of the household of faith....

No, the truths I present, as God's mouthpiece, were not revealed in visions or dreams nor by God's audible voice, nor all at once, but gradually, especially since 1870, and particularly since 1880. Neither is this clear unfolding of truth due to any human ingenuity or acuteness of perception, but to the simple fact that God's due time has come; and if I did not speak, and no other agent could be found, the very stones would cry out.

A number of times Russell clearly implied that he could not possibly be wrong. Zion's Watch Tower, July 15, 1894, said on page 226 (p. 1677 Reprints), under the subtitle "Can It Be Delayed Until 1914?":

Seventeen years ago people said, concerning the time features presented in MILLENIAL DAWN, They seem reasonable in many respects, but surely no such radical changes could occur between now and the close of 1914: if you had proved that they would come about in a century or two, it would seem much more probable.

What changes have since occurred, and what velocity is gained daily?

"The old is quickly passing and the new is coming in."

Now, in view of recent labor troubles and threatened anarchy, our readers are writing to know if there may not be a mistake in the 1914 date. They say that they do not see how present conditions can hold out so long under the strain.

We see no reason for changing the figures -- nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble. We see no reason for changing from our opinion expressed in the view presented in the WATCH TOWER of January 15, '92. We advise that it be read again.

The January 15, 1892 Watch Tower said on page 19:

The Scriptures give unmistakable testimony to those who have full faith in its records, that there is a great time of trouble ahead of the present comparative calm in the world -- a trouble which will embroil all nations, overthrow all existing institutions, civil, social and religious, bring about a universal reign of anarchy and terror, and prostrate humanity in the very dust of despair, thus to make them ready to appreciate the power that will bring order out of that confusion and institute the new rule of righteousness. All this, the Scriptures show us, is to come to pass before the year 1914 (See MILLENNIAL DAWN, Vol. II, Chapter IV.) -- that is, within the next twenty-three years.

If the scriptural testimony was "unmistakable," and if Russell was presenting "God's dates," and he was "God's mouthpiece," of what value would be any admonitions against speculation, since he was the source of it? Who would doubt "God's dates"? Note that nearly all his chronology has been proved false.

The Watch Tower continues:

All thinking men, whether they have faith in the Word of prophecy or not, see in the present attitude of mankind in general a growing tendency which threatens such a culmination, and they stand in fear and dread of it. As a consequence, the daily papers and the weeklies and monthlies, religious and secular, are continually discussing the prospects of war in Europe. They note the grievances and ambitions of the various nations and predict that war is inevitable at no distant day, that it may begin at any moment between some of the great powers, and that the prospects are that it will eventually involve them all. And they picture the awful calamity of such an event in view of the preparations made for it on the part of every nation. For several years past thoughtful observers have said, War cannot be kept off much longer: it must come soon -- "next spring," "next summer," "next fall," etc.

But, notwithstanding these predictions and the good reasons which many see for making them, we do not share them. That is, we do not think that the prospects of a general European war are so marked as is commonly supposed. True, all Europe is like a great powder magazine which a single stray match might set off at any moment with a tremendous explosion. The various nations are armed to the teeth with the most destructive weapons that skill and ingenuity can invent, and there are national grievances and bickerings and hatred that must find a vent some time; and in consideration of these things the war cloud is always impending and ever darkening: but things may continue just so for many years, and we think they will.

These rumors of impending European wars, and the desire to judge whether observation would tend to confirm the divine revelation that the intensity of the great predicted trouble is yet nearly fifteen years future, formed no small part of our motive in visiting Europe during the past summer.

The October 1, 1904 Zion's Watch Tower, on pages 296-8 (pp. 3436-8 Reprints) printed a letter from a man who pointed out that Russell's chronology conflicted with data given by Ptolemy's Canon, and that he understood that Russell's view of the Gentile times had changed. Russell responded at length, pointing out that changing his chronology by even one year would throw it completely out of whack. He emphasized his faith in his figures:

We know of no reason for changing a figure: to do so would spoil the harmonies and parallels so conspicuous between the Jewish and Gospel ages.... The brother seems to further misunderstand us to teach that no great trouble will come before October, 1914 A.D. This is incorrect: we expect the great trouble of Rev. 13:15-17 before that date....

One question about Russell's chronology came up as early as 1904 -- what about the "zero year"? Was the length of time from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. one year, or two? Russell discussed this, as well as summarizing its application to his chronology, in the December 1, 1912 Watch Tower, pages 377-8. He was evidently rather confused about it, and said that the end of the times of the Gentiles could come in either 1914 or 1915. He also toned down his statements considerably compared with earlier ones. This shows clearly that it was only as 1914 approached that he really can be said to have warned against speculation.

Since this question is agitating the minds of a considerable number of the friends, we have presented it here in some detail. We remind the readers, however, that nothing in the Scriptures says definitely that the trouble upon the Gentiles will be accomplished before the close of the Times of the Gentiles, whether that be October, 1914, or October, 1915. The trouble doubtless will be considerable before the final crash, even though that crash come suddenly, like the casting of a great millstone into the sea. (Rev. 18:21) The parallel between the Jewish harvest and the present harvest would corroborate the thought that the trouble to the full will be accomplished by October, 1915.

Many of our readers will recall our reference to this subject in a sermon preached at Allegheny, Pa., January 11, 1904, and published in the Pittsburgh Gazette. We make an extract from that sermon as follows: --

"We find, then, that the Seven Times of Israel's punishment and the Seven Times of Gentile dominion are the same; and that they began with the captivity of Zedekiah, and, as will be seen from the Chart, they terminate with the year 1915. According to the best obtainable evidences on the subject, synchronized with the Scriptural testimony, Zedekiah's captivity took place in October, 605 3/4 years before A.D. 1. If we will add to this 1914 3/4 years, we will have the year, October, 1915, as the date for the end of Gentile supremacy in the world -- the end of the lease of 2,520 years, which will not be renewed. Instead, he whose right the kingdom is, shall take possession of it. This, therefore, marks when the Lord himself shall assume control of the world's affairs, to end its reign of sin and death, and to bring in the True Light."

There surely is room for slight differences of opinion on this subject and it behooves us to grant each other the widest latitude. The lease of power to the Gentiles may end in October, 1914, or in October, 1915. And the period of intense strife and anarchy "such as never was since there was a nation" may be the final ending of the Gentile Times or the beginning of Messiah's reign. [See Vol. 2, SCRIPTURE STUDIES.]

But we remind all of our readers again, that we have not prophesied anything about the Times of the Gentiles closing in a time of trouble nor about the glorious epoch which will shortly follow that catastrophe. We have merely pointed out what the Scriptures say, giving our views respecting their meaning and asking our readers to judge, each for himself, what they signify. These prophecies still read the same to us. Should we ever see reason for changing our belief, be assured we will be prompt to advise you respecting the same and give you the reason for it. However some may make positive statements of what they know, and of what they do not know, we never indulge in this; but we merely state that we believe thus and so, for such and such reasons.

Many disposed to cavil at every statement of faith respecting the time and ending of this age and the dawning of the new age are very positive in their assertions. Some of them declare that surely the end of this age cannot come for fifty thousand years yet. Others, with equal positiveness, declare that it may happen at any moment. Neither one gives any Scriptural proof. Then why should either of them criticize us for merely presenting the Scripture testimonies and our opinions respecting the signification of them, with the request that others investigate and form each his own opinion?

Russell really wanted to have it both ways: those in the "household of faith" were to judge for themselves whether his predictions were correct, but any who decided they were not would have been "lacking faith," as shown below. He did not "prophesy," because that means "inspiration," and he did not have "knowledge," because that means absolute certainty, but he did have God's backing in what he said because he was "God's mouthpiece."

This is perfectly illustrated by what the October 1, 1907, Watch Tower said, seven years before 1914, in the article "Knowledge and Faith Regarding Chronology," page 295:

A dear Brother inquires, Can we feel absolutely sure that the Chronology set forth in the DAWN-STUDIES is correct? -- that the harvest began in A.D. 1874 and will end in A.D. 1914 in a world wide trouble which will overthrow all present institutions and be followed by the reign of righteousness of the King of Glory and his bride, the church?

We answer, as we have frequently done before in the DAWNS and TOWERS and orally and by letter, that we have never claimed our calculations to be infallibly correct; we have never claimed that they were knowledge, nor based upon indisputable evidence, facts, knowledge; our claim has always been that they are based on faith.

The dates no longer seem to be "God's dates"; they might be fallible. This same article, however, goes on to imply that those doubting such calculations were lacking in faith. It should be asked: Faith in God or faith in Russell's predictions? The article says:

We remind you again that the weak points of chronology are supplemented by the various prophecies which interlace with it in so remarkable a manner that faith in the chronology almost becomes knowledge that it is correct. The changing of a single year would throw the beautiful parallels out of accord; because some of the prophecies measure from B.C., some from A.D., and some depend upon both. We believe that God meant those prophecies to be understood "in due time"; we believe that we do understand them now -- and they speak to us through this chronology. Do they not thereby seal the chronology? They do to faith, but not otherwise. Our Lord declared, "The wise shall understand"; and he told us to "Watch" that we might know; and it is this chronology which convinces us (who can and do receive it by faith) that the Parable of the Ten Virgins is now in process of fulfilment -- that its first cry was heard in 1844 and its second cry, "Behold the Bridegroom" -- present -- was in 1874.

How beneficial is it -- or for that matter, how much humility does it demonstrate -- to acknowledge fallibility while at the same time implying that only those who accept one's views are showing faith, are among "the wise who shall understand"? Would not those failing to heed these "cries" of 1844 and 1874 be classed logically with the "foolish virgins" of the parable?

The Society has not changed its practices in this regard. In fact it is much more severe than in Russell's time. If one publicly even mentions the possibility of the Society's being wrong at present, he is liable to be labelled "apostate" and disfellowshipped. Is the Society not "talking out of both sides of its mouth at the same time"?

In view of all the above, which shows what Russell really had in mind during the time from the 1870s through 1916, note how hollow the explanation of how Russell warned against speculation sounds, from JWDP, page 53:

In 1912 Russell sounded a special warning to offset any private wild speculations as to 1914. He wrote:

[Material from December 1, 1912 Watch Tower mentioned above is quoted here]

So these early watchers were reasonably certain of some things that were due to take place when 1914 arrived. Exactly how the prophecies were to be fulfilled was not altogether clear, but evidences were increasing steadily that this was to be a marked date in earth's history.

It is truly amazing how much distortion can be fit into so few words. Russell wrote a few weak warnings about private speculation prior to about 1904, but was absolutely confident of his chronology. It was only after 1904 that he became even faintly cautious, as the following material makes clear. By not telling the reader the full story of what Russell believed, JWDP misleads the reader into believing something quite different from what he would have otherwise believed.

Strange Truth

Marvin L. Lubenow is a creationist and professor of Bible and apologetics at Christian Heritage College in El Cajon, California. The college is the parent body of the Institute for Creation Research. In his book Bones of Contention Lubenow took evolutionists to task for not quite telling the truth about certain human-like fossil discoveries:4

It is possible to lie by telling the truth. It is done often. Suppose a man owes you one hundred dollars. Because you need the money, you call him to find out when he can pay you. His wife answers the phone and tells you that he is out. You take that to mean that he is unavailable. You don't know that he is standing just outside the front door of his house so that his wife can "honestly" say that he is "out." She justifies herself in that she technically told the truth. But she really lied, because she intended that you would think that "out" meant "unavailable." She lied by telling the truth.

As a side point, the Society likes to claim that C. T. Russell predicted World War I. For example Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, on pages 54-55, quoted an article from a newspaper called The World, which said:

The terrific war outbreak in Europe has fulfilled an extraordinary prophecy. For a quarter of a century past, through preachers and through press, the "International Bible Students," best known as "Millenial Dawners," have been proclaiming to the world that the Day of Wrath prophesied in the Bible would dawn in 1914. "Look out for 1914!" has been the cry of the hundreds of traveling evangelists who, representing this strange creed, have gone up and down the country enunciating the doctrine that "the Kingdom of God is at hand."

The February 1, 1969 Watchtower, on pages 71-72, quoted the same publication, as did the October 8, 1973 Awake!.

But remember, The Divine Plan of the Ages said (p. 307-8) that the "Day of Wrath" was the same as the "Day of Jehovah," the "Day of Vengeance," and the "Day of the Lord," which began in 1874. Additionally, The Time Is At Hand, quoted above, said on page 99:

.... we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God, will be accomplished by the end of A.D. 1914.

This means that Russell expected, not a World War beginning in 1914, but the annihilation of all kingdoms not later than 1914. The Society did not begin to claim that Russell had predicted World War I until some years after 1914, because Russell thought the outbreak of World War I was the beginning of Armageddon (see below).

This is reflected clearly in the picture of the article in The World Magazine of August 30, 1914, which is reproduced on pages 5-6 of the April 1, 1984 Watchtower. The headline reads "End Of All Kingdoms In 1914". The October 8, 1973 Awake! also reproduced a picture of the article, but cropped the headline.

Interestingly, The World Magazine article gives the impression that Russell had foreseen the war. But the intimate knowledge of Russell's writings going back some forty years, and the ability to select suitable statements from them indicates that the author of the article either was a close collaborator of Russell or got his material from one. It would be extremely unlikely for a neutral journalist to be so well versed in Russell's writings. A neutral writer would certainly have included the material quoted above, which clearly shows Russell's thinking.

This episode calls to mind what happened to an article in the February 22, 1977 Awake! A statement about earthquake data (page 11) was picked up and published in a slightly altered form in an Italian journal, Il Piccolo, of October 8, 1978. Then Il Piccolo's near duplication of Awake!'s statement was in turn picked up by The Watchtower of June 15, 1979, (page 11) and used as an authoritative "neutral" reference on earthquake data. The statement was used in Watchtower publications at least ten times through 1985, the last being in Did Man Get Here By Evolution? Or By Creation?

Strange Contrasts

In 1916 Russell announced in the September 1, 1916 Watch Tower, on page 265, that Armageddon had already started:

In the meantime, our eyes of understanding should discern clearly the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty now in progress.

In 1917 the Society published Pastor Russell's Sermons, which said on page 676:

The present great war in Europe is the beginning of the Armageddon of the Scriptures.

Contrast the above statements about when Armageddon started with ones from material published well before 1914:

Zion's Watch Tower, January 15, 1892, pages 21-23, stated again that the final battle had already begun, its end to come in 1914:

The date of the close of that "battle" is definitely marked in Scripture as October, 1914. It is already in progress, its beginning dating from October, 1874. Thus far it has been chiefly a battle of words and a time of organizing forces.... Never was there such a general time of banding together as at present. Not only are nations allying with each other for protection against other nations, but the various factions in every nation are organizing to protect their several interests.... This feature of the battle must continue with varying success to all concerned; the organization must be very thorough; and the final struggle will be comparatively short, terrible and decisive -- resulting in general anarchy.

Another book by Russell, Thy Kingdom Come, 1891, said on page 153:

.... with the end of A.D. 1914, what God calls Babylon, and what men call Christendom, will have passed away, as already shown from prophecy.

So it is clear that for a long time prior to 1914 Russell said that Armageddon is "already in progress," but after 1914 he said it started in 1914.

Refer back to the quotations from the January 15, 1892 and July 15, 1894 Watch Towers, on page 30. What do these quotations and the above paragraphs do to the Society's present claim that "no one foresaw World War I" prior to 1914? Russell stated clearly that conditions were ripe for a major conflagration. JWDP even said on page 53:

An explosive atmosphere of national rivalry was developed all over the world, and the feverish campaign of the political and commercial rulers in their mad armaments race was being fully supported by the clergy of all lands. France and Germany were piling up an enormous war potential, while Britain and the United States were fortifying themselves also.... Truly mankind's masses were being herded into camps of war. Satan, as ruler of this world, was gathering his forces for the end he knew must come in 1914.

This is confirmed by many other statements Russell made and which are quoted in this writeup. For example, The Watch Tower, May 1, 1914, said on page 134:

There is absolutely no ground for Bible students to question that the consummation of this gospel age is now even at the door, and that it will end as the Scriptures foretell in a great time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. We see the participants in this great crisis banding themselves together.... The great crisis, the great clash, symbolically represented as a fire, that will consume the ecclesiastical heavens and the social earth, is very near.

Yet, based on Rev. 6:4 the Society now claims that peace and security were suddenly taken from the earth in 1914. That scripture talks about a rider on a fiery colored horse to whom "there was granted to take peace away from the earth so that they should slaughter one another," which ride the Society says began in 1914. To prove this the Society quotes, not historians, but a couple of elderly statesmen and two of Jehovah's Witnesses. The two statesmen have often been referred to in Watchtower Society publications, as they in their old age remembered their youth as a time of peace, security, and optimism, something which "suddenly, unexpectedly" disappeared in 1914, according to the May 1, 1982 Watchtower, page 14. Similarly, the May 8, 1981 Awake!, page 6, quotes Ewart Chitty, who was 16 years old when the war broke out, and George Hannan, who was 15 at the time. Hannan stated that "Nobody expected World War I.... People had been saying that the world had become too civilized for war. But world war came out of nowhere, like a bolt from the blue." So which claim is right, the one in JWDP or the ones in the 1981-2 publications?

The above material shows how the Society viewed world conditions in 1892 as clear proof that the world was then about to enter its final throes, with its last gasp coming in 1914. While it is true that the word "opinion" is here used, how meaningful is this when at the same time God is brought into the picture as backing up the dates set forth? Who would be inclined to doubt "God's dates"?

Strange Changes

The 1904 book, The New Creation, said on page 579:

According to our expectations the stress of the great time of trouble will be on us soon, somewhere between 1910 and 1912 -- culminating with the end of the "Times of the Gentiles," October 1914.

The beginning of the severity of the trouble is not distinctly marked in the Scriptures, and is rather conjectural. We infer that so great a trouble, so world-wide a catastrophe, could scarcely be accomplished in less than three years, and that if it lasted much more than three years "no flesh would be saved."

Russell edited some of the Studies in the Scriptures volumes as things did not pan out as he expected. He did not call the changed volumes "revised" editions. For example:

The 1906 edition of Vol. 3, Thy Kingdom Come, said on page 228:

That the deliverance of the saints must take place some time before 1914 is manifest.... Just how long before 1914 the last living member of the body of Christ will be glorified, we are not directly informed.

The 1916 edition of Vol. 3, Thy Kingdom Come, said on page 228 (changes from the 1906 edition are emphasized):

That the deliverance of the saints must take place very soon after 1914 is manifest.... Just how long after 1914 the last living member of the body of Christ will be glorified, we are not directly informed.

As 1914 approached Russell changed and toned down some of his opinions. The July 1, 1904 Watch Tower said, under the title "Universal Anarchy -- Just Before or After October, 1914 A.D.," on pages 197-8:

What seems at first glance the veriest trifle and wholly unrelated to the matter, has changed our conviction respecting the time when universal anarchy may be expected in accord with the prophetic numbers. We now expect that the anarchistic culmination of the great time of trouble which will precede the Millenial blessings will be after October, 1914, A.D. -- very speedily thereafter, in our opinion -- "in one hour," "suddenly," because "our forty years" harvest, ending October, 1914 A.D., should not be expected to include the awful period of anarchy which the Scriptures point out to be the fate of Christendom.

And whereas in 1894 he had affirmed that the figures expounded were "God's dates, not ours," in the October 1, 1907, Watch Tower, seven years before 1914, he now said in the article "Knowledge and Faith Regarding Chronology", page 295 (see page 34 for the full quotation):

Can we feel absolutely sure that the Chronology set forth in the DAWN-STUDIES is correct? -- that the harvest began in A.D. 1874 and will end in A.D. 1914...?.... We answer... that we have never claimed our calculations to be infallibly correct; we have never claimed that they were knowledge, nor based upon indisputable evidence, facts, knowledge; our claim has always been that they are based on faith.

Interestingly, the same 1907 Watch Tower article acknowledged the vulnerability of Russell's chronology:

.... Suppose that A.D. 1915 should pass with the world's affairs all serene and with evidence that the "very elect" had not all been "changed" and without the restoration of natural Israel to favor under the New Covenant (Rom. 11:12,15). What then? Would not that prove our chronology wrong? Yes, surely! Would not that prove a keen disappointment? Indeed it would! It would work irreparable wreck to the parallel dispensations and Israel's double, and to the Jubilee calculations, and to the prophecy of the 2300 days of Daniel, and to the epoch called "Gentile Times," and to the 1,260, 1,290, and 1,335 days.... none of these would be available longer.

The world was not serene in 1915, but is one out of three predictions good enough to base one's faith on?

By 1912 Russell had become even more cautious. The December 1, 1912 Watch Tower showed how much less positive he was about the calculations (see above for a full quotation). What were once "God's dates" had become "our opinions."

By 1913 Russell had become more cautious yet. In the article "Let Your Moderation Be Known," in the June 1, 1913 Watch Tower, page 167, he warned his readers against spending "valuable time and energy in guessing what will take place this year, next year, etc." Apparently he had lost much of his earlier confidence: "This is the good tidings of God's grace in Christ -- whether the completion of the church shall be accomplished before 1914 or not."

Russell really began waffling in the October 15 issue of the same year, pages 303-307:

We are waiting for the time to come when the government of the world will be turned over to Messiah. We cannot say that it may not be either October 1914 or October 1915. It is possible that we might be out of the correct reckoning on the subject a number of years. We cannot say with certainty. We do not know. It is a matter of faith, and not of knowledge.

Russell's tottering faith in his chronology was further brought to light in the Watch Tower of January 1, 1914, pages 1-5:

As already pointed out, we are by no means confident that this year, 1914, will witness as radical and swift changes of dispensation as we have expected. It is beyond the power of our imagination to picture an accomplishment in one year of all that the Scriptures seem to imply should be expected before the reign of peace is ushered in.... If later it should be demonstrated that the church is not glorified by October, 1914, we shall try to feel content with whatever the Lord's will may be.... If 1915 should go by without the passage of the church, without the time of trouble, etc., it would seem to some to be a great calamity. It would not be so with ourself.... If in the Lord's providence the time should come twenty-five years later, then that would be our will.... If October, 1915, should pass, and we should find ourselves still here and matters going on very much as they are at present, and the world apparently making progress in the way of settling disputes, and there were no time of trouble in sight, and the nominal church were not yet federated, etc., we would say that evidently we have been out somewhere in our reckoning. In that event we would look over the prophecies further, to see if we could find an error. And then we would think, Have we been expecting the wrong thing at the right time? The Lord's will might permit this.

Then in the May 1, 1914 issue, Russell, again forgetting his earlier positive statements, told his readers that

in these columns and in the six volumes of STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES we have set forth everything appertaining to the times and seasons in a tentative form; that is to say, not with positiveness, not with the claim that we knew, but with the suggestion that "thus and so" seems to be the teaching of the Bible.

Two months later Russell seemed to be on the point of rejecting his chronology altogether. Answering a colporteur, who wanted to know if the Studies in the Scriptures were to be circulated after October, 1914, Russell said:

.... since you have some doubts respecting the full accomplishment of all expected by or before October, 1914,.... It is our thought that these books will be on sale and read for years in the future, provided the Gospel age and its work continue.... We have not attempted to say that these views are infallible, but have stated the processes of reasoning and figuring, leaving to each reader the duty and privilege of reading, thinking, and figuring for himself. That will be an interesting matter a hundred years from now; and if he can figure and reason better, he will still be interested in what we have presented.

Thus Russell now seemed ready to accept the thought that the 1914 date probably was a failure, and that his writings on the matter were going to be merely of historical interest to Bible students a hundred years later!

But then World War I broke out, and Russell's confidence in the chronology quickly recovered. Although the war itself did not fit into the predicted pattern of events -- that the time of trouble would be a class struggle between capital and labor, leading up to a period of worldwide anarchy -- he saw in the War the prelude to that situation. In the August 15, 1914 Watch Tower he wrote:

Socialism is, we believe, the main factor in the war now raging and which will be earth's greatest and most terrible war -- and probably the last.

Later, in the November 1, 1914 Watch Tower Russell wrote:

We think that the present distress amongst the nations is merely the beginning of this time of trouble.... The anarchy that will follow this war will be the real time of trouble.... Our thought is that the war will so weaken the nations that following it there will be an attempt to bring in Socialistic ideas, and that this will be met by the governments -- etc., leading up to worldwide class struggle and anarchy.

Further, although the city of Jerusalem was still trodden down by the Gentiles, Russell argued that the Gentile times had ended:

The treading down of the Jews has stopped. All over the world the Jews are free -- even in Russia. On September 5, the Czar of Russia issued a proclamation to all the Jews of the Russian Empire; and this was before the times of the Gentiles had expired. It stated that the Jews might have access to the highest ranks in the Russian army, and that the Jewish religion was to have the same freedom as any other religion in Russia. Where are the Jews being trodden down now? Where are they being subjected to scorn? At present they are receiving no persecution whatever. We believe that the treading down of Jerusalem has ceased, because the time for the Gentiles to tread down Israel has ended.

A. H. Macmillan, on pages 47 and 48 of his 1957 book Faith on the March, relates what happened in October, 1914:

That was a highly interesting time because a few of us seriously thought we were going to heaven during the first week of that October.... Quite a number of the conventioners stayed at Bethel, the home of the headquarters staff members. Friday morning (October 2) we were all seated at the breakfast table when Russell came down.... But this morning, instead of proceeding to his seat as usual, he briskly clapped his hands and happily announced: "The Gentile Times have ended; the kings have had their day." We all applauded.

The Society has often quoted this passage, since A. H. Macmillan was one of the men jailed along with J. F. Rutherford in 1918, and he had enough respect within the headquarters staff to be able to write his book with the blessing of N. H. Knorr and using the facilities of the Watchtower Society libraries. But Macmillan gives a false impression of what was happening. More than "a few" of the Bible Students thought they were going to heaven for the very good reason that Russell had been preaching this for many years -- with later reservations it is true. When nothing happened in 1914 the way Russell had expected, many left his movement.

Rebuilding Confidence

From the outbreak of World War I and up to his death on October 31, 1916, Russell's restored confidence in his chronology remained unshaken, as demonstrated by the following extracts from various issues of the Watch Tower during the period:

September 1, 1914: While it is possible that Armageddon may begin next Spring, yet it is purely speculation to attempt to say just when. We see, however, that there are parallels between the close of the Jewish age and this Gospel age. These parallels seem to point to the year just before us -- particularly the early months.

January 1, 1915: .... the war is one predicted in the Scriptures as associated with the great day of Almighty God -- "the day of vengeance of our God."

April 1, 1915: The Battle of Armageddon, to which this war is leading, will be a great contest between right and wrong, and will signify the complete and everlasting overthrow of the wrong, and the permanent establishment of Messiah's righteous kingdom for the blessing of the world.... Our sympathies are broad enough to cover all engaged in the dreadful strife, as our hope is broad enough and deep enough to include all in the great blessings which our Master and his Millennial kingdom are about to bring to the world.

September 15, 1915: Tracing the Scriptural chronology down to our day, we find that we are now living in the very dawn of the great seventh day of man's great week. This is abundantly corroborated by the events now taking place about us on every hand.

February 15, 1916: In STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES, Vol. IV, we have clearly pointed out the things now transpiring, and the worse conditions yet to come.

April 15, 1916: We believe that the dates have proven to be quite right. We believe that Gentile Times have ended, and that God is now allowing the Gentile Governments to destroy themselves, in order to prepare the way for Messiah's kingdom.

September 1, 1916: It still seems clear to us that the prophetic period known as the Times of the Gentiles ended chronologically in October, 1914. The fact that the great day of wrath upon the nations began there marks a good fulfillment of our expectations.... We see no reason for doubting, therefore, that the Times of the Gentiles ended in October, 1914; and that a few more years will witness their utter collapse and the full establishment of God's kingdom in the hands of Messiah.

After Russell's death, the Society published Pastor Russell's Sermons in 1917, which said on page 676:

The present great war in Europe is the beginning of the Armageddon of the Scriptures. (Rev. 16:16-20.) It will eventuate in the complete overthrow of all the systems of error which have so long oppressed the people of God and deluded the world.... We believe the present war cannot last much longer until revolution shall break out.

Oddly enough, in October, 1916 Russell played down the significance of what he had predicted for 1914. In the foreword to the 1916 edition of The Time Is At Hand he wrote, exercising extreme hindsight, on page iii:

We could not, of course, know in 1889, whether the date 1914, so clearly marked in the Bible as the end of the Gentile lease of power or permission to rule the world, would mean that they would be fully out of power at that time, or whether, their lease expiring, their eviction would begin. The latter we perceive to be the Lord's program; and promptly in August, 1914, the Gentile kingdoms referred to in the prophecy began the present great struggle, which, according to the Bible, will culminate in the complete overthrow of all human government, opening the way for the full establishment of the Kingdom of God's dear Son.

In the foreword to the 1916 edition of Thy Kingdom Come he wrote, on pages i and ii:

.... we anticipate that before a very long time -- perhaps a year or two or three -- the full number of the Elect will be completed, and all will have gone beyond the Veil and the door will be shut.

So Russell felt that the things that did not happen in 1914 would still happen very shortly thereafter -- "perhaps a year or two or three." In the foreword to The Time Is At Hand he excused some of these false predictions.

The author acknowledges that in this book he presents the thought that the Lord's saints might expect to be with Him in glory at the ending of the Gentile Times. This was a natural mistake to fall into, but the Lord overruled it for the blessing of His people. The thought that the Church would all be gathered to glory before October, 1914, certainly did have a very stimulating and sanctifying effect upon thousands, all of whom accordingly can praise the Lord -- even for the mistake. Many, indeed, can express themselves as being thankful to the Lord that the culmination of the Church's hopes was not reached at the time we expected; and that we, as the Lord's people, have further opportunities of perfecting holiness and of being participators with our Master in the further presentation of His Message to His people.

Involving God and Christ with the mistakes made, with God "overruling" certain predictions, provides a very convenient escape from having to shoulder the true responsibility for having falsely presented as "God's dates" things that were not God's dates at all but simply the product of human speculation. Merit is found even in false predictions because of the "stimulating and sanctifying effect" produced, so that one may "praise the Lord -- even for the mistake." That approach allowed for still more false predictions with their "stimulating" effects. J. F. Rutherford and his successors took full advantage of the smokescreen these ideas allowed.

Contrary to Russell's expectations the War ended in 1918 without being followed by worldwide Socialist revolution and anarchy. The last member of the Church of Christ had not been glorified, the city of Jerusalem was still trodden down by the Gentiles, the Kingdom of God had not crushed "the Gentile image," and the "new heavens and the new earth" could not be seen anywhere by trouble-tossed humanity. Not one of the seven predictions enumerated in The Time Is At Hand had come true.

The book Light I, 1930, page 194, well described the effects of the failed predictions:

All of the Lord's people looked forward to 1914 with joyful expectation. When that time came and passed there was much disappointment, chagrin and mourning, and the Lord's people were greatly in reproach. They were ridiculed by the clergy and their allies in particular, and pointed to with scorn, because they had said so much about 1914, and what would come to pass, and their 'prophecies' had not been fulfilled.

After the lapse of some years, J. F. Rutherford began the process of replacing Russell's unfulfilled predictions with a series of invisible and spiritual events associated with the years 1914 and 1918. By the early 1930s the process was complete.

An interesting comment on this transformation is made by Carl Sagan in Broca's Brain, pages 332-333:

Doctrines that make no predictions are less compelling than those which make correct predictions; they are in turn more successful than doctrines that make false predictions.

But not always. One prominent American religion confidently predicted that the world would end in 1914. Well, 1914 has come and gone, and -- while the events of that year were certainly of some importance -- the world does not, at least so far as I can see, seem to have ended. There are at least three responses that an organized religion can make in the face of such a failed and fundamental prophecy. They could have said, "Oh, did we say '1914'? So sorry, we meant '2014.' A slight error in calculation. Hope you weren't inconvenienced in any way." But they did not. They could have said, "Well, the world would have ended, except we prayed very hard and interceded with God so He spared the Earth." But they did not. Instead, they did something much more ingenious. They announced that the world had in fact ended in 1914, and if the rest of us hadn't noticed, that was our lookout. It is astonishing in the face of such transparent evasions that this religion has any adherents at all. But religions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. The fact that religions can be so shamelessly dishonest, so contemptuous of the intelligence of their adherents, and still flourish does not speak very well for the tough-mindedness of the believers. But it does indicate, if a demonstration were needed, that near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry.5

Part 3: Statements Concerning 1918, 1925 and 1975

Overview:

Statements concerning 1918

The Finished Mystery, 1917, pages 62, 64, said with great authority:

The data presented in comments on Rev. 1:1.... prove that the Spring of 1918 will bring upon Christendom a spasm of anguish greater even than that experienced in the Fall of 1914.

The awakening of the sleeping saints, A.D. 1878, was just half way (three and one-half years each way) between the beginning of the Times of Restitution in 1874 and the close of the High Calling in 1881. Our proposition is that the glorification of the Little Flock in the Spring of 1918 A.D. will be half way (three and one-half years each way) between the close of the Gentile Times and the close of the Heavenly Way, A.D. 1921.

These predictions, of course, also failed. Perhaps the most forceful language used was in the predictions of a terrible destruction due to come on Christendom's churches and their members in 1918, with their dead bodies strewn about unburied. Pages 484-485 said:

Also, in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions, it shall be that any that escape shall come to the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of "Christianity."

Page 513 said:

In the year 1918, when Christendom shall go down as a system to oblivion.... God will cause the nations to shake with gigantic revolutions.

The book also predicted stupendous events for 1920. On page 258 it said:

Even the republics will disappear in the fall of 1920....

Every kingdom of earth will pass away, be swallowed up in anarchy....

The three days in which Pharaoh's host pursued the Israelites into the wilderness represent the three years from 1917 to 1920 at which time all of Pharaoh's messengers will be swallowed up in the sea of anarchy.

On page 542 it said:

As the fleshly-minded apostates from Christianity, siding with the radicals and revolutionaries, will rejoice at the inheritance of desolation that will be Christendom's after 1918, so will God do to the successful revolutionary movement; it shall be utterly desolated, "even all of it." Not one vestige of it shall survive the ravages of world-wide all-embracing anarchy, in the fall of 1920.

Statements concerning 1925

The book Millions Now Living Will Never Die, 1920 Edition, said on pages 89-90:

As we have heretofore stated, the great jubilee cycle is due to begin in 1925. At that time the earthly phase of the kingdom shall be recognized.... Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews chapter eleven, to the condition of human perfection.

On page 97 it said:

Based upon the argument heretofore set forth, then, that the old order of things, the old world, is ending and is therefore passing away, and that the new order is coming in, and that 1925 shall mark the resurrection of the faithful worthies of old and the beginning of reconstruction, it is reasonable to conclude that millions of people now on the earth will be still on the earth in 1925. Then, based upon the promises set forth in the divine Word, we must reach the positive and indisputable conclusion that millions now living will never die.

The Society sometimes refers to the "Millions Campaign," but does not inform its readers that the whole foundation of the claim that "Millions Now Living Will Never Die"6 rested on the predictions about 1925, predictions that proved utterly false, and about which J. F. Rutherford later admitted to the Bethel family, "I know I made an ass of myself."

The Society published many statements that the 1925 date, and all others within its chronology, were absolutely firm. In an article on chronology, the May 15, 1922 Watch Tower said:

We have no doubt whatever in regard to the chronology relating to the dates of 1874, 1914, 1918, and 1925.

It was on this line of reckoning that the dates 1874, 1914, and 1918 were located; and the Lord has placed the stamp of his seal upon 1914 and 1918 beyond any possibility of erasure. What further evidence do we need?

Using this same measuring line.... it is an easy matter to locate 1925, probably in the fall, for the beginning of the antitypical jubilee. There can be no more question about 1925 than there was about 1914. The fact that all the things that some looked for in 1914 did not materialize does not alter the chronology one whit. Noting the date marked so prominently, it is very easy for the finite mind to conclude that all the work to be done must center about it, and thus many are inclined to anticipate more than has been really foretold. Thus it was in 1844, in 1874, in 1878 as well as in 1914 and 1918. Looking back we can now easily see that those dates were clearly indicated in Scripture and doubtless intended by the Lord to encourage his people, as they did, as well as to be a means of testing and sifting when all that some expected did not come to pass. That all that some expect to see in 1925 may not transpire that year will not alter the date one whit more than in the other cases.

Amazingly, the failed expectations resulting from earlier time prophecies are all charged up to the Lord's account, "doubtless intended by the Lord to encourage his people." Nothing strange is seen in this concept that God and Christ would use falsehood as a means of encouragement for their servants. Yet 1 John 1:5 says that "God is light and there is no darkness at all in union with him." The idea that God or his Son employ error in their guidance of Christians is foreign to Scripture.

The Watch Tower of June 15, 1922 said:

The chronology of present truth might be a mere happening if it were not for the repetitions in the two great cycles of 1845 and 2520 years, which take it out of the realm of chance and into that of certainty.... where the agreements of dates and events come by the dozens, they cannot possibly be by chance, but must be by the design or plan of the only personal Being capable of such a plan -- Jehovah himself; and the chronology itself must be right.

In the passages of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh the agreement of one or two measurements with the present-truth chronology might be accidental, but the correspondency of dozens of measurements proves that the same God designed both pyramid and plan -- and at the same time proves the correctness of the chronology....

It is on the basis of such and so many correspondencies -- in accordance with the soundest laws known to science -- that we affirm that, Scripturally, scientifically, and historically, present-truth chronology is correct beyond a doubt. Its reliability has been abundantly confirmed by the dates and events of 1874, 1914, and 1918. Present-truth chronology is a secure basis on which the consecrated child of God may endeavor to search out things to come.

The July 15, 1922 Watch Tower, under the heading "The Strong Cable of Chronology," said:

This chronology is not of man, but of God. Being of divine origin and divinely corroborated, present-truth chronology stands in a class by itself, absolutely and unqualifiedly correct....

In the chronology of present truth there are so many inter-relationships among the dates that it is not a mere string of dates, not a chain, but a cable of strands firmly knit together -- a divinely unified system, with most of the dates having such remarkable relations with others as to stamp the system as not of human origin....

It will be clearly shown that present-truth chronology displays indisputable evidence of divine foreknowledge of the principle dates, and that this is proof of divine origin, and that the system is not a human invention but a discovery of divine truth.... we believe that it bears the stamp of approval of Almighty God.

It would be absurd to claim that the relationship discovered was not the result of divine arrangement.

The Watch Tower, September 1, 1922, said on page 262:

.... all Europe is like a boiling pot, with the intensity of the heat ever increasing. If any one who has studied the Bible can travel through Europe and not be convinced that the world has ended, that the day of God's vengeance is here, that the Messianic kingdom is at the door, then he has read the Bible in vain. The physical facts show beyond question of a doubt that 1914 ended the Gentile times; and as the Lord foretold, the old order is being destroyed by war, famine, pestilence, and revolution.

The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the Scriptures because it is fixed by the law God gave to Israel. Viewing the present situation in Europe, one wonders how it will be possible to hold back the explosion much longer; and that even before 1925 the great crisis will be reached and probably passed.

The 1922 Cedar Point, Ohio, convention is regularly referred to in Watchtower publications as a major milestone in the organization's history. Today the Society quotes a small portion of the keynote address in support of 1914. It ignores the fact that 1799 and 1874 figured with equal strength in the argument advanced and in the conclusion the audience was called upon to reach. The November 1, 1922 Watch Tower reproduced the talk:

Bible prophecy shows that the Lord was due to appear for the second time in the year 1874. Fulfilled prophecy shows beyond a doubt that he did appear in 1874. Fulfilled prophecy is otherwise designated the physical facts; and these facts are indisputable....

Since [Christ] has been present from 1874, it follows, from the facts as we now see them, that the period from 1874 to 1914 is the day of preparation. This in no wise militates against the thought that "the time of the end" is from 1799 until 1914....

For six thousand years God has been preparing for this kingdom. For nineteen hundred years he has been gathering out the kingdom class from amongst men. Since 1874 the King of glory has been present; and during that time he has conducted a harvest and has gathered unto himself the temple class. Since 1914 the King of glory has taken his power and reigns. He has cleansed the lips of the temple class and sends them forth with the message. The importance of the message of the kingdom cannot be overstated. It is the message of all messages. It is the message of the hour. It is incumbent upon those who are the Lord's to declare it. The kingdom of heaven is at hand; the King reigns; Satan's empire is falling; millions now living will never die.

Do you believe it? Do you believe that the King of glory is present, and has been since 1874? Do you believe that during that time he has conducted his harvest work? Do you believe that he has had during that time a faithful and wise servant through whom he directed his work and the feeding of the household of faith? Do you believe that the Lord is now in his temple, judging the nations of earth? Do you believe that the King of glory has begun his reign?

Then back to the field, O ye sons of the most high God! Gird on your armor! Be sober, be vigilant, be active, be brave. Be faithful and true witnesses for the Lord. Go forward in the fight until every vestige of Babylon lies desolate. Herald the message far and wide. The world must know that Jehovah is God and that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the day of all days. Behold, the King reigns! You are his publicity agents. Therefore advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.

Stirring words, indeed. But have they stood the test of time? Two of the three key dates mentioned have already been abandoned. Of the millions then living that were to never die, most of them have. Interestingly, this talk also moved the events that had been taught to have occurred in 1878, up to 1914.

The Watch Tower, April 1, 1923, said on page 106, in the "Question and Answer" section:

Question: Did the order go forth eight months ago to the Pilgrims to cease talking about 1925? Have we more reason, or as much, to believe the kingdom will be established in 1925 than Noah had to believe that there would be a flood?

Answer: .... There was never at any time any intimation to the Pilgrim brethren that they should cease talking about 1925.... Our thought is, that 1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures, marking the end of the typical jubilees. Just exactly what will happen at that time no one can tell to a certainty; but we expect such a climax in the affairs of the world that the people will begin to realize the presence of the Lord and his kingdom power. He is already present, as we know, and has taken unto himself his power and begun his reign. He has come to his temple. He is dashing to pieces the nations. Every Christian ought to be content, then, to do with his might what his hands find to do, without stopping to quibble about what is going to happen on a certain date.

As to Noah, the Christian now has much more upon which to base his faith than Noah had (so far as the Scriptures reveal) upon which to base his faith in a coming deluge.

The Watch Tower, July 15, 1924, said:

Let no one now be deceived by calculations as to just when the Lord will cease his work with the Church on earth. The year 1925 is a date definitely and clearly marked in the Scriptures, even more clearly than that of 1914; but it would be presumptuous on the part of any faithful follower of the Lord to assume just what the Lord is going to do during that year.

The Watch Tower, January 1, 1925, page 3, began to hedge, when it said:

The year 1925 is here. With great expectation Christians have looked forward to this year. Many have confidently expected that all members of the body of Christ will be changed to heavenly glory during the year. This may be accomplished. It may not be. In his own due time God will accomplish his purposes concerning his own people. Christians should not be so deeply concerned about what may transpire during this year that they would fail to joyfully do what the Lord would have them to do.

The Watch Tower, February 15, 1925, pages 56-57, began to lay a foundation for major damage control by suggesting that any future blame for failed predictions should be laid upon "the friends":

That 1925 will be a phenomenal year in many respects is evident... It seems to be a weakness of many Bible Students that if they locate a future date in the Bible, immediately they center as many prophecies upon that date as possible. This has been the cause of many siftings in the past. As far as we recall, all the dates foreseen were correct. The difficulty was that the friends inflated their imaginations beyond reason; and that when their imaginations burst asunder, they were inclined to throw away everything. No doubt Mr. Miller was correct in locating 1844 as a Bible date. But he expected too much. 1874 was also easily located. 1878 was also a marked date, and one which caused Brother Russell a severe trial until he corrected his expectations, as noted in his "Harvest Siftings", of April, 1894, now out of print. Many can remember how "absolutely sure" some were about 1914. No doubt the Lord was pleased with the zeal manifested by his servants; but did they have a Scriptural basis for all they expected to come to pass that year? Let us be cautious, therefore, about predicting particulars. The Lord will make them clear as fast as they become meat in due season.

By this time, far from continuing dogmatically to predict that in 1925 the "ancient worthies" would be resurrected and God's Kingdom established on earth, the article lamely continued:

We may reasonably expect that 1925 will be a very active year for the saints on this side the vail; and also that the adversary will be increasingly active in his opposition, as he knows that his time is shortening... No one may safely predict exactly what will take place, even within the next year; but God has given general indications in his Word of many things which are yet to come to pass.

The Watch Tower, September, 1925, page 262, began the damage control in earnest:

It is to be expected that Satan will try to inject into the minds of the consecrated, the thought that 1925 should see an end to the work.

The August 1, 1926 Watch Tower, on page 232, blamed the failure of its predictions on its readers:

Some anticipated that the work would end in 1925, but the Lord did not so state.

At a number of assemblies in 1975, one of which I attended, Fred Franz, the vice-president of the Watchtower Society, gave a talk in which he told how J. F. Rutherford characterized his proclamation of the 1925 date:

I know I made an ass of myself.

The above characterization was not one which Rutherford gave for consumption by the Bible Student community. On the contrary, the 1980 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses tells on page 63 of his visiting Switzerland in 1926 and his participation in a question meeting in which this interchange took place:

Question: Have the ancient worthies returned?

Answer: [by Rutherford] Certainly they have not returned. No one has seen them, and it would be foolish to make such an announcement. It was stated in the 'Millions' book that we might reasonably expect them to return shortly after 1925, but this was merely an expressed opinion.

How do recent publications of the Society depict the 1925 situation? The 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses attributed the problem, not to the organization that published the information, but to "the brothers" who read it, saying (page 146):

The year 1925 came and went. Jesus' anointed followers were still on earth as a class. The faithful men of old times -- Abraham, David and others -- had not been resurrected to become princes in the earth. (Ps. 45:16) So, as Anna MacDonald recalls: "1925 was a sad year for many brothers. Some of them were stumbled; their hopes were dashed. They had hoped to see some of the 'ancient worthies' [men of old like Abraham] resurrected. Instead of its being considered a 'probability,' they read into it that it was a 'certainty,' and some prepared for their own loved ones with expectancy of their resurrection."

Does this view square with any of the published statements from The Watch Tower shown above? Does the above information show that the Society has been faithful to God's Word or has been discreet? If Rutherford's claim that what was published were only opinions, then how could the Society claim that what was published was spiritual "food in due season"? And how can it be justified that those who questioned such teachings at the time they were promulgated were belittled and had their loyalty and humility before God questioned?

The 1931 book Vindication I, page 338, indicated that Rutherford had learned his lesson:

There was a measure of disappointment on the part of Jehovah's faithful ones on earth concerning the years 1914, 1918, & 1925, which disappointment lasted for a time.... and they also learned to quit fixing dates.

But did the Society really learn to quit fixing dates? Let's see.

In 1930, using $75,000 in money (note this is depression dollars) donated by a wealthy Bible Student, J. F. Rutherford completed construction on a large mansion in San Diego, California, called Beth Sarim, which means "House of the Princes." The house appears to be worth about $2,000,000 today. Beth Sarim was built to provide a place to which the "princes," Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others, could return just before the closing events of the end. The house would be turned over to them when they appeared and properly identified themselves. As the 1939 book Salvation stated:

At San Diego, California, there is a small piece of land, on which in the year 1929, there was built a house, which is called and known as Beth-Sarim.... the purpose of acquiring that property and building the house was that there might be some tangible proof that there are those on earth today who fully believe God and Christ Jesus and in His kingdom, and who believe that the faithful men of old will soon be resurrected by the Lord, be back on earth, and take charge of the visible affairs of the earth. The title to Beth-Sarim is vested in the WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY in trust, to be used by the president of the Society and his assistants for the present, and thereafter to be for ever at the disposal of the aforementioned princes on the earth.... if and when the princes do return and some of them occupy the property, such will be a confirmation of the faith and hope that induced the building of Beth-Sarim.

In typical lawyer fashion Rutherford made sure that only he or persons he approved of could use the estate, and that no imposters could take possession of it. The deed stated:

IT IS FURTHER PROVIDED that if the said JOSEPH F. RUTHERFORD while alive on the earth shall by lease, deed or contract provide that any other person or persons connected with the said WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY shall have the right to reside on said premises until the appearing of David or some of the other men mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews as above set forth even such person or persons so designated by the said JOSEPH F. RUTHERFORD in such lease or other paper writing shall have the right and privilege of residing on said premises until the same be taken possession of by David or some of the other men herein named and this property and premises being dedicated to Jehovah and the use of his kingdom it shall be used as such for ever. Any persons appearing to take possession of said premises shall first prove and identify themselves to the proper officers of said Society as the person or persons described in Hebrews chapter eleven and in this deed.

The 1942 book The New World reported, p. 104:

.... hence those faithful men of old may be expected back from the dead any day now.... In this expectation the house at San Diego, California, which house has been much publicized with malicious intent by the religious enemy, was built, in 1930, and named "Beth Sarim".... It is now held in trust for the occupancy of those princes on their return.

So in spite of having "learned to quit fixing dates," Rutherford was going full steam ahead with something equally foolish.

After Rutherford died in 1942, the Society wanted to bury him on the Beth Sarim estate, but this request was denied by San Diego officials. An article entitled "San Diego Officials Line Up Against New Earth's Princes" in the May 27, 1942 Consolation, page 3, castigated those officials for their refusal:

Before his death Judge Rutherford made the simple request that his remains be buried somewhere on the hundred-acre estate at San Diego, California, held in trust for the New Earth's Princes. The house built thereon he named "Beth-Sarim"; it was deeded to those princes. On March 14, more than two months after he passed to his reward on January 8, the San Diego County Planning Commission handed down the decision that nowhere upon this land could his bones repose.

The Society quietly sold Beth Sarim in 1948. It seems to be somewhat embarrassed by it today, and prefers that its true purpose not be known. The 1975 Yearbook said on page 194:

In time, a direct contribution was made for the purpose of constructing a house in San Diego for Brother Rutherford's use. It was not built at the expense of the Watch Tower Society. Concerning this property, the 1939 book Salvation stated: "At San Diego, California, there is a small piece of land, on which in the year 1929, there was built a house, which is called and known as Beth-Sarim."

As World War II neared, J. F. Rutherford found fertile soil for more predictions of the end. The 1939 book Salvation said:

The abundance of Scriptural evidence, together with the physical facts that have come to pass showing the fulfillment of prophecy, conclusively proves that the time for the battle of the great day of God Almighty is very near and that in that battle all of God's enemies shall be destroyed and the earth cleared of wickedness.... (page 310)

Likewise today, all the nations and peoples of earth are face to face with the greatest emergency. They are being warned as God commands, that the disaster of Armageddon is just ahead (page 361).

The 1940 book Religion said:

The prophecies of Almighty God, the fulfillment of which now clearly appears from the physical facts, show that the end of religion has come and with its end the complete downfall of Satan's entire organization.... (page 336) .... The day for final settlement is near at hand (page 338).

The September 1, 1940 Watchtower said on page 265:

The witness work for THE THEOCRACY appears to be about done in most of the countries of "Christendom."....

.... Now the totalitarian rule has suppressed the Theocratic message, and it should be expected that when they quit fighting amongst themselves all the totalitarian rulers will turn their attention to the complete suppression of everything pertaining to the THEOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.

What, then, does it mean that the THEOCRATIC GOVERNMENT is now suppressed in many nations? It means that the hour is rapidly approaching when the "sign" of Armageddon will be clearly revealed and all who are on the side of Jehovah will see and appreciate it.

The Watchtower, September 15, 1941, page 288, said concerning the distribution of the book Children:

Receiving the gift, the marching children clasped it to them, not a toy or plaything for idle pleasure, but the Lord's provided instrument for most effective work in the remaining months before Armageddon.

Do "the physical facts" show that any of these predictions came to be fulfilled? Can it be said that the time was so near, when the children receiving Children have come to be grandparents?

Speculations About 1975 As End of World

By the mid-1960s the Society had apparently forgotten much of what it had learned about setting dates. The book Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God, 1966, said on pages 26-30:

The time is fast drawing near for the reality that was foreshadowed by the Jubilee of liberty to be proclaimed throughout the earth to all mankind.... Most certainly the near future would be the most appropriate time for it. God's own written Word indicates that it is the appointed time for it.... In this twentieth century an independent study has been carried on that does not blindly follow some traditional chronological calculations of Christendom, and the published timetable resulting from this independent study gives the date of man's creation as 4026 B.C.E. According to this trustworthy Bible chronology six thousand years from man's creation will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human history will begin in the fall of 1975 C.E..... So in not many years within our own generation we are reaching what Jehovah God could view as the seventh day of man's existence.

How appropriate it would be for Jehovah God to make of this coming seventh period of a thousand years a sabbath period of rest and release, a great Jubilee sabbath for the proclaiming of liberty throughout the earth to all its inhabitants! This would be most timely for mankind. It would also be most fitting on God's part, for, remember, mankind has yet ahead of it what the last book of the Holy Bible speaks of as the reign of Jesus Christ over earth for a thousand years, the millennial reign of Christ.... It would not be by mere chance or accident but would be according to the loving purpose of Jehovah God for the reign of Jesus Christ, the "Lord of the sabbath," to run parallel with the seventh millennium of man's existence.

Although the writer had not said flat out that 1975 would see the start of the millennium, he certainly intimated it. It would seem reasonable that if he said that it was "fitting" for God to do certain things, then he must have a good measure of certainty. If he was not certain then he was presumptuous. By saying "it would be according to the loving purpose of God" that the two millennia would coincide, does he not assure the reader of its certainty? Especially since all the suggestions of the "faithful and discreet slave" are to be accorded great weight?

The October 8, 1966 Awake! carried an article entitled "How Much Longer Will It Be?" and under the subheading "6,000 Years Completed in 1975," it too reasoned that the millennium would be the last 1000 years of a 7000-year rest day of God. Abandoning some of the caution shown in the above it said on page 19-20:

Hence, the fact that we are nearing the end of the first 6,000 years of man's existence is of great significance.

Does God's rest day parallel the time man has been on earth since his creation? Apparently so. From the most reliable investigations of Bible chronology, harmonizing with many accepted dates of secular history, we find that Adam was created in the autumn of the year 4026 B.C.E. Sometime in that year Eve could well have been created, directly after which God's rest day commenced. In what year, then, would the first 6,000 years of man's existence and also the first 6,000 years of God's rest day come to an end? The year 1975. This is worthy of notice, particularly in view of the fact that the "last days" began in 1914, and that the physical facts of our day in fulfillment of prophecy mark this as the last generation of this wicked world. So we can expect the immediate future to be filled with thrilling events for those who rest their faith in God and his promises. It means that within relatively few years we will witness the fulfillment of the remaining prophecies that have to do with the "time of the end."

The October 15, 1966 Watchotwer followed suit with the following comments (pp. 628-31):

Only a liberated people can preach a release to captives, conventioners were told in the speech "Preach a Release to the Captives," which thrilled them with its hopeful outlook. "Jehovah, the God of freedom and liberty, has freed his people from Babylonish bondage and has given them a work of liberation to do. That work of liberation and salvation must go on to the finish! To give aid today in this critical time to prospective sons of God," announced President Knorr, "a new book in English, entitled 'Life Everlasting -- in Freedom of the Sons of God,' has been published." At all assembly points where it was released, the book was received enthusiastically. Crowds gathered around stands and soon supplies of the book were depleted. Immediately its contents were examined. It did not take the brothers very long to find the chart beginning on page 31, showing that 6,000 years of man's existence end in 1975. Discussion of 1975 overshadowed about everything else. "The new book compels us to realize that Armageddon is, in fact, very close indeed," said a conventioner. Surely it was one of the outstanding blessings to be carried home! ...

At the Baltimore assembly Brother Franz in his closing remarks made some interesting comments regarding the year 1975. He began casually by saying, "Just before I got on the platform a young man came to me and said, 'Say, what does this 1975 mean? Does it mean this, that or any other thing?'" In part, Brother Franz went on to say: 'You have noticed the chart [on pages 31-35 in the book Life Everlasting -- in Freedom of the Sons of God]. It shows that 6,000 years of human experience will end in 1975, about nine years from now. What does that mean? Does it mean that God's rest day began in 4026 B.C.E.? It could have. The Life Everlasting book does not say it did not. The book merely presents the chronology. You can accept it or reject it. If that is the case, what does that mean to us? [He went into some length showing the feasibility of the 4026 B.C.E. date as being the beginning of God's rest day.]

'What about the year 1975? What is it going to mean, dear friends?' asked Brother Franz. 'Does it mean that Armageddon is going to be finished, with Satan bound, by 1975? It could! It could! All things are possible with God. Does it mean that Babylon the Great is going to go down by 1975? It could. Does it mean that Babylon the Great is going to go down by 1975? It could. Does it mean that the attack of Gog of Magog is going to be made on Jehovah's witnesses to wipe them out, then Gog himself will be put out of action? It could. But we are not saying. All things are possible with God. But we are not saying. And don't any of you be specific in saying anything that is going to happen between now and 1975. But the big point of it all is this, dear friends: Time is short. Time is running out, no question about that.

'When we were approaching the end of the Gentile Times in 1914, there was no sign that the Gentile Times were going to end. Conditions on earth gave us no hint of what was to come, even as late as June of that year. Then suddenly there was a murder. World War I broke out. You know the rest. Famines, earthquakes and pestilences followed, as Jesus foretold would happen.

'But what do we have today as we approach 1975? Conditions have not been peaceful. We've been having world wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences and we have these conditions still as we approach 1975. Do these things mean something? These things mean that we're in the "time of the end." And the end has to come sometime. Jesus said: "As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near." (Luke 21:28) So we know that as we come to 1975 our deliverance is that much nearer.'

By the next year expectations were high. The following is taken from a talk entitled "Serving with Everlasting Life In View," given at a circuit assembly in the spring of 1967 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin by a representative of the Society. The speaker emphasized the nearness of Armageddon and specifically said that it would come before 1975. Speaking of the world to come after Armageddon, he said:

Well, now, who will be there, of us here tonight? For the Society has made application of this scripture, in pointing out that those of us among Jehovah's Witnesses that are not regularly associating with his people, without good cause, such as being flat on our back, will not be in the new order. And we're the ones that are going to come around when the doors close, and say 'I want in now. Sir, open to us!' And Jesus will have to say, 'I'm sorry, I don't even recognize you.' Now wouldn't that be an awful thing. Do you see now why the Society implores us, year in and year out, the same old thing, 'Brothers, get in the flock. Don't let any excuses get in our way. Nothing of any nature. There's only one thing that's going to count when that time comes, and that's that we are inside.' And we hope that all of us here tonight are going to listen to the Society's imploring. We're going to listen to the agonizing entreaty, 'Brothers get in!', because they know what's coming. And it's coming fast -- and don't wait till '75. The door is going to be shut before then.

The May 1, 1968 Watchtower continued this stimulation of anticipation. Using much the same argument as the above article, it said on page 272:

The immediate future is certain to be filled with climactic events, for this old system is nearing its complete end. Within a few years at most the final parts of Bible prophecy relative to these "last days" will undergo fulfillment, resulting in the liberation of surviving mankind into Christ's glorious 1,000-year reign. What difficult days, but, at the same time, what grand days are just ahead!

Similarly, the October 8, 1968 Awake!, on page 13, emphasized the shortness of the time:

The fact that fifty-four years of the period called the "last days" have already gone by is highly significant. It means that only a few years, at most, remain before the corrupt system of things dominating the earth is destroyed by God.

In 1998, thirty years later, we may ask, What does the phrase "the immediate future" mean? How many years are "a few years at most"?

The Watchtower, August 15, 1968, spoke at length about the significance of 1975 on pages 488-501. In the article "The Book of Truthful Historical Dates" it said on page 488:

Do we know that the seventh year from now will conclude the 6,000th year since Adam was created? And if we live to that year 1975, what should we expect to happen?

In this Watchtower, the article "Why Are You Looking Forward To 1975?" raised a good deal of anticipation when it said on page 494:

What about all this talk concerning the year 1975? Lively discussions, some based on speculation, have burst into flame during recent months among serious students of the Bible. [which students, and who started the fire?] Their interest has been kindled by the belief that 1975 will mark the end of 6,000 years of human history since Adam's creation. The nearness of such an important date indeed fires the imagination and presents unlimited possibilities for discussion.

.... of what benefit is this information to us today?.... why should we be any more interested in the date of Adam's creation than in the birth of King Tut?.... in the fall of the year 1975, a little over seven years from now.... it will be 6,000 years since the creation of Adam.

Note the sense of urgency, and the implication that 6000 years is a figure of special significance. Continuing on page 499:

Are we to assume from this study that the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then? Possibly, but we wait to see how closely the seventh thousand-year period of man's existence coincides with the sabbathlike thousand-year reign of Christ. If these two periods run parallel with each other as to the calendar year, it will not be by mere chance or accident but will be according to Jehovah's loving and timely purposes. [What can we say of this from the perspective of 1998?] Our chronology, however, which is reasonably accurate (but admittedly not infallible), at the best only points to the autumn of 1975 as the end of 6,000 years of man's existence on earth. It does not necessarily mean that 1975 marks the end of the first 6,000 years of Jehovah's seventh creative "day." Why not? Because after his creation Adam lived some time during the "sixth day," which unknown amount of time would need to be subtracted from Adam's 930 years, to determine when the sixth seven-thousand-year period or "day" ended, and how long Adam lived into the "seventh day." And yet the end of that sixth creative "day" could end within the same Gregorian calendar year of Adam's creation. It may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years.

Note how this reasoning produces a sense of urgency in the reader. It also ignores the express statement in Genesis 2:23 "This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Why would the Bible use the term "at last" if only a short period of less than one year were involved? The Society is well aware of this; Fred Franz did most of the translating of the Hebrew Scriptures and he wrote Life Everlasting In Freedom of the Sons of God, in which this reckoning was first emphasized. Also, there is no scriptural justification for requiring that Eve's creation marked the end of the sixth creative day. There is plenty of room for extra time, as the events since 1975 have borne out.

Actually there is no scriptural justification whatsoever for Fred Franz's continual strong emphasis that the 6000 or 7000 year figures mean anything at all. C. T. Russell placed the acceptance of the 6000 year prophetic scheme in proper perspective when he wrote, in The Time Is At Hand, 1889, page 39:

And though the Bible contains no direct statement that the seventh thousand will be the epoch of Christ's reign, the great Sabbath Day of restitution to the world, yet the venerable tradition is not without reasonable foundation.

One of the people Russell got many ideas from was a Lutheran minister from Philadelphia named Joseph A. Seiss. For many years Seiss was the editor of a magazine called The Prophetic Times. In the January, 1870 issue, Vol. VIII No. 1, pages 12-3, Seiss discussed his ideas on Bible chronology, giving figures that he said were evidence that "1870 brings us to the commencement of the Seventh Thousand of the years since the present world began." In contrast with Barbour and Russell, Seiss was not dogmatic about these figures: "We lay no great stress upon the arithmetic of prophecy; because the starting-points, as well as many of the integers of the calculations, lack in certainty."

As for the "Great Sabbath Day" tradition, Russell wrote:

It has been a very old, and a very widely accredited theory, that the world, of which Adam was the beginning, is to continue 6000 years in its secular, ailing and toiling condition; and that the seventh thousand is to be one of glorious sabbatic rest, ushered in by the winding up of this present age or dispensation.

The idea is indeed a venerable tradition. It may ultimately be based on an old tradition that the seventh creative day of Genesis is itself 7000 years long, and that the Messiah would reign during the final 1000 years of it. A very early source, quite possibly 1st century A.D., is the New Testament apocryphal book called "The Epistle of Barnabas." There exist a number of early Christian writings sometimes referred to as the apocrypha of the New Testament, which were at one time or another considered for membership in the New Testament canon. From the 1979 reprint of a 1926 English translation of these, called The Lost Books of the Bible, here are the relevant passages:

Furthermore it is written concerning the sabbath, in the Ten Commandments, which God spake in the Mount Sinai to Moses, face to face; Sanctify the sabbath of the Lord with pure hands, and with a clean heart. And elsewhere he saith; If thy children shall keep my sabbaths, then will I put my mercy upon them. And even in the beginning of the creation he makes mention of the sabbath. And God made in six days the works of his hands; and he finished them on the seventh day, and he rested the seventh day, and sanctified it.

Consider, my children, what that signifies, he finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this; that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end. For with him one day is a thousand years; as himself testifieth, saying, Behold this day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished. And what is that he saith, And he rested the seventh day: he meaneth this; that when his Son shall come, and abolish the season of the Wicked One, and judge the ungodly; and shall change the sun and the moon, and the stars; then he shall gloriously rest in that seventh day. [The Lost Books of the Bible, p. 160-2; Chap. 13, The Epistle of Barnabas]

I wrote a letter to the Society in the early 1970s, expressing my misgivings about the 6000 and 7000 years as exact numbers. Their reply said, essentially, that rounding off the numbers is an assumption, i.e., since we are near the 6000 year mark already, and the end is so close, the round number 6000 looks awfully nice.

Another point is that if 6000 years, as an exact number, has any meaning, and if Jesus was actually the one through whom God created everything else, and if angels were witnesses to all that creative activity, as Job 38:7 seems to indicate, then Jesus and the angels would have been able to figure out when the final end of the world would come. But Jesus said explicitly: "Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father." Therefore the 6000 year round number assumption must be incorrect.

Ignoring these considerations, the August 13, 1968 Watchtower article continues, on page 500:

This time between Adam's creation and the beginning of the seventh day, the day of rest, let it be noted, need not have been a long time. It could have been a rather short one. The naming of the animals by Adam, and his discovery that there was no complement for himself, required no great length of time.

Note how definite the writer is on this point. It is clear that producing a sense of urgency is the whole point of the article. Continuing on pages 500-501:

One thing is absolutely certain, Bible chronology reinforced with fulfilled Bible prophecy shows that six thousand years of man's existence will soon be up, yes, within this generation! (Matt. 24:34) This is, therefore, no time to be indifferent and complacent.

The article even implies that one should be careful about putting too much weight on Jesus' own cautionary words:

This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that "concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father." To the contrary, it is a time when one should be keenly aware that the end of this system of things is rapidly coming to its violent end. Make no mistake, it is sufficient that the Father himself knows both the "day and hour."

The article even justifies producing a sense of urgency:

There was a ring of alarm and a cry of urgency in all their [the apostles] writings.... And rightly so. If they had delayed or dillydallied and had been complacent with the idea the end was was some thousands of years off they would never have finished running the race set before them.

As if the apostles needed to be kept in the dark or they would have slacked off. This speaks volumes as to the Society's attitude toward those in its care.

The Watchtower, May 1, 1968, abandoned all caution when it said on page 271, paragraph 4:

Thus, Adam's naming of the animals and his realizing that he needed a counterpart would have occupied only a brief time after his creation. Since it was also Jehovah's purpose for man to multiply and fill the earth, it is logical that he would create Eve soon after Adam, perhaps just a few weeks or months later in the same year, 4026 B.C.E. After her creation, God's rest day, the seventh period, immediately followed.

The study question for this paragraph then asked, "When were Adam and Eve created?" Paragraphs 5 and 6 then said:

After [Eve's] creation, God's rest day, the seventh period, immediately followed. Therefore, God's seventh day and the time man has been on earth apparently run parallel. To calculate where man is in the stream of time relative to God's seventh day of 7,000 years, we need to determine how long a time has elapsed from the year of Adam and Eve's creation in 4026 B.C.E.....

The seventh day of the Jewish week, the sabbath, would well picture the final 1,000-year reign of God's kingdom under Christ when mankind would be uplifted from 6,000 years of sin and death. (Rev. 20:6) Hence, when Christians note from God's timetable the approaching end of 6,000 years of human history, it fills them with anticipation. Particularly is this true because the great sign of the "last days" has been in the course of fulfillment since the beginning of the "time of the end" in 1914.

Compare this with what Russell had said in The Time Is At Hand (see above) -- the idea the sabbath day pictures the 7th 1000 year period was a venerable tradition even in his day.

The Watchtower article added a cautionary note on page 272:

Does this mean that the year 1975 will bring the battle of Armageddon? No one can say with certainty what any particular year will bring.

However, this cautionary note was bound to be lost in view of the strong previous statements. That some Watchtower writers lost their caution is further emphasized by the statement in the October 8, 1968 Awake!, which said on page 14:

According to reliable Bible chronology Adam and Eve were created in 4026 B.C.E.

The 1969 book Aid to Bible Understanding indicated that Adam and Eve were created in the same year. On page 333, under the subject "Chronology," it said that the time from Adam's creation to the birth of Seth was 130 years, and on page 538, under the subject "Eve," it said that at the age of 130 Eve gave birth to Seth. Since this book was published as an authoritative, encyclopedia-like reference, these comments again assured the reader that the Society was certain that Adam and Eve were created in the same year, and implied that it was certain that "everything would be over" by 1975.

The 1969 booklet The Approaching Peace of a Thousand Years was also definite about 1975. On pages 25-26 it said:

More recently earnest researchers of the Holy Bible have made a recheck of its chronology. According to their calculations the six millenniums of mankind's life on earth would end in the mid-seventies. Thus the seventh millennium from man's creation by Jehovah God would begin within less than ten years....

In order for the Lord Jesus Christ to be "Lord even of the sabbath day," his thousand-year reign would have to be the seventh in a series of thousand-year periods or millenniums.

The above material is remarkably similar in spirit to the admittedly asinine claims made by J. F. Rutherford in Millions Now Living Will Never Die.

Some very direct statements about 1975 came from the Kingdom Ministry. The March, 1968 issue urged getting into pioneer service, saying:

In view of the short period of time left, we want to do this as often as circumstances permit. Just think, brothers, there are only about ninety months left before 6,000 years of man's existence on earth is completed.

The Kingdom Ministry of June 1969 mentioned approvingly that some were turning down scholarships and employment in the spirit of increased service.

The May, 1974 Kingdom Ministry, having referred to the "short time left," approvingly said:

Reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service. Certainly this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end.

At this point some may say, "Oh, but all of this stuff just shows that the Society was merely speculating about 1975." Not so! The 1974 book God's "Eternal Purpose" Now Triumphing for Man's Good shows that the idea that the 7th "creative day" began in 4026 B.C.E. was by this time a well-established doctrine. Without reticence, page 51 displays the subtitle "'Evening' of Seventh Creative 'Day' Begins, 4026 B.C.E."

In view of the above quotations, it is clear that the Society dogmatically taught that Adam and Eve were created in 4026 B.C.E., that the 7th creative day began then, that 6,000 years of human history would end in 1975, and that the Millennium would be the last part of the 7th day. These dogmatic statements lead inevitably to the conclusion that the Battle of Armageddon would have to be over by late 1975.

I know a number of Witnesses who were married during the early 1970s, and have since expressed amazement at having had their children grow to the same age they were when they were married.

As 1975 approached, the Society backed off a bit from the earlier dogmatism. Sometimes when commenting on the "Adam and Eve gap" the Society or its representatives would say that it was not known for certain how long this "gap" was, but would then turn around and imply strongly that it had to be "a short time." For example, Fred Franz gave a talk at the Los Angeles Sports Arena on February 10, 1975. In his address, "Time in Which We Are Now Interested," Franz stated that 6,000 years of human history would definitely end at sundown, September 5, 1975. He also disclosed what many Witnesses were expecting in 1975:

Now [in] our inquiries around the world with brothers as to what they're expecting to occur between now and the end of 1975, it is revealed, that some, are very sanguine about matters in the near future, and they're expecting the great tribulation to occur and the destruction of Babylon the Great and the annihilation of all the political systems of this world and then the binding of Satan and his demons and their abyssing to occur before this year is ended. This year 1975. And immediately thereafter the thousand year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ to begin. So they expect a great deal. And they're venting their views to their brothers and sisters in the congregations and raising their expectations very, very high indeed. Well now, we're not saying that by the end of this year 1975 all these things cannot take place. That God cannot bring all these things about! He can! He's almighty. And this omniptent One can bring this about in a hurry if He wants to do so. But, in view of what the Scriptures inform us, are we warranted in expecting so much to occur by September 5, 1975? ...

Franz then explained again the significance of the "Adam and Eve gap," that there was a time interval between Adam's creation and Eve's, and that the 6th creative day ended only after Eve's creation. So while September 5, 1975 would mark the end of 6,000 years of man's existence, it did not necessarily mean that mankind would be 6,000 years into the 7th day. This view was later presented in the October 1, 1975 Watchtower. If this time interval were one month, then things could terminate in October, if two months, November, and so on. Franz stated, "Well, since that is the case, then we do not necessarily have to insist or even expect that everything is going to be through and over with by September 5 of this year...."

Despite such words of caution, Franz lapsed into producing the usual sense of urgency:

... After September 5, things could happen, and it looks very likely they're going to happen, according to the way that affairs are going in the world ...

... So it could come, quickly, within a short time after the terminal day of the lunar year 1975. And we should not jump to wrong decisions on that account and say, well, the time after September 5, 1975 is indefintely long and so it will allow for me to realize my human aspirations, getting married and raising a family -- kids; or, going to college for a few years and learning engineering and finding a fine position as an engineer ... or some other prominent, fine paying job. No! The time does not allow for that dear friends .... Evidently there is not much time left ...

So according to Franz, who was in practice the head theologian of the Society, Armageddon and the millennial reign of Christ could take place almost immediately -- or at some time during the next few years.

The Watchtower, May 1, 1975, said that Franz soon addressed a Watchtower Bible School of Gilead graduation held on March 2, 1975, and said much the same as at the Los Angeles Sports Arena:

Another speaker, F. W. Franz, the Society's vice-president, forcefully impressed on the audience the urgency of the Christian preaching work. He stressed that, according to dependable Bible chronology, 6,000 years of human history will end this coming September according to the lunar calendar. This coincides with a time when "the human species [is] about to starve itself to death," as well as its being faced with poisoning by pollution and destruction by nuclear weapons. Franz added: "There's no basis for believing that mankind, faced with what it now faces, can exist for the seventh thousand-year period" under the present system of things.

Does this mean that we know exactly when God will destroy this old system and establish a new one? Franz showed that we do not, for we do not know how short was the time interval between Adam's creation and the creation of Eve, at which point God's rest day of seven thousand years began. (Heb. 4:3,4) But, he pointed out, "we should not think that this year of 1975 is of no significance to us," for the Bible proves that Jehovah is "the greatest chronologist" and "we have the anchor date, 1914, marking the end of the Gentile Times." So, he continued, "we are filled with anticipation for the near future, for our generation."

If this is not building anticipation without quite saying specifically what the anticipation should be based on, I don't know what is.

The Society was even more direct in its private communications with its own officials. The following excerpt is taken from a letter from the Society to District Overseer Lester Duggan, apparently sometime in 1975, in answer to a question regarding the subheading on page 51 in the "Eternal Purpose" book (this subheading was mentioned above).

While the beginning of the "seventh day" is admittedly tentative, the end of the six thousand years of man's history in the fall of 1975 is not tentative, but is accepted as a certain date. So in good faith and with right motive to enhance Bible education, the date 1975 has been presented with confidence, as one of considerable significance. While some outsiders have come to be quick in denouncing the Society, yet we calmly wait for the completion of this Biblical year of 1975, as we continue to strengthen ourselves spiritually. From Jehovah's viewpoint and his eternal purpose for the earth, the completion of six thousand years of man's residence on this earth is bound to be important.

Even the year texts for the early 1970s reflected the sense of urgency the Society was building.

1974: "Although the fig tree itself may not blossom,.... I will exult in Jehovah himself." -- Hab. 3:17, 18.

1975: "I will say to Jehovah: 'You are my refuge and my stronghold'" -- Ps. 91:2

The sense of urgency continued to be built, through 1974 and on into 1975. Note how the following excerpt from the December 15, 1974 Watchtower (pp. 764-66) does so:

... now, as the critical year of 1975 enters, it may well be asked: Has the Most High God of prophecy made a name for himself? The answer is self-evident, Yes! By whom? Not by Christendom or by Jewry, but by Jehovah's Christian witnesses!' ...

Only from the end of the year 1928 was the prospect opened up to the spiritual understanding of the anointed remnant of the "Israel of God" to survive the "war of the great day of God the Almighty" at Har- Magedon and enter here on earth into Jehovah's righteous new order... And now, as the year 1975 opens up, some thousands of the anointed remnant, still alive on this earth, look ahead to realizing that joyful prospect. The increasing "great crowd" of their sheeplike companions look forward with them to entering the New Order without interruption of life. In the New Order Jehovah God will add to the "length of days" of the anointed remnant on earth to the point of satisfying the members thereof. It remains to be seen whether they will be yet retained here on earth to see the start of the resurrection of the earthly dead and to meet faithful witnesses of ancient, pre-Christian times. They would enjoy that, before being taken off the earthly scene to the heavenly reward with Christ.

Note how the above-quoted article emphasized "the critical year of 1975." If, as some apologists today claim, the Society only suggested 1975 as a possible date for "the end," then why did the article call the year "critical"? What was "critical" about it, except that it was probably going to be the year of "the end"?

In December 1975 a revised version of the book The Jehovah's Witnesses and Prophetic Speculation (Edmond C. Gruss, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1972, 1975) was published. On pages vii-viii it quoted from the London religious newspaper Evangelical Times of January 1975, which printed an article "Will the World End This Year?" (by ex-Witnesses Richard E. Cotton and George Terry). It said:

The year 1975 has dawned, and with it comes the question: Could this be the year of Nemesis, of retribution, for Jehovah's Witnesses? Could it be the year of yet another dashed hope?

To many of the rank and file within the Watchtower Movement, 1975 has meant only one thing -- the long awaited year of Divine Wrath. The time of judgment, when God would destroy the wicked and restore this old earth to a paradise state. Eternal life in the restored earth has been the hope of most Jehovah's Witnesses.

For almost ten years 1975 has hung over the heads of the faithful like a chronological carrot. True, very little has been written about it in official Watchtower publications, but a great deal has been said at grassroot level. And when Witnesses are taught to believe that God is using the Watchtower organisation to the total exclusion of all other churches or bodies (for this is their claim) it only requires a hint of a date to begin a wave of speculation. This is very understandable in a group maintaining that we are living at the very end of the Bible's "time of the end."

A date like 1975 had a fine apocalyptic ring when it was still ten years or so ahead. In 1966 a publication called Life Everlasting -- in Freedom of the Sons of God announced that independent research into Bible chronology had established that 6,000 years of human history would come to an end in the autumn of 1975. As Jehovah's Witnesses believe that there will be a millenium to complete a divine cycle of 7,000 years, it was clear that the long awaited period would begin around the autumn of 1975.

When the date was made public 1966, the present writer was a Witness and was able to see what happened. Very little apart from that statement was ever published, but things began to be said and great was the speculation. No doubt many can recall the famous football star who stated on television that the Bible taught that the end would come in 1975. He was so certain of this, viewers were told, that if the expected results did not materialise, he would throw his Bible away.

In the months and years that followed overseers and visiting speakers of the cult were known to speak to the congregation about the "short time left." Some of the more convinced would total up the number of days to October 1975. When told by indignant householders, "You people are always round at our doors," one full time worker would answer: "We shall not be calling many more times."

Bible Studies with the unconverted were limited to a certain number of weeks because of the nearness of the end. Some Witnesses never bothered to increase their mortgage repayments as interest rates shot upwards. They were hoping for a permanent settlement on the amount outstanding in 1975. Some were so convinced the world was on its last legs that they speculated the system could not last until 1975.

D.I.Y. fans in the movement were known to remark in the early '70s that the house would not need repainting ever again. There was even the JW in need of surgery who preferred to live with the condition until the healing rays of the Millenium restored all to perfect health.

How many Witnesses, we wonder, will be suffering from loss of memory this year about their expressed hopes of only a year or so back? But these things were said and no amount of forgetting can unsay them.

To add to the fires of speculation some Witnesses got hold of typed copies of a talk which it was claimed was given by one of the Watchtower Directors in some far away country. This explosive material indicated that soon calamities and even flesh-consuming plagues of a cosmic nature would befall the world of men. Yet members of the Watchtower Movement would be untouched by these manifestations of divine anger.

How sure everyone seemed. Yet now 1975 is here and the dilemma of the Witnesses continues to increase....

But this is not all. Other problems now arise for the Witnesses' world view. They no longer have the luxury of being able to extend their time of waiting for still further years. For decades now the publications have emphasised that the second coming or presence of our Lord began in the year 1914. Using this year as a chronological anchor for the plan of the "last days," they confidently state ("from" Matt. 24:34) that in less than the passing of one human generation from 1914 all will be completed.

The honest observer may well be asking what many thinking JWs are asking. How long is a generation? From 1914 to 1975 is 61 years, a rather long time. If we think in terms of 40 years as a reasonable and scriptural figure then the cult has lost out. Even if we stretch the post-1914 period to its full limit by giving it a full biblical "threescore years and ten", we still find problems.

As stated before, the Movement stresses that it is the generation that is alive and witnessed 1914 that will still be around when the final end comes. So we are dealing with a time period years less than a full 70 years.

Time is no longer on the side of the Watchtower. Their prophetic hourglass is empty, but for a few grains of sand. As the critical year progresses, it may well be that pressure will be eased by diversionary tactics. We do not doubt the ability of the "men at the top" to make fresh calculations for the future, but the fact remains that this year may well be a critical one for the movement.

The predictions the above article made with respect to the Watchtower Society's actions after 1975 proved close to the mark. In 1977 the Witnesses began seeing a drop in membership for the first time since the late 1920s. By 1995 the Society had realized that its prophetic speculations even about the length of "the generation of 1914" were wrong, and so it detached "the generation" from 1914 altogether by making it open-ended.

By early 1976 it had become evident that the Society's expectations for 1975 would not be realized, just as they had not been for 1914 and 1925. Did the Society follow the excellent example of Bible writers and own up to the error? Did it show same candor as the Bible writers? No. Instead it followed exactly the same course J. F. Rutherford had followed after the 1925 failure, and blamed the disappointment on Jehovah's Witnesses themselves. The July 15, 1976 Watchtower, on page 441, approached the problem sideways. Without actually mentioning 1975 it said:

.... it is not advisable for us to set our sights on a certain date, neglecting everyday things we would ordinarily care for as Christians, such as things that we and our families really need. We may be forgetting that, when the "day" comes, it will not change the principle that Christians must at all times take care of all their responsibilities. If anyone has been disappointed through not following this line of thought, he should now concentrate on adjusting his viewpoint, seeing that it was not the word of God that failed or deceived him and brought disappointment, but that his own understanding was based on wrong premises.

How cynical can you get? Who was it that provided the "wrong premises"? Did each one of Jehovah's Witnesses, individually, conclude that 1975 was to be the end of 6000 years of human history, that "we should not think that this year of 1975 is of no significance to us," that "according to reliable Bible chronology Adam and Eve were created in 4026 B.C.E.," that "the seventh millennium from man's creation by Jehovah God would begin within less than ten years," that Jesus' "thousand-year reign would have to be the seventh in a series of thousand-year periods or millenniums," and that "God's seventh day and the time man has been on earth apparently run parallel"? I know I never thought of such things on my own. Nor would I have been permitted to express or act on them if I had.

By 1979 it became evident that the 1975 failure had produced a serious credibility gap. Even worse, the years 1977 and 1978 had shown a drop in the worldwide number of publishers for the first time in decades. So in early 1980 the Society finally admitted it had been wrong, that it had had at least some part in building up the false hopes for 1975.

The March 15, 1980 Watchtower article "Choosing the Best Way of Life" contains, on page 17, the acknowledgement that the Society misled people by its promotion of the 1975 date. That it came at all is surprising; I remember my own reaction upon reading it when it first came out. That it came more than four years after the failure of the 1975 prediction became evident is inexcusable. The article said:

In modern times such eagerness, commendable in itself, has led to attempts at setting dates for the desired liberation from the suffering and troubles that are the lot of persons throughout the earth. With the appearance of the book Life Everlasting -- in Freedom of the Sons of God, and its comments as to how appropriate it would be for the millennial reign of Christ to parallel the seventh millennium of man's existence, considerable expectation was aroused regarding the year 1975. There were statements made then, and thereafter, stressing that this was only a possibility. Unfortunately, however, along with such cautionary information, there were other statements published that implied that such realization of hopes by that year was more of a probability than a mere possibility. It is to be regretted that these latter statements apparently overshadowed the cautionary ones and contributed to a buildup of the expectation already initiated.

In its issue of July 15, 1976, The Watchtower, commenting on the inadvisability of setting our sights on a certain date, stated: "If anyone has been disappointed through not following this line of thought, he should now concentrate on adjusting his viewpoint, seeing that it was not the word of God that failed or deceived him and brought disappointment, but that his own understanding was based on wrong premises." In saying "anyone," The Watchtower included all disappointed ones of Jehovah's Witnesses, hence including persons having to do with the publication of the information that contributed to the buildup of hopes centered on that date.

Note how even this admission is buried in an article about something else, "choosing the best way of life." It does not candidly admit that the Society had some responsibility for what happened. Rather, it uses the passive voice to shift responsibility into outer space: "it is to be regretted" that these things happened. Again, how cynical!

As for the fact that the statements of urgency overshadowed the cautionary ones, was that not the intention from the very start? Why else would such information be emphasized? What other result could possibly have been expected? Especially since the Society has published many statements on how it expects Jehovah's Witnesses to view what it publishes, such as:

Do we truly appreciate how Jehovah is directing his visible organization?

When we appreciatively accept the spiritual provisions that come through the 'slave' class and its Governing body, for whom are we showing respect?

Their duties include receiving and passing on to all of Jehovah's earthly servants spiritual food at the proper time.

How vital it is for everyone in God's family to submit loyally to the teachings and arrangements of the Great Theocrat, Jehovah, and his King-Son, Christ Jesus, as transmitted through the 'faithful slave' on earth!

The Society did candidly acknowledge some responsibility for the hopes it raised by the 1975 prediction, but it was not for general public consumption. The 1980 Yearbook, on pages 30-31, spoke of a talk given at the 1979 conventions, called by the title of the above Watchtower article, "Choosing the Best Way of Life." The talk

acknowledged the Society's responsibility for some of the disappointment a number felt regarding 1975.

Today, all the decade-long buildup of hopes centered on 1975 is discounted as being of any particular importance. Many people who became Jehovah's Witnesses since 1975 have little idea of the sense of urgency that was in the air. The essence of Russell's words in 1916 is again expressed by the organization: It "certainly did have a very stimulating and sanctifying effect upon thousands, all of whom can praise the Lord -- even for the mistake."

Part 4: The WTS Says It Is a Prophet and Inspired

Overview:

The Watchtower Society Says It Is a Prophet

The Watchtower, January 15, 1959, pages 40-41, showed that the Society views itself as a "prophet" organization when it said:

Whom has God actually used as his prophet?.... Jehovah's witnesses are deeply grateful today that the plain facts show that God has been pleased to use them.... Jehovah thrust out his hand of power and touched their lips and put his words in their mouths.

The Watchtower, June 15, 1964, page 365, clearly states that Jehovah's Witnesses are prophesying:

As Jehovah revealed his truths by means of the first-century Christian congregation so he does today by means of the present-day Christian congregation. Through this agency he is having carried out prophesying on an intensified and unparalleled scale. All this activity is not an accident. Jehovah is the one behind all of it. The abundance of spiritual food and the amazing details of Jehovah's purposes that have been revealed to Jehovah's anointed witnesses are clear evidence that they are the ones mentioned by Jesus when he foretold a "faithful and discreet slave" class that would be used to dispense God's progressive revelations in these last days.

The Watchtower of April 1, 1972, pages 197, 200, said:

So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come? These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet?.... This "prophet" was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah's Christian witnesses.... Of course, it is easy to say that this group acts as a "prophet" of God. It is another thing to prove it. The only way that this can be done is to review the record. What does it show?....

Jehovah's witnesses today make their declaration of the good news of the Kingdom under angelic direction and support.... And since no word or work of Jehovah can fail, for he is God Almighty, the nations will see the fulfillment of what these witnesses say as directed from heaven.

Yes, the time must come shortly that the nations will have to know that really a "prophet" of Jehovah was among them. Actually now more than a million and a half persons are helping that collective or composite "prophet" in his preaching work and well over that number of others are studying the Bible with the "prophet" group and its companions.... Jehovah is interested not only in the vindication of his own name but also in vindicating his "prophet."

The Watchtower of July 1, 1973, page 402, said that the Society is the

only organization on earth that understands the deep things of God.

In referring to its prophecy about the "Times of the Gentiles" ending in 1914 the same issue said that

only God by his holy spirit could have revealed this.

Of course, God would have had to reveal this to some man or men, and whoever that was would have been God's prophet by virtue of teaching this revelation to others. The book The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah, 1971, pages 58-59, said:

Who is Ezekiel's present-day counterpart, whose message and conduct correspond with that of that ancient prophet of Jehovah? Of whom today was he a "sign" or "portent"? Not of some individual man, but of a group of people. Being made up of a unified company of persons, the modern Ezekiel is a composite personage, made up of many members, just the same as the human body is.... So it is with the modern-day counterpart of Ezekiel: it is, not one person's body, but a composite body, made up of many members.... Who, then, are the group of persons who, toward the beginning of this "time of the end," were commissioned to serve as the mouthpiece and active agent of Jehovah? In order to determine this, check the history of 1919, the first postwar year after the first world war....

Certainly, then, back there in the postwar year of 1919 there were none among the war-guilty religious elements of Jewry and Christendom who qualified to be commissioned as the modern-day counterpart or antitype of Ezekiel.... Whom could the real "chariot" of Jehovah's organization roll up to and confront that He might bestow upon this qualified one the commission to speak as a prophet in the name of Jehovah?....

They were a small minority group of men and women who had dedicated themselves to Jehovah as God by following in the footsteps of his Son Jesus Christ....

The book never manages to get around to explicitly mentioning who this group was, but it strongly suggests that it was the group benefiting the most from The Watchtower. This, of course, was The International Bible Students. Finally the book again mentions who the "Ezekiel class" is on page 67:

So it was with the anointed, dedicated witnesses of Jehovah back there in the year 1919 C.E. The facts from then on down to this date prove that they received their ordination and appointment and commission for their work in this "time of the end" from Jehovah himself through his heavenly chariotlike organization. Hence they have taken their divine commission very seriously....

The Watchtower of September 1, 1979, declared on page 29:

For nearly 60 years now the Jeremiah class have faithfully spoken Jehovah's Word.

The Watchtower of October 1, 1982, described how, on pages 26,27, it views itself as being a prophet like Jeremiah:

A "prophet to the nations" is what Jehovah made him. (Jeremiah 1:5) Now today, if anything, there needs to be a "prophet to the nations".... Jehovah has considerately raised up his "prophet to the nations." Jehovah has done this during this "time of the end," since World War I ended.... the "prophet" whom Jehovah has raised up has been, not an individual man as in the case of Jeremiah, but a class.... At this late date there is a mere remnant of this "prophet" class yet on earth.... One thing is now certain: if the "prophet" class, the Jeremiah class, is facing Har-Magedon....

The Watchtower Society Has Claimed To Be Inspired

According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, "inspire" means to "influence, move, or guide by divine or supernatural inspiration; to exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence on; to spur on, impel, motivate." 2 Timothy 3:16 says: "All Scripture is inspired of God." According to the Insight book, Vol. 1, pp. 1202-3,

the phrase "inspired of God" translates the compound Greek word theopneustos, meaning, literally, "God-breathed" or "breathed by God."

Also according to Insight, pages 1202-4, "inspiration" is:

The quality or state of being moved by or produced under the direction of a spirit from a superhuman source. When that source is Jehovah, the result is a pronouncement or writings that are truly the word of God.... The men used to write the Scriptures therefore cooperated with the operation of Jehovah's holy spirit. They were willing and submissive to God's guidance...., eager to know God's will and leading.... God directed them so that what they wrote coincided with and fulfilled his purpose. As spiritual men, their hearts and minds were attuned to God's will, they 'had the mind of Christ' and so were not setting down mere human wisdom nor a "vision of their own heart," as false prophets did.

The following quotations from Watchtower publications make it abundantly clear that the Society feels its activities fit this definition, although it reserves the word "inspired" for the Bible alone and uses other words to describe its activities. How are guidance and direction different from inspiration? It is a distinction without a difference.

Keep in mind the above definitions when reading the following quotations, as they reflect the language we speak and the Bible's view of inspiration.

The November 1, 1956 Watchtower declared on page 666, for all practical purposes, that the Society is inspired:

Who controls the organization, who directs it? Who is at the head? A man? A group of men? A clergy class? A pope? A hierarchy? A council? No, none of these. How is that possible? In any organization is it not necessary that there be a directing head or policy-making part that controls or guides the organization? Yes. Is the living God, Jehovah, the Director of the theocratic Christian organization? Yes!

While the writer did not use the word "inspired," for obvious reasons, to be directed by God is to be inspired. That is the definition of inspiration, as shown above.

The Watchtower of April 1, 1972 page 200, said:

.... Jehovah's witnesses today make their declaration of the good news of the Kingdom under angelic direction and support.

The book Holy Spirit -- The Force Behind the Coming New Order!, 1976, said on page 148:

The holy spirit, which Jehovah prophesied that he would pour out in the last days, has not ceased to operate, for the remnant are still baptizing disciples of Christ in the name of that spirit.... The announced purpose behind God's pouring out of his spirit upon all sorts of flesh was that the recipients thereof might prophesy. The facts substantiate that the remnant of Christ's anointed disciples have been doing that prophesying to all the nations for a witness in favor of God's kingdom. Logically, then, they must be the ones upon whom God's spirit has actually been poured out. That spirit is behind their worldwide preaching. Why argue about it?

Clearly, anyone whom God causes to speak his own words is, by definition, inspired. Note what the book Holy Spirit -- The Force Behind the Coming New Order! further said, on pages 175-6:

Here is what he [Jehovah] says in Isaiah 51:15, 16:

"I, Jehovah, am your God, the One stirring up the sea that its waves may be boisterous. Jehovah of armies is his name. And I shall put my words in your mouth, and with the shadow of my hand I shall certainly cover you, in order to plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth and say to Zion, 'You are my people.'"

No obstacle put in His way by the enemies will prove to be insurmountable for Jehovah. Just as at Mount Sinai He put his word in the mouth of his chosen people through the mediator Moses and thereafter he led them under the protective shadow of his hand into the Promised Land, so he has done for the remnant of spiritual Israel. He has put his word, his message of the hour, into the mouth of the spiritual remnant for them to confess openly before all the world, for their own salvation and for that of responsive hearers.

Anyone in whose mouth Jehovah has "put his word" is inspired by him, by definition. That word is by definition 'God-breathed,' and fits the definition given above by the Insight book. Clearly, this material proves that the Society considers its own words to be equivalent to those of Moses at Mount Sinai, through whom Jehovah gave his word to the Israelites. Moses was certainly inspired at that time, and nothing that Jehovah spoke through him failed -- "it all came true." (Joshua 21:45) Nor did it need to be revised at some later time, as "new light" appeared. The same cannot be said of what the Society has put forth in its publications.

Similarly invoking the notion of 'God-breathed,' the book Survival Into a New Earth, 1984, said, on page 109:

The members of spiritual Israel were looking forward to an inheritance "reserved in the heavens" for them. (1 Peter 1:3-5) But before they actually received that reward, Jehovah had a work for them to do. Concerning this, he prophetically said: "I shall put my words in your mouth, and with the shadow of my hand I shall certainly cover you, in order to plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth and say to Zion, 'You are my people.'" (Isaiah 51:16) He put his "words," his message, into the mouth of his servants for them to proclaim earth wide. With confidence they began to make known that God has planted the "new heavens" that neither men nor demons can uproot them. The way in which Jehovah has dealt with the representatives of heavenly Zion has clearly identified them as his people. In contrast with the spiritually and morally desolate condition of the world, the "land" occupied by spiritual Israel, their field of activity, has become a place where spiritual values and activities thrive. It is a spiritual paradise!

The two above quotations explicitly state that God causes the "anointed remnant" to speak God's words. That is inspiration.

The book Light I, 1930, said on page 12:

The remnant now "see visions"; that is to say, are given an understanding of things not heretofore understood.... The time for the fulfilment of the prophecy of Revelation seems to be from about 1879 forward until the kingdom is in full sway. It was about that date that the second presence of the Lord began to be observed, and that and other truths began to appear in The Watch Tower, which since then until now has been the means of communicating truth to those who love the Lord. All those who love God supremely believe that The Watch Tower was started and has been maintained by his power and grace.

On page 106 Light I said:

Visible human creatures had to do with that message, [a resolution adopted at the 1922 Cedar Point, Ohio, convention] yet, in fact, it was a message of the Lord sent through his invisible angels, because without a doubt these are clothed with authority to direct the course of earthly members of God's organization.

On page 113 Light I said:

.... it seems clear that the spirit of the Lord, operating by his invisible angels, directed his people on earth to take this action [of distributing a resolution adopted at a convention in Los Angeles in 1923].

The Watchtower, February 15, 1976 said on page 214:

We must take seriously what his Word says and what his organization reveals to us.... Would not a failure to respond to direction from God through his organization really indicate a rejection of divine rulership?

The Society has even published anecdotes that attempt to show direct guidance by God of the actions of certain of its members. The 1975 Yearbook described how Jehovah's Witnesses got their name, and related this story on pages 150-151:

When he was eighty-eight years old A. H. Macmillan attended the "Fruitage of the Spirit" Assembly of Jehovah's Witnesses in the same city [Columbus, Ohio]. There, on August 1, 1964, Brother Macmillan made these interesting comments on how the adopting of that name came about:

"It was my privilege to be here in Columbus in 1931 when we received ... the new title or name ... I was amongst the five that were to make a comment on what we thought about the idea of accepting that name, and I told them this briefly: I thought that it was a splendid idea because that title there told the world what we were doing and what our business was. Prior to this we were called Bible Students. Why? Because that's what we were. And then when other nations began to study with us, we were called International Bible Students. But now we are witnesses for Jehovah God, and that title there tells the public just what we are and what we're doing....

"In fact, it was God Almighty, I believe, that led to that, for Brother Rutherford told me himself that he woke up one night when he was preparing for that convention and he said, 'What in the world did I suggest an international convention for when I have no special speech or message for them? Why bring them all here?' And then he began to think about it, and Isaiah 43 came to his mind. He got up at two o'clock in the morning and wrote in shorthand, at his own desk, an outline of the discourse he was going to give about the Kingdom, the hope of the world, and about the new name. And all that was uttered by him at that time was prepared that night, or that morning at two o'clock. And [there is] no doubt in my mind -- not then nor now -- that the Lord guided him in that, and that is the name Jehovah wants us to bear and we're very happy and very glad to have it."

Of course, almost everyone who has thought hard about a subject has experienced something similar. One will be doing something totally unrelated to the subject when a flash of thought comes up and one feels like the problem is solved. This even occurs in the middle of the night when one is lying awake thinking. People who don't think much do not experience this and don't understand how it can happen.

Sometimes Uninspired

When convenient, the Society says it is fallible and is not inspired. Reasoning from the Scriptures says on page 136:

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.... It is true that the Witnesses have made mistakes in their understanding of what would occur at the end of certain time periods, but they have not made the mistake of losing faith or ceasing to be watchful as to fulfillment of Jehovah's purposes.... Matters on which corrections of viewpoint have been needed have been relatively minor when compared with the vital Bible truths that they have discerned and publicized.

Note how the major predictions discussed above are trivialized into "corrections of viewpoint." The test that Deuteronomy 18:20-22 gives for a false prophet is not discussed. That test was: "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." Good motives and mostly correct teachings are not enough to negate a failure of this test. Failed predictions by one who claims to speak for God pass the test. Claiming to have God's direction and support, and to be the only "channel of communication between God and men" on the one hand, and to not be inspired on the other, is nothing but doubletalk.

Awake!, October 8, 1968 page 23, said:

.... there have been those in times past who predicted an "end to the world," even announcing a specific date.... Yet, nothing happened. The "end" did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying.

This is truly an amazing admission, when one considers all the failed predictions the Society has made, in view of the fact that Matthew 12:37 (New English Bible) says:

For out of your own mouth you will be acquitted; out of your own mouth you will be condemned.

At this point it should be evident that the only reason any of the predicted dates were changed, such as that of the Lord's presence from 1874 to 1914, was the failure of the predictions. As I said earlier, at a number of assemblies in 1975, Fred Franz gave a talk in which he told how J. F. Rutherford characterized his 1925 prediction:

I know I made an ass of myself.

The Society treats the problems which resulted in this admission as merely due to human imperfection, and as evidence of great desire and enthusiasm to see God's promises fulfilled.

But there is much more to it than that. It is one thing to make an "ass" of oneself because of wanting to see something happen. It is quite another thing to urge others to share ones views, to criticize them if they do not, and to question their faith or impugn their motives if they do not, even to the point of disfellowshipping.

It is still more serious for an organization representing itself as God's appointed spokesman to all mankind to do this -- and to do it for decades earthwide. The responsibility for the results can hardly be shrugged off by simply saying, "Well, nobody's perfect." As regards all the unfulfilled predictions, is it not true that the Society's words have fallen "to the earth" (1 Sam. 3:19)? As regards Jesus words at Matt. 24:44, "at an hour that YOU do not think to be it, the Son of man is coming," do not all the Society's current exhortations on the nearness of the end violate their spirit? Is not the whole spirit of the Gospel accounts that Christians should ignore dates and times, and always be ready for Christ's return?

But individual Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to accept this view. Instead they must accept prophetic interpretations as they are published, without questioning. The Society may change its views on an interpretation at any time. But a Witness who, after studying a published interpretation of a passage, concluded that it was wrong and persisted in this view before it was so identified by the Society, would be disfellowshipped.

Authoritative Statements

It is clear from the portion of the trial transcript which follows,7 that the the Governing Body views its authority, and the unity of the organization as shown by support of the Witnesses' current views, as more important than truth. The testimony is taken from the Pursuer's Proof of the Douglas Walsh trial, held in the Scottish Court of Sessions, in November, 1954.

Fred Franz, then vice-president of the Society, was first on the stand and answered the questions of the attorney for the Ministry of Labour and National Service.

Q. In addition to these regular publications do you prepare and issue a number of theological pamphlets and books from time to time?

A. Yes.

Q. Can you tell me this; are these theological publications and the semi-monthly periodicals used for discussion of statements of doctrine?

A. Yes.

Q. Are these statements of doctrine held to be authoritative within the Society?

A. Yes.

Q. Is their acceptance a matter of choice, or is it obligatory on all those who wish to be and remain members of the Society?

A. It is obligatory.

........

Q. So that there will be in effect a new human society existing on earth as the result of that?

A. Yes. There will be a new world society in a new earth under new heavens, the former heavens and the former earth having passed away in the battle of Armageddon.

Q. Then the population of this new earth, will that consist of Jehovah's Witnesses alone?

A. Initially it will consist of Jehovah's Witnesses alone. The members of the remnant expect to survive that battle of Armageddon the same as a great crowd of these other sheep. The continuance of the remnant upon the earth after the battle of Armageddon will be temporary because they must finish their earthly course faithful in death, but the other sheep by continued obedience to the will of God may continue to live on earth for ever.

........

Q. And are these disciplinary powers in fact exercised when the occasion arises?

A. Yes, they are.

Q. Well I will not ask you any more questions about that side of the matter but are there offences which are regarded as so grave as to warrant expulsion without hope of re-instatement?

A. Yes. The fact is that ex-communication in itself can lead to the annihilation of the ex-communicated one, if that individual never repented and corrected his course of action, and he continued outside the organisation. There would be no hope of life for him in the new world, but there is a course of action which would result in ex-communication from which the individual could be certain never to return, and this is called the sin against the Holy Spirit.

........

The British government counsellor later directed attention to certain teachings that the Society had in time rejected, including some involving certain specific dates. What if someone, at the time when such teaching was promulgated, had seen the error in it and had therefore not accepted it? What would the organization's attitude toward such one be? The testimony explains:

Q. Is it not the case that Pastor Russell put that date in 1874?

A. No.

Q. Is it not the case that he fixed the date prior to 1914?

A. Yes.

Q. What date did he fix?

A. The end of the time of the Gentiles he fixed as 1914.

Q. Did he not fix 1874 as some other crucial date?

A. 1874 used to be understood as the date of Jesus' Second Coming spiritually.

Q. Do you say, used to be understood?

A. That is right.

Q. That was issued as a fact which was to be accepted by all who were Jehovah's Witnesses?

A. Yes.

Q. That is no longer now accepted, is it?

A. No.

Q. Pastor Russell in so concluding posted the view, did he not, on an interpretation of the Book of Daniel?

A. Partly.

Q. And in particular Daniel, chapter 7 Verse 7, and Daniel, Chapter 12, Verse 12?

A. Daniel, 7, 7, and 12, 12. What did you say, he based some thing on these Scriptures?

Q. His date of 1874 as a crucial date and the date of Christ's Second Coming?

A. No.

Q. What did you say he fixed it as; I understood that is what you said, I must have misunderstood you?

A. He did not base 1874 on these Scriptures.

Q. He based it on these Scriptures coupled with the view that the Austro-Gothic Monarchy occurred in 539?

A. Yes. 539 was a date that he used in the calculation. But 1874 was not based on that.

Q. But it was a calculation which is no longer accepted by the Board of Directors of the Society?

A. That is correct.

Q. So that am I correct, I am just anxious to canvas the position; it became the bounden duty of the Witnesses to accept this miscalculation?

A. Yes.

........

Q. So that what is published as the truth today by the Society may have to be admitted to be wrong in a few years?

A. We have to wait and see.

Q. And in the meantime the body of Jehovah's Witnesses have been following error?

A. They have been following misconstructions on the Scriptures.

Q. Error?

A. Well, error.

Again the question as to how great the authority attributed to the Society's publications is came in for discussion. While at one point the vice president says that "one does not compulsorily accept," his testimony thereafter reverts back to the earlier position, as can be seen:

A. In order to become an Ordained Minister of a congregation he must come to an understanding of the things contained in these books.

Q. But, then, is baptism not the ordaining of a person as a Minister?

A. Yes.

Q. Therefore at baptism must he know those books?

A. He must understand the purposes of God which are set forth in those books.

Q. Set forth in those books, and set forth in those books as an interpretation of the Bible?

A. These books give an exposition on the whole Scriptures.

Q. But an authoritative exposition?

A. They submit the Bible or the statements that are therein made, and the individual examines the statement and then the Scripture to see that the statement is Scripturally supported.

Q. He what?

A. He examines the Scripture to see whether the statement is supported by the Scripture. As the Apostle says: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good".

Q. I understood the position to be -- do please correct me if I am wrong -- that a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses must accept as a true Scripture and interpretation what is given in the books I referred you to?

A. But he does not compulsorily do so, he is given his Christian right of examining the Scriptures to confirm that this is Scripturally sustained.

Q. And if he finds that the Scripture is not sustained by the books, or vice versa, what does he do?

A. The Scripture is there in support of the statement, that is why it is put there.

Q. What does a man do if he finds a disharmony between the Scripture and those books?

A. You will have to produce me a man who does find that, then I can answer, or he will answer.

Note that Franz is unwilling, even under oath, to admit that present understanding can be in error, even though he just finished testifying that what is published as truth today may be error in a few years.

Q. Did you imply that the individual member has the right of reading the books and the Bible and forming his own view as to the proper interpretation of Holy Writ?

A. He comes -- -- --

Q. Would you say yes or no, and then qualify?

A. No. Do you want me to qualify now?

Q. Yes, if you wish?

A. The Scripture is there given in support of the statement, and therefore the individual when he looks up the Scripture and thereby verifies the statement, then he comes to the Scriptural view of the matter, Scriptural understanding as it is written in Acts, the seventeenth chapter and the eleventh verse, that the Bereans were more noble than those of Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness, and they searched the Scripture to see whether those things were so, and we instruct to follow that noble course of the Bereans in searching the Scripture to see whether these things were so.

Q. A Witness has no alternative, has he, to accept as authoritative and to be obeyed instructions issued in the "Watchtower" or the "Informant" or "Awake"?

A. He must accept those.

........

Q. Is there any hope of salvation for a man who depends upon his Bible alone when he is in a situation in the world where he cannot get the tracts and publications of your Incorporation?

A. He is dependent upon the Bible.

Q. Will he be able to interpret it truly?

A. No.

Q. I do not want to bandy texts with you, but didn't Jesus say, "Whosoever believeth in me, liveth" and "believeth in me shall never die"?

A. Yes.

The Proper Source

Next on the stand was the legal counsel for the Society, Haydon C. Covington:

Q. Is it not vital to speak the truth on religious matters?

A. It certainly is.

Q. Is there in your view room in a religion for a change of interpretation of Holy Writ from time to time?

A. There is every reason for a change in interpretation as we view it, of the Bible. Our view becomes more clear as we see the prophesy fulfilled by time.

Q. You have promulgated -- forgive the word -- false prophesy?

A. We have -- I do not think we have promulgated false prophesy, there have been statements that were erronious, that is the way I put it, and mistaken.

Q. Is it a most vital consideration in the present situation of the world to know if the prophesy can be interpreted into terms of fact, when Christ's Second Coming was?

A. That is true, and we have always striven to see that we have the truth before we utter it. We go on the very best information we have but we cannot wait until we get perfect, because if we wait until we get perfect we would never be able to speak.

Q. Let us follow that up just a little. It was promulgated as a matter which must be believed by all members of Jehovah's Witnesses that the Lord's Second Coming took place in 1874?

A. I am not familiar with that. You are speaking on a matter that I know nothing of.

Q. You heard Mr. Franz's evidence?

A. I heard Mr. Franz testify, but I am not familiar with what he said on that, I mean the subject matter of what he was talking about, so I cannot answer any more than you can, having heard what he said.

Q. Leave me out of it?

A. That is the source of my information, what I have heard in court.

Q. You have studied the literature of your movement?

A. Yes, but not all of it. I have not studied the seven volumes of "Studies in the Scriptures," and I have not studied this matter that you are mentioning now of 1874. I am not at all familiar with that.

Q. Assume from me that it was promulgated as authoritative by the Society that Christ's Second Coming was in 1874?

A. Taking that assumption as a fact, it is a hypothetical statement.

Q. That was the publication of false prophesy?

A. That was the publication of a false prophesy, it was a false statement or an erronious statement in fulfilment of a prophesy that was false or erronious.

Q. And that had to be believed by the whole of Jehovah's Witnesses?

A. Yes, because you must understand we must have unity, we cannot have disunity with a lot of people going every way, an army is supposed to march in step.

Q. You do not believe in the worldly armies, do you?

A. We believe in the Christian Army of God.

Q. Do you believe in the worldly armies?

A. We have nothing to say about that, we do not preach against them, we merely say that the worldly armies, like the nations of the world today, are a part of Satan's Organisation, and we do not take part in them, but we do not say the nations cannot have their armies, we do not preach against warfare, we are merely claiming our exemption from it, that is all.

Q. Back to the point now. A false prophesy was promulgated?

A. I agree that.

Q. It had to be accepted by Jehovah's Witnesses?

A. That is correct.

Q. If a member of Jehovah's Witnesses took the view himself that that prophesy was wrong and said so he would be disfellowshipped?

A. Yes, if he said so and kept persisting in creating trouble, because if the whole organisation believes one thing, even though it be erronious and somebody else starts on his own trying to put his ideas across then there is disunity and trouble, there cannot be harmony, there cannot be marching. When a change comes it should come from the proper source, the head of the organisation, the governing body, not from the bottom upwards, because everybody would have ideas, and the organisation would disintegrate and go in a thousand different directions. Our purpose is to have unity.

Q. Unity at all costs?

A. Unity at all costs, because we believe and are sure that Jehovah God is using our organisation, the governing body of our organisation to direct it, even though mistakes are made from time to time.

Q. And unity based upon an enforced acceptance of false prophecy?

A. That is conceded to be true.

Q. And the person who expressed his view, as you say, that it was wrong, and was disfellowshipped, would be in breach of the Covenant, if he was baptized?

A. That is correct.

Q. And as you said yesterday expressly, would be worthy of death?

A. I think -- -- --

Q. Would you say yes or no?

A. I will answer yes, unhesitatingly.

Q. Do you call that religion?

A. It certainly is.

Q. Do you call it Christianity?

A. I certainly do.

........

Q. In connection with mistakes, you were cross-examined at some length as to differences of view which might have taken place in the authoritative exposition of the Scriptures over the years since the foundation of the Society, and I think you agreed there had been differences?

A. Yes.

Q. You also quite frankly agreed that persons who at any time are not prepared to accept authoritative exposition are liable to expulsion from the Society, with such spiritual consequences as that may entail?

A. Yes, I said that and I state it again.

Covington's testimony for the Society is certainly significant.

1. As the Society's legal counsel and its former vice-president, he admits that he had never even read the seven volumes of Studies in the Scriptures, all of which, except for the last volume, were written by C. T. Russell, the Society's founder.

2. He agrees that the Society had been guilty of publishing and promulgating "false prophecy."

3. Unity can require of a Christian that he accept as true what he believes God's Word shows to be false.

So according to Covington, no matter what he reads in the Bible a Christian must wait for the "proper source," the Governing Body, to tell him what is acceptable for belief and for discussion. A "unity at all costs.... based upon an enforced acceptance of false prophecy" under the penalty of eternal death, does not seem like a Christian teaching. In effect, while one may read the Master's own words in writing, he cannot accept or act on them if the Master's professed "slave" tells him something different. This is, in plain language, what the Society has required since the days of J. F. Rutherford.

It is not surprising that the attorney asked Covington: "Do you call it Christianity?" No where in the scriptures does it say that true Christian unity is created, sustained, safeguarded and enforced by any human institution. Where in the Bible does one find the principle or statement that God urges "unity at all costs" or at the expense of the truth? One can find such principles in the excesses of the Catholic Inquisition, but not in the Bible.

The final witness giving testimony was Grant Suiter, Secretary-Treasurer of The Watch Tower Society, and he offered these statements of official position:

Q. What is the position of a Company Servant in that respect?

A. He must have met the qualifications that have been previously testified to, of maturity and understanding and spiritual understanding, and in ability to read the Congregation. He must have that training previously mentioned in the Theocratic Ministry School, be a leader in the field ministry itself, be apt to teach, and otherwise have qualifications that the Scriptures laid down. Man cannot lay down qualifications that the Scriptures do not, you see.

Q. That is in general terms. But to come down to actual practice, he must attend the Theocratic Ministry School, must he not?

A. Yes.

Q. And there he finds the library?

A. Yes.

Q. Isn't he expected to familiarise himself with the publications of the Society?

A. He certainly is.

Q. Indeed can he in the view of Jehovah's Witnesses have an understanding of the Scriptures apart from the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses?

A. No.

Q. Only by the publications can he have a right understanding of the Scriptures?

A. That is right.

Q. Is that not arrogance?

A. No.

Q. You heard the evidence about 1874 having been found to be wrong as a material and crucial date, and about 1925 being a wrong date. On these two items, acceptance and absolute acceptance as Truth was imposed upon all Jehovah's Witnesses at the time?

A. That is right.

Q. You agree that that was acceptance of the false?

A. No, not entirely. The points that were wrong were false because they were in error, but the overall result is what is important. All through these years of the ministry of Jehovah's Witnesses, since the formation of the Society, the Pennsylvania Corporation, there has been a constant turning of the hearts and the minds of people to God's Word and its righteous precepts, and giving them spiritual strength to stand up for what they know to be right, to hold high Jehovah's name to announce his Kingdom. There is no comparison between the incidental points that have been corrected compared with the importance of the main thing, the worship of Jehovah God. That has been inculcated in the minds of Jehovah's Witnesses and countless other persons all through these years.

Suiter affirmed that "Man cannot lay down qualifications that the Scriptures do not." Yet his own testimony, as well as that of the two other officials, is that "only by the Watch Tower Society's publications can anyone have a right understanding of Scripture." Though false prophecy was advanced, "absolute acceptance [of such] as Truth was imposed upon all Jehovah's Witnesses at the time," and he firmly declares this imposition to be right. Suiter asserts that "the overall result is what is important," hence the organization should not be judged adversely because they promulgated errors on "incidental points" as long as the "main thing, the worship of Jehovah God" was conveyed. It would be unfair to equate the importance of those errors with the main message. "There is no comparison," Suiter said.

This latter claim is all very well of itself. But Suiter's own testimony, as also that of the other two, shows that, whereas the organization asks for such tolerance and balanced assessment for itself as its rightful due, it denies this to others. While asking for tolerance for itself, it does not grant it to any member who objects to, and who cannot accept, erroneous teachings. For them the result is disfellowshipping, being cut off as worthy of death. This is the case no matter how thoroughly the individual might accept the "main" point of the message, or how sincerely and devotedly he might "worship Jehovah God." No, the person must accept the whole message, lock, stock and barrel, just as the organizational messenger saw fit to present it, errors included, with expulsion as the alternative. The organization discounts as only "incidental" the errors it publishes, yet, if those same errors are not accepted or are objected to, they paradoxically become of enormous importance, sufficient to warrant taking disfellowshipping action.

This thinking makes it appear that God is displeased with any person who fails to accept errors a claimed messenger may speak in his name, displeased that the person should insist on "testing everything and holding fast only to that which proves good and true," genuinely from God. Such a person, if put out by the organization, God would not judge worthy of life. Incredibly, the ones giving this testimony evidently saw no inconsistency in all this.

All of which calls to mind Proverbs 20:23, that "two sorts of weights are something detestable to Jehovah, and a cheating pair of scales is not good." It seems reasonable that this scripture applies, not only to commercial transactions, but especially to dealings involving spiritual interests, where men apply one standard for themselves when asking for tolerance and a very different standard when called upon to show it to others. Jesus said: "For with what judgment you are judging, you will be judged; and with the measure that you are measuring out, they will measure out to you." Clearly, double standards are not acceptable to God.

Job 13:7-11 has something to say about people who bend the truth in order to defend God:

Will you men speak unrighteousness for God himself, and for him will you speak deceit? Will you be treating him with partiality, or for the [true] God will you contend at law? Would it be good that he sound you out? Or as one trifles with mortal man will you trifle with him? He will positively reprove you if in secrecy you try to show partiality; will not his very dignity make you start up with fright, and the very dread of him fall upon you? -- New World Translation

Will you speak unjustly on God's behalf? Will you speak deceitfully for Him? Will you be partial toward Him? Will you plead God's cause? Will it go well when He examines you? Will you fool Him as one fools men? He will surely reprove you if in your heart you are partial toward Him. His threat will terrify you, and His fear will seize you. -- JPS Tanakh

Job 13:7-9

Is it for God that you speak falsehood? Is it for him that you utter deceit? Is it for him that you show partiality? Do you play advocate on behalf of God? Will it be well when he shall search you out? Would you impose on him as one does on men? -- New American Bible

Must you go on 'speaking for God' when he never once has said the things that you are putting in his mouth? Does God want your help if you are going to twist the truth for him? Be careful that he doesn't find out what you are doing! Or do you think you can fool God as well as men? -- The Living Bible

Will you speak unfairly on behalf of God and talk deceitfully for Him? Will you choose His side, posing as special pleaders for God? Will it be well when He examines you, or can you deceive Him as one deceives a man? -- Modern Language Bible

Do you talk wickedly for God's sake or speak dishonestly for Him? Do you need to show Him special favor or contend for God? Will all go well when He examines you? Can you fool Him as men are fooled? -- An American Translation

Why are you lying? Do you think your lies will benefit God? Are you trying to defend him? Are you going to argue his case in court? If God looks at you closely, will he find anything good? Do you think you can fool God the way you fool men? -- Today's English Version

Will you speak unrighteously for God and talk deceitfully for Him? Will you show partiality to Him [be unjust to me in order to gain favor with Him]? Will you act as special pleaders for God? Would it be profitable for you if He should investigate your tactics [with me]? Or as one deceives and mocks a man, do you deceive and mock Him? -- The Amplified Bible

You should not speak for God by saying evil things. You cannot speak God's truth by telling lies. You should not unfairly choose his side against mine. You should not argue the case for God. You will not do well if he examines you. You cannot fool God as you might fool men. -- New Century Version

Will you speak wickedly on God's behalf? Will you speak deceitfully for him? Will you show him partiality? Will you argue the case for God? Would it turn out well if he examined you? Could you deceive him as you might deceive men? -- New International Version

Will you speak what is unjust for God, And speak what is deceitful for Him? Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God? Will it be well when He examines you? Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man? -- New American Standard

Will you plead God's defense with prevarication, his case in terms that ring false? Will you be partial in his favor, and act as his advocates? For you to meet his scrutiny, would this be well? Can he be duped as men are duped? -- Jerusalem Bible

Job 13:7b:

Will you tell lies on his behalf? -- James Moffatt's translation

The Keil-Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 4, "Job," pages 209-10, made the following commentary on Job 13:7-11, which spoke of the false testimony given by Job's companions:

Their advocacy of God -- this is the thought of this strophe -- is an injustice to Job, and an evil service rendered to God, which cannot escape undisguised punishment from Him. They set themselves up as God's advocates..., and at the same time accept His person,... or lift it up, i.e. favour, or give preference to, His person, viz. at the expense of the truth: they are partial in His favour, as they are twice reminded and given to understand.... They know that Job is not a flagrant sinner; nevertheless they deceive themselves with the idea that he is, and by reason of this delusion they take up the cause of God against him. Such perversion of the truth in majorem Dei gloriam is an abomination to God. When He searches them, His advocates, out..., they will become conscious of it; or will God be mocked, as one mocketh mortal men?.... God is not pleased with latreia [Greek, 'sacred service'] (John xvi. 2) which gives the honour to Him, but not to truth, such zelos Theou all ou kat epignosin [Greek, 'zeal of God but not according to accurate knowledge'] (Rom. x. 2), such advocacy contrary to one's better knowledge and conscience, in which the end is thought to sanctify the means. Such advocacy must be put to shame and confounded when He who needs no concealment of the truth for His justification is manifest... and by His direct influence brings all untruth to light. It is the boldest thought imaginable, that one dare not have respect even to the person of God when one is obliged to lie to one's self. And still it is also self-evident. For God and truth can never be antagonistic.

Not only in the Walsh trial but many other times the Society calls on Jehovah's Witnesses to pass over its errors, asserting that these are counterbalanced and outweighed by other, more favorable factors. The December 1, 1981 Watchtower contains a series of articles clearly advocating that standard. Yet the Society does not apply it in its dealing with those under its authority. If they hold any view, even though minor, that does not coincide with its teachings, this is not viewed as just a human error which may in time be corrected, but instead is deemed a basis for disfellowshipping. The fact that the "overall picture" may show that the individual who thus disagrees clearly manifests genuine Christian qualities is not considered relevant. He must agree with the organization. Jesus' words make clear that he does not approve of such unequal application of standards.

New Light

In the December 1, 1981 Watchtower, on page 30, the Society rejected the patriotic principle: "Our country!.... may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong" by saying "But not so the Christian witnesses of Jehovah!" But as the above testimony from Fred Franz, Hayden Covington and Grant Suiter proves, the Society requires Witnesses to subscribe to: "The Society, may it always be in the right; but The Society, right or wrong!"

C. T. Russell may well have been surprised to hear testimony such as the above. The September 1, 1893 Watch Tower, on page 264 said:

The endeavor to compel all men to think alike on all subjects, culminated in the great apostasy and the development of the great Papal system; and thereby the "gospel," the "one faith," which Paul and the other apostles set forth, was lost -- buried under the mass of uninspired decrees of popes and councils. The union of the early church, based upon the simple gospel and bound only by love, gave place to the bondage of the church of Rome -- a slavery of God's children, from the degradation of which multitudes are still weak and suffering.

Interestingly, Russell did not at first agree with what have become the Society's practices with regard to "new light." On page 188 of the February 1881, Zion's Watch Tower he wrote:

If we were following a man undoubtedly it would be different with us; undoubtedly one human idea would contradict another and that which was light one or two or six years ago would be regarded as darkness now: But with God there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, and so it is with truth; any knowledge or light coming from God must be like its author. A new view of truth never can contradict a former truth. "New light" never extinguishes older "light," but adds to it. If you were lighting up a building containing seven gas jets you would not extinguish one every time you lighted another, but would add one light to another and they would be in harmony and thus give increase of light: So is it with the light of truth; the true increase is by adding, not by substituting one for another.

The Society does not subscribe to this view today. Instead it advances the doctrine of "progressive revelation," a particularly hazy concept which is never clearly defined and never carefully analyzed. It usually means a progressive organizational understanding of the Bible through the application of reason, study, and some sort of undefined guidance of the holy spirit. It is said to be based on Prov. 4:18, which says: "But the path of the righteous ones is like the bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established."

However, an examination of the context of this scripture shows there is no basis for the Society's interpretation. The writer of Proverbs is making a simple contrast between what happens to the wicked on one hand and the righteous on the other. The passage has nothing to do with a "revealing of new truths," either to individuals or an organization.

The December 1, 1981 Watchtower states on page 17:

Prophecies open up to us as Jehovah's holy spirit sheds light upon them, and as they are fulfilled in world events or in the experiences of God's people.

In what manner were prophecies that have been discarded been opened up to the Society by God's spirit? Were these not merely products of wishful thinking? Does not the Society's application of Prov. 4:18 make virtually any change of direction, no matter how radical, justifiable? Even a product of God's direction? Is it not true that when new knowledge was opened up to God's servants in the Bible, it did not contradict previous knowledge but supplemented and fulfilled it? Is it not true that no true servant of God is described in the Bible as ever having made false predictions? They made mistakes, true, but never in uttering prophecies in God's name.

The Society often uses contrived illustrations to justify its many failed predictions and doctrinal changes. The illustration from the December 1, 1981 Watchtower, page 27, is a marvelous example of intellectual sleight of hand:

At times explanations given by Jehovah's visible organization have shown adjustments, seemingly to previous points of view. But this has not actually been the case. This might be compared to what is known in navigational circles as "tacking." By maneuvering the sails the sailors can cause a ship to go from right to left, back and forth, but all the time making progress toward their destination in spite of contrary winds.

Has not the Watchtower ship actually been sailing in circles in some cases? Such as the complete circle made with regard to understanding the "superior authorities"? And the understanding of who should be called an ordained minister? How can it be said that these doctrinal changes have not been to a "previous point of view"?

In the illustration the sailors make the ship tack. Who makes the Society's "ship" tack? Is this illustration not an exercise in cynical sophistry? As such, do not the purveyors of it fit the description of Proverbs 3:32: "For the devious person is a detestable thing to Jehovah, but His intimacy is with the upright ones"? And is one not reminded of the Apostle Paul's description at Ephesians 4:14: "We should no longer be babes, tossed about as by waves and carried hither and thither by every wind of teaching by means of the trickery of men, by means of cunning in contriving error"?

The May 15, 1976 Watchtower, although referring to other religions, well described such tacking in circles:

Although referring to other religions, the May 15, 1976 Watchtower well describes this tacking in circles:

It is a serious matter to represent God and Christ in one way, then find that our understanding of the major teachings and fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures was in error, and then after that, to go back to the very doctrines that, by years of study, we had thoroughly determined to be in error. Christians cannot be vacillating -- 'wishy washy' -- about such fundamental teachings. What confidence can one put in the sincerity or judgment of such persons?

Well illustrating how the "increasing light" principle works is the March 1, 1979 Watchtower, which said on pages 23-24:

Because of this hope [of an earthly paradise], the "faithful and discreet slave" has alerted all of God's people to the sign of the times indicating the nearness of God's Kingdom rule. In this regard, however, it must be observed that this "faithful and discreet slave" was never inspired, never perfect. Those writings by certain members of the "slave" class that came to form the Christian part of God's Word were inspired and infallible, but that is not true of other writings since. Things published were not perfect in the days of Charles Taze Russell, first president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society; nor were they perfect in the days of J. F. Rutherford, the succeeding president. The increasing light on God's Word as well as the facts of history have repeatedly required that adjustments of one kind or another be made down to the very present time. But let us never forget that the motives of this "slave" were always pure, unselfish; at all times it has been well-meaning. Moreover, the words found at Romans 8:28 are fitting here also: "God makes all his works cooperate together for the good of those who love God, those who are the ones called according to his purpose." Actually any adjustments that have been made in understanding have furnished an opportunity for those being served by this "slave" to show loyalty and love, the kind of love that Jesus said would mark his followers. (John 13:34, 35; compare 1 Peter 4:8) For those who truly love God's law there is no stumbling block. -- Ps. 119:165.

Is this not virtually the same argument Russell used in justifying the obvious failure of most of his predictions, that it "certainly did have a very stimulating and sanctifying effect upon thousands, all of whom can praise the Lord -- even for the mistake"? This is further proof that, even though Jehovah's Witnesses have been required to believe many changing doctrines down through the years, whenever the doctrines became untenable the Society would retreat to the assertion that "the faithful and discreet slave" is not infallible but must progress with the increasing "new light."

Warning Against False Prophets

Some recent statements from the Society about false prophets are found on page 3 of the February 1, 1992 Watchtower, in the article "Beware of False Prophets!"

When you think of prophesying, perhaps the first thing that comes to your mind is the foretelling of the future. This was indeed an aspect of the work of God's prophets of old, but it was not their primary work.

The article then attempts to equate a false prophet with one who misunderstands and teaches falsehood about the "Kingdom." While this may be one test of a false prophet, it disregards the Bible's test of such in Deut. 18:20-22, which the Society obviously fails. The argument avoids having to discuss the many obvious failed predictions the Society has made. Is this not cynical and self-serving?

The March 1, 1979 Watchtower advances another argument that would prevent the Society from being classed as a false prophet:

But let us never forget that the motives of this "slave" were always pure, unselfish; at all times it has been well-meaning.

Where in the Bible does it say that "pure motives" are of any value in determining whether the words of a prophet are true or false? The Society itself often says that God will destroy members of all religions other than Jehovah's Witnesses, no matter how sincere they may be, since God's standard is Truth, not sincerity. Is this not a double standard? If a Witness publicly disagrees with the Society, is he not subject to disfellowshipping, no matter how pure his motives may be?

With regard to misrepresentations of the Bible, the 1974 book Is This Life All There Is? said on page 46, without regard for the motives of the misrepresenter:

Knowing these things, what will you do? It is obvious that the true God, who is himself "the God of truth" and who hates lies, will not look with favor on persons who cling to organizations that teach falsehood. (Psalm 31:5; Proverbs 6:16-19; Revelation 21:8) And, really, would you want to be even associated with a religion that had not been honest with you?

A Recent False Prophecy

The Watchtower Society has often commented on the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel. The Society claims that those who are of the "anointed class" fulfill Daniel 12:3, 4, which reads, in The New World Translation:

"And the ones having insight will shine like the brightness of the expanse; and those who are bringing the many to righteousness, like the stars to time indefinite, even forever. And as for you, O Daniel, make secret the words and seal up the book, until the time of [the] end. Many will rove about, and the [true] knowledge will become abundant."

The Watchtower Society believes that the ones of Jehovah's Witnesses of the "anointed class" are "the ones having insight," as shown by the July 1, 1987, Watchtower, which said, on pages 23-5, under the sub-title "True Knowledge Will Become Abundant":

But for those who remain faithful, the prophecy says: "And the ones having insight will shine like the brightness of the expanse; and those who are bringing the many to righteousness, like the stars to time indefinite, even forever." (Daniel 12:3) "The ones having insight" are clearly the faithful remaining members of the anointed Christian congregation, who are 'filled with accurate knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual comprehension.'.... Ever since 1919, though 'darkness itself covers the earth, and thick gloom the national groups,' they have been "shining as illuminators" among mankind. (Isaiah 60:2; Philippians 2:15; Matthew 5:14-16) They "shine as brightly as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." -- Matthew 13:43.

How do they prove to be "those who are bringing the many to righteousness"? (Daniel 12:3) Thanks to their faithful witnessing, the final ones of spiritual Israel have been gathered in and declared righteous for life in the heavens. Additionally, a great crowd of "other sheep" has manifested itself, flocking to the light from Jehovah as reflected by 'Daniel's people.'....

The angel then offers words of counsel to Daniel: "And as for you, O Daniel, make secret the words and seal up the book, until the time of the end. Many will rove about, and the true knowledge will become abundant." (Daniel 12:4) These words arrest our attention. Although the angel's prophecy concerning the two kings began to be fulfilled some 2,300 years ago, the understanding of it has been opened up primarily during "the time of the end," particularly since 1919. In these days, "many ... rove about" in the Bible, and true knowledge has indeed become abundant. Now is the time that Jehovah has given knowledge to understanding ones....

Stay close, then, to "the ones having insight," who are 'shining like the brightness of the expanse.'

The above means that during the time of the end, true knowledge would become abundant due to teaching by "the ones having insight." This would especially include understanding the book of Daniel itself, since Dan. 12:9-10 says:

And he went on to say: "Go, Daniel, because the words are made secret and sealed up until the time of [the] end.... And the wicked ones will certainly act wickedly, and no wicked ones at all will understand; but the ones having insight will understand."

In a similar vein, the 1958 book Your Will Be Done on Earth said:

To us in this "time of the end" Daniel's book has been opened and unsealed (p. 328; see also Apr. 1, 1960 Watchtower, p. 222).

Only the Scripturally intelligent ones will be allowed to understand the book of Daniel and all the rest of the Bible (p. 333; see also Apr. 15, 1960 Watchtower, p. 250).

The May 15, 1969 Watchtower put it all together, saying that the book of Daniel "has been opened up":

The prophet Daniel foretold the momentous times in which we are now living.... The angel told him that the fulfillment was a secret and sealed up until the "time of the end," and that is exactly where we are now. How thrilled Daniel would be if he could be alive today as his book of prophecy is opened up to human understanding! Oh, how he would rejoice and delight to reach this time in history for the climax of his prophetic words! So we should take great delight in examining Daniel's words for our day, feeling especially privileged to understand what Daniel himself could not discern (p. 296).

Some of Jehovah's servants might discuss with him [Daniel] the contents of the book "Your Will Be Done on Earth," which volume contains a detailed discussion of many of Daniel's prophecies. He will be very interested in learning how his wonderful prophecies worked out, to God's glory. We will be interested in his reactions and rejoice with him in his lot (p. 308).

Yes, the angel associate of Michael pointed out a great work for the true followers of the Messianic Prince Michael in this "time of the end." Here is the prophecy: "The ones having insight will shine like the brightness of the expanse; and those who are bringing the many to righteousness, like the stars to time indefinite, even forever." (Dan. 12:3) Here, then, is foretold the work for us today. Spiritually intelligent ones must shine with heavenly light. With the good news of the newborn kingdom of God, Jehovah's witnesses have shone like the sun, which lets nothing be concealed from its heat all around the globe. In the midnight darkness of this world we must be like stars of light, to help many more of the "other sheep" turn to righteousness, which is the worship and ministry of the grand God, Jehovah. Living as we do in this "time of the end" since Michael the Great Prince stood up in heaven, we are living in a time more highly favored than that of Daniel. Daniel's book has been opened up. Blessed are those who act in harmony with Daniel's words for our day!

The 1977 book Our Incoming World Government -- God's Kingdom said:

We are living in a favored time.... the "time of the end." It is the time for increased spiritual enlightenment, for much of the unexplained prophecies of the Holy Bible, including Daniel's prophecy, to be opened up to our minds and hearts. Ours is the time to which the angel pointed forward when he said to Daniel: "And as for you, O Daniel, make secret the words and seal up the book, until the time of the end. Many will rove about, and the true knowledge will become abundant." -- Daniel 12:4. (p. 125)

Daniel "could not understand" what he heard, in his day. But we, in this day, in this "time of the end" since 1914, can understand. (p. 132)

Does the Watchtower Society truly understand what the book of Daniel says about our time period, which it says is the time of the end? In a series of articles covering the prophecies of Daniel 11 and 12, the July 1, 1987, Watchtower said, on page 11:

Many years ago, Jehovah revealed the historical development of events that would lead up to his bringing peace to the earth. Through an angel, he spoke to his faithful prophet Daniel about "the final part of the days," our own time. (Daniel 10:4) He foretold today's superpower rivalry and showed that it will soon end in a way that neither power suspects....

Next, the articles speak about some of the the fulfillments of Daniel 11, referring the interested reader to Your Will Be Done on Earth. In particular, the articles discuss the activities of the "king of the north" and the "king of the south." In 1987 these are supposed to be, respectively, the "mostly socialistic bloc of nations" and the "largely capitalistic bloc" (p. 13).

The description applied to the socialistic bloc sounded very striking in 1987 (pp. 13-4):

The disposition of the latest king of the north is well described in verses 37, 38 [of Dan. 11]: "And to the God of his fathers he will give no consideration ... But to the god of fortresses, in his position he will give glory; and to a god that his fathers did not know he will give glory by means of gold and by means of silver and by means of precious stone and by means of desirable things." Can anyone fail to recognize this description? Todays king of the north officially promotes atheism, rejecting the religious gods of previous kings of the north. He prefers to trust in armaments, "the god of fortresses."....

So what finally happens between these two kings? The angel says: "And in the time of the end [the end of the history of the two kings] the king of the south will engage with him in a pushing, and against him the king of the north will storm with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships." (Daniel 11:40; Matthew 24:3) Clearly, summit conferences are no solution to the superpower rivalry. The tensions caused by the 'pushing' of the king of the south and the expansionism of the king of the north may go through more or less intense phases; but eventually, in some way, the king of the north will be provoked into the excessively violent action described by Daniel.

The article then refers the reader to "light" from Your Will Be Done on Earth, pages 298-303. Here are some examples of what the Society predicted in that book. How do these things fit in with the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses, along with most other religions, are now experiencing a tremendous expansion in the former Soviet Union and its allies, because of the legalizing of religion?

This persecution [by the king of the north against true Christians] is foretold to continue until the king of the north comes to his "time of the end" at Armageddon (p. 286).

.... the king of the south and the king of the north stand at Armageddon.... In the confused fighting between the "two kings" as crazed enemies of Jehovah God and his kingdom, the "kings" will have opportunity and occasion to try out and use their frightful, deadly weapons of all kinds against each other. (p. 297)

.... now at God's appointed time for the Armageddon fight the king of the north sets out to destroy the "beauteous land" [spiritual relation of the 'anointed' class to Jehovah] to wipe it off the earth.... This becomes the time for Jehovah to begin the war of his great day. (p. 298-9)

Jehovah's angel foretold further aggressions by the Communist king of the north before his end in Armageddon: "And he will stretch forth his hand against some countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. And he will have control over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the costly things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians will follow at his steps.".... How far the king of the north will have got when he reaches his "time of the end" the future alone will tell. But he is predicted to gain control over the treasures of gold, silver and all the precious things of this commercialized, materialistic world, including oil. (pp. 300, 303)

Clearly, the demise of the Soviet Union and most of its allies has put these predictions beyond possibility of fulfillment. Since the Watchtower Society cannot admit that the prophecies given in Daniel could be wrong, the failed prediction must lie in the interpretation the Society itself has given. But according to Dan. 12:3, 4, 10, the ones having insight would understand the prophecies that Daniel had been told to seal up, and would make them abundantly known. The book of Daniel itself clearly implies that the "ones having insight" cannot be wrong when they make "abundantly known" the interpretation of the prophecies of Daniel. Since the Watchtower Society's interpretations of Daniel are clearly in error, Jehovah's Witnesses are not the "ones having insight." But as they claim this designation, they must therefore be false teachers, and by their own standard of judgement, false prophets.

As The Watch Tower of May 15, 1930, pages 154-155, said:

.... a true prophet is one who is faithfully proclaiming what is written in the Bible ... But it may be asked, How are we to know whether one is a true or a false prophet? There are at least three ways by which we can positively decide: (1) If he is a true prophet, his message will come to pass exactly as prophesied. If he is a false prophet, his prophecy will fail to come to pass.... The difference between a true and a false prophet is that the one is speaking the word of the Lord and the other is speaking his own dreams and guesses.... The true prophet of God today will be telling forth what the Bible teaches, and those things that the Bible tells us are soon to come to pass. He will not be sounding forth man-made theories or guesses, either his own or those of others.... In the New Testament, and in our day, the word "prophet" has a thought similar to that of our word "teacher," in the sense of a public expounder. Hence when the term "false prophet" is used, we shall get the correct thought if we think of a false teacher.

Who really is it that causes the Watchtower Society to publish what it does? For example, is it not fallible men who edit The Watchtower magazine? Not according to the Watchtower Society. With regard to statements published in the November 1, 1914 Watch Tower concerning the events that had been predicted for 1914, the 1930 book Light I said on page 195:

The Lord foreknew and foretold what was to come to pass, and... he doubtless caused his angels to direct the preparation of exactly what was published.

According to Fred W. Franz (vice-president of the Watchtower Society from 1949 to 1977, president from 1977 to his death in 1992), under oath in the Olin Moyle case (New York Supreme Court, Kings County Clerk's Index No. 15845, 1940, p. 795), Jehovah is the editor of The Watchtower. Franz gave his testimony in May, 1943, which is here reproduced:

Q. Who subsequently became the Editor of the magazine, the main editor of the "Watch Tower" magazine?

A. In 1931, October 15th, as I recall, the "Watch Tower" discontinued publishing the names of any editorial committee on the second page.

The Court. He asked you who became the editor.

The Witness. And it said --

The Court. Who became the editor?

Q. Who became the editor when this was discontinued?

A. Jehovah God.

Q. Is the "Watch Tower" magazine dogmatic?

A. The magazine is not dogmatic. Dogma literally means opinion and the "Watch Tower" does not set forth the opinion of man. The "Watch Tower" instead of being dogmatic is confident because it bases its conclusions upon the word of God and therefore it is sure of the ground upon which it is walking. It does not arrogantly assert any opinion with unwarranted positiveness.

Footnotes

1 The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life, p. 13, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., Brooklyn, New York, Rev. 1981.

2 Walter Kaufman, Existentialism, Religion, and Death: Thirteen Essays, New American Library, New York, 1976.

3 Compare editions prior to mid-1912 with editions after mid-1912, p. 101. The change was done in the middle of the printing run for the 1912 edition of 1,209,000. The March 1, 1915 Watch Tower called attention to some of these changes, on page 5649 of Reprints. It said: "We call attention to a few slight changes which have been made in four pages of Vol. II. and six pages of Vol. III., 'STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES.' These are all trivial and do not alter the real sense and lesson, but conform to the facts as we have them today." Then are listed the changes pointed out above, from pages 77-81 of The Time Is At Hand, but for some reason the changes on pages 99-101 are not listed. As to the claim that the real sense is not altered, the reader may judge for himself. The proper way of handling changes such as these is to label the changed books as "Revised Editions."

4 Marvin L. Lubenow, Bones of Contention, pp. 103-4, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1992.

5 Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain, p. 332, Ballantine Books, New York, 1979.

6 The campaign got its start in a talk called "The World Has Ended -- Millions Now Living May Never Die," given February 24, 1918 by J. F. Rutherford in Los Angeles [1975 Yearbook, p. 127; W83, 7/1, p. 18; Jehovah's Witnesses -- Proclaimers of God's Kingdom, p. 648]. The talk apparently struck such a chord that its name was soon changed for even stronger effect.

7 Occasional spelling errors appearing in the quotations are those made by the court transcriber.

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