Sorry slimboyfat you can't just make a statement of other's who'm you think viewed 1914 as some turning point, I think the question means The seminal point in history since the alleged first arrival of the "Christ". You have to back it up with references, even quotes please.
Apart from JW's, do others still feel 1914 was a turning point in history?
by jwfacts 33 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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hallelujah
Hi Greendawn
Who was Barfour? Do you mean Lord Balfour of the famous Balfour declaration of the Zionist movement, of which pastor Charles Taze Russell was at least one energetic mover. The Zionist movement of course constituted each and every Jewish person to be out of place in their homelands, i.e. England, Germany, England and thereby contributed to anti-semitism.
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jstalin
Yes, 1914 was important because it ushered in the era of modern warfare. In addition, WWI precipitated the rise of Hitler and the Soviet Union. I'm not saying the JWs got it right, just a good guess on their part because Armageddon hasn't happened.
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barry
Not ever been a JW but 1914 is an important year many see it in Australia as when Australia became a nation and the time when they proved themselves at gallopoly. that being said 1914 cant be found in the bible
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Narkissos
Hallelujah,
I think greendawn meant Nelson Barbour. He was Russell's Adventist associate and apparently the first to come up with the 1914 date. Later they split, but Russell kept the date.
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greendawn
Hallelujah hi, Nelson Barbour (sorry I wrote above Barfour by mistake)was an old Millerite, an adventist, that Russell met with in 1876 and subsequently accepted some of his religious views including 1914 as the year of Armageddon the visible return of Christ to complete the so called invisible (and unscriptural) return of 1874.
They split up in 1879 after the predicted rapture of 1878 failed to happen, and Russell went on to launch his own magazine the Watchtower. Surely enough both the Free Masons and the Jews supported or sponsored Russell and the roots of the JW anti christ attitude could go back to those events.
To this day they refuse to call Jesus Lord and their religion the church of Christ, and everything revolves around the Jewish old testament God Jehovah, Jesus does not exist except in the margins. After that substantial Jewish sponsoring of the WTS such Jewish influences are inevitable. -
peacefulpete
Just to clarify, there were no JWs before 1914 so as to predict anything. Russelites and others made literally dozens of predictions about dozens of dates, not one of these predictions came true, not one. They did not predict WWI, they did not predict WWII, they did not in any way anticipate events of the century to follow. 1914 was one of many dates asigned for what they now assign to Armagedon. 1799,1844,1874,1911,12,13,14,15,18,19,25,31,32......
I think its rather telling that when 1914 came and went they edited certain books to 1915! 1914 was no more special than all the many other dates Russell and Rutherford (Franz) cooked up.:
1915 "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. {TIAH 1915 ed 99}
1915 "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 A.D. 1915. At that time the prayer of the church, ever since her Lord took his departure, - 'Thy kingdom come' - will be answered; and under its wise and just administration, the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord" {TIAH 1915 ed 99} [Original contains '1914' instead of '1915']
1915 "The 'battle of the great day of God Almighty' (Rev. 16:14) which will end in A.D. 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." {TIAH 1915 ed 101} [original TIAH used "1914" instead of "1915"]
Rutherford admitted that the preditions about 1914 had NOT come true:
"All of the lords people looked forward to 1914 with joyful expectation. when that time came and passed there was much disappointment, chagrin and mourning, and the lords 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." {Light 1 194}
They stuck with 1874 as the date of Jesus' "invisible presence" until at least 1932 and only expounded upon the switch to 1914 in the 1940's. This is not to even go into just how they arrived at 1914! It was through wacko pyramid calculations now abandoned, using Daniel numbers from the time of Martin Luther (also abandoned) and by ading 40 to 1874, now abandoned. Then in these calculations they forgot that there was no 0 and so so when they realized it they scrambled to find ways to twist and turn the numbers.
We were hoodwinked when we grew up believing that somehow the WTS had predicted (by guess or not)the events of WWI or even that they had prior to 1914 hailed that year as the beginning if Jesus' "presence". It was all lies. This is not being nittpicky, its the truth.
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Hellrider
WW1 was important only in the sense that it changed warfare forever. The old tactics combined with modern weapons was catastrophic for the soldiers. But about the horrors of World War 1, the horrors were mainly for the soldiers in the trenches. For the most part, the civilians were spared, and the larger cities across Europe were relatively untouched. The parents and wives were very shocked about the state of their sons and husbands when they came home from the front. To most of them, the only effect they had felt from the war, was the shortage of food. WW2 was a whole different thing. The majority of the casualties were civilians. If there was a turning point in (modern) history, it was WW2, not the first one.
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greendawn
"Just to clarify, there were no JWs before 1914 so as to predict anything."
How can that be? There were no JWs as such at the time but there were the Bible Students under the banner of the WTS, who later split up into the JWs who deviously took over Russell's corporation and the Russelites who just took his ideology. Thus historically though not doctrinally the JWs are identical with the Bible Students.
Indeed in 19th century USA starting with Miller there was an end of times hysteria that produced numerous erroneous dates. -
FairMind
I think in time 1914 will be about as relevant as 1799 is to us today.
Especially once Iran starts WWIII!